Strategy

Europa Universalis is a franchise where you don't just control a country or play a king, you are the ruler of your very own nation. That comes with all of the good and all of the bad. The power to do whatever you want, but the responsibility to not always do it. The need to protect and expand your nation whilst all others do the same.

Only Shigeru Miyamoto could have come up with Pikmin, an often difficult real-time strategy game starring cute, altruistic plant creatures that are willing to do anything for strangers, no questions asked. The first two titles were big hits for the Gamecube, and for eight years fans have been waiting for Pikmin 3. Well, the wait is over and, at the very least, longtime fans and newcomers have another excuse to boot-up their Wii U.

Defense Grid has been around for a few years now, but many gamers have discovered it because it's one of the free games that came with a Gold subscription to Xbox Live. Those who missed their chance to grab it for free should still take look at this old gem because, much like its main character, it withstands the test of time rather well.

Shadowrun's last appearance in video game form wasn't that pretty, leaving fans disappointed that Microsoft decided to turn their cyberpunk, urban fantasy pulp RPG into a multiplayer shooter. Thankfully, the mastermind behind the franchise, Jordan Weisman, headed to Kickstarter in order to fund a project designed to take the series back to its roots: Shadowrun Returns.

The most common complaint leveled against mobile gaming is the seeming lack of "console-quality experiences" - which, despite being a bit of a moot point (it's a tablet, not a console, correct?), is grounded in some real complaints. There are too many money-hungry free-to-play games, and way too many physics puzzlers and endless runners in the App Store - so when Firaxis and 2K announced a fully-featured handheld port of the award-winning XCOM: Enemy Unknown, it presented an opportunity for the platform to show off its skills beyond forgettable $1 titles.

How can God be omnipotent and benevolent yet the world be filled with constant war and unending suffering? Perhaps there is a greater god out there who wants nothing more than to sit back and watch as humanity wages meaningless conflict just for the amusement of a callous divine being! That's basically the premise behind Skyward Collapse, a new turn-based strategy game from Arcen Games in which players control both sides in a battle where the hapless combatants waste their lives in perpetual war.

NarcoGuerra is the latest in a series of 'Game the News' games. The idea is to take a real world issue, in this case the ongoing battle between Mexican police forces and drug cartels, and make it a little easier to understand how complicated the situation truly is. But is NarcoGuerra a good game, or just a fancy news piece?

Return to Ashan in Shades of Darkness, a new expansion to the hugely popular Might & Magic Heroes VI. With over a dozen new units and a conservative announced guess of 20 hours of new gameplay (We all know we'll play it more than that), Shades of Darkness is an adventure designed to be a little darker than the game it is based upon. With that darker tone comes an increased difficulty, a difficulty that doesn't always feel like it's been planned out. Alongside that, a myriad of bugs will work against you as well. Is this enough to stop you from playing?

StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm continues the epic story and intense multiplayer action of its predecessor, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (WoL), while refining the experience further as an eSports franchise. The expansion includes all of the things loyal fans have come to love and expect, as well as new challenges that level the field for new players hoping to try their hand at multiplayer matches. In the Heart of the Swarm campaign, players take control of the Queen of Blades and her endless swarm of Zerg, presenting a fresh and distinct experience from ...

With one of the funniest trailers of 2013 behind it, Leviathan: Warships was perhaps something that initially caught people off guard. Armed with an abso-boat load of terrible puns, people took to this game like a... well... a boat to water. The downside of this was that as soon as they'd bought and downloaded their new purchase, they realized that the voice in the trailer had been just that: a voice for the trailer. The jokes had been written to lure people in, and those same people didn't actually watch the trailer for the game they were so desperate to buy.