One of the best looking fighting games ever and the most successful attempt yet to make an interactive anime, even if it is a little lacking in content and new ideas.

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

An inconsistent but highly enjoyable season of sharp comedy and surprisingly affecting drama, that has plenty to teach more serious dramas.

A charmingly inventive temporal puzzle and exploration game, that makes full use of one of the most enjoyably interactive game worlds of recent years.

An exceptionally pretty slice of DLC that does nothing to address the faults of the main game but does manage to emphasise its many successes, especially the graphics.

An excellent spin-off that uses the science fiction setting to focus and expand the gameplay in interesting new ways, and yet remains as accessible and thoughtful as ever.

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.

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 very different kind of turn-based game, that proves multiplayer action doesn’t have to involve first person shooting.

An attempt to simplify and streamline XCOM sounds like a disaster in the making but the original’s tense turn-based combat is still highly entertaining even in this reduced form.

Tricky, mentally taxing, and immensely satisfying, Finity is one of those games that keeps getting better as your understanding of its systems deepens.

The consistently surprising offspring of Harvest Moon and Pikmin will make a royalist out of anyone.

A fantastically idiosyncratic approach to both superheroes and turn-based strategy, that manages to remain perfectly accessible without ever talking down to its audience.

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.

The best gets that little bit better in what is a modest sequel, but a still stunning driving simulator.

The best Call Of Duty of the generation and while some will bemoan the lack of a story campaign, it’s hard to argue with the quality and quantity of content on offer.

A very worthwhile expansion of the venerable strategy game, whose new features seem a natural, and surprisingly realistic, extension of the original game.

Not necessarily the best version of the game, but it's definitely the cheapest – and a still superb mix of role-playing, puzzle and strategy action.

An entertaining and agreeably clever remaster of the classic puzzle platformer, with added 3D bonus levels that give the formula a welcome and devious shake-up.

The best game about moving out there’s ever been but, more importantly, a fun four-player co-op game that’s perfect for causing family arguments everyone can enjoy.

From the developer of rymdkapsel and holedown, both of which are classics that are well worth playing, subpar pool is another capital letter-shunning production of great polish and originality.

Visually though this is one of the most impressive games of the year, with the subtle animation and sparing use of colour telling you all you need to know about the situation without a word of dialogue. Inside isn’t a fun video game, but it is a clever and intelligent one. And despite how long it’s been since Limbo it’s telling that nobody has managed to perfect that formula as well as Playdead.

Colourful and brutal, funny and horrifying, Far Cry 6 is the distilled essence of its franchise, as well as a richer and more coherent experience than recent outings.

There are still a few rough edges to be driven over, but as mild as the improvements are this still makes Forza Horizon 2 one of the best racers of recent years.

It has quite a lot of substance, and plenty of new units to unlock, as well as complex interactions between their various powers and attributes.

An absurd concept but an inspired turn-based tactics game that, quite unexpectedly, has one of the best scripts of the last 12 months.

An effective expansion of the original’s deck-building roguelite structure, that adds lots of enjoyable new features and becomes one of the few games to rival Slay The Spire.

It might be a pain to get hold of but this engrossing visual novel has more mystery and tension in its simple text screens than a hundred CGI cut scenes.