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.

The Evil Within 2 is an excellent game and a wonderful survival horror, perfectly mixing Silent Hill and Resident Evil 4 while correcting all the flaws of the original. The story’s better, the locations flow together well, the more open areas are fun to explore, and the ability to choose between action and stealth is very welcome. It’s also incredibly creepy with truly wonderful monster designs. The combat can be a little frustrating, especially early on, and occasionally the stiff Resident Evil 4/Gears of War-esque controls make things a little tougher than they need to be, but in general The Evil Within 2 hits the mark. If you’re looking for that ideal horror game to play on Halloween, this is the one to go for.

Shadow of War won’t win any prizes for originality, well, not after the first game swept them all. But it’s a bigger and (mostly) better sequel to a series that still feels unique, and for fans of Middle-Earth we’re not likely to get more movies so you can’t really ask for better than this.

Stars in Shadow: Legacy isn’t a drastic shift in direction, but it is some pretty meaningful additional content at a small price tag. The Tinker race has a lot of distinct personality in their programming to make them stand out among the already varied factions of the core game. I wish the galaxy at large responded a bit more to their more extreme measures and made it a little more difficult to be an expanding robotic zealot race, but they still play differently enough to warrant several games worth of interaction with and as them. The other additions such as the Arda Seed aren’t enormous either, but they add important little strategic wrinkles to consider regardless of what faction you play. When it comes down to it, Legacies is a budget-friendly and meaningful return to the Stars in Shadow universe.

I’ll admit, it’s taken me this long to feel the need to expand Cities: Skylines above it base offerings. Now I understand why. Each expansion brings heaps of free content to owners of even just the base game, so you might only pick up the full bag if it focuses on what you need. For me, Mass Transit feels unnecessary; whereas for others that may have been all they ever wanted. Green Cities is like sugar in this case. I don’t need it, but I want it.

Field of Glory II is a testament to the sheer wealth of consideration and ingenuity that Slitherine and Byzantine games have put into hybridizing a tabletop and digital strategy experience. The game’s battles feature a depth that will invite new players to explore and learn while making veteran strategy gamers work overtime to wring success from its turn-based battlefields. Learning the rules can be overwhelming, but putting them successfully into action against an enemy force feels great. Some sound elements could be better and it’s a shame that the vast number of factions aren’t utilized a little further, but with creative modes like the map editor, we may very well see some fantastic user-generated campaigns down the line. All-in-all, Field of Glory II lives up to its legacy and delivers a sheer technical depth that will keep tactical minds engaged from start to finish.

Realmforge have finally got the formula right. Dungeons 3 is plain, straight, addictive fun from start to finish. Both Overworld and Dungeon sides are kept relatively simple so things never truly get frustrating, and every part of it remains satisfying, from smacking your minions to blasting dwarves in the face and watching their bodies fly across the floor. The developer have made sure both sides are supremely playable and compliment each other well, with loads of neat touches and details to make sure you always know what’s going on. That things can get a little repetitious is the only real downside, but with this formula I don’t think Realmforge can better it further. And Thalya’s great. Yes, fine, and the Narrator too. Don’t want him sulking on me.

Playing through A Hat in Time was an experience that made me question the idea of a specific term - Inspired. It’s clearly built as a homage to titles like Super Mario and Luigi’s Mansion yet struggles to stand out on its own because of it. It certainly made me smile from time to time, but most of that time was also spent thinking how a finer experience could be achieved by simply playing the games that inspired it. An issue presented by a certain other homage earlier this year.

Tree of Life has a lot of charm to it. The progression and leveling is simple and easy to get into and it won’t be incredibly long before you’re able to put a makeshift camp together with relative ease. Moreover, the world is brighter and more cheerful than a lot of MMO experiences we’ve seen and is genuinely enjoyable to explore as far as its diversity goes. Getting together with a community is where the game thrives most and Tree of Life gives you more than enough tools to be a part of building a settlement, defending it, and finding your own role within your little community. Unfortunately, things like building timers and purposeful or accidental sabotage by other players can make various aspects of Tree of Life’s early game a test of endurance and/or dedication, especially if you’re going it alone. That said, if you bring some friends or find a few, Tree of Life is a lush environment that will give back in kind.

