Top Games 2014

The best PC games of 2014

PC Gamer

Jan 4, 2014

ACTION

Big-budget behemoths often dominate the action category, and so it proves in 2014. The surely-headed-to-PC Grand Theft Auto 5 rubs shoulders with intriguing multiplayer survival games like The Division. The spectres of distant games like Star Wars: Battlefront, Mirror's Edge 2, Deus Ex Universe and Beyond Good and Evil 2 offer haunting glimpses of a time beyond 2014, but all may fall before the return of the space flight sim. Star Citizen is coming. If its team can effectively utilise that vast crowd-sourced budget, we could be in for something a bit special.

Tom Clancy's The Division

Developer: Ubisoft
Publisher: In-house
Release Date: TBA
A disease spread on Black Friday decimates the US in five days. As part of the Division, you are tasked with saving what remains. Go up against both AI and other players in Ubisoft's hugely ambitious third-person shooter MMO. Expect meticulously designed environments courtesy of the promising new Snowdrop engine; expect ludicrous attention to detail (car windshields finally shatter like they should); just don't expect it to come out any time soon. The Division will be done when it's done, as Ubisoft's recently delayed Rainbow Six: Patriots demonstrates.

Watch Dogs

Developer Ubisoft
Publisher: In-house
Release date: Spring 2014
Though in recent years, Ubisoft has been happy to milk the Assassin's Creed licence until its ruddy teats squeaked, let us not forget that the space-wizards-thru-history mega-franchise was born of huge creative risk: a new IP that cost so much develop that, rumour has it, sales didn't cover the cost of development until its sequels were on shelves. Now, the same gigantic studio, Ubisoft Montreal, has unveiled Watch Dogs - a game with no smaller a scope than Assassin's Creed, combining the complex sedition of information warfare with brutish third-person action and, it is suspected, with some sort of clever multiplayer/singleplayer crossover. It's not only a showcase for the kind of polygon-crunching power the cutting edge PC can generate (finally loosed from the shackles of last-gen cross platform releases) but it also establishes a fiction that Ubisoft hopes will see it through the next decade.
We recently got our mucky paws all over Ubisoft's Watch Dogs. Have a read of what we thought here .

Grand Theft Auto 5

Developer: Rockstar
Publisher: In-house
Release: TBC
Link: GTA 5 site
There's been no confirmation of Rockstar's next blockbuster for PC, but it would be a world gone topsy-turvy if Grand Theft Auto 5 was marooned on consoles for ever. This isn't Red Dead Redemption, a game developed by a studio with around three PC credits to its name – this is GTA, a series whose every main instalment has appeared on PC. And it's developed by Rockstar North, a team that (even including its legacy as DMA Design) has brought all bar seven of its games to PC. And where are the internet petitions to port Walker over from the Amiga, I might ask?
One of the biggest releases of 2013, GTA 5 sees the player take on the role of three different characters trying to make a crust amid the tinseltown glamour and sunbaked squalor of Los Santos. And it's an ill-gotten crust at that, given the series' heritage of exuberant criminality: heists, hits and high-speed chases are the order of the day, interspersed with all the leisure activities a high-rolling hoodlum might desire. The game's online component, GTA Online, lets you do all that but...online, expanding Red Dead Redemption's brilliant multiplayer to envelop the entirety of Los Santos.

Mirror's Edge 2

Developer: DICE
Publisher: EA
Release Date: TBA
Mirror's Edge 2 will be an open-world action adventure according to EA Labels president Frank Gibeau, who apparently used the term in the publisher's E3 analyst call last June. It'll be a prequel, too, telling the origin story of tattooed heroine Faith, pre-tattoo. The extent of the sandbox is currently unknown - all we've seen of the game a short trailer featuring a pair of gloved hands and lots of punching. But the change of direction has the chance to make a cult classic look like a practice run. Not least because Mirror's Edge 2 runs on Frostbite 2, Battlefield 4's engine. It particularly excels at physics, so you'll get your money's worth in shattering glass and billowing fabric.
"[Producer Sara Jansson] pitched an idea that frankly could only be built on gen four. It's a stunning concept, and when she came to us we knew we had it. And yes, we've been testing ideas and we've been prototyping stuff, and I'm glad that we waited to get the right idea,” says Patrick Söderlund, executive vice president of the EA Games Label. “I was frankly blown away,” he says.
Read our early report of Mirror's Edge 2

Mad Max

Developer: Avalanche
Publisher: Warner Bros
Release: TBC 2014
Link: Mad Max site
An open world Mad Max game from the developers of Just Cause? You don't need to be Bolo Santosi to see the value in that. We've barely seen any of it so far, but Mad Max seems to fuse the the go anywhere, grapple-hook anything attitude of the Just Cause series with brutal weaponry, ammo scarcity, added car customisation and a significantly browner colour palette.

