Open, creative, epic... Divinity: Original Sin 2 is a beast of a roleplaying game that shows its strengths in its battle system with its deep tactical implications and chain reactions as well as with its intelligent puzzles, the deep narrative and the beautiful visuals.

Against my biggest fears, Kylotonn slowly moves in the right direction. They still have a lot of work to do, but in terms of driving physics, track design and challenge WRC 7 is a big step forward.

With its newest version Everybody’s Golf neither excels nor does it achieve anything groundbreaking on the greens. But the mechanics are spot on and make this a more than solid pick-up&play golf.

Visually Mask of Truth is old-fashioned, but if you can look past that, the mixture of visual novel and strategic RPG has been enhanced or changed in just the right places.

While it profits from a few small improvements that make the action on the pitch that much more intriguing, the standstill in terms of mode selection and presentation are a concern.

Yes, even with all the visual improvements the original age is evident. But in an age, where every racing game wants to show off its realism, this arcade racer from a past rich with competition, where it was nothing but an insiders’ tip, is a welcome addition to your library, not least because of the four player splitscreen.

This is an emotional gaming experience circling around love and loss. It lacks variety but is a decent challenge.

If you don’t associate Rock of Ages with a Def Leppard song, you will be happy about this unexpected sequel. It improves on almost every aspect of the quirky original that mixed Super Monkey Ball with Tower Defense while maintaining the superb humor à la Monty Python.

Visually exciting future racer with great flying physics and a rich career mode.

While it can’t shake off its mobile 3DS roots and is aged a bit, but this was and still is one of the better entries in the Resident Evil franchise.

The minimalistic future racer can’t keep up with WipEout or Fast Recaing Neo in terms of content and finetuning. Nonetheless it delivers an intense racing experience in VR.

Mercury Steam didn’t just take an old GameBoy Metroid and modernize it. They produced one of the best games of its kind.

A solid and bloody zombie hunt, that neither offers server browser or user content, but makes up for it with bonus material and integrated DLC.

Incredibly imaginative, extremely motivating and visually a treat: With Rayman Legends Switch users can look forward to one of the best 2D platformers of the last generation on their system.

Even though the immersion is actually decent behind the Rift glasses, the game itself is as boring as the visuals.

Entertaining arcade-surfing with beautiful locations that lacks gameplay variety.

With all its humour, imagination and raw emotion it is really difficult not to fall in love with Undertale.

Dice’s strategy to take more time for the extensions pays off. A fresh location, new conquest maps, an array of new weaponry: the intense multiplayer battles get loads of new content. Too bad they didn’t enhance the single player campaign as well.

The mix of rhythm game and fantasy roleplaying works suprisingly well - mainly thanks to the fact that the basic mechanics don’t stray too much from the Amplitude formula. So in the end it boils down to your musical tolerance. If you don’t mind electronic and and a wide range of indie music, you’ll get a lot of fun out of this one.

The change from hunting to taming takes a little time to get used to as well as the change from monumental realtime fighting to turn based flashtactics. At least the game world is more open and the exploration is diverse. Nonetheless I hope that Monster Hunter World will inject the franchise with badly needed fresh life.

Incursion proves one thing: That intense battles in VR are desirable but not easy to achieve.

A full assessment is virtually impossible at this time, especially with the raids not activated yet. But the impression after completing the story is a thoroughly good one. In terms of visuals and sound design a real beauty and improved in small mechanical details, Destiny 2 is everything you could expect.

Why one of the most uninspired franchises in Sony history gets a sequel, is beyond me. Having said that, Knack 2 improves the formula in almost every aspect. Unfortunately even with that it still is a generic and bland action platformer with no esprit.

Solid (very old-)school survival horror with intelligent puzzle design and a strong focus on stealth and escape. With less trial and error it would have been even better.

Even with the weaknesses more exposed than originally, this still is a good remake. Kamurocho never looked better and Kiwami tells one of the best stories of the franchise to date. This is a great opportunity to get acquainted with the Yakuza series.

Hungry for Myst 2.0? Then Obduction is right up your alley, where you can expect 12 to 15 hours of modern storytelling mixed with classic adventure virtues. Unfortunately technically not everything is safe and sound.

