Its failures prevent Far Cry 5 from being a classic, but its successes mean it has plenty to keep you embroiled in its reactive world.

Just as Endless Legend and Civilization V are now far superior to how they started, so can Endless Space 2 be. It’s odd to talk of foundations in something so markedly floaty and space-based, so perhaps it’s better to think of this as an outpost, plonked down on a planet waiting to be colonised. It’s a fertile planet, sure, but one that’s yet to be fully exploited.

Pragmata is a truly unique and wonderful third-person shooter. It’s a throwback to linear action games of old, and thankfully its undercooked story isn't enough to diminish the quality of the brilliant hacking focused action.

The Evil Within 2 is entirely its own horror experience - part open-world survival game, part psychological horror. It is a bold, bloody evolution of the survival horror genre. Moreover, like its centipedal monstrosities, this is a game that excels at defying expectations. Scenery, gameplay, and pacing shift gears constantly, keeping me guessing nearly every minute of the 20 hours it took to reach the end of its story.

Revamps the endgame to give you a lot more choice, and is perhaps the most impactful expansion released in a while.

Opting for pulp fantasy over Spielbergian reverence for the era, Vanguard reinvigorates the World War II setting and charts a new path forward.

For fans of asymmetrical multiplayer games, Killer Klowns from Outer Space does what many others before have not, almost perfecting the likes of balance, down time, and match length, and it deserves to be considered among the best in the genre. Illfonic’s game fills the gap left by Friday the 13th and checks every box in style, but its lesser-known IP may prevent well-deserved longevity.

Its story doesn't quite stick the landing, but this is a beautiful game - not just in its look, sound, and feel, or even in its real and relatable characters, but in its message and its delivery.

A sweetly told tale of youth, travel, and self-discovery that's not afraid to wear its inspirations on its sleeve. In turbulent, inward-looking times, Sable is a true comfort.

The Expanse: A Telltale Series brings one of the best storytellers in videogames back to the forefront, producing a prequel that will delight fans as well as open up the universe to newcomers.

Faith is a sterling beginning to what looks to be another feather in Telltale’s cap; a confident, slick opener to a mystery that begs to be explored. I wait with bated breath and sweaty palms for the next installment, where I’m sure to discover how my choices have only made things worse, at least if The Walking Dead is anything to go by.

The completionist in me is nearly overwhelmed with the sheer amount of things to do in A Realm Reborn. Square Enix really do deserve praise for not only fixing the issues of the original game, but far exceeding their goal.

It can feel unbalanced and unfairly punishing at times, but when all of its systems click into place Back 4 Blood is a ton of fun.

With a beautiful Blighty and an innovative season-based online endgame, Horizon 4 is a wonderfully polished, thoroughly modern racer. Sadly, it doesn’t feel quite as progressive or impactful as its Aussie predecessor, and there’s a sense the sandbox series is ever so slightly coasting on its laurels.

It integrates the fighty and the talky enough to make Rapture feel a more dangerous and believable place, discards the impenetrable conceits with which the first DLC began, and brings an almost seven year old series full circle and to a satisfying end. What a wonderful trick, and a fitting note for one of PC gaming’s best loved studios (as we know them, at least) to bow out on.

Card Hunter is anything but inconsequential. It’s a top tier turn-based tactics game, a secret TCG, and the first RPG I’ve ever played to make a virtue of a generic fantasy setting. It’s the inspired XCOM variant that Space Hulk seems to have turned out not to be.

Frostpunk 2 makes clever reconsiderations of, and expansions on, the first game’s design, offering a better rounded, even harsher follow-up to the original’s concept.

Nexus 5X is a fun, breezy, and surprisingly nuanced spin on Stellaris that's perfect for an evening's gaming session with friends.

Life is Strange: Before the Storm is a masterful prequel, then.

The Banner Saga 2 captures much of what made the first game such a compelling fight for survival. It has a tendency to focus on the bigger picture and with the large number of characters that don’t have much to say, some of the emotional engagement from the original is lost, but both the management side of things and the tactical battles have been lavished with improvements. The journey is bleak and savage, but the game is great.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is a thoroughly enjoyable Soulslike with intensely fun combat mechanics, slightly marred by jarring difficulty spikes and by-the-numbers music and sound.

Oblivion Remastered proves that The Elder Scrolls 4 has withstood the test of time. It’s the perfect opportunity for new audiences to discover why it’s so beloved, and a nostalgic throwback to Bethesda’s golden years for older fans. However, its extensive quality-of-life features aren’t enough to excuse the endemic performance woes of Unreal Engine 5.

It's an improvement on the scrappier feeling original, introducing that one tiny combo-blending manual trick that transforms the game into a profoundly new-feeling and lovely thing.

