Persona 5 – Royal or otherwise – is a beautiful thing. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if running your hands along the seam of a physical copy unveiled its inner workings like a watch's back being cracked open, with all its springs and ribbons ticking in unison. All the game's components mesh with one another to create a universe that just feels like it's meant to run alongside yours.

Regardless of the implements you use to battle your way through Hades 2’s beautifully illustrated regions, my favourite of which is a clever series of fights across the decks of ships in the Rift of Thessaly, as of 1.0 you can finally achieve Hades 2’s much-hyped true ending. How is it? Well, I’ll try not to stray too far into spoiler territory (though consider this your spoiler warning), but I think it’s one that might prove a bit polarising. On the one hand, Hades has always been a series about bringing families back together, and on that front the ending delivers no matter which way you slice it. On the other, given how often the motto "Death to Chronos" is repeated throughout, the manner in which he ends up defeated arguably isn’t as satisfying a form of retribution as is built up over all of those hours.

In such a crowded and accomplished genre, getting within spitting distance of these all-time heavyweights is still mighty impressive in my books, and I will absolutely be playing more of it in the months to come.

That's the thing about Elden Ring, its open world has your back, in its own - often painful - way. Souls has always been about inching through claustrophobic corridors and bashing your skull against whatever's in the way. You compare foreheads with friends, "Look at this bruise Barry, that's me five hours in". And Barry would probably peel his hair back and reveal the exact same bruise. Adventures in past Souls games tend to line up, as you're all wandering down the same pathways. But that's not the case with Elden Ring. You might show your bruise to Barry and he'll peel his hair back to reveal a scar or a massive indent or a tattoo of a mouse tustling with a skeleton. Both of may be five hours in but you'll be on totally different trajectories. No matter how hostile the game's world may be, it pushes you to succeed and carve out your own adventures. It is, by far, the most encouraging Souls yet. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Dwarf Fortress is a long-term investment. Playing it is a skill that you need to hone, it requires research and planning. It’s almost a hobby in itself, demanding time and effort. Even in this much more approachable form, it still isn’t a game for everyone, but for a particular flavour of colony simmer, it’s catnip. It’s massive and messy and beautiful, and now I can put it down while I’m hyper-fixating on Star Wars or the next big Marvel drop, and not have to worry about starting over from scratch again when I come back to it later.

But mainly I just yearn for more Half-Life, in whatever form Valve wants to deliver it. It was about three hours after reaching the game’s thrilling, won’t-spoil-it, can’t-wait-to-talk-about-it conclusion that a thought occurred to me: for a brief moment I had a new Half-Life game to play, and now, again, I do not. I hope I don’t have to wait for brain-computer interfaces to exist before the series returns again, because despite a handful of complaints, I still think Valve make the best first-person shooters around. [RPS Bestest Bests]

From its origin stories to its brief emergent narratives, few games let you take part in better tales than this one. [RPS Recommended]

God Of War feels like a game crafted from the ground up by a team of many people all pulling towards the same thing: to make you feel emotions about these two boys. But also, to really enjoy it. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Mostly good, sometimes bad, never ugly. A prequel to a story that never made it to PC and which, honestly, makes me jealous of people coming to it for the first time. But even as someone who has spent a huge amount of time in this world, it’s a trip I’m more than happy to be taking again. A staggering technical achievement; a deliciously gooey shooter; the most accurate mud simulator outside of actual mud; a great advert for the healing power of peaches. However you approach Red Dead Redemption 2, there’s something to impress here. And on PC, it’s at its most impressive. [RPS Bestest Bests]

It easily carried itself on the strength of its emotional impact. Which is great, for me. But I’m curious as to whether newer players will have the time to build up the investment necessary for it to lean on that before they’re thrown into the end game. It seems difficult to pace a story that will unfold radically differently for so many. Not only are players jumping in now getting a very different approach to Hades’ plot, so too does it depend on how good players are and therefore how quickly they progress through the various layers of hell.