It’s nice to see Sonic back on track: Mania manages to capture the franchise core better than Segas last tries like Sonic Boom. There are some shortcomings here but if you can look past them, you will get a decent comeback from the speedy hedgehog.

The mysterious atmosphere as well as the multi-faceted fight system show a lot potential. But Absolver seriously lacks content, while technical flaws and shortcomings definitely need to be addressed soon.

Beautifully crafted prequel to the acclaimed adventures that shifts the focus away from the supernatural to the normal problems of teenagers.

The focal points this year were the engine change from Ingnite to Frostbite as well as the Longshot story inclusion. Espacially the latter can make sure that this years’ football king is actually more than just a full-priced visual update.

It works surprisingly well on consoles. Technically and in terms of control systems perfectly adapted to PS4 and One, you can dive in head-first into this prime example of old school roleplaying.

This is definitely no twinstick trash. But with its retro design and retro mechanics this run-of-the-mill action is a far cry from the likes of Nex Machina or Gemoetry Wars 3.

I didn’t expect Codemasters to surpass last year’s iteration. But with the massive expansion of the career mode, the great implementation of historic race cars as well as download events and improved driving physics they delivered their best entry into Formula 1 yet.

Inspired by PipeMania this mixture of puzzle and roleplaying game manages to entertain but suffers from the lack of content.

Via licensed musou action (Hyrule Warriors, Dragon Quest Heroes), Omega Foprce finally managed to shake up their own franchises. Don’t expect a groundbreaking paradigm change and if you despise the mass battles you won’t find anything here. But fans will certainly embrace the little tweaks and best-of-attitude that not only shows in the roster but also in the mixture of gameplay elements.

Kudos to Ubisoft: The bizarre experiment of mixing the anarchic Rabbids with one of the most liked icons in the Nintendo universe is a big success. The turn-based battles might not challenge the XCOM-aficionado, but they are great fun from top to bottom.

It feels too much like Portal at first, but eventually it introduces more of its own ideas and puzzles to make this a well rounded experience.

On One it is as good as ever: a very challenging rhythm-experience, graced with minimalistic visuals and a steep, but fair learning curve.

The fun you’ll have with this over-the-top action in a remote corner of the Saint’s Row universe strongly depends on your sense of humor. If you think that the sometimes subtle, but mostly vulgar and in-your-face jokes or ridiculous dialogues are not funny, you will stumble rather sooner than later over the redundant mission design.

Exciting and very unique shooter for sophisticated players, that mainly lacks mode variation.

Age is the worst enemy for this former masterpiece. With the core mechanics unchanged (this is not a remake) the weak points like pathfinding and control issues weigh in a lot. But then again, the strengths like unit and faction balance are still evident as well.

Solid WWII strategy with pathfinding problems, lack of multiplayer content and brash presentation.

A story-focused fantasy RPG with team-based realtime battles and handdrawn comic visuals: This is definitely not as generic as the title suggests.

In its best moments The Long Dark makes you think of the tragic moments of lonesome wanderers best described by Jack London’s Stories of the North. But in its worst you curse at the incoherent direction. In free or challenge modes though, you’ll find a decent survival adventure.

This is a captivating fight of an impressive heroine with her inner demons. Ninja Theory delivers a very unique action adventure that challenges you a a variety of levels.

It starts slow. Too slow. But once this playable novel gains momentum, it gets interesting.

Solid collection of four modern platform action classics with plentiful bonus material.

With two heroines following in the footsteps of the Drake brothers I was hoping for a few more gameplay variations catered to the characteristics of Chloe and Nadine. Having said that, with all the elements and mechanics present that made Uncharted 4 such an exceptional game, this again is an extraordinary action adventure with beautiful visuals.

Housemarque merges twinstick shooting with platforming, while adding their signature particle action style. But with its focus on action there is not enough exploration to be found for oldschool platforming fans. Nonetheless in its best moments this feels like Metroid on speed.

Observer starts out as a quirky cyberpunk thriller that tries to play a lot mindgames with you. But it gets predictable after a while.

