Starfield is Bethesda's best RPG to date, an enormous space odyssey that serves up some incredibly evocative and engaging exploration, satisfying combat, and a narrative that had us hooked right to the end. Yes there are issues here with the usual jank, and some very messy and fiddly menus and interactions, but all of these problems feel minor when compared to everything this game gets right. In a year that's been packed full of absolutely essential games, Starfield manages to sit right up top with some of the best of them. After all the hype and bluster, this is just a very, very good RPG and a game we'll be playing and replaying for a long time to come.

Bramble: The Mountain King is a dark and brooding slice of Nordic folklore that's well worth digging into, despite some notable technical shortcomings. There's an inherent jankiness to the gameplay here that permeates its platforming, boss battles and exploration. However, if you can make peace with these rough edges, you'll find a tale that's still dripping in atmosphere, packed full of wonderful details and a menagerie of foul fairy-tale beasties that draw you in and keep the short campaign well and truly interesting.

Absolutely essential.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is a spectacular achievement that gives Warhammer fans everything they could possibly have wanted when it comes to roleplaying their favourite chonky space boys. Saber's swarm tech is deployed to dazzling effect, and with purpose and context, too. This is the Tyranid swarm of your nightmares, and you've been given all the slick melee moves, sick finishers and great big shooty guns you'll need to stave it off. Think Gears of War with hundreds of enemies onscreen at once, with the cumbersome cover system removed and the speed dialled up and you're in the right place. And what a place to be, whether solo or with pals online, this is one of the best action games we've played in a long while.

OlliOlli2: XL Edition is the best version of Roll7's stellar skateboarding game, although just by a smidge. The addition of manuals to the core game is a huge boost to the trick system, and makes it possible to combo every single level from start to finish.

With a bunch of new content, a massive visual overhaul, mechanical improvements, and other subtle modernizations, Ultimate Edition has earned the right to be referred to as the definitive version of Gears of War.

Ghostwire: Tokyo is another unique and atmospheric adventure from Tango Gameworks that delivers a stunning world full of folklore and supernatural fun to explore. There's a satisfying main campaign to dig into here, plenty of combat against weird and wonderful enemies and a fantastic recreation of Shibuya that's a joy to wander around. However, some niggly performance issues in both the default quality and performance modes, alongside some finnicky controls here and there, hold this one back from reaching its full potential as things stand. If you can make peace with these issues there's still a very strong game to dig into here and one that's absolutely worth taking a chance on via Xbox Game Pass.

Curve Digital has developed a near perfect game that should be experienced by all gamers.

Taking a franchise as treasured as Streets of Rage and updating it was never going to be an easy task, but we can't imagine that any self-respecting fan of the series will be displeased with what has been achieved here. Streets of Rage 4 walks that fine line between paying tribute to its predecessors and forging its own unique path and feels like an evolution and a revolution at the same time. The gameplay is unmistakably faithful to the originals, but the addictive combo-heavy mechanics, gorgeous presentation and robust multiplayer options add a whole new layer of complexity, resulting in a game that fans and newcomers alike will enjoy no end. Let's hope we don't have to wait another 26 years for a sequel.

The world needs more games like this.

For the asking price, this 20th anniversary remaster of Beyond Good & Evil is a great experience – with respectable visual upgrades, sound enhancements, some quality-of-life improvements, and bonus content to top it off. While the gameplay, mechanics, and environments don’t always feel quite as fresh as they once did, Jade’s story is still as charming as ever. Now, about that next adventure…

The new content is well-constructed, but the big noises being made about the new race types are a little bit overblown for our liking. The new weather is good but not necessarily as varied as it could have been, and the event types could have been more outlandish. However, there's absolutely no doubt that Playground’s island adventure extends an excellent game by more than enough hours to justify the price of the ticket.

It all just works, and we absolutely cannot recommend Geometry Wars 3 highly enough.

Asteroid Base have done a fine job with Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, providing that you're a co-op gamer. Single players will likely find that they enjoy things up until the game becomes too overwhelming. Still, as a whole, there's a lot to like here – including genuine innovation - and it's definitely something different.

A game without a goalkeeper slip-up is still a much better game than you'd find anywhere last year, but those slip-ups happen too often for our liking. Still a fantastic game for football fans, but probably not one that those prone to tantrums should play.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake is a short, snappy puzzle platformer that's definitely worth playing - if just for the game's engaging, emotional familial tale. Having said that, this remake isn't the biggest technical upgrade we've ever seen, and unless you're desperate to play in local co-op we think the original still holds up mighty fine. However you choose to experience Brothers, it provides some great Sunday afternoon entertainment in a bite-sized package, even if it doesn't have quite the same impact 10 years later. Newcomers will likely have a great time with this one, but returning players shouldn't feel the need to rush out and pick up this remake right away.

