Bethesda has finally landed another hit. Starfield is the space RPG epic we’ve been wanting for so long. It has the incredible expansiveness and variance in design of No Man’s Sky mixed with the dialogue depth and creative quests of Fallout or even Mass Effect. The only thing that might bother some people is the heavy reliance on fast travel and that many planets only make sense when you build bases and production facilities there...Bethesda took its time, and rightly so: Starfield is currently the hottest Game of the Year candidate in 2023.

Probably the best open-world RPG ever made, but it still falls prey to some of the genre's worst traps.

Kerbal Space Program isn't just a fantastic space game. It's one of those games that makes you glad you play on PC, because it could only come to exist on PC.

SOMA is not the horror game I expected out of Frictional, but I don’t care and it doesn’t matter. This is an excellent work of science fiction, not necessarily unique but uniquely told through its skillful use of video game conceits. It’s System Shock 2 for a modern sensibility, BioShock freed of its AAA chains. It’s damn good and, for my money, the most cohesive and ambitious game Frictional’s made so far.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is a genuine epic-action single-player experience with a campaign that’s not only the longest in the series’ history at 10 hours, but also full of Constant surprises. In addition to its thrilling action, the strong acting and the sometimes truly congenial mission designs are also impressive. Ultimately, Black Ops 6 delivers what we’ve been missing in recent years, complete with intelligent, emotional, and smart storytelling, well-written characters, and truly epic action that could well be a Game of the Year candidate.

It’s not perfect. As I mentioned earlier, Blazkowicz could really use a bit more indication he’s being shot. Sometimes you’re dead before you even realize you’re in danger. And hey, Machine Games is great at disguising corridors, but that’s all there is here—endless corridors full of Nazis. I don’t want an open world game, but a bit more room to breathe would go a long way. But Wolfenstein II belies its dumb corridor shooter roots.The New Order was a silly game that occasionally got serious. The New Colossus is a serious game that sometimes cracks a smile. You’ll come off a heartfelt speech about the hidden dangers of America’s militarism, then seconds later you’re riding an enormous robot-dog through the streets of New Orleans lighting Nazis on fire, and you laugh because it’s all so gloriously stupid again. No other game could pull this off. No other game has.

Narrative is the most sophisticated video game of recent years, blurring the genres of horror, psychological thriller and art house in an artistic way and never playing it safe, but always taking full creative risks. A masterpiece.

Phantom Liberty is CD Projekt RED’s masterpiece. Not only is Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty graphically easily three generations ahead of the entire industry and redefines how we experience video games with pathtracing, it’s also written even more thrillingly and staged even more explosively. Anyone who doesn’t enjoy this several times in different play styles has never loved video games. A clear must-play.

Celeste’s optimism is refreshing, especially since it comes from within. It’s a call-and-response, a game that says Keep going! and waits for your next button press as confirmation, I will! You’re learning! and with every death, every obstacle stumbled against and overcome, you say I am! It’s a marriage of theme and mechanics so pure, so confident. And one hell of a platformer, too.

Battlefield 1's solemn campaign and over-the-top multiplayer may feel like polar opposites, but the complete package is all-around excellent.

Like Asura’s Wrath, like Revengeance, Devil May Cry 5 is a game that delights in setting the bar high up front and then continually one-upping itself until, 10 hours later, you can finally catch your breath.

Full of emotion and high adventure, Final Fantasy XIV's Shadowbringers expansion brings MMORPG storytelling out of the shadows. Two great new combat classes, two cool new races, and a nifty system for running dungeons solo round out the experience of FFXIV's best expansion to date.

Resident Evil 2 isn’t terrifying per se, but it oozes atmosphere and there’s a thrill to slowly discovering its setting even 20 years later. Ironic, that a very old game might breathe new life into a series, but it’s made a fan out of me at least.

Day of the Tentacle is a classic, but not in the old musty way where you brush off a copy of some old SNES game and realize it isn’t as good as you remember. This is still one of the finest point-and-clicks ever made, with a witty story and some brain-bending puzzles. Also, a hell of a lot of dumb puns...As with Grim Fandango, the big news is that Day of the Tentacle’s on sale at all. The fact that Double Fine’s put in so much work as caretaker to bring it up to modern—or at least mostly modern—standards? Even better.

It took eight years for Jonathan Blow to create his follow-up to Braid. It was worth it. We're obsessed.

Metro Exodus abandons the cramped corridors of the Moscow subway for wide-open expanses of Russian countryside, but Artyom's journey is still as bleak as ever—and as janky, though that should come as no surprise.

Planet Coaster is an excellent theme park builder. Hell, it’s an excellent builder in general—probably the most player-centric one to date. It’s less about the developers giving you a bunch of stuff to build a theme park with, and more about you taking the stuff the developers give you and building a theme park with it.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth builds on what made its predecessor so good — which is a long and exciting story, accompanied by hysterical side quests. The latter stands out even more this time, with deep side adventures inspired by Pokémon and Animal Crossing, among others. Don’t be put off by the fact that Infinite Wealth is the eighth instalment in the series; this is a must-have for all fans of story-driven action games.

Control is the culmination of Remedy's entire oeuvre to-date, pairing a top-tier action game with a dizzyingly dense and layered story about the Federal Bureau of Control, and the everyday horrors within. It's so good, you might even stop asking for Alan Wake 2.

Half-Life: Alyx isn't quite as revolutionary as you might hope, particularly if you're already well-versed in virtual reality, but it's undoubtedly one of the best games on the platform and hopefully the start of a resurgence for both the series and the hardware.

Observation is grander than Stories Untold, more ambitious by half, but equally fascinating and inventive. It’s a pastiche of science fiction new and old but knows when to lean into expectations and when to subvert them, and its approach to mechanical realism is so uncompromising it becomes an artistic statement instead of mere mimicry. I’m already curious what’s next.

Thimbleweed Park is excellent, both as tongue-in-cheek homage and in its own right. It’s a LucasArts adventure game the way you remember them being, with the same witty humor and, yes, the same sometimes-asinine puzzles. The good and the bad.

Doom Eternal kicks ass. It's smarter than it looks, faster than it looks, and somehow even more fun than it looks. A triumph—except for the platforming.

80 Days is a modern take on the choose-your-own adventure novel, with a branching story that spans the entire globe. It's a game that practically demands you play it more than once.

Homeworld is just as revolutionary in 2015 as it was in 1999—and now it looks great too.

Heaven's Vault is rough around the edges, but its sense of discovery and self-fulfillment are unparalleled thanks to its commitment to player agency and its unique language-translation mechanic.

With Tekken 8, Bandai Namco takes everything that was good about its predecessor and ups the ante on most things. While it’s not a revolutionary sequel, all the improvements make Tekken 8 a must-have for fighting fans – whether you play to be the best or just for fun.

A unique art style and a fantastic puzzle hook make Return of the Obra Dinn a detective story worth experiencing, especially if you can do it all in one go.