A few insignificant nitpicks aside, this is a prime example of a modern slasher, a crown jewel of this genre, a new definitive killer app for PlayStation 4.

Last year, I called Crusader Kings 2 the best game that Paradox had ever produced. Now it is joined by Europa Universalis 4.

Epic, beautiful, clever, melodic, riveting game. Right now, it has just a few small (hopefully temporary) flaws, and absolutely no rivals on the horizon.

Bayonetta 2 is nothing less than the best game in its genre, and it’s a solid reason to buy a Wii U.

The gods of fighting games love those who are strong and stylish, and that’s what CPEX is all about.

It took CD Projekt RED three attempts to create an epic masterpiece. You will laugh, feel sorrow, and reflect on important matters in-between killing hundreds of monsters in a spectacular fashion. You will embark on a long, wild adventure tempted by the myriads of tantalizing “?” signs scattered across the map. In other words, I know what you’ll be doing this summer.

I fell in love with Team Fortress 2 because in that game, you win by being smart and considerate instead of quickly sniping off everyone you see. Overwatch improves on this concept tenfold.

The most amazing thing about this criminal saga is not only its scale, but that it perfectly works on several levels. Spine-tingling driving, fun missions, excellent dialogue, fully fleshed characters, vicious satire on pretty much everything… One play-through is not enough to appreciate GTA 5 in all its multi-layered glory.

Persona 5 took the best parts of its predecessors and carefully evolved them without making any earth-shattering changes. The result is a more or less traditional Japanese RPG, but it’s so good that I’m ready to go on a limb and declare it one of the best JRPGs of the decade. If not *the* best.

It’s neither a revelation nor a reimagining of the good old series, just a really, really fun platformer without the usual drawbacks of this genre.

The queen is back and she is here to impress. Bayonetta 3 is flawed, but these flaws are easy to overlook when you’re having so much fun.

This mortal combat is still tons of fun. Realistic graphics, top-notch body and facial animations, extremely inventive violence and perfect sound effects. Ed Boon and Co. still make the best fighting games in town.

Blood and Wine should be used as an interactive workshop for other developers to show them how to create awesome game expansions.

Old Skies by Wadjet Eye Games is an inventive, very varied, and wildly entertaining classic adventure.

Battlefield 1 is an exemplary multiplayer shooter and, looks like, the only decent game about World War I in the entire history of the FPS genre.

This unusual action game set in an offbeat world created by Taro Yoko is a treasure trove of pleasant surprises. It's not often that we meet such a stylish, offbeat, memorable game.

Creating a fun fighting game is akin to art. Only the select few have mastered this art form to perfection over the decades: Katsuhiro Harada, Daisuke Ishiwatari and NetherRealm’s Ed Boon.

Sons of Abraham integrates into the original game so seamlessly that it feels like it has always been there.

This game will charm you as soon as you will see its loading screens and listen to first heavy metal chords of its awesome soundtrack.

Yes, you can nitpick Prey's ending, uneven shooter mechanics and voice-over volume. But it won't change a thing, because Prey is amazing.

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun follows the gold standard of this sub-genre set by the Commandos series: big maps that feel alive, different playable characters, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, and lots of ways to complete a level.

Last year, Expeditions: Conquistador and Shadowrun Returns proved that Kickstarter can help create a good RPG. But The Banner Saga is not just good – it’s amazing.

Basically, it’s the second full-length movie based on South Park, now fully interactive. Even bigger, longer and uncut.

The first expansion to The Witcher 3: Wild Heart is hands down the best expansion of this year.

It would have been cool if every nation added in The Old Gods got the same detailed treatment as the ones from the Legacy of Rome expansion, but still, this is a fascinating journey into the unforgiving Dark Ages.

Paradox Interactive will be growing Crusader Kings 3 for years to come, but don’t be afraid — this is not an early access release, but a full-fledged game that often makes you stay “just for one more turn.”

Road Not Taken is an endless stream of puzzles and a mysterious world which you just can’t stop exploring. Every new secret you solve brings up new exciting questions.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is the first game in the series in a long time that I enjoyed. It expands the classic JRPG and FF VII Remake. And there is no doubt that Square Enix saved all the most interesting and exciting things for the final part of the trilogy.

RDR2 is one of the best games of recent years that gives all the other popular “sandboxes” a thorough ass-kicking.

To master all the missions and complete all levels of difficulty is a challenging, but riveting task. That’s why Into the Breach is worth playing over and over; just like chess, you play it not just to win the game, but to experience the process and see new situations unfold.

Aftermath is the best out of all Battlefield 3 DLCs. Its maps tend to favor infantry, but the experience is as tense as ever.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is sometimes clumsy, just like Indiana Jones himself. But once you start this game, it's impossible to stop playing.

Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars is one of the most exciting detective adventure games. And the new remaster titled Reforged is a great gift for series fans and newcomers alike.

It's a S.T.A.L.K.E.R.-type game done right — a perfect combination of a desolate world, polished gameplay, top-notch visuals and a thrilling story.

Originality, tactical depth, variety — you’ll find them plenty in Crypt of the NecroDancer. ‘90’ is not only a score but the minimum amount of hours you’ll spend obsessing over this game.

A poignant story of devotion and hope, of love and duty, of good and justice, a rollercoaster ride of unexpected twists that keeps you on the edge of your seat until the very last second.

You could, if you wanted, berate ZA/UM for having loading screens between tiny rooms, minor bugs or their numerous love letters to Black Isle Studios, but nitpicking Disco Elysium is just… pointless. It's a one-of-a-kind game that channels the wildest ambitions of their creators and defies isometric classics instead of blindly imitating them.

Hearts of Iron 4 in one word is "optimization". There is now proper gameplay mechanics instead of duct-taped hacks and artificial restrictions seen in previous installments; the AI, freed from dozens of scripts, now thinks and acts on its own, while the game itself is more accessible and comprehensible, but still offers the same depth.

At first glance, The Age of Decadence is a walking dinosaur, but awesome RPGs like this are too rare to ignore them.

Fisher’s annoyingly sulky character, questionable controls when it comes to grabbing people next to doors, traditionally daft ending level and the buggy Uplay services – these are pretty much all the sins of Blacklist. They can be easily forgiven because the rest of the game is stealth action goodness.

Rainbow Six: Siege is a smart, truly unique action game.

Hades is so captivating that you can easily spend days trying to escape the realm of the dead.

Chaos on Deponia is not an ideal adventure game, but it is totally worthy of being called a true successor to Monkey Island.

Visual Concepts just needs to add some spit and polish to turn this game into the best sports sim of our time.

Vermintide 2 evolved far beyond a Left 4 Dead imitation. Using familiar concepts, Fatshark lovingly crafted one of the best cooperative action games in recent years.

In 25 years, System Shock 2 has hardly aged, and thanks to Nightdive's efforts, it has become much more convenient to play on modern systems.

Accompanied by an 80s horror movie soundtrack, death screams and sounds of gunshots, a merciless zombie horde shambles through the darkened streets, ready to win over your hearts.

Right now, Endless Legend is already much more balanced and fun than its direct competitor, Age of Wonders 3.

Story-wise, Judgment is a compelling mix of Chinatown and the first season of True Detective. Impressive direction and believable characters in unexpected situations is the last thing that I expected from an action game based on the Yakuza engine.

Door Kickers is perfect lunch-break entertainment, and it’s immensely addictive.

This NBA 2K is surely rife for nitpicking. Annoying update notifications, clunky menus, AI blunders, Spike Lee’s unnecessary meddling with the well-oiled machine of MyCareer, a rough Gauntlet mode, and traditional connectivity problems. But still, even with all that, NBA 2K16 is like a complex, mesmerizing painting.

Chaos Reborn is a very accessible strategy game. It will take you just half an hour to learn all of its secrets. Thanks to simple rules, a turn lasts just a few seconds, and the entire session usually ends in 10 minutes or less. But you will be glued to this game for hours.

If you’re tired of waiting for new single-player adventures in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, head to the distant colonies — they have everything you wish for.

Goodbye Deponia is a wild rollercoaster ride - a bigger, smarter and funnier adventure than the previous Deponia games. It will earn a place in your heart even after it totally fails to deliver a proper cathartic ending.

The boring misadventures of US marines in China is nothing more than a six-hour tutorial for those who don’t want to jump into multiplayer head first. But to hell with the stupid story – Battlefield 4 delivers the best online battles out there right now, with amazing graphics to boot.

It's an amazing journey — clever, spectacular and exciting. Fire up your furnaces, ladies and gentlemen, but don't forget how treacherous those twinkling stars can be.

Broken Age looks, sounds and plays so great that you can recommend it to anyone.

Amazingly beautiful tracks where you race, swim and fly, sometimes changing the level as you progress through it, are what makes this game great.

It’s a great reason to (re)visit Abe and his odd world, especially if you haven’t played the original game.

You won't find a shred of originality here, but who cares! This is Doom you were looking for. Or, technically, its remake.

Don’t Starve is addictive like a drug, you can’t go cold turkey on it that easily. Just when you think that Klei Entertainment is out of surprises, the next update turns everything upside down. And now Reign of Giants offers even more opportunities for crazy survival experiments.

Finally, a worthy successor to Puzzle Quest and Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes!

An excellent management simulation that will be a shining example of this genre for years to come.

