I'm optimistic about what Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League can become, but let down by what it is now.

The Inquisitor is a grim yet strangely gripping dark fantasy story, memorable if a little rough around the edges.

Persona 3 Reload is a highly-polished remake of the 2006 classic. A few elements don't age well.

A short but sweet amateur detective game with a wonderful attention to detail.

Stuffed with content and pathos, Infinite Wealth delivers a near-excessive amount of urban crime-drama adventure.

The best Tekken game in years, let down only by its struggling netcode and aged customisation.

Delightful deckbuilding that uses starship travel to build upon the Slay the Spire formula instead of merely imitating it. Outstanding.

Another witty Turnip Boy adventure chock-full of eccentric humour and enjoyable if not simple gameplay, I wish Snoozy Kazoo gave this root vegetable lad a little more room to commit his dastardly deeds.

With its emphasis on roleplay rather than combat and borrowings from Disco Elysium, Sovereign Syndicate feels like another step forward for the CRPG.

A palatable metroidvania with a mediocre story, my biggest frustration with The Lost Crown is how long it takes to get to the good stuff.

Against the Storm is a well-designed, charming, enthralling roguelike city builder.

Steep costs and microtransactions taint an otherwise dreamy life sim.

Frontiers of Pandora's stunning presentation and fantastic world design are failed by atrocious technical issues.

A rich, interesting, and honest experiment in history-as-game: If you're interested, play it.

More of a touch-up than a full-on renovation, but Sandbox mode is exciting.

Rogue Trader gets 40K's atmosphere right, but it's buggy and the rules are a mess.

A mismatched mix of genres grafted onto a moving, beautifully presented story.

Gangs of Sherwood shows initial promise with its creative setting and colourful combat but runs out of steam well before the end of its already brief running time.

Relaxing and brisk, but lacking in the substance needed to please genre fans and live up to the SteamWorld name.

A family-friendly adventure that captures the essence of the show, despite rough edges and a steep price.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is a disappointing anniversary for a series that really should take a break.

A supremely satisfying turn-based strategy spin-off, and one of Persona's best ever stories.

A satisfying, if conservative, return to the seminal roguelike's 2D roots.

The Last Faith is a beautiful but inconsistent rehash of older, better games.

Realms of Ruin is a clumsy RTS that's devoid of Warhammer's characteristic grim darkness.

It may be shorter, but it still packs a punch. Like a Dragon: Gaiden does little new, but its story is fascinating and heartbreaking in equal measure.

For The King 2 is surprisingly one of the most tactically challenging games of 2023, but suffers from being a bit too much of the same next to the previous monarch.

Robocop: Rogue City's fantastic shootouts are held back by a dull narrative and bloated pacing.

It was never going to be a revolution, but you feel the new features on and off the pitch.

An admirable adaptation of a classic sci-fi story, despite a few stumbles.

Not just a great sequel, but a thoughtful and human narrative adventure wrapped in a satisfying and beautiful puzzle game.

A heartfelt and hilarious couples therapy session, disguised as a stylish RPG. A gem.

A subtle and intriguing story encourages you to climb ever higher in this melancholy adventure.

Remedy's boldest experiment yet is a beautiful storm of surreal storytelling and genuinely frightening survival horror.

Don’t be a fool of a Took and rush into Moria. An authentic and authentically grueling game.

A touch too much repetition doesn't spoil this ambitious and elegant combo of run 'n' gun, tower defence, and roguelike.

Atmospheric, imaginative, and enjoyably unpredictable—this is one of the year's best horror games.

The game barely qualifies as playable given its myriad of technical issues, but even when it is working as intended, you'll wish that it wasn't.

Ghostrunner deserved a sequel; specifically, a sequel better than this one.

The city builder sequel is packed with big improvements but a fair share of disappointments.

A lean roguelite that never feels like it's wasting your time, even if it's got some rough edges.

Compelling, but not quite there yet. Needs two seasons to grow the beard.

Some of the best boss fights in the genre's recent history, riddled with difficulty spikes in all the wrong places.

Total War: Pharaoh’s battles may be limited by history, but Creative Assembly compensates for this with a complex, thematic, and highly dynamic campaign.

As mechanically polished as driving sims have ever been on PC. Stately and familiar, but finely crafted.

Assassin's Creed Mirage isn't the triumphant return to glory that I hoped it'd be, but it's a good first stab.

A puzzle adventure of rare ingenuity that thrives on its tactility as much as its design.

No, really—they've actually changed things this year, and the football feels better.

Bigger, better, more refined than its predecessor. Perhaps standing out a little less now, but with vast potential.

An over-ambitious and technically flawed tactics game that can't live up to its more accomplished influences.

Payday 3 could be one of the slickest co-op shooters around, but it's mired by a grindy progression system and its always-online nature. It needs some time to cook before it's worth digging in.

Between muddled gameplay and conflicted writing, Mineko’s Night Market can’t decide on an identity to fully embrace.

There's the skeleton of a good Mortal Kombat here, but it's lacking in meat. Low on personality and half-baked in its attempt to reboot the story, it feels fated to be remembered as the least interesting of the modern MK games.

