The key to games in 2024? The games of 2014
Added 2024-07-09 07:01:00 +0000 UTC
2014 was like an alternate universe.
Nintendo's console was a punchline. Critics praised Ubisoft, EA, Blizzard, and Bethesda for releasing inventive, new IP. A PC gamer could keep up with new releases on Steam without filtering a deluge of Early Access games, the latest entries in the survival genre, or the umpteenth update to an obscure living game.
How did the industry change so much in so short a time? The Resties revisit the biggest releases of 2014 and find some fascinating clues!
Games discussed:
Mario Kart 8
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Towerfall Ascension
Shovel Knight
The Evil Within
Watch Dogs
The Binding of Isaac Rebirth
Transistor
Titanfall
Hearthstone
Divinity Orginal Sin
Wolfenstein: The New Order
Destiny
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Alien Isolation
Zenless Zone Zero
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
The rest:
WB Games' patent for the Nemesis System
The sequel to Myst got a beautiful remake
The PS2's weirdly awesome Pokemon clone
Comments
Hey, sorry I’m late to this. Thanks for answering my question! As I mentioned, I work in advertising and we even had a media partner come in to pitch in game advertising (e.g. billboards etc within apps) and they mentioned they are already expanding into console gaming. Even at an advertising agency, the thought of putting ads within paid titles made us feel a little uneasy.
Jamie W
2024-07-31 17:06:41 +0000 UTCI can't with ZZZ. Sure they know how to make an anime game not look bad but when taken out of the context of a mobile phone game everything about it grinds my gears. The controls are overly simplistic because it has to be playable on a phone leading to an overly simplistic gameplay loop that just stops being fun after the 3rd battle. Even after so few battles you can already see how they will just make the enemies stronger so you need the gacha and various currencies to keep up, nudging you to spend money. The gacha elements are there to randomize your progression (you know like loot boxes but worse?). Why did people all of a sudden accept this mechanic when EA was torched for Battlefront 2's "pride and accomplishment"? Is it because it is not multi-player, so the only person you are playing is yourself?
Gamblore
2024-07-27 00:15:30 +0000 UTCNeed the thoughts on dice and fold cuz its pretty simple but I can't stop playing it when I find myself with 20 minutes to kill
James Saldivar
2024-07-24 04:44:51 +0000 UTCOh my bad - I didn’t notice only Resties episodes are posted here - Would you consider posting the Besties episodes here as well so folks can discuss them after they drop? The besties subreddit is pretty barren and the discusses here on Patreon get up to 50 comments per episode
Eliot Cirivello
2024-07-23 05:28:51 +0000 UTCWe are, it's just that last week was our off week. BUT! Good news! The latest episode just went live. (And for Friday Besties episodes, we have convos at besties.fan. Hope that helps!)
Chris
2024-07-23 05:23:31 +0000 UTCAre you all not posting new episodes here on Patreon anymore? This was the best place to actually see discussion /comments about each episode - the last post was July 9
Eliot Cirivello
2024-07-23 02:48:47 +0000 UTCWe are all waiting for Justin’s thoughts on NYT Strands. I don’t think it’s that fun!
Nathan Greenberg
2024-07-23 01:35:19 +0000 UTCSo I just finished relistening to all of the besties (resties/Patreon included) from episode 1 for the zillionth time (you’re a comfort show) and I just wanted to thank you for all the content over the years. I love this show. I also have a suggestion for a Battle Bracket. Since because of difficulty/spoilers/schedule often we don’t get to hear a super in depth discussion of some of my favourite (and yours) franchise - the soulsborne games. I thought having a FromSoft/Soulsborne/Soulslike battle bracket would be a fun listen. There’s plenty of game from FS themselves but also other great additions like Lies of P and Jedi to sprinkle In. I think between Elden Ring, Sekiro, and BB there’s not a obvious winner. Anyway. Would love to hear it and thanks again for everything! I’m always glad the worlds best friends are picking the worlds best games!
Anthony Michael
2024-07-19 10:48:25 +0000 UTCoh my gosh, this is such a better way to remember the order!
Chris
2024-07-17 02:55:10 +0000 UTCFantastic game!!
Chris
2024-07-17 02:53:50 +0000 UTCI highly recommend checking out NPR’s best of 2024 (so far) list! I try my hardest to keep up with game releases and they still had quite a few great looking games I’ve never heard of on there. Helpful bc they include tabletop experiences as well
Joseph Lupo
2024-07-16 15:48:17 +0000 UTCJust wanna say I just got 1000xresist thanks to recommendation from a certain bestie. And honestly don't overlook it. Incredible already and only a couple of hours in.
Grant Cameron
2024-07-16 11:36:36 +0000 UTCI am gonna keep @ing you Chris until you never get it wrong. Rest always goes twice in a row. “Resties, where the rest”
Francesco Zabban
2024-07-13 09:52:41 +0000 UTCI got Balatro right before I went on a trip cause it sounded like a good travel game and there was a sale on at the Nintendo store.... Yall. I did not know.
