The year 2014 has
been a year of flux as a whole, and the gaming world has been shaped
in part by that flux. Compared to the amazing artistic swansong that
was 2013, it may be easy to see 2014 as somewhat of a disappointment,
critically, creatively and culturally, however peel away the dank
cynicism and there is a lot more hope for the future than one might
imagine.
The biggest thing of
the year is of course the release of the next generation of consoles,
with the Playstation 4 and Xbox One being part of a somewhat
acrimonious console war. Many of the news stories, trade events and
interviews featured more than a few potshots and particularly
tactical marketing decisions intended as much to put the enemy down
rather than big up the system itself. Things like the rather bitter
tit-for-tat exclusivity deals (“You got Titanfall and Rise of the
Tomb Raider? Well we'll get Street Fighter V!”) and the
increasingly secretive marketing deals and relationships between
giant companies and the larger web-based gaming media was something
that would have massive echoing effects throughout the year.
Despite the
plaintive cries of the PC faithful who claim they had all the power
of the new systems years ago (Full Disclosure: I built a gaming rig
this year), the systems were genuinely more powerful and brought the
potential for newer and bigger gaming experiences. Sadly, those
experiences weren't entirely realised within the bigger budget games,
and my top ten lists will reflect the fact that there wasn't a AAA
title around that didn't come without the sting of disappointment.
The ambition and attempts at new ideas and new intellectual
properties shouldn't be understated however, even if the chequered
reception to Titanfall and the rather poor release of Watch Dogs
didn't seem to foster much in the way of confidence. Generally the
biggest two bugbears of the past, overhyped and undercooked releases,
ended up having a greater effect than ever, with Assassin's Creed
Unity being the inevitably bad result.
This was the first
year to see some major broken promises in the case of crowd-funding
platforms as well, with Double Fine's fall from grace being a
particularly dark indicator of the importance of really planning for
every possible eventuality when asking people for money to fund your
project. That said, despite some major issues, the majority of
successful Kickstarters are still trucking, which if all goes to plan
will lead to a 2015 stocked to the brim with amazing unique ideas.
Culturally the video
game community saw its biggest shifts to date. Youtube as a gaming
media platform really hit the spotlight this year, first being
treated as a threat through the ContentID shenanigans at the start of
the year that received no limit of coverage, to the giftedly bad games seemingly designed to be let's played, to the increasingly
questionable issues of payola, reaching a zenith with Yogsdiscovery,
a scheme that at least was a pretty blunt statement of intentions.
Youtubers making careers on the platform is a relatively new thing
and so certain basic things like disclosure and the trust between
content provider and the audience was broken on more than one
occasion over the year, and the less said about the insane
tribalistic mess that was the entire Gamergate story the better, as
prominent people both for and against seemingly different
interpretations of the core ideologies climbed over themselves to
yell obscenities at each other in a way that served to leave people
caught in the middle feeling more than a little isolated. This
coupled with the market censorship of a few controversial titles adds
further questions to where gaming stands on the cultural front
between toy and transcendental art.
In the end though,
there is the sense that deep within all this pain, harassment and
epithets is a discussion that needs to be had, about the relationship
between developers, the gaming press in its nebulous state and gamers
themselves, as well as the identity of a gaming culture faced with
its own adolescence. What is gaming and what are gamers going into
2015? That answer is something every gamer will have to face
themselves but having written Isometrics on and off this year on top
of news and reviews for two sites now, the answer for me personally
is a web of fear and doubt over where gaming will move to over the
next few years, but like all good adventures a sense of wonder comes
directly from this. 2015 looks promising, and looking forward rather
than back, 2014 looks pretty good too.
With the amazing
promise of last year it was going to fall below our expectations, but
it is possible that the progress of last year might be discolouring
the achievements and great games of 2014. Even with me playing catch
up on 2013's releases I still had more good games than bad in my
shortlists, and there were some fantastic games that lived up to
their promise. With the recent release of new consoles a sense of
conservatism was inevitable, with the market dominated with updated
re-releases and HD ports. However, a year sandwiched between the
artistic accomplishments of the past and the great expectations of
the future to not be branded a total write-off is a good achievement
indeed.
Happy Christmas,
hope 2014 wasn't too brutal, and I hope you stick around for the
Isometrics Awards
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