Jurassic World Evolution: Secrets of Dr Wu is a highly entertaining and worthwhile expansion to the main game, if you enjoyed Evolution. The five new dinosaurs are fun, the missions are some of the best in the game, and the Tacano Research Facility is a tight and truly unique level unlike any other - it’s about research and things going Jurassic World-level wrong, with an entertaining story to boot. If we’re going to be brutally honest though, in terms of actual newness there isn’t a lot in Secrets of Dr Wu. The expanded feeders and other changes make the game better, but they’re in the patch.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Don’t Dry is actually a game you might possibly want to play maybe. In fact, it’s not a bad adventure game at all - with quite fun puzzles, nice cartoony artwork, a decent length (not that that’s important, right ladies?), and there’s no silly mechanics (like paying for taxis and death) to get in the way. Even the jokes aren’t too offensive, with all the characters (especially the women) feeling like weird but relatable people - not just sex objects.

In the end, though, Space Race is a varied if not substantial update to Surviving Mars. None of the additions are truly essential and certainly not groundbreaking. If you like Surviving Mars, this DLC should be right within your courtyard.

Life is Strange 2 isn’t re-writing DONTNOD’s rulebook when it comes to gameplay, but the tale being told this time around is a far bigger statement than their last. And it’s only just begun.

Following the amazing Tomb Kings expansion, I wasn’t expecting to see yet another curve ball, but The Curse of the Vampire Coast mostly delivers it.

Call of Cthulhu is an undeniably fun adventure game with some great ideas, cool stealth moments, and it never devolves into a shooter like Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth did. However, it also wastes its sanity mechanic, and the second half of the game consists of smaller and smaller locations that seem in a rush to get to an abrupt ending. The first few hours of the game are fantastic, but the rest feels like the team were forced to cram around 20 hours of exciting adventure-RPG gameplay and story into just 4 hours. The story skips to the end, the characters change instantly, and then the credits roll without the name “Cthulhu” even being mentioned. A huge disappointment.

Running meaningful industries in your city is like playing a game within a game. Suddenly feeling like an entire county builder, it’s safe to say that the unstoppable force of Cities: Skylines just got a whole lot bigger.

The Conjuring House offers up some classic old-school Gothic horror, the kind that relies on the tension it creates along with the atmosphere that builds naturally. Sure, the gameplay itself may be a little dated, but the game does so much work in creating a legitimately unsettling experience that it’s easy to excuse the constant need for finding this or that. If you genuinely enjoy being scared or you want to make someone you care about suffer and not be able to sleep soundly for a few nights, then The Conjuring House ought to do the job pretty well.

If you enjoyed the first game, my bet is that you’ll really enjoy this game. If you’ve never played a Valkyria Chronicles game before and enjoy strategy and tactics mashups with some distinct aesthetics and gameplay flavor, this is the perfect game to jump into the series with.

It’s nearly unheard of for a company to pick up the rights to a game franchise and actually do the damn thing justice, but here we are with Star Control: Origins. The adventure is fun, funny, and all together engaging. I’m probably as surprised as you are that the game is actually this good.

A tale of two games, Frozen Synapse 2 is best when you’re battling it out like you did in the original. Thankfully, that’s a large portion of what you’re doing in this game. It just feels like the strategic layer could have been so much more.

A highly worthy adventure for Lara Croft, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider actually breaks out of the shadow of Uncharted by keeping the combat low and the puzzles high. If only the story was a bit better…

Two very good maps and a lazy, shoddy cosmetic system can’t justify the price point of Vermintide 2’s first expansion.

Far Cry 5: Dead Living Zombies maintains the level of general Far Cry 5 fun within a zombie movie setting, but does nothing really exciting with the concept. We have no problems with the DLC not having a sandbox world (although doing an Undead Nightmare with the main map would’ve been awesome), but the 7 linear levels on offer here are unimaginative, short, have no checkpoints, and could’ve been so much more. The idea of playing through terrible horror movies, which can change at any time Call of Juarez: Gunslinger-style, is fantastic, but Ubisoft wastes it. Hopefully Arcade map makers will do something with the concept, because this DLC is dead on arrival.

