One of the best Aliens games ever made and a clever and innovative real-time strategy all of its own, that needs just a bit more polish and a lot less bugs.

A glorious looking and warm-hearted adventure in modern healthcare, let down by tedious mini-games, bugs, and lengthy conversations that often go nowhere.

Another cutting edge F1 simulator, with a great single-player story mode and a more accessible range of options and modes than ever before.

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.

The shape of its isometric puzzles may be reminiscent of Monument Valley, but it lacks that game’s inventiveness and refinement, its intrinsic clumsiness imposing upon the difficulty.

Coming complete with all its manifold vehicles, levels, and customisation options, it’s horribly grindy but stripped of its microtransactions at least not actively unfair.

Decades of sub-par copycats haven’t dulled the appeal of Puzzle Bobble and while there’s too few new ideas this is an effective reboot for what remains a classic match-three puzzler.

The last great Katamari game and in terms of everything but the soundtrack the better game of the two, even if the novelty barely stretches across two titles.

The best Amnesia game since The Dark Descent and a welcome spiritual successor to Alien Isolation, that makes darkness more terrifying than any video game before it.

A fascinating retro shooter that proves a perfect match for the world of Warhammer 40,000 but whose almost complete lack of nuance and variety eventually wears you down.

Three old school JRPGs that are so perversely old-fashioned they force you to draw your own map - and yet they’re surprisingly captivating and fully deserving of this welcome remaster collection.

A fan-pleasing sequel that makes effective use of its new open world structure and some welcome nuance in the storytelling and character customisation.

A far better launch experience than its predecessor, with an excellent fighting system and a wide range of options and features that transcend the usual genre traditions.

Not the high-end remake that some fans would have been hoping for but even as a, at times, too faithful remaster this is a fascinating second look at one of gaming’s great unsung heroes.

Broken beyond belief but also a fundamentally bad idea for a video game, with inanely shallow and repetitive gameplay - Gollum is not only the worst mainstream game of the year but of the last two generations.

A disappointing attempt to ape the magic of Inside and Limbo, which despite some of the best visuals of the year suffers from unimaginative puzzle design and storytelling.

The offensive microtransactions aren’t a surprise but the tedious open world structure obscures what is a surprisingly nuanced and technical arcade racer.

Whatever your views, it’s a monumental piece of game development and well worth a look, even if just to marvel at the high budget window dressing and wallow in its manifold, blissful absurdities. [Review in Progress]

A fantastically clever puzzler that would be perfectly welcome if it was just a 3D Lemmings clone, but it soon evolves into something far more imaginative and unpredictable.

A charmingly narrated VR puzzle game, with some interesting mechanics, but it’s let down by mechanical difficulties and occasionally insufficient signposting.

An excellent sequel and one of the best Zelda games ever made. A follow-up that builds upon and refines the achievements of the original, while adding many new and equally innovative ideas of its own.

Its touch controls work well enough for the button mashing and occasional dodges the game requires, although fighting your way through areas that previous runs failed to complete, long after you’ve collected all the loot they have to offer, is as tedious as it sounds.

Even though this has the feel of a game originally built for freemium, and later converted to being genuinely free for Apple Arcade, it manages to be reasonably challenging, your upgrades sincerely needed to progress through its levels. It’s also the only game we’ve come across where you can level up the protagonist’s hairstyle. There’s not much punishment for dying, other than having to replay the current map, but its exceptional level of polish and a clearly talented art department make it a tempting distraction.

As is traditional, the opening hours provide rapid upgrades, before slowing things down to encourage you to spend money. You and your alliance will also regularly find yourself at the mercy of bullying, big spending whales, but at least you’re not forced to watch any ads.

The latest in a franchise that dates back to before the original PlayStation, Worms WMD fortunately eschews the series’ dreadful flirtation with 3D, returning to its good old 2D roots, and adding a fair few twists of its own.

It works really well on a touchscreen, letting you dip in for a bit of mayoral action wherever you happen to be. It may only take a few days to occupy most of the available space in your starter city, but the map itself is vast, letting you experiment with different conurbations across its varied terrain.

A solid sequel to one of the best roguelike games of recent years, that personalises the conflict against Lovecraftian madness while adding to the original’s compelling turn-based battles.

A massive and complex fantasy themed 4X strategy game, made appealingly straightforward thanks to its cleverly refined interface.