I sank deep into Requiem when it was purposefully managing this tension vs purge dynamic. Grace’s elongated bouts of slow-paced stealth while hoarding ammo, evading ghouls and hiding from ceiling-dwelling abominations were like teetering on a precarious sheet of glass that I always just managed to scarper across. Leon’s brief symphonies of gory carnage were like taking a hammer to that glass. They complement each other so well. When Leon starts to dominate the game, there’s still fun to be had in spite of the dragging plot, but trudging through the darkest depths of Rhodes Hill is worth the price of admission alone. If that’s a glimpse at the future of Resident Evil, I want a bigger portion that I can really sink my teeth into.

Although the performance issues take the shine off things, I can still comfortably say Street Fighter 6 is the most fun I’ve ever had with any fighting game on release. After the disastrous launch that was Street Fighter 5, seeing Street Fighter back on top form again just feels right - and I’m extremely excited to see what the next year of content updates can do for a game that already feels this mechanically polished at launch.

If you hadn't gotten the message by now, Blue Prince is a marvel. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Me? I loved this expansion, I really did. But I'm happy Elden Ring is done and it's a reminder that I'd like FromSoftware to move Souls in a different direction. An even trimmer direction, perhaps. I can recall Bloodborne and Dark Souls as neat packages of horror, but Elden Ring and Erdtree? I'm unsure whether they'll stick with me quite the same.

Okami is a delight from start to finish. [RPS Recommended]

The brilliance of Undertale, its delicate balance that it manages for most of the time you’ll spend playing it, is that it understands how to be scary and funny all at once.

Endwalker isn’t quite as tight of an experience as the previous expansion Shadowbringers and definitely suffers from a few pacing issues, but it’s still a must for Final Fantasy fans and exceeded all of my expectations. It’s also showing its age graphically now (the grapes memes attests to that), but if you love the main FF games and still haven’t tried this MMO yet, then you really need to fix that (when the game goes back on sale again of course) as you’re missing out on one of the greatest FF tales of all time. A genuine must play despite its flaws.

Despite my whining here at the end, I do genuinely believe Metaphor is a very good RPG and a grand adventure absolutely worth undertaking. It's slick in its presentation, in its storytelling, and especially in its combat. Everyone, no matter if you're a strategy god or a story hound will be served a good slice of both, perhaps spurring on more of an interest in the one side you hadn't explored before. And it's a better game than Persona, particularly Persona 5. But I think its focus skews more towards combat and less towards its characters, which makes it more of a thing that you'll put down and go, "that was really great", and not, "I want to exist here forever with my pals".

It’s not CD Projekt’s best work, but it’s worthy enough. It’s good story, a well told story, but simply nowhere near the excellent craft of Hearts of Stone, which used the increased space but tighter focus of its DLC for a character piece.

Against The Storm is designed to be returned to time and time again, except here a fresh start is always seen as progress. It makes for a construction game that wraps up at precisely the moment it begins to lose momentum. It is a wonderful, wonderful thing. [RPS Bestest Bests]

It really feels like Blizzard bet everything on Overwatch’s 21 heroes and it absolutely paid off. Overwatch already feels as timeless as Blizzard’s other games, and it feels weird to realize that this is the first time we’ve seen any of these heroes. I definitely have some concerns about where Overwatch will be headed in the future, but I’m not thinking about that as I teleport across the map as Tracer. No, I’m thinking about how I’m going to get behind that Bastion to take that asshole down. I’m thinking about how good it’s going to feel seeing him crumple into metal parts. I’m thinking about how much fun I’m having. The one thing I’m not thinking about? Going to bed.

My point is: YOUR favourites are probably still here. And if they are, you'll be content to kick and/or punch. There isn't anything revolutionary happening aside from the Heat meter and all that it entails. But a lot of the quality of life improvements and subtle design tweaks stack up. Practice mode alone has become an excellently robust training zone that clearly displays a lot of handy info about frame advantage and move properties. For pros, streamers and rank-chasers, the transfer to this sequel is therefore a no-brainer. And since little else quite like Tekken exists in the fighting game niche (don't listen, little Soul Calibur 3) the rest of us pugilistic rubes will only get FOMO if we don't follow. So when I face Death, I guess Tekken 8 it is.

Such player-driven drama, comedy, and action eclipses anything in the disappointing scripted narrative. The Phantom Pain is one of the worst Metal Gear stories ever told. It functions neither as a standalone narrative nor as worthwhile insight into the series overall. And yet, The Phantom Pain is the best stealth-action game ever made, one where playing flawlessly is just as thrilling as outright failure. And boy – what a thrill.

