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!

Destiny

We love Destiny. Finding rare gear, upgrading talents, Public Events with strangers, dancing in the Tower. It blends an FPS and RPG as expertly as we could reasonably expect. It fills a niche in gaming we've always wanted. We forget how easily Destiny could simply not exist – but we're very glad it's real.

Individually, we've spent hundreds of hours acquiring new Exotics to laugh gleefully at their effects. Collectively, we've spent thousands of hours stomping the Fallen and fellow Guardians. When we're not playing Destiny, we're talking about it: our favorite Subclass, gear we're hoping to get, trash-talking the Cryptarch, or linking each other to items on DestinyDB (our Destiny site).

Destiny Expansion I: The Dark Below is coming soon! Slated for a December 9, 2014 release across all support platforms, the expansion features all-new weapons and gear to earn through new story, co-operative and multiplayer activities.

"Cayde-6 took the Cryptarch aside and showed him a sack of doorknobs.
He decoded that mystery pretty quickly."

Having played countless hours of Destiny since launch, this patch is near and dear to our hearts. Patch 1.0.2 – going live tomorrow morning this week – focuses on "the Cryptarch and Engram experience". Tired of getting ripped-off on your hard-earned Legendary engrams? No more.

"Assemble your Fireteam now. You'll need to work together.
You'll need to be mighty, and brave. We'll be watching."

At 5AM tomorrow morning, September 16th, the doors will open. The unspeakable evils lurking on the lush planet Venus will be unchained. As Destiny's most terrifying task, the Vault of Glass requires no less than 6 Guardians, fully-equipped with the best gear they can find.

In a launch that can only be described as massive, Bungie's newest franchise Destiny has crushed records to set titanic milestones. Counting pre-orders and yesterday's launch, Destiny had already sold a staggering $500 million. That's roughly more than 8.3 million copies. By the end of day one.

Welcome, Guardians, to a new home.

With today's launch of Destiny, we've just added even more features to DestinyDB!

Current features now include:

"The Beta will include character creation, story missions,
cooperative and social activities, competitive multiplayer, and more."

Destiny is easily one of 2014's most hyped games. We've seen the E3 trailer and gameplay, but we want more. Bungie has obliged – on Bungie Day, no less! – by spilling the dates and details on Destiny's upcoming beta. But first: the beta trailer.

On July 17th, the Destiny public beta will kick off on the PlayStation 3 and 4, with the Xbox One and 360 systems following "soon after." Players who have pre-ordered from select retailers can redeem their code and prepare to jump into the action. If you haven't pre-ordered yet, hop over to the official site to find a retailer near you.

Earlier today, Bungie released an extensve gameplay trailer for Destiny featuring a Strike--a cooperative scenario for a dangerous mission in The Devil's Lair. Check out the action below!