Dragon’s Dogma 2's commitment to unscripted monster hunts, visceral combat, and interlinked systems guarantees a story lurking around every corner. By trading modern guardrails for know-it-all handmade companions, it entrusts you with the 'venture' in action-adventure. But weak quests and animation jitters hold it back from excellence.

With Halo Infinite, 343 Industries seems to want to break the cycle and start afresh. The irony is that it has done so by drawing closer to the past.

FIFA 18 is the best FIFA game in years. There are some obvious flaws — some of which are more frustrating than others — but as a complete package, the series is making progress, once again.

The wonderfully designed characters and intriguing plot do just enough to elevate NIER above much of what is coming out of Japan these days. It is, in many ways, the kind of game critics of the Japanese RPG have been calling for: different, fresh, and in parts distinctly un-JRPG. Not all of it works, but it's a commendable effort, and a memorable experience.

It's a solid FPS, with moments of brilliance and some top notch multiplayer modes. It isn't the system seller it could have been though. The campaign is the biggest offender, switching between mediocre and spectacular far too regularly, as does the presentation. The storyline and characters once again fall flat, with Insomniac failing to build anything to really care about into a sci-fi premise that has an awful lot of potential.

A very impressive new slice of Dishonored. With Daud's story left on a cliffhanger, we hope Arkane keeps up this form with the next installment.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey sees the franchise at its strongest and most ambitious yet. With a compelling story, solid RPG mechanics, and heaps of content to soak up, you'll be spending months immersed in its sprawling Greek sandbox.

Minor modifications to Pac-Man's basic gameplay mechanics have resulted in a new pace and intensity that the original lacked.

It’s maybe not as thrilling as the first time you goof about with the animals in an Animal Crossing, a bit like how you never forget your first Katamari, and if you remained unconvinced before you’re not going to change your mind now, but New Leaf is still more fun, more engaging, and will last you longer than pretty much everything that’ll come out this year.

Super Hexagon is hard enough to infuriate, but its competent design makes it inviting as well. This game will invite you to have one more try (taking less than a second to restart), and it'll invite you to immerse yourself and play instinctively too: for a game like this, that's the greatest invitation of all.

Though imperfect and moored to indelible design traditions and gameplay rituals, Assassin's Creed Shadows fizzes with style, intention, and detail, curating the best parts of the series into a confident and deeply enjoyable journey through feudal Japan.

Road Trip is the best snowboarding game we've played in a long while (at least since 2005's Amped 3). It's better than Shaun White on 360 and PS3, too. It's no SSX, or 1080, but it's about as good as it gets for virtual versions of the sport these days.

Providing you can find yourself a dark and secluded enough place to play it, Dark Mirror is the first great shooter for the PSP and, despite its lack of personality and unremarkable story, arguably one the most consistently enjoyable genre entries of the past year.

The whole adventure is bonkers from start to finish, and it's all the better for it. Rabbids Go Home won't be held up alongside true genre classics, but it's one of the best Wii games released this year and is sure to put a smile on your face.

The Bradwell Conspiracy is a quiet exploration of resistance under capitalism, and the repercussions of a 'better' world. The environments are extravagantly detailed and the puzzles become increasingly intricate, towards a denouement that's shocking yet grounded in our own experiences.

Guitar hero 3 should most definitely be praised - for its almost entirely original recording song list, for its attempts to introduce something new into a near perfect formula, and for picking up where Harmonix left off effortlessly. The songs are diverse, hard-rocking and challenging, but in all honesty, these new tracks are the most exciting new thing about GH3.

As a new franchise it does so many things right and should find a place for itself in a massively crowded market. If War was a more engaging character and the combat more refined, Darksiders would stand as one of the contenders for game of the year.

The big question hanging over Euro 2008 is if it's worth its price tag, given that it's essential a tweaked FIFA 08 and FIFA 09 is only a few months away? The core gameplay has been tweaked enough to make FIFA 08 feel slightly dated, but chances are FIFA 09 will improve on this even further.

In an industry that moves forward with such pace, it's refreshing to find a series that is content to stay right where it is.

This is where Stray succeeds. It offers us delectable opportunities to act out the behaviour that so bewilders us, in very celebration of that bewilderment.

The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian is a great looking title which should thrill younger gamers no end, particularly if they're fans of the film.

Look past Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora’s dull story and you’ll find spectacle and freedom lurking in its Na’vi customs and breathtaking ecosystems.

A game with visuals this simple really doesn't have any right to look this good. It might be a trickier experience than fans are used to, but it's still a joy to play. It's not as good as the previous two games, but at a budget price it's still a game few PSP owners will be disappointed by.

Reigns: Her Majesty manages to defy a lot of your expectations, and will keep adding more surprising cards into its deck as you play.

While all of these positives remain a huge plus, though, Tomb Raider still has plenty of flaws, the story being its biggest misstep. Incredibly obvious and packed full of cliches, you can't help but cringe at some of the dialogue as people speak to each other as if they were reciting a GCSE play. The Last of Us would laugh Tomb Raider out of the playground.

The vibrant, retro look reinforces the game's charm even further.

A stunning looking, slick and polished FPS that every competitive PS3 gamer should add to their collection.

The Civilization series is one of the biggest names in strategy for a very good reason, and Beyond Earth adds some wonderful ideas on top of all that, but the underlying systems have remained largely untouched.