Garth Holden
Final Fantasy XII deserves to be a part of your JRPG journey. With a deep, twisting plot and a focus on how politics and war muddies up things for so many other people. This game rewards exploration, tenacity and plumbing the depths of its systems.
Aztez mixes two very different genres in a way that will make you pay attention. Part board game, part fluid beat 'em up, get ready for fluid combat and intense combos as you try to beat every stage as quickly as possible for maximum reward.
To Davide Soliani and Ubisoft, I offer my apologies. This is one hell of a game and I can’t wait to squeeze every treasure and perfect rating out of the game. I honestly hope that this introduces the wonderful world of turn-based tactics to more people.
Death of the Outsider keeps enough of what makes you love Dishonored in the first place, while a new protagonist and power set keep things fresh and exciting to explore and discover.
Cuphead may look like a fun cartoony platformer, but be ready for the teeth to be bared and your patience to be slowly gnawed away.
Moving away from the industrial sausage machine to a bespoke creation oozing with attention to detail, history, love and satisfying combat, Ubisoft is back in the ring, ready to take on other open world contenders.
Destiny 2 on PC gets the graphics settings and modularity right, but some of the in-game systems just scream console a bit too much. A great sequel that should have been an expansion is finally in reach of those who prefer uncapped frame rates and a mouse in hand.
Call of Duty WWII has enough modes that one of them will find your fancy, but it feels like something great was missed in favour of playing the same safe song once more. Multiplayer will give this game legs if you don't mind the free-to-play intrusions.
This could have been the feather in the Switch's cap, showing that a game as graphically demanding as DOOM could be tinkered with to run on a portable platform. It nearly does, but too much is lost in the execution.
Star Wars Battlefront II suffers from not knowing where it wants to spend its time and resources. It tries to cover too many time periods and too many battles and ends up boxing itself in a corner due to a tie in with a movie that only releases in a month's time.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a return to the heights of Xenoblade Chronicles after a dip with X. Get ready for a long adventure filled with amazing sights and revelations.
The Shadow of the Colossus remake shows what the game would have looked like with the power of modern consoles, but it sticks with the stylistic emptiness of the original. There is something special here, even if you might not explore it with the same reverence as those with nostalgia about it.
The Station has heart but seems to end just as things are getting interesting, almost rushing to the climax instead of enjoying the created space for a short while longer.
Welcome to a new great age, a place where our people thrive and become the talk of all nations. Or wallow in a dark age, refusing your citizens some comforts as you fervently pursue a way out of your predicament. Time to rise or fall.
Bayonetta and Bayonetta 2 are enjoyable, slick romps through a crazy hack and slash world. If you like dodging at just the right moment before unleashing a spectacular combo and a fast-talking protagonist, you owe it to yourself to meet this witch.
Gravel takes a fun experience and makes it feel dull with lacklustre AI and a vehicle unlock system that removes any joy from getting a new car.
Far Cry 5 is the height of the series and gives new legs to exploration in open world games while keeping the freeform tools to take down places as you see fit. Welcome to Hope County, you will be here a while.
Northgard takes some of the best elements of your favourite old RTS games and breathes life into them with an economic management twist. A tighter campaign would launch this into greatness.
Extinction feels like it was onto something great. Fighting monsters that tower above you, soaring through the air and grappling around, but it falls flat in about the same amount of time it takes a giant to knock down a building.
In order to survive, some tough choices need to be made to keep people warm in this frozen hell. Frostpunk is challenging, atmospheric and leaves you feeling judged a few times as you try to keep humanity alive, but not so much that you don't get up and try again.