Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail introduces some of the game’s best dungeons and trials yet alongside a compelling story that, while slow to ramp up, delivers resoundingly in its second act, setting a promising precedent for the future of the MMORPG on all counts.

An outstanding homage to Fire Emblem which, in its rich cast of characters and thoughtful tweaks to combat, occasionally surpasses its classic inspiration.

With more tools at your disposal than ever, this is a rich, realistic management simulation that delivers thrills both on and off the pitch.

Offering a stunning visual upgrade, a great new story, and a hugely rewarding combat system, Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance is officially the best and only way to play Atlus' beloved JRPG.

Calling Stellaris Europa Universalis in space is probably reductive, but it was the first thing I did in this review not because they are almost exactly alike, but because, when I put away my empires and get on with my day, the stories that have played out in these digital worlds embed themselves in my brain, and I so desperately want to tell people about them. Both games tickle the part of my brain that wants every battle to have some greater context, every move I make to be part of a larger narrative. Stellaris manages to do this without history to lean on, though, and does so with aplomb.

A masterclass in open-world game design and a thrilling samurai epic in its own right, Ghost of Tsushima is a must-play on PC.

Mythos is a fresh layer of paint for Troy, but also feels like the first step towards an exciting evolution for the Total War series.

Solium Infernum regards strategy as a game of intellect, patience, and observation. Put into those terms, it might sound dry, but its visual flair combined with the ingenious ways it turns abstract ideas into tangible, comprehensible, and thrilling game mechanics make it irresistibly playable.

Telltale’s trip back to its comedy roots is a triumph. Rhys and Fiona are a duo I want to spend more time with. Baker and Bailey do a phenomenal job of bringing them to life, with spot-on comic timing and just enough humanity so they don’t simply feel like vehicles for jokes.

An exceedingly complex, infinitely rewarding space strategy game. It’s made me more excited about the genre than any other game of its kind since Galactic Civilizations II.

An expansion that's better than it has any right to be, Endwalker succeeds at wrapping up a decade-long story arc providing a satisfying send-off for players.

Wolfenstein is a masterpiece of its genre. It does good shooting men. But it's more than that, it's an effortlessly melancholy adventure that doesn't drown in its own bombast. It's like finding out that a superstar footballer is a poet, or finding your dog pressing flowers. It's a game with hidden depths that you're invited to explore, but ones that never overshadow the thing it's best at...Which is shooting all the men so that all their blood comes out.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree sits proudly among the best videogame expansions of all time thanks to its sense of adventure, epic boss battles, and ambitious new additions.

Its approachability and poppy, colourful presentation make diving into densely packed levels and chasing high scores feel like a warm hug before the white-knuckle drop in.

A superb dungeon crawler that's held back from perfection by some crude monetisation practises and half-baked dialogue.

Big, brash, and surprisingly poignant, God of War arrives on PC in fine shape. Don't pass up this chance to play a console classic.

What Routine lacks in quantity, it makes up for in staggering quality. It’s cassette futurism at its most tactile, with an aesthetic direction that’s only matched by the novelty of its CAT tool. Lunar Software raises the bar in sound design to deliver a singular experience for sci-fi horror fans.

Challenges Forsaken for the title of best-ever Destiny expansion, and has much stronger foundations to build upon. Destiny 2 was already in a good spot, but Witch Queen represents a new peak for Bungie's oft-imitated, never-dethroned looter shooter.

It’s the most purely fun, accessible RTS I’ve played in years.

It was inevitable that The Witcher 3 would close on a high, but few will have expected what they’ll find in Blood & Wine.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 stands as a remarkable example of three genres: the classic roleplaying game, the online arena battler, and the tabletop-style adventure enabler. If its campaign fails to shake off some of Larian’s unfriendlier habits, those flaws are mitigated by the ways in which the studio have shaped a genre moulded by nostalgia into genuinely new forms - changing more than just the keyboard shortcuts for the better.

Stray merges feline mayhem with a classic cyberpunk setting, inviting you to explore its neon dystopia while never taking itself too seriously.

Dishonored: Death of the Outsider captures everything that’s great about Arkane’s assassination series, while also showing that it can still surprise. Smart tweaks improve the core gameplay and, if you’re worried about having fewer powers to play with, you can always go back through it with Corvo’s moveset when you’re done. As far as mission quality goes, it peaks in the middle - the fourth mission has us revisit a location from Dishonored 2, albeit slightly reworked, and the final mission feels much more linear than what’s come before. Still, it all leads to a satisfying conclusion that neatly ties up every plot strand that’s been hanging since that political assassination, whoever you decide is responsible.

Cities: Skylines is absolutely the best city-builder I’ve played since SimCity 4. From macro to micro, from the sprawling transport networks and city-wide policies to the fine-tuned districts and street-level detail, it impresses.

I’m hooked in the same way I was with the last game, and not because it’s stayed the same, but because it’s managed to strike that balance between the comfortingly familiar and the refreshingly new.

Konami has taken great care with the remake of Metal Gear Solid 3, bringing this legendary spy thriller to a new audience with a modernized play style and thoughtful QoL tweaks to suit today’s gamers. If you haven’t played Snake Eater or any of the MGS series before, this is the perfect entry point into Hideo Kojima’s magnum opus.

By opening it up and providing countless meaningful choices and random events, Relic has put the war in the players’ hands. It’s not a directed journey through a bunch of scenarios where winning is all that matters; it’s a persistent struggle where failure is always nipping at the Americans’ heels, where an entire company can be lost in battle, making the war seem even more desperate. It’s exhausting, and the best game in the Company of Heroes series.

Chapter Two was worth the two year wait. It’s comfortingly traditional if you pine for the old days, but not laden down with overly elaborate multi-layered puzzles that’ll keep you bashing your head against the wall for hours.