Developer Digital Eclipse has delivered yet another riveting, reverent compilation of seminal games with rich behind-the-scenes insights, perfect versions of the arcade originals, and a slew of console ports. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is absolutely essential stuff for anyone with even a passing interest in the fighting game series that allows you to violently kill your rivals. A flawless victory, indeed.

As an RPG, Final Fantasy XV has everything you’d expect: a compelling, emotional story; a tapestry of complimentary mechanics; a significant lifespan; a cast of relatable and well-written characters and a world that’s dense enough to be a character in and of itself. As a Final Fantasy game, it lives up to all the tropes, despite the variations it’s taken from the more ‘classic’ games. Final Fantasy XV is a title that's aimed super high, and although maybe it hasn’t quite hit the targets it set for itself, it certainly doesn’t disappoint, and is a strong enough RPG experience to stand aside The Witcher as one of the best open-world role-playing games of this generation.

A welcome revamp to a more than decade-old cult classic, NieR Replicant ver.122474487139... will be equally inviting to Automata fans, NieR veterans, and newcomers alike. Only a lack of variety, a lightweight combat challenge, and disappointing boss encounters put a downer on proceedings.

Stray is a wonderfully crafted game. It not only manages to successfully immerse you in the role of an adorable cat, where exploration is key, but it also tells an engaging science-fiction story along the way.

Like Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy before it, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy brings together three Nintendo DS and 3DS cult classics, but with a slew of bonus material. Beautifully scaled up to pop on your big TV display rather than the dinky handheld screen, all three games look stunning - gruesome murder mysteries have never been so inviting.

A sensational-looking game that looks just like the anime, Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO marks a robust return for the dormant Budokai Tenkaichi series, even if the nuts and bolts of the game's fighting mechanics can wear quite thin pretty quickly.

Still Wakes the Deep is wonderfully, authentically Scottish – even the carpets on the Beira D oil rig are tartan. It's also a singularly immersive and utterly memorable piece of work that's among The Chinese Room's very best.

Darksiders II may not be the world-destroying beast we hoped it would be, but that doesn't mean it's not enjoyable. Whether you are jumping around on ledges, exploring the overworld, puzzling through dungeons or waving your massive axe around, there's a fun, rewarding adventure to be had. Only poor pacing and a lack of new ideas lets it down.

FIFA 18 has come out fighting this year, with an improved game of football, another chapter in its excellent story mode, and more besides. It's still not quite there yet, failing to deliver something as fluid and immediate as it could be. There's ample room for improvement, sure, but FIFA 18 is still a genuinely marvellous footie game.

A tasty dish, Overcooked 2 adds extra spice to the first game's stupidly enjoyable co-op shenanigans, with online multiplayer finally in the mix and the ability to throw food around making for even more gastronomic madness.

Point Lookout provides players with an expansive new area to explore, an intriguing new story, and several side-quests to extend the amount of play time in the new content, making this the biggest and longest expansion yet.

A beautifully crafted love letter to Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Mania is everything a Sonic game should be and more. I'd be deliriously happy if SEGA carried on making them like they used to; if it carried on making more games like Sonic Mania.

Bungie’s latest storytelling method in ODST is certainly unique and captivates the imagination from beginning to end, but the problem is, just when you really start to get going, the experience ends. The single player campaign is far too short and can barely push 7 hours on the hardest difficulty, but there is plenty of replayability within the game’s new Horde, I mean, Firefight mode.

A nice surprise, Forgotton Anne is an endearing anime-style platformer that doesn't deserve to go to landfill.

Enjoyable in a mad, pantomime sort of way, Resident Evil Village feels like a pretty significant step back from Resident Evil VII, and a toe back into the absurd. It's a game you're unlikely to forget in a hurry, for entirely the wrong reasons.

Filled with epic boss encounters and memorable battles, RE5 provides a thrilling ride, supported with enough extra content to keep the game interesting for a long time.

It may not be nearly as culturally seismic as Final Fantasy, but Fantasian Neo Dimension is proof positive that Hironobu Sakaguchi is an RPG maestro – it's another memorable tale that deals with big themes and neat systems, and its arrival on consoles is more than welcome.

A triumphant marriage between two huge fighting franchises that could have quite easily been a mess. Filled to the brim with new characters and features, you'll be hard-pushed to find a bigger, better, more vibrant and appealing fighting game out there. Hadoken, indeed.

Black Ops II might not be perfect, but the entertainment value far outweighs some questionable design choices.

The mechanics of Reanimal are slightly plodding and airless, with not much by way of creativity or challenge, but the spectacles are often impressive.

Nearly twenty years since it first released, Virtua Fighter 5 still has plenty of mileage left in it. Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage emerges as the definitive version of a great fighting game, with meaningful new features, and challenging fighting mechanics that will keep you coming back.

An energetic and remarkably well made entry into the extraction shooter space, Marathon can be enormously harsh and unforgiving, but stay with it, and it can also be immensely rewarding.

I was truly hopeful that the change of direction would be good for the series, but it just seems like a major step in the wrong direction. Instead the game sits uncomfortably between an arcade and a simulation racer, and never really excels in either department. Plus, the loading times border on the outright unacceptable.

It looks inviting enough, and an accomplished platformer it may be, but Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time is also bastard hard. For the most part, however, Toys For Bob's Crash outing is good, wholesome fun while it lasts.

Team Builder and Season Showdown really make the game worth the money. Yes, it is a roster update. Yes, the mechanics appear to be 95% identical to ’09. But yes, it is worth the price if you are a fan of college football.

When you buy a Call of Duty, you have some idea of what to expect. Rest assured that Black Ops 6 lies at the better end of the series' spectrum, boasting a varied campaign that's well worth playing, a pair of robust and endlessly replayable Zombies maps, and multiplayer that remains immediate and immensely entertaining.

If you want to pass an afternoon with a friend and a couple of laughs, LEGO Voyagers will do fine.

UFC 2009 Undisputed is a fantastic recreation of one of the world’s fastest growing sports. The extensive roster, commentary, ring girls, Bruce Buffer and Classic Fights mode with Rachelle Leah ensures that the title is as authentic as they could have reproduced. Despite the stunning visuals though, UFC Undisputed remains on the brink of greatness with a bland career mode, steep learning curve and straightforward online mode.