Eastward is a beautiful adventure, full of complexity and memorable characters that makes a world full of pixels seem larger than life.

A true achievement in game design and interactive fiction, Immortality is a gorgeous and haunting magic trick that sets a new standard for the medium.

The Forgotten City is a beauty to behold no matter the eye, a deeply contemplative story matched with wonderful puzzles based in classical antiquity.

Advancements in progression, narrative delivery, and player engagement, as well as refinements made to a near-perfect set of gameplay fundamentals, see Saros eclipse its predecessor and ascend to a throne above all others in the genre.

For a game, let alone a series, to have a 30 year long history and fanbase is no small feat and Revolution’s work has retained its audience and place in gaming culture for a reason. Broken Sword: Shadows of the Templars is nothing short of a masterpiece, and the fact that we’re still playing this game decades after its initial release is proof of that. Reforged feels like the perfect way to honour the game’s past but modernise it for new audiences. There’s something calming about returning to a game that’s so familiar and such a part of who we are. I cannot thank Revolution enough for the joy that Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars has brought me over the years and I hope the game finds a new audience and sparks more love for the point-and-click genre.

The best Life is Strange game yet. Through the concept of empathy, True Colors manages to drive video game storytelling to new heights. An expanded scope, hugely impressive production values and new, bingeable format make this a must-play for fans of narrative adventures.

This is a game that hands you a hammer in the first thirty seconds, then introduces new and exciting nails for the next ten hours. A simple analogy, sure, but it works as beautifully as the game itself. Bionic Bay is one of those rare experiences that has such confidence in itself that it doesn’t need to muddy the water with bloat and uncertainty – it is precisely what it is, and what it is is excellent. Take a mystifying workplace accident, a rock solid visual identity and a hefty industrial soundscape, throw them together and serve on a bed of platforming mechanics that just refuses to quit.

Mixtape’s style, soundtrack and unique storytelling flair all combine to elicit feelings both new and long forgotten. Simple moments make you appreciate life for what it is: a continuous evolution rather than a static state of being. Our adolescent selves relished in that freedom, and Mixtape seeks to recapture the magic.

CD Projekt Red completes its redemption arc with an essential, meaty, and ultra-fine-tuned DLC expansion that elevates every aspect of Cyberpunk 2077.

Cult of the Lamb stands as a true masterpiece of not one but two genres. I just couldn’t find any issues that got in the way of my enjoyment of its various mechanics, and the love I have for my clan will continue long past the final boss encounter.

Immensely self-assured in the quality of its foundation, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach masterfully iterates and refines, while introducing considered additions that complement the experience, not complicate it.

Psychonauts 2 is exactly what I was hoping for in a follow-up. Double Fine has smartly refined its unique brand of platforming adventure while greatly expanding its narrative qualities. Plus, it's an absolute treat for the eyes and ears. This is how you do a sequel.

A gorgeous, towering watermark for choice-driven narratives, enlivening a heartfelt medieval saga to surpass the greats in prose and play.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is a masterful example of passionate game creation, blending a white-knuckle comic book adventure with the beautiful pathos of being human. It is sensational. It is spectacular. It is Spider-Man. (Two).

Serving as both a clever and adoring return to a classic and an imaginative, mechanically perfected look to the future, Resident Evil 4 is Capcom’s best work and a new crown jewel for the long-running franchise.

AdHoc Studio have knocked it out of the park with its comedic take on the superhero life. Thanks to its high-quality graphics, voice acting, story, characters, music, and gameplay, you’ll be immersed the entire time you uncover the incredible story of Mecha Man and the Z-Team.

Tears of the Kingdom will overawe you with its scale and its imagination. It will demand your creativity and ingenuity in a way that few games would dare demand. It pays tribute to the things that have made this series so timeless, while also innovating so relentlessly that it will be the better part of a decade before any game is able to follow in its wake. Nearly four decades after The Legend of Zelda series made its debut, its latest instalment is a breathtaking high-point for the Zelda franchise, for Nintendo and for video games.

