While The Whispered World, the successful predecessor to Silence, was a classic 2D-point-and-click-adventure, the developers now are heading into a more modern way of adventure-storytelling. This ends up in a most beautiful designed world with 3D-modelled characters. Using a brilliant way of camera-zooms and –angles, the presentation is a great cinematic-experience. The gameplay itself is focused on an emotional story and filled with more casual puzzles and dialogues than before. We’ve missed some more challenging riddles and more story-depth concerning the side-characters. Depending on how many in-game tips you’re using, Silence took you just about 5 up to 7 hours to complete.

While smaller in scope than Obsidians last RPG, Tyranny astonishes with its clever way of handling choice and consequence. There are so many variables in Tyranny, you just have to play it twice.

Respawn did a remarkable job on the campaign, which is bristling with ideas and cool moments. The experience may be short, but it’s entertaining none the less. Online though is where Titanfall 2 really shines. The game offer some of the most insane, fast-paced shootouts, packed to the brim with wallrunning, explosions and mighty titans. Prepare for one hell of a ride.

Battlefield 1 offers hands down the best graphics of any shooter, nay, any game to date. While its single-player-campaign is – again – unnecessary drivel, as short as it is forgettable, the multi-player-offering is in a league of its own. If you only buy one shooter this year, make it Battlefield 1.

A spectacular arcade racing game with brilliant graphics. The driving feels terrific, the amount of content is staggering and the faux Australia is joy to explore. Need for Speed, take heed.

Hangar 13 has done a terrible job on the PC port. But even ignoring all those pesky technical issues, Mafia 3 suffers from lack of variety. The game’s open world is dead and artificial, while the great atmosphere and competent storytelling feel wasted.

An insane amount of co-op fun, but the level design is lacking. The loot-centric Shadow Warrior 2 is well worth the buy, but doesn’t quite soar as high as this year’s Doom.

With six big sandbox-locations the first season’s campaign for agent 47 is offering various challenges, how to fulfill each mission. On top, there is a lot more to do with escalation-missions, user generated contracts and elusive targets. The gameplay allows classic hitman-stealth with silent kills as well as all-guns-blazing if you’re that kind of player. Lots of disguise-possibilities, weapons and gadgets makes it fun to play various times. Some lacks with the AI and graphic-issues have to be dealt with and if you’re expecting a complete storyline, that is not happening in Season 1.

Finally there’s a reason to delete Civilization 5 from our hard drives. Firaxis has improved on many systems, while adding some clever twists like the city sectors. Civilization 6 is a blast to play and we cannot foresee a time when it won’t be installed on our hard drives. This is the definitive turn-based strategy game of the decade.

I’ve spent a considerable amount of time playing the Worms-games in my youth. Simply because they were some of the most enjoyable multiplayer-games out there. Now, after a couple of years without touching any installment of this franchise, I still think that Worms is a diverting experience, especially if you play it with some of your buddies. It didn’t really bother me that - mechanics-wise - not much has changed since my time with Worms. Being able to just jump back in there, without having to get reintroduced to the whole franchise, actually made me feel glad. But at the same time, this fact might pose a huge flaw for people, who’ve played many or maybe even every other Worms-game. So I can only unconditionally recommend Worms W.M.D to newcomers or veterans, who are returning to the franchise after taking a longer break from it.

FIFA 17 is still a very good game, but it's still a bit of a disappointment. Instead of fixing the various existing gameplay-problems, FIFA 17 rather focuses on establishing its new engine and story-mode. Thus, FIFA falls behind PES because of the overall worse gameplay-mechanics in comparison to prior installments.

Alien Isolation gave me goosebumps. SOMA enraptured me with its interesting story and underwater-scenario. Dead Space shined through awesomely directed fights. And Syndrome? The horror-game by Camel 101 copies a lot of those outstanding examples, without ever reaching their overall quality. Syndrome has no elements that separate it from other games of this particular genre and thus descends into mediocrity. If you desperately look for something horror related though, Syndrome might entertain you - at least for a little while.

A serviceable campaign is augmented by a very robust multiplayer offering. Gears of War 4 offers spectacular graphics and great PC performance, but the story feels unfinished.

