This game is a lot of things: thoroughly unique, frequently challenging, and sometimes quite disturbing. But most of all, it's a fantastic experience on many levels.

There are just enough new ideas to lure those in who’ve never cared, and just enough left alone to keep the fans happy. Pity all of the DS-minded bits drag the finished product down a notch.

While it's certainly not perfect, Nier: Automata is nonetheless a breath of fresh air that will challenge your thumbs as well as your thinking - a game with hydrocarbon heart and silicon soul that will stay with you long after you've set the controller down.

Intelligent, creative, and never less than thrilling, Titanfall 2 finally realises the series' true potential with verve and polish.

A very impressive game. Although there's an initial adjustment period for its controls, each stage is masterfully designed, rewarding exploration and experimentation, plus it's surprisingly deep.

The perfect blend of narrative and gameplay, coherency and strangeness, Control is a game we’ll be talking about for generations.

Jusant is a wonderful, meditative puzzle adventure framed around climbing that effectively draws you into its mysterious world. With creative level designs that make the most of the vertical tower setting, the climbing mechanics are fun and intuitive, and the pacing keeps its feeling too repetitive overall.

Not only does it stack up to its handheld counterpart, the online multiplayer and upgraded audio/visuals help exceed it.

With its quick battles and focus and short conversations to tell the story, Devil Survivor works great for the DS. On top of that it is so refreshing to play an RPG on the system that isn’t steeped in fantasy and/or is a remake.

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.

With gorgeous visuals, inventive puzzles, and a fresh creative take on the platformer genre, Max: The Curse of Brotherhood is a welcome addition to the Xbox arsenal.

With Lumines: Electronic Symphony, the series grows and expands in ways that render prior games as more spin-offs than true sequels. It reinvents itself for a new medium and showcases Sony's new handheld, just as its predecessor managed in 2005. Mark our words: you will remember why you loved this game so much.

Buy it, finish it, love it, because if this takes off we’re going to see a renaissance of new-old games. And if that happens, a whole new batch of gamers will grow up learning why rock-solid gameplay, not tera-flipping flop-bib shaders, make games truly exceptional.

Graphics, gameplay, atmosphere, all-important multiplayer... Rainbow Six Vegas gets pretty much everything right. It even shines on the little details, like wind whistling through a freshly shattered window or jackpot coins spilling out over a freshly bagged terrorist.

Hunters is strictly for the hardcore, bloodthirsty gamers who live for fragfests. Moving Metroid from a slow-paced adventure to a nail-biting wrecking ball of explosions was a risky trick, but damn did it ever work.

While some elements of its design feel antiquated, stunning changes made to Metroid Prime's visual design, performance, and controls are enough to breathe new life into one of the greatest video games of all-time. Whether this is your first journey to Talon IV or a return trip, Metroid Prime Remastered is well worth your time and attention.

To be sure, NCAA Football 10 is less about major on-field adjustments, and more about expanding the game’s universe. An ambitious list of new options headlines this year’s effort, and most are welcome additions that’ll make you think twice before trading it in the day Madden hits stores.

Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit brings back that sense of wonder we all felt when we cracked open our first video game and realised there was another world behind the screen. Only now that other world is in our living rooms.

An enormous amount of top-drawer content for $29.99, and newcomers may rightly mistake it for a full blown sequel. Highly recommended.

With spectacular comic book presentation, some of the most chaotic action in any game ever and sufficient technical depth to keep even ultra hardcore fight fans happy, this is the impossible - a worthy successor to Marvel vs Capcom 2.

While some classic arcade games (like old episodes of the "Thundercats" cartoon) are more fit for reminiscence than actual play, Time Pilot proves that what was mind-blowingly awesome back in the day can still detonate brains just as well now.

The perfect platformer. It's proof that the 2D side-scrolling formula still holds up after all these years. The characters are fun and quirky, the story is weird and loose, and the game as a whole is a pleasure to play. If you were waiting for this year's "must-have" app from DSiware, look no further.

The World Ends With You is an amazing marriage of style and gameplay. The dual screen combat further stretches what the DS can achieve in gaming that is far from a lame gimmick.

Whether it's through the broad strokes of the brilliantly judged puzzling and flawless control or via the delicate flecks which make up the finer detail – try playing around with the background scenery to see just how much Enril can mess about with – the sheer joy of playing LostWinds is undeniable.

