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Oh how wrong (and right) we were

Microsoft versus Sony, Battlefield versus Call of Duty and Forza versus Gran Turismo. These are some of the rivalries that can get people talking about console wars. “Game On or Game Over” is your place to get inside the minds of Nicholas and Andy as they seek to find the true meaning of gaming and tackle some of gaming’s most controversial subjects. Both are award winning authors – although the awards haven’t been mailed or created yet — but trust them. Would they lie to you?

Andy: Wow, here we are at the end of 2014 – seriously where in the hell did this year go? Not sure about you, but it positively flew by for me. I know this will cause much sorrow in the land of our ever-faithful readership but this will be the final Game On or Game Over article for this year. With the holidays right around the corner we’re going to take a little bit of time off, brainstorm some awesome article ideas for next year (if any readers have any suggestions as always feel free to hit us up – we want to write what you want to read about), and try and catch up on our backlog of games.

With that said, it’s only natural that we look back at the year that was in gaming. To start, I thought it would be fun to look back at an article we did in January about the games we were most looking forward to. I have to admit I didn’t remember what I picked for my 3 most anticipated games until I reread it and they turned out to be; Watch_Dogs, Thief and Titanfall. I also had honorable mentions to Destiny, The Crew and Dragon Age: Inquisition. Yes, I know I cheated and picked more than 3. So, how did those games measure up once I played them? A mix really.

Let’s start with the bad. Thief I thought was terrible and a shell of what made the series great in the past – it’s still sitting on my shelf unfinished. If I had to be honest I’ll probably never play it again. The Crew I never officially played. I played the first beta on PC, then another beta of Xbox One and canceled my preorder. Destiny was fun for a while but quickly showed its true colors and lack of any substance behind it. Pretty disappointed with that slate of games. The good; I enjoyed Watch_Dogs quite a bit. I never experienced most of the issues that others had. It was worth the purchase for me. Titanfall I’d say the same for. I enjoyed it, although being always-online only became a slight drawback for me after a while. Still worth the purchase though I think. That leaves me with one game left. Dragon Age: Inquisition. Of the games I was anticipating this year and it is the one that blew me out of the water. It’s an amazing game and I have the most time in this than of any others on my list, with 90+ hours right now. It’s by far my game of the year for 2014.

So, now the ball is in your court. Looking back at the games you listed, how did they measure up for you?

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Nicholas: It’s pretty interesting to read back on the responses we gave at the beginning of this year. I was a little undecided at the beginning, but the games I picked were Project CARS, South Park: The Stick of Truth and The Crew (I said at the end also that I’d predict a new Mass Effect title – guess I was right!). So what were my opinions of these games? Well, CARS was delayed until 2015 so that’s out of the question (side note: great to see developers willing to substantially push back their games to ensure a greater product – take note Ubisoft). I really enjoyed South Park TSoT but I never finished it because I couldn’t be bothered playing games on old consoles. Like I’ve expressed multiple times in the past and like I’ll say again now – developing games for old consoles when we have a new generation is stupid and shouldn’t be tolerated (although I guess I did just that by purchasing it to begin with). That leaves me with The Crew, but much like you, I’ve yet to play it. Yes it was a game I was excited for, but with the launch issues of AC Unity, the fact I already have a pile of shame to work through and the less than impressive reviews coming out from almost each source, I too cancelled my pre-order. Maybe I’ll get around to it eventually, but not in 2014 that’s for sure.

As I look back at our article though there are a few games that I didn’t even have on my radar which absolutely blew me away. You mentioned Dragon Age and Watch Dogs, but there have been a stack of games released this year. What are some of those games that you weren’t anticipating but you’re glad you checked them out? Also, what was it about them that made them that great?

Andy: This is the thing about gaming that I really enjoy. Sure, it’s fun to look forward to certain titles and be eagerly anticipating the release of it. Yet, I’d argue the true magic of gaming is when you find a game that you either knew nothing about or didn’t think you’d like and it just blows you away. One of those games that just gets its hooks in you and doesn’t let go. Those are the reasons why I keep trying new and different games, because you can never really tell when it will happen.

Looking back at everything I played this year, and I played a lot, there are only a couple that really stand out to me as being surprises. The first one is one I actually had in my short Game of the Year consideration – Forza Horizon 2. I played the original Forza Horizon and it was OK, but I didn’t love it. At the same time I didn’t hate it either. If I was being honest the only reason I bought FH2 was for something to hold me over until The Crew released, but then Ubisoft pushed it back. During that time I fell in love with FH2 to the point that when I finally played The Crew beta and wasn’t impressed with it that I wasn’t mad. I knew I still had a racing game to play and it was one that I loved. The other one of my unexpected great titles for 2014 will probably surprise quite a few people – Sniper Elite 3. In a time where games are overly complex and expensive SE3 was neither. It’s a game that harkened back to the age of “see stuff, shoot stuff”. Plus, the ability to play a co-op campaign was a huge plus. On top of that it released at $10 less than a normal new release. The icing on the cake though was the X-Ray slow-mo kill cam of shooting someone’s testicles off. I really enjoyed the game more than I thought I would.

Those are the two that come to my mind right away. How about you? Were there any games that you played just because, only to find yourself in love with them? And why not flip that around as well, were there any games you were expecting to like and for whatever reason just hated it?

