Columbia is a unique and unforgettable city meant to inspire its inhabitants — both virtual and player-controlled — to gaze in awe, shock, and horror at its bountiful marvels...So long as you remember to stop snooping through rubbish bins and take time to pause and look around, I have no doubt you’ll be properly amazed.

Battlefield 1 is one of this fall’s biggest surprises with a very compelling campaign, strategic gameplay and solid multiplayer effort. The game is a refreshing change of pace in an industry currently filled with futuristic shooters that emphasize running around guns blazing.

All I want in a galaxy exploration adventure is for it to convince the lower levels of my brain that I’m an honest-to-goodness spaceman, the star of an epic and action-packed space saga. Starfield delivers on this, and then some.

Dark Souls III hasn’t proven to be quite the revelation for me that was Bloodbourne, but during the time I’ve played there was little else I’d have rather been doing.

Poochy & Yoshi’s Woolly World on 3DS is a great way to play what might be the green dinosaur’s best adventure yet.

Splatoon 3 feels complete. The new additions are more significant than what we had in Splatoon 2 at launch. They make it feel like a finished game.

Pillars of Eternity proves that the men and women at Obsidian know how to make a good traditional RPG based on their own intellectual property...And now they’ve proven they don’t even need an investor to do it.

But the real treasure here is the story, which is written beautifully and flows smoothly, even as players alter its direction by making narrative choices every few sentences. If nothing else, 80 Days makes a strong argument for interactive storytelling.

Gorgeous hand drawn presentation makes its fantastical world and characters feel like paintings come to life, and will likely leave fans of dynamic game art drooling. Ditto for music lovers, who will go ga-ga for the game’s gentle, moving theme and rousing orchestral battle melodies.

An unexpected delight that blends the look and feel of a Mario adventure with the goofy potty humour of Ubisoft’s Rabbids franchise and then drapes this colourful mosaic over the framework of a deep, challenging, and lengthy turn-based strategy game.

This is a polished, full-fledged, very fun game. You’ll buy it for your kids so they don’t feel left out of the next-gen joy, but once they go to bed you may well end up spending as much time designing your dream zoo as they do...Maybe more.

As immersive and engaging as the second episode is, it still feels a bit like its setting the table for what’s to come in the remaining three episodes of this season...But it’s doing so in tantalizing fashion.

Tsushima's geography is rivetingly beautiful, from bamboo forests and heaving mountains to picturesque waterfalls and seas of swaying pampas grass composed of thousands of gently moving blades each of which will catch the moonlight on a clear night. I could almost feel the chill of thunderstorms as they came crashing in and the heat of the sun as it rose above the horizon in a dazzling blaze of light.

This new Xbox edition keeps everything that made the original one of the best puzzlers in years (except the VR part, which it turns out is pretty unnecessary) and adds a heaping helping of multiplayer to the mix.

Skylanders SuperChargers has great toys and loads of fun stuff to do. Better still, it isn’t (necessarily) going to break the bank.

Call of Duty: WWII‘s campaign may not quite manage to fully satisfy players’ cravings for a terrific war story, but its online play is an addictive and multifaceted blast.

All you need do is have a taste for platformers and a love of good stories.

I ended up having a fantastic time with Final Fantasy XV. I’m not blind to its many problems and faults, but they didn’t keep me from eagerly playing through to its conclusion, and they won’t keep me from heading back in and maybe one day levelling up my crew to the point that it can take on that mountainous level 99 monster lurking in the desert outside the Crown City...All of which is to say that, at least from my perspective, Final Fantasy has finally returned. It has reinserted itself as a relevant topic in the modern video game conversation.

