I have spent more than 60 hours in the Xbox One version of the game and don’t feel anywhere close to having tackled most of the content. Fallout 4 could be the only game you buy for the next six months, and you might never get bored. It’s everything that Fallout fans were hoping for. When it comes to game releases in 2015, the best was truly saved for last.

If there’s any message in That Dragon, Cancer that ought to be universal to anyone who plays the game, it’s that time is precious.

The pervasive visual theme of death is as heavy in this game as it was in Bloodborne and the boss designs are as creative as anything found in the original Dark Souls. It’s remarkable that Dark Souls III manages to showcase these influences while still being able to stand out with an identity of its own.

I found playing through a modern imagining of this classic to be almost perfect. While it doesn’t reinvent the franchise or break convention, it never acts like it wants to. There’s something comforting about returning to a world like this: to know its every corner, to recognize its colorful cast, to feel truly lost in the experience.

Battlefield 1 is a refreshing, gorgeous shooter that breaks up the monotony of futuristic action games with solid mechanics and a setting that has never gotten the attention it deserves.

In its finished form, the game tells a story with uncompromising vision and engrossing emotional heft. The resulting experience comes off as delicately prepared, and the mythical nature of the game’s development only enhances the fantastical tale at its core. Imagining the missteps the game could have taken if released in an unpolished rush is easy, but bickering about the build-up to The Last Guardian’s release will be long outlived by its success as an emotionally evocative masterpiece in the annals of modern gaming.

Firaxis has done a wonderful job of taking the life-and-death, intense pressure of the tactical infantry game, and mapping it onto the strategic game.

Every so often a game jam produces something special that is both interesting and commercially viable. A game like Superhot.

Resident Evil 7 is that breed of survival horror that manages to instill a omnipresent sense of fear. I was constantly concerned about my immediate needs rather than planning for the long term. In turn, I broke with my survival horror play-style traditions, using all available weapons and resources when necessary instead of playing conservatively in anticipation of challenging boss fights and possible difficulty spikes. It turned out to be the right choice, which is a credit to Resident Evil 7's fair difficulty.

Breath of the Wild’s only tangible constraint is how creative the player can be at any given moment. The game is genuinely challenging, with secrets and rewards to be found around every corner. As you play, the staggering amount of ways in which you can interact with Hyrule naturally reveal themselves. There is always something new to discover, but at your own pace. Somehow, the adventure never loses momentum over dozens of hours of exploration, the inspired design holds up, making for an unmistakable Zelda game that completely changes everything expected from the series. After spending so much time with Breath of the Wild, it is already hard to imagine going back to the antiquated presentation of the past.

It’s the kind of closure that will make you reminisce about the first time you fired up the debut Uncharted game, but you won’t feel nudged to fire up Drake’s Fortune immediately after completing A Thief’s End.

If you’re willing to do the social networking and accept the time commitment that Destiny requires to reach its endgame content, you’ll be treated to the first massively multiplayer online game built around the core of first-person shooter gameplay, a unique entry in the world of video games, and a growing universe where you and your fellow Guardians are all that stand between the Light, humanity’s last hope, and the Darkness that threatens to wipe us out forever.

Pokémon Sun and Moon are best Pokémon games released yet for the 3DS. While the framerate still takes a dip whenever there’s multiple Pokémon in battle, the engine suits the swaying trees and sunny beaches of the Alola region wonderfully. The music, characters, and story are some of the strongest in Pokémon history and the core gameplay is irresistibly rewarding.

Pokémon Sun and Moon are best Pokémon games released yet for the 3DS. While the framerate still takes a dip whenever there’s multiple Pokémon in battle, the engine suits the swaying trees and sunny beaches of the Alola region wonderfully. The music, characters, and story are some of the strongest in Pokémon history and the core gameplay is irresistibly rewarding.

Doom’s single-player campaign offers elements that are often rare in modern shooter design, ideas that maybe should never have been left behind as the FPS genre evolved. The multiplayer shooter design elements that have been left in the past, on the other hand, might best be left in the past.

