Game of the Year 2016: Kell's Personal PlayStation Picks

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 Kell Andersen.

Fifth Choice: Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

Uncharted 4 is a fantastic action game. Is it as genre-defining and earth-shattering as Uncharted 2 was when it released? Absolutely not. But it was never going to be, and it didn't need to be either. Instead, it represents the most refined and emotionally potent chapter in a consistently excellent series. A fitting end, then. Even for a thief.

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Fourth Choice: ABZU

My favourite thing about games is their ability to transport us to entirely new worlds, both real and imagined. Sometimes, upon entering a particularly memorable area in a game, I'll just sit for a couple of seconds, admiring the scenery and existing in a place wholly different from my own. ABZU is more conducive to that style of play than any other title released this year. Its gorgeously colourful levels combined with its elegant control scheme make it a truly beguiling place to simply be.

Third Choice: Dishonored 2

Dishonored 2 takes everything that worked in the first Dishonored and improves on it tenfold. The levels are larger and more vertical, there are two playable characters, there are more routes to take, and the worldbuilding is more fantastical and bizarre. While the main plot borders on trite, the small triumphs and tragedies found in letters and journal entries littered through the empty rooms of Karnaca are endlessly captivating. A truly fantastic sequel to a truly fantastic game.

Second Choice: The Witness

Jonothan Blow and his team worked on The Witness for roughly 8 years, and boy does it show. This is a game so dense with content that it could have very easily been suffocating to play. Thankfully, Blow does a near perfect job of intuitively teaching you the puzzler's many mechanics; all without a single onscreen prompt. What's more, the game's gorgeous presentation combined with its sheer variety of puzzles means it rarely loses its intrigue – an impressive feat given such an expansive runtime.

First Choice: Inside

Inside displays an unrivalled economy of design. There are so few moving parts in its puzzles, and yet it remains inventive and confounding right up to its closing moments. Similarly, its story says so much with so little; a dusty shaft of light combined with a slight musical flourish conveys more than any text or voiceover ever could. This is to say nothing of its utterly flooring final sequence, which manages to be both understated and completely insane.

What do you think of Kell'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.