Silent Hill F is a great survival horror title, and a true return to the classic series from Konami. It mixes things up well throughout its roughly 10-hour runtime, and I enjoyed both what the more grounded and the more hellish areas of the game had to offer. As a relative newbie to Silent Hill I can't wait to see where things go from here, and I really think developer NeoBards has what it takes to learn from F and improve on it for what's next. Silent Hill is finally back on Xbox, and it was worth the wait.

Armored Core 6 serves up the series' signature mech action and deep customisation gameplay in the slickest and most exciting entry in this long-running franchise thus far. This is easily the best mech shooter we've played, an immediately engaging, complex and highly replayable game that gives you all the tools required to build the machines you'll need to overcome some fantastically challenging boss encounters. Yes, there are one or two niggles with the camera and some flaky lock-on here and there, but the core action here, alongside a surprisingly engaging narrative and multiple endings to experience, make for a game we highly recommend digging into. FromSoftware's hot streak continues.

It always felt like LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga would struggle to live up to its lofty promise of delivering essentially the most expansive Star Wars game to date, but the team at TT Games really have done an amazing job on it. We've still got a few nitpicks, and we also wish it included online co-op support, but there's no denying that it's a stunningly beautiful and brilliantly ambitious take on the world of Star Wars complete with endlessly enjoyable gameplay and enough side-content to keep you busy for many, many hours to come. We've been waiting so long for this game to arrive, and we're pleased to report the Force is definitely strong with this one.

It's clear from the start that, without a doubt, this is the best version of Resident Evil out there. While some of the game's legacy design choices may be hard to stomach in 2015, Capcom has ensured this gothic horror adventure is more approachable than ever before.

Age of Mythology was already a respectable package and Retold adds some additional shine. Like other Age games, it’s got near-endless replay value and is packed to the brim with gameplay and lore (even if some content is locked at release). All up though, this is a promising start and it will likely only get better from here on out with more updates and some expansions planned. If you skipped this one back in the day, or just want to revisit it, Retold is a great modernisation of Microsoft’s RTS classic.

Returning to where this review started, I obviously raised some questions about Platinum’s ability deliver a game faithful to the Ninja Gaiden series, and for the most part, this new entry starring Yakumo is just as badass as any of Ryu’s past adventures. It retains the spirit and traditions of the previous games, expands on combat in new and stylish ways, and if you’re a fan of this type of game – it’s a bloody excellent fight from start to finish. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve got some more fiends to slay.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection is lean, green and totally not mean. This is a wonderfully thorough compilation of the glory days of 8 and 16-bit Turtles beat 'em ups. There's thirteen games here, covering everything you could possibly want from the glory days of TMNT side-scrolling action, alongside an exhaustive array of extras that goes above and beyond what we've seen from most retro compilations of late. Turtles fans and beat 'em aficionados, get that pepperoni pizza order in, kick back and prepare to relive some of the true greats of the late 80s/early 90s era. Over 30 years on and, as it turns out, we still love being a turtle!

It's a surprisingly fresh experience that can be incredibly rewarding and despite it being seemingly impossible at times, players who love a sizable - but fair - challenge will find a lot to love within Kalimba.

If you liked Horizon Chase Turbo as much as us, then this speedy sequel is an easy recommendation. We'd have liked a bit more meat on Horizon Chase 2's bones, but what's here is undeniably fantastic fun, and we've loved experiencing the series' sense of arcade racing wonder once again. The graphics are gorgeous, the gameplay is slick and satisfying, and despite a relatively short runtime you just can't go wrong with this one. Horizon Chase 2 is a virtual world tour that's well worth heading out on.

Fans of the game will find themselves once again transfixed as they embark on the journey once more and for those have not yet taken the plunge, now is definitely your chance. Just remember to keep the tissues handy. You might be in need of them.

Call of Duty: Black Ops III is just okay, but being just okay isn't enough to keep players entertained when there are so many better offerings available from the same series.

Infernax just oozes class and style, there's a good deal of the likes of Blasphemous in how it carries itself in combat, with satisfyingly tight controls and a real heft given to your attacks through some delightfully detailed death animations. Its seemingly simple old school trappings belie a surprising amount of depth and longevity too, with multiple endings based on decisions made during your playthrough, some superb - and properly challenging - castle dungeons, and plenty of choice in where you decide to wander off to next. This really is one of our favourite old-school indie titles to hit Game Pass in the last few months and we urge retro fans to nab it at the earliest possible opportunity, as it's a super-satisfying love letter to the glory days of Castlevania and an excellent and addictive little game in its own right.