The wait for the PS4 version has been rewarded with an almost perfect incarnation of Rise of the Tomb Raider, with a lot of old and new content and future PS4 Pro support.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps is the natural evolution of the already excellent Ori and the Blind Forest, a masterpiece and a milestone in the metroidvania genre. It’s a modern fairy tale with a lesson that should be accepted by everyone and applied without reservation in the everyday life. So be careful: playing Ori and the Will of the Wisps could make you a better person.

Pentiment is a beautiful journey in a historical period (unfairly, I say) not so often addressed, focused on narration rather than gameplay, almost absent. Here, perhaps given its choice structure that encourages subsequent plays, it could have benefited from a "New Game +" mode in which the dialogues are speeded up, but generally the criticisms to be made are very few.

Monster Hunter Wilds is one of the most exciting games of recent years. It further polishes the winning intuitions of Monster Hunter World and grafts them into a living, changing open world to deliver a first-rate synaesthetic spectacle in the most successful instalment of the prestigious Capcom series. Repetitive by its very nature, but if the exquisite arcade action grabs you there's no escaping it.

The crossover of my dreams is made exactly like Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania, an expansion that embellishes the formula of the base game by incorporating a massive dose of references and content taken from one of the most beloved videogame sagas of all time.

I would like to fill this box with "buy it, it's awesome!", like Jack Torrance and his "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy". There would be nothing more to say but it wouldn't sound professional. So I’m going to talk about frantic and fun action, tons of enemies to obliterate in the most creative ways, intriguing story, no loading times, intuitive and reactive controls, PS5 hardware that finally proves its mettle, puzzles to solve, battles down to the last hitpoint, planets to explore, mounts to ride, secrets to discover, weapons to upgrade, armors to collect, oh dear I ran out of characters, so buy it, it's awesome.

Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course is like one of those delicious cream puffs, a single explosive mouthful with which you risk getting lost in a blissful glycemic trance.

Animal Well is an atypical metroidvania that exploits many of the genre's tropes to give birth to something different, almost completely eliminating the entire action component to focus exclusively on the puzzles. The end result is a fascinating, mysterious and at times mesmerizing video game that does not end once the credits are rolling, since reaching the ending represents only a new beginning for Animal Well. As long as you really want to escape the well, of course, but why do it? It's so good down here.

The best episode of the series, and one of the best sports games ever. There's nothing more to say.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles is, ultimately, a valuable and respectful return to a work that marked the history of Japanese tactical role-playing games. Despite some questionable localization decisions and the lack of an Italian translation, this re-release offers the best possible opportunity to (re)discover a timeless classic, still capable of surprising us with its depth and narrative intensity. Square Enix has chosen not to distort the soul of the title, instead offering a bridge between past and present that will appeal to both nostalgic and new players: a faithful tribute and an invitation to immerse yourself once again, or for the first time, in the dark events of Ivalice.

XCOM 2 comes really, really close to the perfect score. The gameplay is incredibly complex, deep and polished, and the freedom for the player is simply amazing. XCOM 2 is challenging, incredibly rewarding but never frustrating. It's just February, but this is already one of the best titles of 2016.

Horizon Forbidden West is an excellent second chapter, backed up by top-notch art direction and sekaikan. The plot dares to take an unexpected direction with results that are not entirely appreciable, but overall it is a worthy continuation of Aloy's adventures that deserves to be experienced. PlayStation 4 or 5, it makes no difference.

Forcing us to live one second at a time, MULLET MAD JACK pays homage to the golden years of anime with contagious passion, the same that gushes from the small details that are difficult to see given the crazy speed of the gameplay. In a crowded landscape like that of old school FPS it's not easy to stand out, yet Jack manages to do so easily thanks to an out of the ordinary personality and mullet.

