MAC, iOS And More; Guides. Graphics Comparisons Search. 15 Best Co-op Games of 2018 and Beyond. Mayhem is more fun with friends. Find out which co-op games to look forward to in. Here are our picks for the best Mac games of 2018, including titles such as The Banner Saga 3, Fortnite, and Donut County. Just because you play games on an Apple computer doesn't mean there aren.
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The Rundown
Best Overall:Adobe Premiere Pro at Amazon, “the cross-platform, uber-popular timeline-based video editor that’s long set the standard for video editing software.”
Runner-Up, Best Overall:Nero Platinum 2018 at Amazon, “centralizes your media so you can organize, manage and play all your files in one place.”
Best Value:Pinnacle Studio 21 Ultimate at Best Buy, “offers a host of post effects that put this thing way out of its price class.”
Best for Macs:Apple Final Cut Pro at Apple, “treads the line between a consumer product and one for professionals who need powerful editing tools.”
Best for Windows:Movavi Video Editor 14 Personal Edition at Amazon, “makes it fun and easy to create wonderful videos even for beginners.”
Best for YouTube:Corel VideoStudio Pro X10 at Amazon, “with over 1,500 customizable effects, transitions, and titles, there’s something for everyone.”
Best for Vloggers:Sony Movie Studio 13 at Amazon, “can directly upload to Facebook or other social media for fast sharing.”
Best for Smartphones:Adobe Premiere Clip at iTunes, “perfect for creatives whose videos are bound for social media channels like YouTube and Instagram.”
Best for Beginners:Corel VideoStudio at Amazon, “includes storyboard mode, which helps users draft the exact vision they have in mind.”
Runner-Up, Best for Beginners:Magix Movie Edit Pro at Jet, “runs on most modern Windows machines, up through Windows 10.”
Best for Professionals:Vegas Pro 15 at Amazon, “with an intuitive set of controls that takes the best of Final Cut, Premiere and others and merges them into one.”
Our Top Picks
Best Overall: Adobe Premiere Pro
The granddaddy of video editing, Adobe Premiere Pro is the cross-platform, uber-popular timeline based video editor that’s long set the standard for video editing software. Capable of tackling nearly any type of video format, Adobe’s software is ready to produce video for any type of professional production, including film, television and the Web. Premiere Pro offers enough horsepower to handle 360-degree virtual reality video to 8K footage all in native format. It can even import and export footage from competitive software such as Final Cut Pro.
While most professional-grade software can handle multi-cam editing, Premiere Pro goes one step beyond, handling as many sources as necessary with as many angles as required. The inclusion of the bundled Lumetri Color Panel allows advanced color adjustments to be handled with ease. Additionally, Adobe’s integration with After Effects and Photoshop adds even more reason for professional grade editors to choose Premiere Pro.
Runner-Up, Best Overall: Nero Platinum 2018
Even if you’re an amateur you can feel like a professional filmmaker with Nero Platinum 2018 video editing software. If you're looking for a program that goes beyond just video, Nero Platinum 2018 could be the multi-tasking master in your arsenal. This multi-faceted program allows you to create, edit, burn, convert, organize, stream and play back all kinds of media, including videos, photos and music. This version includes 18 new movie design templates, 18 new disc menu templates and 12 design templates that are made to complement vertically-formatted video from your smartphone. In addition to its great editing features and 4K quality, Nero Platinum 18 also centralizes your media, so you can organize, manage and play all your files in one place.
Best Value: Pinnacle Studio 21 Ultimate
Corel’s Pinnacle Studio 21 Ultimate gives you everything you’ll get with the standard copy of Pinnacle Studio 21, plus a host of upgraded features. It does everything the lower version will do: giving you seamless editing interface, the ability to work in full HD, as well as a great set of features for laying out a perfect story with video. But, it will also offer you a host of post effects that put this thing way out of its price class.
For starters, they’ve added in some crazy seamless morph transitions to help you blend together all the parts of your visual story. They’ve thrown in a pretty unique paintbrush filter effect that will work in tandem with already-shot video, letting you transform raw, live footage into living animations. Not only does Studio 21 Ultimate offer support for uploading 360-degree video but they’ve included a surprisingly intuitive set of trim, edit and control features for 360 video that will let you ensure your viewer gets the exact immersive experience you want.
Finally, rounding out their set of flagship additions, they give you the ability to include a motion-tracked image-blurring filter over the top of any element on the screen, meaning you can protect the identity of someone’s face, their license plate or anything else you’d prefer not to be in your final product.
