Shovel Knight is a game that could have been released in the NES era. The best elements of the games of the past and the innovations that come from the games of today are combined brilliantly. The game may perhaps be over too soon, but Shovel Knight does not take a cheap route to your your nostalgic feelings, and goes one step further by being a great stand-alone platformer.

PES 2017 is one of the best playing soccer games ever. The failing goalies and referees from the last game are gone and there are new tactical options that really improve the game. PES 2017 truly delivers a realistic soccer experience.

The charm of Machinarium is the perfect play between the magic of the setting, the mysterious characters, little visual details and the soundtrack who binds it all together. This reanimation of a extinct and decapitated genre is still going strong, between all the great games coming out on the market these days. It gives us hope about the future of point-and-click.

Neversoft has delivered a very impressive game with Guitar Hero 5. They have finally cleared al the errors from the previous games and put something extra in the game instead. With a very nice tracklist and the new improvements, Guitar Hero 5 is one of the best music games ever made. The only bad thing about Guitar Hero 5 is that you can not completely import the tracks from Guitar Hero: World Tour and Guitar Hero: Smash Hits.

Kingdom Rush is varied, deep and accessible. You'll easily entertain yourself for hours on end with it. A truly great iOS game.

Professor Layton said it himself: “Critical thinking is the key to success.” In what is probably the biggest surprise of the year, Professor Layton offers a cast of memorable characters, stylish visuals, and of course more than enough challenging puzzles to keep your brain bending for a long long time.

Yakuza 0 shows how unique Yakuza actually is. Drama and humor come together in a setting filled with violent street fights. We all know the concept, but Yakuza 0 takes it to perfection.

Destiny 2 does a lot better than ts predecessor: it looks better, it's a smooth experience and it really is the full package.

This game pack is awesome. It not only breathes quality, it really shows the love that 343 Industries has for the Halo series. Both single-player and multiplayer within this game are solid, smooth and complete.

Rogue Legacy is a brilliant little game the offers a very cool experience. The tight 2D gameplay is perfectly combined with roguelike-elements, and this makes for a challenging game that, unbeknownst to its player, makes entire chunks of days disappear. That it looks great and has great humor only makes this already delicious pie taste better. The sometimes unnecessarily expensive upgrades do halt the pacing here and there, but this challenge makes Rogue Legacy a tough game that will surely be fun for hours upon hours.

BattleBlock Theater has charm, style, humor and works great as a party game. When playing alone it can still be creative and challenging, but is never really anything special. The multiplayer is a party though, and collecting new heads will have you come back to it again and again. The show must go on, after all.

It does not happen often that a remake is better than the original, but it is the case with Yakuza Kiwami 2. The plot twists are amazing, and the same goes for storytelling, characters, sidequests and the fighting system of this game.

The Tomb of Sammun-Mak is a really fun episode. The switching between the movie reels adds an extra layer of depth to the puzzles and the story is a lot better than in the first episode. Sam & Max: The Tomb of Sammun-Mak gives promising prospect for the episodes to come.

With a graphical style and humor that are exactly like what you’d expect from South Park, The Stick of Truth is the most successful South Park-game yet. That the gameplay isn’t as fun as the experience is was created for shouldn’t bother the diehard South Park fan.

Football Manager 2014 might not seem to do anything new at a glance, but nothing could be farther from the truth. It has many big and small improvements, that make the manager-experience better and more interesting than in previous installments. This will keep you busy for tens of hours, guaranteed.

It is not a new WipEout game, but we highly doubt we will ever get something better than the WipEout Omega Collection. This bundle offers three classics that are truly timeless. Excellent.

A Brave New World is the ultimate Civilization package. The expansion retains the good elements from Civilization V and Civ V: Gods and Kings adds a lot of great content to that. Aside from standard elements like new miracles and peoples, there are, for instance, new trading options when starting your game and many deep diplomatic option for the ending of your game. You can spend the entire summer with this.

Red Faction: Guerrilla is a sandbox game in its purest form. Watching giant structures collapse is an absolute thrill, and although the characters and their backgrounds aren't very compelling, the awesome weapons and great amount of side missions will take players on a path of destruction for hours to come.

Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions is not an improvement of the perfect game we know so well. But, it is the only way to experience the genius that this twin-stick-shooter is on modern platforms.

Ratchet & Clank is reintroduced to gamers and it is done very well. The visuals are fantastic and the combination of chaotic shooting action and platforming is still gold to us. It is too bad the friendship between Ratchet and Clank is very much in the background.

Far Cry 4 is everything that made Far Cry 3 great, but it does put some new elements to it that make this game feel fresh. The game world is designed beautifully and we are astonished by the unique and colorful locations that guarantee tens of hours of fun.

The Prince returns, and does so with a fresh new style, a phenomenal game world, and in stunning visual detail. The addition of Elika is a nice touch, but takes away some of the initial challenge in the game. The fact that you can’t die is a real shame, but the choreographical fighting mechanics keep the gameplay interesting and fun, and turn Prince of Persia into a small masterpiece.

The world of Moss is an intriguing one with lifelike animations and amazing music. We want more.

An incredible hack 'n slash game with a great fighting system that is shown beautifully on screen. Moves seamlessly come together under the guidance of an amazing soundtrack, which constantly pushes you to set an even better score. That this symbiosis of style and content isn't found in the other elements of the game, becomes painfully clear when Dante is trying to act though with bad jokes and terrible one-liners. The writers hint towards an intelligent and deep plot, but when it fails to deliver the disappointment is even bigger. DmC: Devil May Cry is played for the action, and the stylish, beautiful action alone.

If you like sand-box games, you have to play InFamous. It's got a good story, unique powers and a city where you can explore a lot. It is a great debut for Sucker Punch on the PS3!

Papers, Please is interesting enough to try on its unique base alone, but it's not only the special concept of playing as a customs employee that makes it worth it. Looking for falsified papers, stamping documents and the necessary ethical dilemmas make Papers, Please a game like no other. Glory to Arstotzka!

As a full package Dirt 4 is brilliant, mainly because of the options in making the behaviour of the cars exactly the way you want it to be. Well done Codemasters.

Mario + Rabbids: Battle Kingdom turned into a game that combines both original IPs in a very original way, while also adding the amazing strategic depth of a game like X-COM.