Among the first titles to truly take advantage of the PS5’s impressive hardware, Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is one of the best entries in the series to date. The sprawling map and engrossing story are beautifully realized with next-gen graphics and high-quality voice acting. 

It's not perfect. Some gameplay bugs have yet to be squashed. It can also feel repetitive. There are lots of dull side quests, and the map is a tad too big. Still, taking on the role of (a male or female) Eivor Wolf-Kissed, you'll sink dozens of hours into exploring (and pillaging) your way from the fjords of Norway to the rivers and sun-dappled meadows of ancient England.

A new Spider-Man for a new console, Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales is the follow-up to the excellent Spider-Man game from the previous generation. The silky smooth frame rate and next-gen ray tracing create an incredibly immersive visual experience. It's like playing a movie from Marvel's cinematic universe. Plus, the soundtrack absolutely slaps.

The highly anticipated Stray has finally hit store shelves, and it's just as fun as it looks. In the game, you take on the role of a stray cat (with a backpack), lost in a futuristic cyberpunk cityscape populated entirely by humanoid robots. You'll cause chaos (knock things off tables), explore a dense and vibrant world, and nap in some very memorable places. Essentially it's everything you'd want to do as a cat, plus some added mystery and intrigue.

Like Until Dawn on the PS4, The Quarry isn't your average game. It's more adventure game than action game, and that's part of the charm. With its cast of well-known actors from iconic horror movies, you'll get to star in your own personal horror story. Following in the ominous, unstoppable footsteps of Friday the 13th and Halloween, The Quarry is a lovingly crafted send-up of classic slasher films, and it packs some very real scares just when you'd least expect them. Plus, your actions affect the story, so plan on playing through more than once to see all the possible endings.

There's something so haunting about the stark and entirely-too-mundane corridors of the Oldest House, the ancient, infinite building you'll explore in Control, and that is never more true than on next-gen hardware. Particles fly through the air as you rip chunks of concrete out of the walls with your mind and hurl them at snarling enemies rippling with eldritch energies. It's super fun.

Imagine if Destiny 2 merged with Gears of War and you'll have some idea of what to expect from Outriders. The third-person looter-shooter from Square Enix is as fun to play as it is to look at. Exploring an alien world with fellow stranded colonists is a sight to behold. Sometimes I just stand on ledges and gaze at the landscape. Then I get shot to death by aliens. The view is worth it.

You'll die a lot in Demon's Souls. The spiritual predecessor of the Dark Souls games we all love to hate, this remake features a lavishly rebuilt game world filled to the brim with crackling spells and clanging swords. It's every bit as spooky as the original entry, but the aesthetic is cleaner and gives off a modern Dark Souls vibe.

In Returnal you take on the role of space explorer Selene as she explores and fights her way through a dangerous and inhospitable alien landscape only to tragically die. And come back to life. And then die again. And again. The combat is a high-octane hybrid of bullet-hell dodging and weaving, along with third-person action RPG elements. Like Mass Effect meets Enter the Gungeon. Unraveling the mystery at the heart of Returnal is going to take persistence, perseverance, and a whole lot of bullets.

Time loops are in this year. In Deathloop you will live the same day over and over again, each time learning more and more about the loop you find yourself stuck in. Unlike many roguelikes, Deathloop plays more like a super-violent Groundhog Day. Each time you die, the loop will restart and you'll have to fight your way through the same enemies in the same places, but this time you'll know their tricks and where all the good weapons are. It's a pulse-pounding shooter with an excellent voice cast, a great soundtrack, and a fully-fleshed-out setting that I found myself wanting to spend more time in with every reset.

Elden Ring is an action RPG that comes from the twisted minds behind Dark Souls and Bloodborne, with considerable input from the one and only George R. R. Martin. This creative team has put together one of the best open-world games in recent memory, and one of the most addictively punishing gameplay experiences ever to grace the soulslike subgenre. The world of Elden Ring is as beautiful as it is gruesome, as inspiring as it is tragic and melancholy. It's a world defined by its mysteries, which you'll slowly unravel with every hour spent exploring haunted forests, with every dungeon you delve, and with every surprise death at the hands of a giant shrimp sniper. Trust me, it'll make sense once you play it.

Still a dubious choice, Cyberpunk 2077 has finally received its PS5 next-gen upgrade, and it's a lot better than it was at launch. Despite its faults, it's still a (mostly) fun first-person action-RPG, but bug fixes and updated graphics haven't done anything for the at-times-problematic game content—like the constant pornification of transgender bodies via in-game advertisements. That one still gets a strong eyebrow raise from me. 

Originally released in 2020, it hit store shelves infested with bugs and broken gameplay. Cyberpunk 2077's launch was so bad it was even pulled from the PlayStation store for a while. It's better now, but there are still much better games on this list.