Best for Macs: Apple Final Cut Pro
Apple’s Final Cut Pro X software falls into what we call the “prosumer” category because it treads the line between a product for consumers who want to up their video-editing game and one for professionals who need powerful editing tools. It lacks a traditional timeline-track interface, which is enough to scare some users off, but the software is intuitive and powerful nonetheless. It has great organizational tools like libraries, ratings, tagging, auto analysis for faces and scenes, and automatic color coding for track-specific clips, useful keyboard short-cuts and drag-and-drop media importing give Adobe’s Premiere Elements a run for its money. Unfortunately, you can't directly open projects from Final Cut Pro 7 or earlier, but there are many third-party plug-ins that will help you out there.
Best for Windows: Movavi Video Editor 14 Personal Edition
With Movavi Video Editor, it’s fun and easy to create wonderful videos even for beginners. Simply drop your media files onto the timeline and use the Windows-friendly editing tools to customize. Like most video editors, the Movavi Video Editor allows you to make basic changes to your clips by trimming, cutting and rotating them to any angle. With this software, however, you can also become your own movie producer by using multiple filters, transitions, titles, stickers and special effects. Show multiple videos on one screen with the picture-in-picture tool or freeze the video at any frame for added emphasis. Make video cards to send to family and friends or preserve vacation memories in a format people will actually want to watch. Automatically improve video quality with Magic Enhance, or manually adjust color parameters like brightness, contrast and saturation for better viewability. Movavi Video Editor even helps you minimize annoying motion distortion with the stabilization tool.
Best for YouTube: Corel VideoStudio Pro X10
When it comes to video editing for YouTube, almost every app does it well, but Corel VideoStudio Pro X10 does it better. With nearly every feature and tool that you need at your disposal (including transitions, effects, titles, templates and more), Pro X10 offers an outstanding array of production level value.
Support for 360-degree VR, 4K, Ultra HD and 3D media help round out the export opportunities available with Pro X10 and, while they may not all be supported by YouTube now, it’s good to know you have the capability for when they are. The user interface isn’t for beginners, but within a short amount of time, you’ll be a master at capturing, editing and sharing.
Added features such as time remapping for including slow motion, high-speed effects or freeze action are complemented by easily grouping or ungrouping clips on a timeline to edit in bulk or one at a time. With over 1,500 customizable effects, transitions and titles, there’s something for everyone. Even as the video itself is the focus, custom fitting your project with a soundtrack is handled well with custom-fit audio allowing your movies to both look and sound good.
Best for Vloggers: Sony Movie Studio 13
Sony Movie Studio 13 was made with the digital filmmaker in mind – once you’ve edited your video to your satisfaction, you can directly upload it to Facebook or other social media for fast sharing. Create video in beautiful 4K (ultra HD) XAVCS, or AVCHD to give your vlogs a high-production, professional feel. Movie Studio 13 Platinum is touch-enabled, too, so you can create and edit movies even faster using your PC’s touchscreen. With large, easy-to-use buttons, fewer menus and the popular Simple Edit Mode, Sony Movie Studio 13 makes video editing fast and easy, so you can keep up with the Internet’s viral pace. The software also comes with ACID Music Studio 10 and Sound Forge Audio Studio 10 to take your online media up a notch.
Best for Smartphones: Adobe Premiere Clip
Premiere Clip is your iOS/Android connection to Adobe’s most powerful editing programs: Premiere Pro and Premiere Elements. It’s part of the Creative Cloud ecosystem, which means you’ll need an Adobe ID to access it, but both the app and an account are free for all.
Premiere Clip is perfect for creatives whose videos are bound for social media channels like YouTube and Instagram. You can easily import video clips from places like your phone, Lightroom, Creative Cloud and Dropbox, and then use the app’s Freeform editor to trim or split clips, adjust exposure and highlights, add audio and more. And, of course, you can add filters, which is a given in today’s social media sphere.
Best for Beginners: Corel VideoStudio
Corel’s Windows-only VideoStudio offers an equally robust set of features comparative to Adobe or CyberLink’s product line. Right off the bat, it’s easy to see why VideoStudio is a great option: It offers support for 4K, 360-degree VR, multi-cam editing, as well as a large library of royalty-free music. Beginners will quickly learn to appreciate features such as 'checkmarks,' which can either let you know which clips you’ve already used or can apply effects to all the clips currently in your timeline at once. Additionally, voice detection helps you match subtitles to speech in your video clips.
Purchasing the full version of VideoStudio Ultimate X10 adds a whole extra set of options that beginners will quickly love, including multi-monitor support, easier title creation, and even stop-motion animation. Corel supports almost every output format imaginable, so it's ideal for sharing socially or for hosting online for the world to see. Another highlight for beginners is the inclusion of storyboard mode, which will help draft the exact vision they have in mind for a finished product without wasting hours and days on edits that may never see the light of day.
