Far Cry 4 isn't a masterpiece. It's not going to rock any boats or blow any minds. It's a brilliant toy, a fantastic tool for players to screw around within when they feel like some lighthearted fun.

The Wolf Among Us is off to a great start – if it can replicate The Walking Dead’s emotional nuance and stakes going forward, it could turn into something special.

With a combat and customisation system that was on par with the narrative, Tyranny would be one of the greats. As it stands though Tyranny is a narrative triumph, and thanks to the freedom it provides reinforces the notion that the RPG genre can be one of the best places to find rich multi-layered and rewarding story experiences. And few games handle player choice as well as Tyranny.

King's Bounty 2 lives up to its name in the sense that it delivers abundance. Like an ultra-compressed version of Skyrim, it feels full of things to do even if it doesn't necessarily excel at any of them. The combat is solid. The role-playing is solid. The questing and adventuring and writing and everything else are solid, too. It's comforting and familiar and simply does what it does without a great deal of fuss. In many ways it feels like the ideal pandemic lockdown game. I'll happily load King's Bounty 2, pull up the covers and settle in for the weeks and months to come.

Starved for Help tells a better story than A New Day did, but the sparse puzzles and that one huge glitch hold it back from being a huge improvement.

The characters are not only memorable, but the questions they and the overall story raise go beyond plot twists for the sake of plot twists. There’s care and an attention to detail worth celebrating here. Roman culture isn’t simply a cool historical backdrop, customs, behaviours, what we now know of the times can be found and felt in every corner of the world. And in many of the conversations you’ll have.

As a fan of all things racing if push came to running start I'd probably place myself firmly in the garage of an arcade racing fan. Ahem. But as with the first game in the series I found a great deal of enjoyment with Project Cars 2. The graphics and sound especially won me over. And whilst the struggles, trials, and tribulations of such a demanding simulator may have left me shaking with rage, the sheer exhilaration I felt after hitting a series of apexes so perfectly, culminating in a podium finish, was sweet recompense.

On the whole, more time in development might have ironed out some bugs, and the Day One patch which I’ve had a play with today addresses *some* issues, but a few more persist. They’re not game-breaking, but stand as reason enough the game might have needed another month or so in sharpening up. All that said, there’s a fun game here for people who are into 100%-ing anything they touch, and for those looking for something a little bit different. Be sure to watch the video examples riddled throughout this review to get an idea of what you’re in for, but I’ll be spending the rest of my game-time after plonking roughly 18 hours into it, uncovering everything else it has to offer.

In the end though, by not committing to either the sim-style of TIE Fighter or the arcade-action of Rogue Squadron – the middle-ground falls a short of brilliance. Most campaign missions follow a similar flow, rarely delving into sheer cinematic spectacle or pure sim-like protracted and intense battles. But there’s no denying that when played in VR Squadrons often feels like a dream come true - and when it stays on target, it’s a force to be reckoned with.

There’s plenty here to love, but you will need patience and you will need resolve, because the orcs and their player-defined society is a thing of, as I said earlier, unnatural beauty, it’s just a shame the rest of the game suffers in their expanded development wake.

The truth is Unravel didn’t need a reason for you to play it, because the basic mechanics handled that for you, and so it didn’t need a story, no less one built around rebuilding foreign and alien memories from someone you don’t have a connection to, nor care about.

The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind is a definite success, it faithfully recreates and updates the iconic location for both modern audiences and modern gaming hardware. Seriously, simply walking around and taking in all the sights is worth the price of admission alone. Well, for those that think fondly of their time spent with the original Morrowind over a decade ago. But, with a great story that expands and digs deep into the sort of lore and history that would make any Elder Scrolls fan happy, The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind feels very much like its own thing too.

Dawn of Ragnarök could have given us new items in shops, different resources to gather and craft with (though you can upgrade gear to a new tier, which is a nice addition) and more fun with its economy. And while there are differences to what we’ve already played through in the base game and its other two expansions, they don’t make the experience different enough. That said, however, the story here can’t be faulted, nor the treatment of the sagas and history of the Vikings and Norse myth, which is Dawn of Ragnarök’s best element.

Like with the original Halo Wars, what we have is an experience that can appeal to fans of both the Halo franchise and those who would enjoy your typical RTS experience. But, appealing to everyone can have its detriments, with some of the RTS elements in Halo Wars 2 feeling like they could have been fleshed out just a bit more, and some of the more action-oriented scenes feeling like they would have benefited from a perspective that wasn’t so far removed from the ground. But even so, it’s still an often-thrilling experience, and a great entry in the Halo franchise. And, a friendly reminder that there’s always room in the market for a good RTS game.