Dharma continues Paradox’s trend of iterating and improving the base game, but this expansion feels like it’s only for the most loyal of EU4 players. With changes and improvements to systems that feel a bit dense and additions that feel like content for content’s sake, it’s all starting to feel disappointingly stale. However, what’s present is polished and appears to be balanced well enough for this EU4 super fan. It’s just not a must-have expansion.

An interesting concept is let down by some pretty glaring gameplay flaws.

Two Point Hospital is so much more than just Theme Hospital 2. It may take Bullfrog’s classic as a base, but it expands on the concept to great a modern management-strategy classic in its own right. The game’s deeply strategic, with many decisions to make, and there’s always something to do - but the player never ends up feeling overwhelmed. Most importantly, Two Point Hospital is just tremendous amounts of fun. We may have some quibbles over the information it conveys, but all troubles fade away when you just start playing it. It could be the best strategy or management game out this year.

In the end, Aggressors is an interesting experience that should be of interest to anyone with a passion for Ancient Rome and 4X titles. It almost feels like a step between Civilization and a proper wargame, and it has the advantage of a very clear tutorial that teaches you the ropes in a quick and efficient manner. If you feel like that crossroads of casual 4X and anal wargame would be of interest to you, go ahead and give it a shot. Aggressors may just surprise you.

Unless Blizzard has some real story shake-ups and a phenomenally tuned raid on the horizon, I’m honestly expecting the sharpest player decrease to set in within the next few months. The expansion itself has some interesting ideas, but sticking to a World Quest grindfest is quickly becoming the norm, and the Island Expeditions aren’t exactly exciting.

Strange Brigade is enormous amounts of fun whether you’re playing in co-op or single-player, and you’ll more than get your money’s worth from it.

Shenmue is incredible- All open world games should be this good. Players hoping for a little more action and less Forklift Operating should check out the Yakuza series.

There’s a lot of great game here, with some fantastic ideas, but a lot of major problems are stifling the fun. If those issues are fixed, then Phantom Doctrine might be worthwhile. If you see a patch with the note “combat isn’t broken anymore”, then you may pick it up. Until then, hold off.

Capcom perfected the combat formula over countless releases, but it wasn’t until Monster Hunter: World that they stripped away what ultimately was never much fun to begin with. You spend less time spent preparing, and more time actually fighting. And sales figures suggest, as we all expected, that Capcom really had something special sitting under all that bloat.

In the end, Rise of the Republic is a capable expansion that acts as a bonafide prequel to Rome II, providing dozens of hours of fun to fans of the game and its time period. It even pushes the envelope further, adding new features to the campaign and making the fall of Rome a two-battle endeavour instead of a simple siege. Creative Assembly continues to surprise with their ongoing high quality support of Rome II, and Rise of the Republic is yet another notch on that increasingly busy belt.

Overall, WTF is a capable fast-paced game clearly aimed at fans of East/Gundam-style robot fights than more Western/weighty robot realistic representations. The game has a serious problem with feedback that never really goes away, but it should provide enough meaningless fun for anyone who’s really interested in the subject matter.

A pretty and novel use of the 40K license, brought down by uninspired design and plain bad game balance.

If The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit cost a bit of money, we’d still highly recommend it. The fact that it’s totally free means it’s elevated to a must-play, even if you have no plans on playing Life Is Strange 2 - and if you’re considering it, play this now. Any minor quibbles we might have, like some interactive points not being obvious, drop away when you remember that it’s free.

For us, and for anyone who thinks exploration of these worlds is the main reason to play games like Bioshock and that Prey was at its worst when it forced you to go back through previous locations - Prey: Mooncrash is hugely disappointing.

I really hate tearing down games because nobody sets out to purposefully make a bad game and people put passion and effort into Nobunaga’s Ambition: Taishi, but not only does this game fail on its own merits, the fact that this is the 15th entry in an acclaimed series makes it even more disappointing. The way it tries to hide its lack of depth is almost insulting, and not even a decent character system can save it.

Jurassic World Evolution may not be the best theme park management game, but it’s the most exciting dinosaur management game. And that’s enough for us.

For all its strengths, Martyr fails to impress. While the meaningless loot system and slow progression are clearly an issue, it is the uninspired control system that never really comes together that drags the game down to limbo.

