Takayuki Yagami is a charming lead who, alongside a strong supporting cast, carry this story to its gripping conclusion. However, the town of Kamurocho is beginning to show its age, and I can’t help but feel that other fans might feel the same way about its overly familiar layout and neverending stream of Yakuza. All that aside, Judgement is still a tremendously good time when it matters, and if SEGA continues to experiment like this, we’re in for a treat going forward.

Layers of Fear 2 is an enjoyable horror adventure, but rarely does anything new with the genre. I’ve seen it all before, and given the excellence of Bloober Team’s last project, this feels like a step backward in terms of both ambition and quality.

Rage 2 is one of the year’s most disappointing titles. However, the shooting is some of the best this generation when you’ve finally dedicated enough time to unlock different abilities and poured a couple of upgrades into one of the best shotguns in gaming. Unfortunately, the middle chapter is full to the brim with busywork that taints the entire experience. At one stage, I was spending 10 minutes driving for a five minute firefight before getting back in a car for another 10 minute drive and a stilted vehicular combat section. Shooter fans deserve better.

Team Sonic Racing is fun yet ultimately underwhelming kart racer. It’s innovative team-based mechanics can make the solo campaign a joy, but aren’t fleshed out enough to prevent things becoming repetitive. Combine that with finicky handling alongside performance issues and you’ve a package that fails to live up to what came before it. Although, given its budget launch price, hardcore Sonic fans could find something to love here.

For Total War fans, there’s lots here to enjoy. It’s the best historical Total War game since Shogun 2, and one of the finest this series has seen thus far. However, for those drawn in by the bombast and spectacle of Total War: Warhammer, this game can feel flat by comparison. Beautifully presented, this is a treat for history fans, but it might leave other players slightly cold. A step back for a franchise that felt on the edge of mainstream success, but series veterans will feel right at home.

This is a third-person experience worth embarking on, if only for the distinctive way it subverts mechanics we’ve grown so familiar with. You can also feed evil soldiers to hordes of rats with the press of a button, which is morbidly delightful in its own messed up way.

I wouldn’t recommend Iron Rain over Earth Defense Force 5, since it fails to deliver the distilled, charming experience I adore from the Sandlot series. That said, it makes some welcome advancements to the formula, with deep customisation features and plenty of loadouts to mess around with. It’s just a shame technical problems are so pronounced, even on the enhanced console. But, for fans of the series, this is worth a gander.

Days Gone has a couple of fantastic ideas, including the blockbuster horde battles that offer some of the most heart-pounding zombie spectacles I’ve seen yet. Unfortunately, these fantastic moments are fleeting, with generic missions, a messy story, and a plague of technical bugs holding back Days Gone from becoming a zombie-slaying classic.

Mortal Kombat 11 is yet another great entry in NetherRealm’s fighting series. The story mode is all too brief, but delivers a frantic action blockbuster that unashamedly hurls fan service all over the place, and is all the better for it. An increased focus on cosmetic loot and player customisation hasn’t come at the expense of excellent combat design, which feels tighter and more rewarding thanks to some subtle yet clever changes to what we know and love.

After a turbulent production, Clementine and The Walking Dead series have both been given the ending they deserve. Not all of Take Us Back lands smoothly, but the finale remains true to the tone of this season and delivers a satisfying conclusion that fans will be talking about for years to come.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is one of the best games to emerge this year, adding yet another masterpiece to FromSoftware’s formidable catalogue of grim, uncompromising experiences. Nearly every encounter feels like a nuanced session of cat-and-mouse as you dance alongside the enemy, culminating in a final act that leaves them in a puddle of their own defeat.

Yoshi’s Crafted World was a delight to play through, especially thanks to the stunning paper craft scenery. In terms of presentation, this as good as anything Nintendo has produced, which is an incredible accomplishment. Does Crafted World rank as one of the Switch’s best platformers? Not quite. This is a simple collectathon at heart that never really attempts to strive to be anything more. Children and those craving a cutesy cathartic adventure will love this new Yoshi entry, but those looking for a challenge are better off looking elsewhere.

The Division 2 is an excellent shared-world shooter and a how-to guide for big franchises looking to make a sequel.

Much like Resident Evil 7 before it, Devil May Cry 5 paves an impeccably exciting future for itself with new locations and characters that don’t just pull Capcom’s hack ‘n’ slasher into the modern generation, it kicks it through the door and throws away the key. Devil May Cry 5 isn’t perfect, but Hideaki Itsuno’s latest effort builds on what came before it while staying true to everything I love about Dante and friends. Consider my Devil Trigger thoroughly pulled.

A robust combat system, plentiful characters and a meaningful progression system combine to create a worthwhile fighter that I’d recommend checking out. It certainly isn’t the finest the genre has to offer, but it does more than enough to stand out.

