A rare harmony of developer and licence makes Insomniac's open-worlder a total treat. [Recommended]

An exquisitely thought-out tactical shooter that's instantly a PSVR great. [Recommended]

A grab bag of everything that made the purely portable iterations shine, Ultimate Generations is arcane but absolutely brilliant. [Recommended]

Short and simple, Donut County is absolutely sublime. [Recommended]

Two Point Hospital makes no bones about returning to the foundations of Theme Hospital - and it makes plenty of improvements along the way. [Recommended]

The football is as sublime as ever, but PES's lack of progress elsewhere pulls it back.

Rebellion serves up another enjoyably pulpy shooter, though Strange Brigade struggles to stand out.

A sumptuous, generous and absolutely gorgeous RPG that isn't quite the measure of Dragon Quest's illustrious past.

A fun gimmick is hampered by a lack of polish and structural issues, making this a transformative shooter with serious growing pains.

Yakuza continues its good run with a fine - if a little lumpy - retread of a modern classic.

A streamlined real-time defence game with a wonderful knack for dread. [Recommended]

Arcane busywork leaves little room for genuine pleasure in this fascinating and frustrating genre oddity.

Colourful, characterful and disarmingly charming, Guacamelee 2 is a hit. [Recommended]

There's no big feature to point towards, but small improvements make F1 2018 stand out as a superlative racer. [Recommended]

An ambitious, stylish and savage takedown of British hubris, but clunky crafting, collecting and combat make for a somewhat dull game.

The Metroidvania at its best: a swaggering role-playing beat-'em-up that's very easy on the eyes and dense with secrets. [Recommended]

While not the most ambitious sequel, Overcooked 2 still ranks among the best couch co-op has to offer. [Recommended]

Clever tweaks make this far more than a greatest hits package. [Recommended]

A slight but smart adventure it's hard not to be charmed by. [Recommended]

Titan Quest on Nintendo Switch looks and plays every bit like the 2006 original. While this might be exactly what some fans hope to hear, for others it may feel as though not enough's been done to reimagine this classic ARG for a 2018 audience playing on the go - all of which sadly makes it one of the Switch's more disappointing ports to date.

Stately, vivid and tragic, this brooding epic finally reaches its climax. [Recommended]

Stealth, horror and procedural scrambling converge in a thrilling package. [Recommended]

A beautiful if brief puzzle platformer that invokes the spirit of Flash gaming.

Octopath Traveler is the kind of game that gets hand-waved aside as being for "the old school", but that's to overlook its charismatic innovations in battle and the curious, detached, even austere construction of its narrative. [Recommended]

Bomber Crew takes the FTL formula to WW2, but it can be a bit of a bumpy ride.

A neat little curio that channels a cult piece of hardware, and some of the fighting greats.

The creators of Flatout channel a little of the classic Destruction Derby as this brilliantly destructive racer emerges from Early Access. [Recommended]

As someone who initially dismissed The Crew but eventually fell in love with it, I dearly wished to see its promise fulfilled and its incredible map brought back to life. The Crew 2 can't manage either feat. It is a sound enough arcade racer as it is, and there's every chance that it will eventually flower into a great game. But it is a much smaller, less ambitious and less exciting game than it pretends to be, or than it could have been.

If Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle was the brainchild of a man who couldn't hold back the tears when his game was announced at E3 2017, then Donkey Kong Adventure is the product of a man who knows and relishes in how well liked his child really is. [Recommended]

A stern yet scintillating 2D adventure that makes a point of not holding your hand. [Recommended]

This is the rare game that excuses itself for taking whole hours out of your life, and it gives you more than a little in return. A lasting smile, a song soaring in your heart and blocks falling from the heavens everytime you shut your eyes. 14 years on, Lumines is as potent a puzzler as it's ever been, and in this it's as close to perfection as it's ever been. [Essential]

But after the dismal Ultra Smash and the lacklustre compilation that was Superstars, Mario Tennis Aces is a return to form for Camelot, even if it's not quite the equal of this series at its very best. It's a good game, if never quite a great one, and one that's still capable of some real magic. This is Mario Tennis serving up a much more full-blooded spin on the sport than we've seen in quite a while, even if its new depths have been pursued to a fault.

Nintendo's trickiest game in years is also one of its most joyful. [Recommended]

Don't get me wrong; I loved my time in Las Cinco Muertes, and there's immense satisfaction to be found in just sitting back and watching your creations roam. But with a brutal learning curve, weak tutorials, and a lack of meaningful gameplay once your parks are mature, even the most ardent paleontologist may struggle to keep coming back for more.