Something a bit different from the annual update they've come to love. It's another triumph for EA Canada.

With this new structure Ardennes Assault represents the best single-player experience seen in a Company of Heroes title to date.

It remains to be seen how well 400 Days ties into Season 2, although it’s certainly implied at the end that your actions here will have some impact. As the epilogue messily ties everything off, it’s hard to say for sure whether 400 Days is an absolutely essential part of the Walking Dead experience, or whether it’s mostly a fantastic reminder that Telltale knows exactly what they’re doing.

Whether you’re being stealthy or outright flamboyant in your pursuits of slag and biomass and plaz, Void Bastards offers up a fresh and engaging take on the first-person rogue light sub-genre in a package that is has the gameplay to match its vibrant art style.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Expeditions: Rome. The tactical combat held my attention throughout. It has some weaknesses elsewhere, for sure. But like an effective party, they work to offer support. Tinkering away in your camp, or shuffling pawns across the strategic map might not get the pulse racing, but it provides an opportune moment to catch your breath, to rest and recuperate before pulling on your armour and once again striding onto the battlefield where you belong.

For what it’s worth, I loved playing the game. I felt let down and disappointed with my major gripe riddled throughout this review, but every other facet of the game is a triumph. And so at the end of the day it boils down to where you stand on design progression, and on modern day humanised characters with sticky trigger fingers. While I’m in the former camp, I also realise I’m likely outnumbered by those in the latter.

In the end if you’re a fan of explorer, filmmaker, and scientist Jacques Cousteau or feel at home watching the deep sea documentaries of David Attenborough, then ABZÛ is something that you’ll definitely want to check out.

Probably the best place for anyone to jump into Magic for the first time and is great value for money for its breadth of gameplay and content.

Despite an unhealthy smattering of technical concerns, Halo: The Master Chief Collection really is an essential purchase for fans of the series, whether they’re in it for the campaigns, the multiplayer, or the best of both worlds.

Large scale sci-fi strategy is a genre that will hopefully be here for many years to come. And at its core that’s what Dawn of War III is, and what its campaign and multiplayer highlight – epic sci-fi strategy with armies of varied units fighting against different races in heated and intense battles. It’s no secret that developer Relic understands this genre well, which in turn means that the balance and differences to be found among the Space Marines, Orks, and Eldar -- not only in units but in presentation and characterisation -- shines throughout. Which makes the addition of MOBA-like elements less of an experiment, than it is a different and fun approach. And just like the action-RPG direction of the second outing, Dawn of War III once again has made us eagerly anticipate what’s next for the series.

Crisp visuals and smooth performance paired with tried-and-true gameplay and a controller that feels and behaves unlike anything that has come before - Astro’s Playroom is well worth spending some of those first PS5 moments with. The speaker, the motion controls (when limited to simple motions only), the impressive HD rumble, the adaptive triggers, it’s all here and impressive. Playing off the in-game visuals and surround sound coming through your headset or speaker setup it’s as much a proof of concept as it is a fine 3D platformer and a celebration of all things PlayStation. It leaves you wanting, and pining for a full-sized Astro adventure too. One built from the ground-up for Sony’s new console and groundbreaking new controller.

Gorn can be completed in roughly two and a half hours. That runtime is padded out with an Endless Mode and chasing weapon unlocks by appeasing certain in-arena objectives. What I really wanted to see was the asymmetrical Party Mode multiplayer that's in the PC version. The basic gist: mates on controllers can team up and try to do you in using gladiator avatars who all handle like drunk Octodads. Fingers crossed this shows up in an update. For the respectable asking price, I don't think the above situation is a deal-breaker. If you were to go out on a (severed) limb for a speculative purchase, I think you'd find Gorn represents the nicest and red-iest slice of PSVR we've seen in some time.

If you've been playing Rift since launch, whether to purchase this expansion or not doesn't even require thought. It's the content/feature pack you were promised and on that note it delivers in spades. New players, however, may find what's on offer to be woefully dated alongside a player population significantly diminished next (and due to) to the more recent competition in the market.

There are puzzles, but never in a way to stop you on your journey forward. Like the music, there’s a pull or need to keep going. It’s what one might dismiss as art first, game second. Shape of the World is, well, neither. Instead it is a transportive journey that feels like a great ambient electronica album come to life. Brief and wonderful, and something to savour.