Inmates had ambitious intentions and a few good ideas, but these were not executed well at all. Fear and thrills were extinguished by the questionable shaking head effect and the game’s puzzles remained overly simplistic and did not feel challenging or rewarding to complete. In addition, I encountered a number of bugs that stopped me from progressing, at points. While this game may be attractively short for some, I cannot recommend the experience.

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.

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.

It may be shorter, but The Pact is an exciting session almost entirely devoted to Bruce Wayne chatting with some of the best Batman villains around and trying to get on their good side. If this were a TV show I’d be in rapt attention.

Creative Assembly has been a busy studio in these last couple years between the releases of the first Total War: Warhammer and its downloadable content, but they did not rest on their laurels with the sequel. Total War: Warhammer 2 is one of the most engaging and awesome marriages of turn-based and real-time strategy out there. Whether you’re sitting on your high horse among the elven factions or unleashing primal fury as the bestial races, there’s a great deal of enjoyment to be had that will keep you busy hour upon hour through multiple campaigns, skirmishes, and battles. Total War: Warhammer 2 continues to hoist the bar even higher for both Total War and Warhammer.

Blue Reflection feels like a Gust game. That is, it looks and sounds beautiful at times, but ultimately falls flat elsewhere. While certainly easy on the eyes, it cuts every corner it can in what feels like a purposeful attempt to emit mediocrity. There’s some good in here, but the rest feels hastily put together.

In the end, Synthetic Dawn adds a good amount of content onto the core Stellaris game for a reasonably small investment. It doesn’t do everything perfectly and could use some mid-campaign meat, but the machine races certainly set themselves apart from their organic counterparts in a grand slew of ways that are fun to interact with and play. As usual in Stellaris, it’s even more fun to craft your custom robotic empire whether you’re looking to make a swarm of interstellar terminators or friendly galactic janitors, each with their own perks, weaknesses, and values. Synthetic Dawn is a beautiful fit to the already lush cosmos of Stellaris and its content will provide plenty of hours of content well worth exploring for the most part.

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.

Batman Season 2 is off to an excellent start. The Enigma is a decent size for a Telltale game, clocking in at around 2 hours 30 minutes, and it honestly feels like an epic Batman movie. And it’s only the first episode of a five-episode season. It has more gameplay than most Telltale episodes too, with something to do every few seconds, meaning it feels like you’re in the movie rather than just watching it and doing a QTE occasionally. It looks good too, with excellent voice acting and very good (and unpredictable) writing throughout. Honestly, I can’t think of anything too bad to say about it. It’s one of the best first episodes Telltale has ever done, and if The Enemy Within stays this good we could be looking at Telltale’s best game. Let’s hope the usual Episode 2 quality drop-off doesn’t happen…

The improved road and transport infrastructure the content allows for is pretty great but like the other DLC’s, the content seems lacking in quantity.

Rezrog is a give and take of fairly enjoyable character building and somewhat tedious and repetitive dungeon crawling.

The Long Journey Home had so much promise but Daedalic forgot to make it playable. They focused on the big picture, on the huge epic universe, without realizing that it’s the small stuff that’s important.

There are some pretty serious issues with Warlords that really cannot be overlooked. That is not to say there is not a wonderful experience to be had because there is, but it is a case of fully understanding what you are getting into. This will not be a walk in the park, it’s a serious time investment that will become frustrating at some point along the way. Once you get past the obvious issues, underneath the ugly cover is a game that gives you the freedom and space to do what you want. It’s a title that can be engrossing and fun that will literally eat hours of your life away instantly. Hopefully in time some of the smaller issues, like the bugs and UI issues can be patched but I would really like to see a rework of the controls.