I started blogging on gaming because I thought I might generate more content if I also posted on non- work-related topics, plus I think I might like to do some work in that industry at some point.  Unfortunately I’ve been barely if any better about writing for that subject, but like the work-related ones, it’s really more about an abundance of work and a striking lack of free time as opposed to any dearth of interest or enthusiasm.  Anyway, I thought I might wrap up the year with a summary of what I’ve been meaning to say about my experiences in gaming.

I bought Battlefield 4 mostly for being so ticked off at Activision following CoD: Ghosts.  Granted, I missed what I hear was a bit of a rough launch, but EA/Dice eventually did their diligence and it is a truly fantastic game.  The Premium DLC is totally worth it and DICE has assured us they are still producing more content for it, which might even be free.  There’s still a lot of fun to be had and you can probably get it cheap – worth it just for being able to laugh at Battlefield Friends.

I finally tried Minecraft, thinking anything that so many people are doing must be worthwhile.  Frankly, this concept of virtual work being fun seems far too satirical to be real and may for me have even served more as a prompt to do actual work.  While I struggle to find reasons to play it on the console, I sometimes like playing the Pocket Edition on the iPad, wonky controls aside.

I fell in love with (or perhaps more accurately hook, line and sinker for) Destiny‘s art during their beta and ended up buying the digital package right before launch.  By the time I finally got to the raid, I honestly found myself hating everything about it and decided to step away, wait and see how the DLC struck me, but on principles alone that ended up being an even bigger slap in the face than the core and I haven’t been able to bring myself to play it at all since.  I’ll likely never buy a digital edition or pre-order any downloadable content ever again if I can help it.

I didn’t see myself buying Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, but I needed some variety.  I wasn’t expecting to like it too much, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised and it’s been just right for the amount of time I’ve had to play recently, unlike certain other games.  Sadly I fear this will prove to be too little and too late for CoD, but we do have Treyarch’s turn in 2015 to look forward to.

I was thinking of buying Driveclub but when the PS+ edition that I was going to treat like a trial failed to launch, I lost interest.  I played The Crew‘s beta and liked it alright, but not enough to buy.  I’m really looking forward to Project CARS‘ release in March, but in the meantime the racing game I’m getting the most enjoyment out of is EA/Firemonkey’s Real Racing 3 for iOS, which is fun, free-to-play (in the best of ways, I should note) and offers an amazing amount of realism for something you can play on a phone, not that it isn’t a lot more enjoyable on a tablet.

I’ve been bad about actually playing the stuff I get free through PS+, but there have been a few good ones lately.  I tried both Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare and Injustice: Gods Among Us (Ultimate Edition) for the first time last Friday and both of those are good fun, can see myself playing those some more.  Saturday night I tried Loadout and it’s pretty darn awesome.

Finally, I just received my first LeapTrade trade, The Last of Us: Remastered.  LeapTrade is a game trading marketplace and I can now officially say it works, so do check it out.  The Last of Us has of course received countless accolades, so I am sincerely looking forward to finally playing it.