Vampyr is by no means a bad game. We never gave up on it, and the compelling story and characters drove us on, and nothing about it is truly awful - apart from the menus. It’s simply not as good as it could have been, which is a real shame considering how good some of its ideas are. You may well enjoy it, but we suspect you’ll be left hungry for more satisfying fare.

If you already own the Season Pass for Far Cry 5 give it a go, but we doubt you’d want to buy Hours of Darkness separately. Save your money for the far more fun sounding zombie and alien expansions.

Antigraviator is fun while it lasts, but fails to be memorable. The developers are clearly talented and pay attention to detail, but more content and variation would go a long way to make the game long-term entertainment even for players who aren’t big on racing titles. As it stands now, there is a lot to like for enthusiasts of the genre, but the game feels a tad threadbare. It is certainly the beginnings of something great, and should be nourished to reach its potential.

Yoku’s Island Express brought something to the table few games, even among those I enjoyed, have managed to recently - a true sense of freshness. It really is unlike most games on the market, and it manages to grow beyond this defining gimmick, nailing almost every other aspect. Between the fantastic gameplay, lovely presentation and endearing characters, minor faults like excessive backtracking and a somewhat flat main storyline are negligible.

Forgotton Anne is a wholly unique and evocative experience. While it delivers on the selling point of the beautiful hand-drawn anime art style, it backs it up with fantastic story and engaging gameplay. This is truly something special we have here, something that must be explored by anyone who can get their hands on the game.

Frostpunk is definitely one of the most engaging strategy games around, and one that deserves to be experienced.

Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire is as close to the perfect RPG as one can get. The fantastic setting, grand story, exceptional writing and voice acting, engaging combat all coalesce into an exemplar of its kind. This is the game that sets the bar. This is the game that needs to be aspired to.

A Total War title that removes several tactical and strategic options and steps back most of the innovations made in recent entries.

Battletech is one of the most fun, engaging, and exciting strategy games we’ve played in a long time.

A very good expansion, only let down by some restrictive government options, a bad commonwealth AI system, and Stardock’s continued refusal to stop people from playing with each other.

Tempest Citadel is a charming, story-driven title that channels some of the best elements of non-starship based Sci-Fi. With great writing and characters, a depth of customization and plenty of game mechanics in spite of being hands-off with combat (which could have been a disaster, but is implemented wonderfully) come together to form one of the best gaming experiences of the year so far.

A slightly casual wargame-y title that doesn’t offer a lot of tactical options, but offers enough depth to be engrossing.

You’ll get a lot of enjoyment out of Far Cry 5, but we don’t think anyone will go away thinking it’s the best Far Cry game. Because it’s not.

In the end, A Way Out is without a doubt the most satisfying coop experience I’ve ever had. It’s a superb experience made from the ground up to be purely cooperative, and it creates a unique sinergy that even coop classics like Left 4 Dead can’t come close to achieving. The truth is, A Way Out not only holds itself alongside the best coop titles out there – it surpasses them.

In the end, Empires Apart is a very capable game, but it looks surprisingly like an Early Access title. It does feel a bit like Age of Empires, but its focus on multiplayer and lack of content may put a lot of people off. If you liked the gameplay provided by Age of Empires, you should definitely take a look at Empires Apart.

The finale to Batman: The Enemy Within is epic, action-packed, and can play totally differently depending on player choice. Dialogue, characters, locations, scenes and even the outcome are vastly altered, and the whole character of The Joker can either be a deranged friend or a deadly foe. ‘Same Stitch’ is a spectacular end to arguably Telltale’s best series, and one that encourages players to replay the entire thing to see how things could’ve gone.

An extremely satisfying coop combat game with a very frustrating balance and loot system.

Exorder is a technically sound game save for optimization issues, but fails to present a personality of its own or stand out from the crowd with any unique or creative aspects. With poor visuals, bland gameplay and a barely existent storyline coupled with the mobile-game feel leave a sour taste in one’s mouth after playing.

Episode 3 is just more Wolfenstein - which isn’t a bad thing since the game’s great, but none of it is new or original. No new enemies, no new level design, no exciting setpieces, and no real reason to buy it. The story’s neat and it was undeniably fun all the way through, but if you haven’t yet bought The Deeds of Captain Wilkins you can leave this particular book of The Freedom Chronicles on the shelf - you’ve already read it.

