El Paso, Elsewhere takes a solid shooter foundation and elevates it with a compelling and raw look at humanity as told through a story of monsters and mythology. Outstanding performances, sharp writing, and some kick-arse combat collide to make a unique and memorable experience.

It’s unfortunate that pervasive online requirements and microtransactions sully what is otherwise a chilled out, holiday vibe in The Crew Motorfest, but I had a good time regardless. Hanging out on O’ahu, learning about various car cultures and driving some awesome-feeling vehicles over varied terrain and event types is just damned good fun.

While PAYDAY 3 will no doubt please series veterans and newcomers, it's still a few updates a way from being definitively better than PAYDAY 2. When everything is working seamlessly, it offers some of the highest highs in the series thus far, but frustrating omissions and questionable progression design restrain PAYDAY 3's ability to be consistent.

On the back of Phantom Liberty, along with a really substantial rebuild of all of the game’s core systems, Cyberpunk 2077 manages to wash its hands of its past failures and emerges as the genuine article. At last, it’s the intoxicating escape I once thought it was and stands out, to me, as the premiere role-playing resort in what might very well be a modern golden age for the genre.

NBA 2K24 is the most NBA 2K game you could imagine, rocking moderate improvements to gameplay without really providing offering anything exciting enough to entice lapsed fans back onto the court.

The Teal Mask is a great first part to Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's pair of DLC packs. While it suffers from the same presentation issues of the base game, The Teal Mask offers a digestible standalone experience that simultaneously satisfies and teases you with the promise of more. A more condensed open world, great characters, and fantastic new Pokémon designs make for a worthwhile return to the world of Scarlet and Violet.

Mortal Kombat 1 is a joyful reinvention of a series that is continually hitting its stride. A strong and varied roster is bolstered by an ingenious Kameo system that offers up a great degree of player flexibility unlike anything else. While it’s a bit off an odd choice to not have crossplay at launch and the approach to gear is bound to be divisive, Mortal Kombat 1 feels like the most complete Mortal Kombat experience so far. And perhaps even one of the best fighting games I’ve ever played.

Gunbrella is a wonderful, quirky noir-punk shooter that, like the abominations confronting the hero gunman, is made up of what should be many discordant parts. Yet what we get is a lore-rich world with slick movement in its bedrock that’ll spawn an unlikely love of umbrellas not heard of since the day that Tom Holland splashed about in fishnets.

Lies of P takes a bit to get going but once it does it’s an absolute joy to play. While as challenging as you’d expect from a game channeling Bloodborne, its minor improvements help make the experience ever so slightly more accessible. More importantly, it manages to carve out its own niche and is one of the strongest adaptations of the formula that make games like Bloodborne so revered. And while some aspects of it’s source material don’t translate as well as you’d hope to a video game, Lies of P is a solid action game that’s well worth your time.

Goodbye Volcano High is something truly special. It takes a well-conceived gameplay idea, drops it into an immensely unique and superbly crafted world and marries it with sharp writing and wonderful tunes to produce something unmatched. More than just an experiment in adding rhythm gameplay to a narrative experience, it's an earnest, mature, queer, warm and heartbreaking invitation to the end of the world.

Eternights is an ambitious and mostly successful swing at the dating-sim/action genre that delivers a cool world and likeable characters with robust combat options and a refreshing take on who you can love at the end of the world.

Fae Farm throws a ton of great ideas into its melting pot of cosy life simming and tense adventuring, and while its various ingredients don't always mix together as well as they should it's got enough unique hooks and wholesome vibes to make it worth a look in for genre fans.

Baldur's Gate 3 is a landmark achievement for CRPGs and gaming at large. The only thing more staggering than its immense scope and density of systems is the quality in which it's all presented. Its unwavering flexibility and accommodation for player choice is intoxicating, and the replay value on offer here will no doubt cement Baldur's Gate 3 as a timeless and regularly revisited masterpiece. For a game as rich and complex as this, it also works surprisingly well on console.

A Fisherman's Tale is still great four years later, but if you've played it before there's not much reason to pick up this barebones port to the PS VR2. It would've been cool to see InnerspaceVR take the opportunity to flesh out its recursive puzzle concept even more, but hopefully there's more still to come from this franchise.

If what you’re hoping for is The Elder Scrolls or Fallout in space, then Starfield is that. Not only does it have countless stories begging to be sought out against a vast and beckoning star chart, it’s also the most polished Bethesda Game Studios title we’ve ever had.

Samba de Amigo is a hoot with friends, sure to generate laughs and memorable moments. Just don’t expect an engrossing single-player rhythm game experience.

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.

Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon manages to successfully bring back and cultivate an experience reminiscent of the old games for newer audiences without losing sight of what made the previous games so good. While it's still relentlessly challenging and the story can be a bit drab, Fires of Rubicon is yet another success for FromSoftware with its satisfying and fast paced combat.

Fort Solis takes about an hour's worth of ideas and attempts to stretch them out to a four-hour walk through a lifeless Mars facility with little to offer outside of a top-notch presentation. With a distinct lack of thrills, this sci-fi thriller falls disappointingly flat.

Immortals of Aveum is a steadfast debut that will assuredly put its creators on the map. It combines strong combat mechanics with an engaging story set in an even more engrossing world to offer up a satisfying and complete experience. While the gear system and some console resolution issues might be off-putting for some, Immortals of Aveum is one of the most pleasant surprises in an already burgeoning year and a spellbinding adventure that's well worth your time.

With mildly eldritch themes, eccentric characters and tongue-in-cheek humour reminiscent of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew has a little something for every type of player. It's not perfect, but Shadow Gambit is just plain fun, and if it can convince a gung-ho, guns blazing player like me to give patience a stealth a go, I think a lot of other gamers out there would do well to dip their toes into these waters.

The Switch port of Red Dead Redemption is a faithful way to get into the world of Red Dead. It looks good as long as you adjust expectations and consider the game’s age, and performs consistently well in both handheld and docked modes. While many aspects will feel dated, I still had a fun time exploring the old west with John during the last gasps of the American frontier.

In a market with so many deck-building games, leave it to Deconstructeam to turn the paradigm upright and create a card-builder, a brilliant outlet for player expression. The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is a stimulating crash course in coven politics of all kinds: identity, community, and straight up politics-politics.

Moving Out 2 is an accomplished sequel, building on what made the first game great and really honing in on its presentation and content offering. It's not a radical departure, and not all of its levels are designed equally, but overall this is another feather in SMG Studio's cap.

Atlas Fallen layers interesting and engaging combat systems onto a lacklustre world and frustrating camera controls making for an uneven and forgettable fantasy action outing. Deck13 continues its work of innovating the genre in interesting ways but there’s just a little too much going on for Atlas Fallen to ever find solid ground.

Stray Gods might be a well-written, narrative-driven murder mystery that drags us to Olympus and back again, but it fails to deliver anything remotely close to an earworm after hours of forgettable melodies. Though Bailey and Baker do enough to earn their flowers, the production itself does little to land Stray Gods a place among the musical pantheon.

Venba is a sweet, short-lived episode that presents the place held by food and cooking within our lives and cultures as near-on divine. It explores familiar relationships, as well as the ones we keep, for better or worse, with food itself, and left me with plenty to ponder as the credits rolled.

Venba is a sweet, short-lived episode that presents the place held by food and cooking within our lives and cultures as near-on divine. It explores familiar relationships, as well as the ones we keep, for better or worse, with food itself, and left me with plenty to ponder as the credits rolled.