A robust, yet deeply uninspired top-down shooter that is fun for a couple of hours, but loses its charm rather quickly.

Obduction is fully aware of what fans want it to be – a tough-as-nails, spiritual successor to Myst – and fulfills this task superbly. Not a lot of modern-day-adventure-players will most likely appreciate this, as it can be quite unforgiving at times (most of the time, actually); but in that particular sub-genre that Obduction is part of, there hasn’t been a better game in quite some time.

A traditional, yet highly accessible 4X game that offers nothing new aside from real-time combat, but is still a lot of fun to play. A great choice for newcomers who enjoy a rich space strategy experience, but shy away from more complex games like Endless Space or Stellaris.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided manages to be the most well-rounded Deus Ex game ever – at least regarding the gameplay. With the new engine and various improvements on elements like the cover-system, overall controls and weapons, Eidos Montreal really outdid themselves in order to create an immensely enjoyable gaming-experience. I was especially fascinated by the intricate level-design that was still able to surprise me even after spending a considerable time with the game. Though the one big flaw of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is the story, which severely disappointed me. Choices throughout the game do not really matter, and the bulk of the actual plot only gets teased, with it being further elaborated on in a future sequel. If Eidos Montreal and Publisher Square Enix had just focused on perfecting this game instead of already planning future installments, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided could’ve truly been a susalt anperb game.

Telltales new series kicks off with style, offering Batman fans two hours of interesting choices, action and a promising story. Don't expect decent puzzles or exploration though: Aside from dialogue and rapid quick time events, there is not much to do.

With improved exploration mechanics, richly detailed locations and intriguing puzzle design The Room Two surpasses its predecessor in every way. Storytelling is still a weak spot though.

Gorgeous from start to finish, highly polished and sometimes deeply unsettling, Inside is not only a worthy successor to Limbo. It's one of the best games of 2016.

The Technomancer has some interesting approaches but lacks a lot of polish at many points. Especially the constant back tracking gets really annoying with time. The lack of budget definitely take their toll on many game aspects.

A charming romp through pirate space that successfully translates XCOM's combat into gorgeous 2D robot battles. Shame there isn't much to do between missions though.

Based on the simplistic structure of Crimes and Punishments, but with the addition of clunky action sequences, QTEs and even more skippable mini-games. In short: The Devil's Daughter takes a big step in the wrong direction.

Mirror’s Edge Catalyst feels better in many aspects and delivers much more content than its predecessor. It still has some issues like the combat system or frustrating climbing areas, but it is still an impressive argument for its unique and fresh concept.

Despite its low price tag, Blood and Wine is a substantial 30-hour expansion filled with memorable moments, tons of quests and a beautiful new world to explore. A must-buy.

Almost every mechanic from Dark Souls is – in some form or another - implemented into Salt & Sanctuary. But in this specific case that is far from being something negative. I might even be a little addicted to the game’s concept: uncovering secrets, defeating humongous bosses and diving deep into the lore of the game. All of that manages to entertain me for dozens of hours. The only complaints I have with the game are the subpar German voice acting, the somewhat confusing skill-tree and – at least for my taste – boss-fights, which lack a certain challenge. However Salt & Sanctuary will undoubtedly bring a lot of joy to every fan of the Dark Souls-franchise, while people, who aren’t really into those, won’t be won over by this game either.

Total War: Warhammer cuts out many features that fans of both franchises have come to expect. Personally, it doesn’t really bother me that sea-battles are now decided by the roll of a dice and sieges don’t include the entire city anymore, because the developers of Creative Assembly rather focused on more important elements. The enemy-AI behaves a lot more clever and battles have overall become way smoother. Obviously Total War: Warhammer never comes close to the complexity of a Civilization-game, but Warhammer’s real time battles definitely make up for that fact. What appears to be a bit of a weird decision by the developers though, is that you’re no longer able to paint your troops and cannot upgrade standard-units in any way or form.

While the additions don't change the game in any fundamental way, the overall experience is still as amazing as it was last year. If you haven't played Ori before, this Definitive Edition is a must buy.