Curse of the Pharaohs is a fantastic, content-rich DLC which takes what already worked well, added a few twists and turns, and gave us more of it. This is a solid ~15-20 hours of content if you’re a completionist and explorer with some unique and otherwise underrepresented settings.

A very good, yet slightly enraging experience.

The Council is off to an excellent, intriguing and suspenseful start, and the minor issues it has didn’t really make us enjoy it any less. We’re already looking forward to Episode 2, especially after the cliffhanger conclusion which promises to ramp the action up, and that’s the best endorsement we can give.

Motorbike Garage Mechanic Simulator is polished and incredibly detailed, and manages to be enjoyable even for non-enthusiasts. While a few things are missing, it’s still a more than competent game which is both entertaining and relaxing.

It’s certainly worth picking up Battlezone: Combat Commander if you like the central premise of an RTS/FPS mash-up as it’s still one of the best games in the Action Strategy genre, but if Rebellion or Big Boat make a proper Battlezone 3 then we hope it’ll focus on the fun more than the frustration.

A varied and interesting Culture Pack where each faction feels distinct.

All of the issues that I’ve outlined with Metal Gear Survive essentially boil down to one thing: the vast majority of the game feels boring. It takes quite a long time for certain aspects of the game to stop feeling tedious, and its very easy to feel discouraged from playing altogether as it takes so long for the game to feel like its actually going somewhere. If you can be bothered to sit through hours of hunting, completing repetitive missions and accumulating skill points at a painfully slow rate, you’ll eventually feel comfortable enough to focus on the crazy story. If exploration and survival is your cup of tea, this one may be for you. If not, this is not worth your time.

SYMMETRY takes masterful atmosphere aided by great art and sound, and plugs it all into overly simple yet unfairly difficult gameplay strung around a story that starts in an interesting manner but goes nowhere meaningful. There is a whole lot of potential on display here that gets left out in the cold.

In the end, Apocalypse is an interesting – yet not essential – expansion. The only real game changer are the Colossi, as a ship type, a handful of perks, and a boring mid-game crisis are hardly worthy of an expansion pack. The team at Paradox seems comfortable with putting in the minimum amount of effort when coming up with creative options. But even while it adds planet-killing superweapons, it displays a disappointing lack of creativity in them and holds your hand the whole time, preventing you from ever using them freely. It’s bad enough that they restricted the number of megastructures in the previous patch, but this senseless clamp on superweapons mechanics just perpetuates a trend that will undoubtedly ruin the game in the long run.

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is not only a great remaster, but a massive improvement to an already excellent game. The story is engrossing, the characters really grow on you, and it’s an epic RPG that both doesn’t feel the least bit grind-y and won’t waste your time. The Job System is just perfect and is a minigame in its own right. Finally, the big Star Wars influence makes FF12 feel like Knights of the Old Republic 3 – and that thought kept me going until the end. I can’t believe I had to wait 12 years for this game, but at least it was worth the wait.

Dynasty Warriors 9 suffers from a lot of issues, most stemming from the terribly implemented open-world. Assets are reused, it’s buggy, repetitive, bloated, empty and bland. These shortcomings are made all the more painful by the obvious potential this game had, and how fun the base combat can be once players waded through all the other nonsense.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a very good and immersive title, but it suffers from technical issues and some surprisingly misguided design decisions. I was completely enthralled by the first three hours of the game, but the more I explored its systems, the more grating they became. It never stopped it from being a great title – and it occasionally recaptured that magical immersion from the first few hours – but its issues are so severe that they effectively ruined my enjoyment of what is an otherwise very good game.

Lost Sphear takes a little too long to really get going. Dungeons are tiny, its characters paper-thin, and the story far too predictable in its overuse of already overused plot elements. It’s a JRPG that struggles to add anything of value, perhaps to the point of reminding us why the natural evolution of the genre happened in the first place. Despite this, it’s rapid pacing is perhaps its biggest achievement. Even the smallest session can lead to a feeling of progress. Things start to feel a bit too repetitive in longer sessions, but playing in smaller bursts helps stop its generic tropes from grinding you down. At $50, though, it’s far too much to ask for something that purposefully refuses to reinvent the wheel. Even if it promises 40 hours over the last game’s 20.

