A great first chapter and despite a few minor issues easily the most authentic interpretation of the graphic adventure in the modern era.

The definitive version of one of the most enduring indie games of the last decade, with great offline multiplayer and a near infinite array of levels.

A hugely disappointing penultimate episode, but if you enjoyed the first three it’s still nowhere near enough to put you off from following things through to the end.

Behind the bizarre concept is one of the best scripts of the year, and a game that subverts your expectations with effortless regularity.

Macabrely original murder ’em-up that defies categorisation, and its numerous rough edges, to make being evil more fun than in almost any other game.

Less is most definitely more in this beautifully understated co-op adventure, that dares you to make sense of its enigmatic voyage.

A few flaws short of a modern platforming classic, but although Tembo isn’t perfect he is exactly as badass as promised.

One of the most impressive indie titles of last year is now even better on PS4, in what is one of the most cinematic and accessible 2D shooter of the modern era.

One of the best story driven games of recent years, although you do sometimes wonder if it’s focusing on the most interesting aspect of its plot.

More Godzooky than Godzilla, this is not only a terrible game but a technically inept one – that can’t even make stepping on tanks seem like fun.

Hardly a game that was in desperate need of a makeover, but the original is still a solid action adventure and Kratos’ story is given at least an element of closure.

A competent but completely unremarkable story mission that seems to exist more as an excuse to sell season passes, rather than through any creative justification of its own.

The gameplay basics are fine, but this is the absolute bare bones of what a golf game should be – with less than half the amount of content of the last game in the series.

Manga and anime fans will no doubt get some pleasure out of the game’s endless array of cameos, but viewed on its merits as a fighting game this is a clear defeat.

Disgracing the name of Alone In The Dark is just one of the many crimes committed in this hatefully frustrating, and patently unfinished, survival horror.

The racing and visuals are good, but the scarcity of modes and options means this is another year where the official F1 tie-in barely makes the starting grid.

A superb multiplayer game that takes a very simple premise and crafts from it one of the best competitive arcade games in years.

One of the most interesting things to happen to both massively multiplayer online games and shooters in years, and already a hugely enjoyable game in its own right.

As charming and accessible as any Lego game but Jurassic Park doesn’t suit the Lego formula terribly well and the ability to play as dinosaurs is underused.

Less consistent than the previous games, and the Batmobile is a surprisingly unwelcome addition, but even as the worst of the Arkham titles this is still a superior superhero adventure.

A perfectly competent platformer, perhaps Yoshi’s best since Super Mario World 2, but one that is far less unique than its visuals suggest.

A less than impressive remaster, that still isn’t up to par with the PC version, but there’s a lot of content here and the bank-robbing co-op remains a fun novelty.

A rare chance to play a thoroughbred visual novel, with a multi-layered plot that explores everything from Japanese pop culture to the ripple effect of everyday decisions.

A strategy role-player that is filled with clever ideas and inspires great empathy with your characters, even if the battle system is a few steps behind XCOM.

A good collection of new maps, including one of the best remakes in the series. Exo Zombies still seems very derivative, but the co-op action remains solid throughout.

Ultra violent and desperate to shock, but this is far too boring and repetitive a game to either love or hate.

A wonderful throwback to ’80s style British gaming, that has much to teach modern titles in terms of player freedom and open world design.

Not the revival Carmageddon veterans will have been hoping for, and far too glitchy and unrefined to draw in more casual fans of vehicular violence.

A terrible video game and still a terrible attempt at simulating owning a farm, with unbearably boring and bug-ridden gameplay.

The most original and enjoyable online shooter of the generation, but the lack of content at launch means it may be months before it reaches its true potential.

A fun addition to the sandbox genre, that adds a more structured campaign and achievable goals – at the cost of only a little in the way of accessibility.

Whatever you think of the original games this is one of the best HD remakes ever, and a considerable improvement on the already excellent PlayStation 3 and Vita versions.

Another enjoyable addition to the Fallblox family of puzzle games, with a fun new gimmick and a generally fair and above board use of DLC.

