A stunning game. Super Mario Odyssey is the best of the 3D Super Mario titles and a Game of the Year contender in a properly stacked year.

Although it takes place on the same map as Breath of the Wild (with a few key changes owing to the time-skip and Upheaval, of course), Tears of the Kingdom feels different enough from its predecessor thanks to the new powers and mechanics to stand all on its own. It’s a massive open world that feels dense and exciting without getting clogged up with icon fatigue, since so much of the play is based around physics interactions with the core mechanics, rather than rigid systems.

Astro Bot only cares about fun, and I genuinely can't think of a single moment it made me wish something had been handled differently, tweaked to be easier, or expanded upon. It's just perfect.

God of War has grown up. It is violent, but it’s not excessive. It is angry, but there is something to contrast it against. There is a flash of nipple, but it’s Kratos’s. Kratos is older, and he feels remorse for his past, but it feels like Sony Santa Monica also wants to atone. If that was God of War’s goal, the studio deserves a standing ovation. This isn’t only the best God of War game, it’s one of the best games of the current generation.

While the start of Shadow of the Erdtree can come off as a regression, really, the DLC as a whole is FromSoftware flexing all of its creative muscles - including some it hasn’t used in a while and others it might be building up for the future. The depth of storytelling in the Lands of Shadow, as well as the new weapons, spells and items (all of which add to the lore themselves, of course), only better your experience of the Lands Between, and make for a worthy upgrade to what is already an unforgettable adventure.

What ultimately matters, however, is that Elden Ring succeeds at almost every goal it sets out to achieve. It’s the culmination of years of refinement of FromSoftware’s formula. Mechanically, and thematically, this is a game making a statement: that you can buck industry tendencies even as you adopt their trends.

So much information is communicated to you so naturally by subtle things – the clunk of an inert attack on an armoured enemy, or the slight twinkle of a fully-charged swing – that finding your own style within the skillset is instinctive. And that’s without the jarring stops and slowdowns that give knuckle-cracking impact to every hit and have you throwing yourself into each shot, like a football manager kicking every ball for their team on the sidelines. You get the biggest sense of this in the many, passionately fierce boss fights that punctuate the game. They do a great job of incorporating unique mechanics without coming off as cheap or overly simple. And, really, these boss fights are emblematic of what makes God of War Ragnarok great: they’re hugely successful meldings of an involving story and brutal action that not only produce an eye-popping, absorbing spectacle, but an impassioned investment in the outcome as well.

When the credits rolled on The Last of Us Part 2 I was still buzzing from the excitement of the final few hours. My loyalty shifted between characters. I grew to love who I hated and dislike who I loved. I laughed, I teared up. I felt anger and elation. It’s the new high water mark for video game characters and I can’t wait for everyone to see just how special it is. As soon as it ended, I booted up New Game Plus and I’m experiencing it again with my eyes open, the context of the finished story imprinting new meaning into those early scenes and characters. I’m not swiping in the dark anymore.

Alyx has been the last week of my life, switching between this virtual reality world and the horror of our actual existence. In a week where we’ve had all the time to do what we want, it’s been hard to do anything but think. Alyx is the only thing that has grabbed my attention away, like an alien barnacle waiting high above with a hungry mouth and a sticky tongue.

The continuing string of successful Resident Evil Remakes makes me hopeful for the future, too. I’ve made it very clear over time that I am not the biggest fan of Resident Evil 5 or 6, however, this Remake – and seeing all the intricate detail entwined into the remake of this timeless classic without losing its magic – has me more open-minded for what’s coming next.

With an everything but the kitchen sink approach, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate lives up to its name - it's the best gaming cross-over experience ever.

They say art is all about eliciting an emotional reaction; if you can do that, all the effort expended in creating it was worth it. I think Clair Obscur does that with aplomb. If you have ever loved role-playing games, ever, you owe it to yourself to play this. It has the capacity to touch you.

Comfortably Xbox’s best 2018 exclusive.

Flaws be damned, scores be damned, though. In my heart, this will inevitably end up as one of my favorite games of 2024 - its vibes are simply irresistible.

Within the understood parameters of what 2D Mario can be, this has to be the single best entry since Super Mario World - and is the perfect first game to launch a new era of Mario games with his new-found elevation to movie star status.