An eccentric action puzzle game sits a little uneasily in this full-fat package.

A racing game that mostly does away with the racing, Onrush is a chaotic and curious spin on a much-loved genre. [Recommended]

Dontnod takes a thrillingly Gothic perspective on early 19th century London, but squanders it in a dreary and indecisive adventure.

A magnificent nightmare, for those with the stamina to master the gruelling card game that houses it. [Recommended]

Legends should only grow in their retelling, and with 30th Anniversary Collection and Digital Eclipse's fine work Street Fighter has never stood taller. [Recommended]

Limp and lumpy online isn't quite enough to distract from the brilliantly reverent package curated by Digital Eclipse. [Recommended]

The west is an empty, lonely place in this well-timed release - but that's not exactly what you're after from an MMO. [Avoid]

A classic tower defence game gets a makeover, and a welcome touch of physics.

PixelJunk Monsters 2 isn't as fresh as the original, perhaps, and it's not as gloriously dark and confusing as The Tomorrow Children, but it is precise and clever and it asks quite a lot of you when you're playing. For me, that was enough to win me over.

A glorious marriage of pinball and platforming and a wild-spirited adventure to cherish. [Recommended]

An addictive mix of combat and commerce. [Recommended]

Its big themes are glibly handled, though this is still Quantic Dream's most credible and satisfying interactive yarn by far.

A mournful yet bright and enormously warm-hearted adventure with a novel landship mechanic, sublime backdrops and a brilliant score. [Recommended]

There are times when State of Decay 2 is so buggy that it stops being a stodgy post-apocalyptic looting game and transforms into metatextual horror theatre. [Avoid]

Technically shambolic, obsessed with hoarding, and a waste of a once-promising society simulation. [Avoid]

The Deadfire Archipelago is a bountiful tropical playground I will happily plunder again and again. How long this golden RPG doubloon shines I don't know, but for now it's worth savouring, for now it's worth celebrating. [Recommended]

Played on a busy PvP server, while Exiles often comes across like the Ark/Rust clone it so clearly is, it has the setting and combat mechanisms to set it apart. Play it as a single-player experience and it will evoke memories of Minecraft, while as a co-op game, with its respawning mobs, thinly spread content and raid-like endgame, you might just catch the glimmer of an old school MMORPG, reminding you, just a little, of when the genre was a metaverse of uncharted promise. [Recommended]

Whether or not these are the end times for survival gaming or the onset of a necessary period of hibernation, despite the dead weight of dozens of unfinished games and the fact that there's not a great deal left to pick from now that Conan has taken his leave, perhaps it's just as well that the genre has saved one of its best till last. If there's half the life left in it that other survival games have enjoyed, it'll be a life worth living. [Recommended]

If Ark and Rust are the flaccid alpha males of survival gaming, Conan is the cocksure challenger angling for an advantage. [Recommended]

Here, simple things work together to conjure up surprising consequences - and, more often than not, thrilling ones too. It's rare to play something so pure, a multiplayer game with modern sensibilities and yet one that feels like it was forged in the fire of older arcade classics. If there's any justice, Laser League is a game that'll find its place among those greats. [Essential]

A sharply designed, smartly executed future sports game that matches simplicity with serious depth. [Essential]

Total War goes back to the past, but this spin-off invites uneasy comparisons to the superior recent Warhammer games.

Deftly written and designed, Forgotton Anne is proof that seemingly small, simple things are well worth treasuring. [Recommended]

It's a pity that the energy that Trailblazers displays - and its upbeat spirit can prove infectious - isn't met with a little more meticulous thought and care placed elsewhere. The unfortunate thing when invoking such classics as F-Zero and Splatoon is you invoke their brilliance, and while Trailblazers has happily taken the grand ideas it's skimped out on the detail - and so this colourful mash-up ends up feeling plain sloppy.

A colourful cartoon racer that lifts some of Nintendo's big ideas, but not its attention to detail.

By building something you also invest in it and care about it, and in turn it makes you more likely to go on and decorate and experiment with it, which is clever. And when you do eventually discard it, you can simply take it apart and recycle it - no plastic guitar in a landfill here. It's as though Nintendo thought of everything (although I don't know if the cardboard came from recycled sources to begin with).