Runner-Up, Best for Beginners: Magix Movie Edit Pro
Magix is a bit of a sleeper as far as movie editors go, and honestly it does fall short in some of the higher level features that you’ll find in the big dogs like Final Cut and Adobe Premiere. But let’s start with the basics of what makes it great for a beginner, and that’s the fact that, well, it handles the basics really well. First off, it’ll run on most modern Windows machines, up through Windows 10, which is great for beginners because those people most likely won’t have the budget or desire to shell out for a Mac. So it’s software that will work out of the box for your affordable Windows machine. According to their website, the software has been going strong for 15 years, delivering upwards of 93 percent customer satisfaction on its iterations.
It starts with its simplest feature: a storyboard mode that allows you to lay out your narrative on a simpler, at-a-glance screen. That way if you don’t want to drill down to the details, you don’t have to get bogged down with all kinds of extra proprietary controls. But if you do want to drill down to a more detailed approach, you can do so with its Details mode that allows you to mix in 200 multimedia tracks, giving you seemingly endless possibilities for your project.
There are tons of in-program effects such as transitions, titles, credits, captions and even included audio scores, meaning you won’t get held up at any step of your editing process. There are panning and shift capabilities, high-quality post-processing zoom, as well as a plethora of color filtering plugins to give you the look you’ll need, even if the raw footage isn’t quite there. You’ll have the ability to export your movies in up to 4K resolution, and the software even supports 360-degree video projects. It’s a great powerhouse for beginners.
Best for Professionals: Vegas Pro 15
If you want something that is aimed more at the professional from a marketing standpoint, it couldn’t hurt to look into the Vegas Pro line. On its 15th iteration, Vegas has introduced a ton of new features, from hardware acceleration harnessing Intel QSV to a picture-in-picture OFX plug-in, all the way to a super intuitive new instant freeze frame option for referencing shots without stopping workflow. If you opt for the premium, upgraded package (which won’t run cheap), you’ll even get an exhaustive package of NewBlueFX fIlters to color your projects like a true Hollywood flick. What’s interesting about Vegas, and what we think gets overlooked, is they’ve attempted to give you an intuitive set of controls that takes the best of Final Cut, Premiere and others and merges them into one. Sure, it might not have the streamlined, Adobe CS-friendliness of Premiere, nor is it even compatible with Macs, but that’s OK. The workflow in this might just give certain users who can’t quite jive with the other guys a place to truly shine.
What to Look for in Video Editing Software
Platform - If you’re looking for a new video editing software package, you’ll want to look into whether if it is available for your platform before continuing to dig into it any further. If you have a Windows PC or a Mac, check the software manufacturer's website to see if a version is available for your device.
Experience - Are you brand new to video editing or a seasoned professional? Some video editing software packages can feel extremely intimidating with an endless number of settings and dials. If you are new to the game, consider picking out a started solution from companies like Corel and Nero.
Price - Professional video editing software packages and cause hundreds if not thousands of dollars. If you are looking to edit videos of your family events, you most likely won’t need the features in the professional suites. If you’re keeping it simple, don’t spend over $100 on your software of choice.
Our editors independently research, test, and recommend the best products; you can learn more about our review process here. We may receive commissions on purchases made from our chosen links.
The Rundown
Best Overall: Civilization 6 at Amazon, 'Allows you to achieve domination both aggressively and diplomatically.'
Best for Novice Players:StarCraft II at Amazon, 'Relies on heavy intense strategies to counterbalance your opponents. '
Best Console Game:Halo Wars 2 at Amazon, 'An epic game that faces you off with space marines and aliens.'
Best Science Fiction:Stellaris at Steam, 'This niche strategy game is vast and unlimited in its potential.'
Best Fantasy:Total War: Warhammer II at Steam, 'This game pits elves against lizardmen in fantastical brawls.'
Best Business: Offworld Trading Company at Steam, 'Success isn't just down to violence, but keen business acumen.'
Best Combat: X-COM 2 at Amazon, 'Want to shoot aliens and not worry about resource gathering? X-COM 2 has you covered.'
Best Military: Imperator: Rome at Microsoft, 'This is a tale of political intrigue and violent battles.'
Best for Epic Battles: Total War: Three Kingdoms at Walmart, 'The best game that the franchise has ever seen over the course of two decades.'
Our Top Picks
Best Overall: Civilization 6
Considered one of the finest strategy games ever, save yourself the time and immediately buy Civilization 6. The beauty behind it is its sheer sense of scale and potential. The idea is that you develop a civilization from a tiny rudimentary settlement and eventually turn it into a world power that's capable of great things.
