A very unique experiment with you at the center.

Even with slight deficits in terms of presentation and online connectivity this is a great franchise entry with added brute riding and tactical village defense as interesting new elements.

I hate you. More than anything else. I don't want to play anymore. Okay. One more time. Really. I promise. Okay, now only one more time. Damned, I can do better than that. This is really the last time. Oh man, that was close. Just one more time, I can do it. I hate you. I love you. One more time. Damn, you look good.

Even with the restriction that the AI is seemingly unable to cope in the final third of the game, this is a good and content-rich old-school strategy that keeps calling me with the infamous “one more turn”.

Not only does DICE deliver their best campaign to date this side of Bad Company. It also pushes online-multiplayer to new heights with atmospheric battles and intense gunfights.

We don't mince words: The new edition impresses in all aspects of the original and even goes one better thanks to its contemporary presentation and modernized music. However, the legacy problems in the form of tiny inventory and pacing problems due to too much running back and forth could have been avoided.

This is a worthy end to the StarCraft 2 trilogy and a prime example how to direct a captivating singleplayer campaign – an artform almost forgotten.

A decade ago Blizzard ruled the Hack&Slay world with an iron fist but its new expedition into hell is just one among many well-executed action roleplaying games. They rely too much on well known mechanics to set themselves apart from the competition. Is it an experience worth your time? Absolutely - especially if you have some friends to beat up the spawns of hell. But Diablo 3 missed the chance to move the genre into the future.

More than a bonus: The Separate Ways DLC is a real conclusion, the icing on the cake, a Best Of CD that invites you to a final Resi4 tour and is generous with deleted content.

Intense and motivating action in a visually impressive fantasy world.

Well executed conversion of the demonic hack&slay that might not look as crisp as the other versions, but manages to conserve the spirit and the motivation cycles woven into the very fabric of the mechanics.

Mixtape isn't just a collection of songs perfectly suited to every scene; it's an atmospheric, poignant, and—at the right moments—serious coming-of-age story that feels relatable almost from start to finish. The narrative adventure is enriched with clever cutscenes and varied mini-games that keep the experience from ever getting boring.

I expected a nice mining action adventure. What I didn’t expect is that SteamWorld Dig 2 turns out to be that good. Charming design, great puzzles and a well thought out and executed upgrade system make this a very polished and thoroughly entertaining gaming experience.

Charming, diversified and incredibly versatile. Sackboy's Vita adventure adds small, but well working touchscreen improvements to the powerful editor/game.

Great atmosphere, beautiful animations, skillful goals – this is top notch soccer.

Blizzard learned from past mistakes. Legion has a plethora of content and stronger story elements on offer, but would benefit from more depth within the classes.

Quotation forthcoming.

Brutal, bloody and immensely unique in its flow: id Software raises the bar for the classic arena shooter to a new grand level.

If you’re surrounded by the right group, this is tremendous fun, where the innovative connection of communication and teamwork is the key to success.

There are slight gameplay issues like the control scheme. But that is secondary against the beautiful art design and the quality of storytelling.

Alien Breed was and still is very challenging dual-stick-action. Unfortunately the virtual sticks are not as accurate as needed to survive the tough enemies. Nonetheless even over 20 years after its debut Alien Breed is still cool.

What a voxelstorm. Nex Machina is a great twinstick shooter that beams you back into the arcades. This explosive experience will dray you into its small but challenging world.

What a ride! Even though Team Ninja takes a lot of inspiration from the Souls-Franchise, with their varied fighting mechanics and the game world deeply rooted in far east mythology they create some magic on their own.

You build, you plant, you foster your small town as a mayor and you enjoy heaps of side activities. Although this is very entertaining there is not much new to see here.

The board game is one of the best in recent years. And now you’ll get an enhanced and beautifully designed version on your tablet.

Due to missing feedback in certain situations Rocksmith is still not able to replace the teacher, but if you have basic knowledge of using a six-string you will get a lot out of this. And it is darn fun, too!

Once you get used to the problems like the arduous generation of drinking water, the story start getting you in its grips while you literally dive deeper and deeper into the mystery.

One of the most innovative building strategy games in recent years plays very well on consoles. And you have the added bonus of having all add-ons at your disposal, while most of the minor problems that plagued the PC version in the beginning were addressed.

Kudos to Capcom for injecting their stylish action with new life, thus making it a fierce competition for Platinums beautiful witch Bayonetta - in theory. But the “Insert Coin” mentality in the polarizing area of microtransactions needs to be adressed.

Although it shows some flaws the Halo 4 campaign is one of the best within the series. And on top of that 343 proves that their enhancements of the multiplayer formula add some depth to the dynamic firefights.

Persona 3 Reload shines in new splendor over 15 years after the original: with a completely renovated look and many small adjustments that make the fantastic basic structure even better, it is an absolute must for fans of Japanese role-playing games.

Simogo takes you on a special, sometimes scary melancholic journey that looks like a Swedish winter wonderland at first, but leading you step by step in a dark world hiding behind its pretty façade.

