While on the surface the game is easy to dismiss as a yet another old-school platformer, Shovel Knight is anything but. [Aug 2014]

Hearthstone keeps getting stronger and stronger. [Jan 2016]

The game itself is quite simple and short, but the story folds out in a great way. One of the best games of 2005 so far. [Sept. 05]

I'd say Chariots of the Dogs might be the best episode in the new Sam&Max series yet. The environment is fresh, puzzles are challenging and logical and simply put toying with the time muchine works just great. As for me this time nearly all of the jokes hit the spot. Hail Sam and Max! [June 2008]

Oceanhorn proves that there's still room for premium games in the tablet market. Almost AAA grade production values in an iGame are something that you don't see everyday. Sure, it's a Zelda rip-off, but this heist is done with love and respect. [Dec 2013]

The Crown Prince of driving simulations. [Feb 2015]

Machinarium is a successful mix of unique audiovisual atmosphere and traditional point-and-click adventuring. While the character control is a bit flimsy, beautiful hand drawn graphics and funny puzzles make it a true gem among indie games. [Feb 2010]

A fast-paced tactical game that is easy to approach but has depth in spades when you dig into it. The mix of randomness and determinism isn't quite optimal, but the end result is mostly excellent. Despite some lacklustre storytelling, even the single player side provides hours and hours of quality gaming. A cult classic. [Aug 2011]

A long-awaited port of the PS3 classic. The game has aged incredibly well, thanks to its beautiful cell-shaded graphic style and well thought mechanics. It takes some time to get used to cheerful anime cast of characters in what is essentially tale of World War 2 horrors, but once one is over that hurdle Valkyria Chronicles is a thoroughly enjoyable light strategy game. [Feb 2015]

Wolf Among Us is great, better than the original comic. Willingham, take notes! [Nov 2013]

Pure adrenalin rush. Shoot ‘em ups don’t come much better than this. [Aug 2007]

A well-written, inventive and laugh-out-loud funny platformer with great puzzles. Unfortunately, the quirky game has not been polished to perfection, which can be seen in the lack of details, the faltering visual style and some dragging sections. [Sept 2007]

Mega Man Legacy Collection does not offer anything new, but the old has a new tasty cover. Aside from the disappointment that are the new challenges and achievements, this is an excellent compilation. The old games are presented with care and emulated perfectly. [Oct 2015]

A very relaxing music game where you pilot a futuristic vehicle and race different tracks. You can add your own music into the game and the songs will be transformed into new racing tracks, so you will always have plenty of different types of tracks. The game mechanics and graphics are pretty simple, which is a bit disappointing. [May 2008]

Episode 3 doesn't quite reach the high points of the previous episode, but it still manages to deliver some really memorable moments. The decisions are brutal and there are some really unexpected "that didn't just happen!" scenes along the way. Also props for Telltale on creating the most believable child character ever, Clementine. [Oct 2012]

Second best of the Battlefield 3 add-ons. [Feb 2013]

Simple and easy going strategy game has a good board game feeling: easy to learn, harder to master. Battle of Bulge works well on a touch screen too, thanks to excellent user interface. The main flaw is that it is quite expensive and has only one map to play with. [March 2013]

The survivor AI stinks and the lack of a persistent world hurts the atmosphere. Still, as far as sick and bloody violence goes, you could do a lot worse than Dead Rising. [Oct 2006]

Metroid Prime Hunters has the Metroid Prime atmosphere, but suffers from simplified content, which is not compensated in any way in the adventure mode. Nice multiplayer options, though! [May 2006]

Even with Retro Studios helping the 7th installment is pretty much the same game. At minimum unfair elements like the blue shells should be corrected. Still even with the ultra-conservative approach multiplayer is satisfying. [Jan 2012]

Thirteen years in existence, Halo has defined many of the parameters of a console FPS. Now four Halo games are packed in one experience. Two of the oldest have gone through moderate modernization, but Master Chief’s Christmas Special isn’t the game, that you use to demonstrate the muscles of Xbox One. As a gamer, Halo is a part of general education. If you’re not familiar with Master Chief, now is a perfect chance to catch up on some video game history. [Nov 2014]

A couple of small tweaks makes the game even better: stronger horse units and better character customisation. The only disappointment are the bland graphics, GameCube could do much better. [Dec 2005]

