We always find ourselves hoarding special items that we end up never using in games.

The Arkham games are Batman at his best, combining intense action sequences against an iconic gallery of villains with exploration elements via his detective skills. The dark knight isn’t just about brute force, but uses his intellect to gain an advantage over criminals.

When I think back on the games I played growing up, the Ultima series stands out as one of the most unique and compelling. These open-world fantasy RPGs helped define and establish many of the standards of the genre through nine main instalments and multiple spin-offs on a variety of platforms.

The first time that Cyberdreams producer David Mullich showed author Harlan Ellison a page of the dialogue he'd written for the 1995 game based on his short story "I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream," Ellison asked, "Who wrote this shit?"

When Mullich replied that he had, Ellison got visibly embarrassed and apologised. "No, that's all right," Mullich replied. "It is shit compared to your writing. So, take it and make it better."

I finally finished Persona 5. It took us about 90 hours (I played with my wife) but it was worth every minute.

Shining Force was the game that made me fall in love with tactical JRPGs. Everything from its anime visuals to its catchy music and its grid-based battle system had me hooked.

When I think back on the NES era, the Ninja Gaiden series stands out for having gorgeous cinematics, tough as nails gameplay, and amazing music.

Do you remember your very first video game?

There are moments in Bayonetta 2 that are such a visual feast, I wished I could slow everything down with Witch Time. Fighting an onslaught of demons and angels with hundreds of explosions assaulting the screen, I loved how Bayonetta always keeps her cool.

Super Mario Odyssey did a fantastic job melding a nostalgic love for the older retro Mario titles and its more modern 3D games. Its levels are inspired, creatively designed to balance a sense of wonder with a good challenge.

A horror game from South Korean developers ROI Games and Gachyon Soft, White Day: A Labyrinth Named School is notable in being one of the few games released in the West I know of that has the Korean War as its backdrop. It also has the reputation for being one of the most terrifying games ever developed.

I'm blown away by Horizon Zero Dawn's breathtaking landscapes, dinosaur-mecha battles and emotionally powerful story.

The end of the world is here, and I never thought it'd sound so beautiful.

Symphony of the Night took the best elements of the Castlevania series, injected in RPG elements, and created one of the most compelling games for the original Playstation. A platform-adventure action role-playing game, it was developed by Konami and released in 1997 for the original PlayStation.

In Final Fantasy VI, the villains triumph. It's one of the most shocking moments in gaming. As devastating at the moment is, the journey the protagonists take to defy the overwhelming odds against them is a message of hope during bleak times and represents what I most love about the series.

One of the most extraordinary facts about Mega Man 2 is that it almost didn't happen. Sales of the first Mega Man were low, and it was only with the special permission of Capcom's vice president that development was allowed to proceed. But there was a catch. The staff had to work on it concurrently with other projects on their own time.

There were so many great games in 2017 with fantastic stories and equally great characters.

High school is tough and Persona 3 did a masterful job capturing the complexities of student life. Easily one of the best JRPGs I've played, the game gave players an extremely difficult choice near its end that still haunts me.

Super Mario Galaxy 2's gameplay is superb, having some of the most creative level design I've experienced. Discovering the new rules and parameters of each galaxy is a joy.