The franchise’s famous environment traversal mechanics — essentially parkour — are similarly streamlined yet no less satisfying, thanks largely to the undeniable compulsion the game instills in players to keep moving to see what lies beyond the next ridge or river. Exploration is a driving force.And, of course, it looks phenomenal and runs smooth as an oil slick on next-generation hardware. Players looking for a substantial game that shows off the graphical capabilities of their new systems that will keep them busy well into next year won’t be disappointed in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

It’s jam-packed with funny, heartwarming, wholesome scenes and dialogue. And it’s a pleasure to play. Swiftly and effortlessly swinging through corridors of New York skyscrapers is exhilarating, and the combat choreography is stunningly cinematic. If it weren’t for the repetitive nature of some side activities — such as tracking down loot stashes and saving civilians — it would earn must-have status. As is, it’s still the best game to show off PlayStation 5’s potential to players of all ages — especially if you want to have a terrific time in the process.

It’s not quite the brand new Oddworld game for which devout fans have been patiently waiting for nearly a decade, but it certainly whets one’s appetite.

Second Son is a blast to play and offers a remarkable open world for a next generation platform...Sucker Punch can save the serious innovation for next time.

Speaking as a fellow who’s spent far too much money on plastic bricks for his kid – and more time than he cares to admit building and disassembling them with her – I haven’t been as enthralled with or enchanted by a Lego game since the original Lego Star Wars.

Shadows of Valentia is, at its core, not really much different than most of its console-based predecessors. It’s all about smart strategy, memorable characters, and a good story.

As heartbreaking as it is in places, A Normal Lost Phone is, ultimately, a story of optimism. And stories with positive messages are absolutely vital to the community this game addresses. It deserves to be played.

It feels like the developers at Techland did a little soul searching on this new game trying to come up with ways to creatively tell players are story, not cover up a poor narrative with swearing and racial stereotypes.

I don’t know where the series goes from here – perhaps a lone astronaut crashing on an inhospitable planet filled with alien animals who think he looks pretty tasty? – but after Primal I’m suddenly excited again to see what Ubisoft Montreal’s Far Cry team comes up with.

It’s fascinating stuff.

If you are looking for a very good meat-and-potatoes Zelda game, Twilight Princess HD will likely scratch that itch. If you can’t see yourself playing more than a couple of hours of it, maybe pass.

You will be mauled and eviscerated. You will be blown to tiny bloody bits. You will watch as your head is severed from your body by big men with chainsaws. Or stomped on by nurses with glowing eyes...But, strangely, I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s all part and parcel to the classic survival horror experience.

These levels are clearly designed to make us think about how to make our own levels rather than deliver the sort of flowing, satisfying play found in Mario’s best games. Some deliver lessons so short that they can literally be completed in just a few seconds.

We’ve got a classic and reverent Halo experience that embraces modern ideas where it makes sense. Perhaps I’m showing my age, but this is pretty much just what I want in a Halo game — or at least it will be with the eventual addition of a co-operative campaign mode and some multiplayer tweaks. Add in the fact that it’s included with Xbox Game Pass when it launches on December 8 — bringing millions of subscribers into the fold from day one — and Halo Infinite is clearly going to be the game to play on Xbox platforms for the foreseeable future.

Double Fine has produced a high-quality game of decent length with terrific audio and visual production and an engaging, twist-filled and idea-laden story read by an outstanding cast. Look no further for evidence of its compelling nature than the strength of your yearning for the concluding act to be delivered as quickly as possible.

I suspect the next time we see a $90 Assassin’s Creed it will be something significantly larger in breadth of world and play. Until then, Assassin’s Creed Mirage serves as an excellent stopgap, a historical adventure that proves entertaining and edifying in equal measure while leaving time to enjoy some of the other great games releasing this fall.

Perhaps the most useful Wii U feature (at least for a family guy like me) is that it as a GamePad-only mode. Should your better half, roommate, brother, sister, mom, or dad wrest control of the TV from you the game will keep running on your controller’s screen.

Ultimately, the real question of For Honor is if it will maintain a good community. The skill at the combat isn’t twitch based, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy and I could see people start to get scared away as the player base becomes more experienced and hardcore.

