Wrapping up any given year and looking to the future always puts things in perspective, and whilst there's a lot to bank on in 2016 - from Uncharted 4 to Mass Effect: Andromeda's first appearance - 2015 still has quite a few cards left to play. Simply put, last year was one of the best for gaming so far, featuring the quartet of Metal Gear Solid V, The Witcher 3, Super Mario Maker and Fallout 4 dominating critic and fan-voted Game of the Year lists across the board. Indie selections were bolstered with suitably inventive and unique titles, and even the mid-tier of development that's occasionally on life support managed to round everything out nicely. That said, I'd wager you've still not seen the best the year had to offer, quite simply because when the likes of Star Wars Battlefront and Call of Duty: Black Ops III are vying for your attention by commanding headlines left, right and centre, it's hard to keep track of everything else. Luckily for you, that's where this article comes in...
20. Elite: Dangerous
Move over No Man's Sky, it turns out we don't actually need to keep waiting around for you to get a concrete release date; Frontier Developments' Elite Dangerous has the whole space exploration thing sewn up already. In early access for a couple of years, the final retail version eventually graced online outlets in 2015, and although it's only available on Xbox One and PC at time of writing, there's a PS4 version in the works too. Gameplay-wise you'll need to maintain and control a hefty ship of your own. Deep-space exploration is the aim here, so if you're coming to this for endless dogfights and on-land excursions, you'll be outta luck - however if you want to fork out for the additional add-on, Horizons, you can land on certain planets and take various vehicles out for a spin. E:D is the fourth instalment in a 30 year-strong franchise, one that knows how to transport you up to the stars and beyond, and one that absolutely nails the feeling of booting up the warp-drive and blasting off to chase the horizon. It's ace.