Elite: Dangerous

Developer: Frontier Developments
Publisher: In-house
Release: 2014
David Braben is finally to make the Elite sequel everyone has been patiently waiting for since Frontier: First Encounters came along in 1995 and didn't work properly. With crowdfunded millions and possibly more from investors, this could be the starbound successor people have longed for. In the months since its rather sparse announcement, Braben and co. have released some promising videos andscreenshots that indicate they're on the right track. Between this and Star Citizen, it seems we may be heading for a new golden age of space sims.
If you crowdfunded Elite: Dangerous, there's a chance you now have access to its alpha version - head here for the full details. The rest of us will have to make do with this impressive ship battle trailer .

Star Citizen

Developer: Cloud Imperium Games Corporation
Publisher: In-house
Release: November 2014
The hype behind Chris Roberts' new project was phenomenal, to the tune of $35 million and rising. A spiritual successor to the likes of Wing Commander, Privateer, Freespace and their ilk, Star Citizen is one of the grandest experiments in a genre many considered to be dead. Trumping even Elite: Dangerous in the give-us-all-your-money stakes, the project has thus far sucked in cash like a supermassive black hole; if Roberts and co. use the resources wisely, Star Citizen could well turn out to be the biggest and most ambitious space sim ever made. So no pressure then.
Star Citizen has now raised an incredible $35 million to date. Just a year ago , it was little more than a twinkle in Chris Roberts' eye.

Deus Ex Universe

Developer: Eidos Montreal
Publisher: Square Enix
Release date: TBA
“Most of the team behind Deus Ex: Human Revolution is already working hard on this new game,” said Eidos Montreal head David Anfossi back in October, confirming that Deus Ex Universe's series of interlocking Facebook/iOS games will include a proper big-budget game that we can play on our PCs. It will be part of a larger network of spin-off titles that'll all play their part in an “ongoing, expanding and connected game world built across a generation of core games” which will include “additional Deus Ex games and experiences available in other media such as tablets, smartphones, books, graphic novels.” etc. A smattering of suspicious snorts accompanied that last particular snippet at PC Gamer towers, for who wants to hunt down a story through a disparate collection of formats? We'll comfort ourselves with the knowledge that the team behind the excellent Deus Ex: Human Revolution is returning, and with the intriguing suggestion that “trans-humanism segregation” will be an important element of the new game.

Transistor

Developer: Supergiant Games
Publisher: In-house
Release: TBC 2014
Supergiant's next game after the sumptuous Bastion mixes real-time with turn-based battles, telling the story of a singer named Red who comes into possession of a sentient greatsword. We don't know much more than that yet, but we do know that composer Darren Korb is back on board, as is Logan 'Rucks' Cunningham. That's pretty much all we need to know, for now. It looks gorgeous.

Mercenary Kings

Developer: Tribute Games
Publisher: In-house
Release Date: Early 2014
Not enough games follow in the explosive footsteps of Contra and Metal Slug, so it's good news that Mercenary Kings half-exists (and will fully exist early this year). In development now, the sidescrolling shoot-'em-up adds crafting and online co-op into the mix. It doesn't hurt that Tribute Games made that Scott Pilgrim tie-in, and can endow this snappy action game with the same sort of exquisite pixel art.

Speedrunners

Developer: DoubleDutch Games
Publisher: tinyBuild
Release Date: TBC 2014
It was only a matter of time before someone made a game about speedrunning, and here we are with the aptly named Speedrunners. It's a four-player, competitive platformer featuring grappling hooks, and let's just take a minute to appreciate that glorious sentence. DoubleDutch and tinyBuild plan to release a single-player, offline version of the game for free – if you want the full, proper multiplayer version, you'll have to stump up some cash. Which is fair enough.
We were on hand when Speedrunners was announced to grapple-hook it onto our front page. Later,we wrote about the plans to release an offline version of the game.

Dungeon Dashers

Developer: Jiqxor
Publisher: Jiqxor
Release Date: Early 2014
Turn-based dungeon crawlers tend to involve a lot of planning and trepidation, but – as the name may have clued you in – Dungeon Dashers wants to speed things up a bit. This top-down adventure whittles away the nested menus and fiddly interfaces, leaving a fast-paced, team-based dungeon crawler with a frankly adorable board game/miniatures aesthetic. As with so many games on this list, Dashers is currently on Steam Early Access – the final product aims to add online co-op and a Hardcore mode.

Kingdoms Rise

Developer: Flyleap Studios
Publisher: In-house
Release Date: TBA
A multiplayer fantasy combat game featuring '360 degree swordfighting', something previously only achievable by militaristic owls. Based on available evidence, the game's duelling is actually pretty cool, letting you waggle your blade in any number of directions to block, parry, stab and slash your enemy into teeny tiny bits. There are also bows, magic spells and Blink-style teleporting – if you like War of the Roses but wish you could hurl fireballs, you might want to keep your eyes on Kingdoms Rise.