A very addicting puzzle game where you solve different physics-based block puzzles. The Wii controls work great in this game and everything feels very natural. The game has hundreds of levels and a very easy-to-use editor, so you can create your own levels after you have completed the game. Maybe the best part of the game is the multiplayer which has lots of different options and game modes that will keep you interested for a long time. The worst part of the game is the shooting levels that just are not very fun to play. [June 2008]

Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 resembles more real soccer than FIFA 16, but loses on other features, like license. [Oct 2015]

If you look up the word addiction in a dictionary, you will find out what that word means. But the dictionary might just as well display a picture of Rogue Legacy. [Dec 2013]

The best Pokémon role playing game so far. [Sept 2007]

A very good beat 'em up that nonetheless feels more like evolution than revolution. The lack of internet play is a definite minus. [Mar 2007]

A very good MMA fighter and fighter in general. You better watch out, Fight Night. [March 2012]

Football Manager 2014 feels more like a lifestyle than a game. I just doubt thee need of yearly iterations in the era of DLCs. [Feb 2014]

THe Brave New World add-on has a lot of good new stuff: cold war, better cultural victory rules, world congress, archeology… I only wish the AI would be better in battles. [Aug 2013]

Transforms a rather stupid movie into a fun beat 'em up adventure with ugly graphics. [Jan 2006]

An excellent guerrilla fighter's sandbox adventure. You can destroy every building, no matter how large. Piece by piece. It's simply amazing. [July 2009]

Ratchet & Clank is a very good update of 14-year-old platforming adventure. The new weapon system is quite good. [May 2016]

Sengoku Jidai: Shadow of the Shogun continues from where Pike and Shot: Campaigns left off, introducing a rarely visited setting of feudal Japan, including battles in the Korean peninsula. The simple, but robust turn-based game mechanics, along with appealing visuals make the battlefield shine, but the thin campaign layer leaves a lot to desire. [Aug 2016]

Just as frighteningly good on 360 as it was on PC. The combat works extremely well and so does the atmospheric storyline. The repetitive levels are still there, though. [Dec 2006]

Bike Baron is a refreshing relic from the shareware era, but it takes some from the one of the greatest XBLA successes. This iPad version of the TrialsHD is sometimes painfully difficult, but extremely fun at the same time. [Dec 2011]

Doesn’t deserve a lot of points for creativity as the game is basically just a rehash of Far Cry 3. The good thing is that Far Cry 3 was a terrific open-world first person shooter. Far Cry 4 makes minor improvements here and there but most importantly it manages to add some variety to the enemy camps. There’s just enough stealth to keep things interesting. [Dec 2014]

A fun and especially challenging action game, although the formula invented over ten years ago in Symphony of the Night is getting a bit stale.

The operation was a success, but the patient died! Actually, not really. While making the game simpler cut's the depth of the single player mode considerably, ut at the same time makes multiplayer games more fluent and entertaining. [Aug 2008]

Dawn of War's game mechanics should be the role model for the whole stagnant RTS genre. Boosted with Winter Assault, Dawn of War is pretty much the best action-RTS ever. Tyranids next, please. [Nov 2005]

It is better to be relaunched than forgotten. [March 2014]

FIFA looks great getting off the bus and The Journey is an intriguing addition, but the AI and ball handling could be better. Ultimately Team is still great, though. [Nov 2016]

An excellent GTA-style superhero-sandbox. There's nothing major to complain about – it doesn't need any multiplayer-modes. [June 2009]

Papers, Please is not only original but fun, too. More papers, please! [Sept 2013]

Doom proves that id can still surprise, and even better, can make good games. Excellent single player gets a tad repetitive towards the end, but it really does not matter. Multiplayer is boring as Hell. [June/July 2016]

Clash Royale is actually a fun gun and really well designed version of MOBA genre for mobile. It isn’t just a cruel revenue model. [Feb 2016]

Offers such a single-playerish leveling up experience, that it's often easy to forget that you are actually playing an MMO. As an MMO it still lacks a lot of important features like LFG tool for flashpoints and an interface that actually supports group play, but at the same time it shows a lot of promise. If Bioware can fix the most glaring omissions The Old Republic has a potential to grow into a stable and long MMO love-affair. [Feb 2012]

