Knocks

I was a Souls virgin, and have never really had a taste for brutally punishing games. Bloodborne was super out of my comfort zone, and initially, I felt I had wasted £50. I called in a co-operator on Father Gascoigne (having missed the cleric beast) as I was sick and tired of dying, but felt cheap after.

Anyway, I started a new character, persevered and finally took out the Cleric Beast and Papa G by myself. And that feeling of finally downing a boss that has caused you so much pain? Amazing. Since then, I've completed the game on two characters, the second one is half way through NG+. Bloodborne really is a masterpiece. My friend agrees too, and he took TWENTY attempts on the Cleric Beast.

Sure, for some, the punishing nature of the game is too much. But if you can overcome that initial learning curve and frustration, it's a really unique experience.

See, we'e had 3 main Borderlands games now, all of which are... REALLY similar, BL2 and TPS especially, but they both follow basically the same structure as BL1. BL3 needs to be DIFFERENT and they need good, solid new features to refresh the franchise. If it's just more of the same, sure, people will buy it because 'BORDERLANDS!!!!' but... it'll leave the fanbase in even worse a state after TPS.

Hmm. The open world seems to be a selling point of this game and yet... it's kind of small. Not sure about that.

@rastamadeus I totally understand that people have different opinions to me. Hell, I put 150 hours into Destiny, I can see what the allure is, but the game is bland, and you pay a premium price for minimal, repetitive content and the DLC did exactly the same thing. It gets credit for being probably the only decent co-op shooting experience on PS4 right now, but when you grind repetitive strikes for 10 hours for a new gun or whatever, well, you may as well have been brainwashed.

People have been brainwashed to thinking Destiny is a good game, that's the only explanation.

This year hasn't been the disaster it's been made out to be. Sure, there were some atrocities, but there's been a lot of good stuff to keep our PS4s busy in 2014, and 2015 is already looking to be an exciting year for gaming.

DA:I and SoM take it for me. Solid games that really ended the year on a high.

I totally disagree with PT being included and Infamous SS being so high up. Infamous was a fantastic experience - but an incredibly short one, for such a big-name game. Lack of length and depth ruins it for me. PT I don't think matches up to the other games in this list. I disagree with Inquisition being so far down; it is a fantastic experience with hundreds of hours of potential gameplay. It's such a deep game where everything you do matters and changes your experience, encouraging multiple playthroughs. Shadow of Mordor, however, I agree with wholeheartedly. A unique, interesting, captivating game that I just want more of!

My list would probably go something like...

Bronze: Infamous SS
Silver: Far Cry 4 (yes, incredibly similar to FC3, but a wild ride nonetheless)
Gold: Inquisition
Platinum: Shadow of Mordor

Honorable mention to Wolfenstein, which was an enjoyable single player shooter but, like Second Son, lacked enough content to justify the purchase.

I am very surprised to see so few mentions of The Division. Looks like an awesome game to me.

Love seeing things like this. Can't imagine being on the receiving end of such a kind act.

Digital discounts are always... pretty poor. The prices start so high that "discounts" bring them down to what the game was selling for on disc, and by that time you can buy it for half as much anyway.

@Dohv Inquisition and Skyrim are both big fantasy games with great character customization and absorbing open worlds, yet they play very differently, as DA:I takes a more tactical approach with it's combat. That being said, DA:I does scratch the itch I've had for a long time after switching from 360 to PS4 and not having Skyrim available to me. The amount of content is great too and you'll undoubtedly be playing it for 100+ hours if you loved Skyrim.

The DLC will probably be lackluster. The pricing is still abominable, in my opinion. A few new maps for the same price as the original game. They try and draw you in with "zombies" and recognizable celebrities (even I am quite interested by Jon Bernthal, being a huge TWD fan). Meh.

A really nice holiday gift from Rockstar; I would love to see more gestures like this in other games.

I think my Christmas gaming time will be dedicated to DA: Inquisition. I only picked it up a few days ago and have already sunk 30 hours in and barely scratched the game, I can see myself throwing hours and hours into it. Maybe bits of SoM as I continue the hunt for Platinum.

Incredibly surprised that FC4 is up for grabs! A very nice gesture on Ubisoft's part.

Destiny is a lazy game. Minimal content, maximum grind.