Oxenfree is a smart, emotional adventure that feels focused and purposeful. It’s got plenty of narrative twists that lead to great “a-ha” moments, but keeps the story well-grounded in its compelling protagonists and clever gameplay moments. Oxenfree is simply well-made, endearing, and very memorable.

Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen is a worthy memorial to a criminally underrated title, and although it falters at times, the design, combat, scenery, and world this game molds is one that deserves preservation.

Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon offers a fun glimpse into the Pokemon world from the monsters’ perspective, all while providing a unique, turn-based tactical gameplay with light roguelike features. Featuring over 700 pokemon to encounter, fight and team up with, it’s a must-have for any dedicated fans of the series, and provides just enough tactical thinking to entertain a budding CRPG player.

Sword Art Online: Lost Song, while polished in some areas and definitely a great buy for a fan of the anime, is only mediocre in it’s own right.

While Rubble Without a Cause can be a little obtuse and less intuitive than A Knight to Remember, it is still a worthy installment.

Amplitude hits both highs and lows, but is the kind of score-hunting, high difficulty challenge that rhythm fans will love if they’re looking for something fresh. A solid revival for a pillar of the genre.

As of episode four, Minecraft: Story Mode feels like it’s on the right track to conclude in a more interesting way than it originally appeared, but I’m not sure yet whether that makes dragging yourself through the first three episodes worth it to see the better places the series goes as it nears its conclusion.

It takes the well-oiled RPG mechanics of its predecessor and delivers a vast and alien world so meticulously and passionately designed that it’s easy and fun to get lost inside of it.

Ultimately, Helldivers is a fun, extremely well-polished game which is going to appeal to a fairly specific subset of gamers.

Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires fails to make the leap to portability, as it’s marred at every step by technical limitations and boring metagames. Lacking any of the endearing qualities of other Warriors titles, it’s hard to recommend it even to the most diehard musou enthusiast.

Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star succeeds at providing base-level fan-service, but in a way that doesn’t feel as particularly compelling or essential as the original. If you want more pigeons in your life, it’s pocket change for a few laughs – just don’t expect more out of it.

The Sims 4: Get Together utilizes the new club system to have new experiences, ways to play, and is a great social feature. Although it is a great expansion and allows for new and exciting gameplay, it fails to bring enough to the table for new players or people looking to get back to the Sims franchise.

More than medi-orc-re, but less than spectacular, Orsinium seems more like a holdover expansion than an overall addition to the ESO experience.

Rainbow Six: Siege is one of the better tactical FPS experiences of the year, even with a smaller content offering than most. Microtransactions and limited custom options can muddy it up, but if you enjoy the core gameplay loop, there’s a lot to enjoy here for the multiplayer-minded player.

It feels odd calling a point & click horror game adorable, but that’s what Bulb Boy is. Heartwarming moments are mixed with gross-out details without any friction. The surreal story has plenty of twists and turns, and the puzzles are enjoyable to work out. This little indie title is truly a gem in its own special way.

Its main goal from the outset seems to focus on raising the player’s blood pressure and enthralling them with the action. While it achieves that feeling for a majority of the game, the console version suffers from some serious frame rate and loading issues that bog down their experiences.

Valhalla Hills is a well built title easily capable of fulfilling a short term RTS fix.

Driveclub Bikes is a nice departure for the Driveclub franchise. This is an expansion that actually expands the game from a relatively competent title, in my opinion, to nearly a must own for racing fans.

Just what Telltale hopes to accomplish Minecraft: Story Mode remains in question as “The Last Place You Look” breaks story and characters for the sake of seeing every corner of the Minecraft universe.

Yo-Kai Watch is an endearing, charming title with some minor missteps, but it overcomes those with the pure joy of discovery and intrigue that can only come from a well-crafted collection-RPG, reminiscent of my youth spent behind a dim GameBoy light.

Typoman is a brilliant proof of concept muddied by messy mechanics, unclear prompts and a lack of meaningful motivation. While the wordplay is superb, the focus is never on that strength as often as I wish it was.

Star Wars Battlefront nails bringing home the original trilogy in a new and interesting way, but fails to substantiate the splendor in a meaningful way. A fun nostalgia trip that might barely tide you over until the new film, but not much longer.

For the most part, The Old Hunters feels like a tight, good bit of content that fans of the original game will thoroughly enjoy. The Old Hunters ratchets up Bloodborne’s difficulty quite a bit. But in doing so, the satisfaction of beating bosses only gets stronger.

Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival retains the charm that the series is known for, but is uneventful and boring. Move out of this town.

Archon and co-op modes provide a stair step for new players and veterans alike to rejoin the multiplayer ranks, whereas the incredibly strong single player ties up the story arc nicely. While most sequels don’t feel the freedom to innovate, Blizzard has done exactly that, making the venerable series feel fresh and new.

The first season is one that is full of hard choices and a lot of sacrifice and feels very much in line with what fans have come to expect from Game of Thrones, but just how much all of this will matter has been hidden away for a second season.

Nintendo’s best competitive sports title is just as thrilling as ever, but feels a little too familiar and light on content.

Saint Seiya Soldier’s Soul is a quaint fighting game that has its small playability value robbed by a unique fatal flaw in the restart option that drags the action and frustrates the player.

Stella Glow has a talent for keeping you engaged all the way through, which is a rare trait for the increasingly niche world of Japanese Role Playing games.

There’s a charming game in Goggles that is unfortunately hidden behind a half-baked software release. While the art style is colorful and unique, the gameplay is flat and an important portion of the experience, multiplayer, has no participants. While I love the level design, it’s not to recommend the game on.

Lovely Weather We’re Having has a solid foundation of eye-catching artwork and an ever-changing landscape based on your local weather. However, there are a few negatives that can’t be overlooked, such as the rough audio, the lack of dialogue, and the small size of the world.

Fallout 4 may be an iterative step forward for the series, but it is every bit what RPG fans know, love, and expect.

It’s easy to brush aside lofty claims, but Untame has delivered the distinctive gaming experience they promised and then some.

Broforce is a fun game, but it’s overbearing and obnoxious tone made it difficult to play for more than an hour or so at a time.

In that rubble, a wonderful bounty is excavated; an exquisite story, a compelling heroine, a fascinating sandbox, and a beautiful view. Rise of the Tomb Raider is a little more subdued, a little less bombastic, and a whole lot more introspective. It sometimes falters in scripted sequences and technical hitches. But the way it combines such excellent themes into such fantastic gameplay is evidence that Lara’s story was one that needed to continue.

How would I describe it in a single word? Fantastic! If this is the kind of work a three-year development cycle can give a AAA game, then I don’t want to see Black Ops 4 until 2018, and counting down the days to it’s release.

If you are at all on the fence on finding a game which can deliver a rich experience and dozens of hours of gameplay with a great mix of resource management, city building, and RTS combat: this just might fit the bill.

The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes can occasionally get tedious when playing alone, but the multiplayer is one of the greatest handheld co-op experiences around.

Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns offers everything a seasoned player could want in an expansion, and more. Coupled with ArenaNet’s track record of continuous free updates, it should be an automatic purchase for anyone at or near the max level.

The live-action scenes are a great idea and work well at times, but I also felt they were just put there to move me from race to race. I never fully found myself connecting to any characters or the story.

There are some framerate hitches to go along with the graphical and lighting overhaul, and there isn’t a whole lot new here, but if you missed out the first time, don’t let this one pass you by.

Cibele has some things going for it, such as a narrative structure based on interaction with the main character’s computer. It’s a fairly predictable story told in a new way. Some parts of it were intriguing, but overall it didn’t really wow me.

With the largest cast of wrestlers the franchise has ever seen, 2K and Yukes have done a solid job righting the WWE 2K ship. That being said, there is still a lot of work to be done.

Downwell is a simple and fun 2D platformer. Its unique gameplay makes it fast-paced and challenging, and its roguelike qualities keep it from growing bland or frustrating. Spend a little time with this game and you may get hooked too.

With over 13,000 changes to the base product, a graphical overhaul, and a bevy of UI additions, Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition improves on the original release in every way. There are a few hiccups in translation, but they are minor bumps in the road for this incredible RPG.

Minecraft: Story Mode is left with a lot to prove in the coming episodes. “Assembly Required” doesn’t do much to convince players that any of its drama is genuine, or that any of its plotlines can adequately fill up what they’ve come to expect in a full episode of a Telltale series.

The best parts of Payday 2 and Left 4 Dead in the gritty Warhammer fantasy universe, with a heavy emphasis on melee combat and loot. There’s tons here for co-op fans, and the emphasis on melee makes it stand out from the rest of the pack.

Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree’s Woe and the Blight Below is an excellent musou game and a blast to play. It retains its Dragon Quest heritage beautifully, while still creating an experience fun for any fan of musou gameplay.

A fun solo venture, but it won’t suck out thousands of your hours.

