If you're a Yakuza fan, you've probably already bought Judgment in your head. If you're not, then this is a great place to start, Yagami's hardboiled crime saga a remarkably engaging, surprising, and rousing journey from beginning to end.

Original Life is Strange protagonist Max Caulfield makes a welcome return in what is an immensely compelling and enjoyable sequel to her 2015 introduction. Unravelling Life is Strange: Double Exposure's murder mystery, using its timeline-hopping mechanic, is remarkably good fun.

Despite sometimes descending into colourful, eye-hurting confusion at times, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 is a relentlessly entertaining and stupidly fun game that you can't help but play with a big, dumb grin on your face. Great fun alone, online with strangers or in co-op with friends, Garden Warfare 2 is never anything less than a joy.

With the console version of The Sims 3, EA have successfully recreated the addictive popular life-sim that's undoubtedly had a popular life on PC, and they've done it with relative ease. Sure it may not be as detailed and have the same community-creative outlets that the PC version does, but it's clear that the console version is for those that don't have an affinity towards PC gaming and haven't otherwise experienced it... Like myself.

A stupidly fun arcade racer that confounded our expectations, Onrush is the perfect game for those seeking something immediate, accessible and effortlessly entertaining.

An unflinchingly violent and gruesome survival horror that ratchets up the tension from the get-go and doesn't let up, The Callisto Protocol is superlative stuff, and a must for anyone with even a passing fancy for Dead Space and its ilk.

A wonderfully realised fantasy world that is equal parts entrancing and disturbing. The story is well realised and will keep you enamoured until the credits roll. There are a few niggles here but nothing to stop Alice: Madness Returns from being a wonderfully different slice of entertainment. Now who's for tea?

Drivatar is a brilliant innovation, but where's the weather, night racing and improved damage model? Turn 10 has a lot of room to improve with the next Forza Motorsport game. For now, Forza Motorsport 5 will do.

With satisfying combat, breathtaking visuals, a decent campaign and a surprisingly entertaining multiplayer mode, it may not break new ground in terms of gameplay, and it offers little in the way of variety, but what it does, it does well.

Giving a whole new audience the chance to discover the exploits of fledgling defence lawyer Phoenix Wright and his bizarre world, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy is fantastic. There's no reason to object to this, Your Honour. I rest my case.

A marked improvement over last year, but the absence of pace is sorely missed. FIFA 16 is not as good on the pitch as PES this year – again – but it’s a great football game regardless, with unrivalled off the pitch options.

There’s no doubting that FIFA 14 is an improvement over last year’s version, but that improvement is very slight and those who aren’t ardent FIFA fans would probably never notice the differences. Having already played the next-gen version – with the new Ignite engine – I’d have to say you’re probably best off waiting. That one at least feels and looks like a different game, this one does not. Still, FIFA 14 is as great as ever.

Ubisoft Montreal has conjured a fairy tale world that you'll enjoy spending time in, a text-based RPG adventure with its own line in rhyming. Child of Light is a glorious game, short and yet sweet, memorable, gorgeous; an incredible feat. And for the small price you'll be paying, Child of Light is definitely more than worth playing.

Another dose of rallying heaven and hell, DiRT Rally 2.0 is hard-as-nails, uncompromising and bloody brilliant.

Milestone settles into a cosy groove with MotoGP 24, building upon the work it's accomplished on the series in recent years, delivering another dose of realistic sim racing. Not short on depth and detail, MotoGP 24 is also a welcoming racing game that caters to players of all skill levels. Lovely stuff.

Tough to get into at first, MotoGP 22 soon starts to pay dividends once you get the hang of its tricky handling and various nuances. The superb 'NINE Season 2009' mode, meanwhile, is worth the price of admission alone.

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 slender and streamlined FPS made by just one person, Bright Memory: Infinite is quite the feat – an action game that flies by at a lick, bombarding you with slick set-pieces and cracking gunplay. This is a first-person shooter distilled to its raw elemental components, and it's marvellous.

If you’re looking for a third person shooter with intense, heart-pounding gameplay, The Club is the perfect game for you. On the other hand, if you like to stroll around, taking in environments and having a relaxing time, avoid The Club at all costs.

Taking inspiration from Bloodborne and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Lies of P leads the pack of FromSoftware imitators. It has an intriguing and arresting world and some brutal, assured combat. With a hollow hero in the middle.

A sequel that eclipses its forebear in just about every department, Revenge of the Savage Planet is an immensely enjoyable platforming adventure with a lovely vein of slapstick comedy and daft satire lampooning unchecked corporate avarice.

Every bit as infuriating, enjoyable and insanely gratifying as an action RPG of this type should be, The Surge is great fun, thanks in no small part to its unique limb-cutting loot system and some tight combat mechanics.

Billed as a game that will blur the line between single-player, co-op and multiplayer, Brink actually does the opposite and reaffirms the general consensus on Xbox Live that multiplayer is king. Frankly put, unless you're playing Brink with and against human players, the game is mediocre at best. Get into a game with players that want to co-ordinate as a team against a group of like-minded foes, and Brink will almost certainly satisfy on every level.

Scott Pilgrim EX is further proof that developer Tribute Games is unbelievably adept at creating sublime retro side-scrolling brawlers,with sumptuous pixel art, fun and varied gameplay, and a brilliantly energetic chiptune soundtrack.

Saints Row IV: Re-elected may score low in terms of its visual overhaul, but the game’s ability to amuse and thrill is undiminished.

Sorry We're Closed is a cool game and a bit of a one-off. Ostensibly, it's a survival horror experience inspired by PS1-era examples, but there's more to it than that. It's also about relationships and love, in all their various forms. It's wonderfully weird, and we're here for it.

Operation Guns is superb.

A definite improvement over Steep, thanks to the Mass Races and the new bike discipline, but Ubisoft Annecy has still got a lot of work to do if it wants to break into upper echelons of gaming. It should look to Playground Games and how they craft an elite open-world sports game if they want to reach that next-level, then maybe they too could be mentioned in the same breath as SSX Tricky. Fingers crossed, the potential is definitely there!