A Hat In Time

Developer: Gears for Breakfast
Publisher: Joystiq
Release date: Mid 2014
A vivid 'collectathon' platformer in the vein of Banjo Kazooie with an art style appropriated from The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, A Hat in Time saw astonishing success on Kickstarter last year, raising $236,000 and massively overshooting their $30,000 target. An alpha build is due in February, and the developers will be adding Steam Workshop support to allow players to grow the game themselves.

Dying Light

Developer: Techland
Publisher: Warner Bros
Release: 2014
Techland's next zombie game might invite comparisons to their shambolic Dead Island series, but on first glance it has more in common with Mirror's Edge, asking you to run away from the undead horde – and climb up buildings, and parkour over rooftops – rather than slowly battering their heads in with a wooden paddle. You'll have to be more careful at night, as zombies become more aggressive when the sun is down.

EVE: Valkyrie

Developer: CCP
Publisher: In-house
Release: 2014
An Oculus Rift-enabled space dogfighting game is obviously something that needs to exist, and who better to make it than EVE: Online developers CCP? Little of Valkyrie has been shown off yet, but if it can live up to even half of its immense potential this is sure to be a Rift must-have.
To find out what it's like to pilot a starfighter in virtual reality, check out our face-on impressions with Eve Valkyrie from Fanfest 2013.

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number

Developer: Dennaton Games
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Release: TBC 2014
Originally designed as an expansion pack, Hotline Miami 2 soon spiralled into a full sequel that takes the original's already strange story into even weirder territory. It involves a film inspired by the events of Hotline Miami, a bunch of masked vigilantes who view the original game's Jacket as a hero, and very probably lots of levels where you go around killing gangsters with a variety of handheld weapons and firearms.
We went hands-on with Hotline Miami 2 a couple of months ago. Read what we thought of it here .

Nuclear Throne

Developer: Vlambeer
Publisher: In-house
Release date: TBA 2014
Vlambeer's new roguelike shooter is only available in early access form, but the instantly satisfying, impactful feedback so characteristic of their games is already present. As a mutant in a procedurally generated wasteland, you'll be running into enemies with guns almost as big as yours. Fortunately, you'll be able to improve your equipment and your abilities the more of them you kill. If you'd rather wait for the full release, which shouldn't be too far off (Vlambeer work extremely fast), check out theirTwitch channel

Magicka: Wizard Wars

Developer: Paradox North
Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Release date: Early 2014
Wizard Wars is a competitive multiplayer rethink of the manic, joyous co-op of Magicka. It will retain a streamlined version of the same combat system, in which player summon elemental orbs and combine them in to spells. Magicka's hilarity stems not just from the tongue-in-cheek presentation, but in the huge capacity for self harm allowed for by the elements system. Cast a lightning spell while soaking wet and you'll electrocute yourself silly. Fire a laser beam inside a reflective dome shield and you'll likely kill yourself and anyone else in there with you. It'll be hard to take the competition seriously, but when Wizard Wars eventually arrives, hilarity will ensue.

Lords of the Fallen

Developer: Deck 13, CI Games
Publisher: City Interactive
Release date: TBA 2014
As an action RPG with a methodical take on combat, Lords of the Fallen risks immediate comparison to Dark Souls. Its developers say that they're not trying to capture the punishing survivalist nature of From Software's modern classic, instead they want players to dictate the challenge for themselves. You can use deadly magic to make fights easier, for example, but that'll reduce the amount of loot they drop when they die. You play as Harkyn, a huge warrior with an even bigger hammer on a quest to punish the fallen gods of his world for failing mankind.

Phantom Army

Developer: Zombie Studios, Smilegate
Publisher: In-house
Release date: TBA 2014
The creators of Blacklight: Retribution have teamed up with Smilegate to create a third-person multiplayer competitive cover shooter. Visually, it looks a bit like Counter-Strike rendered in Team Fortress 2's cheery Pixar style, but will distinguish itself with randomly generated arenas and lithe characters that can roll and vault around the environment.

Assault Android Cactus

Developer: Witch Beam
Publisher: In-house
Release date: TBA 2014
A frantic twin-stick shooter in which you play a police android called Cactus, fending off robotic foes on the Genki Star - a craft made up of dynamic changing levels. Expect the floor to shift under you and the walls to change shape as you gun down dozens and dozens of storming foes. There's co-op support, of course, unlockable characters with varying fighting styles, and more levels and enemies are constantly being added as the game nears release. Assault Android Cactus is currently undergoing playtesting on Steam Early Access.