Bravely Default‘s combat system sits comfortably among some of Square Enix’s best including those within games like Chrono Trigger, earlier Final Fantasy games, and Dragon Quest VIII. It’s that good.

It’s weirdly compelling. I didn’t get up from my computer once during the two-and-a-half hours or so it took me to reach the end of my little investigation.

Taken on its own merits, Beyond: Two Souls is a triumph of interactive storytelling, betrayed only perhaps by not quite living up to its lofty narrative ambitions in its latter third.

A horror game, through and through. And it’s twice as terrifying when played in virtual reality.

For a modest price of $34.99, the Homeworld Remastered collection gives you an experience like no other in the real-time strategy genre. There are games out there like Sins of a Solar Empire that try to emulate what Homeworld did, but others don’t compare.

It’s also easily the prettiest Skylanders game yet – an early stage in a twilight world with glowing lights and waterfalls has an almost Trine-like beauty – but as with past entries the graphical upgrades are evolutionary rather than revolutionary.

Forty bucks might seem kind of spendy for something like this, but each of its three modes could have easily been released as a $10 or $15 game on its own. The value is there.

The older I get, the more I want to play games like this. I doubt I’ll remember even the names of half the shooters and action games I play this year, but there are several arresting moments in Little Nightmares that I’m pretty sure are going to stick with me for years to come.

And I have to admit, Telltale has finally made me feel like I’m a member of team Forrester.

Think of it as a kind of rural Sim City with the difficulty ramped up and no nuclear power plants to lay down. It’s a game that tests your abilities as a pioneer to make it in a world where people need food to survive and if you don’t deliver they’ll die.

Perhaps the most interesting innovation of all is a multiplayer mode that allows one player to play as normal while an opponent takes on the more traditional role of tower defense, setting up alien robot turrets to stop the humans in their tracks.

The level of choice when it comes to Horizon’s 2‘s core circuits is surprising and ensures there’s something for everyone, regardless of your taste in cars.

Solid, despotic fun. Tropico 5 isn’t revolutionary in any of its changes. But with deeper gameplay and some smart tweaks to the formula, it is deserving of at least another term in office.

With just ten minutes to go I was convinced What Remains of Edith Finch was going to be one of the very best games I’ve played this year. And I’m still absolutely enamoured of its characters, setting, atmosphere, attention to detail, and the great bulk of its narrative. It stands proudly alongside narrative adventures like Gone Home, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, Dear Esther, Firewatch, and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter....I just wish Giant Sparrow had conjured up a final act that matched the enormously gratifying mysteries of the rest of the experience.

Overall, Deus Ex is perhaps less ambitious in its storytelling than its hot button ads might suggest, but is still an exemplary example of open-ended problem solving gameplay.

It’s still the only place where you’ll find cutting edge development in a sports game, and that alone is worth the price of admission.

Throw in positive tweaks made to Career Mode (the ever-cumbersome transfer network runs itself a bit better than before; there are more objectives that dictate your strategy both in and out of competition), and this is a FIFA game that seems to realize there is competition out there and it has to do a lot more than update the rosters to succeed.

The sooner you can wrap your head around the fact that Dirt Rally isn’t so much about winning but rather finishing the race, the more likely you’ll be to stick around.

Killer Instinct is one of the most thrillingly addictive fighting games in years, recreating the mid-1990s series like you remember it, just not necessarily how it actually was.

The tremendous exploration and rewarding combat do a pretty good job of filling the narrative void. Metroid: Samus Returns reconfirms all the reasons why this franchise has persisted for more than a quarter century, and adds a few new features that ought suggest it will continue to entertain for years to come.

Of course, there’s more to Brave New World than Culture Victories, and more than I could hope to absorb in a single 20-hour game. Firaxis has added new world wonders, abilities specific to each of nine new civilizations, a couple of period-specific scenarios, and even some fresh military units, like the late-game XCOM: Enemy Unknown-inspired XCOM squad, which I built but, sadly, didn’t have occasion to use.

The Last Guardian is, in the end, a game of enormous ambition, unique vision, and substantial risk-taking. It was never going to be perfect. But it’s well worth enduring the problems. My year in gaming was enormously enriched for having experienced this one-of-a-kind adventure, which – like Ueda’s other works – stands as a beacon for other game designer who would dare to be bold. It’s far from flawless and its appeal will not be universal, but the medium of games is wealthier for its existence.

Playing an $18 game like BattleBlock Theater leaves a fellow feeling like he’s been hosed on nearly every $60 game he’s ever bought.

This two-hour episode introduces players to a quintet of new characters, individual survivors who through random chance spend at least a little time in or around a lonely countryside gas station and diner during the first 400 days of the outbreak.

It’s smaller, but it’s also undeniably bolder and more focused than any of its recent predecessors. And for a series known for its more is more philosophy, that’s no small feat.

A blissfully easy recommendation for anyone looking for more than just another run-of-the-mill shoot ’em up set in space.

Cart Life really is unlike anything else out there. I’ve never had a game that so pointedly puts you into a role and expects you to make its life work just like your own.

TT Games, Warner Bros., and Lego have decided the price should be prohibitively steep.

Simply put, aside from Nathan’s absence and the lack of anything notably new in how we play, there’s very little to disparage here. Naughty Dog remains a master of storytelling and spectacle rivalled by few other studios. I can think of no good reason to ward Uncharted fans away from The Lost Legacy.

Cuphead ought to handily quash any lingering questions as to whether video games should be considered works of art.

Push these qualms aside and Bardbarian is just about everything I want in an iOS game: quirky, quick, cheap, fun, and habit-forming.

I’m not much of a fan of the Hitman games for PC and consoles, but Hitman Go hits all the right notes for a mobile platform.

In the end, the biggest problem you might face is simply figuring out how best to play a game clearly meant for consoles on a mobile platform.

The game is good enough that I expect to see people throwing themselves against the crucible of a perfect STF run for years to come.

It’s not going to be Nintendo’s next Super Smash Bros., but Super Mario Maker is something close to essential for anyone who’s ever played a Super Mario Bros. game and thought: You know, I think I could do that.

Titanfall 2 is likely pretty close to the game the original Titanfall would have been if we lived in a perfect world where deadlines did not exist and developers didn’t need to put a product on shelves in a timely fashion in order to stay in business and feed their families. It’s a complete package, it’s polished and pretty, and it’s super fun.

The tweak on the formula set up by GW and SSHD may seem minor to begin with, but once the outer layers of the game are peeled away, Resogun reveals itself to have a significantly different feel than either of its predecessors.

This only lightly altered HD port won me over simply by providing the opportunity revisit a game for which I harbour wonderfully fond memories. Would that more remastered and rereleased games accomplished as much so effortlessly.

The great allure of The Walking Dead – beyond the game’s brilliant moral questions and compelling exploration of human nature – is that we simply don’t know how things will turn out.

It’s bigger, better, and more robust than many would have expected while maintaining the series’ wonderfully silly spirit. Not quite essential, but definitely worth investigation.

If you never played Uncharted 2 and don’t have a PS3, this collection is a good buy on PS4. Otherwise, your mileage will vary.

If you are a diehard baseball simulation fan, you’ll feel right at home. If, however, you were looking for something with a little more simplicity and arcade-like control elements then MLB The Show 17 may be the time for you to give the series a try again. There are a lot of things both new and old to like with this year’s version, and I’m glad to be back to my wannabe-athleticism tendencies.

Effortlessly yet cinematically swinging from the Battery through the Village and Central Park and up to Harlem is itself worth the price of admission. And now that Insomniac has all the mechanical fundamentals firmly in place, one can hope that the inevitable sequel will give this talented studio the confidence to take a few more risks and create a truly inimitable superhero game.

Ubisoft has done a surprisingly good job with the port.

