2014: My Gaming Year In Review

Wow, it's already May and I'm just now getting around to my 2014 gaming recap. I've sat down to write this blog entry several times, but I either get distracted by other things or simply can't gather up enough energy to make the effort. Sadly, that's a pretty accurate reflection of my gaming these days.

So, I'll jump right to the stats before something else comes along...

I beat 44 games last year; a dramatic 50 percent drop from the previous year. Of those:

5 Xbox 360 games.

14 PS3 games.

11 were on the Xbone.

2 Wii U games.

10 were on the PS4.

2 Vita games.

Only eight of those games were ones I had begun before 2014.

I even managed to platinum 8 games, split evenly over the PS3 & PS4. Bizarrely, none of those were Lego games... which accounts for 2 of the 3 platinums I've earned so far in 2015. The rarest platinum was the one for Hunted: The Demon's Forge, which only 1% of players have earned. And I don't blame them, there was quite a bit of grinding for that.

Once again, Nintendo games suffered from severe lack of being played. I can't remember even playing a significant amount of any 3DS game last year...

Xbox 360 games took a tremendous drop, as I had finished 48 games on that console in 2013 (out of the 88 total I completed that year). I still have dozens of games I've yet to finish on the 360, but they obviously didn't get much love. I continue to add to my 360 collection with their Games for Gold freebies, but that doesn't add up to very much since I've already had a significant percentage of their offerings.

My digital PS3 collection continues to grow at an alarming rate, thanks to generous offerings from the PS Plus Instant Game Library, and dirt-cheap flash sales in the PSN store.

Yet, overall, my interest continues to be rooted mostly in slightly older games. And as those continue to be remastered for the current-gen, those are what I'm most interested in playing (again). I've played Saints Row IV on three different systems, and still eager to do it again for a fourth time. And it's not even my favorite game of the series.

On to the main event, the big ass list of games (by date of completion):

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - 360

Jurassic The Hunted - PS3

Tomb Raider - PS3 (played previously on 360)

Tomb Raider Definitive Edition - Xbone

Dead Rising 3 - Xbone

                This is my favorite current-gen game of the year (even though it came out in 2013). They took out nearly all of the annoying bits of the previous games, and the new hardware makes it look and play so much better. And the co-op makes for some crazy fun!

Young Justice: Legacy - PS3

Lego The Movie The Videogame - Xbone

South Park: The Stick Of Truth - 360

Titanfall - Xbone

Super Mario 3D World - Wii U

Hunted: The Demon's Forge - PS3 (played previously on 360)

Dead Nation : Apocalypse Edition - PS4

Infamous: Second Son - PS4

Dead Space 2 - 360

Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure - PS3 (played previously on 360)

Ryse: Son of Rome - Xbone

Peggle 2 - Xbone

FarCry 3 - PS3 (played previously on 360)

Lego Batman 2: DC Heroes - Vita

Amazing Spider-Man - PS3 (played previously on 360)

Amazing Spider-Man 2 - PS4

Thief - PS4

                I would say this is my most disappointing game of the year, but I actually had no intention of playing it. I'm terrible at stealth games, so I don't get much enjoyment out of them. But a friend talked up the game before release and I fell for it. It was such a grind for me to finish. And that friend never even got the game!

Battlefield 4 - Xbone

Super Hero Squad: Infinity Gauntlet - PS3

Wolfenstein: The New Order - PS4

Mario Kart 8 - Wii U

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune - PS3

                This game has been on my unfinished list longer than any other . I actually had the game before I had a PS3 system to play it on. It was the first game I started when I finally did get the system. Shortly thereafter, they patched in trophies, so I started over. But I guess the thought of redoing the same levels once again turned me off and so it sat unfinished for years. I finally decided to get back to it, perhaps too late, because it now feels so very dated.

London 2012 - PS3

Lara Croft & The Guardian of Light - PS3

Murdered: Soul Suspect - PS4

Earth Defense Force - Insect Armageddon - PS3

Condemned: Criminal Origins - 360

                No, wait, I was wrong... THIS was on my unfinished list longer than Uncharted.

Earth Defense Force 2025 - PS3

Crimson Alliance - 360

Tearaway - Vita

Diablo 3 - Xbone

Destiny - PS4

Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark - PS4

Disney Infinity 2.0 - PS4

Sunset Overdrive - Xbone

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare - Xbone

Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham - Xbone

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor - PS4

                If I had to pick an actual 2014 release for my Game of the Year, this would be it. Really loved the nemesis system. Fun stuff.

That's it for the recap. I suppose this is the part where I make heartfelt promises about finishing more games, and blogging regularly about them. But seeing how the year is already a third over, and I've only finished 8 games and only blogged this one time... yeah...

Now, I do have goals. I want to commit to finishing at least four games a month, shooting for actually finishing one a week. In order to help myself stick to this pledge, I am counting individual episodes of any episodic release to count as a game in itself. I'm pretty sure I have enough Telltale games to last me through the end of the year at one episode a week. But I'll try to use these as a safety net if it's Friday and I'm nowhere near finishing a game.

I also want to blog more... just probably not here. Not that there's anything wrong with this blog, I just don't want to limit my writing energy to the singular focus of video games. I have a sketchblog I'm trying to get going, which will help keep me on a more regular drawing schedule. If there's a topic I want to write about, and have a drawing that can accompany it, that will be the perfect place for it. And if I want to talk specifically about video games, this will the spot I'll post instead.

So, there it is. It's been a long time since I've sat down and wrote 1,000 words about anything. But hopefully, it will become more commonplace in my life.