What's Your 2014 Game of the Year?

• 01

  Dragon Age: Inquistion

  
  The Game Awards named Dragon Age: Inquisition their Game of the Year.  The game sold 1.14 million copies worldwide in its first week. Game Revolution also awarded it their game of the year because "this third main installment in the Dragon Age franchise is a wonder to behold, not just for the freedom of its story and complexity of its characters, but for how it deftly slips your decisions from the first two Dragon Age titles into the game." According to them, the game sets a new standard for the RPG genre. It also came out on top at Polygon, which praises it for being "ideal of what big-budget, triple-A games should strive for."
  Via The Game Awards
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• 02

  Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

  
  Shadow of Mordor is GameSpot's GOTY namely for its nemesis system, because "the mechanic is the one from 2014 most likely to influence systems-driven games in the years to come."
  Via GameSpot
• 03

  Alien: Isolation

  
  PC Gamer picked Alien: Isolation because it "picks up the threads left hanging by indie horror – AI monsters, little to no combat – and applies the resources and time afforded to mainstream development to solving them. Imagine if that could happen to the shooter, or the open-world game. Basically: imagine if all that time and money wasn’t locked to a template. That’s what we should be celebrating here."
  Via PC Gamer
• 04

  Destiny

  
  Games Radar named Destiny their game of the year, largely for the number of hours you can spend playing it: "In Destiny, the vast amount of time spent in-game doesn’t stem from resources grinding, or cynically addicting systems, as the nay-sayers would have you believe. It comes from collaboration, communication, and community."  They acknowledge that the game isn't perfect, but think it deserves the title because "it’s a living, evolving entity that improves with every update, embracing the philosophies of this current generation of always-online, always-upgrading consoles. It's a shining example of the grand ambitions of a world-class developer who wants to push the shooter genre into a new generation; to give its players more than 'just another FPS'."
  Via Games Radar
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• 05

  Super Smash Bros for 3DS/Wii U

  
  Super Smash Bros took the title for Metacritic, as it had the highest average metascore for any new release this year.  Nintendo added 8 player Smash and portability to an already smashingly successful series. It won't be winning any awards for originality, but it may be the game that saved the Wii U.
  Via Metacritic
• 06

  Bayonetta 2

  
  Destructoid's picked Bayonetta 2 as their game of the year, citing the fact that Bayonetta is a BAMF: "she takes joy in her physicality, her ability to dominate others, and in her own body in whatever way she sees fit. She rejects all outside judgments, from her father, her friends, and even God himself. She doesn't give a f**k, period, end of sentence. That ability to reject self-consciousness and fear of vulnerability allows her (and the player) to reach unimaginable heights of power. She takes you on a rambunctious, ridiculous thrill ride, smirking all the while, totally unconcerned with the sacrilegious absurdity of it all while encouraging you to feel the same."  
  
  But enough about everyone else's Game of the Year; what we want to know is what your top pick for 2014 was. Vote in the poll below, or if your favorite isn't listed, tell us about it in the comments!
  
  
  Via Destructoid

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