The Last of Us never needed fixing. Everything from combat to crafting has aged remarkably well. Still, it never hurts to polish perfection. And this beautifully enhanced edition works hard to ensure Naughty Dog’s masterpiece will remain my favourite video game for some time to come.

Nothing is so simply put in The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, but to put it simply, this game is absolutely worth the $20 price tag. It’s not long (about four hours), nor is it particularly challenging, but through and through, this is a beautiful game of strange, twisted, and sometimes sick puzzles.

The Last of Us Part II manages the striking feat of imbuing video game violence with meaning. Its combat is thrilling and darkly addictive, but this is a story about how violence changes people and rarely solves anything. The consequences of killing are made abundantly clear over and over again until, by the end, we simply no longer wanted to fight. I wanted to put down the controller as though it was a gun for which I no longer had desire to use. That's a neat trick, Naughty Dog. And one hell of an encore.

It’s pretty much the best puzzle game ever created.

If it’s impossible to have a perfect game, then the game that earns a perfect score is the one that is as good as we have any right to expect. I expected a lot from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. And with its beauty, scope, innovation, sheer playability, and nearly constant sense of joy and wonder, it soared beyond those expectations with ease...So yes, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild receives a perfect score, only the third I’ve given out here on Post Arcade. Now go play. It’s almost unimaginable that you will be disappointed.

An experience that is so startlingly, unexpectedly and enjoyably different than anything else on the market right now.

I’m sorely tempted to review the 20th instalment in Nintendo Co. Ltd.’s 35-year-old Legend of Zelda franchise by simply giving it a perfect score and issuing a few words along the lines of “just go play this absolute gem of a game.” To give away more robs potential players of the joy of discovering its countless wonders for themselves.

Endlessly creative, relentlessly delightful and eminently playable by all levels of player, SM3DW is perhaps the best 3D platformer released since the series’ heyday.

Simply put, this one is special.

There’s enough new here that Enemy Within almost feels like a completely different game.

A game that looks very nearly as good as did on my Xbox 360 and in some ways plays even better, thanks in large part to intuitive touch screen controls that prove a fine fit for the game’s turn-based action.

Sid Meier’s Civilization VI is a joy to play, and the best the series has produced. Which pretty much makes it the best 4X strategy game yet made. If you’ve $80 in your pocket and a half decent PC at home, this is a game that will happily and greedily consume as much of your leisure time as you allow it this fall and well beyond.

The best example of this incremental improvement is in the game’s new raid.

This game has its hooks in me fiercely. And that’s why my review’s score is a 9.5. However, I very much could see a player being turned off by having to repeat missions, by overly-long boss fights and the very specific storytelling techniques or the fact that everything feels ripped out of a pulpy sci-fi novel that thinks it’s important.

A deeply unnerving yet marvelously moving interactive entertainment.

The man behind interactive storytelling triumphs Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls has brought us what is perhaps his most fully formed and satisfying story yet, a work that examines the concept of machine intelligence with nearly as much insight and sympathy as Isaac Asimov's finest novels about robots and just as much style as Alex Garland's Ex Machina.

2019’s Resident Evil 2 captures the vibe of the original perfectly, thanks largely to outstanding production values...Its visual design stands toe-to-toe with any contemporary work, with fantastic character models, dramatic motion capture performances and extraordinarily detailed and refined environment design. Just about everything is worth looking at a second or third time, either to catch a potential game clue or simply to appreciate its beauty.

But overall, NHL 14 captures the spirit of that revolutionary 94 game. The gameplay is fast, the moves are sweet and the hits are thundering. It feels fun, like the very best wide-open hockey games, but it doesn’t sacrifice realism either.

The game is a fascinating study of a conflicted man who knows right from wrong, but doesn't always allow this knowledge to inform his decisions...He's a classic antihero: A bad man seemingly headed for tragedy who we nonetheless like, root for, and want to see make better choices.

BioWare’s about to drop its mic and walk off stage...It is a paragon of multiple-path storytelling and character development. It offers a master class in intricate, customizable, multi-hero combat. And it delivers not one but ten beautiful and expansive open worlds to explore, boldly throwing down the gauntlet to rival developers.

The addition of the newer, free-er structure and the loss of a lot of the chaff from the post-Link-to-the-Past Zelda’s make the game a joy to play.

There just isn’t much else EA can do to make this a better game. So it made great, incremental improvements everywhere.

From a story perspective, Lara is now as interesting a character as (though wholly different from) sardonic Nathan Drake. This feels like Uncharted will have to start chasing Tomb Raider.

