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UnderRail shows that classic ideas and mechanics can deliver impressive gameplay results even in an age when even the RPG space tends to lose its identity under the assault of improved graphics and the need to make combat the best way to solve every situation.
Deep Space Reflections is a good, niche game that will certainly find plenty of fans among those gamers who spent time trying to find new ways to make their limited funds last for as long as possible in the arcades of old.
King's Quest – Chapter 2: Rubble Without a Cause shows both the strengths and the weaknesses associated with the episodic game series.
Dirt Rally is a good simulation that features a soli8d set of core mechanics and a lot of variety when it comes to both the tracks and the vehicles, clearly targeted at the kinds of players who already love the sport and its unique challenges.
Rainbow Six Siege is one of the year's full-priced video games that feature plenty of real-money transactions from the get-go while also pushing players to get a Season Pass that opens up access to lots of downloadable content that is coming starting early 2016.
Nuclear Throne manages to walk a fine line between challenging, with options for the player who wants to succeed in the post-apocalypse, and unfairly difficult, filled with obstacles that will induce frustration for even the most hardened fans of the rogue-like genre.
Zombie Vikings is a good game to play with a larger group, swapping controllers based on performance and trying to use wit and superior skill to get the best rewards for one's character.
Just Cause 3 delivers a series of systems that are solid on their own, from the ability to grapple around without any limits to the new options opened up by the wingsuit, and manages to mix them to deliver impressive results.
Valhalla Hills is a solid management strategy game in the vein of the classics of the genre and everyone who has ever enjoyed Settlers deserves to give it a chance and spend at least a few hours guiding Vikings in their quest to get into Valhalla.
Switch Galaxy Ultra is a very niche experience, but for those who loved Wipeout or the idea of moving fast across space lanes, it can deliver challenging moments and very fun levels.
Mordheim: City of the Damned combines a well-developed combat system and a mercenary and management system to create a fantasy driven game with low stakes but plenty of impressive moments.
Hard West is a good but limited game, and at its current price, it offers a solid set of mechanics for those who are twiddling their turn-based tactics thumbs while they wait for the sequel to XCOM to arrive next year.
Game of Thrones - The Ice Dragon is a good closing chapter for the first season of the video game, managing to deliver some satisfying final moments for the main protagonists and to confound the expectations of players to some extent.
The Crew - Wild Run is a sign that the development team at Ivory Tower and publisher Ubisoft have plans to support the racing game in the long-term and will continue to deliver patches, more modes, and extra cards in the coming months.
ROOT is a hard first-person shooter, an experience clearly designed for players who love the classics of the genre and feel that modern releases are too cinematic and too focused on narrative for their good.
The developers are already working hard to patch Wave of Darkness and fix the issues reported by players. There's still a long way to go, however, and some problems run pretty deep into the game's core gameplay. As long as you realize that there are going to be annoyances that are out of your control, you can still have a blast with the game. The character progression system is very intriguing and rewarding, since there are many options at your disposal, especially in the spell department. Still, the developers have a monumental task ahead. Most players will most likely get frustrated on the tutorial island, and things don't get much easier to deal with after that either. Hence, you are advised to wait for more patches and improvements from the developer
Clandestine takes a great idea, the fact that spying is a two man job and delivers carefully balanced gameplay mechanics, both for the field operative and the hacker, that are easy to understand but hard to master.
Football Manager 2016 feels a little thin initially, but as players dig deeper into the experience, they will find that it offers the best expression of the core mechanics that has defined the series for the past few years.
Starcraft 2 - Legacy of the Void is best described using the words that Blizzard makes a character utter relatively early in the campaign: "It's technology is ancient, yet highly advanced." The phrase manages to capture the way the developers at Blizzard have kept the series fresh, by mining the classic ideas of the real-time strategy genre while seeking to mix them with innovative approaches. For Legacy of the Void the words also nicely encapsulate its relationship with the game engine and the structure of the campaign and multiplayer modes, both of which are as old as the franchise itself but still offer gamers plenty of surprises. Starcraft II deserves its place as one of the most influential releases of the past five years, and this Protoss-focused chapter manages to deliver a fitting end to its core narrative while opening up the multiplayer in some interesting ways.
Fallout 4 is a deep and broad video game that can easily occupy more than 100 hours of a gamer's life, as long as they don't become bored of some of the core mechanics of the open-world genre and want to explore the universe past the core narrative.