In the end, the joy to be found in Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night builds into a crescendo as the end of the adventure draw near. A slow burn that turns into the warmest of genre embraces. Its dedication to and the evolution of the formula that people fell in love with across several Castlevania games is commendable. Does this mean that the game’s appeal to those not all that enamoured by the classical Metroidvania is somewhat diminished as a result? Probably. But, then again you could say that this is a prime example of a spiritual successor done right.

If you like lateral thinking, great [branching] storytelling and excellent voice-acting, and can look past a drab, repetitive sheen that is less gameplay heavy and more set-dressing, you’ll still find a gem in this H.P. Lovecraft love letter to the sea, left in an old bottle to wash up on your shore.

Judgment has the aura of an epic crime drama – one that feels even more interesting due to its Japanese setting. The location of Kamurocho, although mostly static is a joy to explore, and Takayuki Yagami is a wonderful protagonist that is easy to get behind. Lengthy and full of twists and turns, even though Judgment offers up the most basic of detective sequences there’s still plenty to love about the world depicted. Twisted Trio included.

Even though My Friend Pedro falters when it strays the furthest from the action-movie ideal of its premise most of the time you’re still a stone-cold killer with a suite of guns and a knack for shooting at bad dudes whilst upside down spinning in mid-air.

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.

A great foundation that is mechanically sound and will delight in the early hours. Stick around too long, however, and Chaosbane reveals a dearth of classes, enemies and environments. Also a weak endgame.

Overall production values are great with all dialogue having accompanying voice acting and when talking to NPCs you’re often presented with several dialogue choices - many of which expand the world’s lore and current events. With several quality of life and mechanic upgrades from SpellForce 3, Soul Harvest is an enjoyable experience that scratches both the RPG and RTS itch. A blend that still feels unique to this series, and one that continues to impress all these years later.

When Sony released the PSVR with the PlayStation Worlds teaser experience, every gamer worth their salt gravitated to the London Heist mini-game. Blood & Truth takes that short yet fantastic proof of concept and fleshes it right out into a showcase that's well worth a buy for any PSVR adopter. While I don't think this dethrones Resident Evil VII as the king of PSVR experiences, Blood & Truth is very much like one of my loved ones when I have the headset on – within striking distance.

In the end, Total War: Three Kingdoms is essential for fans of Chinese history, the romantic depiction of the era, and all-round history buffs. The steep learning curve is well worth the time investment as the enhanced and expanded diplomacy and management side moves the series forward in meaningful ways.

In the end, Observation resonates primarily because of how it uses its interactivity and presentation. Playing a role and being there as a part of it all even elevates even some of the weaker narrative moments. From the visual effects to the detailed space station to the ambient music and even the animation of Emma herself, Observation is a triumph in both design and calculated execution.

Rage 2 is a good time if you can look past its issues. On one side of the neon-pink fence, the game’s story is frustratingly generic amidst a world of potential. On the other side, the action, gunplay, and variety of things to do is great. Chaining special abilities together to take down mutants inhabiting the wasteland is immensely satisfying, especially when it involves hurling them into spinning blades on ‘Live TV’. In the end Rage 2 is fun for what it is, and certainly hits the right high-octane note when the action gets going. It’s just a shame it can’t carry that momentum through to the other cogs in the machine.

If you don’t mind being “kicked in the dick”, narratively, while having your hand held through gameplay, and utterly enjoy mood, even if it is sonically amplified gloom and dread, A Plague Tale: Innocence does deliver.

In the end playing through the story and standard 1-v-1 competitive stuff will be more than enough for some. But for completionists or Mortal Kombat super-fans then perhaps the stingy nature of ‘unlocking everything’ will take its toll.

As a blend of intrigue, mystery, sci-fi, and horror – Close to the Sun may not be the turn of the century BioShock that pre-release media might have suggested, but there’s plenty of electricity and power to be found in the story it tells.

Contributing significantly to the disappointment are the sound effects - with the guns and explosives sounding particularly underwhelming.

Days Gone is contextually broken, its gunplay is deplorable, its ‘open-world’ premise is a joke and its narrative consistently overrides that open-world ‘design’ goal. It’s pretty, in parts, but it’s broken across the board because it’s disparate in what it wants to be, and that’s because it fails to be Days Gone. Instead it just mimics, brokenly, games already gone.

Dangerous Driving ends up being a Monotonous Bore. An arcade racer that doesn’t do anything particularly new or different. And really, when the crashes look like simple physics experiments from the late-90s that can trigger from the slightest of scrapes – it was destined to fall short of hitting its lofty Burnout spiritual successor goal.

My Time in Portia has its moments though and getting through the early milestones hint at the larger picture and more player freedom. As it stands it’s is a ‘life sim’ that could do with a little more of the former.

From the animation to the visual effects, this is the best-looking Anno game to date. Something of a no-brainer when it comes to advances in technology. But with the expanded focus on trade, production, naval combat, and colonisation it’s also one of the most engaging entries to date – again, once understood. A city builder well worth visiting.

Without delving into spoilers, the final episode of Telltale’s The Walking Dead is definitely an emotional roller-coaster with dramatic twists and turns – some of which land, whilst others feel rushed to get things to some form of conclusion. Above all though, it’s understanding of the series long history and Clementine’s journey make these final moments pack one hell of a bite.

If, like me, you’ve always just shied from games that punish for the sake of punishing, but thoroughly enjoy a story with mystery, excellent dialogue and unique fantastical components, Sekiro will punish, but it will also deliver in damascus folds. Folds upon folds. Prepare to die though, and much more than twice.

The refined combat, improved AI, and other elements overshadow any detriments and lingering bugs. The Division 2 is not only a refined follow-up, it’s the arguably the best ‘looter shooter’ this generation has seen.

Hypnospace Outlaw successfully captures the spirit of late ‘90s internet by creating its own robust and varied and equally strange version of it. One part late ‘90s internet simulator, one part engaging detective story, Hypnospace Outlaw’s hit counter is strong. Zane rocks.

The problem isn’t that it’s too linear, it’s just that the balance is off. The combat variety across the three main characters bleeds into the storytelling and the relationships depicted across the lengthy story and wonderfully insane cinematics. With skill progression and hidden challenge stages to discover there’s reason to go back and tackle higher difficulties or certain missions from a different perspective. But there are diminishing returns when trade-in surprising story-beats and character moments for lacklustre level design and not enough variety in the locations you do battle.

Make no mistake Dirt Rally 2.0 is a hardcore rally simulator, and as such, may not appeal to all racing fans. Most racing games I usually drive without any assists (well, not the original Project Cars), but for some of the cars (looking at you Porsche) throughout their Rally events, I found it necessary to dial the stability and traction control to max in order to simply finish, never mind placing first. Thankfully the Rallycross events, while fairly long due to the extensive qualifying rounds, offer an almost separate game to those of us who prefer to fling their rally-spec cars around a tight track, lap after lap after lap.

Trials Rising is infinitely better than Trials Fusion and feels like the proper sequel to Evolution. You’re going to get exactly what you expect from Rising, if you’re a Trials fan: crazy course design, a sense of RedLynx just trolling you, some reward, mostly despair but now with added loot boxes for you to open and basically be disappointed with, or not even remotely caring of, their contents. What matters here is that Trials Rising is a game with longevity and challenge.

For all the interesting lore and intrigue of the world, most of it is hidden behind layers of library entries that players shouldn’t have to read through.

No matter the many moments of fun to be had with the impressive size and scope of the environments to explore and explode within – there’s a disjointed feel to much of Crackdown 3. A feel that ultimately means it fails to reach the charming heights of the original.