Let’s be clear for a moment: Forza Horizon has always been good. From the moment it burst onto the scene in 2012 as a spin-off to the core, more po-faced Forza Motorsport series, it established itself as a fun, thrilling, and subversively moreish alternative thread for racing on Xbox. It was in many ways the spiritual, open-world successor to Project Gotham Racing, and in turn traced its roots back to arcade racing royalty like OutRun. This is a tough lineage to stand up to, but Horizon 5 takes all that history and experience and runs with it, incrementally upgrading this series into must-play brilliance. It’s an achievement of a game.

What speaks volumes about Street Fighter 6, in a sense, is the length of this review. It’s long, and yet I barely feel like I have scratched the surface. World Tour is a slightly ropey debut for a really strong single-player format – but SF6 is ultimately more than the sum of its parts, and the core fighting system alone justifies a high score and a strong recommendation. The previous entry launched with potential, but was racked with problems. This is a worldie from minute one. It’s a must-have. And it might just be the most compelling overall fighting game package of all time.

Though somewhat stylistically uneven, Demon’s Souls PS5 manages to capture the spirit of the original game. The experience is certainly not for everyone, but if you manage to get your head around its steep learning curve and obtuse mechanics, Demon’s Souls will give you a rewarding experience, seeped in an unrelenting and oppressive atmosphere that you will almost certainly never forget.

Every individual strand weaves together to form something utterly exceptional in Metaphor. It may well be Atlus’ masterpiece; well-presented, well-realised, and totally unashamed to be a big, silly, fantastical piece of role-playing genius. Don’t be put off by the fact it isn’t wearing the Persona moniker; chances are, if you love anything about the Persona games, you’re going to find it in Metaphor - but better. As a foundation for a new IP, I don’t think the developer could have done better.

Part of what I love so much about this game, and series, is that it marches to the beat of its own drum – eschewing the RPG trends of the moment (no romances for you) and doubling down on what makes it great. A tight, infinitely satisfying combat system, fun and unpredictable demon negotiation, and a metal-as-hell world. Everything it sets out to do, it does well. Even if it does feel like you’re playing a glorified, modernised PS2 game. It’s intentional, and it rules.

Developer Asobo Studio says Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is a ten-year project with many additions to come. That makes sense, as it’s a brilliant base package with so very much to love that I can still see myself returning to for years. For me, the casual, it’s a perfect low-stakes, relaxing gaming experience. It’s a technical achievement and an excellent training aid, but it’s also a brilliant piece of escapism, transcending its purpose as a tool to become something far more widely enjoyable – and I can’t recommend it enough.

If this review appears glowing, frankly that's how I feel about the game. It's without a doubt my favourite fighting game out right now, and I've been fiending to get back online ever since they took the pre-release servers down. The one scratch on the game's spotless form is online infrastructure that doesn't quite live up to other games on the market right now, which makes it hard to recommend to those with seperated friend groups or subpar online connections. If neither of those apply to you, Tekken 8 is absolutely worth picking up at your earliest convenience.

Dragon Quest 11 has its flaws, and it may ultimately function as a breezy trip down memory lane for the experienced and a fabulous gateway experience for the uninitiated, but that is exactly what it sets out to be. At that, it is perfect.

Minor as the additions the Plus expansion brings, Sonic Mania is still one of the best 2D platformers in recent memory, and is definitely the best Sonic game in a very long time. I can’t help but wish there was more of it, but there’s no denying this is an excellent package – and yes, it’s still a must-play.

Crusader Kings 3 is my Game of the Year so far. If you’re looking for a new strategy title with some RPG flair that will suck you in for 500 hours or more during this endless lockdown, then it should be on your wishlist already. Better still, future support is already assured – there’s one expansion already in the works plus a few flavour packs coming soon if the huge base game isn’t enough for you.

Resident Evil 2 Remake is the perfect blend of nostalgia and the new, marrying a classic game with contemporary game design.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is everything I hoped it would be, and it’s yet another stellar release that showcases a confident Nintendo at its best. It is excellent, and is easily another must-own Switch title – at least, if you can understand and embrace Animal Crossing’s uniquely lazy pace.

Split Fiction, just like Hazelight's projects before it, will not only have you belly-laughing throughout the experience, reminiscing about games, movies and literature the game regularly reminds you of, but it’ll also tug at your heartstrings and have you wiping tears from your eyes. The game's biggest victory is that it reminds you that endeavours as wonderful as Split Fiction (and those that it pays homage to) were created by the passion, devotion, and authentic experiences of humans such as Zoe and Mio, and the team over at Hazelight — not idea-extracting machines trained solely for profit off the human ingenuity that's so rawly at the beating heart of Split Fiction.