The developers have worked around the series' foibles brilliantly.

A beautifully crafted addendum to The Last of Us, a game that already stood tall above many of its peers. While it could have benefited from yet more exploration, its impeccable level design utilises its environments to take Ellie and Riley - wonderfully portrayed by Ashley Johnson and Yaani King - on a trip that is not easily forgotten, underpinned by sparing use of Gustavo Santaolalla's beautiful score.

The most exhilarating and refined Monster Hunter yet, even if its attempts to balance the old and new don't always quite coalesce in its ongoing quest to please all audiences.

This is it though, the character and the absurdity and the charm that Insomniac is all about, that the team kick-started with Ratchet and Clank in 2002 and continue to master with such faultless confidence in Rift Apart. It's just pure craft, pure fun, pure video games - all the brilliant, bizarre ideas this studio has just thrown at the wall and all of them sticking. The only thing it lacks - apart from maybe a tiny bit of restraint - is pretence. There's no self-seriousness, no po-faced melodrama, no insecurity about the form. A game that's happy to be a game, in a familiar, cuddly shape. [Eurogamer Recommended]

Cellar Door adds more depth and plenty of new ways to enjoy its charming roguelike formula. [Eurogamer Recommmended]

Few games can stand the test of time with such confidence, and whether your interest stems from its genre-defining significance or its reputation as an unforgettable game, you won't be disappointed by time spent on Monkey Island. Anyone who disagrees probably fights like a cow.

It's like playing "PGR2" on a system that can do it justice.

The politically-charged 1997 PlayStation original is one of the finest tactics games of all time. This remaster offers a brilliant new reading of what was already a classic text.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is quite simply a superb package, with neither single-player nor online feeling like it's been given short shrift.

It's bold, inspiring and bubbling over with dozens of ideas, any one of which would be cause for celebration in most games, but the over-reliance on a daunting sink-or-swim combat system that will leave many players gasping for breath ultimately counts against it. A truly brilliant game, it's just a shame that it couldn't ease off on the information overload and make that brilliance easier for everyone to appreciate.

If the first Torchlight capitalised on the continued absence of Diablo 3, the second feels like a genuine alternative to it. It's a colourful, heartfelt and well-judged spin on one of the most reliably engrossing genres knocking around. Pick a class, choose a pet and set a course for Plunder Cove.

Arkane manages to better the already exceptional Dishonored in nearly every way, creating a masterpiece of open-ended design. [Essential]

It’s addictive, tells a good, amusing yarn, looks spectacular and is challenging without ever being annoying.

A platformer aimed at speedrunners is also an adventure for the rest of us to savour. [Recommended]

While it's undoubtedly another accomplished game in terms of technical achievement and sheer visual spectacle - I'm reminded again of those incredible faces, and one particularly outstanding underwater level - I've enjoyed Forbidden West less than Zero Dawn. The main story has major issues, and the level design made it difficult for me to play the way I had previously enjoyed, while making a lot of the newer systems feel redundant. Beyond that, the sense is of a game where Guerrilla has cobbled together RPG building blocks often without making them work within the context of its own game, and in some cases actively worsening Horizon Forbidden West as a result. I don't expect groundbreaking innovation, but with using well-established elements there's always the danger of them having been done better elsewhere. Unfortunately, with Horizon Forbidden West that's often the case.

By no means the best the genre has to offer any more.

Real pinball fanatics will be in tinkering heaven, too, thanks to the ability to fiddle endlessly with all manner of settings. Just don't get into a conversation with anyone who does this, ok?

Gorgeous, complex, well-written and beautifully presented, Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions has been polished and refined to make it into the best version of one of the best games of the 1990s.

In many senses WarioWare Twisted is utterly unique, brilliantly implemented and full of surprises. As GBA purchases go, the recommendation comes no higher than this.

For the young, the game is a soothing promise that, if you work hard, concentrate and look after others, victory and success will be yours. For the young at heart it's a warm reminder of the childlike thrills of discovery, compilation and care.

A brilliant timeloop shooter that gives Dishonored's best tricks and techniques more opportunity to shine. [Essential]

Capybara Games makes a triumphant return to colour-matching with this gratifying, tactical splatterfest. [Eurogamer Essential]

The Talos Principle 2 is an ambitious sequel that explores bold, if unambiguous territory in its philosophical robot puzzling.