If you’ve never played it, or if you want something that really shows off the horsepower your new system, this game does it. If, however, you’ve already bought the game, it’s kind of hard to recommend getting it again at full price.

The real story is the one you make yourself as you play through each mission, making new decisions each time and writing an action thriller of your own making. That’s what makes Metal Gear Solid V brilliant, and that’s why people will still be talking about it years from now.

Super Mario Odyssey is an absolute delight that will remind you why you started playing games in the first place.

Monument Valley is a strong contender for my mobile game of the year.

The entire time I was playing Saints Row IV, I found myself constantly thinking "It would be totally awesome if..." and then the game would do that awesome thing before I could finish my thought.

Granted, sometimes it feels like Insomniac, in its push to give us more than we could have imagined, almost goes a bit too far. Like the addition of a wingsuit so that Spider-Man can glide through Manhattan’s glass and steel canyons a little more quickly. It’s an innovation likely born from the sheer size of the city, which can take long minutes to traverse by web-slinging alone. It can be useful, but it doesn’t feel very Spidey-ish. I generally preferred swooping up and down, even if it took a little longer. But if that’s the worst complaint one can level at Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Insomniac must be doing something right. And it does nothing to diminish the game’s absolutely lovely energy. Every play session left me feeling upbeat and like all was right with the world. Or at least the world within the game.

Demon’s Souls isn’t likely to convert many new players to this kind of game design, but fans of gruelling but gratifying game experiences are in for a treat.

Don’t be tricked by Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker‘s relatively inexpensive $39.99 price tag; there’s a ton of game here.

Bottom line, if you’ve already played Rise of the Tomb Raider on Xbox rest assured that you need not buy it again for PC. But if you’ve yet to dive in and choose to play on PC, take some satisfaction in that you’ll be getting the best version of the game currently available.

While Rogue is overshadowed by Assassin’s Creed Unity‘s next generation marketing blitz, it’s a meaty additional chapter that provides greater depth to some fan-favourite characters.

The best compliment I can offer the multiplayer of TowerFall is that it makes me wish it had been around when I was 22 and still living with three roommates who would often spend an afternoon delving into hour-long matches of Super Smash Bros. Melee or Mario Kart 64/Double Dash. TowerFall would have made an excellent addition to that rotation.

In the end, it might not be what we do in Death Stranding so much as the ideas that underlie the experience that make it so engaging, and make us so willing to overlook the elements that don’t quite work. Its grand — and timely — vision of how to unify a broken country; its take on killing only as a last resort; even its commentary on our culture’s growing reliance on having the world delivered to our doors. Kojima has given us lots to chew on.

In closing, single player is quaint, the online experience is a work in process, but once they get the bugs out of that delicious apple pie… it will be well worth the wait.

One thing is certain: Nioh isn’t just Dark Souls with Samurai and Yokai. It’s more than that. For those up to the challenge, it’s the first essential PlayStation 4 game of 2017.

Ultimately, Dragon Quest Builders takes what makes Minecraft great, uses that template within a more traditional adventure/RPG, and does so with polish and personality. Absolutely worth playing.

Thanks to beautifully balanced combat, gorgeous and cleverly designed levels, and an almost ridiculous amount of depth and replayability – traits all noticeably absent in Alien Creeps TD – the high price tag is absolutely worth it.

The Banner Saga is an example of a successfully Kickstarted video game that gives its backers everything they wanted, including a story that’s rich in character and detail.

The Witcher III: Wild Hunt – Blood & Wine is a bargain by any standard. In fact, you’re almost better off thinking of it as a small sequel than just an expansion pack, so broad, multifaceted, and rewarding is the experience it delivers.

We couldn’t ask for a better tribute from the world of games on the Great War’s centennial.

What will stick with me long after everything else about Night in the Woods fades away is its main protagonist, Mae. She is such a fully realized character that I felt like I knew her – or, at least, that I’ve known people like her.

With Call of Duty: Ghosts, Infinity Ward has done some of its best work yet, delivering thrill-a-minute escapades in the campaign, deep and surprisingly nuanced competitive multiplayer, and highly varied solo and co-operative play in Squads and Extinction modes.

Dishonored 2 is the sort of experience that validates and reaffirms my choice to continue playing and being passionate about games as an adult...I just wish there were more like it.

A game which excels by making all of its moving pieces work together in unison. There are some rough patches, such as my beforementioned somewhat squiggy reaction to the storyline and the fact that the graphics sometimes seem to be pushing against the limitations of the current console generation, but it would be difficult for me to think of a more versatile or playable stealth game.

