Looking Back: The best PC games of 2014

Year after year, PC remains a dominant and cutting edge gaming platform. 2014 was no different. PC gamers received some awesome new titles, MMORPG expansions that revitalized communities, some awesome indie games, a look into the future of humankind, and a new reason to dust off your plumbob.

So, looking back at 2014, here are the year's best PC releases.

Magicka: Wizard Wars

Magicka: Wizard Wars is fast-paced, intense, and requires a lot of skill and strategy. It’s free to play, highly addictive, and has a really great community. You’re pretty much only going to be as good as your skill allows, and there will be times you get rolled by a better player, but Magicka: Wizard Wars is so good that it’s hard to find anything to complain about.

Elite Dangerous

A huge space sim that kind of has this space trucker vibe to it, that's Elite Dangerous. You plot routes, manage fuel, initiate docking requests, mine, become a pirate. There’s no real golden path like other sandbox games. And there are moments of panicked combat that are sprinkled into the space trucking. It ends up being a game that intense at times, fun, demanding and unforgiving.

World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor

The latest evolutionary step in World of Warcraft, Warlords of Draenor, is the best the legendary MMORPG has been since vanilla. It improves the framework and design while adding some great new gameplay mechanics and features. It’s an expansion that almost every WoW player will love and brings a strong story with it.

WildStar

WildStar, with as much promise as it had, hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows — though you can purchase those for your housing plot. What it does excel at is great, skill-based combat, housing, and dungeons and raids that are meant for the hardcore MMO players. Unfortunately, the player population has dipped a bit, the attunement process is a nightmare, PvP is a mess, but there’s still content drops and positive changes being made to fix the game’s problems. It’ll be curious to watch how WildStar evolves over the next year.

Civilization: Beyond Earth

Scored a 9 in our review, Civilization: Beyond Earth is more than a glorified expansion or re-skinning of the series. Though many of the game’s systems play similarly to Civilization V, there’s enough new stuff that stands out in many delightful ways. Also, you can transform humanity into a race of Cybermen to go back, conquer Earth, and upload everyone’s consciousness into a great network. So, yea, it’s awesome.

Hearthstone

There’s no denying the power of Blizzard. Their free-to-play digital card game, Hearthstone, is a huge hit and already one of the most popular games to stream and watch on Twitch. You don’t have to dump any money into the game (you can to build better decks quicker, but you don’t have to), and the gameplay mechanics are strong. Now we just wait until Blizzard announces a port to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One… please?

Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls

Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls fixed everything that was wrong with the game when Diablo 3 originally released. With a really good Act V, an awesome new area, new skills for every class, and the additions of the Crusader and Mystic, as well as entirely new modes that change the way you play and get loot, Reaper of Souls made Diablo 3 the game we all hoped it would be.

The Banner Saga

Think of The Banner Saga, which scored a 7 in our review, as a deadlier Oregon Trail where you don’t really win — you just survive. It’s a bleak story with harsh decisions and grim results. Featuring gorgeous visuals, it’s not without its flaws but it’s a fun playthrough that will definitely challenge you.

Sims 4

The Sims 4 is a fresh start, but one that removes a lot of the content that was released of the life of The Sims 3. While it is missing some beloved features and things fans want, it has taken major strides in Build Mode, and features better logic than past Sims games. And for that, we scored it a 7.

Dungeon of the Endless

A surprise favorite of GameZone’s this year, Dungeon of the Endless is a difficult game that’s part dungeon crawler, part rogue-like, and part tower defense. It never holds your hand but rewards you for your success. With some fine strategy and lovely pixilated visuals, Dungeon of the Endless earned an 8.5.

This War of Mine

This War of Mine, scored a 7.5 in our review, is an eye-opening experience that offers a refreshing, albeit bleak take on war. You’ll never find happiness in it — just satisfaction that you’ve managed to survive another day. Guided by a dynamic soundtrack that heightens the intensity or somberness of each moment, and stylized visuals that do a great job of establishing the setting, This War of Mine is one of the better PC releases of 2014.

Fenix Rage

Holy f*ck. Want to be frustrated beyond belief to the point of throwing your controller? Play Fenix Rage, a game that is incredibly difficult but a joy to play. You will die a lot, but there’s something about the visuals, music, difficulty and gameplay (a combination of Super Meat Boy and Flappy Bird) that’ll get you hooked. It’s not a PC exclusive, but that’s what we played it on and we just had to include it on a list.

Feature Image: Reddit