With hundreds of Power Moons to collect, an entire wardrobe of outfits that span Mario’s storied history, and no shortage of Easter eggs to uncover, Super Mario Odyssey is one of the most complete packages Nintendo has ever offered.

Come, feel the history, watch it, touch it, marvel at how anyone a century ago ever got by in this crazy world full of chess-themed electrical plugs. But don’t forget where you came from, and honor those traditions, goofy as they may seem to us now, and you’ll have all the more fun for it.

At the end of a tumultuous decade, it’s only natural to reflect on the years gone by. And here comes a great game to cap the previous decade—and signal the start of something new. If I hadn’t already spent the last several years being told that Kentucky Route Zero was a special game, I’d have known it immediately.

This feels like a case where a video game movie can afford to pay proper deference to the source material. If the Ratchet & Clank movie’s creative team chose to do so, we might have a rare entry into the very short list of video game movies that don’t suck.

I can’t imagine anyone walking away from Gears 5 disappointed. This is a complete package, tied together with some of the most consistently engaging gameplay you could ask for. The storytelling on display proves that the franchise has yet to peak, and it lays the foundation to continue improving with whatever comes next.

While this is a fantastic game on its own merits, it also stands as a towering achievement in Star Wars storytelling.

Dishonored 2 is just the latest example in a long line of games that continue to illustrate the close relationship between quality stealth games and emergent gameplay. Any given playthrough will present you with myriad chances to both create and react to opportunities, many of which appear with little to no warning. It's in surviving these situations (preferably undetected) where Dishonored 2 delivers its most tangible rushes and most profound sense of gratification. It's a tale of vengeance that's presented in an imaginatively conceived world, one that is as threatening as it is inviting.

While I’m playing, I’m enthralled by the intricacies of every new mechanic folded into my progression. When I’m away from it, I’m imagining new experiments and combinations to toy with on a future run.

Where many open-world games present large stretches of the map that are unremarkable filler, The Division is dense with tiny details that make every corner of the city interesting.

Wargroove is challenging in all the right ways, but never rigid in obstinance. From all angles, this is an experience you can truly tailor to do just what you want it to. Chucklefish has packed this game so full with meaningful experiments—and things that are worth seeing.

Street Fighter V delivers where it counts as a fighting game, the gameplay, and makes leaps and bounds of improvement everywhere else. That makes it a must-buy if you're any type of fan of the series—especially since there are no Super, Ultra or Turbo versions coming out in the future.

This game stands out as an exceptional entry in a series that has consistently delivered action-movie thrills. If you’ve felt series fatigue creeping in with recent entries, Far Cry 5 is just the antidote you need. It’s an incredible game. Play it. Love it. Just don’t get brainwashed by the cult.

Watch Dogs 2 is such a fully realized mid-2010s time capsule that—even if the online features are unavailable down the line—it would make for an especially insightful playthrough a decade from now, personal San Francisco native bias notwithstanding.

Despite a few missteps, Prey does a lot of smart, rewarding innovation with its gameplay. Your abilities are balanced with those of the enemy, and the progression system ensures that you’ll never become a one-man death machine. That palpable tension of a shadow lurking just out of sight remains taut for the entire campaign, and each encounter layers on more reasons to be fearful while poking around Talos I.

The Outer Worlds is everything you’d want from a modern RPG. There’s no “right” way to play, and there are no easy decisions. At least, the game doesn’t seem to think so. It provides a well-realized, organic universe to explore and allows you the freedom to choose your way through gorgeous environments and complex conflicts. I already want to tour the solar system as a different explorer and see what else the game is hiding beneath the surface. It marks a tremendous achievement from one of the most accomplished developers in the genre.

Titanfall 2 builds on the promises of the first game in every way imaginable. Rewarding gameplay innovations remain intact, providing consistent thrills in both multiplayer matches and the campaign. Fans of the genre will find themselves blown away by the unique level design, even if the narrative fails to stand tall.