Tales from the Borderlands: Episode 5 – The Vault of the Traveler is the best episode Telltale Games has produced in any of its ongoing series since the finale of the first season of its iconic Walking Dead series.

Frogmind’s debut side-scrolling action adventure game is the most beautiful iOS release I’ve played in a long time.

Nintendo’s 3DS is suddenly brimming with great first-party games, and Mario & Luigi: Dream Team is a standout among them. Don’t miss it.

Even though Tequila Works’ poetic adventure is fun to play, it’s real strength lies in its story and how it’s told.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is short. I finished it in a single three hour Sunday afternoon session...But it’s also immensely gratifying.

If you’ve never played Final Fantasy X before, this is a perfect opportunity. You can see the charms of the old-school JRPG in a modern game package and see why so many people cared so much in the first place.

All in all, though, Rift Apart makes for an exceptionally easy recommendation. It’s fun for gamers of all ages and genders, absolutely crammed with action, laugh-out-loud funny in parts, and — I can’t stress this enough — looks the way we all imagined the next generation of console games should. I think I speak for PlayStation 5 gamers everywhere when I say we’ll happily take a few more like this.

The between-mission meta game is better than ever, but if you’re like me the reason you play XCOM games is for the turn-based combat. And it, too, has been tweaked in fun new ways.

If you’re looking for one of the most unusual and just plain fun games of the summer, you won’t find better.

Kratos is no longer seeking revenge, but rather redemption. He feels multidimensional for the first time. As a dad, I sometimes found myself rooting for and even identifying with him on a gut level, especially as I watched him make some obvious parenting mistakes.

Give it a chance – not just a couple of hours, mind, but five or ten; enough to let its claws sink in nice and deep – and you’ll probably find Bloodborne an intoxicating dose of pure masochistic pleasure.

Elden Ring is neither a step forward nor backward for the famed developer, but rather a shift to the side. It’s a different kind of FromSoftware game, one that mixes stampeding mounted combat in a vast world with more intimate, terrifying moments in dark caves and cramped castles. I’m having a grand time with it, make no mistake, but it’s not my favourite FromSoftware game to date.

Warzone is actually the first Halo multiplayer mode I can see myself jumping into with strangers more than a few weeks after the game comes out. In the past, Halo multiplayer got so competitive so quickly after launch that it simply became no fun unless you had enough friends to fill out the teams.

The game’s map is straight out of Super Mario Bros. 3. The villages you visit are right out of Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link. The game’s eight knight-themed bosses are a clear reference to Mega Man as are the various powers you accumulate along the way. The game’s magic system comes straight out of Castlevania 3.

With all the tweaks and additions, the current generation edition is unquestionably the best. It may not include quite enough fresh content to warrant a second purchase, but it’s certainly the edition that ought to be sought out by those yet to play...Most importantly, perhaps, it provides us with a small peephole into the future of the series.

There’s a sense of unfettered joy in everything here. It’s a game that just wants to be fun. For everyone. It aims for every moment you spend with it — be it five minutes or five hours — to be a frustration-free, jaw-dropping, reward-filled delight. And in this endeavour it succeeds marvellously. If there was ever a racing game that needs to be in every Xbox owner’s library, Forza Horizon 5 is it.

Gears Tactics has established itself as a serious presence in the turn-based strategy space. With a flavour very much its own, and the exceptional production quality for which the Gears games are known, it’s something close to an essential play for fans of tactical combat.

I won’t judge anyone who gives this one a whirl and simply decides its not their cup of tea. I suspect it’s a little akin to bungee-jumping, high-stakes investing, or alcohol — some folks just don’t have a taste for it. But for a handful of players looking to test themselves and the limits of their perseverance, Nioh 2 is probably going to be a nice slice of video game heaven.

Just a pleasure to play – and the first Xbox exclusive in some time likely to leave at least a few PlayStation owners green with envy. Download this one with confidence.

Developed by Dontnod Entertainment, Remember Me takes risks at every turn. Some of them expose the game’s many flaws, but other show the game’s strengths.

Contributing hugely to Towerfall’s pitch-perfect tactile experience is the game’s pixel art visual design – a look that fills your lucky peepers with a sense of wonder rarely felt since those heady SNES days.

It is, put plainly, a game of enormous scope; one that feels remarkably original in both its setting and presentation. It’s a work of grand imagination. And Aloy – a strong, confident, and captivating heroine who gradually earns and commands the respect of everyone around her, from matriarchs all the way up to a king – serves as a delightfully likeable anchor around which everything is spun.