If you enjoyed The Bloody Baron quest line in The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, you will absolutely love Hearts of Stone. While it is the first piece of DLC with a price tag, the storyline justifies that at twice the price.

Overlord: Fellowship of Evil is, by a wide margin, one of the worst games of the year. I don’t know what the team at Codemaster was thinking, but they’ve wrecked everything Triumph Studios had built. Either give it back, or let this franchise die — it has suffered enough, as have we.

With a proper DM, Sword Coast Legends feels every bit like the pen and paper game come to life. On the other hand, running modules or playing through the 40-hour single player game makes it feel like more of a standard fare dungeon crawler than a Dungeons & Dragons game.

Pinball is pinball, but Zen Pinball 2 always tries their best to make an interesting product and has succeeded again with the Balls of Glory pack.

Doodle God is a port of a mobile game, and carries with it the same simplicity, microtransactions, and limited but continuous fun that many games of the platform boast to the PC.

If you can look at it through the lens of when it was created and get past the control scheme, you will find a satisfying experience and show younger gamers why System Shock was so influential to the gaming community.

A masterpiece, and quite possibly the best Halo game so far. The campaign is top-notch, even as Master Chief shares the spotlight, and the multiplayer is largely a return to everything that has made the franchise so beloved to begin with.

One of the best efforts of the year, unafraid and willing to take chances, and well-deserving of your time.

Tales from the Borderlands concludes with some series-defining moments and choices, solidifying it as one of Telltale’s best, if not the strongest offering the studio has put forth in several years.

Yoshi’s Woolly World is a charming, yet unchallenging platformer that succeeds at being an amusing way to pass the time.

To this day, I call Assassin’s Creed II my favorite video game of the past generation. It was truly a masterpiece. Unfortunately, the Assassin’s Creed series has become a shell of its former self. Syndicate tries hard to recreate some of the magic, and even creates some smart new features, but it ultimately falls short.

A top notch bullet hell experience racked out with character options, unlockables, and some charming dialogue, Assault Android Cactus is a top shelf choice of any shooter addict. A lack of online co-op is unfortunate, if understandable, and the characters – while cute and expressive – may be a bit too adorable for some.

Guitar Hero Live gives us an offline first-person rock-and-roll fantasy, but it’s Guitar Hero TV that gives this series new life. The new guitar gives veterans new challenges while breaking down the barrier to entry for new players. While the on-disc tracks are, in my opinon, throwaway, Guitar Hero TV should keep players busy for a long time to come.

Lego Dimensions is a great blend of toys-to-life and charming Lego gameplay, but falters under the monetary weight required to get the same breadth of play that previous games did. Some of the best content in the game is locked behind figures, but if you like building with Lego bricks and playing Lego games, this a no-brainer.

Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water finds a wildly effective new way to utilize the GamePad as the Camera Obscura, and builds some great story and atmosphere. Barring an odd control scheme and some tedious missions, this is a stellar horror title for any Wii U owner.

Cleanly mapped to a console controller, Wasteland 2 is a must-have for any RPG fan.

The way that Telltale takes advantage of Minecraft lore to form its own narrative is intriguing and will delight fans of the original game, but what the studio is doing with this new story isn’t doing much that will excite anyone else.

As a The Walking Dead fan, a fan of puzzle games, RPG games and retro-style graphics, there is nothing I can say I enjoyed about this game.

Wasteland 2 is an excellent update on a classic RPG experience, placing you squarely in the harshest of settings with a more benevolent role to play than most other “post-nuclear” game experiences with an excellent and open world exploration and battle system, as well as deep character customization and a dynamic, ever-changing story and world experience. While the game suffers from some look and feel issues and has a mostly abysmal camera, Wasteland 2 is still a great new title that can sate your desires for apocalyptic exploration for now.

It’s easy to have mixed thoughts about The Beginner’s Guide, but as a game that aims to make you think, it does accomplish this goal.

The parts of the game we fell in love with feel like they’ve gotten a fresh coat of paint, but the feature set, and currently incomplete pieces, feels like a Kickstarter title that didn’t quite hit all of its funding goals. The parts that matter, however, are rock solid, and the new solo improvements are a hit.

Frontier Developments have done a magnificent job of creating an affordable universe that is fun to play. With tons of game styles and the entirety of the Milky Way to explore, this one is truly for space sim buffs with one caveat – if you’re feeling lost, we recommend you check out video tutorials online.