While we’ve got a small list of complaints – you get no instant replays, pitches are tough to pick up in Home Run pinball, and the commentary gets repetitive really quickly – they don’t really impact the overall awesomeness that is The BIGS 2. In fact, it’s our favorite baseball game of the season, even if it’s really just an action game dressed up in pinstripes.

PS4’s biggest sports exclusive delivers a moonshot home run, thanks to perfectly balanced fundamentals, astonishingly lifelike presentation, and little details that few rivals – past or present – have come close to getting right.

Marvel Snap is a wonderfully intuitive card game that is simple to play, easy to learn, and satisfying to master. Games may take just six minutes to play, but there's a depth of strategy and breadth of variance here that is truly awesome.

This 15-30 hours of gameplay is a must-play for anyone, even if you didn't finish the main game.

As a complete package, Dance Central 3 is the best dance game yet. Whether you want to boogie with a bunch of friends or perfect your routines in single-player, Harmonix has hooked you up with plenty of gratifying options. This may not be the end-all-be-all of motion-controlled movin' and groovin', but it once again gives the Kinect a glorious, life-of-the-party purpose.

Unravel’s appeal goes far beyond pretty levels. Beautiful, poignant and with an iron grip on your heart, Yarny manages to effortlessly deliver a wonderful platformer and a bittersweet message.

The improved Master League mode is a godsend, adding substance to the package and complementing the excellent gameplay. With the advanced collision system, Konami has done in a year what EA has been trying to perfect since FIFA 12. The added physicality and increased number of animations has done wonders for the gameplay. The introduction of an excellent edit mode (see ‘edit it up’ for more details) to the PS4 version even makes the usual lack of licenses a relative non-issue.

343 Industries' Halo 4 establishes itself not as "the next" Halo game, or "another sequel," but instead opts to be a new beginning for the franchise--one with more commitment to its characters. It's refreshing to see the series admit its shortcomings and catch up with its contemporaries without sacrificing what makes it unique, and that's just what Halo 4 does, creating a name for itself without relying on its popularity, and getting us excited to start, continue, and one day finish the fight all over again.

A fantastic game. It approaches puzzle solving in a very open-ended manner that increases the game's replay value dramatically and the overall novelty from the first title continues to entertain in this sequel with the new adjectives system.

Renegade Squadron scores for being a great game that offers hours of satisfying multiplayer, while simultaneously using its license to its fullest potential and improving over its predecessor.

Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty is the culmination of CD Projekt Red's efforts to right the wrongs of a challenging launch, with this premium expansion combining with Update 2.0 for a total revitalization of Night City. This is Cyberpunk 2077 at its best, and with the price of entry this low you've got no excuse not to dive back in.

It's deserving of your time and your money despite its length. But more importantly, it's deserving of the name 'Sonic The Hedgehog 4'. That was always going to be this game's biggest challenge, but it's succeeded with aplomb.

A dark and twisted piece of playable horror fiction that delivers a memorable story.

NHL 11 continues to dominate the sports landscape. It's a no-brainer must-have for any modern sports gamer, whether you can successfully discuss the nuances of the Left Wing Lock or can barely name a couple of players on your favorite team. There's enough here for everyone to have a blast.

Halo Infinite celebrates a 20-year legacy with style and smartly outlines the foundations for future expansion – and it's the best Halo has been in quite some time.

NHL 11 continues to dominate the sports landscape. It's a no-brainer must-have for any modern sports gamer, whether you can successfully discuss the nuances of the Left Wing Lock or can barely name a couple of players on your favorite team. There's enough here for everyone to have a blast.

It might not have the Best Game Of All Time credentials of Ocarina of Time, but Majora’s Mask is still one of the most incredible adventure games ever made.

It's the circle of virtual life -- and it's insanely addictive.

Basically, I love this game. And I love it in a way that both fans and Sonic CD newcomers should be able to love it too. Fans will love the care and attention given to the conversion of one of the all-time great Sonic games.

A stunning return to form for the annual football franchise – and one of the finest all-round Madden packages in years.

Marathon steals the breath from your lungs. An intense shooter that thrives on PvP encounters and a well-realized setting, Bungie's extraction shooter is off to an exceptional start

With a tightly designed world, and a level of player freedom rarely seen, Atomfall already represents some of the best offline adventuring 2025 has to offer. Best of all, it's keen to allow as many people as possible to join the party.

Gears of War 3 boasts the best co-op and multiplayer of the series, by far, easily making up for the less-than-satisfying campaign. The end of the trilogy may not live up to your epic expectations, but somewhere in the tenth – or hundredth – hour of Beast and Horde 2.0 modes, you'll forgive it.