There’s a lot of downtime at the start, but another shock ending does little to dilute what is the best piece of interactive storytelling so far this year.

Only a minor improvement on the last game, but still a hugely accomplished space strategy game – with an almost infinite range of customisation options.

A fun, funny, and wonderfully gory 2D shooter, but it’s not quite as tightly designed as OlliOlli and certainly lacks the same longevity.

The ingredients are there for a transcendent action strategy but the reality is that Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. is disappointingly mundane and only fitfully entertaining.

The best turn-based tactics game since XCOM and a fantastic spy adventure that has an appeal that goes well beyond just strategy fans.

A colossal achievement in technical terms, with a level of interaction with the game world and its inhabitants that is unsurpassed in modern video games.

A viable alternative to the old guard of driving simulators, that values freedom of choice and gritty realism over needless feature creep.

Puzzle & Dragons is one of the better free-to-play mobile games, but while removing microtransactions may make it more fair it also makes it less interesting.

A great follow-up to The New Order, which cleverly reuses all of its best features and yet still finds time to add plenty of new elements of its own.

An inspired mix of real science, sandbox gameplay, and space simulation – that is both a lot more entertaining and a lot more accessible than you’d expect.

One of the best retro homages of recent years, that cleverly combines the best elements of older 2D games with plenty of new ideas of its own.

A co-op version of XCOM in the Shadowrun universe sounds a great idea, but this lacks the depth to make the best of the concept.

Clever, funny, and beautiful to look at, but this is a game of two halves and the second one is such a peculiar tonal shift in terms of gameplay that even the story suffers as a result.

On the PC there are too few new features to satisfy existing fans, but on the PlayStation 4 the joys of being an island dictator still feel enjoyably fresh.

On paper it sounds like the ultimate zombie game, but a year later and the technical issues are still as decayed and broken as the undead enemies.

Generous in both content and price, this is another gold standard in DLC expansions – and in terms of 200cc mode one of the best free extras ever.

A loving tribute to the later Mega Man games and a 2D platformer with plenty of new ideas of its own, but a lack of consistency spoils the overall package.

As a 2D interpretation of Assassin’s Creed this works perfectly well, but the workmanlike design and bland atmosphere makes it hard to get excited about.

A tepid sequel to Kirby And The Power Paintbrush, that even with its short running time barely manages to stretch it’s small collection of ideas across a whole game.

The best bread simulator ever made, and despite the rampant silliness there’s some inspired gameplay mechanics and level design baked in.

As admirable as the single-minded design is it feels a lot more interesting in theory than it does in the endless repetition of actually playing it.

The best new Mortal Kombat for years, with a fighting game experience that’s as generous with the content as it is with the gore.

A fascinating journey through the visual history of 2D platformers, although the gameplay doesn’t always match the quality of the many classics it relies on for influence.

Gameplay doesn’t come any more shallow and mindless than this, but at least it’s a little fairer with its free-to-play microtransactions than Pokémon Shuffle.

One of the best uses of the Wii U GamePad so far and one of the most atmospheric games of the year, even if it does run out of new tricks before the end.

Not so much a sequel to Dungeon Keeper 2 as an unofficial remake, and while a little magic has been lost along the way this is still a charmingly unique strategy game.

The PlayStation 4 may never get a real Monster Hunter game but this portable remaster is the next best thing, and a useful improvement on the PS Vita original.

Even if it’s only been a year, time has not been kind to Dark Souls’ sequel and this remaster does little to help the situation – even if it ‘s a hugely engrossing game in its own right.

It spends too much time recreating the genius of Metroid rather than adding to it, but this is still one of the best examples of the genre in recent years.

It’s almost entirely backwards-looking, and the characterisation is disappointingly dry, but for fans of Baldur’s Gate and its era this will have you partying like it’s 1998.

Probably the best Final Fantasy game on mobile and a good example of how to play fair with both nostalgia and free-to-play microtransactions.

One of the best remakes ever, but also a puzzle platformer that defies its age to offer an enjoyable challenge to gamers both young and old.

Some unfortunate technical problems distract from what is otherwise a very generous compilation, and an entirely legitimate alternative to Destiny.