A technical masterpiece of a skateboarding game. It dumps the superhero antics of the Tony Hawk series and goes back to what it is all about: a man and his board. With the innovative controls and the great old-fashioned fun the player will have, Skate is sure to set a new standard for extreme games for years to come. [Oct 2007]

Playing cup matches in the middle of the season against Hartlepool and Macclesfield is refreshing, and the new passing system is a welcomed improvement. However, the controls are too complicated, AI knows how to cheat, the ball behaves strangely and tactically FIFA 07 is much too simple. [Sept 2006]

Fixes many of the original game's annoyances and continues the story of the Blood Ravens with a bunch of excellent missions. Only the final mission is a bit of a letdown, otherwise an absolute must for fans of futuristic warfare. [Apr 2010]

Episode 2 delves less on the zombies and more on the relations between humans. In that it succeeds and manages to pull off some of the best writing and atmosphere seen in games this year. Even if you don't care about the subject matter, episode 2 is most definitely worth a look. [Oct 2012]

Great story and excellent game mechanics. [Aug 2016]

A whole lot of fun. Managing your own studio is a real blast, although things tend to get a bit too simple and straight-forward at times. Creating movies from scratch is intuitive and strangely addictive. [Dec 2005]

Rare Replay features Ultimate and Rare classics from three decades. Simply a big slice of essential videogame history. [Nov 2015]

Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 is actually GRAW 1: Part 2. Although well made, military shooters could use some evolution. [Sept 2007]

Despite the dark setup, Shadow of Mordor doesn’t offer any surprises. It’s a solid action-adventure spiced up with some RPG elements and a familiar license. As far as the license games go, Talion’s trek is well executed mesh of Arkham games and Assassin’s Creed. You could do a lot worse. [Oct 2014]

Like a breath of fresh air. The gardening and raising of piñatas is great fun and good pastime for the holiday season. [Jan 2007]

A chilling adventure that makes your skin crawl. The new FPS mode is simply great and makes playing the game much more effortless. [Mar. 05]

An intensive 3D shooter with a twist or two. The plot does not make much sense, but it is entertaining. [Mar. 05]

A unique piece of beautiful and thrilling massive scale war. It's not for the lone warrior, but with a few friends or a larger outfit the battles become larger than life. Long term, some goals requiring and rewarding longer planning and actual defending your conquests are needed to keep things fresh, just farming certificates and unlocks goes only so far. [Jan 2013]

Fast and furious platformer with an excellent co-op play. [Aug 2009]

TxK is LSD in binary form. TxK is an excellent tunnel shooter and evolution of the Tempest-theme. [Feb 2014]

At its best the game feels more a RTS than an ordinary football game. The set piece and defense will need a lot of work because the controls are still a little too automatic. [May 2009]

The incredible speed and freeform routes are the major high points. The tuning options are excellent, too. [July 05]

It is a beautiful thing when a game seems to pull all the right strings. The cars are absolutely stunning and the way they handle makes each of them feel unique. Driving has rarely felt so good. [Nov 2005]

A technically flawless, movie-like episode of the famous survival horror series, although this time the focus is on action and not survival or even horror. The game's representation of Africa and its inhabitants seems to be from the Colonial era and is therefore somewhat disturbing, detracting from the overall enjoyment. [Mar 2009]

Salt and Sanctuary is a souls-like metroidvania. And a very good one at that. Excellent character development and clever combat system. [May 2016]

Great storytelling, excellent gameplay and much to do and explore. You have got to love it. [Sept. 05]

Tetris DS jam-packs every conceivable Tetris game mode into one package. Some, like Catch, are unnecessary. The retro pixel graphics and the beeping soundscape will not appeal to everyone. The multiplayer features are great fun. [June 2006]

Battlefield 3 for Xbox 360 is a fine game in its own right, it's just tough to enjoy it after getting used to PC's larger scale, sharper controls and higher visual fidelity. [Dec 2011]

A very good and addictive action RPG. You kill a lot of monsters and collect even more stuff, which are used to upgrade your equipment. The missions are a bit samey, though. [June 2010]

Assassin's Creed III is definitely a step backwards for the excellent and popular series. The main plot is decent and the assassination action itself good as always, but the main character is totally uncharismatic and the gameplay a dull repetition of old rotes. The game world is indeed huge, but sadly it's filled with uninspiring busywork like trade caravans and a pointless crafting system. Assassin's Creed III is still a very good game, but disappointing as it could have been so much more. [Nov 2012]

