More online testing to be done, but so far Dragon Ball FighterZ is indeed pretty... super
ELEX is a mixed bag so far, and that 'so far' refers to the starting area. The game density plus a min-max stats system means I haven't got further yet.
Life is Strange: Before the Storm is off to a not unpromising start, but it feels like Chloe and the game are both still finding their feet.
The Division is a very interesting game, with soaring highs as well as flaws, and the best multiplayer for years.
Neva is a beautiful platformer about nature and decay that takes Nomada Studio to the next level. The platforming and combat are imprecise enough to distract from a world of dangerous beauty - but not so much that you won't enjoy the journey.
Arranger is funny, surprising, and builds a simple movement puzzle concept into complex, layered head-scratchers. It's a very charismatic puzzle game that won't outstay its welcome.
Flock flexes your curiosity to chase down strange and wonderful little animals. It can be a little repetitive, but it's full of freedom and playfulness and is a treat after a long day being a grown up.
Galacticare is a smashing space management sim in the Bullfrog tradition, with a great implicit and explicit sense of humour. It's not super challenging, but its levels are imaginative and fun.
Crow Country puts more emphasis on puzzles than the survival part of survival horror, but it's a well-observed love letter to the genre with great attention to detail all over the place. It's somehow equal parts charming and creepy.
A lovely looking game with a sweet, restrained story, Harold Halibut is funny and charming. It's also probably a bit too long for its own good.
A great premise with fun characters becomes a boring, empty wasteland in itself, as Sand Land makes adventures in customised tanks uninteresting and desperately repetitive.
Tales Of Kenzera has a sensitive story and is beautifully designed, with an intriguing world to explore - but some imprecision lets it down in the platforming and combat. It's still more than worth a go for players looking for something fresh.
Bore Blasters is a very well-designed destructive roguelite that takes good bits from a lot of games to create a dwarfish cathart-'em up where you explode mud and goblins
Despite some frustrations, Children Of The Sun is an intense shooter-puzzler with bags of style and originality.
Botany Manor is a beautiful, focused and entirely peaceful game that creates an oasis where you solve puzzles and marvel at the world. It's wonderful stuff.
Open Roads is a well-observed, empathetic story about families and secrets, wrapped up in some lovely art and with barnstorming voice acting performances at the heart of it. It's short but bittersweet.
Horizon Forbidden West is a great open world adventure, especially as a sequel, with all the slow motion dino hunts you loved last time but bigger, all the noble questing but nobler, and all the high stakes raised even higher.
Last Epoch is a worthy mid-point ARPG that has fun with its fantasy time travelling world, and makes crafting and building towards percentage point increases actually rewarding. Even fun!
Granblue Fantasy: Relink is a slick and colourful JRPG that knows what it thinks is cool. The combat is kind of weightless, but it's layered and fun - if you can be bothered to get to the bottom of it.
Don't Nod's new third-person goth-tragedy action-adventure RPG is full of swashbuckling ghost hunting, bound up in a story unironically about the power of love. Despite some repetition and busywork, it's a great time.