It’s last year’s top-rated game remixed with 10 new fighters and fantastic new online modes, all at a lower price. That’s an incredible deal no matter how you slice it.

Creative Assembly trimmed some of the fat while boosting the flavor to make Total War: Shogun 2 one of the tastiest entries in the franchise yet. It's much more accessible than the last few Total War games without sacrificing any depth or strategy.

Whether or not it achieves the same touchstone status as Limbo, Inside is a spellbinding, haunting experience - one I don't intend to relive any time soon, but absolutely recommend.

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.

An immensely enjoyable and fun to play superhero adventure.

Concrete Genie takes you on a uniquely heartwarming journey teeming with creativity and charm that will capture your imagination.

Life is Strange: Colors effectively leads you through an emotionally impactful story with strong character development through the power of empathy

Lush and vibrant, it is everything an expansion should be: a furthering of a much loved and honored world. We found ourselves barely able to stop playing long enough to write this, and plan on delving right back in as soon as we can.

A brilliant reinvention for the series and great horror game in its own right.

Now that it's finally "finished," Minecraft stands as a remarkable achievement - not only a well-rounded gaming experience, but a chance for players to experiment, explore freely and reshape their environment to an almost ludicrous level. If you own a computer and haven't given Minecraft a try, you're missing one of the most unique experiences of this generation.

The in-depth strategy, creative use of asynchronous multiplayer, and host of bonus content are all enough to recommend it to fans and non-fans alike. For once, don't let the spectre of permadeath deter you from this classic series. Fire Emblem: Awakening is the best RPG on the Nintendo 3DS to date.

The Alters is both immense in scope and deeply introspective. 11 Bit Studios has once again found the humanist side in a genre rooted in systems and management. It's a fantastic base builder and survival sim, but what makes The Alters truly brilliant is how these systems are underlined with vulnerable, emotional moments – like holes being punctured in your space suit.

The Artful Escape is a short but oh-so-sweet platformer that will have you bopping to its impossibly catch beats and transfixed by its beauty.

What makes it so easy to sink an entire evening into YDKJ is the strength of its material, regardless of the series' lengthy absence.

Oh, you'll hear plenty of Diablo comparisons, and we loved the big D six years ago, but hopefully you've moved on since, because this "role-playing-made-love-to-a-strategy-game" hybrid certainly has.

Street Fighter 5 is deep, endlessly fun, and immensely inviting, but local competitive play is currently the primary way to enjoy it.

Fixes the stumbles of its predecessor, reinvigorates the excitement factor, and has exemplary pacing in its single-player (and co-op) campaign. The Chimera are the most terrifying they've ever been, while you control the most empowering arsenal yet. The multiplayer is as tight as ever, rounding out a complete package of polish, mood, and adrenaline.

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.

A nostalgic, swashbuckling adventure you won't want to miss.

Despite some frustrating moments and difficulty spikes, it’s a terrific game for PlayStation Network gamers looking for something both familiar and different.

Though almost intimidatingly big at times, Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom manages to keep focus and provide a rich, robust experience that builds on what came before.

Impressively, the game takes full advantage of the PSP’s analogue stick giving it an incredibly responsive feel. You’re given a sense of total control over each vehicle and the subtle nuances between the cars and bikes are instantly apparent.

Not only a brilliantly authentic presentation of its subject matter but a tremendous game in its own right, Batman: Arkham Asylum is a big, clever and finely crafted experience which propels Rocksteady immediately into the realm of triple-A developers. This year's BioShock. That's what it is.

Whether or not you dig its new look, KOF 14 offers everything you could want in a fighting game: refined gameplay, a bevy of appealing characters, and accessibility that gives way to complex depth.

Pokemon Pokopia is like a brilliantly bizarre blend of Pokemon, Animal Crossing, Dragon Quest Builders, and Viva Piñata, and despite its many influences, manages to be a unique spin-off for the Pokemon series that's also an accomplished life sim.

If you're after a challenging and engaging game that'll reward you with a huge well of gameplay with polished style, and - we'll just say it - you're not afraid to nerd out, Persona 3 FES is an all around quality title that it'd be a shame to miss.

Even if the end destination of this final chapter isn't quite as magnificent as we hoped for, we'll never regret the hundred-hour, three-game journey we took across the galaxy to get there. Mass Effect 3 is an incredible experience that rewards you for those years of investment and devotion to its stratospheric tale.