Kat
2024-07-12 14:29:51 +0000 UTCGreat episode guys!
Chris Classen
2024-07-11 21:54:27 +0000 UTCI also forgot about Super Monkey Ball and it's sponsorship with Dole! 🤣
AWildBrozerker
2024-07-11 18:58:54 +0000 UTCWould really love to hear y’all talk about Zenless Zone Zero. I also hadn’t even considered playing either Honkai or Genshin but a few hours in ZZZ is so up my alley (including the video rental store aesthetic and management). Granted we’ll have to see how it ramps up with monetization hooks but so far so good. Also so impressed with the visuals both on iOS (playing with a Backbone or similar device helps) and PC. Like DAMN our phones are powerful now
Stephen Taubner
2024-07-11 15:39:54 +0000 UTCNever played Genshin/Honkai, didn’t want to play Zenless Zone Zero, but the world aesthetic (Splatoon-like), the music, and the flashy combat drew me in. No desire to pay anything, and feel like I don’t need to at this point, got a great team using 1 free character (Ben the beautiful bear), one A rank, and the free S rank that was given.
Alexander
2024-07-11 14:02:28 +0000 UTCAcknowledging my bias upfront, I've become a huge fan of Hoyoverse as a studio in the last 8 months or so. This is going to sound weird given how popular Genshin and Star Rail have become, but I think Hoyoverse is underrated as a studio. A lot of people understandably hear "gacha game" and tune out, but they are definitely not making lazy cash grabs like people might usually associate with gacha games. They clearly have a lot of passion for their games and I think their lore and worldbuilding stands toe-to-toe with just about anything in the traditional AAA space. That said, I'm around 30 hours into ZZZ and loving it so far. The combat is initially easy and "button mash-friendly", but at account level 30+ it's already starting to ramp up and the devs have stated an intent to keep raising the skill ceiling in future updates. The story so far is mostly smaller-scale conflicts but I think they're written well and serve their purpose of introducing the world and its various factions. They're already dropping hints at a larger overarching story, so I'm excited to see where it goes over the next year. Also, as a final note on the comment about them releasing too many games and cannibalizing themselves, I think they're aware of that risk and they've made it very easy to keep up with their games concurrently. Daily tasks in Genshin take maybe 10-15 minutes, but Star Rail and ZZZ only take around 5 minutes each so I usually finish all 3 in under half an hour. They also stagger content updates for each game so there's a 2 week gap where people can check out the new content in one game before one of the other games updates.
Cowgba
2024-07-11 11:18:36 +0000 UTCI really appreciated the question "Why do you play games?", and found your answers compelling and personal. I would love to hear more from the Besties about the role gaming has played in each of your lives.
Muncle
2024-07-10 23:58:45 +0000 UTCThis was a great episode! I think it could be good to do one of these every year, to look back with the benefit of hindsight and discuss what panned out, what didn't, and what should have gone differently. Also nostalgia, for I am old.
Eryk Nielsen
2024-07-10 17:14:05 +0000 UTCLongtime Besties/Resties fan, recently-graduated IP lawyer. I love the in-depth industry discussions that y'all have on both pods, but especially those in this episode! Would love to hear more on the inner workings of the games industry, current events, etc. Thanks for being the best!
Charles Gaglione
2024-07-10 16:37:24 +0000 UTCExtremely audacious of Chris to predict that Dragon Age Inquisition will come out this year, considering that they just talked about it's release in 2014... is he predicting a remaster? Much to consider 🤔
Cassie O'Donnell
2024-07-10 14:46:52 +0000 UTCLoved the 2014 discussion! The game from that year that I remember making me feel "this is the future" was 80 Days, and I guess I was wrong. I remember a big discourse that year about the "interactive fiction Renaissance" and how smartphones would bring immersive, story-focused games to the widest possible audience and how it was inevitable that established novelists and screenwriters would start making text games. I kind of hate that we don't live in that future but 80 Days still rips.
Matthew Parsons
2024-07-10 14:43:05 +0000 UTCAbsolutely digging ZZZ and would love you hear you guys talk about it. As I love your comparison to Fortnite not just as a live service game but of the opinion that Hoyoverse is pretty much taking what they are good at, decently written quick to jump into adventure/rpg games and then just doing every genre, they can touch. Similar to how Fortnite is expanding into world building minecraft stuff with Lego, racing and rhythm games. I either way ZZZ is dope. On something else. I know the AMA is over but I am curious when Russ found out he liked to play the games like he does. The reason is while I have nothing against the sort of solo vacuum approach it seems very counterintuitive to how the games industry as a whole pushes games. Even from the early days games have always typically been a communal experience with schoolyard talk of the Konami code and secret levels in Mario to things like Nintendo Power and Game Informer, to the G4 channel. In many ways it seems like a harder approach to not get spoiled or get tips or talk with others about a game. So just curious when, how or why you started go down that route. Just to add personally especially with exploration games I do tend to try to just go it myself without looking anything up but always end up chatting with friends and engaging with the games community and then falling back into that guides/communal tip sharing environment.
