Thomas Was Alone gives an all-encompassing experience that’s nestled inside a marvelously crafted world of stories, friends, and jumping.

An absolutely essential landmark title for the games industry. In terms of the sheer scope, emotion, ambition, and the stupidly high fun factor it offers, there is no better available in the genre today. In fact, no one else comes anywhere near.

If this is truly the last Ratchet and Clank release then rest assured that the series goes out with a bang. It’s one of the games of the year and an outstanding exclusive for the Playstation 3.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is as complete a package as you could ever ask for. Multiplayer-heavy titles can be a fickle beast, but we’re pretty sure we’ll be playing this one for quite some time to come.

Street Fighter IV is not just a top notch next-gen version of Street Fighter, it is in essence what Capcom always wanted the Street Fighter franchise to be.

Red Dead Redemption 2 will most likely be looked upon as a another title that pushed what can be done in an open world, and be marked as one the developer’s most crowning achievements in their long history making video games.

Uncharted 4 is a masterpiece, albeit a flawed one. Even with its problems, the level that developer Naughty Dog can attain almost puts the rest of the industry to shame.

But it all boils down to the fact that you need to play this game. Because once this trilogy is done, we might well be looking at one of the greatest science-fiction works – in any medium – of all time. Mass Effect 2 is an utterly absorbing, satisfying and rewarding journey that you absolutely will not want to end, ever.

It's an engaging, exciting, fearless and endlessly imaginative masterpiece with a clarity of vision that is so, so rare in traditional big-budget releases.

Dead Space 2 simply adds more to that already excellent foundation, and in doing so, it has become the survival horror franchise to beat. An absolutely brilliant video game, and certainly the best survival horror game since Resident Evil 4.

Even though Episode Five may be a continuous torrent of truly dire situations, it is an experience that demands attention. Intense monologues – both venomous and heartbreaking – are its standout moments. Its clever narrative offers a sense of finality that can fill you with terror, happiness, and heartbreak in equal parts. Thank you for the year that was Life is Strange – it’s been emotional.

For £39.99, you'll receive: a tale of courage and choice, interwoven with dark political secrets and intrigue, breathtaking visuals, a refined and strategic combat system that should be a genre standard, and an interesting endgame that essentially never ends. Yes, while the last part should be fairly intriguing to most, I won't spill the beans. Just know that there lies a threat even more deadly and unforgiving than the game's 'final' boss.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is the best playing entry in the series, and while it’s not going to wrap up the entire story in a neat little bow, it’s a technical marvel that works beautifully as a playground for espionage.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is as complete a package as you could ever ask for. Multiplayer-heavy titles can be a fickle beast, but we’re pretty sure we’ll be playing this one for quite some time to come.

Four different control options as well as an as-deep-as-you-want-it combat style mean that whether you’re a parent looking forward to seeing Mario and Sonic have a punch-up, or a Nintendo fan wanting the Nintendo Chronicle (of love), Brawl can offer you an outstanding game.

Persona 4 is the Playstation 2’s new king of JRPGs and is awesome sending off for the system. Every single man, woman and child who has any interest in the story or has even the tiniest interest in the RPG genre has to check it out.

Rocksteady have proven that they’re a company that really care. They actually ‘get’ Batman, they’ve looked at the character from every conceivable angle and strived to make this everything anybody could possibly want from a Batman game.

At the end of the day, one detail is all that matters about the The Last of Us: its single-player campaign. Naughty Dog has taken what it’s learnt from crafting the Uncharted franchise and spun that experience into a more down-to-earth, realistic adventure that shines with storytelling excellence, great combat, tense atmosphere and the highest quality in presentation, making The Last of Us one of Sony’s best exclusives for the PS3’s ever-growing library of great games.

Every aspect of Left 4 Dead has been refined and tweaked to perfection. It’s addictive and atmospheric, and it contains undoubtedly the best co-op gameplay we’ve seen yet.

The game is visually stunning and sets a new bar for the genre of Cyberpunk games. The voice acting from Rutger Hauer is perfectly casted, and he delivers the role spectacularly. Observer is overall pretty short, but it will have you playing until you push on to uncover the truth – it truly is a captivating game. The sound design is fantastic, too, from the impressive soundtrack, written and composer by Arkadiusz Reikowski, to the noise of creaky doors, all lends itself to a truly great psychological horror game.

Starbound is a game that, after a few hours of play, starts to seem like an instant classic you’ll be revisiting from time to time over the next unknown period of years.

Rage may not represent the gigantic leap into the next era of games that's usually embodied by titles by id software, but it has reaffirmed their position as a premier developer when it comes to everything first person shooter-y.

An absolutely essential landmark title for the games industry. In terms of the sheer scope, emotion, ambition, and the stupidly high fun factor it offers, there is no better available in the genre today. In fact, no one else comes anywhere near.

Grand Theft Auto V is the best the series has ever been, and that’s a compliment that speaks volumes.

On the whole, the game is still full of fantastic little touches that you can’t help but love, all presented and executed in a simply timeless fashion. You can’t ask much more than that.

Street Fighter IV is not just a top notch next-gen version of Street Fighter, it is in essence what Capcom always wanted the Street Fighter franchise to be.

It’s got that great arcade feel and frantic pace you look for in a title like this, and is so deftly executed it could delight the most stridently anti-nostalgia gamer.

It’s worth it as it is the best game on the system – Persona 4: Golden is a must play, even for fans who have already previously completed the game.