Road Redemption is a surprisingly sincere and brutal love letter to the past and its inspirations. It may look like a junker if you glance at its battle-worn chassis, but underneath the fairing is the heart of a surprisingly addictive and fun road warrior game.

Override is a game that had so much potential and could have done something great with more ambition. In the end, no amount of oil could polish this scrap metal into something decent and enjoyable.

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is a prime example for anyone making the case that video games are a powerful art form. Creatively ambitious, it’s exceptionally well-thought-out and implemented – making it striking at both a sensorial and psychological level as it delves deep into an exploration of life with psychosis. It has its gameplay flaws but remains must-experience for adult audiences. An instant classic for this generation.

Just Cause 4 may be a maniacal sandbox full of explosions and action, but it’s a world that feels dull, repetitive and hollow inside as it missed the mark on being the perfect vehicle for some much-needed Christmas Catharsis.

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is a game many consider as the catalyst for skyrocketing battle royale from a fun mod to a full on genre. They've had a slow start to catch up to rivals but after spending significant time with the PS4 release, they're on the right track.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is more than best-of-hits collection of Smash games past. It’s a tightly woven experience that deftly combines the old with the new and manages to meet the lofty expectations placed on it. It’s incredibly easy to pick up and play, with enough depth and nuance to keep players engaged. It’s the best Smash Bros has ever been.

If you’re a die-hard football fan but also a lover of the behind the scene workings of football, this is a game that will give you all of that to your heart's content. For the rest of us football fans, I’d suggest sticking to the latest iteration of FIFA.

Cattails doesn’t quite reach the heights of the titans it attempts to mimic. Despite its flaws and shortcomings, it remains a compelling enough adventure survival simulator - one that cat lovers in particular will find plenty of joy playing.

This year’s version is a competent upgrade for the series. On its own, it stands tall as an excellent farm simulator, packed with features and with a level of complexity carefully hidden under its seemingly simple menus. Giants Software has managed to build on their game series and create an incredibly immersive game.

ABZU is at home on Nintendo’s Switch. The simplistic, but vibrant visuals shine on the Switch’s screen, and the system doesn’t falter in its presentation or performance. There’s perhaps a little more aliasing than you’d find on its bigger console and computer counterparts, but the three-hour long adventure has been faithfully ported.

For over twenty years, Pokémon has been a source of joy and adoration. If Pokémon Let’s Go is an indication of where the franchise is headed in the future, it’s easily going to enjoy another two decades of love from a whole new generation of fans.

For over twenty years, Pokémon has been a source of joy and adoration. If Pokémon Let’s Go is an indication of where the franchise is headed in the future, it’s easily going to enjoy another two decades of love from a whole new generation of fans.

Beneath the mountain of bugs, shoddy design and inconsistent performance, there’s a genuinely good adventure waiting to be experienced in Darksiders III. Unfortunately, its numerous problems are more than just annoying in nature. They’re quite simply…apocalyptic.

Fallout 76’s mundane quest and lifeless story put too much weight on the aged combat and trivial crafting for them to bear. It’s a multiplayer experiment with far too many flaws to put up with, both in its limiting player interactions and its woeful technical polish. Fallout with friends is still an idea that could work one, but that’s not what Fallout 76 is serving up.

Despite these drawbacks though, Battlefield V offers some of the most rewarding, visceral WWII action in any game out there thanks to genius little tweaks to gameplay and immersion, all produced with an audio-visual technical mastery that is second to none. With its free live-service component as well, the future for the franchise looks very good.

Hitman 2 feels like a macabre collection of dominos falling and eventually toppling one final piece in a gloriously “accidental” death that can best be summed up as an act of god when the dust has settled. A game that’s more about the journey than the destination, Hitman 2 is lengthy, gruesomely charming and still hiding plenty of secrets up its immaculately dressed sleeves.

It wants its audience to switch lenses, zoom in and accept that war involves relatable individuals on all sides. No matter the uniform they’re wearing, or where they’re from, they bear the burden of choice and consequences at a personal level, carried out in seconds and minutes, just like us.

My Hero One’s Justice may be a faithful and stylish adaptation of the hit anime series, but all the fancy graphics in the world can’t do justice to a game whose kryptonite is a severe lack of real substance.

The Reignited Trilogy is Sypro in his best purple suit, with a stunning recreation of his three adventures making you forget how rough and aged they’ve become over two decades. Its gameplay is retrospectively simplistic but still engaging, with only persisting camera issues and troublesome audio implementations getting in the way of a special return journey.

Tetris Effect is a visual and auditory treat that bombards your senses with exploding colours and punchy electronic songs. But it’s real triumph is combining this with the delicate nature of Tetris, retaining the precise gameplay while also marrying it effectively with the beat of a drum. Tetris Effect is meditative, exciting and incredibly difficult to put down.

Call of Cthulu is a deeply disappointing game, because those opening hours showed such promise. If developer Cyanide had just stuck to the bits that work – the investigation – we’d have ended up with a better game. Instead of descending into madness, it descends into tedium.

Lego DC Super-Villains is a light-hearted and surprisingly lengthy romp for the whole family. Gameplay doesn't break from the established Lego formula, and the controls can actually be frustrating at times. You'll soldier on, though, thanks to an entertaining story and lovingly-recreated DC universe – especially if you're a comics fan.

Distance is a racing game which benefits from conventional arcade mechanics, mixed with a beautiful visual style, ambient yet archaic music, and a vast collection of user-generated content. Where it starts to choke is its repeat play value, and a multiplayer that is only as good as the number of players and maps you have.

A slight downgrade in some visual effects and audio quality do little to hold back what is otherwise a great and smooth port of Dark Souls.

Diablo III Eternal Collection is a comprehensive package that bundles together all the new content and reworked mechanics Diablo III has seen over the years, which works incredibly well on the Switch’s limited hardware. It’s just a shame some control schemes aren’t as engaging to play with.

Hamstrung by slow loading times and real-world thumb-twiddling, Ghostbusters World doesn't deliver on the potential of its interesting story mode and entertaining elements.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a story of endings and new beginnings, of the birth of legends and the consequences that come with creating a myth. It’s all wrapped up in an immaculate presentation, told over dozens of hours and adventures that leads to an inevitable conclusion: Red Dead Redemption 2 raises the bar for the sandbox genre and stands tall as the definitive western game of this or any other generation.

A grand return to form for a fighting game series that’s been overstuffed for decades. It’s simple to play, tough to master, and incredibly fun. The best the series has been since SoulCalibur2, the game doesn’t do much new. Instead, it adeptly refines something we’ve played before to deliver one of the most enjoyable fighting games in years.