Demon's Soul is without a doubt one of the strongest PS5 launch titles, providing one of the most challenging, yet rewarding experiences. Bluepoint's treatment, although controversial, is immaculate and represents the best way to experience the classic that started it all.

FIFA 22 is the best FIFA game in years. HyperMotion pushes the action along, with a renewed focus on Career Mode more than welcome. It’s a more refined, well-developed package this time around, and I’m excited to see where the series is headed in the future.

Cryptmaster is a wickedly clever spin on the edutainment games of old. It combines good old fashioned typing with an underworld full up of gallows humour and eccentrics to meet, including its titular star. Spread the word, Cryptmaster is a must play indie.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 could have just given players a bigger play space and more stuff, called it a day and been a pretty decent sequel. What's actually here is so much more than that though, pairing increased width and breadth with more depth and meaningful new gameplay and story opportunities. There's rarely a moment here that doesn't feel thrilling, enchanting, heartbreaking, awe-inspiring or some combination of it all. Beyond untangling the finer threads of its design or narrative ambitions though, it's genuinely just the most fun, gorgeous open world superhero game out there.

Mortal Kombat 11 is both joyful and frustrating. It’s far and away a superior game to Mortal Kombat X where it truly matters - the roster is strong and varied, the visuals are phenomenal, and the flow of battle is as sharp as ever. If you play with friends, solid online offerings will deliver in droves. If you’re thinking of playing solo, although Story mode is some of Netherrealm’s best, the grind to unlock everything beyond that is sobering. It’s this grind that means Mortal Kombat 11 stands besides Mortal Kombat X, and not above it.

The Pathless is the next great indie adventure. Whether the joy you take from it is in its unique and super-slick traversal mechanics, or the arresting world and faultless artistry, there's no denying that Giant Squid has absolutely nailed it. If you only pick one, non-AAA exclusive for your next-gen PlayStation, pick this one.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge is the gaming revamp equivalent of the time Donatello took a perfectly good Volkswagen bus and upcycled it into the high-tech, tubular AF Turtle Van. Hitch a ride, dudes.

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds far exceeded the expectations I had for it. After feeling like Team Sonic Racing was taking Sonic racing games in the wrong direction, CrossWorlds is a confident showcase of what makes these games so appealing to begin with.

Yakuza Like a Dragon is both a fresh start and a shot in the arm that caters to series veterans and newcomers like. It bears all the hallmarks of a great Yakuza game, while making a damned good case for its revamped battle system. After Yakuza 6 topped the rest of the franchise with a matured and succinct focus it feels even more exciting to see the whole thing blown wide open again and have Ryu ga Gotoku just run wild. Kudos is deserved at Sega of America for their commitment to the game's localization as well, which is incredibly considered and comprehensive. I think I've found a new favourite Yakuza game.

Andy Brophy’s Knuckle Sandwich will likely go down as the year’s strangest and most endearing video game. It takes the framework of past icons such as Mother and Earthbound and injects a little bit of ocker into the mix to create an off-the-wall roleplaying game that’ll play to both the nostalgia harboured for our sunburnt country as well as the genre’s decades-long history.

Call of Duty Black Ops 6’s multiplayer suite is excellent, complimented by the great (and often hilarious) omnimovement system and the return of classic prestige. This is the best Call of Duty has been in a long time.

Despite a few issues, Valorant has a compelling combination of twitch shooting and ability focused combat, fueled by kinetic gunplay and the ever-alluring temptation to get better. I’m excited to see where Riot take this title in the future, and as a free-to-play package, I implore you to download it. It’s a stellar showing by the developer, and really proves that they’re paying attention to what makes these titles good and condensing it down into a focused and refined package.

With some doubt at the front of people’s minds, Returnal is a shushing finger across the lips of detractors as well as a tremendous example that PlayStation’s middle line titles can still offer as much value and entertainment as its tentpole exclusives. Housemarque achieves an atmosphere like few can and set up a universe ripe for expansion while marrying it to a grind — which is more forgiving than most of its kind but will still alienate some —that’s both brutal and gratifying all at once.

Super Mario RPG is a strong remake of an already stellar game. It successfully focuses on improving the original in all the right places: a faster and snappier battle system, strong quality of life improvements and more difficult optional content. All of these improvements combine with the game’s already quirky charm to offer up an experience that easily eclipses the original. While it’s overly simplistic compared to other RPGs, that’s ostensibly the point. Super Mario RPG is an oddball piece of Nintendo’s history like no other, and that alone makes it worth experiencing.

