Best Games of 2014
Ranked by our critic's grades, best first.
Dragon Age: InquisitionBioWare's biggest and most beautiful role-playing game, weighed down by an MMO's worth of busywork it never needed.Read the review
Alien: IsolationThe only Alien game that understood the assignment, built around one creature that genuinely hunts you for fifteen hours.
P.T.One looping hallway, an hour of dread and a better horror game than most full releases; then Konami made sure nobody could download it again.
Mario Kart 8Anti-gravity, sixty frames and the best looking kart racer ever built, held back only by the console under it.
Bayonetta 2The most technically precise action game of its generation, rescued from cancellation by the last publisher anyone expected.
Assassin's Creed UnityThe most beautiful city the series ever built, launched a year before it actually worked.
Middle-earth: Shadow of MordorThe Nemesis system is a genuinely new idea, and it quietly does the work of an entire story department.
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii UThe roster got enormous, the netcode stayed miserable, and the fighting underneath was the best the series had ever been.
Dark Souls IIThe awkward middle child: more content than its predecessor, less coherence, and a few of the series' worst decisions.
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground ZeroesOne base, one hour of story, and the best stealth sandbox anyone had built, sold at a price people argued about for years.