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The best Xbox One games of 2014

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2014 is nearly over and so it’s time to think about the best Xbox One games of the year. Is your game of the year on this list?

Narrowing the plenitude of Xbox One games down to just one isn’t something we want to do as genres and favourites depend on the individual in hand, but after reviewing the vast majority of Xbox One titles in 2014, we feel it’s only right to throw you the full list of our 5/5 rated games. These won’t necessarily be perfect, but if you decide to spend your cash on one or all of them, you should find yourself with a jolly old time.

So without further ado, let’s get started…and make sure you click the links to check out our full reviews.

Titanfall

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The first real big retail release of 2014 and Titanfall dropped to critical acclaim bringing the war of the Corporation and the Militia to our Xbox One consoles. With a Call of Duty background holding the development team steady, Titanfall flung us into the small world of the Pilot and the huge world of the Titans as we experienced, probably for the first time properly, vertical and horizontal warfare in a way we’d never experienced before.

Whilst there may not be any single player campaign of note, the fast paced action packed multiplayer modes have kept us gripped ever since the release back in March. Multiple updates and even more DLC packs have released since and Titanfall continues to fight on with an ever present multiplayer following.

Child Of Light

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Child Of Light draws you in from the very first moment you set eyes on it.

An enchanting tale of a young princess, Aurora falls asleep one night only to awake in the mysterious long lost kingdom of Lemuria. She soon embarks on a quest to return to her father by restoring the Sun, the Moon and the stars which have been stolen by the evil Queen of the Night. Told with a poetic style and delightful art design, Child Of Light starts off fairly basic but soon turns into an in-depth platformer with upgradeable skills as Aurora takes the fight to the monsters of the night.

Whilst Child Of Light works brilliantly as a single player game, the chance to take on the role of the ever helpful Igniculus in local o-op gives things another little twist.

Super Time Force

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60 seconds isn’t even enough time to brew a cup of tea, but Super Time Force positively thrives on the fact that you only have one minute to complete its numerous levels.

But how is that done? Time travel and multiple lives is how. Capybara Games have brought STF to Xbox One and with it comes a whole new way of playing. A fast paced twisted side scrolling shooter, Super Time Force gives you the chance to rinse and repeat every single time you die.

And you’ll die, A LOT. But you’ll also get the chance to relive the frustrating bits as you attempt over and over again to make it through to the end.

Super Time Force is a bit nuts, but you should love it!

Watch Dogs

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Aiden Pearce is a man with a mission, a man who is seeking revenge via any means possible. And if that means hacking the hell out of Chicago in order to avenge his niece’s death then that is exactly what he shall do.

Set in a world where near enough everything is hackable, Aiden and his skills are put to the test throughout Ubisoft’s open world adventure. Some may say the story is weak, but we absolutely loved our time spent in the Windy City with a decent length campaign supplements by some frankly superb side missions and mini games.

An online presence that is great fun as well just makes Watch Dogs one of Ubisoft’s best games of the year.

Middle-earth Shadow of Mordor

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If you trawl the pages of the internet, you’ll stumble across many a person proclaiming Middle-earth Shadow of Mordor on a next generation system as the Game of the Year. Whilst we’re not nailing our mast to any one title, you wouldn’t hear us complaining at any awards Warner Bros pick up with their foray into the world of Lord of the Rings.

Telling the story of Gondorian ranger, Talion you’ll be thrust into an ever changing open world environment where every choice you make will have an impact on either your immediate area or somewhere else entirely. Lord of the Rings fans will flock to Shadow of Mordor but even if you are a relative fantasy newbie, you should still want to get involved as the sheer number of missions, side quests, challenges and collectibles will provide many hours of entertainment.

Forza Horizon 2

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If you yearn for a racer with the very highest pedigree then you really can’t look any further than Forza Horizon 2. Whilst Forza Motorsport 5 may have the track based Xbox One racing sewn up, the Horizon series brings a more playful, more adventurous racer to the next generation masses. Featuring hundreds of events, hundreds of cars and hundreds of miles of road and fields to drive round, Forza Horizon 2 takes everything that was good about the original Horizon title and turns the notch up ten fold.

It may not have the full simulation that Forza 5 has but what it lacks in realism, it more than makes up for in fun.

Forza Horizon 2. The best racer of 2014 by a country mile. The best racer ever? Quite possibly.

Fantasia: Music Evolved

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Unless you’ve played Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved, you are probably wondering how and why it’s on this list. ‘It’s just another Kinect gimmick isn’t it?’, ‘Dance games are rubbish’ are just two of the quotes that we’ve received since reviewing Fantasia. But how wrong are those people!