The Witness is a challenging puzzle experience. It is less adventure but more intensive puzzle marathon with creative tasks sometimes connected over multiple tiers. Compared to Portal or The Talos Principle The Witness lacks a coherent combination of puzzle solving and story-telling, though.

Even without the add-ons the console version of Civilization 6 stands for large-scale strategic entertainment.

Visually impressive adventure with gripping boss fights and a top-notch soundtrack, but also mechanical as well as with storytelling flaws.

This is the well rounded Pokémon adventure I was longing for. An absolutely worthy gift for the 15th birthday of the series.

It took almost two years, but finally with its Arcade Edition Street Fighter 5 is the beat-em-up you always wanted.

This might as well be Platinum’s most ambitious game yet. And while they definitely don’t hit every mark, the technical achievement and the mix of varied elements will help you over a few shortcomings.

The cutscenes with their clichees are embarrassing at times, but nonetheless this is a gorgoeus finale to the series embedded in a breathtakingly lively setting.

The soundtrack is great. The conceptual mix of rhythm game puzzler and dungeon crawler is ingenious. Games like this show that the indie scene is still dancing to a different beat.

Strive is a mechanically sophisticated 2D fighting game with sensational presentation and beautiful visuals - and one very costly problem with time-consuming server communication.

If you label a game Max Payne you should put Max Payne in it. I loved Max, because he had style and character – like a good whiskey. But this tastes like a colorful cocktail and plays like an explosive military shooter with Latinas in their stringtangas dancing to the bullet-staccato. Nonetheless you'll get solid entertainment with cynical comments, convincing digital actors and the occasional bullet in the head.

Visually this is the best mobile Pokémon adventure yet. And while the new pocket monsters with their final forms are creative as always the island hopping lacks the challenge of older Pokémon games.

The most extensive and by far the best game in the series: Pikmin 4 offers franchise fans and anyone who wants to become one an all-round successful real-time strategy, where only the challenge and the lack of a real co-op mode stand out as major flaws.

A gripping story, a dynamic combat system, and the gigantic staged esper battles make Final Fantasy 16 a feast for the eyes, ears, and fingers, while minor flaws such as weak side quests and an unstable frame rate largely fade away.

Gran Turismo 7, despite its almost unassailable status as an exceptional racing game, is far from what it should be, could not be and probably will be in a year's time.

The charming art-design has been refined, surroundings appear more lively, the battles are more diverse, the difficulty level is more challenging, while new towers, units, rewards and unlockables offer increased tactical depth – an installment which clearly surpasses its predecessor.

You can overlook Sea of Stars, but you shouldn't. Now or later you're going to need a modern slice of childhood like this.

The art design is unique, the lighting as well as the haunting soundtrack deliver a dense atmosphere. Together with its philosophical questions the result is a very impressive and challenging platformer.

A varied adventure for Indy fans and anyone who wants to become one. A little more focus on puzzles and a few fewer (or more sophisticated) close combat scenes would have been nice. However, the graphics, story and authentic locations offer a coherent picture.

The visuals are fantastic and do the source material justice. The toned down fighting mechanics are a blast. But the weak AI in the redundant story mode and the occasional hiccup with matchmaking during the mostly lag free online battles still need to be addressed and cost dearly.

The remake of Link’s Awakening shines in a bright new light on Switch with its meaningful enhancements. What a beautiful adventure.

Quotation forthcoming.

The scale of Odyssey is epic - on almost every level. Ubisoft shows a new quality in storytelling that surpasses Biowares latest efforts. Mechanically though this is rather an Origins 2.0 with some of the old shortcomings still all too visible. Having said that, this is the best Assassin’s Creed since Revelations.

Gotham City looks astonishing while the story is full of suspense and surprises. Mechanically the star once again is the freeflow fighting system. But somewhere along the way Rocksteady lost the focus and missed the point, especially with the overpowering, omnipresent inclusion of the Batmobile. Those sequences (and there are far too many) are nothing but a second-tier shooter which takes away too much from the dark knight and everything he stood for up to now.

Classy design, comfortable handling, challenging turn based strategy. This is the best board game conversion far and wide – 4X at its best!

At one point Max mumbles almost like Sylvester Stallone. And that's when I thought "Killing is as easy but also as boring as breathing". What once was a stylistic masterpiece with rough edges now becomes mass compatible mainstream action for the Call of Duty generation.

In terms of story-telling and direction this might as well be an addition to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe with its high production values. But as soon as you stray away from the main plot, you’ll land in an open world that is mostly beautiful to look at, but where some positive elements meet quite a few that are only average at best. Nonetheless a great superhero romp throughout.

Visually this is the best mobile Pokémon adventure yet. And while the new pocket monsters with their final forms are creative as always the island hopping lacks the challenge of older Pokémon games.

Routine but immensely fun monster hunt with slack environment optics and few innovations. A few real innovations and monster graphics would be desirable.

Lara matured from sex symbol to a person with character and feels more authentic as an archaeologist. But unfortunately Crystal Dynamics wasn’t courageous enough to incorporate real survival with hunger, lack of ammunition and desperation. They let you dive into a colorful, varied adventure filled with action, though. In the end with this Lara Croft not another “Survivor” is born, but rather another “Soldier”.

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.