While Burnout Paradise Remastered still offers more involved gameplay on a second-to-second basis while still offering a similarly gleeful atmosphere there isn’t another open world racing game so exquisitely polished as this. If you’ve played a Forza Horizon game before then you might feel a slight sense of deja vu, but you won’t care as the formula has been perfected at last. The best sound and visuals, the most variety of gameplay, the best editors, superb car handling… it’s sheer class. And so, so big. Yes, it really is the best modern open world driving game, so get it. [RPS Bestest Bests]

I think I’ll need another year of playing it to work out exactly what I think of it, but that’s another way of saying I want to play it for a year, so it must be pretty good.

This is not a replacement of the original game. Far from it. In my mind, it occupies the same space as its (exceptional) VR version. A retelling of a classic crafted on its own terms. A brilliant action shooter that is big and daft and brilliant. When asked what my favourite game of all time is moving forward, my answer will remain the same, only richer and more complex as a result of this excellent remake. Resident Evil 4, I’ll say, and whatever interpretation they think of will be entirely correct. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Very occasionally, I'll play an RPG that makes me feel ten again. Rebirth. Cris Tales. Revisiting Suikoden. Years come, the big number ticks down, and comfortable appreciation replaces the spellbound enchantment of being told a story, of being swept off to a new world. Of playing Final Fantasy 8 in that special edition shirt that Ben Starr likes to wear that I wish I'd kept because I bet it's worth a bloody fortune now. You wait for a game to bring you back there, mostly certain you've moved passed the capacity to feel that way because you now have the sort of adult concerns that cause you ask how much a shirt might be worth on Ebay. I can't say if Clair Obscur will work its magic on everyone the same way, but it certainly did for me. I'm still not ready to leave, honestly. What a special and rare thing this is: a story that feels like someone wanted to tell it so badly it hurt. [RPS Bestest Bests]

A masterpiece, but flawed, and proof positive that if ZA/UM can do flawed masterpiece for their first outing, they might already be chipping away the flaws in time for their next.

Spelunky 2 has fully replaced Spelunky 1 for me. In playing it, I have been tense, I have been excited, I have been elated. I have also rediscovered the joys of being lost, uncertain, and surprised. Spelunky 2 makes Spelunky new again: a fancier strap, more cogs, a cuckoo popping out from a hidden compartment on the hour. The correct time, as delightful as the first time I learned to tell it. [RPS Bestest Bests]

I love the thrill of threading a conveyor through my domain and hunting down an errant input port, in a weird shark-like sort of way. I love cleaning up a kink that’s been unknowingly bottlenecking me for hours, then watching a dormant part of my factory spring back into life (and I love that I can now place signs as reminders that make those happen slightly less). Most of all I love passing by old projects, grinning at hodge-podge engineering that’s still thrumming away, playing its part in the overall colossus I have somehow crafted. Nothing devours a weekend like Satisfactory, whose demands are so often in that sweet spot where the work is complicated enough to yield capital S Satisfaction without tipping into choredom. No management game has made me feel as powerful, letting me relish in how my labours have sculpted the world on such a scale. And nowhere else, or rarely, have I appreciated such loving attention to detail, be that in the bloops of an unfolding miner or the toot of a departing train.[RPS Bestest Bests]

Caves Of Qud is as deep as any Bethesda open world RPG (technically 2 billion floors deep) and funnelled through a rich prism of randomness possible thanks to the limited scope of its visuals. It is complex and compelling enough that many glowing Steam reviews are left only after hundreds of hours of playtime. By contrast, I have barely made a dent. Yes, you will have to embrace and decipher the lore-riddled lingo. And you will have to stoically acknowledge infinite death as a means of learning the arcane rules of survival. But persevere and you will discover a realm hundreds of times more vibrant than the dark inky green of its screens. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Ultimately, Balatro is a game that delights in the art of making numbers go up - big, fast and on fire - by whatever means necessary. It reels you back in not to exploit psychological weakness, but to celebrate the inherent joy of learning, mastering and beating a system gamed around impossible odds, all while being just a teeny bit naughty in the process. It not only invites you to sit at the table, but openly hands you all manner of scalpels to tear into it, make it bleed, and gut it for everything it's worth - and it will smile and applaud you for it every step of the way. Balatro is very generous, in that sense, even when victories are seemingly few and far between. Indeed, the only way I ever felt cheated by Balatro is when I had to stop playing and not spend more time playing Balatro. [RPS Bestest Bests]