The Crimson Diamond is not a game for everyone; indeed, the adventure genre, already quite niche in its own way, is made even more hostile by the presence of text-based controls. However, anyone should try this experience, because such well-packaged products rarely come out and transcend the nostalgia operation by offering a story worthy of Agata Christie in the artistic guise that made the defunct, but still alive in the hearts of fans, Sierra On-Line so famous. The excellently crafted parser and a notepad full of hints make it much more accessible than you might imagine.

Fire Emblem Fates is divided into three different campaigns (the least interesting of which is Legacy, designed to explain the core mechanics to the newcomers), and it offers a great experience overall, probably the best in the entire saga. Recommended to anyone, unless you have a serious idiosyncrasy for the Japanese tactical genre.

Halo 3 for PC is an excellent re-release of an already amazing FPS, despite being held back by a few issues (no advanced graphics settings and the heavy changes of the netcode).

Deathloop is an unusual but fascinating game to be experienced in one breath as a superb noir thriller in which, however, we are the killer. The AI is out of place compared to the rest of the game and it's not a perfect game, but it's not afraid to dare, it has style in spades, shows the creative team’s burning passion in every corner and when finally get that perfect loop, the satisfaction is immeasurable.

The Talos Principle 2 is the perfect combination of puzzle game and RPG phases. A philosophical story that starts from the game but reaches out to touch the player and the history of the human being. The Talos Principle 2 is one of the most complete gaming experiences of this year.

Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales brings another Sony icon to our PCs thanks to an action-adventure that is technically solid and adaptable to any hardware configuration, perhaps perfect in managing the framerate but as exciting as only playing Spider-Man can be.

Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising is a fighting game that makes immediacy its strong point, easy to approach but incredibly deep. The mechanics of the first chapter have been properly refined, and a rich roster offers hours of fun in company. It's a shame that the content reserved for solo players is very limited, classifying the game as a party for the use and consumption of those who love to challenge themselves online. Then again, I really can't like those simplified commands.

Metroid Dread convincingly shows that Samus Aran is, after so many years, still at the (or very near to) the top of the genre it helped define. MercurySteam's creation is exhilarating, well balanced and beautiful to look at; even the somewhat atypical E.M.M.I. sections are competently integrated with the rest of the game.

Super Mario Maker 2 is a masterpiece. An exuberant and hilarious editor that makes the Wii U game look like a beta version. An irresistible tool used by Nintendo itself to create a brilliant story mode and an even more social chapter, perfect for sharing the experience, online or on the sofa.

A roguelite deckbuilder has finally arrived to properly revamp the gameplay that Slay the Spire seemed to have carved in stone. The management of our warrior's movement adds a lot of tactics to the fighting, and the non-draw deck abilities almost completely eliminate the luck factor by requiring extensive planning of one's moves, especially when trying to chain combos to eliminate multiple foes at once. The progression is the same as usual, alternating between battles and refreshment shops, but many other new features have been introduced.

Monster Hunter Rise marks the beginning of a new era for the series' pocket adventures, finally free from the antiquated mechanics that the previous chapter, Generations Ultimate, brought with it.

Undoubtedly, the best 4X game so far. Civ VI is a total masterpiece and improves all the aspects of the previous incarnation.

Battlefield 1 aims at a very large audience of players, through strategic but always accessible approaches. Forget in a hurry the short campaign and join the spectacular multiplayer battles as soon as possible.

Apart from the "30 fps" issue, which in no way detracts from the overall quality of the experience, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is, today as yesterday, an extremely enjoyable, fun, perfectly calibrated and absolutely unmissable title. Whether or not it's right to entrust a remake with Nintendo Switch's swan song is not our concern, play it without asking too many questions and you won't regret it.

A superb DLC that remains on the same, excellent level as the Resident Evil 4 remake. In terms of gameplay, Ada's adventure mixes elements that often speed up the pace a bit with others that fit perfectly with the espionage nature of the protagonist. Narratively speaking, Separate Ways expands on the original story and reveals new details that will delight hardcore Resident Evil fans.