What Remains of Edith Finch is filled with excellent writing, striking visuals, and a significant sense of place, of people, of life’s ephemeral nature and our relationship to it.

NBA 2K’s depth continues to set the bar for the genre. Like always, NBA 2K17 is several games within one. However, the amalgamation of modes delivers an especially tight package this year...The smaller issues only slightly hamper the overall experience. 2K has delivered another classic the moment you rip off the plastic.

While I really love this game, I have to dock points for performance issues. At release, a game shouldn’t have this many glitches, crashes, and other problems. Points also docked for the pacing misses and the difficulty spike at the beginning. Finally, points docked for the shoddy multiplayer, though I don’t weight this very high in my overall scoring of the game.

Overall, Metroid Dread brings a narrative close to a decades long story with excellent level design and combat. It also looks great as well. So until Samus Aran is needed once again to save the Galactic Federation, I am happy to just savour the joy of another successfully completed mission.

Nioh is a fantastic Samurai action-RPG with excellent Dark Souls inspired combat, multiplayer options and tons of content. Not for the faint of heart. Boss fights can be as tedious as they are challenging.

There are pieces of a good game and story here, but even in two hours, it feels like it wastes a lot of time and doesn’t create anything all that compelling in the end.

DMC 5 is beautifully rendered and the action is fun. However, the weak story and less-than-compelling character development and audio presentation remove the game's heart. Instead of being a masterful and complete action game, it's instead far more shallow than it could have been.

The Old Hunters is a devilishly challenging addition to an already brutal game. With its release, Bloodborne transforms into an even beastlier and more grotesque experience, and it’s better than ever—a blood diamond in the rough even in a year chalked full of incredible releases.

For every cool moment I have in Battlefield 1, whether it’s bayoneting a soldier or chopping someone in half from horseback, I’ll be blown up by twenty tanks or be headshot by twenty snipers, and often it’s more frustrating than fun. The campaign is mostly great, but again, probably no more than a 6-7 hour experience, and obviously not the worth the price of admission by itself. You will have to love multiplayer to make this game worth it, and if you don’t, well, you’re out of luck.

Overall, this is an amazing game that works on its own and fleshes out the story and setting of Final Fantasy VII in a remarkably cogent way. Fans of the original game may have wanted something more faithful in a functional sense but this is still an excellent game and one you will be more than happy to pour your time into.

I loved playing Sun and Moon and despite the fact that this is he umpteenth Pokémon game released, it’s still incredibly compelling and brilliantly paced. The story and characters are very nicely done too, though the Team Skull grunts are wonderfully cheesy in their attempt at being hip-hop infused gangsters.

Everything about Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is such a spectacle to behold, so even though it did feel a bit longer than it really needed to be, clocking in at approximately 20 hours for a typical playthrough, there was enough nuance and consistent variety to keep me engaged throughout.

The fighting itself is absolutely glorious for both fans and non-fans of the series, and for both casuals and hardcore fighting gamers. You just can't lose with Dragon Ball FighterZ.

An excellent remake of an already faultless Zelda game. If you never played the Game Boy original, then you absolutely need to pick this up. If, like me, you grew up playing this game, then there is a lot of new content to keep you busy. While Breath of the Wild was the game many bought their Switch for, Link’s Awakening has only reinforced that decision for me. So buckle up and let a friendly owl show you what Koholint Island has to offer.

Spider-Man is a fantastic action game with great movement and combat and a compelling story that's only dragged down from time to time with boring missions and QTE-based boss fights.

I loved playing Sun and Moon and despite the fact that this is he umpteenth Pokémon game released, it’s still incredibly compelling and brilliantly paced. The story and characters are very nicely done too, though the Team Skull grunts are wonderfully cheesy in their attempt at being hip-hop infused gangsters.

So it’s 5 levels really, but they are excellent levels, masterful executions of a brilliant concept by a team at the top of their game. And, on top of that, we’ve already got the other two games—which are available for dirt cheap, now—to make a single, expansive, globetrotting experience that sees our familiar, baldheaded puppetmaster accessing the world’s ultra-wealthy just when they thought they were invincible, dancing through the class divides like the nameless angel of death that he is, and then blowing someone up with an exploding golf ball or something.

Hi-Fi Rush is going to stay with me. I absolutely adore this game, far, far more than I would I would have imagined, given everything said above. It is, quite literally, infectious, as you will not only find yourself involuntarily bopping along with the beat as you play, but even after you’ve shut the game off... It’s joyful, addicting and something I may play twice just for the hell of it. An absolute win.

Final Fantasy Tactics is still the brilliant tactical role-playing game I thoroughly enjoyed playing at the end of the ‘90s. This new and updated HD remaster in the form of The Ivalice Chronicles is a welcome addition, especially for newer players, but it’s the original game that makes this collection so very special.

Halo Infinite might be the best campaign 343 has done, but considering I didn’t love the last two, I’m not sure how much weight that carries. Halo Reach remains the gold standard for me in that department, and while I had a lot of fun here zipping around the open world, and I can see the potential of the concept, something about Infinite feels small and unfinished to me compared to both other Halo campaigns, and other open world titles. I don’t need (or want) a sprawling Assassin’s Creed map that takes 200 hours to clear, but I think I need more diversity than what’s here, and a better story with better characters told within it.

Overall, Xenoblade Chronicles X is a massive role-playing game that is more scaled towards the mecha than the on-foot component. The initial on-foot sections take a while, but once you get your Doll license, the world of Mira literally opens up. So stick with this one; it’s a long road but still one worth the effort of traveling.

Fallout 4’s greatest triumph, and its one major point of evolution is in its storytelling, crafting a lengthy, unexpected ending and resolution that I will remember for years to come. It also remains one of the best games in existence for those who simply like to wander and explore and unearth long-buried secrets. But it struggles with archaic gameplay systems and an inflexible engine that anchor the game to the past for all the wrong reasons. Fans may enjoy more Fallout and a brand new map to explore, but this sequel will not be heralded as revolutionary or overly impressive this time around.

It delivers the speed and technical component of F1 racing without overwhelming a casual fan with jargon or overly complex concepts. At the same time, it stays true to its core audience with the most authentic virtual F1 experience around. It may not get all the hoopla that more popular titles in the genre receive, but F1 2017 is one of the most complete sports video games released in awhile.

My impressions are overwhelmingly positive based on what I’ve experienced so far, from the map to the gameplay to the new systems to even the story, which I was not expecting. Blizzard really seems like they’ve nailed this, and I’m going to say the only way this will be poorly received at launch is if technical issues kill people’s ability to play. But once it gets rolling? Yes, I think you’re going to like Diablo 4.

You won’t find a more complete racing experience in gaming. In the grand scheme of things, Codemasters does most things as well if not better than every other developer of racing games in the industry. Visually, the game is stunning and the gameplay is balanced for all players. On the downside, a little more imagination would place this undisputed king of racers even higher on that mountain.

Mario Kart World is a huge undertaking, but it still offers the classic Mario Kart progression we’ve all grown up with. Whether this will sell as much as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe remains to be seen, but from the off, Mario Kart World definitely has an enormous amount of content to wrap your head around, and the multiplayer will likely keep it an evergreen release for years to come, much like the other games in the series have been.

Dishonored 2 doesn’t live up to the original, but it still provides great gameplay mechanics and a sense of freedom you can’t find anywhere else.

Overall, Bayonetta 3 delivers a frantically intense approach to “stylish combat”, with a complex and multi-layered combat system that has remained remarkably robust across each game in the series. While the presentation is hugely over the top, Bayonetta 3’s real worth is in how it plays and as such comes thoroughly recommended to anyone that can keep up.