Man, this award is gonna be a tough one. I think it would have been easier to nominate ‘worst online experiences’ given how badly games like Driveclub and Halo: The Master Chief Collection borked their online set-up at launch. But let’s stay positive! Let’s talk about the best online experience of the year!
Just as a reminder: this week we’re taking nominations. Next week we put it to a vote and the week after that we announce the winners.
Okay, now for my nominations for Best Online Experience of 2014…
[Scratches head]
Destiny
Dark Souls II
Twitch on PlayStation 4
Let’s hear your nominations in the comments below!
Comments
55 responses to “Kotaku Awards 2014: Best Online Experience”
Mario Kart 8, I love the online, easy to use, simple to see who you are racing against, and no 13 year olds swearing and being tools.
I always get matched up with europeans. How do you lock it to just Australian players?
I’ve had periods where it just won’t connect me to anyone. Whenever i do get in it’s always with foreigners too.
Smash Brs 3DS’s Online has been pretty enjoyable.
Destiny. Its been a long time since I’ve spent this many hours playing a single game… I think the most recent game would be Skyrim and I’m well beyond that now with Destiny.
I liked the online experience in Wolfenstein: The New Order. There wasn’t one and that is O.K.
Warlords of Draenor!
TitanFall has been my most stable online experience
mine too
The community dropped way too quickly, but Titanfall has been the best online I’ve played since the launch of TF2.
It’s fantastic.
Luckily our gaming group is of decent size and we often will match make against each other if we launch at the same time….we play every monday night.
What’s your Origin thingy?
Im not sure what you mean?
I would like more people who play regularly on my friendlist. I figure everyone does.
If you like, I’ll add you to my Origin list. We can party up.
Is that a PC thing?…..my xbox live gamer tag is NemaLive 🙂
I’m so sad. Yeah. PC.
On PC Titanfall is through EA’s online service, Origin. I will continue playing 3DS while waiting in lobbies.
If you ever get Xb1 your welcome to join our group, were all mature age gamers mainly dads and a few mum too 🙂
I don’t think I’ll be joining this console generation. I need to find a Steam group similar to your Xbox group. I’m 31. Playing online is so full of obnoxious children. Online play without the obscenity screaming would be awesome right about now.
Halo: Reach, because I’m still playing it.
Ahahahahaha!
…. People still play that? I don’t say that to be condescending, just genuinely surprised there’s still a community.
Well it’s the only Halo game sold in that last 4 years that actually works.
Set and match
Kotaku AU
I don’t think I’ve played anything online this year.
Well, other than Elite.
I’d say Destiny as it’s the only game I’ve really played online this year but lag affects it horribly sometimes. Yesterday with the new indicators of connection strength there were several times when all the players (all 12) had red connections.
Other than that, you’ve put Twitch up there @markserrels but I’d just say the whole sharing thing on PS4 in general has been great. Easy at the touch of a button to stream your gameplay, save a screenshot or video and upload them
The Share button. It’s great being able to share small funny moments, your badass/ridiculous looking character or something spectacular with your friends with the press of a button.
Hearthstone
I have sort of dropped it as an activity, but it’s the online game I spent the most time on this year.
I’d have to second this. Always functional except for the annoying Tuesday night weekly updates.
It’s really a stretch to think of good online experiences this year isn’t it?
Third this. I have a 5-1 arena run going at home, and all I cant think about is getting home and try to get the fabled 12.
Oooooo which class? I’ve had so many great starts but then lose 3 in a row at about 7 wins. Highest is 9, I want that 12 wins so bad…
Shaman – its a great deck. 2 lightning bolts, 3 stormwind Axes, 2 Feral Spirits, 2 Hexs, Cairne, a flametongue and 3 fire elementals are doing the job spectacularly. None of the rest is filler either. Fingers are crossed. My record is 6 or 7.
Wow, mate that sounds just about perfect. Should be great even if you make a few misplays. Do me a favour and let me know how it goes! Good luck
Ended up with 9 wins. Lost to one other Shaman who managed to make me expend both my Hex’s and Grull me…. which sucked, then the typical, get you down to ten health then pyroblast your way to victory from a Mage. 9 is my record though so happy with that! Got my money back … created a paladin Arena … theres no way I will get more than 2 hahaha. Thinking about just banking the Arena until the season is over and GvG comes out for the new cards.
Good run mate, 9 wins is excellent and a new PB for you. I’m always happy with 6+ wins. Try using arena value.com – I always choose my draft but tried using this and got 8 wins, which may mean I undervalue/overvalue some cards.
Mrf. I would have nominated Destiny in that what it did was very smooth for me, but that’s not really very impressive when it doesn’t try to do much. No chat, no match-made fireteam voice, what voice there was, wasn’t able to be adjusted against the game volume, invites to groups were all annoyingly done through the PSN system instead of in-game, as well as any other communication other than a few meaningless gestures. All minor annoyances which get under your skin pretty quick.