Taking you into the magical world of Disney’s Fantasia, your role in life is to rid the world of the ‘noise’ that has afflicted numerous musical realms with a series of sweeps, pushes and holds taking place throughout. With the power of Kinect for Xbox One firmly behind it, Music Evolved makes the most of the motion tracking technology on offer with both the menus and indeed the actions taking place in the songs being spot on. More of a ‘conducting’ game rather than a dance title, any game that relies on a musical background must have a decent set list and Harmonix have brought many great tracks into the mix.

Fantasia: Music Evolved is not just a good game….it is without doubt, a great game.

Rocksmith 2014 Edition

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Rocksmith 2014 Edition on Xbox One is more than just a game. It’s a teacher of the fine art of the string. Ever wanted to play guitar? Rocksmith 2014 promises to be the quickest way to learn.

And it works, brilliantly!

Set out with the style of those music game of old, Rocksmith 2014 ditches the plastic instruments instead teaching you how to play guitar for real. You’ll need to provide your own battle axe, but as long as you have one available, it beats following YouTube tutorials and is quite possibly on a par with those expensive music lessons you see advertised around the place.

There’s only one way to learn guitar…with Ubisoft’s Rocksmith 2014.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

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For all every critic there are ten Xbox One gamers who absolutely love the Call of Duty franchise and Advanced Warfare is the latest, and quite possibly greatest, recent addition to the CoD series.

Blasting into the future with some out-of-this-world tech, Advanced Warfare runs with an epic storyline focusing on how a crazed Keven Spacey threatens to over run the world, a cooperative survival mode that is great fun and yet again, a class leading multiplayer side of things which whilst going all ‘Titanfall’ on us, stays true to everything we’ve known and loved about Call of Duty online.

The move into the future has paid off…big time!

Pure Pool

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For us, Pure Pool is the ultimate five minute time waster. A world away from the advanced warfare found in Titanfall and Call of Duty and on a completely different level to the fast racing in Horizon 2, Pure Pool is the perfect game for when you want to relax…when you want to slow things down and get a little…precise.

And precise is exactly what Pure Pool. Graphically it is immense with tables that scream quality and some ball physics that work perfectly. With a career mode that will take many hours to complete and both local and online multiplayer available, Pure Pool should be right up your street if you want to slow things down a bit!

LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham

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Everyone loves a bit of LEGO and everyone loves a bit of Batman. The biggest and baddest LEGO Batman title to date then? Oh yes.

LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham takes the Caped Crusader and a bunch of his DC friends in a fight against the evil Brainiac as he threatens to take over the world. With 15 main missions and a whole host of side ones, LEGO Batman 3 is the funniest, most heart warming and interesting LEGO title to date. Both the script and indeed the numerous voice performances are top notch and when you throw them all together you get a game that is perfect for both the little kids and indeed the big ones!

Far Cry 4

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There’s little debate that the Far Cry series is one of Ubisoft’s recent major highlights and Far Cry 4 builds fully on everything we found in its predeccessor but throws many more things out there at the same time. Ajay Ghale returns to his mothers homeland of Kyrat, deep in the middle of the Himalayas but instead of finding a place to spread his mothers ashes, stumbles upon a region in the midst of war…and all run by the self appointed tyrannical king, Pagan Min.

With a campaign that takes you to every high and low that the Himalyas has to offer and a 5v5 multiplayer offering of the highest order, Far Cry 4 will eat up many hours of your live.

The original may have been good, the second may have been better and the third game in the Far Cry series may have been critically acclaimed, but Far Cry 4 tops the lot and is somewhere you should visit pronto.

Thomas Was Alone

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We have to admit to being rather stunned by Thomas Was Alone.

Set inside a computer mainframe and telling the tale of some Artificial Intelligences that have gone a little awry, Thomas initially thought he was alone. But he wasn’t, he had many friends all with differing skills and as a team, the group of blocky friends manage to eventually explore the world set in front of them and finally find their way to the Fountain of Wisdom.

A puzzling platformer, Thomas Was Alone is a delight from start to finish with the narration from Scottish comedian Danny Wallace just dragging you deeper into the world of Thomas and his friends.

Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions

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Many of you will have played the original Geometry Wars. Even more will no doubt have played it’s sequel. And all of you will know exactly how addicting the fast-paced shooters are. Well, bad news we’re afraid because those additions will come to the fore once again with Geo Wars 3: Dimensions.

It’s super fast, it’s super fluid and it’s super addictive. With a huge career mode, a rather intense local cooperative mode and a couple of fairly decent online multiplayer offerings, Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions should be something you’ll want to pick up sooner rather than later.

We can’t have those friends of yours holding all the leaderboard bragging rights now can we!?

So what do you think? Is your Xbox One game of 2014 on the list? Let us know in the comments below.

 

Neil Watton
Neil Wattonhttps://www.thexboxhub.com/
An Xbox gamer since 2002, I bought the big black box just to play Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee. I have since loved every second of the 360's life and am now just as obsessed with the Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S - mostly with the brilliant indie scene that has come to the fore. Gamertag is neil363, feel free to add me to your list.
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