Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake is a hauntingly beautiful reimagining that successfully modernizes one of the series' most iconic entries with modern visuals and new mechanics. While the atmosphere and puzzles are masterfully executed, the experience is slightly dragged down by a combat system that can feel more frustrating than fun. However, the expanded story and atmospheric overhaul still make this a must-play for fans of the series and survival-horror fans in general.

An undeniable and great improvement on the original. Featuring a huge amount of content, including some brand-new game modes, as well as a revamped and improved portion of the original campaign, there's a lot on offer. The AI is improved, though does have a few niggles here and there. Particularly so with pathfinding. This issue is overwhelmed by the amount of content on offer, great improvements to the aesthetics of the game, improvements to multiplayer as well as changes to the home city system outside of the campaign. While not as outright fantastic as Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, this is still a brilliant release and comes in at a very low price.

Princess Peach: Showtime! is a treat, offering fun, approachable, and excitingly diverse gameplay as well as the most appealing (and downright cool) version of Nintendo's heroine to date. The game is fairly brief and has some performance hiccups, but its target audience of younger players, and those just wanting to see Peach ditch the damsel role, will likely be too busy applauding her latest turn in the limelight to care.

You can tell From Software was happy to try something a little different with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. The game has a few mechanical issues, which can largely be chalked up to new series jitters, but its energy and excitement mostly make up for its flaws. Yes, Sekiro can be downright sadistic at times, but those with the bushido (or plain old stubbornness) to face its challenges will have a bloody good time.

Call of Duty Black Ops IIII revitalizes the annual shooter by dropping the traditional campaign and focusing more on the cooperative multiplayer, from a trio of distinct Zombies experiences to one of the best takes on Battle Royale to date.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 feels like the perfect, albeit safe, evolution of the formula first introduced with the 2018 game. With a highly emotional story, much-improved traversal, great visuals and performance, and industry-leading accessibility, this sequel is very likely to win over most fans of the original. However, a bigger shake-up may be needed for the inevitable Spider-Man 3.

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age on PC is an excellent port and the definitive version of the game, thanks to a variety of additional options not found in the original PlayStation 4 release, such as the ability to activate cheats, play in New Game + mode from the beginning, graphics customization and the absence of any major issue.

Frostpunk is a challenging city builder where your decisions have dramatic repercussions on the citizens you’re tasked with looking after in a wintery apocalypse. It's a pleasant surprise that is definitely worth your time if you’re looking for something different and brutally challenging.

Children of Zodiarcs is a charming little tale that fits very comfortably in the Venn diagram between tactical RPG’s and games of luck.

New Pokémon Snap offers a great chance to explore the Pokémon world, with beautiful animations and designs, thrilling levels, and a sense of calm throughout. You'll struggle to not enjoy your time with it.

No More Heroes III is a glorious, gory mess, bursting with excitement and creativity from beginning to end. The game’s intensity does shift down a gear when exploring its dated open world, but its best moments shine bright enough to keep your heart and beam katana pumping through the slower bits. Suda51 has scored another bloody Touchdown.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening looks gorgeous, sounds beautiful, and tells a twee and compelling tale. While the game can be played through in around ten hours if you know what you're doing in advance, new players will find a lengthy and engaging Zelda game to love. Whether it's your first time playing Link's Awakening or your dozenth, you will still find a gripping Switch game that you'll remember for another twenty years.

The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope takes the Supermassive Games formula and improves on the previous outing, Man of Medan, in so many ways. With a more interesting story, a strong set of characters, the masterful building of atmosphere and more, you're going to be left on the edge of your seat while playing through this story. The excellent branching narrative, as well as multiplayer options also increase the gameplay value exponentially. This still isn't perfect, the sloth-like movements of characters can be annoying later on and some QTE's are annoyingly cheap, but this is still a brilliant game, one I would recommend to anybody.

Blades of Fire may not be remembered as the most original action-adventure game of this generation, but MercurySteam's latest effort is still well worth playing for fans of the genre. While its convoluted level design can be confusing at times and the well-crafted combat system doesn't evolve much throughout the journey, the engaging smithing mechanics and the touch of grounded realism in the fighting, without overcomplicating things, make Aran and Adso's quest to slay the queen an enjoyable adventure.