The best survival game ever released, and an indie game that goes toe to toe with AAA titles out there.

Assassin’s Creed Origins: The Hidden Ones doesn’t change much, which isn’t a bad thing considering how good the main game is. It makes small improvements while keeping the same formula, while telling a meaningful story set in a new land as beautiful as ever. Anyone who enjoyed Origins is bound to enjoy The Hidden Ones.

Railway Empire is a satisfying enough experience for any strategy fan with even the remotest interest in trains -- or train fans with a passing interest in strategy. It offers campaign and scenarios with tasks and objectives alongside a sandbox mode that allows one to build the network of their dreams, catering to most players. While the lack of a single level going from 1830 to 1930 might displease some, the end product is a capable and accessible title in a very scant genre, and Railway Empire comes off as a passionate -- if not exactly flawless -- title.

In the end, Rise of the Tomb Kings is hands down the best DLC I’ve ever played for Total War: Warhammer. With a fantastic amount of themed changes and features, the DLC perfectly immerses players on the experience and genuinely creates the feeling of raising an once-majestic empire from the sands of time. It’s as it should be – Tomb Kings do not serve. We rule!

Iconoclasts is a kind of game that no AAA studio could ever have made. It has all the mechanics, visuals and other easily judged elements that a video game needs, and nailed down really well too, but it also has a less tangible feel to it that just endears it to the player. Even among other nostalgic pixel-art metroidvania games, this one stands out, and ought to be remembered as one of the indie greats.

The hammer is well and truly falling in Batman: The Enemy Within, with everything coming together, twists falling like rain, and everyone’s backs presented ready for stabbing – particularly mine. While it’s not much of a spoiler to say that Episode 4 sees the arrival of The Joker, how that happens and in what form is entirely up to you – and that’s the beauty of what Telltale have crafted. All choices felt important, the opening raid on the SANCTUS facility was action, and I was so enthralled by this episode I almost didn’t notice that Batman wasn’t in it at all (at least he wasn’t for me). On the downside it’s the shortest episode yet at only 70-odd minutes, but I was entertained by all of it and I can’t wait for the finale.

Tesla vs Lovecraft is stupid fun, reveling in nonsense and bullets. The rapid, frantic gameplay delivered in snackable portions underscored by a fantastic soundtrack makes for a hugely entertaining experience, even if it gets a tad repetitive after a while. We’d say blasting Lovecraftian horrors as Tesla piloting a mech was never this fun, but then it wasn’t ever done before.

As the first proper DLC expansion to Wolfenstein 2, the best FPS of the year, The Adventures of Gunslinger Joe is incredibly entertaining but isn’t without disappointments. Episode 1 of The Freedom Chronicles is decently sized and plays like an exciting classic linear FPS with the same level of excitement and imagination in the gunplay that made Wolfenstein 2 so entertaining. It’s incredibly fun then, but at the same time there’s nothing here that wasn’t done in Wolfenstein 2. The levels in particular are all re-used assets from the main game, and despite the framing device of Freedom Chronicles as non-canon pulp fiction comics Episode 1 never gets crazy or unique enough to justify that. It’s worth picking up if you’re looking for the best FPS action around, but don’t expect anything new.

While there are a number of omissions in Fallout 4 VR; working scopes, manual reloading and holding two handed weapons correctly to name a few, this game is the most complete experience that I’ve played on the Vive so far. No other VR games offer an experience of this depth or length and while you will have to make a number of adjustments before jumping in, I think it’s worth it. Fallout 4 VR is the best version of Fallout 4 and as more mods are released, I can only see it getting better. It’s by no means perfect and it’s very noticeable that this game has been adapted, rather than being built with VR in mind, but the end result is still something I can confidently recommend. If you’re a fan of Fallout 4 and own a HTC Vive, you won’t want to miss this!

ShadowHand takes an old game with a reputation for dullness, and dresses it up in an elegant Victorian English RPG coat. Somehow miraculously, it works really well. It isn’t a reinvention of the wheel, but the sense of personality the game pack in addition to being simply fun definitely makes it worth the time and money.

