Tons of loot, neat character customization, a huge game world and plenty of monsters to kill - if that's your thing and you enjoy playing offline, you can't go wrong with Grim Dawn. Just don't expect a polished online experience or deep storyline - there's plenty of other games for that.

Given the fact that with its setting, Far Cry: Primal could’ve really been a breath of fresh air for the series, the actual game is somewhat of a disappointment. By no means is it a bad game though. Combat is still fun, the crafting-system is very well implemented and graphically it looks very good. But Ubisoft had a chance to break out of the same old same old formula that the Far Cry games suffer from and did not utilize it. Instead, we get the ever so similar Far Cry gameplay – but now it’s the stone age. Without a doubt fun, but all of the repetition is starting to become pretty tiresome.

Superhot manages to squeeze an astonishing number of brilliant ideas into its short running time. It’s the most innovative shooter since Doom, but the fun ends way too soon. Even if you only play in slow motion.

With Half-Life 3 a faraway dream, there’s a lot anticipation for anything new related to Valves shooter series. But even if you are desperate for some new life sign from Gordon Freeman: Please avoid Prospekt. It’s a poorly-crafted experience with deeply flawed combat balancing. There are lots of free mods out there that are far better.

As soon as Street Fighter 5 was announced to the public, I was immediately taken back to my childhood days – but maybe for the wrong reasons. Yet again, the game was mostly ignored by the media. The same thing happened to Street Fighter 3 in the late 90s. But Capcom still worked diligently on their Beat 'Em Up. The end result might look a little small on overall content, but as Capcom promised, Street Fighter 5 will constantly get new content until the end of the PS4-era.

Everyone who mourns for the recently terminated new Silent Hill game will find consolation in the Layers of Fear. Both games use similar tools in order to give you goosebumps: sudden noises, objects moving under mysterious circumstances, paranormal apparitions and an ever-changing level-structure. Personally, I’m not much of a jump scare fan but – if you choose to ignore the minimalist gameplay – Layers of Fear is almost a perfect example for a horror game. The story is thrilling and graphics as well as sound are of very high quality. My biggest issue with the game is its short playtime, which clocks in at around 3-5 hours.

With its flawless presentation, charming puzzles and solid platforming mechanics, Unravel will steal your heart in an instant.

Despite some hiccups regarding the gameplay and a rather disappointing ending to the story, Firewatch is an experience worth remembering, all thanks to its fantastically-written characters and its superb atmosphere.

As a big fan of cinema in general, I had a lot of fun playing The Deadly Tower of Monsters. The game takes you back to the good-old days of movies and has a lot of fun with its B-movie setting. Especially the comments of the “director” that are injected into the gameplay, prove to be a constant source of comedy. Besides that, shoddily improvised movie-sets and stop-motion-like enemies only further add to the game’s charm. But other than its unique tone, The Deadly Tower of Monsters has not that much else to offer. So even with it being only a run-of-the-mill action-game, I can recommend The Deadly Tower of Monsters to every Cinephile.

If you’re unsure whether to go for Dirt Rally or Sébastien Loeb Rally Evo, choose the former. Loeb Rally may come with a huge amount of content, but suffers from other severe flaws: from a technical standpoint, Loeb Rally is pretty much outdated and at no point during our time with the game, driving was ever really enjoyable. Every car feels weirdly stiff to control and gives the player little to no feedback. So if you have the choice, stick with Dirt Rally. Everything Sébastien Loeb Rally Evo has going for it, Dirt 3 already did a better job at.

Bombshell is a mess, with tedious action, boring level design and redundant RPG elements. Shelly Harrison deserves better.

A hot contender for Game of the Year 2016. If you’re into turn-based tactics at all, this is the game for you. XCOM 2 builds and improves upon every aspect that made Enemy Unknown great. After XCOM 2, there is simply no reason to go back to Firaxis’s first game in the series.

The development team did a good job in transferring the typical Homeworld-feeling and gameplay from Space onto a planet’s surface. The campaign is designed pretty well and is entertaining, combined with a fantastic soundtrack and nice effects. Unfortunately the AI isn’t acting as clever as it should be. Skirmish and multiplayer, though disappointing, offer little content and are just poorly designed.

