Sam White
Arkham Knight triumphs as a richly empowering comic book fantasy that sees its hero fail almost as much as he succeeds, making him the most believable, the most occasionally unlikeable, and ultimately the most heroic he's ever been.
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.
Still, IO’s confident direction with this new Hitman is fantastic. As a sleepy dose of Mediterranean murder, Sapienza is inventive and complex, and delivers a level of replayability that should finally shush naysayers of its newfound episodic structure.
In Blood and Wine, things are quite different. Rather than a war ravaged wasteland, or an archipelago on the brink of civil war, famed monster hunter Geralt of Rivia travels to the southern region of Toussaint - a gorgeous unspoilt stretch of countryside. It truly is a wonderful place to be, lush with colour and an ever present orange sun that bathes the landscape in a warm glow. Its vineyards - famed world-over for their iconic wines - dot the landscape, while its beautiful capital of Beauclair sits visible from almost every point in the land, perched atop an elven ruin on a huge hill. After visiting Toussaint, the rest of the Witcher’s world feels unnecessarily depressing - you won’t want to leave.
A high point for the iconic strategy series
The first-person shooter returns with a bunch of new multiplayer modes and a lone campaign that seeks to add emotional weight to the thundering action
EA Dice’s decision to travel back in time has paid dividends with a thrilling and visually impressive military experience
From Destiny 2's first moments, it's a bigger, bolder and better game than its predecessor.
Wolfenstein 2, a first person shooter in which you can dual-wield shotguns to slaughter hundreds of robotic fascists in a secret Nazi facility suspended above the surface of Venus, is the most skilfully written game in years.
With F1 2017, Codemasters has reached that stable plateau you see from established sports franchise like FIFA or NBA. This is by no means a major overhaul – if you've bounced off of these types of racers before, F1 2017 won't try to re-convince you of any merits. But nor should it need to.
In Doom's first moments you break free from metal restraints with your bare hands before smashing a demon's head in against the edge of a stone table.
Dishonored 2 is a fabulously immersive role-playing game that rewards exploration, experimentation and repeat playthroughs. It’s a shade less well written than its forebear, but it’s far better designed. The Clockwork Mansion will likely go down as one of the all-time best missions in gaming, and Dishonored 2 may well be the game of 2016.
PC is the best place to play last year's best game. It's massive yet detailed, sprawling and epic, and combines Rockstar's penchant for immense detail with a surprising amount of human heart.Sam White
One of, if not the, best games on the Vita, and one of 2013’s most unforgettable adventures.
As a piece of creative work, Total War: Warhammer is more than an ideal partnership between two iconic franchises. As well as nailing the look, feel and atmosphere of the Games Workshop universe, Creative Assembly has delivered a strategy game that will keep series fans busy for hundreds, if not thousands, of hours, while also giving Total War newcomers a good – if not quite perfect – leg-up into the world of deep, grand strategy. It adds new mechanics and refines old ones, and improves greatly on the series' terrible reputation for stability issues at launch.
Blood & Wine is an experience that is truly bittersweet. This is the hallmark of a studio at its peak, wholly confident and with nothing left to prove, but also still committed to delivering an expansion that’s more generous with its content than some full games – and which is good enough to be a Game of the Year contender in its own right.
Strategy games live and die on the complexity and satisfaction of the countless decisions made within them, and it’s here that Civilization VI stands tall. Where its predecessors laid the foundations and systems of play, this is a game that refines and perfects them to a remarkable degree. It’s not without a couple of flaws – the odd diplomatic quirk and some religious spamming are its most notable – but Civilization VI gives the series’ 20-year Anniversary the hurrah it deserves.
Perfectly distilling the Horizon formula, Playground Games have produced a racer that's varied, exciting and gorgeous to look at - and arguably the best of the generation.
AI wobbles remain, but this is an excellent racing game, and an authentic Formula One experience.
Beautiful, bold and varied. Slightly Mad are uncompromising in their simulation.