With only slight control deficits and lower visual quality compared to the PC version, this is a clean console port of the best city builder in recent years. But nonetheless you’ll miss the editors and the additional expansion packs.

The slightly raised tactical demands and the improved freedom with the character development make the Switch iteration of this intricate match-3 variation the best version.

With its varied spell system and the adventure book intermissions Fictorum shows a lot of potential. Unfortunately it is merely tapped into...

Back on PlayStation 3 this was a unique as well as challenging mixture of rhythm game and realtime tactics. Thankfully nothing has changed. It feels and plays as good as always.

Too bad. This could have been a really nice take on games like Metroid and Castlevania. But a beautiful art design simply isn’t enough. The fighting system is as superficial as it is unfair sometimes. But then dying seems to be a calculated gameplay element as well.

Lone Echo is a milestone for VR. While it loses its grip for a short while in terms of drama, Ready at Dawn manages to give a hopeful glimpse into the future, where convincing interacting in VR worlds heavily impacts immersion while also raising the emotional connectivity.

If you like your action-adventure with a strong dose of 90’s retro flair, this is worth a look. But the challenging jump-and-run mechanics can’t hide the fact, that the mission design is a little too old school for its own good.

This is a neat take on city building that borrows heavily from Cites Skylines in certain areas, while trying to maintain its own identity. With more variety in terms of colonists’ needs and more surprising elements this could be more than just a diamond in the rough.

The combination of music and hack&slay is promising. But in the end this is just a rather dull clone of the latest Gauntlet that just scratches on the surface of its possibilities.

The futuristic tower ascension/speedrunner works as well on consoles as it did a few years back in PC. It could have done without the technical issues like aliasing and tearing, though.

Solid historic turn-based strategy with abstract visuals. But it lacks the fascination that was generated by Desert Fox or Battle of the Bulge.

While the level design shows some inconsistencies and there are no real consequences depending on your choice of subtle oder bloody methods. But nonetheless this is a very entertaining and thanks to the competent AI challenging modern interpretation squad based realtime strategic infiltration à la Commandos.

The exploration of this detailed and living space station is impressive. But it lacks depth in terms of storytelling as well as core mechanics.

With a slight concept change Hey! Pikmin almost feels like a Metroid light or a jump&run. But with creative environmental puzzles and a focus on the right choice of Pikmin, this mobile interpretation of Captain Olimars travels still carries the spirit of its ‘big’ siblings.

No-frills minigolf that is easily accessible and offers course exchange among all systems, while the challenge level could be higher.

Hats off to Supergiant Games. With their third game they push the boundaries again and deliver an exciting and emotional journey with mechanics somewhere between fantasy rugby and a visual novel. Art design and the beautiful soundtrack draw you into this world even more.

While Insomniacs Edge of Nowhere proved that classic action-adventure can be enhanced by VR, Theseus feels like a “normal” game. One, where it seems that Forge Reply didn’t understand the possibilities that virtual reality has to offer. While the meetings with the minotaur are tense due to its sheer size, the rest of the game becomes a tedious below-average experience.

While the action is visceral and filled with brutal finishers, the battle system is facetted, yet not too complex. Too bad that the mechanics were wasted on mostly boring level design.

At its core this still is a creative VR puzzle experience. But compared to the room scale capabilities with Vive and Rift this is just second class.

This is not the content richest game of its kind. But nonetheless this is one of the best bullet hells that you can travel through right now. A motivating high score hunt.

Minimalistic, but stylish slotcar racer that puts you in the middle of a beautiful scenery.

Like Mortal Blitz this rail-shooter is a modern take on arcade shooters like Time Crisis. Piloting a mech that could play a starring role in Pacific Rim you’ll enjoy the tight controls, the challenging encounters and the better-than-expected story.

I love Superhot VR on PC. But without proper room scaling and with evident technical problems this is nothing but a shell of one of the best VR games around. You can still sense the greatness of its brethren, but the execution feels too rushed and not catered to PSVR.

A very clean port of the best musou brawler outside of Omega Force’s Warriors games.