Where the previous game is an over-the-top whirlwind, Rise of the Tomb Raider is better as a savored experience.

It serves up exactly what the series is known for with a new twist, and it does so with awe-inspiring ease. One of my biggest takeaways was how completely I was transported to a space of childlike joy while I played it.

This adventure marks a maturation in the formula that fans have come to love. Everything new in Sekiro is achieved with graceful triumph, demonstrating how willing From Software is to experiment with new ideas and proving it to be one of the greatest modern developers.

While not as challenging as some of the JRPGs of the past (no Emerald Weapon here, sorry), I Am Setsuna makes it clear that someone is listening to all of those grumbly veteran gamers who miss the adventures that made them fans for life. They long for a story to care about, and that's what this game provides.

It’s not quite the equivalent of getting three Fire Emblem Awakenings in a single release, but it’s nonetheless an impressive follow-up. Fates fine tunes Awakening’s best combat and relationship aspects while carving its own identity with the My Castle home base, creating a rare Fire Emblem that delivers immense value outside the arenas of war.

It may sound trite, but there actually was something primal about Far Cry Primal in terms of how it handled genre identity. It dispenses with any notions of gritty realism, noir storytelling, or military heroism, and boils things down to brutal violence and plain-old silliness. I found this refreshing.

Just as the countless reviews for this cowboy simulator will pontificate on how Rockstar may have just created the most “alive” world of this generation, none of it should ignore that an actual team of human beings reportedly sacrificed and struggled to breathe life into it.

This feels like the most authentic Spider-Man game that’s ever been made. It captures every aspect of the hero and his secret identity that fans have come to love, all while delivering a lengthy experience that feels like a childhood dream of defying gravity finally come to fruition.

There’s no denying the palpable triumph of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. An ambitious, far-reaching project, it feels like years and years of dreams come true. A game with this number of characters, songs, stages, bosses, and callbacks simply feels like it shouldn’t exist. It’s hard to imagine a better Super Smash Bros. game, but with more content already on the way, Ultimate will continue to top itself for the foreseeable future. For now, it’s impossible not to love what has been so carefully crafted as Nintendo’s finest multiplayer game ever.

The game’s neo-noir, Blade Runner-esque setting perfectly marries with its gritty but heartfelt tone. Despite the slightly off-putting differences in the character design, the aesthetic of the game is superb. Match the exquisite level design with seamless mechanics, addicting gameplay and rousing battles, and you have a recipe for perhaps one of the best games of the year.

If you are a first-person shooter fan generally, and if you enjoy team-based FPS play specifically, not at least trying Overwatch feels criminal. Blizzard always imparts a deep sense of holistic quality into its games, and Overwatch is no exception.

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate represents a welcomed return to form, the likes of which hasn’t been experienced since Revelations. If attaining this level of excellence meant removing all the complexities and ambition of multiplayer, so be it.

Tales from the Borderlands may also be the best-looking game Telltale has ever produced.

The only caution about Yoshi’s Wooly World is that it is only composed of five Worlds, rather than the usual eight Worlds of a Super Mario Bros. game. A skilled platformer player who is able to grab all the collectibles in each course on a first run might find the game too short.

For existing Rock Band fans, the only reason not to purchase Rock Band 4 is that you’re perfectly happy with all the instruments and music you have available to you already, and don’t foresee interest in the bevy of inevitable new tracks that Harmonix will be releasing for the PS4 and Xbox One...And if you’re deciding whether or not to buy Rock Band for the very first time, I wish I could convey just how much I wish the instruments had been this high-quality and the song library this deep when I first started playing Rock Band eight years ago.

If you are seeking a challenge, look elsewhere, but for anyone after a fun and simple jaunt into a classic that lives up to its predecessors, this game is the perfect fit.

