From Software and Miyazaki’s triumph with technical upgrades, dedicated servers and the DLC included. There is nothing better.
Two masterpieces in every regard, Bayonetta and its sequel still provide the consummate action adventure with combat which has not been bettered, outrageous stories and a main character of sheer brilliance. Play these games, I implore you.
You'll not want it to end, just like you didn't want your very favourite RPGs of years-past to end either. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will sit in that list now. There isn't any higher praise.
Burnout Paradise Remastered is the benchmark for open world twitch racers. Visiting for the first — or 1000th time — is a delight from start to finish.
Detroit is simply unlike anything else available. For that reason alone it deserves to be played, but when allied with the chance to create your own story that will not be the same for many others and the stunning tech on show, what more do you need?
Hitman 2 is pure fun and a joy to play, over, and over again.
Ubisoft has delivered a superior RPG and done so by completely revolutionising Assassin's Creed. With Odyssey any fan of RPGs, the Creed, or great games in general will be handsomely rewarded.
Sekiro is a fascinating, engaging and downright outstanding game which puts too many people off too early to warrant a must-play tag.
GRID is a brilliant arcade racer, acing the feel and emotions of driving fast cars fast.
Sports Interactive has made Football Manager new again, without breaking what already made it so delightful. It's more of the same, only newer.
The perfect sandbox killing game, just with bigger and more varied environments which go in all directions and compel you to play them again, and again.
Elden Ring is Dark Souls done in an accessible way and given the open world afforded to Link in Breath of the Wild. In short, it's fabulous.
FromSoftware games are an event and this one is no exception. Great fun, chaotic until tamed and thoroughly moreish. You'll find a lot to like if you're into high-quality action.
So here we have a glorified prologue which showcases the new generation with aplomb and makes the mouth water at what Kojima Productions can do over the course of a full game. You'll revel in the backstory provided and audio logs littered throughout if you're a Metal Gear aficionado and you'll just about get what's happening in this mission at least if you're not. Either way when playing it all out you'll find a wonderful bag of tricks that doesn't bore a great many hours after first reaching the closing cutscene and its unsurprising lack of closure (it is a prologue/prequel after all). After all of this you'll still be salivating. If this truly is a sign of things to come, then we might just get that perfect score.
So what we have here is a future-classic, old-school indie title for individuals and like-minded folk alike. The visuals are retro but work, the soundtrack by Daedelus is dynamic and ever-changing in tune with the onscreen action. The code is so precise the fighting is always balanced and true to your inputs - whether that is a disarm, throw of your knife and preference for fisticuffs, or a straight thrust to the chest (with a little wiggle up and down for that achievement) - that the result is always joy, whether you win or lose. Some might question the idea of paying for a game that's been available free in one form or another for a few years. The riposte to that is that the game is worth it. The developer deserves to be rewarded and this is the best version of the game you could ask for - tournament mode on the living room TV with joypads is, well, quite exquisite.
Ultimately Nintendo have again produced the goods and delivered another system seller. Many companies long for one true example of this in a console's lifetime; Nintendo now has two within a year of each other. The driving is exquisite, the track design is wonderful and the overall presentation is marvellous. We have here perhaps the finest Mario Kart to date, aside from battle mode, and an entry into the series which whilst being so special, only serves to highlight the series' flaw more prominently. Good job then that that flaw was never seen as one anyway as that's not what Mario Kart is about. This is what Mario Kart is about - wonderful, prolonged fun.
As ever with a Football Manager game there has been a whole host of changes some of which are apparent straight away, whilst others become clear over time. The time-honoured tradition is to incite revolution in some areas and optimising others via evolution. Whilst this ensures there's enough new stuff to get owners of older versions to buy the latest release, it does mean that nothing is ever made perfect because of the modular, but cyclic change. It's not like everything that needs to be improved is touched in one go; nor do we get that brand-new and surprising title. So here we don't get that ten out of ten rating but Sports Interactive deserve praise for again delivering the best football management simulation around. It's the same as last year then, only different.
Three of the best looking, most fun and widely loved games all on one disc. Outstanding.
It will do, until Driveclub 2.0 comes out - presumably with biking from the start.
This is the finest football management game around and should be on everyone's Steam list.