For Honor's multiplayer is special, but as a whole it's let down by the less good single player, sometimes dodgy matchmaking, and a surfeit of microtransactions. The combat, though, is fantastic — it's gutsy and weighty, and you feel like a badass.

Destroying large robot beasts while frantically switching between weapons is intoxicating, but the strength of Horizon Zero Dawn is in Aloy's engaging quest to find out who she really is.

Looking down the scope and holding your breath to line up that perfect shot in Sniper Elite 4 is exhilarating, as are the subsequent Kill Cams. It’s just a shame that the poorly delivered story and wooden characters get in the way.

Finding matches and dating is complicated enough to need effort and finesse on your part. While the look and UI weren't designed for console, this campy dating sim will leave you both satisfied and wanting more. That's what she said.

A short, calm exploration of a beautiful island, where the conversations are like talking to real people. As an introduction to the larger world of Eastshade it's great, but Leaving Lyndow doesn't quite manage to stand on its own feet as a separate game.

While not offering anything groundbreaking as such, this tranquil, simplistic puzzler is a joyous distraction in a medium that can sometimes pride itself on pomp and circumstance.

A platformer that makes great use of shadows and light. You'll get emotionally attached to the candle as he burns through some lovely environments and tough platforming, but the ending is a bit of a damp squib.

Knee Deep's swampy noir mystery play is one of the most interesting and entertaining ways to frame a game you'll ever see. Just a shame the final act doesn't rise to the humid, neo-gothic heights of the rest.

Despite a disappointing final act, this chilling horror story set in 1960s Taiwan burrows its way into your skull and, brilliantly, makes you anticipate the worst around every corner.

A short but sweet point and click puzzle adventure that takes you from dairy farming in Norway out to the stars and beyond. Godspeed, Ruth, you were a joy.

Beautiful, unsettling, challenging. The fungal growths in it are cute little creatures rather than mushrooms (which are horrible). What's not to like?

The shock value of Ladykiller in a Bind's sex scenes wear off the more they occur, but that doesn't take away from the interesting manipulation game that sees you trying to gain votes from your classmates.

There are some fantastic environments and old school style puzzles in Resi 7. The final section stops being survival horror and becomes a bit of a clunky linear shooter, but the first few hours are scary enough to put you off Louisiana for life.

The visual overhaul makes this the best looking Pokémon yet. Naturally, the amount of Pokémon on offer is almost insurmountable and will have you catching them all for quite a while, but be aware, they are a needy lot.

The visual overhaul makes this the best looking Pokémon yet. Naturally, the amount of Pokémon on offer is almost insurmountable and will have you catching them all for quite a while, but be aware, they are a needy lot.

For some The Last Guardian's iffy controls, awkward camera, and glitches might be hard to overcome. Others won't care as they experience one of the most incredible relationships in video game history.

Super Mario Maker for 3DS is a perfect fit for the handheld, with loads of content and excellent creation tools, but why can't you share levels online? That decision is baffling.

Final Fantasy XV is about adventure and excitement. There are oddities, and it's not the FF you're used to, but it's a good time with some good boys, and has an unexpected emotional resonance to it. Sometimes it seems like it shouldn't work, but it does.

Watch Dogs 2 is missing a bit of refinement, and has had issues with multiplayer, but joining DedSec is still a riot and a half. It's high energy fun with engaging characters, and you can make an entire city your playground.

Strange refereeing aside, none of those issues are more than oddities and PES 2017 is a wonderful football game that just begs to be played. Give me another 200 hours and I'll tell you definitively how PES 2017 ranks against the series' best, but right now I'm enjoying it an awful lot. Fun yet unfair, thrilling yet at times borderline broken, but it just wouldn't be PES if it was perfect.

Dishonored 2 takes everything you loved about Dishonored and improves upon it without becoming bloated. It's a beautifully designed, layered game, stuffed with hidden gems and secret stories. Also you can stab people in mid air.

It's great - I can see myself playing it for months to come - but it is just Call of Duty with a fresh lick of paint, and with competition as stiff as it is, no one could blame you for sitting this year's game out. But to do so would be to miss out on one of the finest Call of Duty campaigns yet, and an online multiplayer that stands up with the best of them.

With its thrilling multiplayer now backed up by a surprisingly excellent single-player campaign, Titanfall 2 is every bit the sequel I'd been hoping for.

Skyrim Special Edition on console looks lovely and runs well, and with all the DLC included it's a great option if you aren't fussed about mods. If you are fussed about mods you might be disappointed. Or already have a PC.

Although it is never great to aim low, I can't help but think the reaction to Return to Arkham would have been better had both games simply been 1080p, locked frame rate versions of the originals, running on Unreal Engine 3.

Minor music service quibble aside, Forza Horizon 3 is a beautiful, immensely entertaining, joyous arcade racer that successfully builds on Playground Games' already tremendous formula. As an open world racer Forza Horizon 3 is epic and diverse, as a racer it's satisfying yet deep, and as a place to hang out it's a whole heap of fun.

And any game that features characters who perform one-arm pullups to go up ladders is automatically in my good books. Gears of War 4 features such characters. There's no doubt that the long-term appeal of Gears 4 lies in its suite of multiplayer modes, but I would 100 per cent recommend playing through the campaign. It's some of the best fun I've had in a shooter for quite some time.

DriveClub VR is a brilliant racing experience, but be warned that you might think you're going on a beautiful holiday to the south of France yet end up touring the sites of Hull. That's a metaphor, by the way, you don't get to drive in either location. I'm saying Hull isn't very nice to look at. Like DriveClub VR.