Patrick Dane
With Dragonflight, Blizzard has done an exceptional job at breathing life into a game that had been floundering. This is thanks to a fun campaign that anyone can enjoy, an adventurous spirit at the heart of the world, satisfying dragonriding, as well as a location full of stories and secrets to unearth. This is as good a jumping on point for the game as ever, and it's likely the best there will be for some time. After such a tumultuous time for the MMO, this feels like a clean break – a new beginning and a recapturing of the spirit that made the release back in 2004 so captivating. If you're a lapsed player, or even a new one, scared by the sheer weight of 18 years of backlog, Dragonflight sheds most of that. It truly feels like the triumphant return for World of Warcraft and I can't wait to see what's next.
A surprising, old school looter propped up by a contained sci-fi campaign, ferocious combat, and a modding system that encourages endless creativity.
It's amazing it runs on the hardware at all, but the performance is a huge compromise, especially in a solely competitive environment.
A great finale to the World of Assassination trilogy and the perfect time to end the reboot era, as the once revolutionary formula begins to show its age.
One of Destiny 2's best expansions thus far, providing an assured roadmap for the series to move into. It is just more Destiny though.
Outlast 2 is a true improvement on its predecessor, with Red Barrel Studio planting its flag to claim the standard for horror games in 2017. From the beautifully horrific environments, the ambitious ideas to the sheer unsettling nature, it's disturbing in the ways you'll want from it. It makes this title truly interesting, even affecting. While it's aggressive in its assault on the player, perhaps to the point of becoming tiring, on the whole the game is very, very good. This is especially true of the exquisite second half of the game that sings to a developer in tune with its vision. Outlast 2 serves up an expertly crafted horror experience that will likely find itself burrowing into you even after your time in the Sonoran desert has come to an end.