This is the Dark(est) Age of gaming

[Never]

Am I the only person who liked thief?

Anyway 2014 hasn't been the best year - even on Nintendo. But these days I think I'm not fully catered for in general.

Whilst 2013 had many big name games, and in many cases I liked them, they weren't games I truly loved.

Most linear shoot 'em ups like bioshock infinite and metro last light are fun and a great way of telling a story (And infinities story was incredible) but they aren't the quake 1's or duke nukem 3d's which I want, and still play to this day.

I did really like tomb raider. That was a linear story based game buy the core gameplay was a step up from the norm. And, although totally linear, you did have a sense of exploration as, in parts, you had to look at cliff faces and buildings to try and discover where you should climb to progress.

I think gta V was the best gta yet and a good game, but I'm not the biggest fan of the series and I often feel I'm the only person who can see the gameplay flaws in those games.

I enjoyed Mario 3d World a lot but it wasn't the Mario game I wanted them to make.

Pikmin 3 was my first pikmin game and I liked it.

Assassins creed 4 was good. But didn't hold my interest throughout the game.

I would say my 3ds had three games I loved in 2013. Luigi's Mansion 2, Fire Emblem: Awakened and Zelda ALBW.

But I think in general I'm the kind of gamer who simply not catered for these days. I often turn to retro gaming, not because I want to, but because it's still the only way I can get the experiences I want.

I can easily sum up a big factor that's that's missing from modern games. Exploration. Exploration of well designed levels. Not the tedious, often incidental, exploration of modern open world games and their boring environments. The exploration I miss so much used to be the bread and butter of video games and I'm sure there must be many others who miss it and also feel let down by the industry right now.

Meaningful exploration is a part of what I love about Quake 1 and Mario 64 and I don't think we'll be out of the dark ages until that comes back into our games.