BattleBlock Theater is filled with absurdity, fart jokes, and curious characters that will easily suck you into a colorful world. Its stages are creative and get more complex as you get used to its mechanics and controls and offer enough challenge and funny dialogue to keep you amused. Play it alone and you’ll laugh; play it with a friend (and push him off a ledge) and you’ll laugh even more.

The battle system is still addictively fun, the multifaceted story is riveting, and the graphics are amazing... we couldn't ask for much more.

More sparkle than a wand dipped in fairy dust.

Few games attempt as much and succeed as completely.

The controls work surprisingly well, the action doesn't feel like a pared-down console game and even the loading goes quickly. Add familiar characters, sweet visuals, some excellent voice acting and animated cutscenes by comic artist Ashley Wood, and this should keep fans happy until "MGS4" hits.

Despite its repetitive replay structure, 999 is a thrilling, thoughtful, and fascinating visual novel that represents some of the best the genre has to offer.

Take all this finesse and arcade action online, and MLB '06 gets even better, with tournaments and leader boards to boot. Overall, it's one of the best baseball games ever, on any platform.

The only thing to really rag on Portrait for is its length. Seven-ish hours is pretty short, no matter how you slice it. But, as with all the other Castlevania games, there are so many bizarre things to do once Drac's down that they totally make up for the main quest's length.

OlliOlli World expands the series' formula with great success, effortlessly generating competition with a relentless sense of forward momentum.

Buy it, finish it, love it, because if this takes off we’re going to see a renaissance of new-old games. And if that happens, a whole new batch of gamers will grow up learning why rock-solid gameplay, not tera-flipping flop-bib shaders, make games truly exceptional.

It's a joy and a relief to realise that Sabotage hasn't merely mimicked classic '90s JRPG, but committed to understanding what makes them tick. Its nostalgia is neither gratuitous nor cynical, instead working disparate references together with original ideas into a coherent whole. While it's a little disappointing to discover that there's isn't great depth to the turn-based battles and other systems, the immense quality and detail in the pixel art, soundtrack, location design, characters and plot ensure that Sea of Stars remains a stunning achievement to the end.

Three outstanding games (two of which are vastly enhanced with dead-on motion controls) available for the price of one. We can’t imagine a better deal on Wii this year.

It's a shame that the multiplayer options don't include a cop pursuit mode, but that's a minor omission in a one-game-fits-all package.

The Outer Worlds 2 is bigger and better than the first game in every respect, with deep, rich role-playing and plenty of freedom to tailor your experience. Every world feels curated, and exploration is always purposeful and rewarding. Topped off with a vast range of weapons, brilliant writing, and a story and character that's yours to shape, this is Obsidian doing what it does best to deliver an engrossing RPG you'll want to replay again and again.

Improvements largely concern presentation over play, but they're crucial in making you feel closer to the game than ever.

Injustice 2 isn't the most original fighting game on the block, but it might be the most balanced and thoroughly entertaining one - gear system notwithstanding.

Capcom has delivered a great remake of a classic game, one that captures everything that made it so special to begin with. Resident Evil 4 Remake is full of action and variety that's as exhilarating now as it ever was.

A breathtakingly expansive and authentic recreation of the core Star Wars universe in LEGO. Its gameplay is predictably simplistic at times, but literally everything else is stellar. At last, THIS is the droid you are looking for.

Though hard to grasp for the uninitiated, Telltale's Game of Thrones is a truly meaty addition to the established tale, creating a gut-twisting fantasy drama that will leave you feeling absolutely awful, just like Game of Thrones should.

An ambitious start for Assassin's Creed on next-gen. The vibrant Caribbean world and bloody piracy shine brightest, while the only sour notes come from contrived series story beats and repetitive missions--both need rethinking for AC5.

Bully's still a captivating, cartoonish adventure that packs a ton of activity into its deceptively small world, and it's still a lot of fun to run around dodging prefects and thwacking preppies with a slingshot.

If you're a fan of avant-garde games like the aforementioned duo by thatgamecompany, then $10 is a small price to pay for the great experience that Cipher Prime has unleashed on console gamers.

Without a doubt, Red Dead Redemption has been worth the wait. The finesse of the final delivery and the richness of the world is awe-inspiring and will keep you thrilled from start to finish.

While we’ve got a small list of complaints – you get no instant replays, pitches are tough to pick up in Home Run pinball, and the commentary gets repetitive really quickly – they don’t really impact the overall awesomeness that is The BIGS 2. In fact, it’s our favorite baseball game of the season, even if it’s really just an action game dressed up in pinstripes.