Aztez

Developer: Team Colorblind
Publisher: In-house
Release date: TBA 2014
Link: Aztez
On the evidence of the available trailers and screenshots, you might not realise that a lot of Aztez takes place on a turn based strategic overmap. It's your job to grow the might of the Aztec empire and fend off all challengers in the process. Moments of conflict send you down into hyperviolent, sidescrolling battles, all of which take place in a sparsely coloured art style designed to make the gratuitous blood gouts appear even more luminous. Random events and overworld challenges are also included to encourage replayability, and there's already evidence of Devil May Cry-esque crunch to the combat.

Bombernauts

Developer: Tyler Glaiel
Publisher: Self-published
Release date: TBA 2014
A multiplayer brawler in which you can throw unlimited bombs to knock enemies off the combat platform. Even when dead enemies can still throw the occasional bomb back in, making this the bombiest game since Bomberman. It's being made by Closure creator , Tyler Glaiel, who promises lots of game mode and power-up customisation to allow players to house-rule the most fun they can out of the explosive concept.

Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex

Developer: Neople
Publisher: Nexon
Release date: TBA 2014
A massively multiplayer shooter based on the Ghost in the Shell anime should be cause for excitement, but for those that loved the film, there's the fear that the dark cyberpunk aesthetic and intellectual musing on the nature of sentience will be lost. That so little is still known about Neople and Nexon's MMO, announced in February 2013, raises further cause for concern, has it escaped onto the net and started a life of its own? If Nexon can keep it contained it'll feature “fierce hacking battles between cyborgs fighting over strategic resources” and, ominously, “a new concept that integrates artificial intelligence with the player.” Prepare your brain-sockets for entry.

Atomic Ninjas

Developer: Grip Games
Publisher: In-house
Release date: TBA
This cheery multiplayer combat game started life on the Playstation 3 and the Vita, but is due a Windows release at some point. It's a typical 2D slasher affair in which you take command of one of a cast of quirky martial artists including Sergei, a ninja who wields a spade, and The Very Last Samurai, whose motto is “Honor. Respect. Karaoke.” Quick and casual games like Atomic Ninjas have the potential to thrive on living room machines should Valve's Steam Machine idea take off.

Universum: War Front

Developer: StarworksArt Studio
Publisher: In-house
Release date: TBA
Universum wants to be all of the games at once, it seems. It's an RTS that lets you dive down into the mud to take control of your warriors in third-person. It also claims to be influenced by Dota 2, to some extent, and is set in a high fantasy sci-fi universe akin influenced by Star Wars. Battles will take place across five planes - underground, ground, air, water and space. It sounds like an insanely ambitious project for a small team, but Divinity: Dragon Commander shows that the concept is viable in today's technology. Universum will be released gradually, as detailed on their Kickstarter page .

The Stomping Land

Developer: Alex Fundara
Publisher: In-house
Release date: TBA 2014
The Stomping Land is a multiplayer dinosaur-hunting game. You play as a tribe member on an island populated by several player-controlled tribes and an entire ecosystem of dinosaurs to hunt. As a group you must hunt, salvage and craft to improve your chances of taking down bigger game. As you become master hunters and no longer have to run from hungry T-Rexes, food will become scarce, and players will be forced to raid each other's settlements to survive. Dinosaur games have been tried before, with various limited degrees of success, but using the lizards as a backdrop to the human drama of a set of tribes fighting for survival is a smart move. The idea has earned the team a significant payday on Kickstarter, and The Stomping Land has been Greenlit , so we can hope to see it popping up on Steam this year.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Developer: PlatinumGames, Kojima Productions
Publisher: Konami
Release date: January 9 2014
For action aficionados, PlatinumGames have been sorely missed on PC. For fans of batshit postmodern plotting, the Metal Gear series has also been sorely missed on PC. Here comes Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, then, to bridge the gap between Platinum and Kojima Productions and give us a dose of the expertise behind top console action games, Bayonetta and Vanquish. You play as former boring soldier man and current high-tech cyber-ninja, Raiden, who has a katana that can cut through anything. You use this Katana to exact revenge on, well, everyone. Will there be massive cutscenes? Yes. Will we learn the meaning of the word “revengeance?” Probably not.

Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z

Developer: Team Ninja, Spark Unlimited, Concept
Publisher: Tecmo Koei
Release date: February 14 2014
We're desperately short of great third-person action games in the Bayonetta /Devil May Cry mould on PC, so plans for a PC-bound Ninja Gaiden are, theoretically, welcome. However, the introductory trailerfor Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z was so bad that any excitement we might ordinarily muster for such a project must now be tempered with the fear that it might be total balls. It's a cel-shaded take on Ninja Gaiden in which you play a ninja called Yaiba with an arm made of metal and a cybernetic eyeball. He's hunting the man responsible for his injuries - series hero Ryu Hayabusa. Expect swearing, blood, blades and, based on the trailer, lots of trying too hard.

Star Wars: Battlefront

Developer: DICE
Publisher: EA

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