I'll keep it simple: it's Black Flag 2. Sure it's taking place in the icy waters of Halifax instead of the Carribean isles, but it blends the best elements of both AC4 and AC3. You have two large maps to explore, and the exploration in those maps is totally seemless between land and sea (contrary to AC4 which still had annoying loading screens when entering a city). The story of Rogue, which takes place between AC4 and AC3, is one of the most interesting of the franchise, shedding a different light on the conflict opposing the "bad" guys and the "good" guys, which will see Shay Cormac choose what he thinks is the lesser of two evils. Ultimately, Rogue is without a doubt the last good Assassin's Creed game created to date, one of the last great games published on PS3, and a much overlooked good adventure in its own right.

Namco made a huge error by calling this game Dark Souls 2. At best it's a spin off, but in truth it's an entirely new game with its own lore which barely references the events of the first game. It might as well be an untold sequel to Demon's Souls, with which it actually shares much more elements in common. It would have been better received by the critics if it had been named something like Dragon Souls or whatever, but I suppose Namco wanted to milk this providential franchise and decided to slap a 2 on it.

Anyway, DS2 is a great game on its own, largely on par with DS3. While DS3 is nothing more than a glorified "best of" episode which lifts entire levels and concepts from DS1 and even Demon's Souls (Irithyll Dungeon is a shameless rehash of Latria Tower for example), DS2 tries hard to invent its own mythology and atmosphere while still using the same proven gameplay formula. Chances are if you loved Demon's Souls for being its own game and not a prequel of Dark Souls, you'll equally appreciate that Dark Souls 2 tells its own story in a loosely familiar universe.

Created by Giant Squid (a studio founded by Matt Nava, art director of Journey), Abzû unfortunately feels like it's ironically missing... a game director. Abzû is more like an early and lesser prototype of Journey; it looks like Journey, it sounds like Journey, but it never reaches the emotional and narrative heights of Journey. Abzû tries hard to mimic Journey without quite understanding what made Journey a masterpiece. It's often gorgeous but empty, meaningless. Even the music by Austin Wintory is seemingly made of leftovers from Journey... For all his talents and qualities, Matt Nava is not yet Jenova Chen (the acclaimed director of Journey, Cloud and Flower). But I sure hope his next project will gain in maturity.

The Witcher 3 is easily the single best game of the last three years. Apart from a couple of jewels like Bloodborne, the "PS4 generation" has been notoriously poor in original games and rich in lazy PS3 ports. This RPG runs great on PS4 and even greater on PC. It also features the two best DLCs in the history of DLCs (especially Blood and Wine). Ubisoft and co look completely silly compared to what CD Projekt achieved this gen. Don't pass it up.

Mad Max is another Warner attempt at mimicking the tired Ubisoft formula: an open world full of generic icons and mundane tasks which you have to discover on the map by "climbing towers" (in this case, riding hot air balloons). The melee combat is underwhelming compared to the Arkham series, but the game truly shines when you're driving your car in the middle of nowhere in the early hours of the morning with the sun slowly rising over the horizon and your V8 purring like a sleeping beast. The sound design is excellent and the bland desert can be surprinsingly colourful. Unfortunately the game is way too long with nothing really interesting to do (this isn't helped by the gigantic map) and the story is mediocre at best. Still, when all is said and platinumed, I found Mad Max much more entertaining than Shadow of Mordor.

Shadow of Mordor is basically a clone of Assassin's Creed which doesn't offer much in terms of exploration or activities. You'll spend most of your time killing orcs, picking up flowers and climbing towers. The scenario has less to do with the universe of Professor Tolkien than with the DC comics, although it's decently entertaining. The much louded Nemesis system is rather fun and can be challenging (as well as frustrating when the system goes wrong) but you will do the same thing over and over again. The two available maps are bland and very small. I platinumed the game on PS4 and only picked it up cheap on PC for the collection.

The spiritual sequel (or maybe prequel) to Limbo, taking place in the same universe. The atmosphere of the game is simply brilliant, but be warned that this platformer is much easier than Limbo and as such doesn't provide a particularly meaty challenge. For those players who struggled in the infernal last part of Limbo, it might actually be a good thing. The puzzles are still quite clever and will sometimes leave you scratching your head. Ultimately, like Limbo, Inside will grow on you despite its WTF ending sequence.