This week we awarded our top gaming picks of 2014. It wasn't easy; there were many stand-outs this year!

Our Expansion of the Year award went to World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor. ZAM's VP of Technology, Michael "Argo" Ender, said that "World of Warcraft fell off my radar a bit after Wrath. With WoD they made the WoW game I've always wanted to play. Thank you Blizzard!" President Cody "Micajah" Bye added that the release of Draenor "revitalized an entire game." Check out contributing writer Michael "Ragar" Branham's story about how Warlords drew him back to Warcraft in our Expansion of the Year article.

Consoles saw a lot of new titles this year, but Destiny took the prize home for our Console Game of the Year award. Bungie reached for excellence and delivered on many levels with the title that has half of our staff hopelessly addicted. It may not be all roses, as ZAM Deputy Editor Colt "ShdwFlm" Casey mentions in our Console Game of the Year article, but at its core Destiny is a fun experience with room to improve.

PC gamers were treated to a plethora of excellent titles this year, with BioWare's Dragon Age: Inquisition landing our PC Game of the Year award. The in-depth story and replayability ultimately won many of us over as we took the Qunari by the horns and laid waste to all who stood to oppose Thedas. Managing Editor Ann "Cyliena" Hosler talked about how DAI excelled on every level in our PC Game of the Year article.

Finally, we looked forward to what next year will bring and agreed that Overwatch, which Blizzard unveiled during this year's BlizzCon, is our Most Anticipated Game of 2015. Project Manager Katie Welka teared up at the epic cinematic trailer, while Colt admitted that he gets the feels every time he watches it. ZAM's Brand Ambassador, Lindsay "Geektr0n" Ferguson, teamed up with Ann to explain why Overwatch is the game we all should be eagerly awaiting in our Most Anticipated Game of 2015 article.

Thanks for joining us for another fantastic year in gaming! We hope everyone is having a great holiday week and look forward to seeing what 2015 will bring!

Dragon Age: Inquisition

When I wrote ZAM's Dragon Age: Inquisition review in mid-November, I was only about 45-50 hours into the game. At the time, my summary of BioWare's newest entry into the series was that it "feels very well-polished, vast, immersive and highly entertaining" and it was definitely worth running out to own immediately. Now, just over a month post-launch, my fellow co-workers have agreed that Inquisition offers such an epic, quality experience that it is well-deserving of our 2014 PC Game of the Year award.

Dragon Age: Inquisition — ZAM's Complete Review

I'm sure most of us have a favorite genre or series that we currently or at one point devoted hundreds of hours of our life to. It takes a special game to grab our attention and keep us entertained for hours, and with the number of games that are released every month, there's a lot tugging our attentions every which-way.

As I mentioned in my impressions article of Dragon Age: Inquisition, the game showed a lot of promise from an early first look. Since then I've devoted a lot of time into the story, and still have some more to go, but Inquisition definitely has that "wow" factor. The world of Thedas has captivated me with its deep story, cast of characters and expansive world.

If you're looking for a tl;dr, then here it is: you should be playing Dragon Age: Inquisition the moment it releases on Tuesday, November 18th (November 21st in the EU). Now let's get into what gives this RPG the legs to stand above many others.

First Impressions: Inquisition

Dragon Age: Inquisition, the biggest RPG to-date that BioWare has built, releases next Tuesday. I stepped into the world of Thedas this week to take my first look at what Inquisition has to offer, and so far have not been disappointed.

Dragon Age Keep
The Dragon Age Keep is a companion website to help track your story you've created in the Dragon Age series. By using important decisions from Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II, the Keep re-creates your world history and presents it to you.

If you're like me and this is your first Dragon Age game, the Keep still is relevant. A default story will play for you, and at crucial moments you can choose different outcomes to events. After the story completes you will be presented with tiles of events -- your Tapestry -- from the games and can choose to either lock those choices, keep them as-is and unlocked, or select a different scenario.

The Dragon Age Keep is available to everyone now, and Inquisition will be added to it for launch day.

This morning saw the release of a new Dragon Age: Inquisition cinematic trailer, titled "The Hero of Thedas".

Bioware and Lucas Arts have annouced Shadow of Revan, an expansion to Star Wars: The Old Repblic. Shadow of Revan offers five new levels of story-driven missions, an increased level cap of 60, new worlds to explore, high-level multiplayer Flashpoints and Operations to join with friends in dynamic challenges and much more. Plus, for a limited-time, all Subscribers who pre-order receive a Class Experience Boost, offering players 12x experience gain through Level 55 with the opportunity to immerse themselves exclusively in exciting class story missions, but only through December 1, 2014.

Get the details of the pre-order bonuses and watch the trailer below!

Earlier today BioWare announced that a 4-person cooperative multiplayer mode will be added to its upcoming title, Dragon Age: Inqusition. Marking a first for the Dragon Age series, the mode will have co-op quests that run separate from the single-player campaign. Players will dragon-crawl in multiplayer, gathering loot, completing objectives and unlocking new characters.

At 5AM Eastern this morning, Bioware and EA revealed the detail of its latest IP: Shadow Realms. Hype had peaked. The audience was ready. Four cinematic teasers over three weeks had built a dark allure around the mysterious new title. It was finally time to open the curtain.

Gamescom: August 13th - 17th 

As it stands, Gamescom is becoming a second E3 each year. And hey, we're not complaining! We love the spectacle of it all. In proper theatrics, all the major names have put together a hype video.

Let's kick it off with an official Gamescom 2014 trailer, a dramatic explanation of why the event matters and what to expect:

DO YOU KNOW THEY ARE WATCHING?
Your power is rising.
Cologne, Germany.
08.13.14.
You’ve Been Chosen.

Bioware's hype machine is in full-swing, churning out the second teaser for their upcoming game. This one is labeled "Spark", for very apparent reasons: