No 10
GTA V – with first-person
Ignore the plot, the same way you’d ignore the 12 year-old who wrote it – and focus on thumping people in first-person. Mayhem feels a helluva lot more personal when you’re not looking at the back of Trevor’s unfortunate head.
No 9
Sunset Overdrive
GTA V for kids, with a colour palette so exuberant it’s like your retinas are being blasted by paintballs. The physics are cartoonish, your enemies explode in great, goopy showers of guts and it’s the first next-gen title I’ve seen that justifies the purchase of a new console.
No 8
Valiant Hearts
It’s World War One and you’re sad. Soon, you’ll be sadder. This is the Pixar of historical gaming. (Imagine “Up”, if there was a danger of the dog suffocating in mustard gas.) Genuinely heartwrenching.
No 7
Gang Beasts (Alpha)
Your beanie babies are attacking each other. Ridiculously good fun.
No 6
Dark Souls II
A game that doesn’t tell you what to do, then punishes you when you don’t do it. You can play however you want, provided you don’t die, which you will. Fun, dark and mesmerisingly hard, this is Skyrim, but everyone else is a dragon and you’re made of toilet tissue.
No 5
Child of Light
Looks pretty, sets the tone quickly, then lures you in deeper and deeper via poetry, plot and simple RPG mechanics. A beautiful and clean game.
No 4
Niddhog (Steam)
It’s been around a fair while, but since it hit Steam in January, here’s Errol Flynn Simulator 9000. Atari graphics and genius swordfighting mechanics make this the finest of the retro-styled titles I played this year– and nearly the best fighting game overall.
No 3
Geometry Wars III: Dimensions
Too pretty for words. The only time I’ve ever given a damn about geometry.
No 2
Ultra Street Fighter IV
All new Street Fighter games should come with the slogan: “Just good as it was in 1992”.
No 1
Destiny
This wasn’t the best game of the year, or my favourite game of the year – but IGN said it would be months before it came out, so they must’ve been right. A total triumph of hype.
John Robertson's Top 10 Games of the Year 2014
John Robertson is the force of nature who stars in Videogame Nation, Ginx Live, Console Yourself, The First Hour and the dreams you don’t tell anyone about. He is the creator of The Dark Room, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvkjP6dqpfY) the sadistic video game with 4 million YouTube hits that tours the planet as a live comedy show. (http://www.tickettailor.com/checkout/view-event/id/20821/chk/27bd?widget-disable=true)
Follow him on Twitter @Robbotron
