XCOM: Chimera Squad is a thoroughly enjoyable twist on the franchise, bringing some fresh ideas to the fore while still retaining the roots of the original game it draws from. There’s certainly fun to be had here if you’re able to overlook the occasional bug.

A vibrant and challenging puzzle game, Filament has a slick style that’ll pump positive energy into your brain with every mystery that it throws at you.

Gears Tactics isn't just one of the biggest surprises of the year, it’s a vulgar display of power starring everyone’s favourite beefy boys in a bloody new direction that’ll test your trigger fingers with pure heavy mental action.

Final Fantasy VII Remake isn’t the retelling of a cult classic that you’re expecting it to be. It’s a lengthy and deliberately slow-paced walk down the Midgar memory lane that leisurely basks within the warm glow of nostalgia, but at the same time it’s an exhilarating and cinematic explosion of action that not only celebrates the impact of the game which rewrote the rulebook for an entire industry in 1997, but also everything else that followed in its genre-defining wake.

A competent remaster that gives a decade-old game a suitable level of spit-and-polish, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s campaign reveals a significant graphical overhaul but its corridor-shooter structure and worn animation give its age away. Nostalgic fans of the series might get a kick, but the barebones remaster isn’t a fantastic value proposition for anybody else.

Bridging film and video game, interactive movies are a niche format. However, with most of us having a lot more time on our hands during lockdown, now may be the time to give this hybrid genre more attention. Removing many of the annoyances FMV adventures are associated with, and featuring strong production values, The Complex is a solid entry point, even if it’s far more enjoyable as a choose-your-own adventure experience than film entertainment.

What begins with a disaster ends with love, sandwiching in a meaty filling of guns, conspiracies and Wendigo testicles along the way in Borderlands 3: Guns, Love and Tentacles. Not a bad way to spend a weekend, when you’re officiating the union between beast and melee attack. I now pronounce you man and knife.

Paper Beast is a unique look at a reactive living world. It’s a game that makes you feel like you’re exploring an alien habitat through the lens of an interactive nature documentary. It’s filled with (occasionally obtuse) natural, organic environmental puzzles. A personal and contemplative experience, Paper Beast could only be better if it were narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

Resident Evil 3 Remake continues to the raise the bar of what it means to be a remake. It can feel rushed in places, but the sheer terror of Nemesis and the return to form of Jill Valentine makes it an experience you don’t want to miss. Just be sure to bring extra clean underwear along for the ride.

Kyloton’s approach to speed in TT Isle of Man: Ride on the Edge 2 is one that still carries with it absolute love and reverence for one of the greatest races on the planet, mixing a passion for performance and geography into a thrilling spectacle.

MLB: The Show 20 makes getting to first base feel easy, getting to second a true joy, third a journey and getting the home run an experience worth reliving. It’s by far and away one of the most complete sport game packages out there and provides good reason to stay home in these crazy times.

DOOM Eternal is the most metal game in all of creation. It is rage and fire, the purity of armed combat dialed up to eleven and unleashed on a horde of eyeballs that simply aren’t ready for the retina-searing action that’s about to burn a new circle of hellish good fun into those ocular organs. Long live the Doom Slayer, long live the king of first-person shooters.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a game that manages to be wholeheartedly cathartic, relaxing and adorable for every second you play despite some legacy flaws and clunky menus that may vex just a little too much.

Foregone is a simple, well-designed action platformer with just enough roguelike elements to the keep the game interesting but lacks the interesting loot and character customisation that would take it to the next level. [Early Access score = 70]

There’s a banging soundtrack, the visuals look sharp across the Switch’s multiple playable formats and the action still feels as deliciously old school as ever. Everything you could possibly want from a white-knuckle schmup ride with Syder Reloaded.

For better and worse, Nioh 2 feels like more of the same. Tired environmental design and rehashed gameplay elements sully what is otherwise an addictive and exhilarating loot-based hack and slash samurai adventure.

Warlords of New York is a massive leap forward for The Division 2, a fun diversion that aims to be less repetitive and more engaging. There’s a big picture being developed here, one that’ll make the trademark grind of The Division 2 more addictive than ever before as civil war rages on in the streets of the divided states of America.

So far, Ori and the Will of the Wisps has taken my breath away. It’s possibly one of the most aesthetically gorgeous games I’ve ever played, even if some parts do feel like they’ve been ripped straight from the first game and the soundtrack is masterful in every sense of the word. [Provisional Score = 90]

Life Is Strange 2’s ending differs depending on how good or bad a father figure the player has been to Daniel, and it could be argued that this is what gives the game a semblance of replay value. That argument crumbles to bits when one considers what an arduous slog a lot of the game has been to play. While there are undeniable moments of power in Life Is Strange 2’s story, they’re strewn too far apart to make playing the game over again attractive. It’s a decent story, but as a gaming experience it disappoints, which is a real pity, given how good its two predecessors are.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Rescue DX may be nostalgic to true believers of the original Blue and Red Rescue Team games, but it’s a more shallow experience for everyone else that makes for an entirely forgettable experience.

Bloodroots is an aesthetically gorgeous, grindhouse inspired action game with a glorious combat system that’s unfortunately spoiled by some poorly designed platforming segments that just refuse to gel with the game’s core mechanics.

Whether you’re pining for the good ol’ days of sim management madness or you’re new to the idea of simulated insanity in the workplace, Two Point Hospital clearly has the cure for whatever ails you.

Irritations and annoyances aside, Darksiders Genesis is still fantastic stuff. It’s a reinvigorating return to form for the franchise, taking the best of the series and remixing it with a few new ideas that make for a great diversion over a dozen hours of escapism.

Dreams is so many ideas at any given time. It is ambition given form, imagination given vibrant life and unlimited possibility waiting to be shaped with your hands. Unique and inspiring, there’s no other game that even comes close to reaching Dreams and its intuitive approach to creating content and an experience that you never want to wake up from.

Very nearly everything that’s been released for Street Fighter V in the last four years is part of the Champion Edition upgrade. That’s 40 characters, 34 stages and over 200 costumes included in a bargain-priced package. With the massive roster and the addition of secondary V-skills adding even more variety, this is the game Street Fighter V was always meant to be.

Its mediocre ideas result in nothing more than a functionality that spoils solid art. Snack World: The Dungeon Crawl – Gold could have been a unique take on the genre but unfortunately cashes out too early to make any kind of lasting impression.

If you desperately need a new Rugby game to fill the void, you might still consider picking Rugby 20 up, but even then you might be better off going back to Rugby Challenge and playing that with some of the new community squads.

While Warcraft 3 is still a phenomenal game to play today, Reforged is unfortunately a chaotic storm of failed promises, technical bugs and missed opportunities that makes a great game worse.