Pokémon has a long and storied history, with plenty of exciting developments, and plenty of missteps. Let’s Go is more the former. These games imagine a beautiful, friendly future for Pokémon, and they’re more than worth any interested player’s time.

Pokémon has a long and storied history, with plenty of exciting developments, and plenty of missteps. Let’s Go is more the former. These games imagine a beautiful, friendly future for Pokémon, and they’re more than worth any interested player’s time.

The slinking sensation of the fascinating control scheme makes it easy to recommend Snake Pass to casual fans and hardcore gamers alike. The soundtrack from Rare alum David Wise adds a soothing atmosphere to quiet moments and ramps up steel drums and pounding rhythm as the player tests their snaking skills. As the grass sways and the cartoony characters start chattering, it becomes hard to resist the charm and obvious love that went into this unique take on the genre.

I'm not upset about how inaccessible so much of The Witness felt for me. I feel sad, because I think The Witness is an experience a lot of people are going to enjoy figuring out, whereas I'm going to need more hints to get through it.

At no point did I truly dislike Plague Tale. Quite the contrary. It almost never fails to give you something new to think about or look at, even if you tend to be doing the same three or four things while doing so. The art and environment design is on par with or exceeds some of 2019’s biggest budget titles, and while its core gameplay wears thin by the end, Plague Tale never seems to run out of unique scenarios to throw you into.

For fans of frantic, intense shooters with a layer of customization and random elements, it would be hard not to recommend Mothergunship.

Suffice it to say, if all the stabbing, choking, and hippo-mauling is your kind of fun, Hitman 2 is the most Hitman there ever were, for better or worse. Its story, while plain, serves its purpose without getting in the way, and you’ll be able to stretch the murdering on for weeks to come, despite what few innovations there are being minor. There’s just nothing quite like Hitman, a series that defies everything we’ve learned about modern game business.

Donut County won’t solve or illuminate that massive, multifaceted societal issue, but it will give you a chance to lay back, relax, and throw it down a hole.

The team wanted to make it more than just a cute face and pretty graphics. Even if puzzles can seem obtuse, seldom do they ever feel impossible. The few faults in Unravel can be excused, because it’s so well executed. With the emotions it stirs and the warmth it makes you feel, it’s obvious that a lot of heart was poured into this game.

Destiny has always been better when played with friends, but this time doesn’t feel like it actively punishes solo players.

Pikuniku has so much personality bubbling out of every moment that I couldn’t put it down.

With a solid story mode and comprehensive tutorials, it never once feels like the fighting mechanics are too difficult to grasp. While it may not be the most technically impressive or competitive fighting game ever made, Injustice 2 surely is one of the most accessible and difficult to put down.

It’s this mix of chaotic misery and joy that makes Overcooked 2 a dish best served bold.

Open-ended mechanics and a suite of customization options make Shadow of the Tomb Raider an absolute joy to play.

Final Fantasy XV overcomes its narrative lows with gameplay highs that consume the player's time with engrossing optional quests and frenetic battles. As a whole, it does not represent the best in the series, but it delivers just enough to deserve a place in the mainline series, which is an achievement for a game that originated as a Final Fantasy XIII spin-off.

Though it isn’t perfect, the game excels at nearly everything it sets out to do. Full of genuine surprises, thrilling action, and emotionally grounded in almost every moment, this God of War is easily the best entry in a long series that had no right to reinvent itself so well.

The open-world sensations of Horizon Zero Dawn are some of the best of the current console generation. Climbing snow-capped mountains and crawling through verdant valleys never fails to be as exciting. This apocalyptic wasteland feels remarkably dynamic, with randomized characters and enemies roaming the world and creating emergent encounters...Though Horizon doesn’t represent a revolution in open-world adventures, it borrows heavily from past success stories and elevates the genre to a beautiful new standard.

It’s not a particularly pleasant experience—but it is uncompromisingly captivating.

