Octopath Traveler 0 is a kind of cozy and solid pastime for curling up on the couch during the cold season. But it's certainly not the next big JRPG.

Not only is Sword of the Sea fun, but it feels like something that's actually good for you. It's wonderfully uncomplicated and relaxing, while always being engaging. While AAA productions pile up mountains of features to simulate “added value,” this game focuses on a single idea—and develops it so clearly and consistently that it entertains for hours.

The hunt for the crown is a great addition with lots of secrets and puzzles to uncover.

Even though the series as a whole could arguably do with an overhaul by now, Disgaea 4 still is one of the best tactical role-playing games around.

Escape from Ever After is far more than a simple Paper Mario clone. It blends sharp corporate satire with challenging turn-based battles and the exploration of a diverse, puzzle-filled world.

With Dragon Age: The Veilguard, BioWare manages to bring the series into the present: great technology, excellent playability, engaging story and characters and, above all, fantastic action combat make for an outstanding modern role-playing game.

Blacklist doesn't do all too much to bring the series forward, let alone reinvent it. But it still is a good looking, supremely solid crafted and well-balanced stealth game that knows exactly what it needs to accomplish. I know a lot of people who will find quite a lot of beauty in that.

This is not the game that would have single-handedly saved THQ, but we're still lucky to be able to experience it now. Metro is quite unique in varying its pace, showing you its world and its inhabitants in between the action. All in all, this is an atmospheric, modern and utterly compelling journey.

Rising Storm is a very special brand of shooter, not that you'd expect any less from Tripwire Interactive. The pacific setting gives the trusty Red Orchestra gameplay a fresh coat of paint and the game does a good job in keeping a good balance between American and Japanese forces, which could have easily been skewed against the latter. Instead, Rising Storm shows very well that it's not always down to who's got the bigger guns at their disposal.

A well-made, if slightly bare bones double feature of two overlooked classics. It's gameplay hasn't aged all that well, but it's easy to look past that for the gripping narrative and host of immensely likeable characters.

Animated movie, point and click adventure and puzzle game meet halfway. Adorable, odd and as much a breath of fresh air as only a game about trees and those who live on them could be.

Joe Danger 2 is one of the few 'smaller' games that manage to be challenging and decidedly indie, whilst looking like they have more money and manpower behind it than Hello Games will probably ever want to throw at a project. It's a throwback to a time where videogames were allowed to have bright blue skyboxes, when dinosaurs and robots were the coolest antagonists you could think of and policeman or firefighter the best job you could ever wish to have. Dish out 1.200 Points for it, be grateful and look forward to whatever Hello Games will invest their considerable talent and passion into next.

Marathon is an incredibly intense, nearly perfect first-person shooter in a visually breathtaking scenario. It keeps you engaged with an incredibly well-tuned cycle of looting and improving, while you constantly progress even after failing a mission.

I can't say if Broken Age is all that you hoped it would be. I for one found that this first act juggles its serious core story, humor and absurdities splendidly. My backer dollars seem very well invested, indeed.

Carbine never was set to reinvent the wheel. But they put a nice set of custom rims on their vehicle. And then they strapped the whole thing on a space shuttle and send it into space.

Even though these are painfully dull games, at the start, that may not engage you quite the way the best games in the genre do it is definitely worth sticking with.

It's just a joy to play, even though Saints Rows biggest accomplishment is leaving its troubled – and troubling – early phase behind to become gaming's one true enfant terrible, fleet-footedly hopping back and forth between infantility and pure genius.

Battlefield 4 is a safe bet – as long as you don't expect much more than a well-done extension of what came before.

Remaining issues and a lack of innovation aside, Dual Destinies and its witty writing manage to fully captivate you and glue you to the screen.

There is a lot of good to be found in Alien Isolation. In the end, this one is just one good writer and five levels less away from being a true classic.

Even though the middle part of the trilogy goes a tad bit downhill – with the exception of its brilliant final case – all in all, these are three great interactive stories that deserve their place on your sd-card.

It's not easy to score Kentucky Route Zero's first act. It's not an isolated product, as it sees itself as exposition to a much bigger narrative. Even though it succeeds marvelously in opening up the game, we don't know anything about where this "Lost Highway" will take us. Who didn't fall in love with this on first sight, should rather wait for the next few acts to come around before he decides if this is something for him. If you did though, get it. It may not have a lot of gameplay substance, but its atmosphere will suck you in quite like nothing else.

This is a Director's Cut that actually manages to make the original experience better for a change.

At the price point of a mere 1200 points, I can hardly bicker about the lack of truly new features or the absence of a new high-end-engine, but praise SEGA, that they haven´t put this update on the shelves for the full price.

Nocturnal has got its problems. Locking you out of areas you feel you haven't completely cleared yet, being the main one. I still did enjoy myself playing this, however. To me, it was the right game at the right time, managing to simultaneously be a taster and a alternative draft for Ubisoft's upcoming Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. So, if you have 5 hours to kill, you'll find a (mostly refreshingly) bare-bones, tight and mostly well-made indie title that loves the old 2D Prince of Persias as much as you do. Worth a look.

The latest installment proves that the series still has a lot of potential. The open world, which feels totally natural, looks truly beautiful, and stimulates the urge to explore, while the parkour elements enrich the experience even further. Overall, I think it's one of the best Borderlands games.

Rockfish put Everspace 2 together with insanely good intuition. They blended components that, in lesser hands, could have either seemed conveniently stolen together or difficult to reconcile and made them into a wonderfully coherent whole. The result is a game that repeatedly makes you forget about time, while you fly from one pulp sci-fi poster into the next, with your mouth wide open.

At the end of the day, we have two beautiful Monster Hunter games here that more people can finally enjoy playing. Part one does show its age here and there, and you shouldn't expect a fundamental remake, but the port to the newer systems is still largely successful.