Either way, we'll be regularly revising this list to tell you the ten games we'd recommend to someone looking to see what PlayStation 4 is all about.

For this edition, we’ve finally said goodbye to Until Dawn (which is still excellent), and welcomed Final Fantasy VII Remake to the fold.

Control

505 Games

Take the weird Twin Peaks narrative of Alan Wake, smash it together with Quantum Break's frenetic powers and gunplay, and you've got Control. Playing as a woman searching for her missing brother, you quickly learn there's a thin line between reality and the fantastical. It's catnip for anyone who grew up loving The X-Files and the supernatural. It's also a prime example of a studio working at their creative heights, both refining and evolving the open-world formula that's dominated games for the past decade.

Buy Control at GameStop — $30

Final Fantasy VII Remake

Square Enix

We thought it would never happen. Final Fantasy VII was an iconic RPG that’s credited with opening up the genre to the west. It peppered the Top 10 lists of the best games of all-time and introduced the long-running Japanese RPG series to polygons, 3D maps, and countless other innovations of 32-bit consoles. 23 years later, and three PlayStation iterations later, Square Enix dared to remake, not remaster, the game. It would be, contentiously, episodic, expanding out the story of Midgar and the opening part of the game into a single game.

It’s all very different. It’s also gorgeous, with a modern battle system that no longer focuses on static characters and menu choices. Somehow, and we were ready to be underwhelmed, the battle system works. FF7R’s fights are slicker and more enjoyable than those in Final Fantasy XV, the latest entry in the series. Each character, from iconic mercenary Cloud through to eco-terrorist Barret and flower girl Aerith, play in entirely different ways, using the space between themselves and enemies in very different ways. Some sub-missions and distractions feel like they’re there solely to eke some more hours out of your playthrough, but the world of the original has been thoughtfully reimagined for PS4, so it’s a minor complaint.

Buy Final Fantasy VII Remake at Best Buy — $60

God of War

Sony

Sony's God of War series had laid dormant for half a decade when its latest incarnation hit stores in early 2018, and for good reason. Antiquated gameplay and troubling themes had made it an ill-fit for the modern gaming landscape. No more. SIE Santa Monica Studio's God of War manages to successfully reboot the series while turning the previous games' narrative weaknesses into its strengths. Kratos is now a dad, the camera is now essentially strapped to his shoulder and Sony has what is sure to become a new series on its hands.

Buy God of War at GameStop — $20

Horizon Zero Dawn

Sony

After years spent churning out various Killzone titles, developer Guerrilla Games finally cut loose with a rich and imaginative new game in Horizon Zero Dawn. The game blends gorgeous post-apocalyptic open world with combat, crafting and a quiet but memorable story. Sure, it might not break new ground, but Horizon does everything so well that it doesn't even matter. It also, two years after its release, remains one of the most beautiful games of this generation.

Buy Horizon Zero Dawn at GameStop — $20

Marvel’s Spider-Man

Sony

Finally, you don't have to pick up Spider-Man 2 on the GameCube to get your web-slinging fix anymore. For almost 15 years, that game was held as the gold standard for a Spider-Man game, and I'll let you into a secret: It wasn't actually that good. Marvel's Spider-Man, on the other hand, is a tour de force. Featuring the best representation of what it's like to swing through New York City, well, ever, Insomniac's PS4 exclusive also borrows liberally from the Batman: Arkham series' combat and throws in a story that, although it takes a while to get going, ends up in a jaw-dropping place. A must-buy.

Buy Marvel’s Spider-Man at GameStop — $30

Persona 5 Royal

Atlus

The original Persona 5 was a great RPG, combining the trials of being a high-school student, falling in love, studying for tests and the rest with righting society’s wrongs and summoning spiritual creatures to fight your battles. The series goes to Tokyo for the first time, ensuring there are now even more things to do with your time. In this refreshed edition, you meet Kasumi, a new character for your party, and face a new threat right after you thought you saved the world. (This also involves three extra months bouncing between Shibuya and Shinjuku.) The original had great characters, loads of style, and a memorable soundtrack -- and Persona 5 Royal improves on the formula, with more activities and some trickier optional boss battle for those craving bigger challenges.

Buy Persona 5 Royal (Steel Book) at GameStop — $60

Red Dead Redemption 2

Rockstar Games

Red Dead Redemption 2 is the kind of game no one but Rockstar, the team behind the GTA series, could make. Only when a studio is this successful can it pour millions of dollars and man-hours into a game. Rockstar's simulation of a crumbling frontier world is enthralling and serves as a perfect backdrop to an uncharacteristically measured story. While the studio's gameplay may not have moved massively forward, the writing and characters of RDR2 will stay with you.

Buy Red Dead Redemption 2 at GameStop — $40

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

Capcom

Many were ready to write off the Resident Evil series after the disaster that was Resident Evil 6. What started as the horror game on the original PlayStation had become a bloated mess of an action game. Instead of throwing the whole franchise in the trash and forgetting about it, Capcom took a hard look at what wasn't working, which -- surprise! -- was basically everything, and thoroughly rebooted the formula. Borrowing from Kojima's PT and, in some ways, Creative Assembly's Alien: Isolation, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is horror through powerlessness. For the majority of the game, you're basically unable to do anything but run from or delay your foes. And that's what makes it so good.

Buy Resident Evil 7: Biohazard at GameStop — $20

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Activision

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice isn't just another Dark Souls game. FromSoftware's samurai adventure is a departure from that well-established formula, replacing slow, weighty combat and gothic despair for stealth, grappling hooks and swift swordplay. Oh, and while it's still a difficult game, it's a lot more accessible than Souls games -- you can even pause it! The result of all these changes is something that's still instantly recognizable as a FromSoftware title, but it's its own thing, and it's very good.

Buy Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice at GameStop — $45

Tetris Effect

Enhance Games

Tetris Effect is both the best Tetris game in years and the best PSVR game perhaps ever. From the mind of Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the developer behind Rez, Lumines and Child of Eden, Tetris Effect blends classic Tetris gameplay with music and a whole lot of particle effects to create something that's more than the sum of its parts. Immersive to the point of transcendentalism.

Buy Tetris Effect at GameStop — $20