If it weren't for a lack of online play, NBA Jam would be virtually perfect. Even so, Jam is our favorite sports title of the year.

And heaven forbid you tire of repetitive creature-clobbering - take your game online and swap in up to six players, then keep on playing solo after they've left, or bring them back again later. Come on... how cool is that?

With the inclusion of multiplayer, Dance Central 2 has become the definitive dance game on any console far surpassing its competitors. Thoughtful and intricate choreography that is still fun but accessible, a song list that is familiar and current with a depth of gameplay has made this title both challenging for previous Dance Central converts yet still welcoming for newcomers.

[An] incredibly fresh and successful take on skating controls, as well as a wide-open city with six-player online options (we liked the Deathraces and the Spot Battles). Skate is logical, authentic, and blissfully organic. Robots need not apply.

It ain't perfect – and we're more convinced than ever that perfection in an HD sports game is an impossibility – but it is another soaring triumph that has something for just about everyone.

The only thing “everyday” about this shooter is how often we’re playing it.

It may or may not be the blood-soaked ending to the franchise, but it's easily one of the most enjoyable games in the series and one of the most unapologetically fun games of the season.

When you get right down to it, Outland cannibalizes a lot of tried-and-true gaming elements and turns them into something entirely new and exciting. The magical realm you explore is visually captivating, overflowing with elegance and mystery. More importantly, it serves up some damn good gaming.

This ain't Baseball for Dummies - mastering your skills takes practice, but we like that. If it were easy, there'd likely be little reason to play for long. As it is, we're addicted to both our franchise and online play; 2K Sports' famously robust internet leagues and websites return to embarrass all other comers' usually feeble online offerings.

With its challenging dungeons and fun side-missions, Eye of the North comes just in time for those burnt out on Guild Wars' current PvP and PvE scene.

A huge Lord of the Rings experience that’s always enjoyable, although its scale leaves it straining at the seams at times.

Getting your head around the combat is key to having a good time. Once mastered, you'll find an immersive action romp full of original challenges, incredible environments and interesting characters. This game might have been around for years, but the intensity of the gameplay has yet to be bettered.

It ain't perfect – and we're more convinced than ever that perfection in an HD sports game is an impossibility – but it is another soaring triumph that has something for just about everyone.

A wonderful recreation of Skyrim, which remains - despite rough edges and badly-aged elements - one of the greatest RPGs ever made.

The game has a frankly obscene amount of content to discover, all of it measured and absorbing. Whether the more arcadey difficulty levels will be entertaining enough for casual racing fans is debatable. You'll undoubtedly get the most out of it if you have the patience to approach it as a serious racer and learn to use gears, brakes and progressive throttle.

For me, the surprises, historical reverence and inspired platforming creativity make this the Wii game of the year...It's a life-affirming tribute to both forgotten characters and game genres well worth remembering, with an all new added twist. And contrary to how it looks, there's a startling amount of maturity and replayability wrapped within this family-friendly package.

Aesthetically scintillating, but equally enthralling in its immense depth, Geometry Wars 3 is a sequel whose design insight is matched only by its endlessly creative sense of fun. Close to perfect.

This is hands-down the best virtual reality money can buy right now, and feels like a tantalizing promise of just what the big game studios could achieve if they were willing to put their time and money into creating a AAA experience for VR platforms.

The wait was worth it. Full stop. While it doesn't top SSX 3 in terms of that game's vibrant sense of place, and is occasionally hampered by being hard for the wrong reasons, SSX is a vast, deep, beautiful and nuanced blend of showboating adrenalin and sharpened intelligent play. It's a demanding game, but its rewards are immense, providing a feeling you won't get anywhere else in gaming.

An addictive, relentlessly fun thrill ride that'll make you feel like the toughest, most brutal thing in the ancient world.

The Metallica integration goes deeper than the music itself – the band members all appear in the game, although career mode finds you playing not as anyone IN Metallica, but as the band opening for them while on tour.

Far from tacked-on extra content, The Old Hunters is the expansion Bloodborne deserves, with morsels of lore, imaginative weapons, and engaging battles making it well worth your time and pain.

It’s an excellent fighting game that deserves to be played despite its commercial handicaps.

NBA 2K 16’s strong fundamental basketball smarts, world-class presentation, and multitude of options make it the most ambitious sports game I’ve ever played.

Metaphor: ReFantazio is a triumphant evolution of Atlus' best, and offers a gripping new story supplemented by a loveable cast, dungeons begging to be explored, and a gorgeous art direction that makes you feel like you're wandering the pages of a fairytale book, although it takes a while to reach its greatest heights.

