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.