Inconsistent performance aside, Dishonored 2 is a marvel. It’s a magnet for positive adjectives, setting a new and extremely lofty bar for future stealth games.

A supercut of FromSoft's very best work, transported to a totally new space. Elden Ring is not only a masterpiece by its developer's lofty standards, but in packing so much density into the Lands Between, it lights the path ahead for open-world games in general.

For those coming fresh to the experience, you’re about to play one of the best games ever made. It’s still very much the Grand Theft Auto you’ve known and loved since the series transitioned to 3D open worlds in GTA3, but it has been enhanced and improved to dizzying heights.

It is a game crafted by those with an irrepressible love, and possibly hunger, for words and tales.

PC is the best place to play last year’s best game. It’s massive yet loses no focus, epic on every level, and combines Rockstar’s penchant for immense detail with a surprising amount of heart.

It is the final exam of Unity of Command, and a perfect capstone to one of the finest entry-level PC wargames since Panzer General 2.

A true tour de force from Arkane that is bound to be one of the year's best and most important games.

Team Cherry has done the impossible. In the face of colossal expectation, it has bottled lightning twice. Silksong is a masterpiece, not because it’s bigger and better than what came before, but because it doesn’t lose itself in trying to escape Hollow Knight’s shadow. Its massive scope extends beyond Team Cherry’s initial influences to become a definitive Metroidvania epic that challenges players to rise to the occasion.

Obsidian had a daunting task before them: to make a spiritual successor to a series of games that are inextricably tangled up in nostalgia, over a decade after the height of those games’ popularity. This is not the Baldur’s Gate of 2015, it’s Baldur’s Gate, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale, the best parts of the lot of them wrapped up in something new and brilliant.

To review it is to appraise the enormity of the human spirit of exploration, to rate the drive that spurred us to flop up out of the ocean and then up a tree and then back down again and then over some mountains and through some deserts and then off up into the heavens...I love space and Kerbal Space Program.

Where other South Park games have utterly failed to capture the crude, offensive, absurdly entertaining spark that has kept the cartoon running for 16 years, The Stick of Truth succeeds utterly. Not only is it series creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker - who co-wrote the game - firing on all cylinders, it’s Obsidian’s most polished RPG. Not just a great South Park game, the Stick of Truth is simply a great game.

Diablo 4 embodies the essence of what makes Diablo so great, taking the best elements of its predecessors and sewing them together to create an ever-changing, ever-evolving chimera that we can’t wait to play for years to come.

You have to admire Blizzard's approach to Diablo III. They fixed it. The game itself now absolutely superb. Reaper of Souls finishes the job.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is the end result of two decades of iteration from Ryu Ga Gotoku and the studio's best game yet. Sprawling but never bloated, it remains captivating from beginning to end across both its main narrative and bountiful side adventures, almost never missing a beat.

Infinity Nikki takes all the best bits of Genshin Impact to deliver the definitive dress-up game for girls. With a vast wardrobe of exquisite outfits to collect, its whimsical open world is a treasure trove of activities that distract from the gacha grind.

Familiar, excellent, and polished to a degree that hardly seems possible. If you love taking vintage Porsches for joyrides through environments that’d have a poet bawling then you're going to be very happy here.

Initially unwieldy but eventually engrossing, Age of Wonders' latest entry translates its Civ-meets-XCOM formula brilliantly to a new sci-fi setting. Even if the elements of that sci-fi are a bit rote.

After such a long wait for a successor to X-Wing and TIE Fighter, Star Wars: Squadrons feels like a lucky shot with a proton torpedo.

A host of minor and major improvements add up to make Battlefield 6 the smoothest, most bombastically entertaining entry in the series to date. A lacklustre campaign aside, this is a triumphant return and a must-play for both BF veterans and newcomers alike.

Amid the Ruins feels like the peak of the pint-sized survivor’s development. After the brutal trauma of the previous episode, we get to decide, or at least influence, what she will be like in the finale and how she’s been transformed by the events of this second season. Every moment is a struggle between Darwinism and kindness.

Thanks to a beautifully realised setting and some genuinely innovative combat additions, Monster Hunter Rise is fun from start to finish. If you haven’t played a Monster Hunter game yet, this is the best one to start with.

A scorching, over-the-top sendup of capital’s morbid contempt for labour, Forge of the Chaos Dwarfs adds a wild new unit roster and a fun new campaign, and is an essential addition to Total War: Warhammer 3.

In BattleTech, the persistence between battles lets you weave a whole new plot through the game, one filled with characters and stakes that are wholly your own.

An utterly original RPG that sets new genre standards for exploration and conversation systems, and a brilliantly written tragicomedy about our inability to release the linchpins of our identity. Even when they hurt us.

A marvellously accomplished realisation of RedLynx’s deranged vision for the series, which somehow manages to be both the most accessible and most unforgiving Trials game to date.

An exceptionally good update to Codemasters' increasingly polished and wide-reaching racing series.

A triumph in both mechanics and delivery, Hitman turns its controversial episodic release model into a true strength that's suited to IO's vast and nuanced sandboxes.

Pacific Drive offers a road trip like no other, boasting immaculate sound design and a classic '90s conspiracy delivered through a compact survival-crafting roguelike loop.