How many of our pick of the year’s top title have you played?
It’s been a great year for gaming. As the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One have firmly established themselves as the home games machine of choice, the games that show off what they can do have started to come through.
Nintendo’s Wii U has enjoyed a resurgence, with some huge exclusives hitting the shelves, and the handheld platforms have stood up to the challenge of mobile gaming with some truly quirky and innovative releases. Here’s our pick of gaming’s very best of 2014, ordered by console. But what about you? Share your favourites in the comments below.
Xbox
Titanfall
If you just want a game that shows how beautiful new-generation graphics can be, Dragon Age Inquisition is it. But get past your marvelling at the game’s stunning landscapes and you’ll find yourself drawn into a game world that is both epic and addictive. Inquisition does everything that a great RPG should do. It gives you a massive game world to explore and a compelling storyline to work your way through while you do it, all the while leading you on a gradual ascent towards enormous power.
Honourable mentions:
Alien Isolation, Destiny, Dark Souls 2
PlayStation Vita
Velocity 2X
Mashing up the best elements of a shoot ’em up, a puzzler and a platformer, Velocity 2X is an intense and frantic experience that feels completely at home on Vita. Created by indie publisher FuturLab, the gameplay has that sense of freedom that comes from titles not saddled by massive budgets, with more than a nod to titles from the NES/Megadrive generation. You’ll spend half the time in a spaceship shooting waves of enemies and the other half careering through platform levels as the game’s central character – and throughout you’ll be swept away by Velocity 2X’s innovation.
Honourable mentions:
Fez, The Swapper, Pixeljunk Shooter Ultimate
Nintendo 3DS
Shovel Knight
The title gives you a clue; this is an odd game. But odd in all the very best ways. As you’d guess from his name, our hero is indeed armed with a shovel: a multipurpose weapon that can both take out enemies and launch him over them. As soon as you take control of him you’ll be drawn into a world that takes the best elements of eight-bit platformers and makes them even better. Clever touches abound, such as the option to smash checkpoints (thus losing your chance to save) in return for extra treasure.
Honourable mentions:
Bravely Default, Persona Q Shadow of the Labyrinth, Retro City Rampage DX