This still is a prime example of intelligent game design, proving how much fun a simple, but well thought through concept can be. The change of pace due to your actions delivers a very unique shooter mechanic.

Splatoon 2 is the equivalent to a beautiful, but moody girlfriend. Mostly you have a great time, but sometimes the inherited quirks are too much to bear. Having said that, the mechanics of this ink shooter still feel fresh, but some lack of content is still evident - as is the problem with time restrictions with certain modes (e.g. Salmon Run) and the finicky online app. (updated 07/21/17)

Steel Division delivers with long, dynamic and challenging battles as well as loads of troop micro management. Mission design and AI need improvement, though.

The mechanical core of this free-to-play hack&slay is more than solid and should satisfy all the loot-hungry superheroes out there with its rich content. Unfortunately not all microtransactions are cosmetic only, while the visuals seem outdated most of the time.

It has its fair share of shortcomings, but nonetheless this twinstick action with its free weapon configs and the surprisingly motivating campaign is quite entertaining.

Charming at first, but you’ll discover all too soon that the stealth-action is too basic, while the steep difficulty level demands trial & error and the visuals are not cool, but sterile.

This rather feels like an Early Access release. While the foundation is rock solid, technical and content issues reduce the fun in this racer tremendously.

While mechanically the old school jump&run with the unofficial PSone mascot feels outdated at times, being thoroughly entertaining nonetheless, visually this is the benchmark for coming remakes.

Very tragic: There is actually an interesting game hidden somewhere in Valkyria Revolution. Well, sorta - there would be, if all the elements and layers would be connected.

Thanks to the facetted battle and gambit systems this is still one of the most interesting Final Fantasy games of all time. Technically it could have been enhanced even more, but overall this is still a very good JRPG that in most not only stood the test of time, but can still compete.

Death Squared is a really good cooperative puzzler. But be warned: You have to communicate, so be prepared, if you play it with your partner...

I expected more from this metaphysical thriller. The Lovecraft induced premise with wild visions as well as the technical and supernatural setting shows promise. But the storytelling dynamics and lack of challenge leave a lot to be desired.

Solid WWII strategy that tries desperately, but never manages to emerge from the shadow of Company of Heroes.

C’mon Sony, you could do better. This is a far cry from games like Buzz or You Don’t Know Jack. This is a rather lame quiz with an unnecessary focus on drawing. It shows though, that the mobile phone is a decent controller replacement.

Conceptually this mixture of bullethell-shmup, sidescrolling action and a Diablo’esque loot system is interesting. The execution doesn’t live up to it, though.

Entertaining mixture of desert exploration and basic builder, that would have benefitted from a coop-mode.

Hollow Knight is a little gem. Although not quite in the same league as Outland, you jump, fight and puzzle through a doomed bug world filled with poignant, sometimes cute or bizarre moments.

If it wouldn’t be for the VR integration this would be a run-of-the-mill zombie shooting gallery. But even the heightened immersion and the Aim Controller support can’t save this mediocre experience.

While this add-on shows some deficit on the amount of the content, what you actually get, shows the high production value you got used to from Blizzard. The pricing is arguable, though.

This is not only one of the longer VR gaming experiences out there. Visually it is a blast and highly immersive. Unfortunately there are little shortcomings in terms of movement and spell control. But nonetheless this is a prime example how old concepts can benefit from virtual reality.

The foundation is rock solid and the premise with its mix of city-building and real-time strategy is still interesting. But the execution lacks finesse, while bugs and a steep learning curve take their toll on the motivation.

Over 60 songs over a wide area of genres, a challenging control scheme and a steep learning curve make this an interesting alternative to Hatsune Miku or Voez.

This is an extraordinary gaming experience. Somewhere between shooter, stealth, sleuth, sci-fi technology and psychological horror The Farm 51 relinquishes conventions. Imagine a party where The Matrix, Inception and Total Recall celebrate with Layers of Fear, Metal Gear Solid and Alan Wake. Sounds weird? Yes. And then some.

Yes, the manager mode is a neat addition and 60 fps on console is long overdue. But that aside, this is a meager full price update for a mediocre racing game.