These are the ten best video-games of 2017

Rory Cashin

This can also be your cheat-sheet for buying Christmas presents for the gamers in your life.

2017 has been a fantastic year for gamers, as was evident by how difficult it was to whittle this list down to just ten entires. We had to leave off some great ones like Night In The Woods, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, Nex Machina, Prey, Cuphead and loads more besides.

So here, in our opinion, are the ten best games of 2017, in alphabetical order, kicking off with…

HORIZON: ZERO DAWN (PS4)

Why is it great? You play a woman who is surviving a post-apocalypse, trying to find out who she really is, all while fighting giant robot dinosaurs. That’s right. Giant. Robot. Dinosaurs.

INJUSTICE 2 (PS4, XBOX ONE, PC)

Why is it great? As well as being the perfect game to put on when you’ve got friends over, you can also pick your favourite superhero/villain, and get involved in some great single player action as you try to stop a Superman-Gone-Mad from taking over the world.

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD (WII U, SWITCH)

Why is it great? According to just about everybody, this is the best game of the year/decade/eternity, and is currently the standalone reason as to why you should already own the Nintendo Switch.

MARIO KART 8 DELUXE (SWITCH)

Why is it great? Yeah, you probably owned it already when it was released a few years back on the Wii, but this upgrade for the handheld console is still brilliant enough to warrant the re-purchase.

NieR: AUTOMATA (PS4)

Matching gorgeous, artistic visuals with jaw-dropping, totally immersive story-telling, this action RPG is the kind of game that comes to mind when people are making the argument that video-games need to be listed alongside TV, movies and music as mediums of artwork. Totally and completely unique.

PERSONA 5 (PS4)

Japanese RPGs are usually enough to send a fair portion of gamers running for the hills, seeking out the relative comfort of Call Of Duty or Battlefield, but for those looking for something completely different from their gaming experience, you can’t do much better than this one.

RESIDENT EVIL 7 (PS4, XBOX ONE, PC)

After the franchise highlight of RE4, things took a turn for the racist with 5, and the plain unoriginal for 6, so it was back to the drawing board with this one. Putting you in one house, in the middle of nowhere, with nothing but a family of Texas Chainsaw-esque killers for company. Bring a change of underwear.

SUPER MARIO ODYSSEY (SWITCH)

Getting compared to Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy, the greatest within the series to date, Odyssey pairs you up with a sentient cap named Cappy (don’t ask question, just go with it) and you’re away on one of Mario’s best and most inventively fun adventures ever.

WHAT REMAINS OF EDITH FINCH (PS4, PC)

Very rarely does a game come along to will kick you right in the soul in the same way a classic, heartbreaking novel can, but that is exactly what we’ve got here. Didn’t think a game could make you cry? Think again.

WOLFENSTEIN II: THE NEW COLOSSUS (PS4, XBOX ONE)

The sequel to 2014’s surprisingly great The New Order, and we’re back in an alternative reality version of America, one which lost World War II to the Germans, and it is up to you to kill the new and improved Nazis before they completely wipe out humanity as you know it. Also features a shoot-out on Planet Venus, because that is the kind of madness you should really come to expect from this franchise.