Entirely inessential and lacking in any genuinely new ideas, but if all you want is more Dragon Age: Inquisition this download is unlikely to disappoint.

Still the best Japanese role-player of the last generation, even if squeezing it down onto the New 3DS does it few favours.

The cops ‘n’ robbers theme often does more harm than good to the Battlefield formula, but this peculiar spin-off has just enough tricks of is own to be worth a collar.

One of the best action games of the generation and a stunning achievement in terms of gameplay, art design, and encouraging players to push themselves beyond their limits.

A solid second episode that meanders a little at first but has some of the most complex and thought-provoking moral decisions in any video game to date.

Fantasy enemies clearly work very well with Far Cry, but this abridged version of the main game really should be having more fun with its characters than this.

An impenetrable start for non-fans, but there’s enough potential here to hope that subsequent episodes make this a dream everyone can share in.

A disappointing second episode that’s 90 per cent filler and, apart from a good turn by a ghostly Handsome Jack, severely lacking in humour.

The true successor to the SimCity legacy, and even though it only restates what was great about the original it still does a better job than the last decade or so of official games.

The combat has it’s moments but it has very little to do with Final Fantasy, although the awful storytelling is all too familiar from the rest of the Final Fantasy XIII series.

A mostly successful mix of the best of classic and modern era Resident Evil, with some of the most enjoyably unique co-op options of any recent game.

Amiibo Party is a welcome step back towards the franchise’s more enjoyable past, but the main modes aren’t proper board games – they’re just plain boring.

Fast-paced and accessible are not words commonly used to describe turn-based strategy games, but Sid Meier’s latest is a fun, breezy strategic time killer.

A hugely disappointing sequel that seems to misunderstand what made the original gameplay great and is tediously self-indulgent when it comes to its story and violence.

Only masochists will appreciate all of the new features, but they do help to round out what was always an unfairly pilloried and already highly competent action game.

Gorgeous visuals and some sublime visual storytelling, Ori And The Blind Forest might not do much that is genuinely new but almost everything it does attempt is genuinely great.

A disappointingly familiar entry in the long-running puzzle series, that comes across as very cheap (in terms of production values, if not price) but not particularly cheerful.

Another inspired mix of skateboarding and 2D platforming that manages to combine a surprising level of realism with some wonderfully impossible level design.

Possibly the scariest 12-rated game ever made, although the attractive visuals are better designed than the poorly balanced difficulty.

Exactly as simplistic and one note as the name implies, but if you want to shoot undead Nazis with your friends then you can’t say the game doesn’t deliver.

Despite its one glaring flaw this is one of the most enjoyable co-op shooters for some time, even if it is top-down rather than first person.

If only it had been considerably cheaper, or considerably bigger in scope, this could’ve been a fun ride, but as it is ScreamRide is not really worth the price of entry.

Almost exactly the same features as Dynasty Warriors 7 Empires, and although it’s still more entertaining than the main game the lack of effort put in is downright insulting.

Portraying existential quandaries as gameplay puzzles is a daring idea, but ultimately this is a more enjoyable game to watch and listen to than it is to play.

A near perfect remastering of a classic strategy game, that succeeds not just because of nostalgia but because there’s never been anything else quite like Homeworld.

As competent as the last two updates but still a fighting game held back more by its creepy designs and boring characters, than its purposefully simplistic action.

A fantastic arcade game in the best traditions of Treasure, that takes plenty of inspiration from older classics but has just as many new ideas of its own.

No doubt a dream come true for fans, but with so little innovation in the core gameplay the boast of being an interactive cartoon seems more like a liability than a positive.

A successful start to the first episodic Resident Evil, with some genuinely inventive co-op features and the most effective scares the series has seen in years.

An excellent expansion to what remains the PlayStation 4’s best exclusive, and one of the most enjoyable retro shooters of the decade.

As match-three puzzlers go this is well above average, but the cynical microtransactions make it a horrible slog to actually play.

Beneath the technical wonder this is just a dull, aimless Gears Of War clone – where the attempts at storytelling are just as boring and lifeless as the action.