Ratchet & Clank is a fantastic game and a strong return of both the franchise and developer Insomniac, who have done an outstanding job. It doesn't concern itself with being a movie tie-in and, as such, it ends up being a true Ratchet & Clank game, one that any fan will have already played and an excellent introduction to make new fans.
Final Fantasy XV is a true return to form for the series. The main story of the game is passable, but surpassed by the fantastic tale of Noctis and his three friends, Gladiolus, Prompto and Ignis. The world they live in, the interconnectivity and just how alive it feels makes for a great game, warts and all.
Event[0] is an incredibly interesting game. Set on a small but incredibly detailed space ship and featuring an incredibly unique character, in the AI Kaizen. It will test your brains and your empathy, as well as your patience. Will you argue with Kaizen? Will you be friendly? There's so much to do, puzzles to solve and the space to explore.
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is a fantastic return to form for the real-time tactics genre, with a particular emphasis on stealth based gameplay. Reminiscent of Commandos, it offers a fantastic tactical approach in a brilliantly designed world that will do more than enough to grab anybody’s attention. Not without its difficulty, it's never too hard that it's unfair.
Atlas Reactor is one of a kind. An incredibly inventive, addictive and compelling online fast-paced turn-based tactical game. It looks fantastic, plays great and has so little to bring it down that it's well worth anybody’s time.
Football Manager 2017 isn't a revolutionary update to the series, but it's the best in a good number of years. The new match engine is such a huge improvement and the AI enhancements add to the overall feeling that this is the most realized football management game yet, feeling more realistic than ever before.
Although feeling hands off in the day to day running of the team as a company, the real joy of Motorsport Manager comes from your preparation for the races and the races themselves. Improving your cars but then watching them in the race, planning your pit stops and attempting to plan everything to the second makes for a tense and exciting, experience.
Endless Space 2 is a great 4X strategy game that is almost guaranteed to improve. While not free of bugs, including a few large ones, it's a title that oozes character. Each and every game offers the flexibility to play the way you want to and adapt as you please, while offering some excellently told stories with every game also offering a fresh emergent story to boot.
Wolfenstein: The New Colossus subverts the old-school shooter tradition by featuring an incredible cast of characters with varied personalities in a world that makes you want to explore more and more of the society it features. The gameplay is very engaging, though can sometimes outstay its welcome at parts with a mixture of levels that range from the extremely interesting to dull and repetitive. Whatever its flaws, Wolfenstein is a great game that's well worth playing and will keep you coming back for more as you purge the US of Nazis.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2018 is, simply, the most realistic rendition of the beautiful game so far. While the atmosphere is lacking and game modes are in need of some improvement. Konami still desperately need to overhaul the commentary and fix the licensing issues. Fortunately, the on-pitch action more than makes up for any problems you may encounter.
F1 2017 is the best in the series and arguably one of Codemasters best titles. A few minor flaws slightly blemish what is a brilliant game, which looks, sounds and feels fantastic to play. Furthermore, a more extensive career mode with a host of other modes gives the game great variety and longevity.
Nioh: Complete Edition is a great game. That much should be expected as the original release was. However, much like all Koei Tecmo PC ports, this release suffers from some glaring omissions and limitations. Fortunately, Team Ninja have already announced some patches to start improving the release.
Rise and Fall is an expansion about strategy, storytelling and is an absolute dream for anybody a fan of long-termism. While it may not initially seem as large or expansive as other expansions in the series history, there's a pervasive nature of all the new additions. These impact and influence everything else within the game. While there is a level of balance forced on players with the new Ages system, it allows for the telling of a true development of your civilization from start to end and keeps things interesting even at later stages. More important is the inclusion of loyalty and governors, which increase the already strategic approach of cities in Civilization VI. Rise and Fall is all about keeping a game interesting and engaging from start to finish and it's hugely successful at that.
DiRT Rally 2.0 far surpasses other rally titles and other games that feature, though don't specialise in rallying. With an extensively detailed roster of cars, where each of them feels, handles and reacts differently, on tracks that actively degrade through constant use, changing the lines you'll have to take, this is a game that will keep you thinking. Best of all, unlike its prequel (to an extent) and other racing sims, it's accessible thanks to a bevy of assists that you can change to suit your needs. A game that only features a few downsides, the primary one being a shallow career mode and some minor bugs here and there. All things considered, DiRT Rally 2.0 is the premier rally experience you could hope to have.
Catherine is a genuinely funny, fun and altogether unique experience, even now. It merges brilliantly challenging puzzle gameplay with an Animé adult-romance story that is as equally compelling as it is entertaining. It features interesting and deeply flawed characters, particularly the protagonist whose emotions directly affect the challenges he'll face. All of this contained within a game that has aged particularly well due to the colourful and Animé-style design.
They Are Billions offers an almost perfect gameplay loop, mixing tower-defence with city building and exploration, as you balance resource-management, defence and offense, all against your ever-impending doom at the hands of a world infested with the undead. The only downside to a game that looks and sounds great, offering a tense experience in a compelling setting, is a campaign that doesn't fully make-use of the gameplay loop perfected by Numantian Games, leaving the campaign feeling weak, compared to the survival mode, which is the real draw.
Plants vs Zombies: Battle for Neighbourville is a fun, engaging and content-filled game that, in addition to offering a strong online player-vs-player component, is packed full of content that will keep even the most ardent of solo-players engaged. Proving that Electronic Arts can get live service games right, because this will be a live service game thanks to the pending premium currency store, this is still one game that has taken me by surprise and I can do nothing but recommend to anybody and everybody.
Doom Eternal is a brilliant game, one that is a worthy successor to the previous release. While the game does stumble here and there, trying to be something that it really shouldn't be, the outstanding gameplay more than makes up for any issues. Going by the campaign alone, Doom Eternal is well worth your time and money, particularly so if you liked Doom. I'm not sold on the multiplayer, as it feels just a bit too threadbare.
Gears Tactics is, simply put, an excellent turn-based tactics game that stands up well against titles like XCOM and others at the top of the genre.
Overcrowd: A Commute 'Em Up is an incredibly compelling game that can suck you in for hours, and days. With a charming aesthetic covering up a game with a massive amount of detail, there's a surprising amount to get yourself lost in as you try to build a series of ever-more detailed metro stations, managing facilities, staff and more. Now, it's not perfect, it can be a little clunky at times and some features are lacking, by choice and due to the style of the game. Still, the game does all it can to make itself as accessible and approachable as possible.