Trials Rising isn’t going to set the world on fire, but it achieves what it sets out to do with aplomb. It’s a simple concept, executed with flair, and if that’s not worth applauding then what is?

Anthem is a strange flawed adventure with glimpses of greatness buried behind an abundance of obtuse design decisions. What so many players love about Bioware is here, but fragmented in such a way that it becomes unrecognisable...The core of Anthem – being its fearsome gunplay and angelic flight mechanics – are stellar, yet they’re held back by the mission structure that dictates them. Things could certainly improve with the introduction of deeper dungeons and endgame content, but right now Anthem is sadly underwhelming; a victim to the template it’s trying so hard to emulate.

Far Cry New Dawn is a worthy entry to the shooter franchise, but it’ll feel too familiar to fans, and not different enough to those who have been put off by the game’s most recent entries. It’s competently made, with flecks of dark humour and some great action sequences, but aside from a few interesting new mechanics and a fascinating new setting, Far Cry New Dawn is wider than it is deep, the kiss of death for shooter fans currently being swamped with new content.

I can’t help but feel that a bigger, better and arguably more ambitious vision of Crackdown 3 existed before this incarnation – one that would have made use of the cloud technology Microsoft so proudly boasted about only a few years ago. Now it feels like a pipedream, as we’re left with a serviceable yet forgettable world to explore.

‘Broken Toys’ does a great job of setting up what will hopefully be a thoroughly gripping finale. There are plenty of callbacks that diehard fans of the series will relish, but the emotional beats keep everything grounded. Minor visual quirks can sometimes take you out of the experience, but they’re not enough to derail your overall enjoyment of the episode.

A brutal vision of the future, Metro Exodus is a worthy reimagining of the subterranean shooter that brings it blinking into the light of modern gaming. While the open-world can grate, the story tells a story we don’t often get to experience in our heavily westernised shooter market, and it’s worth playing just for that. Metro Exodus‘ problems are the open-world shooter genre’s problems, but the title’s wins are unique. Metro Exodus may not be destined to become a classic, but expect a solid cult following to develop.

Apex Legends is the real deal. While it might not convert the PUBG faithful or fans of the candy coloured build-fest that is Fortnite, there’s no denying that Respawn’s latest effort is very special indeed...There are problems, and the balance issue that currently lets every character wade around like an unkillable superman is certainly something I want to see resolved, but the foundations of the game – detailed teamwork, slick movement and good weapons handling – are all present and correct. With two friends at your side, this could be one of the best free FPS games out there.

Wargroove is a faithful update of a classic strategy series and, despite some smart additions, never really achieves more than that. The competence is commendable, and this is a solid game that will keep strategy fans amused for a while. Unfortunately, the final third of the campaign suffers from huge difficulty issues, which are exacerbated by UI and UX problems. Broadly, I like Wargroove, but without the rosy tinge of nostalgia it’s hard to see why you would those desperate for cut-back strategy wouldn’t just opt for Into The Breach, instead.

Ace Combat 7 is, sadly, a decent game that never quite hits the same highs as the planes contained within. It rapidly becomes too samey, and the games mechanics aren’t really signposted enough, with you being catapulted into action with barely a mention of flight school.

The closing act left me in tears as revelations I’ve been waiting over 13 years for finally came to fruition. I’ve grown up with these characters and the myriad worlds they inhabit, and knowing this could be their final adventure is a bittersweet pill to swallow. Whether you’re a hardcore fan or a hesitant newcomer, there is an undeniable charm to Kingdom Hearts 3 that’s easy to fall in love with. And remember, may your heart be your guiding key.

Life is Strange 2 continues its streak of excellence with Roads, an episode that advances the story of Sean and Daniel Diaz with a series of brave, unpredictable events. While it fumbles when touching upon heavier political themes, the emotion at the core of this story succeeds, and is ultimately what matters the most.

Resident Evil 2 Remake is a survival horror triumph for Capcom. It translates the 1998 original onto modern hardware with an experience that feels fresh, exciting and absolutely terrifying to play. Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield deliver uniquely excellent campaigns who, despite clearly being cut from the same cloth, distinguish themselves enough to make this the definitive version of the beloved classic. It isn’t perfect, arguably confined by the blueprint it established more than 20 years ago, but as a recreation of the source material, it’s almost note perfect.

A flawed experience, yet boasts such as a commendable level of creativity amidst its restrictions that I was unusually smitten with it. The combat is repetitive, the visuals are sub-par and, sadly, there isn’t a lot of depth to many of its mechanics. However, the razor-sharp writing and sheer dedication to its universe allow Suda51 and Grasshopper Manufacture to craft one of Nintendo Switch’s most unique titles yet. I’m not sure I could wholeheartedly recommend it to the average player, but hardcore fans should certainly sign up.