When Warcraft-creators Blizzard announced their next game was going to be a Magic: The Gathering-influenced card battler, many fans of their more social circle-creating, action-heavy work thought they'd gone a wee bit mad. But just look at it - is there anything that better represents a gigantic explosion of all things nerdy and colourful? It's just unabashedly gorgeous through and through, and if any part of you likes the idea of cultivating your own custom deck of warriors to battle online, titles as meticulously crafted as this are a total rarity. Luckily Blizzard took their time and balanced every aspect of this - even the initial early-access beta was more polished than anything else in 2014. Best of all it was free to get started too, with the only micro-transaction present being the idea of purchasing more cards - or you were free to unlock them through gameplay alone like, y'know, what you probably should do. Thanks to so many different ways to win, that's a far more enticing prospect that just lobbing money at everything anyway. You're free to tackle and level up against the A.I. before battling in the arena, something you'll need to do now more than ever as the fanbase that's sprouted around this is as devoted as they come. Thankfully Hearthstone doesn't throw you to the dogs though, matchmaking is a gradual progression from where you'll start, and the general feel of acquiring the skill to hang in the big leagues is a very rewarding one.