What was once fresh and exciting becomes expected, and the recipe can be so delicate that trying to repeat it with different ingredients can easily result in an indigestible disaster. Fireproof has taken a conservative approach that avoids those pitfalls, but it hasn't abandoned ambition in the process.

A memorable gem from a master miniaturist who can teach the big boys a thing or two about how to tell a story in this medium. If we're ever going to get away from measuring our gaming by the yard, this would be a great place to start.

Movement, meaning and mindfulness combine in Giant Squid's latest, a game of free-form expression and flow.

The Witcher 2 has an air of unique wonder about it. There's a weight and detail to the mythology that is beguiling, but CD Projekt's skill has been in making this relevant and meaningful to the player.

It's overflowing with character and imagination, feeds off and fuels a vibrant community of players and performers, and it only stands to improve as Blizzard introduces new features, an iPad version and expansions. And now it's finally finished! I can't wait to see where it goes next. Job's done.

Not a truly outstanding new Grand Theft Auto game then, but an excellent PSP game.

A stylish, visually sumptuous return for 2D Metroid, and an adventure that proudly sits alongside the series' best. [Eurogamer Essential]

A monstrously addictive quick-fire affair that utterly nails what on-the-go handheld gaming should be about.

Though familiar, MTWII is breathtaking in its depth, fiendishly challenging in all the right ways and a big old phlegmy spit right in the eye of anything else foolish enough to claim ownership of the strategy crown.

A quirky and powerful construction toy that's fun to play with even if you aren't trying to make anything. [Eurogamer Recommended]

Sly 2 will make you smile your face off, and you can't ask for much more than that from a sequel that's far bigger and just as entertaining as the original, and still leaves you wanting more.

Quite unlike anything you've played, Osmos is the kind of game even Brian Eno would admire.

"Riddick," "Halo," "Half-Life 2" - these are games you can play again and again and find new things. In Doom III it's hard to find anything fundamentally new on the second level.

"Pro Evo" is still the better game, and will last you longer, but FIFA is arguably the sweeter experience in the short term. FIFA’s presentation, style and gameplay are all great, but "Pro Evolution Soccer 2" gives the hardcore footy fan the chance to really live out their footy fantasies.

Without question the finest portable beat-'em-up ever released. Not only that, it also represents the pinnacle of the series overall, which is an incredible feat for a handheld title.

Familiar but consistently surprising, this new Parable even fits beautifully into the existing game - a game that took its power not from a single narrative but the interaction of all its possible narratives, super-positioned and entangled.

With smart additions that move the series forward, this is the most accessible, deepest and simply very best Monster Hunter to date. [Eurogamer Essential]

Counter-Strike: Source is, once you've gained a knack for it, the most consistently rewarding and surprising team-based shoot-'em-up available on the PC today. It's been dressed up nicely for its relaunch in 2004, but it wasn't broken, and Valve hasn't fixed it.

It's a game with real heart that fans of Japanese RPGs can't fail to fall in love with. It's also the best turn-based title on the Game Boy Advance since the original "Advance Wars."

Diablo 3 is more than slick, and more than deep. It's a turbo-charged romp through the conventions of action, role-playing and online games that plays to the gallery but tears up the rulebook on the sly. It has been awfully compromised by its launch and by the lack of an offline mode, but it deserves better than to be remembered for that. And I'm certain it won't be.

Stranger's Wrath simply isn't a better game for having first-person mode, and many of us would have maybe preferred the choice.

While the repetitive nature of the sub-games is what really keeps this away from true greatness, what leads to an increasing sense of the game being a chore is something as simple and ethereal as a wind.

At its best FIFA 11 is enormous fun and brilliantly engineered, but in its battle to be more varied and realistic it has lost some of its momentum, and off the pitch returns are starting to diminish too.

In defiance of the expectation that this out-sourced handheld update would be a second rate knock-off, the game builds on the past, rather than merely riffing on it.

This brilliant physics-based puzzle game has the power to turn even the most ardent science hater into a budding Brunel, Eiffel, or Dyson. However addicted you are to slaughter or strategising AR will seduce you, I guarantee it.