I have no idea what Berger would make of Animal Well, or of representations of animals in videogames at large, but Basso's game feels like a gentle, cyberpunky rebuttal of his conclusions. It takes the idea that animal images have excluded animals as its premise, and explores how our technologies of knowledge-making and representation may have become animalistic in response. Above all, the game's confusing, hybrid creatureliness comes across in how these animals sound. Sometimes they cry out like beasts that are turning into software, with moans and yaps and howls and hisses that appear to have been relentlessly resampled and distorted. And sometimes, they cry out like software that has grown bestial and unruly for being left too long underground. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Silksong, I can and will get mad at you. But I can’t STAY mad at you. You brilliant, beautiful bastard of a game.

Story aside, I liked the bits where it was clearly taking a breather to let you screw each other in various ways. Or have a deathmatch. The parts where it winked at you: "We're presenting this as a trust exercise but it's actually so you can let your mate's head bounce off the carpet and cackle about it".

Final Fantasy Rebirth is imperfect, incautious, uneven, and gloriously, fearlessly unfocused. Final Fantasy Rebirth is unmissable.

Weirdly for a game about sausages the size of hay bales, I’d say this is all meat and no fat or filler.

It's just such a delight to have Ghost Trick back on modern platforms. For returning players, it's a chance to revisit one of Takumi's best and most lively mysteries, while newcomers get to enjoy one of the finest puzzle games of the last two decades. There's still nothing quite like Ghost Trick, and that makes this resurrected remaster all the more worth saving. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Taken together, Videoverse is strong, powerful stuff that leaves a deep and tender impression, building on the same fascination with the perils of human intimacy as developer Kinmoku's previous game, One Night Stand, but on a much more impressive scale and accomplished canvas. Part of its appeal may well play on that nostalgia for a bygone era of social networks, but its beautifully observed cast of characters and interpersonal dramas make this a much more universal and compelling take on early interneting than Hypnospace Outlaw could ever dream of. There's a lot more to latch onto here, and so let it be known: the campaign for Videoverse to be the one true Twitter replacement starts here. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Hi-Fi Rush is a fantastic cocktail of rhythm-based head banging and action-packed platforming. The combat system is surprisingly deep and malleable for any style of player and meshing it gently into the musical beat without putting pressure on the player is a deft touch. Its writing and characters might leave a little to be desired, especially when compelling narrative beats are so painfully overlooked, but that doesn’t stop the entire package from being a certified banger.

The cracks in its facade are stark because it’s otherwise such an incredibly vivid work, and the life breathed into it by its animators, artists, and actors is potent enough to survive some deeply odd writing and tonal choices. There’s a wonderful story, I’m sure, to be told about Kratos’s journey from destroyer to conciliator - the glimpses at mythological wonders that are allowed to exist in his presence without getting suplexed into paste here are stunning - this one just feels like it skipped a few steps.

This isn’t going to entertain the brainboxes who demand Stephen’s Sausage Witness before they’ll get out of their four-dimensional beds, but for a chilled puzzling time, they don’t get much better than this. It’s really splendid.

I cannot currently think of any reason why I would ever uninstall Into The Breach. [RPS Recommended]

Ultimately, Chicory: A Colorful Tale lets players pour as much love and soul into making it their own as the developers have, and I can't think of many other games that allow for that kind of relationship with their audience outside of dedicated life sims. That in itself feels monumental, even if the depth and mechanical variety of its puzzles is somewhat lacking. It's a lovely, heartfelt game, and one whose story really resonated with me. It's hard to say whether you'll feel the same way, and there will no doubt be some who think it's worthy with a capital W. But for me, it's up there with your Rokis, your Spiritfarers and your Necrobaristas. It's an ode to self-expression, and that's something worth singing about. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Despite my sense that this chapter is not quite the equal of those before it, it is entirely unmissable if you have played those, still as beautiful and unpredictable and as forlornly romantic as ever, and this time it shows me at least two places I wish I could go and live in forever. And though some water may be overtly trodden this time, be in no doubt that things are moving towards a conclusion.