Darkest Dungeon is a nail-biter. The turn-based combat is so tense -- this is one of those games where you issue commands with extra-firm mouse clicks, hoping it leads to more damage. The fact that Darkest Dungeon's battles can turn any minute is what makes it so exciting. I don't mind the fact that the game lacks a strong narrative – the expeditions into the unknown are motivation enough for me. If you're looking for more however, you might lose interest quickly.

Interesting decisions and clever dialogue make up for the short length and sometimes tedious exploration. As long as they don't expect traditional puzzles from Oxenfree, fans of adventure games will find an intriguing new take on the genre.

Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen is a complex and challenging RPG for experienced fans of the genre. The vast game world and the pawn system motivate for hours and hours. However the game can’t hide his age.

There are two sides to That Dragon, Cancer. There is the tragedy of small Joel Green, who was killed by one of the most insidious sicknesses on the planet. I feel for him and his parents. But then there is also the game that was born from this tragedy. And it is simply and quite literally too much of a pain to play.

While it lacks a gripping story and more tactical depth, Hard West's mix of XCOM-style missions, light RPG elements and Wild West mystery still comes as a pleasant surprise.

A classical build up strategy game in tradition of The Settlers- and Cultures-Series from Funatics. You’ll have to conquer procedural-made islands, leading you Vikings to a portal, that leads to Valhalla. The tiny look of the toon-like characters and their animations are charming, as well as watching your folk building houses, farms and stuff. Unfortunately the transport of goods is unnecessary complicated and the AI is just acting automatically. There is no way to give precise orders, same as for the military-part of the game.

Just Cause 3 is a delightfully straightforward game. It gives players a whole lot of explosive tools and then just leans back, waiting to see what you are going to blow up next. While light on true innovations apart from the fantastic wingsuit, Just Cause 3 is an infinitely more finely-tuned version of the silly action blockbuster we've all come to expect from the series.

Albeit exceedingly tense in some places, Game of Thrones marks Telltale’s weakest interactive series yet since The Walking Dead. Characters are bland, plot holes abound, the writing is inconsistent and the ending just a setup for next season. There are some things to like for fans of the TV show, but not enough to recommend Game of Thrones over Telltale’s other success titles.

In terms of combat and exploration, this is by far the best game in the series. Bethesda created a compelling world, rich in detail and full of surprises. That being said, it's not necessarily a great roleplaying game: The dialogue system has been significantly dumbed down, skills are gone and there are only few quest decisions to speak of. Plus, the main story (which revolves around the shallow faction system) does not offer the kind of freedom we have come to expect from a Fallout game. Thus, it may not be the RPG that long-time Fallout fans have been hoping for. The overall experience, however, is still amazing.

It’s truly the most beautiful Anno experience in the strategy series. It comes along with some major changes, concerning mostly the economic systems in the game. Many things are easier to handle. Still the game offers enough potential to optimize your cities. But it feels different, comparing it to the classic Anno games, it is now more like a Sim-Citybuilder, which isn’t bad overall. Unfortunately there’s no multiplayer, no editor, no campaign, no challenging scenarios – it has become a multi-session gameplay, combining all these gameplay modes in a persistent game world.

Surprisingly enough, the newest Call of Duty delivers a grand presentation and an interesting story. Its massive scope of different modes and new tactical options compared to the predecessor make this game an excellent comeback. The only downsides are a lacking enemy AI and missing challenge on some of the difficulty settings as well as a short single player campaign.

The game was promised as a true D&D-Experience, which in fact it isn’t. The RPG-rules are changed in a casual way, so in the end SCL feels more like a dragon-age-experience within a nice D&D-setting. If you can accept that, the game offers a good story-campaign with party-based combat, which is fun. On top you can create your own dungeons and quests, and play it with friends, including one player as a dungeon-master. Sounds good, but the creative power of the editor is not that big as in the classic Neverwinter-Series.

Funcom’s return to single-player games feels more like a proof of concept than an actual game. Walking simulators are fine, but they have to make up in story and atmosphere what they lack in terms of gameplay and player interaction. The Park doesn’t achieve that. It’s dull, the scares are cheap and the characters lifeless.

Falling down has never been this hard. Or this pixelated.

Rebel Galaxy scratches the Freelancer itch that went untreated for over a decade.