Unpacking (Nintendo Switch, PC, Xbox)

The words “I’m moving” can be stressful for parents, kids and pets but each move makes us reevaluate the meaning of attachments. What do you leave behind and what remains — that old picture frame, table lamp, basketball, box of marbles or those books. Moving in a way has to do about what’s holding you back. It also gives an opportunity to downsize, the Marie Kondo way, like in her best-selling book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, which involves cutting down one’s possessions to the most cherished items. Imagine playing around this concept through a video game, which is what happens on Unpacking where you try to build up a story by going through someone’s stuff.

Forza Horizon 5 (Xbox, Windows)

Left to vagaries of the pandemic, we all want to get away from it all with a holiday of a lifetime and Microsoft’s Forza Horizon 5 arrived to offer just that. It’s not only the best open-world racing game you can buy, the Xbox/Microsoft Windows release makes you feel alive once rubber meets the road in Mexico. The escapist fantasy celebrates the freedom of driving, allowing you to rev up more than 500 cars that respond to the slightest of touches on the controller, complete with a soundtrack that can only be described as stunning. Every vroom, every screech, every brush against trees is felt through a booming soundtrack.

It Takes Two (Windows, PlayStation, Xbox)

A digital therapy session for couples, the co-op game follows May and her husband Cody who have become dolls and they enter through the pillow fort built for their daughter Rose. But it’s a fort that’s like a maze and it seems to wind on forever. They are at odds but they need to find a middle path, so they can reach their daughter. Playable by two people, either online or together in the same room, the title was declared Game of the Year at the coveted The Game Awards. Love is a perfect plot-vehicle in a year of uncertainties.

Fantasian (Apple Arcade)

Hironobu Sakaguchi is a man known for mould-breaking video game titles, like Final Fantasy, Blue Dragon and Terra Battle series. Whatever he creates is always in equal parts art and cutting-edge technology, something that makes him deserving of the word ‘legendary’. The latest from the godfather of Japanese RPG is the Apple Arcade exclusive Fantasian (Apple Arcade Game of the Year), developed by Mistwalker, the studio he created after departing Square. The backgrounds and settings in Fantasian are real-world, 3D dioramas, and the attention to details is something we have never seen before.

Deathloop (Windows, PlayStation)

On an island named Blackreef space-time fissure has caused the same day to continually reset. Remember the film Groundhog Day? Assassin Colt Vahn is pitted again Julianna Blake, the head of a secret organisation. Colt wants to shut the loop down by assassinating all of Blackreef’s eight leaders in one day but Julianna wants to stop him. Excellent gunplay and a wild narrative make this a top-ten entry.

Hitman III (Windows, Switch, PlayStation, Xbox)

The final game in the ‘World of Assassination’ trilogy welcomes you as Agent 47 and you once again infiltrate the hallowed halls to take out targets. The degree of freedom offered in navigating each assassination is excellent and there is meticulous planning. With each level you are challenged to kill a specific target (at times more than one), besides retrieving additional objectives, like accessing a secret file. It’s a game James Bond will be proud of.

Returnal (PlayStation)

You play as Selene, who crash lands on a hostile planet and as she makes her way across it —shooting down many-tentacled monsters — she discovers old corpses of herself. Taking several hours for a single run, there are several innovations in the gameplay, like the controller rattling as the rain hits Selene’s helmet. The challenge: Each time the player dies and starts afresh, the planet mysteriously rearranges the settings.

Metroid Dread (Nintendo Switch)

There’s an oppressive environment and Samus is stalked by artifically intelligent killer robots on the mysterious planet ZDR. She speeds through the game with unique moves that have often been replicated and by the end of it all, she’s characterised as the most dangerous being in the galaxy.