Battleborn is a game that could really benefit from offering a free demo that doesn’t expire like an open beta test. Battleborn is dense enough to be easier to sherpa someone through rather than try to explain how the game works, and giving away a free taste might be all it takes to convince a friend to hop on board.

Black Ops III is a return to form for the Call of Duty franchise, and two of the three main components are as good as they’ve ever been. The story mode remains a disappointment, but there’s so much content and endless customization packed into the competitive and zombie modes that you’ll have no shortage of things to do for many months to come.

General distaste for some of the game’s networking features has surrounded Splatoon 2 since launch, but none of these choices ruin the experience. Bizarre, dated design choices hold back online play, but with free updates and new content coming in the next few months, it will be interesting to see how this already great game can improve.

While only one episode in, I feel fully invested in where The Walking Dead goes from here. Clementine’s story still holds a lot of intrigue, and her watching her grow makes it easy to overlook how much of this episode is simply setting up the pieces for what is sure to be a devastating sprint to the finish line.

The Cuphead experience is consistently wonderful. The nostalgic visuals, energetic soundtrack, and jubilant writing make this feel unlike anything you’ve played before. Some of the mechanics and gameplay tropes will be familiar to anyone who has played modern indie platformers, but the unique quirks presented here are among the best in recent memory.

Though the campaign doesn’t perfectly stick the landing, it finds strength in a multitude of moments that keep things intimate yet thrilling, making it almost certainly one of the series’ strongest entries.

It’s not the deepest RPG out there, but sometimes it’s nice having a lighter experience. One that calls back to a simpler time, where intuition is far more important that meditated planning. Aside from some button mashing and less-than-stellar mini-games, Paper Jam is worth a try for some good ol’ fashioned fun.

Though its titular goose may present itself as the town’s true menace, every meddling grandma and gossiping baby boomer in that town deserves the honking that they get.

Telltale’s Game of Thrones should be the end of any debate as to whether or not Telltale can apply its adventure game formula to any adaptation you throw at it. I saw things in Telltale’s rendition of the Game of Thrones universe that rivaled the awfulness I’ve seen on the show. I jumped from playing the post-apocalyptic Fallout 4 to playing Game of Thrones and didn’t feel like I was killing any fewer people.

If skill challenge is your motivation, Guitar Hero Live will demand much more of you by default. If you’re looking for a party game consider the regulars on your guest list and their level of frustration tolerance.

I’d worry I was being too harsh on Halo 5’s story if I didn’t know so well that the Halo universe is capable of supporting some great storytelling. It’s impossible for me not to reflect on games like Halo: ODST and Halo: Reach when I play the Halo 5 campaign. It feels like pastiche of earlier days that I hope Halo eventually returns to.

I found Jupiter and Mars to be a thrilling and thoughtful experience. It clearly communicates an important message and manages to be equally fun and charming. For the approximately five hours it took to reach the end credits, I was absorbed by impressive visuals and a weighty narrative. I came away with complicated feelings, and I can tell that was intentional.

Maiden of Black Water is decidedly an example of a game where genre experience and fandom has everything to do with its appeal. Games like this are fan service at this point, and Maiden of Black Water strikes all the correct notes.

The artifact descriptions are another example of the way Rising Tide layers new, compelling content onto the framework of Civilization: Beyond Earth.

I enjoyed Quantum Break in the same way I enjoy Marvel superhero movies. They’re fun to watch while I kick back and eat some popcorn. But when I go to see The Avengers I don’t have a control pad in my hands, and there’s where Quantum Break gets confusing for me. Sussing out the relative importance of the two halves of Quantum Break messed with my head as much as trying to sort through all the story’s causality loops.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is the definition of a decent game. It’s fun in short doses and will keep you amused for just long enough to make you feel like you got your $60’s worth. That said, it’s definitely a step back from last year’s Black Ops III, which impressed in almost every regard, and despite being packed with features, modes, and more futuristic fanfare than any Call of Duty before it, a world of laser guns and space battles might not be where the franchise’s time is best spent.