I really don’t like how specific and restrictive the Technocrat and Diplomat advisors are, but their quality is for the most part okay. And aside from ship designs, "okay" is a word I can apply to the whole of the Humanoids Species Pack. The end result is kinda obvious, and something I alluded to at the opening of the review: it’s inherent value is based on your personal attraction to what is offered, and if you are attracted to the ships and races in display, you’re in luck.

Whereas The Surge managed to get the basics of Dark Souls right but failed to make either the enemies or world interesting, A Walk In The Park corrects this problem (for the most part). The idea of a sci-fi Souls game was cool but setting it in a Disneyland-style theme park is clever and done pretty well. It’s very much Itchy & Scratchy Land from The Simpsons, with killer mascots and murderous jolly robot parades. Things get ridiculously tough towards the end and the game starts to forget about the fun enemies, but with this expansion Deck13 have finally made a Dark Souls alternative people might want to play. If you own The Surge, you need to take A Walk In The Park.

A unique mix of strategy and RPG mechanics that miraculously loses very few of either.

DOOM VFR is one of the most action-packed games I’ve ever played using the HTC Vive. It’s a shame Bethesda ignored the huge amount of progress that has been made in VR development. DOOM VFR is a good game, but with a number of changes it could easily become a great game. Do not buy this game if you suffer from motion sickness as you simply won’t be able to play it for longer than five minutes at a time. However, if the locomotion issues don’t bother you, DOOM VFR is definitely worth picking up.

Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock is a massive treat for fans of the franchise, but even if this is your first exposure to the universe, it’s well worth your money. It’s a sufficiently deep, extremely fun and good looking turn based space strategy game with fantastic combat and a content-rich campaign.

Way of Redemption is all there technically and functionally, but it’s empty and short on content. Every moment spent playing, the obviousness of it being an attempt at a forced e-sports success hangs over the experience, which is pretty dull to begin with.

KING Art and THQ Nordic have breathed a life into Black Mirror that it most definitely was lacking in 2003. The mystery and suspense are still there and the puzzles are diverse and challenging, but the house has taken on an excellent visual redesign. Exploring and investigation is an intriguing endeavor and the ghostly moments provide a fascinating highlight to puzzle solving and plot advancement. If that wasn’t enough, the story is chock full of interesting characters with passionate voicing that make the story that much more interesting throughout the game. We certainly wish the animation was a little better in both gameplay and cutscenes at times because it hurts the mood the game is trying to build when the cracks show. That said, when everything is in proper working motion, Black Mirror is a suspenseful horror adventure that will tickle brains with its puzzles and exploration and quicken pulses with its dark story.

Attacking a recently settled city near my borders and settling for peace immediately afterwards, instead of being embroiled in an eternal war against a drastically inferior enemy due to imbecilic AI diplomacy.

Whether you’ve played past titles in the franchise or not, World of Final Fantasy is a seriously strong JRPG that any fan of the genre should get a kick out of. Emotional, hilarious and deep, it proves yet again that a good RPG is about more than just thwarting a world-ending menace - it’s about the journey and everyone who makes it worthwhile.

Star Wars Battlefront 2 could’ve been game of the year, but some key mistakes basically ruin the whole thing. The progression system being randomized in Loot Crates and players getting significant game-changing upgrades, many of which were paid for, are the main offenders. With every player stocked up with Star Cards that give them massive advantages new players face a long uphill struggle, and it makes Battlefront 2 a chore to play. Which is upsetting, because DICE have put in so much effort into all the maps, modes, and Classes, and really nail the Star Wars feeling. When it works it’s a gorgeous spectacle, an imaginative and epic shooter with some wonderful objective-based ideas. Then you get blown up by an Improved Thermal Detonator for the 23rd time while other players shrug off your rockets and the fun oozes out immediately. The single-player campaign is simple but entertaining, however it can’t save Battlefront 2. If you’re desperate for Star Wars you’ve got no other choice, but if you want until a sale the game will be even more unbearable to play. Get Wolfenstein 2 instead.