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]

With two-player co-op and versus modes adding a welcome dose of multiplayer fun to the package, Art of Balance is nothing short of essential.

It's by no means groundbreaking or remotely innovative, and you might get fed up with some rather samey single-player mission objectives, but it's all delivered with a charm and style that will win over your heart and ultimately offers a satisfying multiplayer facet that helps round off the package nicely.

Any game that has you physically dodging oncoming cars from your television is no ordinary game.

Compact and terrifying, this score-attack shooter feels like it's come from the future. [Eurogamer Recommended]

A taut, time-hopping horror game that playfully subverts expectations at every step, and is all the more refreshing for it.

It's a true classic, not only one of the best games ever to carry the Star Wars brand but one of the best RPGs of all time. The ability to carry this classic with you and play it wherever and whenever you choose is proof that we are, indeed, living in amazing times.

For the most part, though, Night in the Woods is a triumph, comparable to Gone Home in mood and thrust, but with a delicacy and a humour that is all its own. [Recommended]

If I had to put a score on it, it would very likely be an eight edging towards a nine, and, in this hypothetical scenario, I'd probably also spend tonight lying awake - not excited about tomorrow (Merry Christmas, by the way), but haunted by the suspicion that I was being too harsh. [JPN Import]

Primarily single-player games are on the decline right now, but Nioh is a strong argument for the merits of this withering form. [Recommended]

Playing it my way has lead me to the kind of self-reflection that a man in his 30s can't always afford. Why do I care what this leopard thinks of me? Why am I losing sleep over the construction of a virtual bench?

The wealth of online servers, the randomly generated dungeons, the difficulty of missions, not to mention the three difficulty modes which change the way you have to fight to survive, all add some staying power to the game.

There's simply no competitor that can touch it in terms of poise, characterisation and storytelling, or the way in which it treats you not as a player - someone to be pandered to and pleased - but as an adult, free to make your own mistakes and suffer a plot in which not everyone gets what they deserve.

A masterful combination of serious strategy and cartoonish delights - and by adding mini-games, survival modes and a shop, PopCap is practically rubbing it in. The result is as fresh and accessible as Super Mario, and as refined and considered as Left 4 Dead, wading into another established genre and polishing the central ideas in a way that will make it a hard act to follow.

Rocksmith 2014 is a towering achievement on console, sitting somewhere between instructional software and rhythm action game...Joins that small club of video games that imbue their player with a truly transferable physical skill.

In truth, I would have preferred to select events on the fly, change vehicles on a whim, and restart failed events when I choose, but nor is it a deal-breaker that these features have been omitted. Once you (reluctantly) adapt to the demands of the game, a massive amount of fun awaits.

The thrill of Doom III is simply that id has not only created something genuinely stand-out impressive on a technical level, but has gone on to create a beautifully unpretentious game that feels at home with itself in that it's not trying to be something it isn't. [Single-Player review only]

An oppressively beautiful portrayal of an undersea environment, and a well-wrought survival game with a vaguely eco-friendly message. [Recommended]

A modern indie classic on PC finds in Nintendo's Switch the perfect platform. [Essential]

Capcom returns to its trusted formula for something that plays like a outrageously pretty PS2 game - and that's a very good thing. [Eurogamer Recommended]

Halo 4 is authentic, and assures 343's role is more than a mere tribute act. Their delicate yet sprawling work may be more continuation than true expansion - and perhaps the true test comes in the next step - but for now, Halo returns with a bang, not a whimper.

Elegant and artful, Year Walk is an unmissable piece of work - and one that is surprisingly hard to disentangle yourself from once it's done. You can close the app and put down the phone, but the forest may spread beyond its glassy confines, its spindly, silver-skinned trees taking root in your own home, your own dreams.

Despite annoyances with the gear system and the loot boxes, Injustice 2 is a huge amount of fun. There's tonnes of stuff to do, it looks the part and the new fighting mechanics serve a purpose while deftly avoiding adding complexity. Injustice 2 is also a game I thoroughly appreciate for the lovely little touches. [Recommended]

Mobile games always work best when they're simple and refined, but LEGO Harry Potter's debut on iOS feels flabby and unfocused.

It almost feels like an entirely new game - as a puzzler's secondary mode always should. Really, though, the small team at Wanderlands is offering more than enough to keep you busy with just one way to play, let alone three.