A solid 4X that fails to capture the spirit of its colourful setting.

Phantom Liberty doesn't reinvent Cyberpunk 2077, but it is CD Projekt firing on all cylinders to tell a great RPG story.

Despite a capricious early game, Astrea is a very pretty, refreshing & tense spin on the tried-and-true deckbuilder.

Forza mimicry aside, the improved handling and visuals, along with Grand Race mode, are a revelation.

Lies of P is a competent Soulslike if you can shrug off its flaws.

With bumping tunes and Y2K inspirations, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk reminds us that, sometimes, looking back can be a way of moving forward.

Starfield shares plenty of DNA with Skyrim and Fallout 4, but ultimately falls short of both.

Sea of Stars may not truly recapture the magic of '90s RPGs, but it's still a polished, enjoyable blend of old and new.

This is Armored Core. We are blessed to have it back.

Immortals of Aveum tells a dull tale in an extremely irritating way, but at least has some fun, engaging shooting. I just wish it had a few ideas of its own.

If Fort Solis really was a Netflix series, it wouldn’t get a second season.

Baldur's Gate 3 is an unrivalled RPG that will swallow your life whole.

A genuinely thrilling, occasionally heartbreaking tale that shines a new light on well-known Greek gods. The musical aspect makes it one of the most unique visual novels you'll play, but its inconsistency in quality lets it down.

En Garde! flares brightly with its slick, slapstick combat, for a while at least.

On par with its (excellent) predecessors, Shadow Gambit trades some focused design for deeply compelling piratical freedom.

Beyond the shock value of its demonic horrors, this survivalist city-builder has little to recommend it.

Gorgeous and endearing, Rift Apart is a supremely likable adventure and a solid port—but at this price, it's hard to recommend over more substantial experiences.

This second attempt isn't going to convince anyone who wasn't won over by the first game, but for newcomers, anyone picking this up is still likely to be impressed by the TV presenters, impressive driver likenesses and depth of team simulation. Still, those key areas of racing and car damage need more obvious improvement next year or the series might start to flounder. Sadly, as with those infamous Mercedes sidepods, the new 'multiple lines' feature really isn't much of a step forward at all and it might be wise to revert to something a little more traditional sooner rather than later.

Remnant 2 is a dependable looter shooter made special by its boundless capacity to surprise.

The beginnings of a PvPvE cult hit. Extinct animal slaughter is fundamentally fun, but the foundations are sparse.

Lakeburg Legacies is an awkward, goalless mix of contradictions and impersonal systems.

Innovative puzzle design and truly astonishing visual trickery make this puzzle game a must-play—even if it doesn't quite have the space to make the most of its best ideas.

There's a few bolts that could be tightened up here and there, but Jagged Alliance is back in business.

Charming, deep, and constantly surprising, Dave the Diver is packed with activities and full of heart.

Oxenfree 2 is a more mature second run at the walk-and-talk formula.

Ghost Trick is an essential and engrossing experience for any PC gamer.

A Wonderful Life is the first that's properly forced me to settle down and I've found its focus on slowly and carefully tending my farm isn't defunct; it's a different strain of sim that deserves to bloom again after being left fallow for so many seasons.

This throwback management sim's incredible building tools are let down by a limp campaign and a serious lack of depth.

A powerful generator of gnawing tension and tough tactical decisions, Aliens: Dark Descent is a script pass away from being an all-timer.

Beautiful, horrifying, and impressively updated through the power of Unreal Engine 5, Layers of Fear is a deft upgrade for two horror gems.

The excellent story, still-superlative career and loot-based F1 World make for a convincing and gigantic F1 experience.

Diablo 4 is packed with powerful class builds and exciting loot to find, but clouds its most creative aspects with an overly bleak world and restrictive endgame systems.

Mask of the Rose's writing and characters shine, but the game underneath them never fully gels together.

Amnesia: The Bunker is an essential horror game and an inspired next step for the series.

Minor technical issues and questionable monetisation scuff what is otherwise one of the best fighting games we've seen in the last decade.

It might be a little conservative, but this is a smart, faithful remake and easily the de facto way to play System Shock in the modern era.

A fun, if repetitive, kart racer whose charms are sullied by its predatory microtransactions targeted right at young children.

For all its many flaws, LOTR: Gollum is an oft-beautiful and oddly endearing adventure.

Resurgence is the perfect mash-up of dramatic Star Trek storytelling and Telltale-style decision making, but with too many QTEs.

Boltgun is stupendously fun—a treat for Warhammer players and a worthy member of the growing legion of retro shooters.

Hrot's very final boss was a joke that didn't land for me after an unbroken string of ones that did, but otherwise it's pure boomer shooter excellence.

A graphically gorgeous descendant of Myst, paradoxically limited by its own ambitions.

Darkest Dungeon 2 is a challenging yet fun roguelite experience, even if it does sacrifice some of what made the original great.

Even amidst the farming sim renaissance, Roots of Pacha cultivates a charming, community-driven vision of the Stone Age that’s endlessly satisfying and always enchanting.

Redfall's empty open world, flimsy shooting, and siloed systems make for a flat, dull experience.