It took a little longer than I’d have liked to really draw me in, but once Star Wars Jedi: Survivor had its hooks in I went happily along for the ride. If Kathleen Kennedy greenlit a Cal Kestis TV series or film, I’d be over the moon. Maybe just with a little less wall-running.

Players swarm to new Fire Emblem games not to see the latest in graphics and mechanics innovations, but rather to enjoy a bit of classic Japanese RPG-style melodrama mixed with captivating tactical combat. And that’s exactly what they get here. The added bit of nostalgia that comes with revisiting past heroes is just the gravy on the side.

The transition to true open world play may not be going as smoothly as we might have hoped, but the technical issues have yet to push me away. In the end, I’m really just here for the weird wildlife, and there’s certainly no shortage of that in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

The transition to true open world play may not be going as smoothly as we might have hoped, but the technical issues have yet to push me away. In the end, I’m really just here for the weird wildlife, and there’s certainly no shortage of that in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

Ragnarök is well worth playing even if some of its callbacks fly over your head. We only get a handful of single-player games each year that deliver such high-calibre storytelling, finely tuned action, and gorgeous graphics in a single package, and Sony’s Dad of War ranks high among them once more.

Bayonetta 3 won’t be for everyone, and that’s OK. There’s room for all sorts of oddities in our modern gaming landscape. And if you’re willing to just sit back and be wowed by a mountain of manic mayhem, chances are you won’t regret the time you spend with Bayonetta in her multiverse of madness.

Gotham Knights isn’t really broken, it simply falls short of what has come before. Superhero games come with lofty expectations these days, and it’s unlikely this entry will meet them for most players. It’s safely skippable for now, but maybe check it out once it arrives on your favourite subscription service.

Splatoon 3 feels complete. The new additions are more significant than what we had in Splatoon 2 at launch. They make it feel like a finished game.

The Last of Us never needed fixing. Everything from combat to crafting has aged remarkably well. Still, it never hurts to polish perfection. And this beautifully enhanced edition works hard to ensure Naughty Dog’s masterpiece will remain my favourite video game for some time to come.

As is, it’s hard to recommend spending $80 on this quirky but erratic crime saga. There’s fun to be had, but best wait for Saints Row to make its way to your subscription service — and maybe receive a few much needed patches in the process.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 earns a modest thumbs up. It’s undeniably huge, delivering good bang for your RPG dollar, and has some interesting ideas on its mind. It’s no Final Fantasy or Zelda, but fans of sophisticated combat and Japanese storytelling should be well served.

As for me, my little family had a pretty good time playing a chapter each night over the course of a week. And while I doubt I’ll play again — I’m fine with how the story turned out for us — I’m pretty sure my mildly OCD daughter is already plotting to go back and fix all the things I made go wrong with my overrides. Who knows? Maybe she’ll find a way to get everyone through this chaotic criminal saga in one piece. But I doubt it.

It’s a party game more than anything else, and one that warmly welcomes just about anyone who can swing an arm. And while the Wii was rife with this sort of casual fare, the Switch could use a few more. That’s why Nintendo Switch Sports earns an easy recommendation for families looking for some straightforward multiplayer fun.

I’m admittedly still a bit lost when it comes to how all of the upgrade systems, subclasses, and secondary objectives and tasks work. And I’m sad that — as usual — I’ll miss out on the new raid mission for lack of being able to schedule a big team of friends to get together for multi-hour play sessions. But perhaps this is just the cost of doing business as a casual Destiny player.

This may have stood a minor chance in the bone dry days of summer, but with so many truly remarkable open world experiences currently on offer at the moment, it’s tough to see why anyone would opt for Elex II.

Gran Turismo 7 is a bit of a throwback to the genre’s early days — and includes some of the series’ old shortcomings — but when it comes to accurate driving physics and sheer, unadulterated love of cars, it’s something close to peerless.