Concrete Genie paints an impressive picture with delightful gameplay and heart warming characters. it's a great way to spend a few hours unleashing your creativity.

Playing Persona 5 Strikers is like being blessed with a reunion special of a beloved series that ended years ago. It feels different, perhaps through a new lens or just more timely, but the characters you grew to cherish are all back for one last, terrific adventure. Omega Force's influence is clear, but the game walks a confident line between the traditional Persona format and a musou spin-off. If you're a fan, do yourself a favour and don't sleep on this – Strikers is one hell of a road trip that deserves to be considered a proper sequel.

Thank Goodness You're Here is a succinct, spectacularly funny adventure through an absolutely atrocious fictional Northern England town, packing an obscene number of gags into a three-hour runtime and pulling off some incredible feats of no-frills game design. It's wonderfully-presented, unabashedly weird and extremely Yorkshire.

Sea of Stars is simultaneously a love letter and modernisation of the legendary turn-based RPGs of old. It retains everything that made them such a core part of the industry so many years ago, while poking fun at tropes and conventions in an entertainingly self-aware manner. Much like The Messenger, Sea of Stars is another smash hit from Sabotage Studio, and is undoubtedly one of the best games of this year.

Simply put, Pokémon Pokopia is one of Pokémon's best spin-offs yet. It effortlessly combines the charm of Animal Crossing and Minecraft while imbuing the end result with all the best elements of monster catching. Regardless of whether you're a fan of Animal Crossing, Pokémon, Dragon Quest Builders, or are just looking to jump into something new, Pokopia will hook you in and keep you coming back for weeks.

Hogwarts Legacy is the Wizarding World game that fans have dreamt of for years. It offers a dense and rich open-world to explore complemented perfectly by a surprisingly robust and engaging combat system unlike anything else. While the story does live in the shadow of its predecessors, and managing gear can be repetitive, Hogwarts Legacy is a truly magical experience and utterly bewitching from beginning to end.

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is the best way to play one of PlayStation's defining games. It's improved visually in every way, with a great amount of love and care put into every detail and will be a joy for newcomers and fans alike.

Like the franchise’s other many iterations, Forza Horizon 6 is an exceptional masterclass of car racing, genre-defining in terms of both arcade and simulation, set within a spectacular, abridged open-world of Japan that’s begging to be explored. Although it’s not an all-expenses paid return trip, the game not only bulges at the seams with its usual, familiar checklist of things to do, but it serves as a wonderful snapshot of Japan’s people, its sights, and its love for car culture.

Gran Turismo 7 is a car-lover’s dream. Whether you love cars already or have just started your journey into being a car person, GT7 wants to welcome you to the community with open arms, get you up to speed and give you everything it can to help you enjoy cars in whatever ways it’s able. It has a wealth of car history to share, incredible feeling driving and some of the best visuals I’ve seen in a driving game. There are some cars I wish were included (Mount Panorama and no Aussie V8 Supercars? Come on, mate!) and the always online requirement might be a deal breaker for some, but even with all that Gran Turismo 7 is the friendliest, most approachable driving simulation I’ve played with all the depth of options you’d expect for seasoned car enthusiasts.

To use fishing terms, Dredge isn’t one you’d kiss and throw back. It’s the definition of a trophy catch. Its series of elegantly simple systems interplay nicely, blending seamlessly with an eerily stunning eldritch style and a moreish checklist of sea life to catch.

Nioh 2 builds upon everything that was great about the original game. The yokai form, while flashy, does little to diminish the challenge and instead adds a fun new dynamic to an already engrossing flow of combat. On the surface, it might not look like much has changed but Nioh 2 is a fantastic sequel and one that action fans shouldn’t miss.

It's not often that a game grabs me in quite the way Citizen Sleeper has. By stripping a video game adventure to its barest components and then manipulating those components to create just the right balance of hope and despair it successfully conveys the drama and danger of its small slice of sci-fi storytelling. Top-notch writing, impeccable narrative design and inviting tabletop mechanics accompanied by gorgeous art and music serve only to elevate it even more. Play this bloody game.

EA Sports FC 26 makes a handful of great changes to the core gameplay and animation systems, making the game play as good as it looks. New additions to manager career are welcome, while Ultimate Team continues to be an enticing prospect for those that want to invest their time and cold hard cash on the prospect of assembling a top tier squad. It’s not always perfect, but there’s no doubt FC 26 is the best footy sim out there.

Kirby Air Riders delivers a distinct and fast-paced spin on the racing genre that is about so much more than just reaching the finish line.