Jade Dragon adds precious little to Crusader Kings 2, which would have benefitted much more from a playable and visible Chinese region. This expansion feels far too feature-bare for its price tag, and even at a smaller price point none of it feels really impactful. Even when you have access to the China menu, you’ll likely find yourself progressing via other means.

As with all region-focused expansions for Europa Universalis IV, the first question you need to ask is whether you want to play as a nation from said region, because If not, you should look at another expansion instead. However, for those interested in playing as Muslim nations, Cradle of Civilization has plenty of new mechanics, features and events to make it worth your time and money.

A fantastic show of force from the long-standing Team Ninja, but one that feels like it didn’t truly understand the mass appeal of the genre. Spruced up with the group’s signature style, Nioh only falters with its less captivating world. We can appreciate the heritage, but it won’t grab everyone.

The Calm Before The Storm is probably a better title. The third episode of Telltale’s second season of Batman isn’t big on action, massive shocks, or set-pieces, but it is big on character development, interaction, making choices, and probably making the wrong ones. Fractured Mask isn’t the most eventful episode, but it’s still fun, all the characters are clashing wonderfully, and it’s fun waiting for the hammer to fall and your choices to bite you hard. Which will probably happen in Episode 4. We can’t wait.

Despite a few performance hiccups we encountered and the absence of a few of the more fun console perks or events, Injustice 2 on PC is a much better port than the first game or Mortal Kombat X. And a good thing too, because Injustice 2 is a superb fighting game. Combat is satisfying and is just as accessible to casual fans as professionals, and there’s an absolute wealth of content both online and offline that could keep you playing forever. The story mode is an absolute blast, with fun writing, acting and amazing facial animation, and sports a far better villain than the Justice League movie. Injustice 2 is by far the best fighting game this year, and may very well be the best fighting game on PC.

Spintires: MudRunner is a well-thought out and obvious improvement over the original in a number of ways. The physics feel tight and loose where they need to be, the new vehicles are genuinely fun to explore and drive, and the overall look of the game gets down and dirty in the best of ways for an off-road delivery simulator. It can get tedious at times and we wish the game took a few more chances, context, and variety in challenging our driving skills, but exploring and making our own battles through the tough journey from place to place is still a highlight, especially with friends along for the ride. A sketchy damage system and a few less than stellar textures make this game feel less polished than it ought to be at times, but with a healthy mod community and a ton of support and depth behind it, Spintires: MudRunner feels like an off-road trek that will keep on giving.

AER is a pretty and charming game, but doesn’t have enough of its own original ideas to feel fresh, and it is plagued by a few flaws that prevent it from being a true standout in the genre of artsy indie exploration games. That said, the experience itself is fun and pleasant, even if it isn’t particularly memorable. If you already like these kinds of games, you’ll enjoy AER, but if you don’t, this isn’t what will make you fall in love with them.

We get the impression that Sonic Team wanted Forces to be the Best Sonic Game Ever, with a Greatest Hits package of everything good in the series, but they didn’t have the time, money or talent to accomplish this. The 2D sections control poorly, and the 3D sections sport the same problems that the series has had since Sonic Adventure – such as dying if you don’t play the level exactly as the designer intended. There’s fun to be had, but even then Forces feels so cheap and abrupt that you’ll be finished with it entirely in 4 hours. It’s not the worst 3D Sonic game, but in trying to do everything Sonic Team didn’t really accomplish anything. Next time, stick to just Generations 2 or Colours 2. Or even better – give Sonic entirely to other developers.

In terms of bringing old-school Call of Duty up to modern standards, Call of Duty: WWII does fairly admirably, but at the same time every end of it feels like something is missing. The campaign is a tour and spectacle of the terror and intensity of the conflict as the Allies fought their way into to the Eagle’s Nest, but the forgoing of nearly all outside perspectives in favor of an all-American campaign feels narrow in comparison to previous COD outings that have tackled this subject matter. Likewise, multiplayer is as tight as ever and War mode is a solid addition that we hope to see built upon in all further Call of Duty content, but the hub feels tacked on. Zombie Mode is still Zombie Mode and fans will find a lot to discover and challenge in the new scenario, but the stark tones might put off the more lighthearted fans of the mode in its previous incarnations. COD: WWII is far from the worst of the series and players will find a wealth of well-crafted moments and design here, but a few too many oddities and omissions keep it from being the best that Call of Duty has ever offered.