What kind of world power your civilization becomes is mostly down to you. You can achieve victory through military domination (wiping out all other empires), through technological superiority or even cultural influence. It's all down to the many steps you take as you progress in your bid to achieve some form of fame within the world. Being able to choose a kinder path or a more violent route is a great twist in a genre that's typically more aggressive.
It's possible to explore and discover new cities and technologies that are scattered around the world, as well as engage in trade talks and negotiations with other world leaders. In every session, how things unfold is randomized so you can't predict how the A.I. opponent will react based upon past game sessions, giving the game plenty of longevity and replayability. There's also multiplayer in both competitive and cooperative modes, allowing you to join up with friends online.
Being able to tackle things in completely different ways ensures that this is an ideal strategy game for aggressive players as well as more diplomatic and thoughtful types. It's a must-have for strategy enthusiasts.
Best for Novice Players: StarCraft II
Debatably the most popular Real Time Strategy (or RTS game) series in existence, StarCraft II is the sequel to the 1998 hit game StarCraft. Where most games that center on a war features only two factions, the plot of the StarCraft games are all about a rock-paper-scissors approach to the combat and playable guilds. The military might of the Terrans fight the insect-looking Zerg who also fight the Protoss alien race in a three-way brawl to control the galaxy.
Unlike most other eSports titles, StarCraft II relies on heavy intense strategies to counterbalance your opponents. Each one of the three factions that you play as has their set of pros and cons. Blizzard (the company behind the game) has a tendency of making their games easy to play, but hard to master.
It boasts a single player mode of over 70 missions with three different campaigns, huge multiplayer content and community made arcade modes. StarCraft requires more time-sensitive strategically made decisions with the constant feeling of urgency. If you’re up for a challenge and faster-paced gameplay, StarCraft is the choice.
Starcraft is one of the best PC exclusives ever. Check out our list of the best PC games you can buy right now.
Best Console Game: Halo Wars 2
Based on the ever-popular first-person shooter games, Halo Wars 2 is an epic real-time strategy game that picks up right in the middle of the story. The set-up is simple but the lore is expansive: there's a war raging on between the Covenant alien forces and the humans trying to prevent them from annihilating the universe using ancient forerunner technology. In Halo Wars, you control armies, ground vehicles, aerial brigades, and even the occasional laser from outer space. You'll see plenty of familiar Halo-centric staples, such as the energy swords the Elites wield, the Spartan super soldiers, and the Warthog jeep.
Similar to another great series, Command & Conquer, Halo Wars will also have you gathering resources, building units, and attacking the enemy defenses. The developers focused on creating a story focused campaign, by paying attention to every detail in the cut scenes to preserve the rich narrative the Halo games have built up for two decades now (between comics, web series, novels, and more).
Halo Wars is also the best RTS game on consoles because the first game was designed to be played with a controller. It removes some of the hassle more complicated games in the genre can have and makes the controls streamlined so you can play this RTS from your couch in comfort. This allows the multiplayer to feel just like the Halo shooters, which makes it all the more fun.
For more rad multiplayer options, take a look at some of the best split-screen PC games. Also, peek through our list of the best offline strategy games.
Best Science Fiction: Stellaris
Many strategy games aren't considered the most accessible strategy games out there. As the name suggests, they tend to focus on the loftier ambitions of the genre - being convoluted and involving a lot of careful thinking and planning. Stellaris is one of the more accessible strategy games out there while still easily challenging its players along the way.
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Set in space, players take control of a species during the early stages of that race's quest to explore space. Arguably, that's the most fascinating part of any science fiction journey and it leads to plenty of potential from Stellaris. You can choose to manage an empire, engage in a plethora of warfare, or learn to pursue the diplomatic route and forge partnerships with other civilizations. There's a certain amount of flexibility here with each route offering a different form of challenge.
The game's broken up mostly into three key areas - the early game of exploring and colonization, followed by governing, and finally, the ability to trigger galaxy-wide implications based on your actions. That means that Stellaris is always thrilling stuff. With seemingly endless choices available to you, this is something that will last hundreds of hours.
Best Fantasy: Total War: Warhammer II
The Warhammer fantasy universe is a rich and diverse world to use in the context of strategy gaming, and Total War: Warhammer II truly embraces it. Kind of like a more bloodthirsty version of Lord of the Rings, Total War: Warhammer II has you pitting different factions against each other in an epic war.
There are four factions to choose from including Lizardmen, High Elves, Dark Elves, and Skaven. Each forms part of the narrative-driven campaign mode so there's a compelling story to follow along in conjunction with the action. Combat is available in two different ways too. There's the turn-based open-world campaign mode, as well as a real-time strategy option. In either case, planning many moves ahead is vital to your chances of success.