Even when it stumbles, Final Fantasy 15's ambitious open-world, fast-paced combat, and the humanity of its four leads make it a fascinating adventure to behold.

Slathered with infectious energy, its innovative alternate-reality heartbreak shooting mechanics are thrilling to play with, and it's a world you won't want to say farewell to after you get your first ending. Resident Evil 4 and Silent Hill can't match this neon-soaked survival horror for its sheer inventiveness.

If you’re a fan of the classic PS2 platformers, consider the budget-priced Thieves in Time a steal.

This is the best reason yet to own a Switch 2, and shows Nintendo at its absolute best. The central destruction mechanic is so much fun, and smart level design keeps it delightful from beginning to end with an adventure rivaling Mario's very best.

Continuum Shift improves on Calamity Trigger in every way, and it's undoubtedly one of the best fighting games available; it oozes style, incorporates some truly radical ideas into its gameplay and sports a level of polish not always seen in fighting games.

Stargate TCG Online, with its cool setting, enjoyable gameplay, and fully-featured interface make it extremely likely that it’ll capture a very nice-sized crowd of players and keep them entertained long after the last expansion set is released.

The immersive world, memorable characters, exhilarating combat, and branching storylines will have you coming back to play it again and again.

Solar Ash is a platforming playground that never loses steam, and it hides a memorable story of unfathomable tragedy.

Critter Crunch is deceptively cute and cushy, but underneath the hood it's one of the most solid puzzle experiences you'll find on the PS3.

Again, it feels like we're well-served for horror game remakes at the moment, but Motive Studio's Dead Space is a horror remake done right. It really is a sublime mix of fresh and familiar, and it's freaking terrifying in its loud and quieter moments. Its reworked visuals and stunning dynamic lighting totally transform certain areas, while the remake's new dismemberment animations mean hacking off enemy limbs with the Plasma Cutter, uncovering bone and muscle tissue as you do, is now gorier than ever. I know this first hand, because I was too scared to run.

3D World sees the plumber at the top of his game, and it’s finally as fun to play with friends as it is solo. It doesn’t redefine the franchise like previous entries have, but when the total package is as fun as 3D World, that’s hardly a complaint.

Proves that they had planned out this season’s overarching story line with an unassumingly meticulous style. Even the smallest throwaway from previous episodes makes sense in the end.

It may be over before you want it, but we'd much rather be left wanting more than feeling the game has worn out its welcome. If that's even possible with ilomilo, it sure wasn't obvious to us.

More maps, more enemies, more weapons, more glorious spectacle than the original, and that’s just the co-op. Fresh versus modes and intense violence make this the apocalypse to beat.

Blasphemous 2 leans heavily into its inspirations, and therefore doesn't reinvent the wheel – but with more to see, more to do, and, of course, more to slaughter, it improves on its forerunner's familiar formula across the board with devastating results.

A puzzle game dressed like a twisted, Cronenberg-inspired shooter, Superhot's methodical, slow-motion approach to the genre is as cerebral and deliberate as it is unhinged.

While some puzzle games can feel a little too on-rails, Dungeons of Hinterberg gives you enough freedom to follow whichever sub narratives take your fancy, adopt a preferred fighting style, and choose which order to tackle puzzles. And with the ability to slow down for a moment of tranquility at any point, it really does feel like a holiday… except you also kill stuff.

With breakneck racing thrills and impeccable presentation, this ranks up there with The Last Of Us Remastered as the best redux on PS4.

The Wolf Among Us is a game that exceeds expectations, providing an intriguing, painful, and thought-provoking journey that everyone should experience at least once.

Forza 2 is real world driving honed to perfection, and easily the best racing experience on the Xbox 360.

Deep, intelligent, intense, and utterly unlike any experience before it, Alien: Isolation presents all that's truly great about AAA, and also its evolution.

Probably the key flaw in Killzone 2 is how meticulously scripted it is. For example, if a Helghast is programmed to run to a certain location and then start shooting, he usually won’t shoot until he gets there, even if you’ve ambushed him and are filling him with holes.

A superb blend of twin-stick shooting, platforming, exploration, and tactical combat.

Even with our small list of complaints – add sluggish menus and lack of meaningful updates to Road To Glory and TeamBuilder to them – NCAA Football 11 is a triumph. It's the best college football game we've ever played, offering a tremendous experience to gridiron fans.