There is no universal formula, a sure-fire method that allows you to instantly master any character, and this is why Central Fiction is so fun to play.

You will probably remember three hours of playing Inside as three best hours of computer entertainment in a very long time.

Even though I wish that Endless Space 2 had fully controllable battles and smarter AI opponents, this is still an amazing game that you will be exploring for hours.

Shenmue and Shenmue II are both very ambitious games jam-packed with many ideas and concepts that were considered groundbreaking at the time of their release, but do not relegate them to the ash heap of history yet — they’re still just as relevant and fun to play today.

This is the most exciting Star Wars action game since Jedi Academy.

The sequel is not exactly long on fresh ideas, but the multiplayer is sheer joy and it reminds me of Perfect Dark Zero and TimeSplitters 2.

This is an intense blockbuster which delivers its brutal action just as advertised.

This is probably the most original iOS game since Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP.

I would have never thought that I’d see a game that perfectly captures the spirit of the cult classic Cannon Fodder. The only thing that could have made it better is the destructible environment.

Until Dawn is a crash course in branching narrative, pumped with adrenaline and pure fun. Even if you replay it a couple of times from beginning to end, you will not be bored.

An excellent follow-up to Wasteland 2. You want to finish it as soon as possible just to start the campaign all over again and take different decisions.

The Stanley Parable was a brilliant satire on video games. The creators of The Magic Circle picked a different target — not games themselves, but people that work on them. And, unlike those “walking simulators”, there is plenty of fun stuff to do.

Apart from the abrupt epilogue and somewhat daft AI, Shadowrun: Dragonfall is a great expansion to the original game.

An excellent arcade game with nice RPG elements and a massive replayability factor. You will enjoy Rogue Legacy if you’re not afraid to die – a lot.

However predictable the ending of BioShock Infinite is, it is the journey that counts, and you will not go away disappointed.

If you’re a fan of Warhammer, and you long for a tactical strategy game that captivates you for hours and never forgets a mistake, Mordheim is for you.

Brave New World brings a huge tangle of exciting political nuances that you’ll have to navigate on your way to world domination.

Conquest of Paradise is a solid, although somewhat narrowly-focused expansion.

Tekken 8 is a solid fighting. It has a lot of game modes, and it is fun to play even for a newcomer.

Dead Cells, despite its hardcore leanings, is not game that makes you slam your keyboard with a fist or throw your gamepad at a wall when you miss a jump or die. Combat and platforming elements are top-notch, and mistakes is the best possible experience you’ll get here. Don’t worry, you’ll get back whatever stuff you lost in 30 minutes or less.

A cool futuristic city, amazing electronic soundtrack, deep tactical gameplay and splashy carnage — what a great combination.

Battle Chasers: Nightwar took all the familiar elements of Japanese role-playing games, removed the annoying parts like time-consuming grinding and random encounters, and polished the rest.

A beautiful world, amazing soundtrack and a fantastic story full of mysteries, touching scenes and emotions.

This is probably the most impressive, inventive story about a family curse. And one of the best interactive dramas I've played.

The Nonary Games is an awesome compilation for all true fans of adventure games.

Assassin's Creed 3 offers a spectacular way to fill in the blanks in your knowledge of the American Revolution - it never holds back on scope, drama or action.

The Republic is a great niche add-on. If Paradox continues to work on Crusader Kings 2 in this vein, eventually fans will be able to create a medieval grand strategy of their dreams by mixing and matching its expansions.

Scribblenauts Unlimited is a rare opportunity to forget about scripts and usual conventions, to create your own rules instead of playing by someone else's. Turns out, playing God is not as hard as it seems, and it's a whole lot of fun.

An exciting Hollywood-esque interactive adventure with dozens of variables, and definitely the best and biggest game by Quantic Dream that makes it up for their previous failure.

Fans of the Desperados franchise can crank up the difficulty and bring out a stopwatch to time their actions. Newcomers will enjoy the game even if they have no idea of who John Cooper is and what he did before. Either way, you’re in for 20 glorious hours.

Those who regard Skyrim as a virtual tourism app, will enjoy exploring every nook and cranny in Hitman. If I had to pick just one reason to play this game, it's because you can immerse yourself in its meticulously created mini-worlds.

A true gem for the fans of old-school RPGs.

Gris evokes memories of Disney's Fantasia, a wordless animated movie which creates an exciting audiovisual experience by combining colors and music.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles is a solid remaster of an excellent tactical RPG. While the game was previously exclusive to the PSP in Europe, anyone can now enjoy it on modern platforms.

Broken Arrow is a strong debut from Steel Balalaika Studio and one of the most compelling real-time tactics in recent years, equally engaging in single-player and online modes.