Skyrim

Trying to review Skyrim is like trying to judge a bigass public sculpture: it's such a massive undertaking that the work put into it is impressive all by itself. For a game where the plot, including side quests, can run over 60 hours, you could have just as much fun wandering around like a tourist, making your own Attenborough-style nature documentary about giants and their mammoths. 

The jaw-dropping splendour of the world, the attention to every corner of detail, every voice actor, every item, every town and dragon and cave, is a testament to anal-retentive developers. Even if there were no story or quests to fulfill, just being a part of the world is worth the price of admission.

And the gameplay is still buckets of fun. Skyrim, like it's predecessors, has always let you customise the ever loving crap out of your abilities, items and skills, and let you play and interact any way you like. Don't like the way a spell behaves? Change it. Want to dual wield magic and battle axes? Knock yourself out. Piss off the thieves guild? Go for it – hope you like knives in your back. The plot here isn't too different from its predecessors, you're alone trying to stop the end of the world, but its a beautiful new world you're saving.

Hour for hour, this is one of the best investments in gaming right now, and not one bit of that relies on multiplayer. This is just a sprawling story that you play out at your own pace, hopefully just in time to hide away from awkward Christmas family time. You're way too busy saving the world, dragon born.