Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth offers further content in the franchise. While the narrative base has an intrigue all its own, the vehicle by which it's received has flaws that can’t be ignored. It’s a visual novel with limited combat and some peculiar choices that somehow finds its way to a stellar conclusion.

Leaving its predecessors legacy far behind, Knack has seriously grown up and become the platformer we deserved all along.

Codemasters has yet again released another glorious Formula 1 game that continues to push the franchise forward. With its updated handling model and in-depth career mode, it’s perfect for fans of the series building upon the best parts of what made F1 2016 great.

Windjammers offers up a healthy dose of what made great arcade games great: tight controls, fast pace, and room to grow.

After completing Zero Time Dilemma all I want to do is go back through all three games with the knowledge I’ve gained through the series, and see how far back everything is foreshadowed and set up. This isn’t just an impressive game in its own right, but a fantastic trilogy that should be experienced by anyone looking for a good sci-fi puzzle thriller.

An entertaining puzzler that harkens back to the storied heritage of its developer, Obduction isn’t quite on the level of its peers, but will satisfy armchair masterminds looking for their next brain-tickling fix all the same.

Songbringer is a coda of the past that retro-inclined gamers will want to leave on repeat. Others may want to skip to a different song.

While the fun selection of characters teaming up to destroy hordes of demons and soldiers is a hoot, Warriors All-Stars is otherwise a weak, uninspired jumble of a Musou.

Resident Evil Revelations is a great buy for Resi fans and a solid entry into the series for newcomers. Just don’t expect anything new if you’ve already played the game on Nintendo 3DS or PS3.

This is very much more Everybody’s Golf with a few extra brush strokes and a overtly pleasant online portion to round it out. The result of that is easily the best version of the game to date, and with a good price point and welcoming structure, it’s a fine place to visit for a few holes.

Absolver delivers on its promise of a compelling and unique combat system, but falls flat in almost every other way. Some baffling design decisions hold it back, so it’s hard to recommend the game simply based on its combat.

An epic adventure in absolutely every sense, Pillars of Eternity arrives on PS4 in highly impressive form and confidently stakes its claim as one of the best RPGs of the year.

Madden NFL 18 is a breath of fresh air in the franchise, highlighted with Longshot, a new engine, and more accessible game modes to round off the package.

Daedalic’s adaptation of Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth is off to a strong start with retina stroking hand drawn visuals, deep characters and a refreshingly grounded setting.

What The Escapists 2 does do is improve its look, expand your options for escape, and throws in a hilarious multiplayer. What The Escapists 2 does not do is make itself significantly more accessible and forgiving. If that put you off the first time, there’s little to convince you to play the sequel, but for fans, this is a rather pleasant upgrade.

Two years old it may be, but Undertale arrives on PS4 feeling as timeless and inventive as ever.

With Observer, Bloober Team have crafted an interesting, and often clever, sci-fi horror game. There’s a few tiny technical hitches, some detective work that feels a little too obscure, and a lead character voiced in an inconsistent manner, yet the strength of the game’s world-building, and execution of its memorable literal head trips, softens the blow considerably.

Overall, ChromaGun is a charming puzzle game with all the wits and humour of its bigger ‘stepbrother’, Portal.

White Day: A Labyrinth Named School is a shocking surprise that has come out of nowhere. The suspense, encounters, and puzzles make for an unforgettable experience deserving of the horror moniker.

As improbable as it sounds, Thimbleweed Park has brought the Lucasarts adventuring heyday kicking and screaming like a three-headed monkey into 2017 with the sort of verve few would have expected. Thimbleweed Park is utterly essential for point and click adventurers everywhere.

Housemarque’s understanding of arcade shooting mechanics is, as ever, strong with Matterfall, but it lacks the flair and bombast of the more thoroughbred members of its family. The core concepts carried over from Housemarque’s previous efforts may be signature moves now, but they are starting to grow a little tired, more so when the game they feature in isn’t among the best the developer has put out.

Simultaneously a great introduction to the Yakuza series and one of its better entries, Yakuza Kiwami is precisely how you remake a classic.

A decent if distinctly workmanlike RTS, Sudden Strike 4 should certainly appeal to tactical newbies but is too limited to appeal to really anybody else looking for a sophisticated, strategic challenge.

Essentially an update of its predecessor with a new art style and some carefully considered additional nuances, Nidhogg 2 nonetheless remains an obvious choice for friendship-destroying, local competitive party play on PS4.

Taking the better aspects of classic and modern Uncharted, The Lost Legacy is a short, explosive chunk of adventure. Chloe and Nadine are elevated far beyond the supporting roles they once played, and both end up as interesting, formidable, and highly likeable characters, among the best in the series in fact. There’s a greatest hits feel to some of the set piece moments, and the story takes a little time to get going, but this manages to be both a fresh direction for the franchise, and a warmly familiar experience.

A real labour of love, Masquerada is a highly enjoyable RPG effort that is absolutely drowning in audiovisual style and spectacle, even if the overly linear structure and sometimes convoluted world building detracts from the final result.

The team behind Saints Row showcase their balls of steel by taking the plunge into the deep end and taking you along for the rough and ready ride that is Agents of Mayhem.

To have Cities: Skylines on PS4 is wholly welcome. It may suffer slightly for the transition, but what makes it a wonderfully accessible and engrossing city builder is still there. It may be a touch simple for the sim enthusiast, but it has the ability to draw a wider audience into the genre, and that’s something to be happy about.