Jon Ledford
The Escapists certainly has its times where it felt like Shawshank's river-crawl through crap, but each escape felt hard-earned and true enough to the point where we felt clean on the other side of its prison walls.
While State of Decay: Year One Survival Edition won't wow returning players, this is one state you shouldn't mind revisiting.
Double Fine has catered to all those who fell in love with this masterpiece long ago, but also prove that Grim Fandango is not as timeless as we thought.
As an enhanced version of the hit 2012 game for last-gen consoles, Dishonored brings back its unique take on stealth gameplay told through a first-person perspective.
Just as "A Knight to Remember" tells us the tale of a young, plucky and foolhardy Graham on his way to becoming the hero and ruler that we know he'll become, King's Quest feels like an adventure game that is on its way to becoming a classic, but there are still quite a few more trials that I hope The Odd Gentlemen will be able to overcome going into its future episodes.
Rainbow Six Siege's unique brand of intense, tactical shootouts are unlike anything else in the first-person shooter scene.
I recommend Freedom Cry to anyone who has ever hoped for a better story within the Assassin's Creed franchise. There are still plenty of technical hiccups and basically all the exploratory freedoms of Black Flag are now gone (which was Black Flag's best quality), but the story more than makes up for it.
As you would expect, Wolfenstein: The New Order is fun to play, but what you don't expect is the brilliant narrative that arises from its over-the-top story.
Ultimately, the vast amount of content that you get for Watch Dogs help inspire us to overlook its graphical shortcomings. It may simply be yet another GTA clone that didn't meet our expectations, but it still plays efficiently and offers a staggering amount of fun for players to explore every pocket of this tech-noir version of Chicago.
You're getting two pretty, current-gen titles for less than the price of one new game, despite there being some fundamental gameplay issues that were never addressed during this apocalyptic remix.
Resident Evil is an excellent, successful resurrection of a timeless classic. While there may not be enough content to satiate those familiar with the 13-year-old remake, things still felt fresh, in a rotted, unsettling sort of way.
Theatrhythm is all about rekindling your love for the entire series and to spark interest for its lesser known titles that have niche followings.
Ultimately, SOMA provides a unique tale of sci-fi horror that is unlike any of its contemporaries. While it's fun to get the heart racing while being chased down by a huge robot set on dismantling you, it's the narrative parts of SOMA that left me thinking about it long after completion.
Assassin's Creed Syndicate is a proper return to form which makes amends for Unity's shortcomings while establishing itself as one of the finer entries of the franchise.
Black Ops III might not reinvent the wheel or even be the best Call of Duty game to date, but it is certainly one of the grandest. Even better, this one is meant to be played with your friends.
While they already had excellent source material to work with, The Coalition has given us the definitive Gears experience.
Her Story's '90s aesthetic makes me feel nostalgic, and hearing the old computer boot up noises and seeing my silhouette rendered on the screen were nice touches. This Google Video-esque crime game isn't for the impatient or for those with short attention spans, but it rewards those who are willing to engage with its purposely-limited but complex delivery system.
Ultimately, the steep learning curve and focus on statistics management which could be considered a hindrance is vastly outshined by The Banner Saga's absolutely memorizing production value.
Similar to its story, DmC's remastered version of Dante embraces the things Ninja Theory's kept and changed from the old Devil May Cry formula, making the unification of heaven and hell as fun as it gets in the land of Limbo.
Fortunately, The Handsome Jack Collection's addictive gameplay, excellent writing and charismatic cast keeps things moving in an unforgettable, fun-filled way.