Hearts of Stone reminded me exactly what I loved about it the first time around, and all I could think when the credits rolled was how much I look forward to firing this game up in a few more months and concluding both Geralt’s final adventure, and one of the PC’s finest RPGs.

Even if Remedy's spellbinding undertaking does eventually come undone at the final hurdle, it remains a horror game unlike any other. Here's hoping Remedy don't suffer their own bout of writer's block as they continue their journey into their burgeoning Connected Universe.

That’s where Resident Evil succeeds. Not in the drivel spouted from its character’s mouths, but in the bullets spewed from their guns. Or better yet – the clicking of empty chambers, or the spine-chilling scratches of scrabbling overhead. I may hate lickers, but I’m also a little bit in love.

It doesn’t hurt that it’s also weird, full of surprises, stupendously daft and often laugh out-loud funny – though not always for the intended reasons.

The only bad thing I can say about Neon White is that I wish there were more of it. I would have loved a level editor or workshop support where users could create and upload their own tracks. I suppose that’s a testament to the quality of what’s already there. Neon White is a solid, speedy romp polished to a mirror sheen and oozing with style. I think I’m gonna go try for a new best time again. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Infinite Wealth is everything I wanted from a Yakuza: LAD sequel. It refines and expands on many of Yakuza: LAD's RPG loose ends or underexplored bits, whisking you away to the wonderful Hawaii in the process. Yes, it may be a bit too expansive for some, retains some of Yakuza's more annoying quirks, and isn't an RPG in the sense of making Ichiban's story totally your own. But the story it does tell, and the adventures you do go on, are heartfelt and funny and told with such rich detail. I'll say it again: thank goodness for Yakuza. [RPS Bestest Bests]

If this were to be the final Souls game, I’d be happy to say goodbye. It’s not quite the crowning achievement of the series but it’s a fantastically inventive and fluid interpretation of the formula. And perhaps that would make it a great first Souls game for somebody new to the series as well.

Maybe I'm so enamoured by Despolete because football has been a constant companion in my own life. My childhood memories are inextricable from hundreds of hours spent playing Sensible Soccer, or from kickabouts at the park in which my friends and I provided our own colour commentary and adopted the roles of regens from our Championship Mananger campaigns. When I dreamed, I too dreamed of football. I think if you've never had that kind of relationship with the sport, Despelote might help explain to you what it means to the people who do. I think in particular it might be an antidote to a UK football culture often defined solely by the megabucks Premier League, with its millionaire players and state-sponsored sportswashing projects. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Blisteringly fast when it needs to be, challenging without being frustrating, and packed with sharp, fatal toys, Dead Cells doesn’t keep you on your toes, it keeps you on your toenails.

A drug I don’t want to quit. A miracle of design? Yeah, go on. [RPS Bestest Bests]

I compare Kynseed to pick-n-mix intentionally. The disparate parts of it do, as concepts, mostly go together. It isn’t thoughtless or careless, but it promises more than it can offer right now. You could indulge yourself in some very precise aspect of it and try not to touch the parts of it that aren’t working, but you’d have to pick your way through carefully. It’s an intriguing promise, though, and I can see it being an incredibly captivating game – when it’s finished.

By the time its end was away, I was convinced that Thank Goodness You're Here! deserves its place among the canon of British comedy, particularly that which celebrates the bumpkins of our better selves, from Wodehouse to Wallace & Gromit to the Cornetto trilogy. Heck, I haven't even mentioned that it's got Matt Berry doing voices in it. Send it to an American in your life, to show them there's more on our list of cultural exports than irony and failed politicians.

