It's time once again for the indomitable staff here at Push Square to share their own personal Game of the Year picks. Every year, we herd our writers together and force them to spill their opinions on their five favourite games of the last 12 months. Usually, this involves poking them with a stick until they come clean. Below, you'll find the personal PlayStation picks of reviewer Sam Brooke.

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Fifth Choice: Battlefield 1

Despite its borderline tasteless marketing campaign and its butchering of Seven Nation Army, I was surprisingly pleased with Battlefield 1. Sure, it doesn't feel like a World War 1 shooter at all, but it's vastly improved the Battlefield formula; there's more of a focus on team play, and battles feel much grander thanks to the giant scale of the maps. The Operations mode is excellent, and provides some amazing moments and set pieces, and even though the campaign is extremely average, that automatically makes it one of the best Battlefield single player offerings ever.

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Fourth Choice: Headlander

If you told me a year ago that one of Double Fine's best games would be a 2D Metroidvania platformer, I wouldn't have been able to slap you because I'd be drowning in a sea of 2D platformers that PS Plus was endlessly haemorrhaging. Yet just when I thought I was sick of the genre, Headlander pulled me back in with its perfection of platforming basics and refreshing twist. Playing as a flying head and attaching to the bodies of your enemies is much more fun that it sounds, and makes for some excellent puzzles thanks to the Metroidvania staple of colour-coded doors.

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Third Choice: Overcooked

Never has a game made me feel so uncomfortable and angry, yet also so happy. Overcooked is an absolute joy (and pain) to play with friends, bringing out the best (and worst) in people. The way that the campaign just gradually complicates cooking more and more - introducing complex recipes and constantly changing and inverting the environments that you cook in - is enough to keep you and your friends Gordon Ramsay-ing at each other for hours. What's more, it provides a nice escapism from my awful culinary skills - forgetting to remove the plastic bottom from a pizza and consequently melding the two together being a particular lowlight.

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Second Choice: Hitman

Though its episodic release didn't go down well with many, I believe that it worked wonders with Hitman as it gave IO the time and space to craft some truly interesting levels. Although Colorado was a bit of a miss, the sheer beauty of Sapienza, the organic feel of Bangkok, the bustling markets of Marrakesh, and the Bond movie atmosphere of Hokkaido all made for excellent missions, and the different creative kills that the developer dreamed up only made the game more interesting. If only the name was better.

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First Choice: Broforce

Yeah, I didn't expect this either, but here we are. Broforce is a magnificent example of a gimmick that actually improves a game - rapidly switching between parodies of 80s machismo movie characters is not only hilarious, but forces you to change your style of play and tactics as you jump from ability to ability. The fact that every block of the environment is destructible allows for pure chaos as your screen fills with fire and explosions, while also making Broforce an absolute hoot with friends - mainly consisting of laughing at whoever spawns at MacBrover. Its 'Murica type humour may seem dumb at first, but it's surprisingly well executed and intelligent - in fact, that's an excellent way of describing the game as a whole.

What do you think of Sam's personal picks? Are there any games on this list that would make it into your own top five? Spill your own opinions in the comments section below.