Telegraph's Reviews
Perhaps MGSV's best quality is how in pulling gameplay to the foreground and letting much of the exposition remain optional, it opens it up to be enjoyed by people who have in the past been put off by its weirdness, serving as both the perfect entry point and a satisfying conclusion. MGSV takes the best of a great series and creates a series' best in the process.
There is no doubting the actors commitment to their archetypes, though, and their performances are a big part of why you start to warm to even the coldest character. You end up wanting them all to survive, unlikely as that seems.
Super Mario Maker's chaotic smorgasbord is part of its appeal. Wild, unbridled and even inspiring, Super Mario Maker achieves the envious feat of making both Play and Creation a joy. And all it had to do was remove the barrier between the two.
There are still problems when it comes to balancing realism with spectacle, but Madden NFL 16 manages to get the mix mostly right. Certainly, when compared to previous releases, there's a far greater sense that what you're playing tallies with what you see on Sundays.
Comfortably the best of Disney's toy-to-life outings so far, Infinity 3.0 is not without its flaws.
There's definitely a sense that, like Max himself, Avalanche's latest game has been left alone to find its own way to greatness. But the studio has given the series the attention to detail and authenticity that it deserves, and this is without doubt one of the most punchy examples of gaming post apocalyptia in quite some time.
If you do happen to own a PC capable of running the original Dishonored on max settings, this port is difficult to recommend, however. I still class it among the best games of the last generation and believe everyone should play it, but this just isn't much of a remaster.
The latest in Turn 10's driving series is terrific on the track but outdated off it.
An injection of speed and creativity results in the best Skylanders game to date.
Lego Dimensions combines 14 different pop culture franchises with smart Lego minifigures and the biggest Lego video game ever made. The result isn't cheap but offers a significant amount of fun and frivolity both on the screen and on the carpet.
FIFA 16 is light on sweeping changes but heavy on refinement, building an excellent new foundation for EA's football series.
The Taken King is a sophisticated return to Destiny that makes it the best its ever been.
PES 2016 offers a smart, strategic, thrilling and unpredicatable game of football.
This generous collection of the first three Uncharted games is a thrilling and fascinating history lesson.
Rock Band 4 is a successful return for a familiar headline act.
The latest Project Zero horror has a bleak and affecting story, but is let down by dull combat and awkward level design.
Assassin's Creed Syndicate provides a fantastic facsimile of Victorian London, but clumsy controls and tedious missions spoil the fun.
[T]his reboot captures the score-chasing and self-improvement of the early Guitar Hero games and puts them into a thoroughly modern spin. The commitment to its ideas makes Live a confident, bold and stylish game. History will tell if the decisions it has made are the right ones, but for now, Freestyle has started down an exciting new path for the genre.
The narrative is suitably epic and grandstanding – and makes a bold decision with a long-standing character – but takes itself far too seriously. Which, for a game about purple aliens, planet-destroying super weapons and bionic soldiers, seems a little off-key.
This new adventure moves quickly, and feels like Wild Hunt in microcosm; cool moment after cool moment, condensed into a much shorter running time, with less cool distractions to pull you off in every which direction. Having less to do is no bad thing, and this story feels more focused and well paced as a result. Without adding an entirely new continent to explore - something the second expansion, Blood and Wine, promises to do in 2016 - CD Projekt Red still manages to ensure that this world feels interesting, that its characters are compelling, and that its stories are memorable and still have something to say, both narratively and thematically.