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Preview by Sam M.

The Banner Saga was a successful Kickstarter campaign back in 2012 and now the full release of the game is right around the corner.

The appeal of The Banner Saga is immediately obvious; it brings the same gameplay elements found in games such as Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy Tactics. Drawing from Norse culture, The Banner Saga also brings a fantasy world to live thanks to its stunning hand drawn art style.

A couple of months ago we asked you to vote on your favourite games of the year (up to the end of October, except for the blockbuster of the year award, which is still running now on the site). You've voted and now, in the coming weeks, we will unveil the results.

The process: Earlier in the year we asked you, our readers, to rank nine different games per category in order of preference (or how interested you are in a game, if you haven't played it before). We have taken those rankings, averaged them up, and the resulting list below are the top four games - three runners up and the winner.

Thanks largely to Steam, the PC has undergone a resurgeance in recent years. No longer is it for the most dedicated of gamers, and no longer is it the most niche of game developers that support PC over consoles; PC once again gets all the major game releases, and has a thriving indie and art scene backing the AAA-releases up. So what did you vote as your favourite games of the year for PC?

Review by Matt S.

Strategy games on PC are a different beast to strategy games on consoles. On consoles the likes of Advance Wars and Fire Emblem are considered complex strategy games, but these pale in comparison to PC titles like Europa Universalis IV. Conversely, the PC game community, weened on the likes of Civilization and Europa Universalis, has difficulty playing the simplified and accessible strategy structures that we typically see on consoles.

Review by Shaan J.

While I'm not the biggest fan of board and trading card games, I do enjoy it when they get digitised in the form of a game. These digital versions often (if not always) cost less than their physical counterparts, and while they are still better played with (or against) others, the rise of Internet play helps to counter their inherent reliance on multiplayer. As an added bonus, these games often feature some excellent artwork and visuals (here's looking at you Magic 2014), along with single-player campaigns for those who like to hone their skills offline.

Unfortunately, when compared to the standards set by other games in the genre, Hive comes off as a bit of a disappointment, despite some deep and surprisingly original mechanics.

Preview by Mike B.

Frozen Synapse is a title that is heavily regarded among the Digitally Downloaded staff. It's such a simple concept, but executed to a level of precision that we rarely see at any level. The player plans the movements and actions of a small unit of troops which after finalised play out against the actions of enemy forces within a five-second period. When that time interval is over, the player can reevaluate their plan of attack and change their soldiers' movements and actions to fit the current situation. The game system actively encourages a metagame reiteration of strategy, making tactical planning as exciting as when that strategy is executed successfully.

In Japanese folklore, a tsukumogami is a household object which has gained sentience, turning against humans to wreak havoc upon the unsuspecting. 99 Spirits is an RPG revolving around this phenomenon, chronicling the journey of a swordswoman named Hanabusa through medieval Japan to uncover the mystery behind these apparitions. Combining elements of puzzle, strategy and role playing, TORaIKI and Fruitbat Factory offer up a quirky and interesting game full of fresh ideas, but not without missed opportunities.

Preview by Harvard L.

Kraken Empire's upcoming shooter, Kromaia, is aiming to be an experience like no other. Promising a complex piloting system featuring six degrees of movement, the 3D shooter aims to strike a balance between arcade style action and a deep sense of exploration. It's an ambitious goal for a small development team, and although the project might be alienating for some, it's clear that there will be a niche of players who will fall in love with this frenetic and exuberant shooter.

The big draw of this game, for many players, will be its six-degrees-of-freedom movement. This actually sounds a lot better on paper than in practice however - rarely will you ever need to utilise every possible movement option. The system does feel rewarding for players willing to play creatively and test out what they can do, but more casual players can ignore the rolls and strafes to play Kromaia as if it were an iteration in the Star Fox series.

Review by Matt S. 

Not that much has been done to this re-release of Baldur's Gate 2. But then not much needed to be done; it's as close to the perfect game as games come.