I can think of only a few instances where a new fighting game has broken onto the genre as such a strong contender, but with the Drive system in place BlazBlue is a genuine challenger for any fight fan's time.

If you come away unimpressed from playing RSC 2, we'd advise you to seek medical attention, because in 25 years of playing driving games no other title comes close to its startlingly lifelike environments, its impressively realistic yet fun handling system nor the overwhelming sense of fun that permeates the single player and most of all the multiplayer.

An expansive remake that treads carefully upon this most cherished of games, though some blunders will linger long in the memory. [Eurogamer Recommended]

Of course there's a lot that's the same. Of course there is. But with a great many small and well-placed innovations, a vivacious, inventive new cast and the biggest cosmetic makeover the series has ever seen, Pokémon Black and White makes it all feel new again. It reminds you what there was to love about Pokémon in the first place – and perhaps we all needed reminding.

There's a childlike simplicity in its approach to story and systems that may put off older players who prefer complication and convolution. But Dragon Quest IX cleanses the palate with its straightforwardness, allowing the workmanship to shine, and its clutch of nested fairytales to inspire.

The finest expression of Satoshi Tajiri's obsessive vision yet. The transition to 3D is smooth and natural and the multitudinous additions to the proven formula will excite even the most jaded Pokémon fanatic.

The bike pack on its own, included as standard in the Ultimate Box, adds yet more value, but even in the small details (i.e. adding 1080i support to the PS3 game post-launch) Criterion hasn't let its audience down. And yes, it has a restart option. Best of all, the game is still evolving through yet more DLC. It's just getting better and better, and deserves a score to match.

The storyline, while clearly bonkers, makes a refreshing change to the standard RPG fare, if only because it draws at least superficially, on historical characters and events.

Arcade Edition is a breath of fresh air for Street Fighter 5, which is finally the game it should have been at launch. [Essential]

FIFA 09 rams the point home with the emphasis on physical midfield battles and possession football, where teams hold their shape and press, and jostle with great effect, and it's up to you to exploit them by dragging defenders out of position, switching the play and paying attention to personnel.

Sprawling, varied and constantly stylish, Astral Chain is a very different breed of action game that ranks with Platinum's best. [Eurogamer Essential]

It's a simple game, then, but an extremely polished and engaging one.

Highly addictive.

With Guilty Gear Strive, Arc System Works has made its famously complex fighting game series easier to get into, but no less rewarding.

Suspicious Developments' latest builds a witty, wonderfully generous adventure around a smart, rewarding, and endlessly imaginative turn-based tactics core.

The world of Pokémon is finally, exactly that: a world, with charming, textured characters not just in the named friends and foes you meet, but the random people on your journey, the region you live in, the music, the Pokémon themselves and the very soul of the journey. At long last, Pokémon is not just back. With Sun and Moon, it feels fresh again. [Essential]

It's one of those rare strategy games that actually has its own view of how the genre should work, which is entirely separate to what the rest of the industry is considering.

In Ikaruga there is no refuge, and there's honesty to this black and white approach that demands respect. But will that respect will turn to adoration? Well, that very much depends on how hard you'll work to make your own memories herein.

It may also be the only game you play this year where pulling the trigger makes you really feel something, and I can think of no greater compliment.

Groove Coaster still lacks enough of a challenge to be interesting, and it's only when you play each song on hard that the game's potential reveals itself. Even then, it's unlikely that hardcore rhythm action fiends will care much for its casual approach.

Saros' narrative often feels at odds with the kind of experience it wants to be, but there's no denying this is another top-tier action game from Housemarque.

For anyone who wants a mech "simulator" this is by far the best offering out there and has much to recommend it over its predecessors.

But with more interesting and varied missions, bigger and more detailed levels, new enemies (and allies), a few new toys to play with, and some vital tinkering under the bonnet, Thief II stands on its own merit.

But if you can deal with that, the useless camera doesn't sound like a showstopper and motion sickness isn't a problem, then strap on your simian capsules and spout some unintelligible Japlish, because the monkeys are back and your Cube needs this game.

A thoroughbred classic, a tactical RPG with all the immediacy of Advance Wars and all the long-view flexibility of Disgaea.