Saros is not able to outshine the spiritual prequel Returnal in every aspect. But at least when it comes to the most important part, the gameplay, it certainly is an improvement.

Ghost Trick is a clever adventure where you travel into the past of deceased to solve intelligent puzzles in order to investigate your own death – very entertaining.

For its anniversary Forza Motorsport delivers in bulk. It might have little flaws in certain elements. But this is the most complete virtual motorsport package you can get your hands on. And visually certainly right now the most beautiful.

A creative adventure in an imaginative world of paper and cardboard, that utilises almost all the Vita’s control options.

Incredibly charming psycho trip full of bizarre ideas as well as abilities and a hint of collectable madness.

This is one of the most atmospheric games I have played on the iPad so far, even though this isn't a RPG with dialogues, quests or plot but a simple turnbased game of dice against the clock that`s based on luck as well as rudimentary tactics.

With all the improvements, the overall darker atmosphere and the addition of adventure mode, this is a good as it gets as an add-on. Blizzard isn’t back to its old glory yet, but this is a step in the right direction.

The remaster of the psychedelic railshooter classic looks even better on PSVR2, complete with overpowered but optional eye controls.

PES 2016 celebrates entertaining soccer. But career is stagnant.

Beautiful isometric action adventure, cleverly constructed and focused on the essentials - sometimes dreamy, sometimes challenging, but always very entertaining.

Thanks to the timeless art design it is hard to guess the age of the original. But what’s even better: Odin Sphere Lefthrasir also plays like a modern masterpiece. Of course some of the flaws of the eight year old action-RPG are still evident – but all in all it was and still is a hell of a ride.

Charming horror comedy adventure with cool abilities and choices held back only by the puzzles hardly setting a challenge.

Feel-good adventure with good puzzles that will make many old adventure fans happy - a beautiful game, as Guybrush deserves it.

For its 25th anniversary of the franchise, Tales of Arise doesn't only get a new exciting look, but the action RPG also delights with a dark, mature setting and presentation.

Velocity is a small but nice shooter-puzzle-mix with a comforting retro atmosphere.

This game is killing me. After a few days with Spelunky everywhere I look I see arrow traps and giant spiders. But why does it have to be so damn hard? One wrong step and there it is again: Game Over!

Codemasters delivers its best Formula One game to date.

With Iceborne Capcom not only opens a new everfrost hunting area, but improves the game overall.

It was and still is a grand, cruel and tormenting adventure that finally runs in a smooth framerate without tearing. But nonetheless technically you can see the age of the source material if you compare it to Bloodborne.

How does it feel to lead a nation over a couple of centuries? As fascinating as it is frustrating. The handling is overly complicated, you can get overwhelmed by the most simple matters. But if you’re willing to invest time, you might just etch your name in history.

Except for the battle system that still shows its PC roots, Blizzard converted the mechanics almost perfectly to the gamepad. And the rest is, well, Diablo 3. If you don’t like it, this won’t change your mind. But if you do, this is not just one of the best coop games out there, but with all the little tweaks and changes this could very well be the best version.

This year's iteration still has its flaws like the inconsistent career and the coin system. But nonetheless right now this is still the best sports game out there.

It's an adventure to whet your appetite: Its enchanting microcosm doubles as a vitamin shot into a genre which usually boasts soldiers and tanks.

If you like well written stories and an atmospheric world, the follow-up to Sunless Seas might just be the game you want.

In terms of variety this is the best Total War yet. But with stagnation on so many other levels Warhammer 2 wasted the opportunity to become a true masterpiece. Nonetheless this is exciting strategy with powerful battles.

Spelunky 2 was enhanced sensibly, offers a great balance and simply is not as unforgiving as its predecessor. The online mode is more or less a failure, though.

With Warlords of Draenor, Blizzard is back on track.

Quotation forthcoming.

Xenoblade Chronicles X in it's best form to date. The Definitive Edition delights with all the strengths of the original version, pleasant changes and new content.

While the action could have been a little more challenging, this nonetheless is a fascinating and surprisingly story-rich trip into a bizarre fantasy world.

Fallout 4 has its flaws, such as weak AI, a few annoying bugs, stiff facial animations and the occasional control problem. But it more than makes up for them with a beautiful post-apocalyptic world filled with well-constructed quests, interesting characters and mesmerizing locations. Fallout 4 tells loads of big and small bizarre, tragic and touching stories that stay in your memory and create a maelstrom dragging you in deeper and deeper.

More interactive movie than classic adventure this is one of Telltale’s best stories that seamlessly fits into the universe created by Gearbox.

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

Xbox fans had to wait a while, but now they also can experience this challenging puzzle experience. It is less adventure but more intensive puzzle marathon with creative tasks sometimes connected over multiple tiers that lacks a coherent combination of puzzle solving and story-telling.

Gone Home toys with suspense, thriller and adventure. It grabs me by the throat with its tense atmosphere. It seduces me with its side stories and touches me with its intimacy.

At first glance Swordigo is simple and ugly. But under the surface you'll find a competent and challenging adventure, that reminds you of early Zeldas: A lot of combat, a lot of exploring, the occasional puzzle and a huge world.