One of the finest games available on Xbox Live Arcade, and a fantastic value for 2D slasher fans.

Dark Resurrection doesn't have all of the extra features you might expect from a console release of a Tekken game, but this is offset by the pretty fair price and the fact that you can finally play the game on any size TV screen you have and with an arcade stick (like, say, the Hori Fighting Stick 3), to boot.

Really, though, the only glaring weakness we can find in BioShock is that it may be too unusual, too original, too artistic and too genius to be embraced by the general public. Please don't let this game become that forgotten, one-of-a-kind masterpiece. We need sequels. We need more.

We liked Trials HD, and after playing Trials Evolution, we can heartily recommend it to fans of the original. And for those who've never tried Trials before, this is an excellent starting point. Evolution is a wonderful game that's rich with personality (including a surprising sense of humor) and sophisticated gameplay.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is an intricate puzzle box of interconnected parts. At times it can feel overwhelming, but ultimately this stylish noir's captivating puzzle design anthology and spellbinding story feels like an entirely new and contemporary kind of puzzle game.

It's a work of craftsman-like quality going for a ridiculously low price point, especially since the game has two upcoming DLC drops planned. High whimsy content aside, fans of new, interesting, brain-bending challenges need to seek this one out.

This ain't Baseball for Dummies - mastering your skills takes practice, but we like that. If it were easy, there'd likely be little reason to play for long. As it is, we're addicted to both our franchise and online play; 2K Sports' famously robust internet leagues and websites return to embarrass all other comers' usually feeble online offerings.

Aside from the downgrade in players per match, nearly everything about Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake is as good, if not better than the PS3 version.

A gorgeous, tear-jerking platformer which improves on absolutely everything in the first game and ranks among the finest Metroidvanias available today.

Hearthstone is addictive, highly strategic, and chock-full of fun collectible card battling; the fact that it's totally free (if you want it to be) makes it one of the best values in gaming today. This is your new obsession; embrace it.

The current-gen versions of Superstar has the best cameras of the bunch. Next-gen is too close and too claustrophobic.

If your machine is up to it, you won’t find a better team game than Battlefield 2, period.

An absolutely killer tennis sim and one worthy of being considered one of the deepest and most rewarding seen thus far.

A delightful puzzle adventure full of charm, personality, and satisfying ghostly X-ray vision mechanics.

[An] incredibly fresh and successful take on skating controls, as well as a wide-open city with six-player online options (we liked the Deathraces and the Spot Battles). Skate is logical, authentic, and blissfully organic. Robots need not apply.

High fantasy role-playing at its finest. Its detailed world, memorable characters, meaningful choices, and engrossing combat system makes Dragon Age the sort of game you’ll want to replay from start to finish several times. RPG fans won’t be disappointed by this truly epic adventure.

An absolutely killer tennis sim.

It's a port of a damn fine game - losing very little in translation and lending itself perfectly to a handheld frame of mind. Additionally, it retails for quite a bit less than your typical PSP release.

It's hard to believe that any two-year-old game could be livened up this much with an expansion pack, but Big Huge Games has pulled off this trick just about perfectly with The Asian Dynasties. While the core gameplay is still recognizable, this is a great facelift that makes an old friend look young again.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth delivers all the charm of Remake while making the needed improvements to side-content to ensure the original's step-out moment is one worth taking once more.

Dying Light: The Beast is a staggering achievement, recapturing the series’ spirit and elevating it tenfold. The result is a game that, while occupying a much tighter space, manages to feel more alive than Harran or Villedor combined. Techland isn't reinventing the wheel here, but by revitalizing its own playbook, The Beast is Dying Light in its prime.

On top of the classic Double Fine charm we expected, we found Treched's mechanics more than satisfying, and when you consider the game's approachability and download-only pedigree, the depth is startling.

So, is Guitar Hero World Tour better than Rock Band 2? Not quite. Yes, the instruments are superior, and we love four-on-four online matches, varied tweaks to each instrument’s parts, character customization, and build-your-own-guitar options. But, we just don’t get as much out of the music editor as one would hope, and Rock Band 2’s better note maps, smarter interface and more musical “feel” resonate more with us.

With three new highly-entertaining maps and several new vehicles (including the tankbusting A-10 Warthog), the extremely affordable, easily downloadable Armored Fury is a must-buy for Battlefield 2 junkies.

