Horizon Zero Dawn is one of the best games I've ever played, and frankly, one of the best looking video games ever crafted. Its combat was fast, ferocious, and made even more impressive due to its robotic cast of creatures that you could literally dismember with a well-placed arrow or set up traps to bring that lumbering beast down to the ground.

A good game has an interesting and engaging story, well-conceived characters and gameplay mechanics that serve to complement the many intricate systems at play. If either of these elements gets in the way of one another, then it can upset the balance and cause the experience to be poor.

2015's Star Wars: Battlefront originally released with a shallow offering of content. It featured no single player campaign, a small assortment of maps, and attempted to sell a season pass that was nearly the price of the game itself.

It's safe to say that Sonic has seen better days. The lightning-fast blue blur of a Hedgehog hasn't been able to produce a memorable and satisfying title in years until the release of Sonic Mania earlier this year, a title, I might add, that was initially crafted by fans of the series rather than an in-house established development team.

When Activision announced that Call of Duty would be continuing with its trek into the future of war with Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, fans were outraged. The reveal trailer became one of the most disliked trailers of all time and this led to poor sales when compared to the highs the series was known for.

The first Life is Strange was such a well told and enjoyable game. Max, Chloe, and the time-traveling shenanigans that each of them got up to, not to mention the emotional finale the game ended on, depending of course if you picked a certain ending, is one of my favorite games ever made.

There are few gaming franchises that can stay as consistently relevant and enjoyable as Mario. The plump little plumber has raced go-karts, competed in the Olympic games against Sonic the Hedgehog, and is always down for a party, or two, or eight, or ten.

Right from the very start, Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus puts a strong emphasis on its characters and its shock and awe narrative that will stick with you during the 10-12 hour campaign. There were so many moments where I sat there in disbelief to the very scenes that unfolded, the situations the characters found themselves in, and one of the most shocking twists I've seen.