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime is a cute, simple game about space travel and the power of love. Though you have the option of flying solo, take the title’s advice and play through this game with a friend for the optimal experience.

Albino Lullaby: Episode 1 offers a genuinely fresh take on the horror genre, with a bright color palette, a topsy turvy environment, and nuanced enemies. In spite of its low points, it’s definitely worth experiencing. With time it should become more polished, but for now if you want to play it, you’ll have to brace yourself for bugs.

While some graphical issues keep the PS4 version from matching its PC counterpart, The Talos Principle remains one of the most interesting, intelligent, and inspiring video games ever made. Absolutely essential gaming.

Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth Rising Tide is a well developed, superbly balanced, and refined evolution of the original.

Prison Architect is a triumphant simulator that almost perfectly captures the world of prison building and administration.

Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax crafts a crossover fighter that’s extremely enjoyable and faithful to its series, but lacks the depth of polished fighters to garner any long-term attachment. Play for the fun, but don’t expect to lose yourself in it.

Summary: Regicide is chess. You are buying a computer chess game. Yes the graphics are tasty and the fight scenes are well done and the atmospherics are exemplary. But it’s Combat Chess with a twist, and not even a big twist.

This skater not only fails by today’s standards, it wouldn’t even be passable during Tony’s heyday. Lousy controls, bland visuals, and an abundance of bugs make Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 a broken mess.

Dropsy is a bit of an oddball game, so I wouldn’t bet on it having wide appeal, but those who love it will really love it.

Undertale is one of the most unique efforts seen in indie gaming. Combining a love for the old with a willingness to innovate and utilize game mechanics to express ideas, rather than a binary input-output, this game should be on any and every one’s radar.

Mythology fans that like a good challenge, including discovering everything through trial and error, will love this game.

Whether you play through these three games once, or several times, Uncharted is still required gaming. The Nathan Drake Collection puts three of last generation’s most important games in one place, all with enhancements that make it the best way to experience Nathan Drake’s story.

Summary: Uninspiring with a lack of original ideas. It might be noteworthy if it wasn’t swimming in a pool crowded with 800-pound gorillas.

Magnetic: Cage Closed is a generic puzzler with an uninspired premise, which is only compounded by a second-rate story and laughable voice acting.

If you enjoy grinding numbers, goofy anime antics, and over-the-top style, Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance will give you hundreds of hours of replayability. If you don’t like the idea of spending hours and hours replaying levels and building up characters, then you might want to look somewhere else.

NBA 2K16 took some unexpected chances, and its uniqueness is respectable, even if the final product is far from perfect.

Rack N Ruin redeems itself with a second showing on PC, but only if you abandon your controller for the ol’ fashioned keyboard and mouse.

Blood Bowl II is a unique tactical turn-based game with an amusing setting and a lot of personality.

If you’re looking to get your pants scared off, SOMA may not be the game for you, but for those who appreciate its brand of subtle horror, it is truly a masterpiece.

Skylanders SuperChargers is hands-down one of the best kid-friendly games on the market, and the most complete realization of the “toys to life” genre to date.

The Great Escape is proof that the AR-K series has the potential to get better as it progresses. The graphics and voice acting are a step up, but it’s the story that has improved by leaps and bounds. Not only does it make more sense now, but it is the most persuasive argument for getting you to try the game in the first place.

Dancing All Night is full of spirit and celebration unparalleled in the series thus far. Despite the dark and implausible story in the background, Dancing All Night is a concentrated dose of the most uplifting, cheerful, and fun side of the series, all set to a fantastic soundtrack that will get anyone dancing.

Overall, FIFA is clearly the most technically sound sports franchise in EA Sports’ pocket, which can result in a lack of risk taking. For now, no risks are needed, as FIFA 16 is a fantastic addition to a storied franchise.

The noir atmosphere is top notch, making it one of my favorite things about this game. The environment is more detailed than you might expect, and the mystery plot is fun to experience. Though some aspects of Calvino Noir can be frustrating or not as polished, overall it is worth the journey.

After a small misstep in NHL 15, NHL 16 feels like a huge apology letter to fans. Many removed features have returned, but that also means improvements are few and far between.

Armello presents an imaginative backdrop to a fantasy board game with deep mechanics. The steep learning curve and balancing issues may put off some players, but those who put in the time will be rewarded the most.

The Phantom Pain strays from the formula to perfect a new one, offering the best in open-world emergent gameplay we’ve seen this generation. While the story sometimes falters under expectations, the characters, aesthetic, and polish of this game set it apart as one of the year’s best.