DOOM: The Dark Ages is a rip-tearing fun ride that reigns in some of the excesses of DOOM Eternal, bringing the gameplay closer to DOOM (2016), while adding meat to the story in a long, meaty, campaign across over twenty stages. Put simply, if you liked DOOM and DOOM Eternal, you will like this, even if there are a few minor missteps.

Octopath Traveler II plays it safe when it comes to its core gameplay, offering a handful of small positive tweaks that don’t entirely make up for returning problems like clumsy party management and battles that take too long to wrap up. Thankfully, the game also takes a big, confident step forward in writing, offering a cast of well-wrought, interesting characters and a vividly-detailed world you won’t soon forget. Octopath Traveler II may have the same old engine under the hood, but the road trip it takes you on is well worth experiencing.

Mortal Kombat 1 is one of the franchise’s most bloody-entertaining entries to date, offering up refined action, smartly revamped fighters, and a story mode that delivers a surprisingly-coherent plot and plenty of blockbuster thrills. A lack of compelling modes and meaningful character customization does hurt, but Mortal Kombat 1 should be a heart-ripping hit with fans even if the overall package is slightly anemic.

While Persona 5 Tactica doesn't quite ascend to the peaks set by the original game and Strikers, it stands as a robust new installment in the Phantom Thieves' saga. The narrative remains compelling, the characters charming, the presentation slick and the solid tactical rounds the package well, making the game an engaging experience from beginning to end. The game's low challenge level, however, and the established status of the Phantom Thieves limits its appeal to die-hard fans of the series.

This might be the most well-rounded and best Fire Emblem game on 3DS.

Miles Morales is a far more charismatic hero than Peter in Parker in Marvel's Spider-Man and there's no better way to tell his story than with his own game as a PlayStation 5 launch title. While shorter and more compact than Peter Parker's adventures, this quick trip to Harlem should be on any superhero fan's wishlist.

While quite different from the previous single-player GWENT experience, GWENT: Rogue Mage is an extremely solid title that masterfully combines mechanics from the card game introduced in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt with roguelike mechanics. With tons of different cards and different strategies, Alzur's search for the mutagens that will create The Witcher is an extremely engaging one, despite the smaller focus on story, compared to other games belonging to the popular series.

Days Gone puts Bend Studio once again on the map of all PlayStation gamers after many years of oblivion. While it doesn't deliver any meaningful innovations in terms of open world and gameplay mechanics, it's a fun game that sports gorgeous graphics and a surprisingly great story/cast of characters, easily paving the way for a sequel to the stories of Deacon 'the Drifter' St. John.

Accessibility and style are both Guilty Gear -Strive-'s strongest suits but some baffling omissions and online problems keep Arc System Works' latest from entering the pantheon of elite fighters.

It offers a lot of fun and a few shiny new toys (such as the buggy) to everyone else who greatly appreciated Dying Light, and it does so with great value thanks to a strong longevity for its price. Unless you really dislike zombies, The Following is a worthy purchase.

CAPCOM successfully married the Western open world RPG with an awesome combat system and a bit of Japanese flavor; if you haven't played it until now, the PC version offers enhanced graphics and frame rate. I, for one, hope to learn about a sequel very soon.

Lost Paradise is most certainly based upon the Yakuza framework in most ways, but there's a sense of growth and expansion that Kamurocho simply can't match. From exploring the wasteland to fisting your way to glory, Kenshiro's path to reclaiming his love will require hitting the streets, rescuing lost children, and powering up to become one of the strongest acupressure practitioners the world has ever seen.

Forget the big number 'II' on the title; Demon Gaze II is very much a standalone title that tones down some of Experience Inc.'s more complex systems to create a dungeon RPG that's both accessible for newcomers with some devilishly challenging endgame content once you think you've mastered the experience.

Ultimately, Call of Duty Modern Warfare Remastered might be the best remaster I’ve ever played. Everything is updated and beautiful, without losing a single thing long-time fans loved about the original. If you’ve ever wanted to see where the online multiplayer craze started, this is it – and it holds up amazingly well.