It’s not perfect. There are moments of irritation, mostly during those Batmobile sequences. But when it’s firing on all cylinders – which is the bulk of the time – there’s just no other super hero game like it.

N++ is something close to the perfect indie platformer: A pleasure to the senses, challenging without being frustrating, cooperative, competitive, creative, and empowering.

If it’s not the best indie game of the year, it’s pretty bloody close to it.

Success feels amazing. Exhilarating, even. Primarily, I have to believe, because of the co-op aspect of the experience. I’ve probably performed more victory high fives in the last few days than I have in the last year.

There are few video game adventures that are as good as this one.

The combination of excellent level design, amazing art-style and spot-on combat should appeal to any gamer. But when you add in humorous dialogue and gads of tongue-in-cheek jokes, memes and homages to the video games, it elevates Guacamelee! to a must-purchase.

It incorporates elements of arcade driving, simulation racing, storytelling, exploration, discovery, collection and even role-playing in ways that few other racing franchises have even tried and none can match. If there's space for just one racing game on your shelf, Forza Horizon 4 is probably the one it ought to be.

There is an incredible amount of content across all four games, and having that much stuff means you can basically play it in any way you like. Further, every single aspect of the game is unlocked at launch, every map, every level, every upgrade.

Happily, Divinity: Original Sin II successfully walks the thin line separating empowering choice and confusing chaos.

Ragnarök is well worth playing even if some of its callbacks fly over your head. We only get a handful of single-player games each year that deliver such high-calibre storytelling, finely tuned action, and gorgeous graphics in a single package, and Sony’s Dad of War ranks high among them once more.

The company has made the game it promised when it when back and rebuilt FFXIV 1.0.

Tearaway is probably the most fun you can have on a PlayStation Vita.

Even with the arrival of some worthy competitors – like Slightly Mad Studios’ laudably hardcore Project CARS 2 – Forza still feels like the reigning champion of authentic racing. It’s not exactly revolutionary, but until something truly ground-breaking within the genre comes along it’s hard to fault Forza Motorsport 7 for being anything other than the best racing sim around.

That rare remastered anthology that’s worth your attention.

It’s not without quirks, but Watch Dogs can be fairly described as close to astonishing in both ambition and execution for the first game in a wholly new and original license.

It’s an early, serious, and unexpected contender for my list of the top 10 games of 2014.

This is exactly the sort of game we, as a society, need right now: authentic, inclusive, edifying, engaging, and, in the end, hopeful. Tell Me Why is one of the best and most memorable games of the year, and it helps lay a foundation for the growth of minority presence in games with wider audiences.

It’s one of the best MMOs on the PC and basically the only game of its type on the console. The company has made the game it promised when it when back and rebuilt FFXIV 1.0.

Fire Emblem: Fates is more iterative than revolutionary, but with three years between releases I was happy to return to the franchise’s familiar action and experience another fantastical saga filled with memorable heroes and villains. It’s another terrific entry in one of the very best turn-based strategy series currently going, handheld or otherwise.

In its own way, Antichamber serves as an antithesis to modern day video game design. Just to experience solving a puzzle by thinking outside of the box makes Antichamber a must play for anyone looking to be challenged.

Fire Emblem: Awakening won’t go down in history as the game that revolutionized a franchise or genre. However, traditional turn-based tactics has rarely been more compelling.

It’s been a banner year for interactive entertainment, but Final Fantasy XVI manages to sit very near the top of the heap. An easy recommendation for fantasy and RPG fans.

I can imagine some players being disappointed that Inside is perhaps a bit too much like Limbo. From both games’ dark themes and imagery to the sorts of puzzles they offer up, there are plenty of lines to be drawn between them.

[Multiplayer is] competent, polished (I experienced a few connection problems but chalked them up to pre-launch network jitters), and reasonably entertaining. But it lacks the depth and long-term appeal of shooters that make online play their bread and butter.

For a game where no one utters a word, Dropsy can be powerful.

SOMA is made so much better if the player hasn’t the slightest idea of what’s in store before booting it up.

It might be the perfect remake.

What does matter is that in Unravel Coldwood has succeeded in creating a beautiful, poignant, and compelling game interested in going beyond mere entertainment. It wants to make us think about the what and why of everything that happens.

Forza Horizon 2 has been my go-to racer for the last couple years. And now its position in my game library been handily usurped by its stellar successor.

In a medium overloaded with huge and hyper-violent experiences, it’s an absolute delight to encounter a game like Luigi’s Mansion 3, a small but painstakingly architected adventure that engages us with its creativity, innovation and individuality.