Reaper of Souls, in conjunction with the Loot 2.0 patch, finally brings us the Diablo III we want and that fans deserve.

Without a single doubt, Remedy Entertainment is both proud and aware of its past accomplishments but also eager to look ahead while embracing creativity and consistently revealing new facets of its memorable and unique brand of weirdness. Even in a year as stacked as this one, Alan Wake 2 is one of those increasingly rare games that isn’t just an exceptional experience on its own but makes me curious about what its developer has cooked up next.

Despite a few technical quirks (seriously Ubisoft, patch the save system), a slight shortage of non-cutscene NPC interactions and the occasional lack of constant threat Far Cry 3 is a triumph that stands out from every other shooter released this year.

Sonic Mania boasts a level of polish, care, and attention to detail the franchise hasn’t seen since Sonic and Knuckles. The developers clearly love Sonic and Mania glows as a result. And while it still comes tethered to Denuvo DRM, the game at least is not affected by this.

Enemy Within makes for an incredible, and fresh, journey as you fight to save the world one more time, and it’s definitely worth picking up eventually. We would totally understand though, if you wanted to wait for a steam sale or something.

While other developers pursue more realistic experiences, Platinum never loses sight that it's making a videogame.

Stellaris is simply wonderful. If you enjoy grand strategy games then you’ll love this. If you don’t then this could be the one to change your mind. If you’ve been too intimidated to try the genre before now, then here’s your ideal starting point.

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

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.

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

While other developers pursue more realistic experiences, Platinum never loses sight that it's making a videogame.

It’s a comforting reminder that video games can still hark back to their traditional roots and produce an enjoyable experience without any overblown live-action trailer or day one DLC. This is a delight to play.

From top to bottom, JYDGE is a heck of a run-and-gunner. It takes a minimalistic approach to story to give players the simple charm of the futuristic law enforcer that reminds of good ‘80s and ‘90s movies of the sort. Then it melds that environment with a slick combat system that keeps on giving and taking until your jydge is a cavalcade of murderous tools with which to deal out deadly justice, and for which every player will find their own preference. Moreover, levels are relatively bite sized experiences, so it’s an easy game to pick up, play for a bit, and then back out as you see fit. JYDGE is deceptively simple, but its brutal brand of law enforcement has a surprising amount of depth to offer.

Resident Evil 2 Remake is a triumph of clever, polished game design, and is quite possibly our favourite game in the series. It leans into terrifying close encounters more than epic action setpieces, but that’s really what the series is about, and RE2 does the terrifying perfectly. Enemies are superb, and the game boasts the best zombies in any game ever - unrelenting and mostly unstoppable, they’re just creepy. Then there’s Mr X, the game’s own Jason Voorhees, continuously stalking you throughout. We loved every moment of Resident Evil 2, and even if you know the first game inside out, you won’t know the Remake at all. If you’ve ever loved a Resident Evil game, or wished that RE7 was third-person, want to go back to RE2 and its great horror design, or just want a horror-action game… get Resident Evil 2 Remake. You won’t be disappointed.

Bayonetta is an assured, impeccably well-crafted game overflowing with enough offbeat ideas to fuel a million action games, and if we were doling out medals of our own, we'd award Platinum Games with the highest possible accolade. Simply put, Bayonetta is worthy of nothing less than pure platinum.

In an age where punishing difficulty is finally yearned for again, Cuphead is a worthy title to the list of the best ways to test your gaming mettle.

Blizzard has been bold and their gamble seems to have paid off - while this latest add-on doesn't achieve a flawless encore it feels pretty darn Zen. Cataclysm fixes up an already deep game with more flair and substance than ever before.

NHL 11 is easily one of the most feature-packed and entertaining ice hockey games ever created.

It could have accomplished so much more, but it's hard to complain when SSX is still such a brilliant game.

NHL 11 is easily one of the most feature-packed and entertaining ice hockey games ever created.

What we have here is a refined and extremely confident product from a studio that has found its feet in the FPS world.

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments is more than just an excellent detective adventure, it also absolutely nails the essence of being the pride of Baker Street and in doing so provides an exciting roadmap for where Ukrainian developer Frogwares will take the series next.

Free from last gen’s technical limitations and focused on creative control, Jurassic World Evolution 3 is the ultimate Jurassic Park video game and a culmination of Frontier’s entire body of work.

Frontier have created one of the best games in the genre, and judging by their support of Elite Dangerous post-launch, it seems that there’s still more to come from the developers.

Luftrausers is a great a time-waster, a great test of your leet twitch skills, and a game that doesn’t assume too much and just lets you enjoy yourself.

To many it'll still seem ludicrous that sports games are worth the purchase every year, but for anyone who's ever kicked a football in their life, this is the definitive choice.

To many it'll still seem ludicrous that sports games are worth the purchase every year, but for anyone who's ever kicked a football in their life, this is the definitive choice.

To many it'll still seem ludicrous that sports games are worth the purchase every year, but for anyone who's ever kicked a football in their life, this is the definitive choice.