Control is Remedy's best game in nearly twenty years, and easily one of the best games of 2019.

Forza Horizon 3 is a visual feast and an impressive entry into the Forza line-up. The Australian environment feels and looks realistic, with lush rainforests tapering away into the red and dusty outback. Whether you’re a casual racing player or a motorsport enthusiast, Forza Horizon 3 will meet your expectations of a non-simulator racing game. The handling of the vehicles is, as always, finely tuned like only a Forza game can deliver.

Thanks to GreedFall’s impressively diverse roleplaying and combat systems, it’s the sort of game that any sort of RPG fan would enjoy, whether they prefer playing as the tough warrior, the cunning rogue, the wise spellcaster, or any combination of those archetypes they can think of. It may hew closely to the template that BioWare created many years ago, but GreedFall also proves there’s still a lot of potential for expansive single-player RPGs that put player choice first.

Night School Studio has delivered a shining example of narrative excellence with Oxenfree. The story, the characters, the look, and the sound all come together to create an unforgettable series of wonderful moments.

Cuphead is one of the most innovative and interesting games to come out of the indie space in the past few years. It was well worth the wait and will please anyone who likes a good challenge.

Metro Exodus is a masterful execution of a dying breed of video game: the measured, finely tuned, linear single player action game. From start to finish it’s an amazing thrill ride that rarely takes a moment to catch its breath and it lacks the bloated filler that plague so many other games these days. Instead, Metro Exodus is all meat from head to toe and it’s well worth the time.

If you are a long-time Devil May Cry fan, or just an action game fan in general, then Devil May Cry 5 is a must-buy.

This is exactly what we wanted from a Trials of Mana remake. Square has become very good at updating their back catalog for the modern era. If you are a fan of Square’s 16-bit offerings, you owe it to yourself to pick this up. Hey Square? If you are gonna do a Chrono Trigger remake, do it like this.

Battlefield fans are going to absolutely love Battlefield 1, and casual first person shooter dabblers will find enough in the variety of modes to entertain for hours. However, this is still a Battlefield game at heart, and those who have shied away from the objective-focused mentality in the past are likely to shy away from Battlefield 1 as well. Having said that, everyone should at least try Battlefield 1 because it is one of the more enjoyable shooters in recent memory.

If you have a Switch and like JRPGs, then Octopath Traveler is a game you cannot miss. This is the next gen classic RPG we have been waiting for, a fusion of retro, indie, and modern design that could only be played now, and could only be appreciated because of the games that came before it.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the definitive Mario Kart experience. It’s got the most complete roster of characters, tons of tracks, a litany of game modes, and an ultra-polished presentation mixed with pitch-perfect gameplay. A must play for all Switch owners.

It's probably the least buggy big huge open world game Bethesda has ever released, which is saying something, but it's still an audaciously ambitious title with a lot of roughness around the edges. With some of those previous games, buying the game near launch was a recipe for frustration; it was better to let the patches and modders fix it up before experiencing it for the first time. Fallout 4, however, is a fantastic game as it exists right now, and the technical issues don't even come close to providing a reason to wait to play it.

Spiritfarer is worth playing for the visuals alone, but the mature storytelling and fascinating look at a concept we don’t see explored very often make it well worth checking out. Expect to put at least 35 hours in if you want to see the whole story, more if you’re a completionist.

Super Mario Odyssey is exactly what we all expected, a great 3D Mario game. It doesn’t shake up the formula, but it nearly perfects it. This is the collect-a-thon platformer that people have been waiting for, a chance to bring the genre into the modern day gaming environment. All it took was a massive expansion of scope.

Resident Evil 2 is loyal to the original where it counts, while also upgrading the experience with beautiful visuals and modern gameplay conveniences. It’s so loyal that newcomers might find it a touch archaic, but for fans of the original, it’s an absolute joy to play, and a fantastic horror game in its own right.

The Walking Dead: A New Frontier continues to prove that Telltale Games are masters of storytelling. They know exactly how to craft a narrative that gets you attached to the characters you are controlling, invested in their choices, and devastated by the tragic consequences of those choices.

Though the first episode only provides a few hours of gameplay, The Gallery provides a great example of the power and potential of VR gaming. [Tested with HTC Vive]

Nioh 2 finds success by layering small yet significant additions onto a base which Team Ninja already perfected in the original Nioh. New features like character customization and Yokai abilities complement a robust gameplay template which was designed to appeal equally to fans of Souls-like games, RPG’s, and fast-paced hack-and-slash titles.

Destruction AllStars may not be a killer app that sells you on a PS5, but anyone who owns a PS5 will be happy to add it to their library. It is definitely one of the best perks of owning a PS5 yet.

Monster Hunter: World is the type of game that will take over your life. The world is massively detailed with tons of things to do and it will undoubtedly end up yielding some of the very best gaming moments of the year -- guaranteed.

While it isn’t perfect, The Following openly embraces everything that made Dying Light a standout hit of 2015 and also injects enough fresh content to warrant a return visit from even the most hardcore of Harran’s explorers.

Prey is the best BioShock-style game we've seen in years. It gets better the more you play it, and hides secrets that encourage repeat playthroughs. For fans of single-player titles, Prey is a game that belongs in Game of the Year discussions.

Where last year’s game sometimes felt like a non-stop shooting gallery with blazing ping-pong action across the entire field, this year’s game more closely follows the pace of a typical real-life match. And that's a good thing.

The Banner Saga 2 is fantastic. Yes, it has flaws, and yes, it’s not for everyone, especially if you aren’t a fan of reading walls of text. But for strategy fans and especially fans of games with narrative, this will be one of this year’s shining releases.

While 2013’s Tomb Raider reboot was great, fans of the series were pining for more tombs to explore and relics to collect. Crystal Dynamics addressed that and then some in Rise of the Tomb Raider, improving on its upgrade system, telling a fun story, more puzzles, and adding bears, tigers, cheetahs, and more packs of wolves to kill and skin. Just like we remember.

Taken as is, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is everything a fan would want in a remake of this game, whether they plan to play it alone, with a friend, or against a bunch of people they meet online.

Dreams is really something special. Frankly, I’d like to see other game development tools come with curation suites like this. It would change the way we look at game design. Now if only these dreamers could get paid for their work.

Superhot is an absolute joy to play, and it includes some great extra modes, neat story twists, and outstanding art. It's a complete package, and even though it's all over rather quickly, it's worth revisiting again and again.