No one else could pull this off, no one else would even dare try. It is a brilliant, wholesome and memorable way to spend your time, and while it might borrow from Lego and origami, and probably a million other places, it is unique. [Essential]

Retro Studios displays mastery of the 2D platformer in this exquisite sequel. [Recommended]

A thrilling but thin survival twist on the city builder genre, oozing dark charisma and political dilemmas. [Recommended]

A beautiful turn-based RPG whose brutality can sometimes get the better of it.

A compelling fusion of tabletop manoeuvring and characterful campaign progression. [Recommended]

A smart and charming puzzle game that has respect for your time and money. [Recommended]

Despite eye-catching changes, the heart of this series remains gloriously unaltered. [Recommended]

Despite the monochrome palette and simple, wholesome story, Minit's world is stuffed with charm and character that belies its lo-fi presentation - and it's a lovely way to while away a few spare minutes of your own. [Recommended]

A joyous, deep and rewarding tactical shooter.

Fresh presentation and admirable dedication to its big idea can't save this two-player adventure from mediocrity.

I've been walking around all week thinking about east and west and how to tell the difference between the two when I haven't got a compass to hand. I have been thinking about reckoning. This allows the game's fiction to create compelling moments - I have been genuinely lost in Sea of Thieves at times. But it also allows it to do what every game like this truly hopes to do - to cross over, to seep into your everyday life.

A limited and simplistic pirate adventure, but one with an abundance of character and a thrilling conviction in its own ideas. [Recommended]

Sadly, the game which unfolds around these interludes isn't half as enjoyable. The first instalment to be set in North America, Far Cry 5 is Far Cry at its least engrossing, clumsiest and most basic, though there's still just enough going on here to keep a returning fan involved.

An entertaining slice of Pokémon sleuthing set within a vibrant version of the series' world. [Recommended]

Not the charmer its predecessor was, but a jolly 40 hour epic with dashing combat and an engrossing empire-building subgame. [Recommended]

This is a game that manages to remain optimistic about human can-do while never forgetting that Mars looks like a bit of a dive and it's going to be properly awful trying to live there. Awful, but interesting. We will go to Mars to find out who we actually are. [Recommended]

Weather its bugs and lacklustre stealth, and Ghost of a Tale is a quietly ravishing potted epic with a serious subtext. [Recommended]

Perhaps not the greatest Yakuza game, but Kazuma Kiryu's farewell certainly makes for the most human. [Recommended]

HAL Laboratory delivers a brilliant chemistry set of a 2D platformer. [Recommended]

Speed and gleeful violence merge in one of the most delirious feats of game design ever. [Essential]

Breathless action combines with perfect pixel art in a game of real character and delight. [Recommended]

This roguelite shooter is a beautiful piece of work. [Recommended]

A highly accomplished sequel that innovates without losing sight of what made the first one great. [Recommended]

A middling racer in a dreary package that contains one of the finest achievements in the racing genre in years. [Recommended]

A shooter that earns its place alongside Rogue Warrior, Turning Point and Hour of Victory as one of the very worst games you could play. [Avoid]

A continent-sized anthology of American campfire tales that will keep pulling you in deeper, once you acclimatise to its slow pace. [Recommended]

A magical experience that is comfortable enough for VR newcomers to enjoy, while intricate and immersive enough to thrill VR veterans. [Recommended]

The follow-up to FTL is just as punishing - and just as elegant. [Recommended]

Witty and wonderfully scrappy, turn-based combat has never looked quite like this before. [Recommended]

Metal Gear's first post-Kojima outing plays fast and loose with the formula, with results that are equal parts brilliant and baffling.

If you've got the stamina - and the space - then Sprint Vector is an awful lot of fun. [Recommended]

Instead of challenging the Dark Age it reinterprets 615 years later, the game seems to delight in it. Instead of seeing notes in the margin of a history book, we get what feels like a glossy pamphlet advertising an escape into an oddly romanticised past. And it's that, ultimately, which makes me too uneasy about Warhorse's work to be able to recommend it.

The 90s classic has never looked better, but beneath the makeover it can creak.

An earnest eco-platformer that is at once under and overcooked.

Visually, then, Pop-up Pilgrims is a hit, providing something unique to look at in a shooter-obsessed world. Unfortunately the gameplay proves to be paper-thin and veteran VR users will absolutely find the package to be an underwhelming experience.

The musou genre needed new ideas - but reinventing it as a shoddy open-world game wasn't the answer.

An earnest and impactful adventure, written within the margins of an homage to 80s cinema. [Recommended]

Messy, boisterous, chaotic - Civilization 6: Rise and Fall is the antidote to the Enlightenment. [Recommended]