It’s not so much what has been added that makes Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag good — but rather, what it lacks. Assassin’s Creed III was a grim game. The world was grim, and its protagonist grimmer. Strip away the environment, and you’re left with the sea. Strip away the American Revolution, and you’re left with humour and plunder of a lawless pirate war. It’s a welcome change — but it also deviates a little too far from the Assassin’s Creed DNA. The core mechanics are there, yes, but after ACIII, it’s been hard not to wonder how much is left to say?

A deeply unnerving yet marvelously moving interactive entertainment.

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.

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.

Simply put, this one is special.

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.

Why are all of these old generation Pokémon appearing in the game? Where are all of the new Pokémon we were teased and promised? Sure, they’re there, but why are they so rare?

So to experience all the good of Deathloop you need also suck it up and suffer a bit of bad. Nothing too stinky, just enough to make you intermittently wrinkle your nose. But it’s worth it. Arkane’s newest isn’t perfect, but I suspect it will end up one of the most memorable games of 2021 simply because it’s so unlike everything out there at the moment. In a season of sequels and various licensed properties, it’s a treat to get to play something as original and unexpected as this.

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.

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.

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.

It’s a nice twist on traditional defense-style games. The strategy is surprisingly thoughtful, and the wacky traps rarely failed to bring a smile to my face.

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.

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.

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.

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.

It is at times dauntingly difficult, but there’s no denying Simogo’s slightly deranged Year Walk is among the most daring and innovative gaming experiences yet available for iOS.

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

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.

Why there are so few new Pokémon and such an emphasis on the old ones is really up to speculation, but all I know is that there’s a Chespin out there who needs a pet.

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.

Pikmin 4 doesn’t revolutionize Miyamoto’s nearly quarter-century old concept. Instead, in much the same way as the pikmin themselves continue to gradually evolve, it grows the franchise’s ideas and themes slowly and naturally, with a bit of sci-fi whimsy and a feel-good, family-friendly vibe. I’m here for it.

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.

Gran Turismo 7 is a bit of a throwback to the genre’s early days — and includes some of the series’ old shortcomings — but when it comes to accurate driving physics and sheer, unadulterated love of cars, it’s something close to peerless.

It might be the perfect remake.

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.

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.