There’s endless hours of enjoyment in ArcheAge for just about anyone. If you can stomach a slightly stale questing experience, and get your head around the quite innocent labour system, it’s an MMO with near endless potential for player driven, organic content. And to be quite honest, it’s the closest thing to a true fantasy sandbox experience on the market, and will be for a good time yet.

An endearingly daft sequel that ditches the original's dour action for a brand of subversive play that squeezes the most out of some cracking gadgets and a brilliant map.

Stalker 2 is a punishing survival FPS that can be extremely rewarding for those who take the time to get comfortable in its playground. A few technical issues aside, there's not much else out there like this.

Nobody Wants to Die is a stunning homage to noir royalty that provides a fascinating retrofuturistic murder mystery experience. Though it’s brought down by more hand-holding than I’d like, and a few frayed narrative edges, Critical Hit Games has seriously impressed with its ambitious debut.

Sparking Zero takes the Budokai Tenkaichi series to new heights, successfully recreating the grand spectacle of an epic Dragon Ball fight. With plenty of single-player content to get through, a custom battle mode bursting with potential, and online multiplayer to challenge players around the world, Dragon Ball fans have never had it better than this.

Beginning as a universally relatable fantasy about overcoming red tape, The Fall winds up as a game about identity and civil rights without ever talking too much or treading too clumsily.

A well-implemented redux of a moment in time, which may surprise you with its engaging focus on leveling and the friendliness of its players.

Few games are as endearing in their madness as Devil May Cry 5. It’s deeply old-school and made for fans first, but its new character will entertain newcomers and keep them coming back for more.

Unrivalled parkour mechanics and tough-as-nails combat more than make up for a bland cyberpunk setting.

Ark’s ambition pulls it in the right direction with more force than its clunkiness tugs it the other way. It’s always more enjoyable to spend time with a game that tries something new and exciting, stumbling along the way, than a game that tries to tick focus group-inspired boxes. If that game also happens to simulate an entire prehistoric ecosystem, and produces bewildering emergent scenarios like clockwork, all the better.

The endgame is all about becoming an Absolver, donning a cloak to signify your status as a person who’s finished the campaign. After you’ve beaten enough players, you can create your own fighting school and recruit newbies, sparring with them and letting them absorb your moves. It’s a clever idea, and it’s thematically consistent because it’s quite the grind to unlock your own school. By the time you do, every parry will be a reflex. You won’t be kicking people off a cliff for some bandages, you’ll be doing it simply because you can.

This is the most conventional RTS in an historically unconventional series. While this fact alone may divide players, its quality of presentation and polished mechanics mean that, as it inevitably expands with more content, Dawn of War III may yet become the champion of a genre that remains stubbornly resistant to evolution.

Ubisoft were hoping for two things when they decided to give Assassin’s Creed a gap year: they wanted to deliver a more polished experience, and they wanted us all to have time to miss shanking people in the neck in a gorgeous historical setting. They have achieved both. Assassin’s Creed as a series has had a strange evolution, but going back to the start of the story, the place where the entire Creed was formed, has breathed new life back into it. Absence really does make the heart grow, well, stabbier.

AreaNet's best expansion yet is brimming with all the detail and character that makes Guild Wars 2 so special, and its approachability to solo players means nobody has to miss out this time around.

Duck Detective: The Secret Salami is a short but very sweet adventure that works your brain and warms your soul.

Oxenfree 2 casts off adolescence in a bid to explore the trials and tribulations of adulthood, featuring authentic dialogue that packs an emotional punch.

Resident Evil 4 Remake improves on the visuals, mechanics, and moment-to-moment experience of one of the best games ever made, but the source material casts an inescapable shadow, both in its renown and its treatment of its leading woman.

Despite its occasionally confounding UI and weak level design, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is an essential turn-based RPG that is both a love letter to its inspirations and a potential vision of the genre's future.

Total War: Rome 2 is five years old but Rise of the Republic acts as an anti-ageing cream, bolstering it with a new campaign and features that means it can keep up with Total War: Warhammer 2.

Headline features that don’t have a lot going for them mean Football Manager 2023 is the smallest step forward in the series yet, but a step forward nonetheless, to make this the best FM game to date.

OutRage: Fight Fest is frenetic fighting fun, taking everything we love about fighting games and combining them with quick-fire party chaos.

The Phantom Thieves arrive on PC in a more streamlined form than the main Persona series, but an equally engaging one that's as stylish as it is action packed.

TV show stalwarts should breathe easily and those on the fence about the game’s penchant for outrageous humour to definitely give it a go for the sake of its fantastic gameplay. However, if South Park has never been to your taste, The Fractured But Whole makes no attempt to change that.

It is with this finale that it’s clear that - despite so many similarities - this has been a very different season from the first. With Lee we had one goal: keep Clem safe. And whatever we did, as Lee, the end was pretty much a forgone conclusion. Not so, here.