Elden Ring is neither a step forward nor backward for the famed developer, but rather a shift to the side. It’s a different kind of FromSoftware game, one that mixes stampeding mounted combat in a vast world with more intimate, terrifying moments in dark caves and cramped castles. I’m having a grand time with it, make no mistake, but it’s not my favourite FromSoftware game to date.

Simply put, this one is special.

We’ve got a classic and reverent Halo experience that embraces modern ideas where it makes sense. Perhaps I’m showing my age, but this is pretty much just what I want in a Halo game — or at least it will be with the eventual addition of a co-operative campaign mode and some multiplayer tweaks. Add in the fact that it’s included with Xbox Game Pass when it launches on December 8 — bringing millions of subscribers into the fold from day one — and Halo Infinite is clearly going to be the game to play on Xbox platforms for the foreseeable future.

There’s a sense of unfettered joy in everything here. It’s a game that just wants to be fun. For everyone. It aims for every moment you spend with it — be it five minutes or five hours — to be a frustration-free, jaw-dropping, reward-filled delight. And in this endeavour it succeeds marvellously. If there was ever a racing game that needs to be in every Xbox owner’s library, Forza Horizon 5 is it.

If all you’re after is a lot of shooting and exploding and collecting set within a stunning tropical milieu, you’ll find it here. Have at it. If, on the other hand, you’d like a little more in the way of innovative play and nuanced commentary, best keep hunting.

So to experience all the good of Deathloop you need also suck it up and suffer a bit of bad. Nothing too stinky, just enough to make you intermittently wrinkle your nose. But it’s worth it. Arkane’s newest isn’t perfect, but I suspect it will end up one of the most memorable games of 2021 simply because it’s so unlike everything out there at the moment. In a season of sequels and various licensed properties, it’s a treat to get to play something as original and unexpected as this.

All in all, though, Rift Apart makes for an exceptionally easy recommendation. It’s fun for gamers of all ages and genders, absolutely crammed with action, laugh-out-loud funny in parts, and — I can’t stress this enough — looks the way we all imagined the next generation of console games should. I think I speak for PlayStation 5 gamers everywhere when I say we’ll happily take a few more like this.

I don’t see Returnal becoming another Uncharted-style mega-franchise for Sony. It’s just too punishing and quirky to nab a massive audience. That said, it’s a well-produced and polished play that doesn’t really feel like anything else out there at the moment. If you’re not afraid of a challenge, it may be worth adding to your PlayStation playlist.

I don’t know how much longer this pandemic will go on, but I’m happy to have New Pokemon Snap as one more weapon in my arsenal to combat lockdown boredom, alleviate my creative listlessness, and encourage a little more socially distanced friendship and community.

Fantasian draws clear inspiration from mid-numbered Final Fantasy games. From its orthodox structure — players are put in control of a party of heroes who explore towns, dungeons, and an overworld map, with turn-based battle occurring at random intervals — to its sci-fi-cum-fantasy vibe, which includes grand airships, imaginative monsters, and even glowing save crystals, anyone who played a turn-of-the-century Japanese role-playing game is going to experience some welcome nostalgia here — especially when Uematsu’s signature battle music and themes kick in.

What Bravely Default II ends up giving us is a nicely polished traditional role-playing game that gently shifts a few of the genre’s defining bars a centimetre or two higher while safely ducking under others. Fans of the form will find it warm and comforting, but I don’t expect it will win over many converts.

The sad truth is that Cyberpunk 2077 is awash with problems. Which makes it all the more miraculous that we were compelled to plod through its litany of tribulations simply to keep experiencing the story, characters, and world that CDProjekt Red has created. Clear away the grit and there remains something special here that’s bound to light up the imaginations of cyberpunk fans. A better option for console players, however, would be to wait for the next-generation versions, which will likely (or should that be hopefully?) look and perform better, and could benefit from whatever retrofits and patches CDProjekt Red sees fit to release based on player feedback in the coming months.