Titanfall 2 offers the complete package: a solid, inventive single-player campaign that manages to avoid being yet another cover shooter with respawning enemies, combined with a frenetic and unique multiplayer mode.

Can’t fault the professionalism in pumping out one of these every year; but though Football Manager 2017 is up to standard and makes some iterative tweaks of note, it’s getting harder to ignore certain systemic issues which remain unaddressed.

Brilliant, infuriating, beautiful, frustrating, fantastic, and hateful. Battlefield 1 is a great game, but perhaps not one for the more casual solo player.

Ashes of Ariandel is a well-designed, 4-5 hour jaunt through another painted realm, with a structured PvP annex that to some may be worth the admission price alone. But it’s missing the superlative spark of previous Souls DLCs.

Shadow Warrior 2’s excellent combat mechanics cleave through its weak story and over-abundance of iffy loot. The result is a title that’s incredibly satisfying to play, almost in spite of the surrounding flaws.

Mafia 3 occasionally shows off the fantastic game it could've been, but most of the time, it just leaves you with an impression of - and a longing for - the game that it isn't.

A really solid top-down racer that not only looks great but comes with a great variety of modes and challenges.

It’s a more physical FIFA this year, with greater emphasis on build-up passing and positional movement than one-on-one dribbling. Aspects of these changes can irritate, but the major disappointment with FIFA 17 is its failure to engage with any of the series’ lingering legacy problems, even on a new engine.

Lichtspeer is really, really good. If you’re not afraid of a challenge and aren’t put off by an absurd sense of humour, you should gird your loins, grab your speer, and get ready to take on the ancient future.

Light and simple isn't a bad thing, but Rogue Wizards is too light and too simple, and a tad too slow for its scaled-down design to feel deliciously more-ish. While it's not bad, it didn't leave any real lasting impression barring a mental sigh at what could've been.

It's rare for a game to make me swing back and forth a full 5 points on the score, but Virginia managed exactly that, and that's probably a sign of exactly how divisive this short piece of interactive story-telling is going to be. Let's settle around the middle.

An improvement on the first episode, but still marred by technical issues and. A move in the right direction, but it's still too early to tell if this is more The Killing Joke or Batman & Robin.

Pac-Man never really changes his ways, but Championship Edition 2 proves that a three-and-a-half decade old videogame star can still pull a crowd. This is a smart set of takes on what may genuinely be a timeless mechanical formula.

Attack on Titan takes a decent stab at the nape of the series' neck, but repetitiveness, a lack of difficulty, and a high price mean it misses the mark a little too much. Still: if all you want to do is be Mikasa, swing around, and chop down Titans, you'll probably rather enjoy it while complaining. I did.

A beautiful return to form for 47 after his Moroccan adventure failed to impress too much. Bangkok offers a tight, focused level with plenty to do, which differentiates it from the missions of the last few months - and it's really well-designed to boot.

Mankind Divided trades some global breadth for localised depth, setting the majority of its free-approach missions in Prague. The narrative feels closer to home too, thrusting Jensen in with the oppressed augmented masses. It’s a strong sequel, reinforcing the mechanics of player agency and unique world design Deus Ex is famous for, but unresolved plot points do disappoint.

Even ignoring the many technical issues, this isn't a particularly inspiring start to Telltale's newest series. There's plenty of time for it to improve, but I'd hold off and see how the next few episodes go before taking the plunge on the series.

The Beastmen represent another successful transition from tabletop to Total War: Warhammer faction. Their horde mechanics are a refinement over Chaos, while both strategic and battlefield options reflect their inclinations towards ruthless ambushes.

Inside’s fraught four hours of oppressive pursuit, smart environmental manipulation, and unsettling imagery exhibit a consistency and obsessive attention to detail that few other games can boast.

An uneven slab of Mars adventuring, The Technomancer carefully straddles the line between never really being good while never falling into being bad.

It demands dedication (unless you’re a series vet) and neither AI nor UI are exactly flawless, but once you’re entrenched Hearts of Iron IV reveals itself as a capable and absorbing alt-history WW2 generator.

Blizzard has created a solid team FPS but right now it's light on content.

The match-up of Warhammer and Total War is as harmonious as hoped, adding tremendous faction diversity and fantasy flavour to the familiar series mechanics. It’s technically sound too, but several old flaws (like AI blind spots in sieges) remain. An invigorating addition to the series, nonetheless.

Hearts of Stone is an essential pickup if you’re playing The Witcher 3.

A solid, speedy, brutal, and surprisingly lengthy campaign combine with an intriguing map-making facility to make Doom a pretty easy recommendation. The multiplayer may not grab you, but there's plenty of content here without it.

All the galactic flavour and themes of a 4X space title, married to the mechanics of Paradox's recent grand strategy offerings. Stellaris has a space opera tale of gene manipulation, Federation politics, or colonial slavery for everyone.

For all the problems I've outlined, I haven't enjoyed an AGS adventure this much in quite some time. The end might not satisfy, but the journey is a hell of a ride.

This Italian job is another dynamic, and darkly comic, Hitman mission.