It has the sprawling mission structure of The Witcher 3, Metroid Prime style scanning, Tomb Raider-esque bow and arrows and survival.
And it has fricken' robot dinosaurs with fricken' laser beams.
It also -- somehow -- weaves its ludicrous high concept into a story that not only works, but is actually incredibly compelling, affecting and features great writing and layered characters.
The new combat system takes a while to get used to, but once it clicks, it really clicks. God of War is an absolute showcase for the PlayStation 4 (and especially the PlayStation 4 Pro). Get that thing going on 60 frames per second. You'll have yourself a good time.
Updated:Caption:Mark SerrelsPhoto:Santa Monica Studio (PS4 Pro screenshot)
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Assassins Creed Odyssey
Assassin's Creed Odyssey is a very big game. It takes around five hours for the opening credits to roll and, depending on how fast you go, it might take around 20 hours for the game to properly hit its stride.
But once it gets good, it gets very good. Just prepare yourself for a bit of time investment on this one.
Updated:Caption:Mark SerrelsPhoto:Screenshot by CNET
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Bloodborne
FromSoftware doesn't make bad video games. It makes classics, stone-cold classics, one after another.
But Bloodborne might be the best FromSoftware game yet.
A brand new universe, a faster paced combat style, ludicrously well-designed environments and beautiful enemy design. Bloodborne is difficult, but it's intensely rewarding. Crucially, it's a great entry point into the "Souls" genre.
A mind-bendingly massive open world that somehow doesn't sacrifice depth. Visually glorious. It also features surprisingly good writing and a mission structure that makes traditional side-quests feel meaningful.
Prepare to sacrifice much of your life to this behemoth.
Do you like inter-dimensional, high-school drama anime featuring tremendously good-looking teenagers fighting demonic manifestations from another universe?
From a story-telling perspective Metal Gear Solid V is a brutal, unfinished mess.
But that doesn't even matter.
Because the absolute core of Metal Gear Solid 5 -- the sneaking, the moment-to-moment cat-and-mouse game of evading guards -- is just so mechanically dense and polished.
Metal Gear Solid is simultaneously the most accessible Metal Gear game ever made and the most complex. I'm still scratching my head as to how they achieved that.
Rocket League is soccer with cars and it is so good I can't even believe it exists in this broken, corrupt world.
It's not quite as popular compared to when it was initially released and everyone was going crazy, but Rocket League still has a massive core community.
And the game is just so instantaneously fun. So you should probably play it.
Uncharted 4 isn't the strongest entry in the series (that's still the bar-setting Uncharted 2) but it's still a benchmark in visual story-telling excellence.
It's a little bit too long, with way too many shooting sections, but Uncharted 4 does some truly ground-breaking things in terms of video game story-telling.
And it's one of the most beautiful games ever made.
Undertale is for people who have played a lot of video games.
I mean that in a good way. It's got in-jokes, subverts tropes, it's razor sharp and actually properly funny. It's also a really interesting RPG and you should play it.
DOOM is extremely good. This is established fact. This reboot had no right being as good as it is. It harks back to a different kind of first-person shooter. It's about getting up close and personal with monster-demons and spilling their innards on blood-stained floors.
Nier: Automata was released in the same calendar year as games like Breath of the Wild, Mario Odyssey and Horizon: Zero Dawn, but there are people who think Nier: Automata was better than all of those video games.
I disagree, but even coming close to that level of quality is intense. Nier: Automata deserves your attention at the very least. It's extremely good.
Just when you think it's safe to write the first-person shooter off as a banal genre devoid of innovation, along comes Titanfall 2. Titanfall 2 is like any other shooter except wall running, double jumping, turning into gigantic robots and uh...
Actually it's not like another shooter at all. That's why it's so great.
This game is kinda at its best on PC, but the consoles version also rules. Just a tremendously made online shooter with great character design and well-balanced gameplay.
Updated:Caption:Mark SerrelsPhoto:Blizzard Entertainment
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Destiny 2
Did you like Destiny? Do you like replaying the same levels over and over, grinding till you can grind no more with your friends. Abandoning the real world in search of ephemeral pleasures.
Dark Souls 3, like all Dark Souls games, is an acquired taste. But once you acquire that taste, everything else is ash in your mouth.
These games are good.
Dark Souls 3 is great because it's refined and modern and eliminates a lot of the clunk of Dark Souls. It also features some of the best level design in any "Souls" game to date.
INSIDE is short, disturbing and stays with you long after you're done.
It really is one of those unforgettable gaming experiences. To explain more would spoil it. Just know that it is polished, smart, unique, interesting: It's just a well-made "thing" that you should experience.
In a lot of ways it feels like a coming out party for the Monster World series, which has always been huge in Japan, but has only flirted with success in the west.
Now it feels like everyone is talking about Monster Hunter, and with good reason. It takes what we already love about Monster Hunter and makes it more accessible and just... bigger. We've been used to playing Monster Hunter on under-powered handhelds. Playing it on a big boy console just takes Monster Hunter to the stratosphere.
Spider-Man is probably the best superhero video game since Batman: Arkham Asylum. It's a little derivative, but there's no denying it's a well-made, supremely polished video game. You should probably check it out.