Vice City Stories is topped off with killer ad-hoc multiplayer for up to six people, which lets you tear it up on foot or in cars, helicopters and boats across 10 different modes. While these matches tend to get choppy, they'll keep you playing long after you've finished the game's lengthy storyline - as will all the hidden nooks, unlockable vehicles and dozens of optional tasks scattered around the city.

A moving adventure starring an extraordinary companion. Framerate issues intrude, but don't let them stop you from finishing this wonderful game.

Square Enix doesn’t offer much innovation with Final Fantasy XIV: this is a realm reborn, not the MMORPG genre. But the game is expertly prepared, and even if the systems are all familiar, they take place in one of the most enchanting MMORPG settings ever. So eat up. Get your fill. This one’s an enjoyable feast.

Although it’s beset by blandish graphics and wickedly uneven difficulty, Prototype delivers a fast-paced, relentlessly amoral and wonderfully brutal sandbox adventure in a detailed city filled with cool things to see and do.

Tropico 5 cuts out the fat of previous entries and builds upon its strongest features. While the new dynasty system is disappointing, the narrative context provided by eras and world events is outstanding.

Even with our small list of complaints – add sluggish menus and lack of meaningful updates to Road To Glory and TeamBuilder to them – NCAA Football 11 is a triumph. It's the best college football game we've ever played, offering a tremendous experience to gridiron fans.

Morrowind will please both serious role-playing fans as well as anyone looking for a technically stunning adventure that will hold their attention longer than your average hack-and-slash title. This is the good stuff.

It may be one of the best action/horror games of all time, but the hardcore audience wants more than the best of 2005. Outstanding game, questionable release.

Dark Souls used to feel like a gigantic trap. Dark Souls 3, for better and for worse, feels like home. The third in the trilogy is bewitching while it lasts, but may not leave you wanting more.

Subtlety is what makes Last Light such an exceptionally immersive game. It nails the core tenets of a shooter, then forces you to react to enemies in ways outside of simply taking cover. It plops you in a post-apocalyptic world, then fills it with tons of minor but substantial details, like the shadows of once-living people now permanently nuked into stone walls. It strips you of hope, only to dangle a tiny sliver of it ahead of you like a carrot on a stick.

This is one of the most in-depth strategy games and touching RPGs ever made.

Though it falls slightly short compared to other Mario titles (aka some of the greatest games ever made), it's certainly a release worthy of the character's legacy. It expertly builds on franchise history, has tons of clever ideas, and even with the rare control hang-ups, it stands tall in the realm of 3D platformers, especially compared to the paltry library of games the 3DS currently has.

An accessible and captivatingly strange new breed of versus fighting game, Arms is another Nintendo knockout for Switch.

Sons of the Forest is a great horror game and survival craft em up that balances a strong atmosphere and terrifying moments with player freedom. Whether you want to build a better tree house, or survive the story, there's something here for you.

With a setting that tells a story better than any human voice, Prey’s combat and quests will suck you even deeper into its world.

An invigorated spirit occupying a reassuringly recognisable body, Dark Souls’ life force flows through Bloodborne’s revitalised veins. Intelligent and intense, it's simply PS4’s best exclusive game.

It boils down to this: Spirit Tracks is the most consistently inventive game on the DS, with the best touchscreen controls on the system.

If you're one of the unlucky saps who have yet to be caught in Peggle's addictive grasp, the affordable, content-packed Peggle Dual Shot may be the best gateway to this enduringly enjoyable franchise.

A dense, detailed, and hugely varied strategy roguelike, Mewgenics borrows much from its iconic predecessor with an imaginative and rewarding gameplay loop. Occasionally harsh RNG can be a buzzkill, but doesn't prevent this from being a worthy successor to The Binding of Isaac.

Far better than any other flight game on the 360 - and it also happens to be a technical showcase for HDTV fanatics everywhere.

A fantastic RPG with a creative aesthetic and fairy tale narrative, Child of Light is a memorable experience that's as fun to play as it is artistically pleasing.

If you're a fan of well-crafted children's stories and tightly designed gameplay, there's no excuse not to give The Maw a shot.

A huge expanse of wilderness added to an already excellent MMO, Heavensward opens up the world of Eorzea to even greater possibilities.

The game’s blood-spilling action is balanced by strong exploratory elements and frequent plot updates.

The cure for the common Triple A title, Dark Souls takes every gloriously strange and punishing moment from Demon's Souls and expands and improves upon it. While its fundamentals hew closely to the original's, Dark Souls is a completely unique experience with no direct competition on the market. For those who get it, it's undoubtedly one of the year's best.