Review by Clark A.

Ever since wandering the caves of Pokémon Red and Blue I’ve had a fascination with solving puzzles by navigating an avatar across grid-like spaces. Basic as the puzzles may have been, just sliding on ice and pushing boulders about made my younger self giddy. Though several games preceding and succeeding Pokémon utilised similar mechanics (namely Chip's Challenge, an old Atari game on which this one is loosely based), the developers of Chuck’s Challenge wisely chose to revive a formula far more varied and exciting than another uninspired “match three” affair.

So while not entirely inventive decades after the original concept came to be, Chuck’s Challenge had me feeling nostalgic while still remaining firmly in the present with its own quirks.

Preview by Matt S. 

At a PlayStation 4 launch event today I kept being drawn back to the same game. I played it on a nice big TV, with the slick new PS4 controller in my hand. I walked away and played something else for a bit. But then I was back to play the demo again. Someone else wanted a go so I needed to walk away. Then I came back to play it again on the Vita through the PS4's remote play feature.

It's being released for PlayStation 3 and PC as well, but Contrast is the PS4 game I want the most.

Review by Matt S.

The only criticism I could possibly come up with with the original Ace Patrol game was that its free-to-play structure was a little expensive and didn't really gel with the serious strategy game structure.

So the fact that Pacific Skies is content to charge a small premium (around $6) and then lay off from begging for money makes Pacific Skies the perfect iPad strategy game. Literally, there is no possible criticism I could see anyone with their head screwed on correctly leveling at this game. Pacific Skies is accessible tactical strategy with enough depth to keep the most hardcore of strategy players hooked for quite some time to come.

I’ll get the single-player out of the way quickly as Battlefield is primarily a multiplayer game. First person shooters have nearly always struggled to create a good single-player experience, and Battlefield is no exception. The developers have struggles to impress with the large-scale destruction while at the same time sticking to the traditional genre theme of funnelling players down corridor after corridor. On some missions you don’t even get to fire a gun until you’re halfway through. There’s defiantly ambition in the production values with scenes of ships getting torn apart and a set piece involving running through a building that’s falling apart whilst getting shot by a helicopter, but you’ll get over that quickly and find much more enjoyment in the multiplayer.

Review by Nick H. 

The game's title is fairly simple, and in essence so is the game of pool. However, Cherry Pop Games deserves some serious credit for coming up with a game of pool that does not just 'work', but is a lot of fun to play as well.

Review by Nick H.

The idea behind Arma Tactics appeals to me on many levels. Having played and enjoyed the Arma shooting titles, I liked the idea of a tactical game based on the series. Described as a turn-based combat strategy game, Arma Tactics drops you into a scenario without any guidelines to necessarily follow - simply try to complete your story-based missions (with some randomised objectives sprinkled in) in whatever fashion suits you best.

If you've ever played a Spiderweb Software game then you'll know what the one-man (Jeff Vogel) studio does. Each of his games follows a very specific formula - isometric top-down classic RPG questing in the vein of such works of art as Baldur's Gate.

Review by Matt S.

Well, Dominions 4 is rather quaint. It's a game that I actually needed to delve into its manual to understand how to play it... and the manual is over 100 pages long. Am I showing my age to say I actually remember doing that with the strategy games of old (like, say, Civilization 2?)

The menu interface is from about 10 years ago, and the graphics are about 20 years old. In fact, the game would have been considered ugly 20 years ago. Sprites barely animate, the map is a blot of colour broken up into regions via lines, and watching the combat play out is like pulling teeth as units stutter along at a snail's pace.

Review by Nick H. 

Generally when a game tries to mix a load of different features from varying genres into one title, it tends to be poor to decent in executing a lot of these features while proving to be excellent in none. They tend to become classic examples of spreading development resources and talent too thin, offering thing slices of features that seem appealing at a glance, but fail to pan out in the end. I am pleased to say that Space Rangers HD A War Apart is not one of those titles.