As my first real foray into the silent indie adventure genre, I was pleasantly surprised.

With those caveats aside, Onimusha: Warlords is a damn steal at £15.99. Where most publishers are trying to squeeze as much as possible out of people, juicing those nostalgia glands for every penny, here we have a sensible price point for a decent older game that’s been blown up to look passable on a modern screen.

All told it’s a solid little package, however, and Catherine is still full of charm in how it delivers its whacky, mind-bending storylines – even though how it approaches some topics is deeply flawed.

The Nintendo Switch port is impressive, and the game is perfect for a spot of grinding on the go, with only occasional frame drops to let it down in certain cities. Otherwise, Tales of Vesperia is a classic JRPG that goes back to the roots of what made the series shine. Despite its flaws when it comes to its setting and style, earnest storytelling, a fantastic combat system, and memorable cast of characters make the game worth that ten year wait.

The management sim is on the up again, but Parkitect might be my favorite game of the genre’s revival yet.

One of the best multiplayer games of the year.

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.

That’s how it goes while you inhabit Just Cause 4. Constant iridescent glimmers of the game it wants to be, tethered by a grappling hook cord to mechanical clunkiness.

Civ 6 is a decent port, but the reason it’s grabbed me so thoroughly on Switch even after hundreds of hours logged on PC is because this game is perfect for this sort of handheld mode play. Civ’s turn-based nature makes it perfect for quick pick-up, put-down sessions, and the Switch’s nature as a dedicated gaming device means that this is now arguably a better shout for a few turns of Civ on the go than a larger, more cumbersome laptop.

Let’s Go is trapped between fans hungry for more of what they already love and those keen to see the series really do new and different things. I’ve fallen firmly into the latter category for a while now, but Let’s Go ended up being something really unexpectedly needed for me: a nice nostalgic palette cleanser before a hopefully significantly changed Pokemon experience next year.

Make no mistake, Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu and Pokemon Let’s Go Eevee aren’t the foundation-shaking next-generation Pokemon games hardcore fans have been waiting for, but experienced trainers will find a lot to love in this nostalgia-driven spin-off. Newcomers and lapsed fans will likewise find an approachable and exciting adventure with hidden depth.

Battlefield 5 is a brilliant shooter that’s hamstrung by its setting. Ignoring all the tonal weirdness, the core of the game is the best it has been since Bad Company 2, filled with smart design choices. When we finally get away from this latest trend of revisiting historical conflicts, when Battlefield is once again freed creatively, we could finally get something to rival the Bad Company series.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a brave prequel that isn’t afraid of taking risks. It is innovative, surprising, stunning, dramatic, and generous - a highlight of this generation and a benchmark for other open world games to aspire to.

If you liked any of the Witcher games, novels or Gwent, then I would implore you to buy Thronebreaker. It’s like a 30-hour long easter egg, filled with references, inside jokes and an engaging story with an empowering lead.

Bandai Namco is on a bit of a fighting game roll. Tekken 7 and Dragon Ball FighterZ are both hugely successful, and SoulCalibur 6 comes out swinging with the same sort of tightly-constructed, satisfying action. It’s arguably the most approachable of the trio, though its accessible systems aren’t necessarily the best-balanced in the world. It’s an easy recommendation, mind, because at a casual level SC6 is just bloody good fun.

FIFA 19 is better than FIFA 18 in almost every way, and it’s more fun to play than any other football game right now.

Comfortably Xbox’s best 2018 exclusive.

If you’re new to the series, I’d still absolutely recommend starting with the original. For fans, though, it’s more Valkyria Chronicles, and that’s reason enough to pop a giant red exclamation mark above your head with excitement.

For all the savvy tweaks to combat and exploration, Shadow of the Tomb Raider unfortunately feels like an extremely long expansion pack, now with killer fish and face mud.

Spider-Man is at its best when you’re mid-flow. It’s a game that can capture that awesome trance-like feeling where you’re so in tune with the rhythm of swinging and hopping between buildings or dodging, countering and attacking enemies that everything else melts away. That’s when it feels most special, and it’s then that what Insomniac has achieved here is most plain. Much of its design is familiar, but it appears here in a refined, polished form that makes it an easy recommendation.

A flawed masterpiece is a masterpiece nevertheless, and perhaps the most important reason that modern, quality ports of Shenmue exist is that there truly is nothing else quite like it. It deserves to be experienced.

Battle for Azeroth is still good. Great, even. One of the best expansions World of Warcraft has seen. Cinematics are driving the storytelling stronger than ever, and a handy apocalypse providing a nice reset for the decades-old plot. There’s a wider range of ways to play, and what missteps are taken feel more like minor nuisances.

The first episode of The Walking Dead’s final season is an excellent start, but that’s usually the case. It’s always been the middle episodes that Telltale’s weaker seasons have struggled with.

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.

A beautiful, challenging and often utterly brilliant throwback to the golden age of Japanese RPGs that somehow scuppers its chances of being a true classic through an ambitious but ultimately flawed narrative structure.

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is an incredibly bare-bones port, but that doesn’t really matter in the end. We all know it was originally released on a naff platform next to nobody owned, and a game this fun and charming deserves a second chance. The Switch and 3DS versions are fine ports, and suitable for just that.

The Crew 2 will be an incredible racer in a year’s time. It’s just not there right now, and it’s a shame. It’s full of potential, packed with a dizzying amount of variety, and you can’t help but be impressed by the massive world you inhabit. Unfortunately, The Crew 2 is just too inconsistent to fully recommend.

Vampyr is a remarkable game that gives me genuine hope for the future of single-player RPGs. What it lacks in polish, it makes up for in ambition.