One of the most engaging and original story-based games this year. It’s dragged down by some trite videogame elements but its characters elevate it above its contemporaries.

F1 25 offers a stronger driving experience and greater attention to detail than its predecessors, with major changes to My Team breathing new life into the mode. It's not a revolution, but it's undoubtedly Codemasters' best F1 game in years.

With new official DLC, a glorious audiovisual overhaul and a touch of modern quality-of-life polish, this is now the best way to play Age 2 - though it'll take a while to match the HD edition's user content.

A bit skinny for a wargame. I can’t deny that I’ve missed getting stressed about logistics or big picture strategy, and it certainly hasn’t set my heart aflutter in the way that I hoped a Warhammer wargame would. But there aren’t very many wargames that are this easy to dip into, either. It’s got a focus and simplicity that’s often lacking elsewhere, and it could be indispensable for anyone looking to dip their toes into the genre.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is simultaneously overblown and undercooked in some areas, but it nails the fundamentals of combat, platforming, and exploration, making for a strong Metroidvania adventure and an exciting new entry in a legendary game series.

WoW Dragonflight returns to the Warcraft’s roots as promised, while adding some exciting new features to modernise the iconic MMORPG. It’s endgame content, however, ultimately fails to fill the void.

Creative Assembly's art team has outdone itself on Curse of the Vampire Coast, building a visual treat that drips with detail. The campaign is an inventive but uneven experience, with some Legendary Lords more enjoyable than others.

Wargame: Red Dragon is more of the same excellent, very serious strategy that experienced players have come to expect. If you’ve exhausted AirLand Battle and still want more, it would be silly to ignore Red Dragon. But if you’re looking for an entry point into the series, then this is not it. Pick up AirLand Battle instead. It’s still one of the best modern RTS titles you could have the good fortune to play.

EA Sports FC 25 continues to hand in the same homework it's done for the past few years now, albeit with a new paragraph on Rush. It's a solid game that will likely enjoy plenty of additions throughout the year, but I'd like to see more ambition in the future.

After years of waiting for a game to capture the same joy of Theme Hospital, Two Point Hospital arrives as an able successor. Although, two decades on we'd hoped it wouldn't share the same flaws.

It ticks all the boxes it promised to, but feels like it could've gone further with improvements to gameplay, home cities for new civs, and AI.

You might well find the evocative, smoke-damaged backdrop of ‘80s espionage fresh enough to carry you through a satisfying playthrough. But even with the plates changed and the serial number filed off, there’s no mistaking XCOM 2.

There’s a lot of fun to be had slaying zombies on the streets and beaches of HELL-A, but if that first bite doesn’t infect you, you might find – like the protagonist – that your experience gets stronger as you play.

If you normally struggle with the multiple complexities of a 4x strategy game, Starships is a great introduction to the genre.

An accessible, lightweight competitive shooter. Though it's a little thin in its current state, this is a solid start for what will hopefully become a lively and dynamic game as its season pass gets underway.

It is Open World: The Game, and as such, struggles to find an identity of its own beyond its entertaining hacking hook and the inspired multiplayer. But those two elements make up a sizeable portion of the game. There are moments of genuine brilliance buried in the game that elevates it above mediocrity, but its reliance on increasingly tired design does it a disservice.

A refreshing take on the survival sandbox with a robust approach to progression and countless ways to tackle each mission. Sadly, harsh penalties, bugs, and crashes combine to make this a frustrating off-world expedition.

WWE 2K24 is a fitting tribute to the legacy of the wrestlers that came before, the talented Superstars that now thrill millions worldwide, and the future of sports entertainment in videogames, even if there is still room for improvement in the presentation and some of its game modes.

When you first boot it up it feels surprisingly robust, and there’s never a sense that it was created on the cheap to cash in. The matchmaking can certainly make or break the experience from match to match, but when the going’s good Block N Load is a smile-generating shooter.

Is Malus Darkblade done justice? As a character, yes. But while his campaign is decent, Snikch’s is one of the weaker we've seen in these Lord packs, lacking some of CA's usual focus in mechanics and theme.

It’s loaded with some of the best adventure game one liners; a gripping, winding plot that only slips up three quarters of the way through the game, and then improves drastically afterward; and a vibrant, bizarre world that, for all its weirdness, is extremely easy to get attached to. It’s just not a very impressive remaster.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice serves up a strong story and world but is marred by repetition and occasionally confusing level design, which holds it back from achieving its full potential as an instant VR classic.

A very workmanlike open-world game. Great to look at, competent overall, and charming when it tries something new, but formulaic when it doesn’t - which is most of the time.

A bold and fascinating story. But the story is something that’s revealed, not something that’s lived through. I was a tourist, a witness, a reader, and that left less room for being a player. Yet I expect the game to stay with me for a good long time, and its grisly, gorgeous world alone makes the trek worthwhile.