Ultimately, this is why Psychonauts 2 is so good. It is playful. It's fun. It's climbing inside a giant wedding cake, riding flying letters, taking part in a giant cooking show with eggs that are excited to be boiled kind of fun. What more, on this planet, at this time, could you possibly want? [RPS Bestest Bests]

And it gets a lot right. When Phantom Liberty was first announced, I was a little disappointed that it wasn't continuing V's story onwards from the end of Cyberpunk 2077. Given all that ending entails, or can entail, I couldn't see how a mid-game expansion could add anything of narrative significance. I needn't have worried. One of Phantom Liberty's great strengths is that, despite Dogtown's secure borders, it isn't ringfenced in any way from the rest of the story. You can leave Dogtown midway to take on a few missed sidequests, or give your gal Judy a call to discuss what you got up to with the President the night before. The result is an expansion that reflects, refracts and enriches the game around it. If you've never played Cyberpunk 2077 before and buy the expansion, Phantom Liberty is an absurdly lush, thrilling, 20-hour-long side quest; if you have played it before, it's an unmissable opportunity to check in on old friends, and to make a few new ones, in Night City. [RPS Bestest Bests]

The car roster, while as heavy on familiar holdovers as Horizon games always are, has plenty of quirky new Japanese faces to take for a spin, plus the latest models from all the major brands it stocks. It’s true no matter whether you’re pounding around in a Mercedes-AMG One as I was in the intro, pulling up at Daikoku in a Nissan S-Cargo, or drifting a modified Impreza down a mountain. Unless you’re a seasoned petrolhead looking for something to satisfy a particular niche, Horizon 6 is the new king of the road.

So if I'm honest, and despite my allegiance here, I do think Horizon Forbidden West is probably better on PlayStation, but only marginally. If you don't have one, but you want to play a rip-roaring, morally uncomplicated post-apocalyptic hero's journey, where you get to clear a huge map and ride around on a giant boar that spits fire - and why wouldn't you, frankly? - then you should get this game. [RPS Bestest Bests]

This is so immediately accessible, so ridiculously replayable, and so satisfying to get better at, that it transcends. And if those sorts of games are your thing and you’ve not already delved in during development, then flipping crikey, get this immediately.

Deliberate efforts creatie that same feeling require a certain vision and vitality to not feel hollow by comparison. Cruelty Squad kept me clicking, and I might click on it some more. I just don’t feel the need, as others have, to rush to the Steam reviews and write a piece of abstract microfiction about it.

For me enjoying anime comes down to whether I can weather the inevitable anime tropes, and here they overwhelmed my flood defences. I found little solace in combat that was either overly cruel and grind-demanding or mindlessly easy, yet always agonisingly repetitive even on the easiest and therefore speediest difficulty. I'm sure existing fans will be pleased with the modernisations, and newcomers who want cheesy anime, low stakes conversations, and dungeon crawling will find plenty to love here. But if you're Persona-curious, I’d be wary of leaving your giant street coffin.

Most annoyingly, despite the inclusion of plot points that are surprisingly dark and very very funny because of it, It Takes Two is a bit disappointing in how conventional the story is, when thiis was surely an opportunity to do something a bit different. The way you explore Cody and May's story is playful and imaginative, but their story itself isn't that interesting. It doesn't ruin the whole experience - It Takes Two is a tremendously fun game to play - but stacked up next to riding giant spiders, exploding wasps and surfing mic aux cables the actual relationship thing at the heart of it is a bit of a whimper compared to the bang of everything else. Much like my own divorce, WAHEY.

I’m staggered by how clever it is. [RPS Bestest Bests]

The difference is that when Mantel's story begins, Cromwell has already levelled up all the associated skilltrees and entered the postgame. Far from being a charming show of tenacity and pluck - the kind of thing that gets you called a "good man" by your betters - his supreme competence makes him both awe-inspiring and sinister, while setting the scene for his undoing. There is, in fact, a closer parallel to Cromwell in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, an older man with a gift for the gab who you'll fleetingly control while pursuing the main quest. Perhaps that's who Henry needs to become in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 3.

Stardew Valley is the rare kind of imitation that breaks free of the boundaries of its inspiration, becoming more than just a clone but an experience that thrives independent of its origins.

What elevates it from a fascinating and gorgeous experiment in presentation to an immediate contender for my game of the year is the way that the broader narrative informs the stories it contains, just as the house is home to its many rooms. Without casting judgement or becoming didactic, Edith Finch explores both the good and the harm that stories can do, and how folktale, imagination and superstition can lift us up and dash us down.

