Majestic Twelve - Games of 2014

Many argue 2014 was a bad year for games. And I suppose that really depends on who you ask. I found many worthwhile indie games from Hand of Fate to Shovel Knight were coming out and I couldn't even get to them all. I found the Xbone actually had games on it (though I still haven't bought the damn thing). It was a good year for Platinum as they had three different titles release this year (though one was just a PC port, still counts). Telltale had a good year with three games coming out this year as well (two having concluded and the third just starting). And this was an excellent year for Nintendo with many great games worth owning a WiiU for.

Yes, many games did get delayed into 2015, which sucks. But I actually liked that because it lessened the stress on my wallet during the holiday shopping season. And some of those titles are filling up the early spring games drought that we usually get nothing released in. It's a blessing in disguise that few are thinking ahead for (as usual). All that said, let's get to the best offerings of 2014 (As decided by me). And because I said so, these must be true and if you disagree, you're probably wrong and maybe even some kind of racist (though probably not). 

Majestic Twelve: Movies of 2014

2014 was a strange year for films. Most of them were adaptations of Young Adult Novels featuring dystopia-futures where the youngsters played by people who are likely my age or slightly older have to fight to the death of arbitrary reasons. And while I may not have said it often, I’m tired of seeing these kinds of adaptations everywhere because they all basically have the same ideology that the future will suck and these teenage gobshites are going to be the ones to somehow make it suck less with their angsty romance subplots.

But I say no to this foolishness. No such nonsense will make my list this year as we will focus on films that are fun, exciting, and adapted from more interesting things like comics, manga, or lucid fever dreams. Here we go with the best films of 2014 (as decided by me).

Reloading: Indie Game Double Feature

We’re getting righty down to the wire with getting the last of my reviews out before start hitting out “Best Of” lists for the year. So while I found some time, I want to squeak in two indie-game reviews for your pleasure. There’s more I wanted to do, but we’re cutting it close as it is. This week we’re hitting One Finger Death Punch and the Early Access game Hand of Fate. Both are shorter indie titles without too much meat to hold their own full review. So they get to share (still two scores to give though). 

Majestic Twelve: The Twelve Games of Xmas

Starting next week will be our end of the year “Top 12 Best/Worst of” for the year. There will likely be a Majestic 12 post up every day simply because I have to cover games, movies, and events of the year. So the schedule is a bit mixed up and I have one extra day (X-Mas) that didn’t have anything scheduled… yet. So here’s a last minute slapped together top twelve of my own twisted creation. The Twelve Games of Christmas… 

BulletPoints: PC Sanctuary - Exclusionary Gaming Continued

An interesting new debate has sparked that is similar to console wars and rather than wait a week to get a response up and be behind the times, I figured I’d strike now while the iron is hot and weigh in on the issue. Recently, Microsoft has come out and said they want to integrate Xbox (most likely Xbone features) into the PC for their upcoming Windows 10. No details beyond that have been explained, and we’re supposedly getting more details in January. 

Majestic Twelve - The Best of Miracle of Sound (as of 2014)

I’m not very musically inclined. Sure, I played music a while ago, but I’m not all that skilled at it and I certainly couldn’t make up my own serious song. At best, I could write a catchy jingle that people would hate me for because they couldn’t get it out of their heads and it would be a song that gets on everybody’s nerves. Everybody’s nerves. It would be a song that gets on everybody’s nerves… all day long. What was I talking about? 

Right! So I may not be talented with music to any notable degree, but I know what I like. And I absolutely LOVE the sounds of The Escapist Magazine’s indie musician, Gavin Dunne (aka, the Miracle of Sound). For those who aren’t familiar with him (you’re about to be) he’s an indie musician that writes songs based on games (sometimes film and TV too). But it isn’t just a remix of songs from the game. He takes the tone and feelings he felt during the game and translates it into an original piece. Some of the song might have melodies inspired heavily from the original work (such as his Breaking Bad homage, “Forever Blue”) but it’s all his original work and most of it is quite good. Before we kick off our “Best Of” lists for the end of the year, I thought I’d stop and just list my twelve favorite songs of this talented internet bard and maybe see if we can get him some new fans. If not, at least I’ll have fun re-listening to some of my favorites. 

Reloading: Painting the town red with Transistor

Time to review a game that’s been out for so long, you probably forgot about it. But with the holiday Steam Sale just around the corner… this seems like an appropriate time to get this out. Transistor… here we go!