Top 10 Games of 2014

Okay, first things first: this list is incredibly late. I am aware. But, I’d still rather put it out late, after I’ve played the stuff I wanted to get to, than not at all. Secondly, there are a couple of notable omissions I wanted to call out up front. Basically, these are the games that I couldn’t get to for one one reason or another, that could have potentially made this top 10 list were I able to get around to playing them. For 2014, these are (in no particular order):

Divinity: Original Sin
Mario Kart 8
Bayonetta 2
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (I dunno, I heard this one was pretty good)

So now, with those out of the way, I’d like to do a few honorable mentions. These 2014 games are not part of the list, but ones I’ve played, really enjoyed, and I think you should consider checking out:

Honorable Mentions:

Neverending Nightmares
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
Titanfall
The Evil Within

Finally, and without further stalling, here is my personal Top 10 Games of 2014 list:

 

  1. Threes – Sirvo

Threes_iOS

One of the saddest things in gaming this year is that most people likely played 2048 instead of Sirvo’s Threes. This dead simple and deviously addictive puzzle game for iOS and Android was the best thing to hit phones in 2014. It’s at once irresistible, between its joyous music and adorable anthropomorphic number blocks. Threes is a great example of perfect gameplay loop. I can’t even quite put it into words. Something about it just scratches a part of my brain that, on some subconscious level, needs to double large numbers divisible by three. Seriously, hang on one second. I almost have a 768… Continue reading

Top 10 Films of 2014

Okay, so 2014 was a fantastic year for film, and I wanted to throw together a personal Top 10 list  for the first time in a few years. That said, there are a lot of critically well received films of 2014 that I still have yet to see, so go easy on me, I guess. However, that said, my top 5 films are seriously incredible, and were my motivation to put this list together. They are pretty much locks on this list, but the back half might have been different if I had seen everything. Okay, okay, stupid disclaimer out of the way, here’s my list, starting with one Honorable Mention:

Honorable Mention: Enemy – Denis Villeneuve

A seriously enigmatic film that you won’t understand on your first viewing, guaranteed. It’s obtuse nature can be frustrating and certainly unsatisfying, but upon careful inspection, Enemy is a fascinating film that plays with the boundaries of storytelling, audience expectations, and even cinematic structure. Is it a good film? I’m still trying to figure that out. Is it worth seeing? Most definitely.

10. Interstellar – Christopher Nolan

First things first: I didn’t walk out of Interstellar liking it all that much. Hell, the final 10 minutes had me rolling my eyes and ready for the film to be over with. It contains some of the most awkward lines of dialog in any film I saw in 2014, and it’s plot doesn’t hold together cinematically nearly as well as it may scientifically (thanks, Neil Degrass Tyson). But, and this is a huge BUT, Interstellar has some of the most powerful images and thrilling sequences of any film I saw in 2014. The Black Hole alone could win an award, and I wouldn’t disagree. Granted, films are more than the sum of their parts, and as a whole, Interstellar is quite flawed, but between Hans Zimmer’s POWERFUL score (all caps for volume), McConaughey’s performance, and sequences like those on that shallow water planet, it was one of the best theater experiences of the year. Continue reading