Trials Fusion, like its predecessors, is a super-charged, neck-breaking blast of a motorbike game, and solidifies the franchise’s status as the Excitebike of our time.

Titanfall is perhaps the most accessible competitive multiplayer shooter ever, while still maintaining a fun competitive reward system for skilled players.

From the character designs and the narration, to the tactical game play and challenging difficulty, there are few games out there quite like what the Space Bullet Dynamics Corporation has framed for us. You’re not quite at the level of M from the James Bond universe, but this might be as close as you get.

My recommendation: Play the campaign, then wait a few days before diving into multiplayer. This might be the best way to avoid cross-contamination and get the most out of these two deeply incongruent gaming experiences.

Rave in the Redwoods is only the best part of an all-around solid bit of DLC. If Infinity Ward can keep it up for three more instalments it ought to have no trouble retaining fans’ attention all the way through to the next Call of Duty this fall.

On the subject of breathtaking scenery, Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a showcase for what an Xbox One can do.

Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth – Rising Tide isn’t an entirely new game, but it’s not far off. It gives fans of the original game plenty of reason to dive back in for not just one, but hundreds or thousands more turns.

This web of interconnected systems is, in truth, a tad bewildering. But everything just seemed to keep developing and refining itself regardless of whether I knew how or why, so I never felt overwhelmed. I was just sort of along for the ride sometimes, and I didn’t really mind. Because, in the end, I just wanted to spend time with some familiar faces, listen to a new generation of artists cover some of my favourite game music, and see how a world I haven’t visited in decades had changed while I was away. I’m happy to say I had a great time catching up. And I got to stay at some lovely little B&Bs along the way.

Its carefully crafted story and dialogue rolls back and forth between the farcical lunacy for which the series has always been known – outlandish military science, over-the-top villains, and a heaping helping of gore – and moments of authentic emotion in which Blazkowicz is downright soulful, musing to himself on the afterlife, love, and family as though he were a character in a Terrence Malick film.

To be sure, much of what players encounter will be familiar, and usually pleasantly so. But there’s also a satisfying dribbling of concepts and ideas here that you won’t find anywhere else. If you’re a fan of any of the games I’ve referenced over the course of this little essay and you’ve enjoyed Arkane’s past work, then Prey is a pretty safe bet.

Believe it or not, I found the added depth helped breathe life into the adventure. Going back to the flat 2D presentation removed much of the world’s vivacity.

Tacoma might not quite manage to live up to the unrealistically lofty expectations left behind by Fullbright’s full game, but it’s still neat proof that the American studio knows how to tell a good story, and that the medium of games is far from exhausted when it comes to new ideas about how to weave an interesting interactive tale.

While I can’t tell you whether Injustice 2 will be a hit with hard core fighter fans, I can tell you that it was a ton of fun for a guy like me, who generally doesn’t spend more than half an hour with any of the fighting games that cross my desk.

Mario Kart 8 was a great game, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the definitive edition of that experience. But I’m not sure it’s worth an extra 80 bucks for anyone who already owns the original.

Much like Koru, The Last Tinker is made up of a little of this and a little of that, but it provides some good fun through variety and unique design.

I give this game 8.5/10 for being one of details and for so frequently surprising me. Were I a little older and had I played the original, I would likely give this title an 11/10, quit my job, and go LARPing in the desert for as long as the cities remain standing, or until I realize that I’ve taken every modern comfort for granted; whichever would happen to come first.

At some point — I can’t say exactly when — my interactions with the GamePad screen became natural and intuitive, an organic part of the game that I didn’t find myself consciously thinking about. It just felt normal and fun. This is a crucial step forward in changing players’ perception of the GamePad from novel gizmo to worthwhile, game-enhancing peripheral.

What really impresses me about Rez Infinite, though, is that its immersive cacophony of light and music often manages to pull me out of the physical realm so completely that I find myself forgetting meatspace even exists. That’s what VR is all about, really. Losing yourself in another world.