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.

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.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a magical, gripping, and technically impressive RPG that delivers a rich story, clever gameplay, and enchanting atmosphere—despite a few rough edges from its small-studio origins. Fans of complex fantasy and mystery-laden role-playing games will find much to love.

I also wish Disco Elysium were shorter, if only because I’d love to play through it as a completely different character on a completely different trajectory. Pick up a smoking habit! Tell everyone I lost my memory! Beat people up! I rarely get to replay games, especially ones that are 50-plus hours long. It’s hard to imagine seeing everything Disco Elysium has in store. Maybe that’s a good thing though. After all, what I’m getting is mine—something Jon Ingold told me when I first demoed Heaven’s Vault, the idea being that you can only have such a unique and personal connection to a game if it’s also possible to miss out on other parts. And hey, I have a loooooooong way to go in this first playthrough. That’s worth celebrating as well. I can’t wait to see what’s still in store. I think I might even find my gun soon. If I’m lucky.

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.

Tetris Effect is more than a Tetris game. It's a work of art that you just happen to interact with by stacking blocks and clearing rows.

Hi-Fi Rush is a pop-rock breath of fresh air, a rhythm-based beat-em-up with all the color and attitude of a post-Pokemon kid’s anime...I should also point out that the game runs great, much more so than you might expect from a title that launches on PC and Xbox at the same time. It animates smooth as butter on my RTX 3070 desktop, and supports my ultrawide monitor’s 21:9 resolution without complaint. After playing several iffy cross-platform releases — looking at you, Elden Ring — it’s a nice change of pace. [Review-in-Progress]

It’s very good. Addictive, too.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Unlike the Xbox, the PC version looks great without compromising performance. I’ve been pushing the game at maximum on my GeForce GTX 980 Ti and it’s generally maintained a steady 60 frames per second, though I’ve noticed a few loading stutters occasionally. Never anywhere important.

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.

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.

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.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps is more than the sum of its parts. Is it just another Metroid homage, one among many? Absolutely. I think it’s one of the best-playing, sure, but it’s still well-trod territory of late. I found myself gripped by it though. As I said earlier, I wish it was longer. That’s usually the sign (or at least one sign) of a good game, in my experience.

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.

Civilization VI has room to improve (particularly the AI), but this is the most complete a baseline Civ game has felt in ages and a few smart tweaks on the formula distinguish it from its predecessor.

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

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.

Night in the Woods may be a pastiche of influences, but as far as video games go, there’s really nothing else like it, and there’s a lot to be learned from spending a dozen days in Mae’s life—about her and her friends, about yourself, about America and towns forgotten by time.

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

I’d like to see more of what worked in the first Total Warhammer, though. Less world-spanning disaster, more localized enmities and backroom politicking. I don’t just want factions to play differently in pursuit of the same goal—I want them to be different. That’s undoubtedly a hard trick to pull off, especially when it comes to balancing strengths and weaknesses, but I think it made Total Warhammer a much stronger game than this more traditional sequel.

The Forza Horizon series has long been the best arcade racer of the modern era, and this third iteration keeps that streak alive.

A magical adventure almost a decade in the making, Kentucky Route Zero is every bit as good as you've heard—and maybe more.

But it’s so much more than just Total War. Even with Attila making good on some of Rome II’s promise, I found myself dreading drawn-out engagements and increasingly bored with the Total War formula. Total Warhammer doesn’t tamper with much, but it injects enough personality to revive a series that’s been steadily collapsing under its own weight.

Gears of War 4 struggles with pacing issues and a bland protagonist, but it works well as a passing-the-torch installment bridging the old and new trilogies.