Building on the foundations of Rise of the Tomb Raider, there’s more depth to the actual tomb raiding, more flexibility in the combat, and the city of Paititi is a hub that you can easily get lost in as you explore it and the surrounding jungle. So, while Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s story lacks some of the meaning and impact that it sets out to, this is another action packed romp for fans of the series.

F1 Manager 24 captures the true essence of the sport, focussing on strategy, manufacturing and just how far you can push your tyres. If you’re a fan of F1, this year’s outing is an essential accompaniment to the season thanks in no small part to the addition of Create A Team.

F1 2013 is a solid outing for the series, taking the successes of the past and building on them incrementally, whilst adding an exciting glimpse of what’s to come with F1 Classics. It might leave me wanting more, but F1 2013 is the best and most comprehensive release so far.

A fantastic genre mash-up between hack and slash, boss rush and twin-stick bullet hell shooters, Furi is as unique a blend now as it was in 2016. It fits effortlessly onto the Nintendo Switch, but it’s a game that is waiting to challenge you and worth testing yourself against on other platforms.

It does take a while for the action to really heat up and draw in the player but if you stick with it you'll find 50 plus hours of fun and a truly original gaming experience.

Monsters Are Coming! Rock and Road is a fun riff on various run-based subgenres, building itself upon the foundations of roguelite, bullet heaven and tower defence, slapping some wheels on the corners and seeing how far it can go.

South Park: The Fractured but Whole is technically a better game than its predecessor with more engaging battles and character creation, but the story is oddly paced towards the end, and while it is a fun ride I don’t think it quite matches the plot of The Stick of Truth. It’s not without issue, but fans of South Park will enjoy this as much as the first.

Planet of Lana looks and sounds as wonderful as its original reveal promised. While it doesn't redefine the adventure platformer, the adorable partnership between Lana and Mui, the gorgeous art direction and sweeping soundtrack make this well worth experiencing.

Ravenswatch is an excellent roguelike, one that's filled with clever gameplay design, lovely art, and just a really cool core concept. Now that it's fully out in the wild, I'm happy to wholeheartedly recommend it to basically anyone who's even tangentially interested, and while I do sort of hope they keep releasing new characters, it already feels more than complete.

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is another enjoyable slice of Musou action, even if it does little to advance either franchise. Fans of Fire Emblem will adore chatting to the huge cast of returning characters as much as going into battle with them.

Mortal Kombat 1 serves as a love letter to fans of this thirty-one-year-old franchise and as a pseudo-reboot it also has potential appeal to newcomers alike. There's still room to grow and I'm sure it will just keep getting better, but Mortal Kombat 1 is already definitely worth your time.

Wingspan is a serene, blissful, drop-dead gorgeous digital board game. While its turn-based engine-building gameplay may not be for everyone, it’s the ideal game to unwind with alongside a mug of cocoa after a long day. Multiple play modes make this a great purchase for players of any age that enjoy strategy and a healthy dose of animal facts.

Balancing excellent strategic gameplay with great writing and a tank-full of heart, Fuga: Melodies of Steel continues the excellent track record of the Little Tail Bronx series. A set of great characters, beautiful visuals and excellent music precede an emotional journey through a war-torn world through the eyes of a group entirely unprepared for the choices they will have to make. This won’t be for everyone by any means, but what is here was clearly made with a lot of care.

As far as debut projects go, Tokyo 42 is a great game with a fascinating sense of style and a confident swagger, let down by a handful of little things. Controlling how to shoot takes some getting used to and that sharp increase in difficulty was unwelcome to say the least, yet I had a fantastic time sneaking around and assassinating targets however I wished. A great effort.

Trepang2 is a clear love letter to the FEAR games, taking heavy inspiration from that series and mixing in some optical camo and monsters that aren't a scary little girl with an increasingly horrendous backstory. It's not a perfect game and it is a bit short, but once you trigger the slo-mo and start blasting, you won't really care.

Exception is a Tron-like visual feast, full of inventive and dynamic action platforming that’s as satisfying as it is stylish.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a charming delight, an adventure for Zelda herself that embraces a wholly different style of gameplay to Link's tales, allowing for player expression and creativity throughout.

It seems odd giving a remake of game a higher score than it's sequel but the Arizona Sunshine Remake takes all of the good elements from it's sequel and thankfully, very few of of the bad elements. Great fun in co-op mode, but playing alone makes it more tense, scary and certainly more of a challenging.

WRC 10 is a great rally package that hones many of the WRC 9's strengths to a finer edge. There’s a couple of visual glitches that need working on, but all in all, rally fans will love what KT Racing have put together this year.

EA Sports FC 26 is a better game than FC 25 and can give you a good game of football, especially when Authentic mode in single player comes together properly. However, for that to happen you need to play on World Class difficulty, as anything below that exposes poor defending by the AI. There has been evolution here, but FC 26 is still only a step towards getting the balance right, and not the final stop.

Tales of Xillia Remastered is a wonderful showcase for why the Tales franchise has thrived for the past three decades. It's packed full of charm, strung together with incredible battles, and has me so excited for whichever entry in the series gets remastered next.

Overall A Crack in Time is a brilliant addition to the Ratchet & Clank franchise and it manages to keep its charm and character despite the introduction of so many new features. The control issues, along with some repetitive content, do jar on occasions but they aren’t enough to distract you from your overall enjoyment of a game that is well worth the money.

It’s effortlessly cool, from a slightly nerdy retro perspective, but hidden beneath that, there’s a simple and very ordinary feeling tale of a trio of kickass women living outside the law and pulling off ever more outlandish heists.

Reach won't win any awards for plot or graphics, but that's not the point. You've played this style of game before, but you've never played it like this in VR, bounding from ledge to zipwire, leaping over chasms and playing insinctively rather than cautiously. Reach raises the bar for VR gaming, and it's a great reason to dust off your headset.

As a modern successor and sequel to the classic PS2 era Budokai Tenkaichi trilogy, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is a great time for Dragon Ball fans. You'll have to ease yourself into the controls, but once it clicks it's a lot of fun to explore the full roster and smash anime characters together.

A remarkably well crafted entry in the survival genre that sets itself apart with compelling gameplay, an intriguing setting, and a stellar soundtrack. Having released on computer and Xbox One last year, its arrival on PlayStation 4 with the Complete Edition will hopefully see it find a new audience to entice on a beautiful, and bleak, journey down the river.

A Long Journey to an Uncertain End is a fun game. It's well-made, with an engaging story, relatable characters, and an immersive setting, along with plenty of LGBTQ+ representation. It's perfect if you're looking for a thoughtful and well-made space opera.

Reverie is a game that suits the Switch very well. As a simple dungeon crawler, it does the job well with a steady difficulty progression as the story goes on, but it's the puzzles that provide most of the challenge, with some solutions require quite a bit of thinking outside the box. This is a short and succinct game that's great for those looking for something quite light.