At least it match-made pretty quickly, didn’t drop me out or lag, and ran reliably. And seeing what people on your friends list are up to, in-game, and being able to jump into their games or have them jump into yours was also a VERY neat feature. Yeah, actually… I’m coming around on Destiny as a nomination.
But… Can we nominate PSN?
Everything updates without me asking it to, so much faster than it did on the PS3, practically invisible and when I’m offline, and registering codes has been a simpler, faster affair thanks to the store not taking ten fucking minutes to load and dumping me out of everything else. On the very infrequent occasions that something hasn’t loaded, a renewal of licences is nice and prominent in the settings and was always effective.
Console/PS4
Destiny.
It’s the only game I’ve bothered to play online all year.
PC
Assetto Corsa.
Great fun online in an organised group, brings back a lot of Live For Speed memories….
PS4 has been a pretty darn good online option. Been doing a lot of stuff online through browser and store and others which i wouldnt bother with previously.
Game wise: Mario Kart 8 has been seamless online for me. So much fun, so simple. Also Destiny. Logged heaps of hours on that and yeah there is a little lag here and there but online experience has been pretty astounding considering the level design and also number of players online.
This is going to be a bit of a weird one, but I’m going to say,
– Transistor
It isn’t multiplayer, but the passive online content in the game was really great. Seeing the silhouettes of other players flitter in and out randomly, and the OVC terminal results of the surveys. It’s super subtle, but a great example of how to make a super solid single-player title, with just a touch of online content.
As for traditional multiplayer games, I will nominate,
– Rust
Technically the very first alpha release was December 2013, but this was after last years awards so I think it counts :p [they also have done a big refresh since then]. Or, are technically early-access games excluded?
Either way, this is the most interesting traditional online experience I’ve had this year.
Is there going to be a “worst online experience”? Because I nominate Optus+Titanfall.
I know it’s old but seeing the Optus logo in the banner made me want to post that
my worst is easily NBA2k15. Took weeks before it would not randomly drop out and lose my progress. Refused to refund real world money I had spent on skill points too.
titanfall. I haven’t played much online play this year now that I think about it but in my time spent with titanfall (and the beta) I don’t think I had a single issue or drop out which is rare.
Destiny is a really fun online experience, but holy shit the amount of times I’ve been kicked from a mission because of server issues
It’s a sad, sad year if Destiny takes out Biggest Disappointment yet manages to snag Best Online Experience…
will probably also do the double of Best Game OTY and Worst Game OTY. i dont remember any other game in recent history that has split the community so much but also how many haters continue to play it. fun times haha.
FIST FULL OF FRAGS.
Had some very deep discussions with the players from US, england and australia about some sensitive topics and much more.
at the end of it we all reflected on how polite we were to each other and thanked each other for being that way.
Was a great moment to see a whole server full of a variety of people having a DnN.
I’d say the Playstation 4 share button. It allows screen shots, videos, live broadcasting and now shareplay. With Facebook, Twitch and Youtube integration it is just amazing, and so far ahead of last generation’s share capabilities!
CS:GO and Team Fortress because dedicated servers, but leaning towards TF2 more because the community is not as psychotic.
Team Fortress 2 had a terrific couple of major updates this year; with weapons that smoothed out the difficulty curve of rocket jumping, a shield that can take on a scout and win, a hilarious no-scope weapon that is a brilliant parody of “MLG noscope” in mechanic form. The incoming maps have massive potential, halloween was silly and hilarious, and it ALL WORKED.
If a game doesn’t work at day 1, the developers have failed. Online has more variables, granted, but in between games failing to work, I could always rely on TF2.
I would like to nominate FFXIV, its been problem free for me all year and except the hiccup that was its launch (which doesnt count because it was last year). We all tend to remember the bad experiences but FFXIV was good all year round.
Battlefield 4 is pretty fun now that all the DLC is out and its actually stable
The only game I’ve sunk hours into online this year had been Mario Kart, and it’s excellent.
Titanfall, always worked and I experienced no lag. Also, fun as dicks game.
Yes it was released last year, but Europa Universalis IV. Picked it up last year, got frustrated and rage quit from the steep learning curve, then finally got my friend to teach me recently, played nearly 3 hours every night with him this week alone. A game I was so quick to misjudge, and I am only atoning for that now!
Twitch Plays Pokemon.
Ignoring the fact that it’s still going (Playing the most recent release), the original generation of this was just insane. One of the strangest online experiences I’ve ever seen.
Praise Helix!
Great nom.
Probably Destiny. A little light on content, but it worked so well