Simply put, Baldur’s Gate 3 is a masterpiece. Larian Studios has done such a phenomenal job at bringing back an IP that has laid dormant since 2000 (2013 if you count the Baldur’s Gate 2 remaster – I, do not) and inadvertently put out a game that spits in the face of contemporary, predatory game design. While I don’t think it will be the new standard of RPGs, I think it stands as an example for aspiring RPG developers that, when given the appropriate amount of time, an RPG does not have to conform to the lifeless norms that the AAA industry has fed us for so many years. Larian, you have truly outdone yourselves, and your work will more than likely stand as one of the greatest achievements in gaming.

I went in expecting the world out of the Demon’s Souls remake and it delivered me the galaxy. I don’t normally speak this highly of games, but this is the one exception. Absolutely every facet of the original has been enhanced and it has stood the test of time. Bluepoint has done an incredible job at not only reinvigorating an underappreciated gem, but also leveraging the new technologies afforded to them with Sony’s new system. While there are a couple of minor technical blemishes, they don’t take away from how good of an experience this game is and Bluepoint’s diligence as a developer will surely see these kinks ironed out. This game is a system seller.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder provides an experience so brimming with personality, innovation, creativity and charm that it thrusts the 2D perspective back into the centre of the way we think about Mario games, and if Nintendo sticks with this formula and builds on it, 2D Mario games are never going to have to play second fiddle ever again.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is an expertly executed series revival that displays the best of Ubisoft Montpellier’s pedigree while pushing the action-platformer to new highs.

NetherRealm Studios has scooped up all of its favourite toys and re-distributed them across the playroom in a way that has revivified the Mortal Kombat experience, birthing perhaps the most solid and enjoyable fighting game I have ever encountered.

Moss: Book II is an outstanding sequel, improving on the great foundations of the first game making it one of PSVR's must-play titles, even in 2022.

Solar Ash will go down as an absolute triumph of form and function, a storytelling masterclass amongst a perfectly crafted visual and audible feast. They left it to the last moment to drop right near the top of my best of 2021, but Heart Machine should be proud of their accomplishments across the board.

Buckshot Roulette is an oddly addicting beast. What starts as a series of frustrating dice rolls quickly progresses into a gripping, sinister experience that commands you to keep at it and master its dark payload. It quickly became a game I wanted to run in a window alongside other things, an interstitial challenge I can summon at will. The horrifying maw of the Dealer loomed in the darkness, and I was hungry to keep finding creative ways to force feed him buckshot.

To completely divorce myself from my long love of Warhammer, I would still estimate Space Marine 2 as an exceptional gaming experience. The narrative can only get as deep as the genre allows but even within those limits it plays with interesting ideas, the very nature of the beast being one of disconnection, with forty generous millennia distorting our concept of sensibility and preservation. This is a universe of conflict, pain, and endless peril, and Saber has made it incredibly fun to inhabit, with plenty of reasons to revisit and – most importantly – convince your mates to join in.

The thesis of Dragon’s Dogma’s sequel appears to be that the original was ahead of its time, and indeed will likely draw audiences back to the imaginative original. Dragons Dogma 2 is a game filled with genius ideas about how fantasy roleplaying can be turned into a video game. It requires unlearning much of what we take for granted in fantasy action adventures but rewards this with unique and dynamic world events that will constantly surprise players. It is a masterful sequel that polishes every element of its first draft, with the technology to make those ideas into a seamless adventure marked by heart-pounding threats and euphoric discoveries.

The Drifter has everything you want from a modern point-and-click adventure – a banging story, excellent characters that are unabashedly Australian, and expertly designed puzzles. It’s one of the best adventure games you’ll ever play and it feels like an evolution for the genre, and Powerhoof deserves all the acclaim about to come its way.