One of the best downloadable titles of 2011 offers beautiful visuals and atmospheric andventuring, reminiscent of classics such as Super Metroid and Ikaruga. [May 2011]

The ship has a new captain, but Gears of War is still about guts, glory and camaraderie. Buckle up, grab your Lancer and go kick some Swarm buttocks. [Nov 2016]

With a more accessible and engaging story and solid new designs for the Prometheans, Halo 5 is a major improvement over Halo 4. Warzone is a great addition to the multiplayer, though the mode seems to have some game balance issues. [Nov 2015]

A solid racing game with amazing variety. The new Pro career keeps even the best racers busy for a while. The game feels a bit too familiar, but it is still a great sequel to a classic game. [Feb 2006]

Definitely the best basketball game available. Give-and-go passing system is a big step forward and the shot stick helps score easy baskets. Unfortunately, the camerawork is not on the same level with the other aspects of the game. [Feb 2006]

The season upgrade has a lot of minor tweaks but lacks important major changes. For example near post corner goal trick is still there and press meetings are still as boring as in real life. I would rather buy a DLC than a new game every year. [Jan 2012]

Trine 2 has aged exceptionally well. This Finnish platformer is one of the best looking Wii U launch titles, although it's initial appearance happened over a year ago. This game is a solid platformer, which combines action and puzzles in just the right proportions.

Guild Wars: Factions expands the original game with a new, fresh-looking Oriental-style campaign and new play modes for PvP. Its greatest asset is still the lack of monthly fees, but it is also a good MMORPG with lots of PvP content and a fantastic skill system. [June 2006]

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle is almost pop art. The sequel is still rough around the edges but the fury of the combat, bizarre dialogue and style with 8-bit gaming homage make it loveable. [May 2010]

Darkest Dungeon is a masterpiece of emergent storytelling. [March 2016]

Spore is a surprisingly charming game/toy. Except for the civilization part, most subgames are funny, and the final part even feels like a game. [Sept 2008]

The incredible speed and freeform routes are the major high points. The tuning options are excellent, too. [July 05]

This year's F1 game delivers something for everyone. The feel for the driving is as deep as you want it to be. [Oct 2012]

Delivers very solid and atmospheric racing experience. Updated engine, physics and AI makes it feel more than a season update glued over its predecessor. [Nov 2011]

A great sequel packed with speed, style and deep gameplay. Be warned, though, the game is incredibly hard, especially in the beginning. [May. 05]

Axiom Verge is a very traditional metroidvania, but in its details lurks a whole lot of innovation. [Aug 2015]

A strange mix of a decent side quest and a Mass Effect sketch comedy show. It's nice having the whole crew together for the last time, but the jokes are really not that funny or entertaining. Fan service meets fan fiction meets cheesy writing. [Apr 2013]

Europa Universalis IV is Paradox's best strategy game. With Wealth of Nations, the strategy great gets even better. [Aug 2014]

A very good reboot for the series. 3D-arenas have been axed, so the combat system is simpler and at the same time more refined. [May 2011]

Devil May Cry 4 is, well, Devil May Cry. That's both good and bad, depending on how you see it. Mainly it's a very good thing. It's quite beautiful and shows of the muscle of PS3 quite nicely, though. One for the PS3 -shopping list. [Feb 2008]

A technically sound and entertaining sandbox for arcade racers. The name should be Need for Burnout, though. [Dec 2012]

While Hyper Light Drifter is sometimes too obscure for its own good, its combat is fierce and the environments stunningly beautiful. [May 2016]

A faithful and extremely professional remake of one of the great classics of the FPS genre. Despite slight niggles, like the marines' aimbot-like behavior, it actually manages to achieve the impossible: Black Mesa is Half-Life, only better. [Oct 2012]

The second game from Big Huge Game designer Brian Reynolds takes careful steps to renew real-time strategy gaming, but does not dare step far enough. The game is beautiful and has lots of great ideas, but lacks in feeling, mostly due to bad sound effects. [June 2006]

A solid racing game with amazing variety. The new Pro career keeps even the best racers busy for a while. The game feels a bit too familiar, but it is still a great sequel to a classic game. [Feb 2006]

Really inventive space odyssey proves once again that cheap X-Wings of innovation win Death Stars of Evil AAA-Empire. [Oct 2012]