Oxenfree sometimes feels like a walking, talking concept pitch, a vehicle for a compelling plot that needs a larger venue.

X shines when it comes to combat, exploration, and vehicle systems, making this sequel more engrossing than its predecessor. It’s richness makes it easier to overlook the shortcomings from both the technical limitations of the Wii U and the inconsistent soundtrack.

Despite these gripes, it’s clear that 4A Games has sacrificed none of Metro’s survivalist spirit. Amid all the ruin, murder, and mutation, there’s a humanity to this game that few other shooters ever reach. What started out as a cast of generic white guys (and a few POC) has become a family—people I’d reach out to, sit and drink with, make merry with until our throats became sore.

After playing over 30 hours of ARMS, it is hard not to be excited to see where the community grows from here. Still, players need to understand that they are coming in on the ground level of an experimental fighting game that will only feel more rewarding as time goes on.

The detective role-playing conceit makes Call of Cthulhu more than competent. Coupled with a compelling, unnerving take on Lovecraft mythos, the majority of the game is quite enjoyable.

Your first impressions of Sushi Striker probably won’t do enough justice to the surprising depth hidden within. While it can feel derivative of the genre at times, there really is a great hook hidden in the core systems.

Playing No Man’s Sky is very similar to my experience of playing Minecraft. I will spend months exploring a Minecraft world, gathering coal and iron and diamonds to make the weapons and armor, brewing the potions and enchanting the gear I need to keep me alive. I go on mapping expeditions to chart the entire world. And then I invariably spin up an entirely new Minecraft world so I can start over again from scratch and enjoy the thrill of discovery.

Beyond my issues with the controls, the final boss, and leaning too heavily on fandom rather than redefining these characters for a fresh audience, what bums me out about Star Fox Zero is that for me it lacks the special something that defines a Nintendo game.

Despite some flawed execution, the core concept of Has-Been Heroes is strong enough to recommend the $20 downloadable title. It isn’t quite the endlessly re-playable adventure implied by constantly changing maps and a rotating cast of characters, but the bite-size dungeon crawling action is perfectly suited to a portable option like the Nintendo Switch.

Victories in ReCore, whether they were rooted in platforming or combat skill always felt satisfyingly earned, and that for me was enough to balance all the frustration along the way. But if I hadn’t enjoyed the Disney-like tone of ReCore’s story and had not genuinely liked the game’s characters, my patience for ReCore’s shortcomings would probably have strained to the breaking point.

Ultra Sun and Moon‘s new features are great, but nothing groundbreaking.

Ultra Sun and Moon‘s new features are great, but nothing groundbreaking.

The experience is meditative and relaxing, with no real combat, and Fe feels unlike anything else because of it.

It plays as a great mix of both, though lacking some of the tactical strategy of a Fire Emblem title. Warriors is a strong addition to the Nintendo Switch’s library of action games, though it suffers a few technical issues in handheld mode. The thick of a battle can be frantic and stressful on the player and the console, but never too much to ruin an exciting, fast-paced experience.

Ultimately the appeal of Yo-Kai Watch will depend heavily on you as a gamer. If you’re interested in a light JRPG with a twist on standard turn-based mechanics, you will find Yo-Kai Watch to be a delight. If you’re looking for something deeper, you might want to stick with Pokémon.

A lack of cohesion hurts Black Ops 4. Playing through every mode is rewarding in its own right, but it doesn’t feel like you’re working toward anything in the long run. Unlocking skins and parts in multiplayer has no effect on the other modes. Blackout only dishes out rewards to the most skilled players who can pull off a victory. And Zombies is full of so many extraneous options that only hardcore fans will get invested in.

Striking black-and-white visuals looks great on the Switch’s handheld screen, and the vibrant sound design often reveals hidden clues and cues. My Memory of Us stands out as an accessible throwback, and it commits fully to its message. This journey won’t take you very long to complete, but it’s one worth seeing through to the end.