A vibrant snapshot of the Victorian era that’s bustling with character, but doesn’t explore the intriguing, seismic politics of the period.

Booned by a timelessly pretty art style and fulfilling adventure structure, Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter is a beautiful, sprawling hack-and-slash soulslike let down by its overly forgiving combat.

A twin-stick shooter that looks and feels great all the way through, but doesn't do enough new to keep your attention as you invest more time in its RPG systems and world.

The main story soon falls into repetition, and its side content is bloated with busywork, but exploring and fighting your way through Tango’s eerie, detailed rendition of Shibuya is where Ghostwire: Tokyo shines.

Total War games past have expanded, changed and morphed over time and this will doubtless be similar. As it stands, Warhammer is a worthy addition to the series, particularly as a melding of two universes we’ve long wanted to see collide. And before long, as the patches roll in, it could be even more than that.

The new World Congress and climate change mirror real-life in that they're partly beyond your control, making them hard to factor into your schemes. The new civs are among the best and most novel in the game, though.

While Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus plays it too safe with its gameplay, its engrossing setting and large cast of charming characters help it stand apart in the ever-crowded Metroidvania genre.

Horizon Forbidden West is utterly gorgeous and builds on the original's intense combat, but a lack of ambition and a flat narrative hold it back as a sequel. It provides more of the first game but bigger, with a few new inclusions struggling against the tidal wave of familiarity.

None of the separate parts – the platforming, the construction, the light strategy – stand out as particularly refined or able to stand toe to toe with games that just focus on one of those things, but Q-Games has put them all together in a package that is much more than the sum of its parts, hiding its flaws under the satisfying pace and multitude of unlockable rewards and newly discovered recipes.

A solid turn-based strategy experience that explores the Space Marine power fantasy, marred by humdrum mission design.

This is a big planet and there are a lot of caves needing clearing, think of raids as housekeeping.

Just Cause 4 refines everything that made its predecessor great. It’s still one of the most generous and bombastic open world games, but its new systems don’t progress the sandbox as much as they should.

In theory, this is a massively entertaining game that introduces some unique twists to the monster-hunting formula. In practice, however, technical issues on PC continue to mar what should have been a slam-dunk hit.

The Silent Hill 2 remake is a solid, respectful reimagining of a horror classic. The sound design is perhaps even more spectacular here, but modern graphics clean up some of the grit and grime, while overextended exploration and frequent cutscenes take away from the original's claustrophobia and fear.

Poppy Playtime: Chapter 3 is an enjoyable and emotional horror puzzle game that draws to a powerful conclusion, even if bugs, difficulty spikes, and its oddly paced narrative keep it back from greatness.

A scrappy, unpolished stealth shooter that nevertheless snipes at the heartstrings through its slapstick thirst for gory kills and open-ended maps.

Limbic has turned down its opportunity for revolución in favour of reinforcing the rule of El Presidente - a safe pair of hands for colourful city-building and wry commentary on the abuse of democracy.

The series' foundations have been rejigged to offer an exciting and satisfying new gameplay loop. Not all of the revisions work in its favour, but unfortunately it's the complete lack of change with its approach to storytelling and structure that really holds Far Cry 6 back.

A stripped down Diablo that oozes charm and loot variety but is probably better suited to a younger audience.

The Sims 4 is good, if a bit plain when compared with the exploding circus of colourful content that festoons previous games in the series, expansion packs littered with dogs and ghosts and hobbies and holidays that are now nowhere to be found...We're back to a clean sheet, and it's arguably the cleanest, most stable and most ready-to-be-built upon sheet Maxis have yet laid down.

At its core is a rewarding driving model, hundreds of gorgeous and unusual cars, and some imaginatively designed solo championships to tackle in them. In time, it will probably be unreservedly brilliant. But, right now, I can’t overlook the technical problems that I’m having. And, to continue this candour, I can’t overlook the VIP pass nerfing or the exclusion of a season pass from Forza’s Ultimate Edition either.

Rules maintains the series' dual coming-of-age narrative, but often undermines its central pillar of choice.

Although its light tutorial and lack of feedback throw it off balance, Rise of Industry’s in-depth production tools and supply chain mechanics - not to mention waffle options - will meet the demands of any production sim fan.

Lumino City really has only one flaw: its cracking puzzles and amazing architecture aren't matched by a similarly memorable story.

This near-future sequel has all the components it needs to become a classic entry in the multiplayer series, but it feels like 2042 is many updates away from reaching its full potential.

Blasphemous 2 is a well-constructed but ultimately conventional Metroidvania, and while it still delivers on holy grotesquerie and striking visuals, the end result is a sequel that feels markedly smaller in scope.

Ubisoft’s open-world shooter digs into what makes the series great. Some of those experiments bear fruit, others bring frustration.