Ghost Of Tsushima

For the second time in as many months, we wonder how our Share button is still with us. Tsushima is a virtual photographer’s dream; in fact, the island feels as if it’s been built with its own photo mode in mind. This is quite simply one of the most picturesque game worlds we’ve ever seen. It’s beautiful even before the wind whistles across its pampas grass and through its shrine gates, but when the breeze whips up a storm of maple leaves, sakura petals and more, it’s wondrous to behold.

Elsewhere, you’ll duel beneath waterfalls and next to crashing waves, under an autumnal canopy, inside a cave amid floating lanterns and in fields of purple chrysanthemums and red spider lilies. The golden hour seems to last half the day – perhaps it should be renamed the land of the setting sun – and even the near-monochromatic snowscapes of the frozen north have a desolate, eerie beauty. It’s almost too much: when sumptuousness becomes the norm, the gasps come less frequently. Besides, for all its aesthetic splendour, what you do within that world isn’t nearly so striking.