This is XCOM writ so damn large, so wide and wild and all-consuming, that it gets the same intractable hooks into me that XCOM games always have while also taking me to new places, occupying even more parts of my obsessive brain. [RPS Recommended]

All this for £13! Honestly, this is purist FPS as good as it gets, just a constantly stunning game. Don’t miss this. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Shadows Die Twice is a beautiful, masochistic misadventure. Some of its boss fights are so stupendous, I dare not speak about them. It is a test of mettle and nerve that proves From Software are still winning the arms race against us cheesey rats. A brutal master who snaps the shield and broadsword out of your hands, and looks you up-and-down for what you are capable of. No more blocking, chump. You’re going to learn ballet. [RPS Bestest Bests]

As someone who doesn't usually care for puzzle games, Cocoon gripped me the entire way through its seven-hour-ish runtime - thumbs up for a nice, compact game. Its world-hopping gimmick sees you inhabit orbs laid out with such precision it makes each problem clear, and has you experiment with literal worlds-within-worlds as if it's second nature. Anyone can take on the responsibility of insect lad and gain the confidence to construct a backpack swimming with marbles, all while going on a grand adventure that feels like you're liberating a sequence of CPU cores from a wriggling virus. What are you waiting for? Hop in.

It is a game about embracing engineering and being unafraid to encourage craziness, so long as it can be physically done. It is a game that does the very idea of Science, with a capital S, proud.

It’s one of the first roguelites I’ve played where a bad roll of the dice leaves me excited, not deflated. Whether RNG blazes a path to success, or I’m handed Blasto, my chirpy Hunter cursed with a trait that gave him a zero movement stat, essentially paralysing him, I love the weird odyssey it sends me on. Whatever happens, I know I'll come back with a corker of a story. And it’ll almost certainly involve poo. [RPS Bestest Bests]

"Finding a way" sums up Dragon's Dogma 2 pretty nicely, I think. The game's an anecdote generator, where all of its AI and combat and day-night-cycle systems coalesce into bouts of chaos that'll test your improvisation skills but never your patience. And while it retains some of the original game's aged quest design and open world repetition, they simply aren't a problem at all, because the act of discovery is just so, so involved.

It’s difficult but fair, complex but intuitive, and gruelling but conquerable. [RPS Bestest Bests]

I can’t recommend Pentiment enough. It’s an enthralling murder mystery (with a satisfying conclusion, I might add) and its use of Europe’s rich history during the 16th century as a backdrop is incredibly astute for a detective tale focused on faith and truth. Pentiment can sit nicely next to the likes of Paradise Killer, Disco Elysium, and Return Of The Obra Dinn as some of the best mystery games on PC. This is definitely one for the history books. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Wilds is once again a game of hunger and hunting, self-providing, and grinding your nights away against the whetstone of loot. Therein lies both the appeal and danger of Monster Hunter games. They are stuffed with compelling completionist catnip, yet wrapped in a philosophy of busywork. You are killing a very cool monster to get better gloves so you can kill another cool monster for more gloves. I mean, yes, that is video games writ large. And it keeps me sustained on the hamster wheel for a while. I too desire a fashionable suit for my intolerable cat.

Now, I wouldn't say that Rogue Legacy 2 features an area or a weapon or otherwise that's utterly bonkers. There is nothing on selection here that's all too different from other roguelikes or metroidvanias. Still, it doesn't matter. All of its many, many, systems coalesce into a roguelike that'll give you a great big "one more run" itch. And it's an itch that rewards you, no matter how much you scratch.

XCOM 2 is an improvement on its predecessor in every way and the vast majority of those improvements have been applied so intelligently that they risk making Enemy Unknown obsolete. That game was a smart remake of a classic. XCOM 2 is a classic in its own right and as good a sequel as I can remember.

