Bugsnax leans heavily on the unique nature of its titular creatures, and it succeeds by doing so. They’re cute, they’re creepy, and their existence makes no logical sense whatsoever. Armed with a bit of design this indelible, the developers could have phoned in the rest and raked in the merchandising money. Instead, they fully committed to delivering a narrative worthy of the creatures starring in it. It was a risky choice, but it was also a daring and clever one, and that’s exactly what it wants to be.

It’s been a while since I’ve truly felt blown away by a big-budget videogame. In the third year of the current console generation, we’ve had some excellent stuff come out, but few notables that might be seen as defining titles in the medium. Final Fantasy XVI feels like that once-in-a-generation game. A dream team of designers, artists, and producers came together to forge a brave new path not only for the Final Fantasy series, but for action games in general. While debates on what makes the series special will continue, there’s no question that this one is setting a new standard for RPGs.

There’s not much to dislike about this new Doom. The multiplayer’s bland, the sound mix could be a little punchier, and players who expect deep worldbuilding and story twists are straight out of luck, but putting all that aside, Doom remains packed to the gills with exceptional blood-spraying gameplay and deserves respect for this unfiltered, uncompromised approach. My advice? Grab a chainsaw, rev it up and get stuck right in.

In a very Hitchcockian gesture Kojima structures the entire game around a plot twist no one will see coming and many might not even like. This kind of audience-foiling gutsiness is always a delight in my book.

An incredible game which deserves respect from anyone with even a passing interest in FPSs.

In short, WWE 2K24 is a crowning achievement for a series that nearly buried itself just four years ago, and I’ll be playing it long after the referee counts 1-2-3.

It’s one of the most enjoyable recent entries in a medium that it takes perverse glee in tearing apart.

Human Fall Flat is a puzzle game with so many possible solutions, workarounds, and approaches that playing with other people makes for a genuinely interesting experience. Any game that makes me laugh as hard as this one deserves some praise, but particularly when it’s as well-designed, challenging, and entertaining as this one.

Robocop: Rogue City exceeded my wildest expectations when it comes to what a Robocop game could be, and the team at Teyon should be immensely proud of delivering a true love letter to one of the defining films of the 1980s. Anyone who’s even a casual fan of Robocop should buy this game without hesitation as soon as feasibly possible — no Robocop fan will walk away disappointed, and this experience is worth way more than a dollar.

The Mass Effect Trilogy is incredible. The overarching story and its characters are excellent, and each one was better than the last. I wasn’t sure if these games would hold up in the current environment, but they absolutely do. They’re still worth playing, I recommend them, and to anyone about to jump in — play at a slower pace. Do not rush through. Explore everything they have to offer and relish in their richness.

If the player were disappointed by this scenario in the original, he'll probably be disappointed now too. However, with a wealth of new content and lots of other welcome additions and tweaks, Left 4 Dead 2 continues to focus on what it does best, and it's damn good at it.

Iceborne simply cements Monster Hunter World‘s position at the top of the Hunting genre, providing one of the best and most fully-featured expansions in recent memory for a title that would already gleefully suck up hundreds of hours even in its original iteration. Anyone who’s a fan of the series should be all-in on this expansion already, and for anyone yet to check it out… well, now may very well be the best time.

There are dozens of Dragon Ball Z games and Kakarot represents only the latest attempt to fully retell the manga’s story in videogame form. However, the quality of the experience makes a strong argument for this entry being the last one since the cartoon graphics perfectly recreate Toriyama’s visuals and the story hits every beat far better than the anime managed to. By presenting a great story with such perfect fealty, it’s safe to say that (for now, at least) Kakarot is the definitive Dragon Ball Z videogame.

A fully realized game, utilizing the JADE engine which "Prince of Persia" borrows. But more importantly, it has partially realized characters that have more feeling than human characters in other games.

Overall, Tetris Forever is both for fans of Tetris and also those who deeply care about videogame history. Not only is it collecting an amazing set of entries in a franchise that is both prolific and excellent, but it’s also a much-needed encapsulation that preserves its important legacy.

For players looking for something a little outside the usual fare, Sorry We’re Closed is the offbeat survival horror genre-blend they didn’t know they’d been waiting for — and as one of that number myself, I can say that it was an experience unlike any other.

Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition is one of the best games available for the Wii. Period.

No review will ever accurately convey the tension in navigating through a sea of multiple colored bullets that fill every inch of the screen or the joy in finally nailing a 100+ chain combo because Ikaruga, like all good shmups, is visceral.

As one might expect, it offers excellent platforming, interesting and well-defined bosses, and great atmosphere — everything about it feels like a fantastic entry into a hallowed series while still offering new features that keep it fresh for new fans. Mega Man is back!

After years of letting gamers simply play other people’s songs, Harmonix has now decided to let players create new music using those songs. It truly feels like a fully-realized vision of melding music and games in ways that haven’t been done before and feels like the next step in music games. Harmonix is back in fine form, and that’s a tune we can all dance to.

Perhaps this game appeals less to adolescent and adult males than most games do: Starfy is more Kirby than Mario. But it does what it does very well, and I hope that this title is merely the beginning of Starfy's legend in North America.

I’m an Aliens super-fan. I think that’s clear at this point, so it’s worth saying that I’m going to be predisposed to love a game that goes to the lengths this one does to recreate the aesthetics of that film. The flipside of that fandom is that I’ll recoil from anything that gets the franchise wrong. So with that in mind, hear me when I say that this is the best Alien game ever made. In fact, it only has one flaw — despite ending on a fantastic climax, Incursion is only part one of the whole story. I knew this going into it, but I was still shattered to see To Be Continued come up at a particularly shocking moment. That continuation can’t come quickly enough, but until it does I’ll keep playing Alien Rogue Incursion over and over again.

It may seem crazy to ask players to pay a subscription fee in the growing field of free-to-play MMOs, but if you ask me, WildStar is worth the price of entry.

With its polished cinematic presentation, well-paced action, and surprisingly emotional story, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare brilliantly captures the feel of a grand, epic game.

For players who love killing things, building godly characters, and grabbing loads of awesome loot in the process, Diablo III Ultimate Evil Edition is the biggest no-brainer purchase of this year.

I absolutely loved the Sega 3D Classics Collection. Sega did an outstanding job in picking this lineup (they credit fan requests) and the work is presented with love.

With a brilliant musical score, gorgeous artwork, solid adventuring mechanics, and a ton of other generic positive reviewer comments I can heap on it, Machinarium is elevated from merely good to gaming greatness, and I can only hope that the minds at Amanita produce some more masterpieces like this one

My thanks go out to whoever at Sony was responsible for choosing King's Quest: A Knight To Remember as a free Plus title. It's an outstanding piece of work that surprised me not only for being a wonderful experience in a genre that I usually avoid, but also by coming from a studio whose past work gave no clue that they were capable of such. My hat is off to the The Odd Gentlemen, red feather and all.