You need to concentrate on army building and conquest, as well as resource gathering to stand a chance of surviving. That means plenty of multi-tasking and figuring out which objective to prioritize and when. Researching new technologies is just as important here as dominating through sheer force. Being able to discover new areas is a particular joy, invoking Age of Empires style memories. No longer do you have to focus on just having the biggest army.
Elsewhere, there's a multiplayer mode as well, so you can spend time competing with friends and other players online, with the promise of no two games being the same. If you previously owned the first Total War: Warhammer game, you can combine the two to gain access to a huge combined campaign called Mortal Empires which further extends the fun. For fans of the Warhammer universe, it's a bit of an unmissable game that can easily last hundreds of hours.
Also check out our picks for the best PC war games.
Best Business: Offworld Trading Company
Economic warfare is the name of the game in Offworld Trading Company - a game that tackles strategy from a more original perspective than most. Set on Mars, players are placed in charge of one of four off-world trading companies. It's down to their shrewd business skills if they want to become the winner. This is achieved by buying a majority stake in every off-world trading company in the game and it's far from a simple task.
The key to success mostly comes down to resource gathering. The game has 13 different resources including materials such as water, aluminum, iron, silicon, carbon, as well as more complicated ideas such as Hydrolysis reactors which can break water apart into oxygen and fuel. How the resources work out for you depend on how the game plays out. As in other forms of business, supply and demand fluctuate constantly so it's down to you to figure out when to buy and sell and how best to work your way up in the trading world.
The underground black market also plays a part if you want to get your hands a little dirtier with the option to purchase things like underground nukes that can wipe out resources before your opponents reach them, or arrange mutinies to slow them down further. There's a keen sense of real science and real economics here which makes Offworld Trading Company more distinctive than most. In particular, it'll really grip those with an active interest in financial systems or business ethics.
Best Combat: X-COM 2
Keen to blow stuff up but also want to think ahead and plan your moves carefully? X-COM 2 is the game for you. Part of a franchise that's been around since the 1990s, it focuses on the efforts of a military organization trying to fight off an alien invasion.
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Oftentimes, that means levels play out much like a game of chess. You and the AI enemy take turns to position your troops and trying to snipe at them from a distance. Cover plays a hugely valuable role here with a soldier out in the open pretty much destined to be killed. It's important to think ahead and work out safe routes to get near enough to the enemy to be able to take them out. That's made all the tenser by the fact that your soldiers can die permanently (depending on the difficulty level you set) meaning you can feel surprisingly sad at the death of a loyal part of your squad if you screw up.
The soldiers can be upgraded along with your base so that you end up more powerful and with better equipment and weaponry. There's no focus on resources gathering here though, unlike other strategy games, with the emphasis squarely on combat. If you're keen to fight first, talk later, this is the strategy game for you.
Best Military: Imperator: Rome
Buy on Microsoft
For those players who look at the Ancient Roman Empire and wish they could participate in it in some way, there's Imperator: Rome. It's a vast experience that primarily focuses on nation-building and empire accruing. Because of that, it can be quite daunting at times.
You have to keep an eye on a lot of things such as how best to develop your population, but also best to keep them happy. An unhappy population can lead to treachery and rebellion which anyone with a brief knowledge of history will know never leads to a good ending for the leader. Combat also plays a significant role here with each culture having a different way of waging wars, so your choice at the outset of which clan to use makes a big difference in the long term.
Just to give you even more things to consider, you also need to manage the Senate and keep court together and well controlled. Plus, there's the matter of investing in infrastructure and maintaining your resource bases. The game has over 7000 cities to discover, along with over 83 different regions so you're definitely going to have plenty of time to sink into the world of Imperator: Rome.
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Best for Epic Battles: Total War: Three Kingdoms
When it comes to real-time strategy games, the Total War series stands the test of time. But in the case of Total War: Three Kingdom, developer Creative Assembly went above and beyond expectations to craft the best game that the franchise has ever seen over the course of two decades. At its most basic level, it explores the Chinese Three Kingdoms period in a respectful and absolutely gripping manner.
Real-world heroes like Liu Bei stand in for iconic figures from Western history for a massive, complex game with a campaign mode as fascinating and endlessly entertaining as its singular battles. With a setting that works well with the Total War brand and balanced mechanics to level it all out, it's a remarkable showcase of not only developer talent but the massive potential for the genre as well. Even if you find the setting uninteresting, you might change your mind after a few rounds of battle.
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You may also be interested in checking out our picks for the best PC games of the year.