Roger Hargreaves
It's almost entirely backwards-looking, and the characterisation is disappointingly dry, but for fans of Baldur's Gate and its era this will have you partying like it's 1998.
Moving beyond a mere homage to Dungeon Master this is one of the best dungeon crawlers of recent years, even if the puzzle balance still isn't quite right.
An expansion that improves on almost every aspect of the original, fixing obvious flaws and adding a much greater sense of variety to what is now one of the best retro role-players around.
It won't win over Diablo III haters but this is a competent expansion that will renew the addiction for fans and help to earn new ones.
An inspired mix of real science, sandbox gameplay, and space simulation – that is both a lot more entertaining and a lot more accessible than you'd expect.
One of the best story driven games of the year, and one of the prettiest, although you do sometimes wonder if it's focusing on the most interesting aspect of its plot.
An excellent conversion of the original iOS hit, and a wonderfully disturbing horror story that innovates in terms of everything from visuals and interface to its macabre narrative.
One of the most interesting things to happen to both massively multiplayer online games and shooters in years, and already a hugely enjoyable game in its own right.
A no expense spared celebration of the most enduring shooter series of all time, with everything a Halo fan could wish for and more than enough to entertain everyone else.
An imaginative spin on retro 2D shooters, whose unconventional gameplay and visuals are a prime example of what makes indie gaming so exciting – despite some notable rough edges.
A fantastically bold idea that Double Fine exploit to its fullest, in one of the most original puzzle adventures of the year – and the most educational.
A superb multiplayer game with some of the best virtual sword-fighting ever seen, giving you the best reason to crowd round a PC since a kitten did something cute on YouTube.
The best turn-based tactics game since XCOM 2 and a fantastic spy adventure that has an appeal that goes well beyond just strategy fans.
The true successor to the SimCity legacy, and even though it only restates what was great about the original it still does a better job than the last decade or so of official games.
As bizarre a mix of genres, art style, and subject matter as you could ever hope to see, especially on the PC. But it all works and absolutely deserves this second shake of the die.
If indie gaming is just a state of mind then Ubisoft is getting increasingly good at encouraging it in their developers, especially in this novel plant-based platformer.
The action may not be up to quite the same standards as the writing, but the bizarre world of the Underzee is more interesting to explore than almost any other recent game world.
One of the best remakes of recent years, both in terms of the amount of thought and effort put into the remastering and how much the original deserves the attention.
One of the best massively multiplayer offline games of recent years, although like any party game its attractions are fairly fleeting.
One of the best offline co-op games of recent years, with a wonderfully antagonist premise that destroys and rebuilds relationships on an almost minute-to-minute basis.