Amsterdam-based studio Guerilla Games, best known for PlayStation's grim but visually impressive Killzone franchise, spent more than six years on Horizon Zero Dawn, and it shows: in the beauty of the game's visuals, the depth of its backstory and the tightness of its design. Hopefully this isn't the last we'll see of this high-tech savage land. (Horizon Forbidden West, maybe? Please?)
Despite its problems, The Last Guardian is an incredible piece of imaginative world-building. As a game, it mostly succeeds. As something we've been anticipating for nine years… well, that might be too tall an obstacle for even a giant flying dog to get over.
In any other year, we’d probably be more in awe of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. But in 2016’s heavily contested battleground, its just one powerful combatant among many.
Twitter: @stevetilley
Genre-defining? Not quite. Maybe that will come with Gears 5. Or Gears 6. That’s the thing about a Fenix – they always rise again.
While I'm not sure any game will replace my nostalgic, rose-coloured memories of the original Deus Ex, Mankind Divided is a small but satisfying step forward for the franchise, offering tons of player freedom in a dark, dangerous and intricately detailed future.
Dark puzzler one of the best games of the year
To be able to read the emotions of computer-generated characters, rather than having them spell out their feelings through dialogue, is a rare achievement in games.
Quantum Break is an innovative new direction for interactive storytelling, and with the ending leaving things wide open for more, I hope Remedy does a sequel to this innovative hybrid of a show and a game. I just hope the next one offers more to do with the time we're given.
But these are relatively small nitpicks for a game that's otherwise fun, fresh and full of flair. It's the most innovative shooter I've played in years.
I suspect the next major Far Cry instalment will return to the modern day, but I'd love to see Ubisoft continue experimenting with the franchise from time to time. Primal doesn't quite discover the secret to fire, but it's an entertaining blast to the very distant past.
If you were on the fence about Dying Light when it first came out – and even if you're still suffering from undead overdose – now's the time to jump in. This is a zombie game that truly deserves its following.
While it's far from the typical video game adventure, That Dragon, Cancer is a reminder that games can be so much more than just wish-fulfillment power fantasies. It's an important and unforgettable experience, full of pain, love and grace.
The meal hasn't been perfect, but it's been very memorable. The waiter keeps coming by with the dessert cart, and I keep waving him away.
Just Cause 3 doesn't hold too many surprises, particularly if you're familiar with the previous titles in the series. But it offers an almost unlimited number of ways to create your own flavour of mayhem, and is a source of constant "did you just SEE that?" moments. If the next Michael Bay movie features a dude hanging upside from a helicopter while blowing up a bridge with a missile launcher, you'll know where it came from.
Make no mistake, Star Wars Battlefront is the best-looking Star Wars game ever made, full of fanboy-pleasing attention to detail in its sights, sounds and action. But its charms fade quickly, and in a month's time – when we finally see Luke, Leia and Han on the big screen again – it could be mostly forgotten.
Black Ops III tries hard to freshen the Call of Duty formula, and it's clear a lot of time and money went into creating the game. But other than the online multiplayer component, which should keep the faithful occupied for a few months, it's just slick, disposable entertainment, easily consumed and instantly forgotten. Then again, who am I to talk?
I think die-hard Halo fans will love Halo 5: Guardians, as it's a game made almost exclusively with them in mind. The rest of us might find ourselves a little lost, a bit let down and wistful for an old horizon that once reached for the heavens.
Yoshi's Woolly World doesn't do much that we haven't seen before in Nintendo's long history of these sorts of games, and its exceptional cuteness factor helps overcome some of its slightly derivative design. But in a season so focused on doing vicious harm in virtual worlds, its lovely to take a whimsical stroll with this delightful dinosaur daredevil.
True, I still don't know my Hunter's name. But suddenly I'm a lot more excited about spending another year with her.