Josh Andrews
2024-07-10 11:55:11 +0000 UTCThanks for answering my question, gents! I too look forward to the Zelda game kicking ass and to Griffin buying too many handheld things. In that vein, I also predict that Griffin will say the new Zelda is "maybe the best 2D Zelda game ever." (Only love, I adore his enthusiastic hyperbole)
Joel Castelli
2024-07-10 02:41:45 +0000 UTClove to hear that you also like ZZZ! I am really enjoying it. It's the first hoyoverse game I've clicked with. My biggest gripe is the pacing, I find it is far too story heavy when I just want to play the game. It could be a touch more difficult on PC as well, but I am having a good time. The style is so great, scratches that Jet Set Radio urban punk design itch for me.
Lucas Hackl
2024-07-09 22:40:03 +0000 UTCTo bring up more advertising in video games, I recently was playing Sonic Adventure 2 Battle on GameCube and had forgotten about the billboards for Soap brand grinding shoes all over the city. Pretty much all sports games also have advertising all over the stadiums/arena's. We also have things like pepsi man, and other brands making video games from their IP. Chris mentioned the games that BK made on xbox, Taco Bell made floppy disc games years before that. Cheetohs has also had multiple games made similar to 7-up and spot. Monster/Mtn Dew doing colabs with CoD. Honestly it's always been there. It's a matter of how pervasive they make their ads. I think subtle ads and colabs are fine, it's if they try to start slapping us with ads like on mobile where you have to watch a 30 sec or longer video or interact with some crap that it becomes a problem.
AWildBrozerker
2024-07-09 20:36:20 +0000 UTCAbsolutely love the style, art direction, soundtrack, etc. of ZZZ but the loop started feeling repetitive pretty quickly, and the game felt increasingly shallow. That, along with an excess of tutorials, materials / currencies, and dialogue caused me to drop off, but there’s undoubtedly a lot to love about the game.
Justin K.
2024-07-09 18:05:32 +0000 UTCIt’s really mind blowing how many ‘Games as a Service’ games there are. Hoyoverse alone has like 5 of them, and you’d be struggling to keep up with 2 at once. It really seems like a bubble that’s ready to burst, there just aren’t enough hours in the day or people interested in games to sustain so many.
ThanaThots
2024-07-09 16:36:42 +0000 UTCExcellent point!
Chris
2024-07-09 16:21:19 +0000 UTCGreat callout! Broken Age as a game seems to have been largely forgotten a decade later, but the impact that Double Fine's then unprecedented crowdfunding success had on the industry really can't be overstated. I think it's fair to argue that it's largely the reason that the indie game sector saw such massive growth in recent years, as player-supported development has largely become the norm for up-and-coming developers.
BucklingSwashes
2024-07-09 16:11:02 +0000 UTCThanks for all your great content, guys. Just raising my hand, I would be totally into a Resties episode where you guys spoke with someone who covers mobas or other kinds of esports games wile you asked questions.
Michael B.
2024-07-09 14:17:34 +0000 UTCBroken Age was released in 2014, marking the return of adventure games to the limelight and ushering in a new age of crowdfunded indie games. It came along with the release of the Double Fine Adventure documentary, arguably the most transparent look at game development up to that point. Truly a golden age of gaming.
Doug McArthur
2024-07-09 13:08:05 +0000 UTCI look forward to giving it a shot. It might be a nice snowy weather game for me
Bret Scofield
2024-07-09 10:43:47 +0000 UTCThis year, a friend of mine challenged our group of mutuals to pick and play a video game from 1984, 1994, 2004, 2014, and 2024, and report back. 2014 has been so hard to find something new for me, because it really was the peak year of the hobby as far as I'm concerned. A gentleman gamer was able to keep up with everything they wanted to, unlike the last few years where you are sifting through Early Access as well as 150 hour AAA games that demand your entire life.
jtingl
2024-07-09 10:25:48 +0000 UTCI just finished the Riven remake a few minutes before the episode went up. I haven't felt so completely immersed and engrossed in a game in years. Technically, it's a great-looking game for sure (with some truly impressive water effects), but it's the art and audio design that really transport you to the setting. Huge props to Cyan Worlds for improving on the sequel to Myst in a multitude of ways while still staying so true to its original vision. I got stuck on and failed to finish Riven when I first played it in 1997, and it's now gone from a black, incomplete mark in my history of puzzle games to quite possibly my favorite in the genre of all time.
BucklingSwashes
2024-07-09 07:26:29 +0000 UTC
