Ghost of Tsushima Tales of Iki delivers an absolute masterpiece to Sony’s PlayStation 5, alongside a remarkable expansion to an already phenomenal game. Some new mechanics keep things fresh, as does another excellent story from Sucker Punch. While there are a few hiccups to contend with, this is easily a must-have title for the year.

A good game, don’t get me wrong. Theres just isn’t a whole lot new here. Maybe in the next installment we’ll see something a bit different.

One of the most cohesive and intricate releases you can find, but not for the faint of heart.

With sharp execution, uncounted hours of gameplay, and gorgeous sound and video, you'll be hard pressed to beat this game.

This is just a fantastic game and I hope people can look past its arcade racing roots.

Dead Cells is an amazing rogue-like 2D action platformer. Fast, fluid combat is enjoyable, especially with the different weapons and tools you can find. Permanent upgrades add a sense of progression and give you more goals to work towards.

The Nioh Collection does come at a premium asking price, but for your $69.99 you’ll pick up a pair of games with easily over 150 hours of gameplay, with brand new visual modes to make it look its very best. Granted, this is a Team Ninja game so you can expect that it will punish you for each and every inch of ground you gain, but when you do succeed it makes it all the more sweet.

Final Fantasy VII Remake is more than just a remake. It stays true to the core elements of the original game, while also exploring, expanding, and breathing new life, depth, imagination, and personality into an already outstanding world and cast of characters. While it is a little light on playtime, settling in at around 30-35 hours for a playthrough, it is bursting with quality and feels like a complete game, a full experience that is just waiting to be continued. It weaves together the familiar with the new, and adds entirely new elements, personalities, and modern storytelling flare to a beloved classic. Remake is a beautiful game, and a must-play for those who lived the original, who have always wanted to experience the world of FFVII, and just about any JRPG fan out there.

In other words, if you have a passing interest in the Dragon Quest series, you need to play Dragon Quest 9. It's not going to win any awards for originality, but it shows that, in some cases, iteration is preferable to evolution.

Pokemon X & Y set a new standard for Pokemon games to come.

With it's beautiful graphics, easy to use interface, replayability and 2 player cooperative mode it should be the definitive hack and slash type RPG on the Playstation 2 for a long time to come.

Graphics are good, controls aren't frustrating, and the gameplay challenges me. I can't see how this could be a better title.

If you felt like the previous iteration of Street Fighter V felt a little anemic, this one is easily an embarrassment of riches. With more new features than is reasonable to recap here, Street Fighter V Arcade Edition is everything the original game should have been, and much more.

Sea of Stars shows modern RPGs how it's done in this incredible throwback to SNES classics. It’s an absolute joy to play from start to finish, though the story, writing, and flat characters leave some potential untapped. Even so, this is a gorgeous adventure that you won’t want to miss.

Astral Chain brings together gameplay elements from all of Platinum’s best, from Bayonetta to Transformers Devastation, and adds the secret spice of detective work to tie it all together. It’s easy enough for newcomers to the genre, deep enough for veterans, and one of Platinum’s best.

Night in the Woods is a fantastic narrative with a beautiful artstyle, theme and plenty of small touches occupying a wonderful world full of loving characters covering a sinister story underneath.

Crypt of the Necrodancer offers just about every feature imaginable, and each one is executed absolutely masterfully. It’s wholly unique and provides a tension found nowhere else, offering up some rhythm to the roguelike genre just as it started to feel like it was getting stale.

Guilty Gear -Strive- is an excellent fighting game with gorgeous visuals, but feels like it's lacking in content. There are essentially only three modes of play, arcade, survival, and online. While the complex inputs and lack of a decent tutorial will leave some players in the dust, fighting feels so good you won’t want to put the controller down.

Pokémon Sun and Moon are the most refreshing and exciting updates to the Pokémon franchise to date. Having found an impressive balance between old and new, providing both nostalgia and innovation, Pokémon Sun and Moon are a must-play for any Pokémon fan. With depth which is surprising and not obvious early on, a new path to becoming the best, and entirely new ways of getting around, there are plenty of reasons to explore the Alola Region.

If you enjoy space battles that are featured in Babylon 5 and other space operas, this game is for you.

It’s film noir, it’s drama, but most accurately it is unique. I’ve played literally thousands of games on every platform under the sun, but Heavy Rain really connected with me.

Shinobi: Art of Vengeance doesn’t settle for redoing the past. Instead, it brings the series forward with a distinct art style and bold new ideas. Art of Vengeance captures the spirit of Sega with a well-designed game that as an overly concerned Shinobi fanatic, I can muster only minor gripes about. It's good, it's fresh, and it's fun.

Visually spectacular and open on the Xbox and PC, but very dark and claustrophobic on the PS2.

Pikmin 4 is a triumphant return for one of Nintendo’s most delightful series. The focus on dandori feels like a revelation that lets everything click together so well you’ll want to sneak in just one more day. It may be a tad too easy, but the real challenge is completing the game quickly and efficiently. This is a gorgeous and engaging title that’s surprisingly lengthy, and another feather in the Switch’s cap.

Final Fantasy XVI features excellent action combat and an intricate story, both with incredible depth. It combines gameplay, story, sound, and music together into one form all inextricably linked. It sets a new standard for action RPGs, and is quite possibly the pinnacle of the series.

The story of the Half-Life universe is propulsive in its own right and the sheer zeal Valve has for this world and the characters in it is a joy to experience. Partnering with a truly responsive AI also has to be seen to be believed.

Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves collection brings two of the PlayStation 4’s best games to current gen consoles in brilliant remasters that would fool even the pickiest of gamers into believing these games were native made for the PlayStation 5. Packed full of adventure, heart, incredible storytelling, fantastic visuals, and believable characters, the Legacy of Thieves collections shows why Naughty Dog is one of the undisputed champions of the medium.

Gran Turismo 7 is an excellent racing simulator for those looking for a more realistic experience or to learn more about cars. There’s a ton of things to do, cars to collect, and tracks to master with the game’s great driving model. While you can feel the sheer passion the developers have for the subject, it does come with some flaws like very slow and tedious progression gates and persistent microtransaction prompts.