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Nicholas: The first game that comes to mind is Wolfenstein The New Order, but given how much I’ve referenced it in the past I’m guessing that isn’t much of a surprise. I had heard positive things about the game when it launched and it was around the time that I was looking for a shooter to play. I wanted a game that didn’t take itself too seriously and was very much pick-up-and-play. Wolfenstein was just that. It had great visuals, an interesting story and most importantly, satisfying gameplay. Picking up a rifle and just going to town on the horde of enemies was so fun that I played through the game twice. I almost never do that with a game. The variety in having both the traditional bullet-based weaponry and the upgradable laser-cutter gun was a stack of fun too. It just reminded me of playing Perfect Dark on my N64 back when I was a kid and that’s what I’m looking for in shooters.

The next game for me that I ended up loving but not really thinking about towards the start of the year was Assassin’s Creed Unity – and that’s only because I picked up and started playing Assassin’s Creed 4 Black Flag after finishing Wolfenstein. I started to get a little bored of the AC series after AC3 and despite having Black Flag from launch I didn’t get into it. When I finished Wolfenstein though I wanted to go back and finish off other games on my Xbox One that I had started but not completed and Black Flag was it. It was a great game in a new setting for the franchise and it re-invigorated my interest in the series. Unity despite all its bugs was another solid game and after 30+ hours I finished the campaign last week. I’m not sure I love it as much as Black Flag, but it’s certainly a game I enjoyed more than I thought I would at the start of the year and it’s up there with my favourite games of the year.

Moving on to games I thought I’d love but didn’t, this is one I think will surprise people – Forza Horizon 2. I loved (and I mean loved) the original FH game and you better believe I was keen as mustard for the sequel. That said, FH2 just didn’t pull me in and keep my attention like I expected it would. It plays well, looks gorgeous and has almost everything you’d want in a racing title – but it just felt too ‘same-y’ to what I played two years ago on the Xbox 360. Perhaps it’s also because I spent $60K on a 26B rotary engine for my Mazda RX8 and blew over $40K on upgrades only for the car to be essentially un-drivable… and with no option to sell back the parts and recuperate the costs. I don’t know, maybe I wanted a 20B engine and I can’t properly make my cars brap like I wanted them to. Maybe I’m just sooking. Either way, I’ve only sunk about three hours into the game and I’m not too bothered to pick it up again anytime soon.

How about you though? I know you mentioned Thief above, but was there any others that you think just missed the mark?

Andy: Yeah, Thief is certainly one of the top games on my list for biggest disappointments of 2014. Maybe I had unrealistic expectations for it or maybe I wanted it to be too much like its predecessor. I’m not really sure, what I do know is I was left underwhelmed and not satisfied at all with it. Another near the top of my list would be Destiny, this one is partly due to the massive amount of hype before its release but also because of the surprising lack of content and overall hallow feeling. The only other game that I feel really missed the mark is a download game called Styx: Master of Shadows. It was one of those games that I saw and looked pretty promising. After trying it for about an hour or so I have yet to go back to it. It was one of those games that just didn’t have the same feeling as I got from watching the trailers and such. It’s a shame really because it looked like it could be a sleeper hit and it just wasn’t at all.

When all is said and done though, 2014 was a pretty good year for gaming – at least for me. There was a couple months during the middle of the year where something new to play was hard to find but for the most part gaming was good. I made it through most of the year without acquiring a backlog of games to play, and that ended suddenly about a month ago. Unopened I have Assassin’s Creed Unity, Shadows of Mordor and Metro Redux. That’s not even counting finishing up Far Cry 4 and Dragon Age Inquisition. I’m set for games for quite a while.

I’m happy with the majority of games I played this year. Looking forward to 2015 there are only one or two I am really looking forward to playing. I, of course, am looking forward to a Fallout 4 announcement… hopefully it comes soon. If 2015 is equal to 2014 in terms of games I’ll be satisfied, if it can build upon it and be better then there will be a lot of happy gamers. To close up this week’s … err this year’s final article, what are your overall impressions of state of gaming in 2014? Do gamers have reason to be excited for 2015?

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Nicholas: I laugh that the fact we both have piles of shame despite us both saying we wouldn’t get to that stage earlier when these consoles launched. I agree with you, 2014 has certainly been a solid year for gaming. With each generation I notice that my gaming library gets exponentially larger, and just one year in I’ve already got a sizable stack of games. It wasn’t great that we saw such issues with the launch of games like AC Unity and Driveclub, but I’d like to hope those are only unfortunate examples in an otherwise great list of titles.

The Xbox One (or even the PS4 for that matter) are not perfect consoles. Not all the games released so far are 100% perfect either – but what they are overall, are fantastic additions to my gaming collection. I’m not sure what 2015 or beyond will bring us, but I’m confident that we’re moving in the right direction, and I think gamers should be too. If The Witcher 3 and Project CARS both being delayed are anything to go by, not all publishers/developers are going down the route of money, money, money, so doomsday is still a long way out. Bring on 2015 I say! We’re only a year in so far and I doubt we’ve seen nothing yet.

Tune in next year for the next instalment of Game On or Game Over. If you have any ideas for our next article, feel free to contact Andy or Nicholas on Twitter.


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About the author

Nicholas Simonovski

Events and Racing Editor at Stevivor.com. Proud RX8 owner, Strange Music fan and Joe Rogan follower. Living life one cheat meal at a time.

About the author

Andy Gray

From the frozen land of Minnesota, I was the weird kid that begged my parents for an Intellivision instead of an Atari. My love for gaming has only grown since. When I’m not gaming I enjoy ice hockey and training dogs. I’m still trying to get my Elkhound to add to my Gamerscore though, one day this will happen.