I found myself punching the air in jubilation after difficult bosses. And they’re all bloody difficult – but I wouldn’t have it any other way. If that sounds enticing rather than off-putting to you, then I can unreservedly recommend Cuphead. If not, then simple mode might still make the game worth visiting for those who just want to enjoy the delightful aesthetic, though it’s far from the full experience. [RPS Recommended]

Celeste is a difficult game about overcoming difficulties. Come for the challenge, stay for the joy of Madeline’s company and the generosity of this wonderful game. [RPS Recommended]

Mullet Mad Jack ia a simple, stylised crash through a lot of corridors and even if it's not going to blow you away, I'd absolutely recommend it to anyone who enjoys speed with their violence. There's additional difficulties if you're after a challenge and an Endless mode, too, if you want to see how high you can climb against random enemies and stage layouts. Mullets are very much in.

I wouldn't normally be so specific about a puzzle, but that moment was less a Crimson Diamond and more a White Whale that I would hate to see anyone else chasing. Otherwise I think The Crimson Diamond is a beautiful piece of work, combining a love letter to the past with a modern implementation, all wrapped up in a mystery that may not have huge, shocking twists, but remains a page turner throughout. And there are bonus geology facts, too! Consider PLAYING THE GAME.

All of which is to say that there's a lot to love in The Talos Principle 2, even aside from its excellent puzzles, philosophical questions, and really quite gorgeous scenery. [RPS Bestest Bests]

The game’s huge for its genre, a good dozen hours at least of bouncing, flinging, zapping and triple-jumping. The new sections only make it better, the new skills fit in perfectly. Few games come close to being this well made, this lovingly animated, and so madly pleasurable to play. If you played it last year, it’s well worth going back (and in May, it’s only £3.75 to update your version on Steam), if not, then goodness me, it’s time to put that right.

One of the few criticisms I can level at this close-to-perfect piece of hexiana is that the campaign chapters sometimes don’t dovetail as neatly as they might. [RPS Bestest Bests]

This is the best battle royale game we’re going to see for a long, long time. [RPS Bestest Bests]

All I’ll say is that defeating the Shogun is far from the end, with more difficult challenges awaiting those brave enough to venture forth after the titular ruler is toppled. Even then, there are always new tactics to discover, new toys to play with, and new characters to be trialled on the battlefield. I fear my time with the game is far from over (complimentary). [RPS Bestest Bests]

It is, quite simply, a thing of wonder, and a late contender for my personal game of the year.

It is safely good. Even with the addition of Operations mode and the behemoths and the return to a more instinctively dramatic setting, it still feels like Battlefield. There’s capture points and there’s guns. There’s deathmatch and there’s conquest. There’s grenade spam and sniper alleys and miraculous dive-bombing pilots who somehow manage to use the terrible flight controls. The Great War might have been unique, but Battlefield 1 isn’t. For some, that won’t be a problem. For others, it might be time to sue for peace.

It doesn’t have the cleanness or the slow-burn escalation of your old-school C&Cs or the first Warcrafts and StarCraft, so certainly don’t approach it as a return to the old ways, but if you want a giant sci-fi army bashing buildings and monsters to death while a crazy lightshow rages, Legacy of the Void is hard to argue with on that basis.

Monster Hunter World is gorgeous and exciting. Its elegant systems are packed with depth. It’s hugely generous with a frankly bewildering amount of content, but still provides a firm, focused gameplay loop. The online experience is balanced, seamless, and challenging.

Campaign-wise, this is the best expansion Blizzard has ever made.

I wish PoE2 had had more to say, more it wanted to express. I think that would have covered over a multitude of its other sins. Half-ideas about colonialism mixed with exploitation of natural resources by trading companies don’t really deliver the goods here. (That is the best joke.) As it is, despite having spent dozens of hours playing this, I’ve always felt at arm’s length. [Review in Progress]

These are minor transgressions. They don’t come close to souring a delightfully bloody pudding, a tour de force of grizzly decapitation. The highs in Doom Eternal come thick and fast and towering, in the midst of battles that demand total attention. New-new Doom nails that marriage of twitching and planning, the calculated deployment of rampant aggression. It makes you feel godly. I haven’t been able to try the multiplayer mode, but it promises asymmetric, player-orchestrated arenas that sound much more intriguing than the underwhelming marine-on-marine action of the last game. And if winds up as another disappointing side-show, so what? [RPS Bestest Bests]

Like Dark Souls and Bloodborne, Devil Daggers and Hyper Demon might look the same at a glance but the differences are enough to make it an exciting new experience.