The original Hand of Fate took a lot of different styles of gaming and brought them together successfully to make something really unique. Hand of Fate 2 improves upon nearly every aspect of the original, providing diverse new challenges that help build the world around the Game of Life and Death. The new scenarios, the success checks that come with them, the companions, and new encounters and gear cards all add hundreds of unique touches to the game that make every card flip an experience. Meanwhile, despite a few small flaws combat is as smooth as ever with the new weapons and companion abilities allowing players to find their own preferred way to dispatch the wide array of opponents they come across. Luck is a fickle mistress and this game isn’t shy about stomping out your quests like a merciless tabletop game master in any part of your endeavors. That said, Hand of Fate 2 rewards the determined and stacking the deck in your favor to overcome its challenges makes this quest well worth the effort.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is easily the best single-player FPS of 2017, but it has surprising problems. The story is great, well-written and well told, and goes to places both dark and humorous, but it leaves a lot left over for Wolfenstein 3. The levels are fantastically designed with many ways to approach them, but occasionally you’re not sure where you need to go and there’s often not enough variety in the levels – we’re not sure we want to see another metallic Nazi base ever again. And the combat’s just fantastic. We loved every moment of it and we’re certain we’ll want to play it again, but to be honest… The New Order was a little bit more satisfying.

Origins absolutely achieves Ubisoft’s goal of bringing back their flagship franchise with a bang. The game has very few flaws and issues, and all of these are dwarfed by the strides it has achieved on the gameplay front. Origins marries the parts of the familiar AC formula that work with a host of improvements that result in an extremely entertaining and satisfying gaming experience, backed up with a great story to boot. Assassin’s Creed is back, and it’s better than ever. Oh, and you can pet cats! GOTY 2017.

South Park: The Fractured But Whole is an excellent sequel and the funniest game this year, but it’s simply not as good as The Stick Of Truth. Even ignoring how unique the first game was at the time, the storyline was more epic, the locations more varied, the jokes jaw-dislocatingly good in that game. This one is great, always funny and usually pretty disturbing in that South Park way, but the superhero storyline kind of peaks with Professor Chaos and that’s not even halfway through the game. Fortunately at least the combat is far better and never less than entertaining, and fights can get really inventive and very tactical. If The Stick Of Truth was an all-time classic episode of South Park, The Fractured But Whole is merely a very good one. Still, this is the one with Tweek x Craig, which is always excellent news. Hopefully Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Ubisoft will get it right again in 2020 with South Park: This Time They’re Playing Star Wars.

It’s interesting that The Inner World – The Last Wind Monk comes out at the time it does. The game has a lot to say about things like discrimination, acceptance, purpose, and willful ignorance and goes about it in humorous and sometimes surprisingly deep ways. It has everything a good point-and-click should have from meaningful world engagement and enjoyable dialogue to good, old-fashioned, item-heavy puzzle solving. That said, it’s clearly a journey that Studio Fizbin isn’t out to bar anyone from for the sake of nostalgic difficulty. Their adaption of point-and-click mechanics to modern times with things like the hint system ensures that the only thing keeping a player from moving forward at any point is their own stubborn resolve. It could have better character animations at times to go with all of the solid and wonderful things built visually, aurally, and mechanically around these characters. However for the most part, The Inner World – The Last Wind Monk makes a strong case that point-and-click adventures still have a lot to offer in modern gaming.

Rogue Trooper is an interesting concept. The science-fiction design it was based on translated decently to the original back in 2006 and it translates better now with everything learned in over a decade. The best parts of the game took players into airships to chase villains across ravines and cities and put them blind into treacherous forests full of snipers. These things made it along well to Rogue Trooper Redux. Unfortunately, bad enemy AI and overly simple controls where actions get caught up in one another keeps Rogue Trooper from being challenging as much as it comes out frustrating at times. Rebellion is developing a pedigree for helping to putting old school projects back together for another more meaningful go. Rogue Trooper Redux isn’t the best they’ve ever done, but it’s most certainly an interesting shooter and one well worth considering if you want to take a modernized revisit to yesteryear.