Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a precious thing. It has the big blockbuster production values, but in sharp contrast to most other “narrative-driven” games in this space, it also respects the intelligence of its audience and is willing to engage with a rich tapestry of themes rather than leaving the onion unpeeled. My gut tells me that as respected and successful as this game has already been, it’s only really getting started and over time will sit alongside the likes of NieR, and Planescape: Torment as the most literary and intelligent games ever made. Goddard, Camus and Sartre would be proud (well, perhaps not, existentialists are not a particularly jovial bunch by reputation).

A strong contender for my favourite game in 2018 to date.

Atelier Lulua's an interesting one from Gust. On the one hand it's certainly the most visually impressive and detailed effort we've seen from the series to date. Gust has always had limited budgets to work with, but the team has really pushed themselves here to make something that does look very "next gen". It also plays very cleanly. On the other hand, Atelier Lulua is a very traditional game, and is an effort to bring fans back to trilogy that has had two other full trilogies developed in-between. It's almost painfully delightful, warm, colourful, and completely charming in everything that it does, but its reliance on nostalgia and series tradition means that I'm just not sure that this will be one to win the series new fans.

I do think that Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity will mean more to people who have played Breath of the Wild, and that's fine. For Zelda fans, there's no way they haven't played it anyway. For Musou fans coming to Age of Calamity from that angle, the sell's a little harder. The narrative that it weaves are great. The presentation is impeccable, and each and every one of the characters are fun to play with. It's just that where the original Hyrule Warriors felt like a love letter to the history and heritage of Zelda, Age of Calamity is more immediate, and that's just a little less of a celebration, though with the tradeoff being it actually contributes to the lore. For me, that's a worthwhile tradeoff, and I didn't even have the assumed knowledge going in.

I really hope Miku VR is a success for Degica. I want to see more of it. I understand that to some people the track list will seem thin, or the content expensive, especially in comparison to SEGA's offerings, but this is everything I could have wanted. Miku is sexy, the rhythm gameplay is both different and engaging, and the music selection is great. This is a VR experience I can lose myself within for hours at a time, and will no doubt keep coming back to for many, many years to come. Keep it up, Degica!

Properly articulating what Birthdays means to me is difficult. It is the embodiment of the pure joy of gaming, where I can sit down and simply immerse myself within this space without feeling pressure or tension. There’s nothing to “win,” but everything to enjoy while, at the same time, the game is pointing out, in its very innocent and heartfelt way, a very simple but so important environmental message. To Yasuhiro Wada, the environment itself has always been the real protagonist of his games, and Birthdays The Beginning is the ultimate realisation of that philosophy.

Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne was one of the first games I ever reviewed as a game critic, back on the PlayStation 2. I was mesmerised by it then, because I found it to be a deeply challenging, but also deeply rewarding JRPG, and its dark, genuinely adult theme wasn't so common for JRPGs back then. 18-odd years later, my interest in games has shifted slightly, and I'd like to think my capabilities and depth as a critic has matured. However, this game continues to compel me. It is thought-provoking, deeply creative, and a genuinely serious JRPG. Oddly enough, one of the qualities that drew me to the original has drawn me back to the remaster: we still don't get so many of those.

Choices That Matter's big problem is that it's so easy to overlook, as it doesn't screenshot easily. A black screen with a paragraph of text, unfortunately, is not going to excite a significant number of people (you'd wonder what such people think of books, but you just know that a lot of gamers aren't readers). For those that do spot it and give it a go, however, it really is a special kind of experience. From the opening paragraph the atmosphere, tone, and structure of And Their Souls Were Eaten makes it simply impossible to put it down.

Between the gorgeous artwork, haunting score, and increasingly abstract world, it manages to take you on a journey through depression that words alone never could. If it's something you've experienced yourself, you can probably guess where it's going and what those shadows might be, but Gris is no less powerful for it. In fact, it's quite the opposite: at least for me, the familiarity of Gris' journey is what made it so impactful, like it was reaching out a hand and saying "I understand."

While simple in presentation, the grand scope of Trails of Cold Steel’s narrative is really what drives this game, and it does so with remarkable intelligence and confidence. You’ll need a good block of time to actually play through this one, but for people that do make the commitment to it, the rewards are more than enough.

I hope it’s a game that others embrace as a stepping stone towards understanding a history and culture that too many are too eager to dismiss as “weird” or different.

Obviously Final Fantasy VIII looks technically primitive today in comparison to the newer titles out there. However, all the elements of a truly great JRPG are in there. There’s the incredible, nuanced, and philosophically valuable narrative, the wonderful characters (aside form Zell), a vivid art direction that shines through, even if the technical blocks are basic, and a soundtrack that will never age. Final Fantasy VIII is a masterpiece, and I’m glad that it’s now properly accessible on newer consoles.

Lumines is at its best when it's pure immersion, no frills. Throw on a really good headset, turn the volume right up, load up a playlist of your favourite music, and melt deep into the beats, thudding rhythm, and hypnotic colours. Lumines is a puzzle game, but the action becomes so driven by feeling and rhythm that it's not really fair to call it something so simple; at it's best Lumines is a game you don't think about. It's a game you feel. And Lumines is so perfectly good at that all the developers needed to do with Lumines Remastered is stick the exact same game on Nintendo Switch.

To call Asemblence an unorthodox game would be an understatement; it’s a game that throws convention off a cliff. I doubt many would find it fun, or even satisfying in a traditional sense, but it's a game that pushes the boundaries of what a game can be – that questions our most basic assumptions of the medium, and that is something we desperately need.

Rayman Legends on the current generation of consoles is the best platforming experience of this early 2014 year.

With a rocking soundtrack, loads of content, plenty of fan service and some clever gelling of two disparate video game universes, Hyrule Warriors is easily my favourite game of 2014 so far.

When I began this review, I wondered if Immortality would live up to the hype I had created in my mind. Luckily, it did. The characters, the narrative, and the completely unique experience that it odders… this game is special. Visual. Intuitive. Genius. Half Mermaid (and Barlow in particular) has upped its own ante, and I legitimately have no idea what the studio could do next. This studio is one of the rare true artists in our little industry.

There's nothing really deep being said about Rio Reincarnation, nor the other two visual novels in this package. The trilogy really is a series of straightforward, light-hearted, comedic (without being subversive or satirical), charming and simple stories, backed up with some of the most gorgeous fan service art you'll find. Sometimes that's all you need, and Tsunako really is a genius in her field.

Gorgeous art, an excellent soundtrack, a massive epic narrative that actually feels earned thanks to the strength of the writing and characterisation, and an exciting, tactical combat system. Yeah, it is, quite genuinely, an 80+ hour game, but that’s what the Christmas break is for, right?

Emotional and poetic, deep and intelligent, it's the kind of game that will fly under most people's radars, but it's also one of those games that will hold a place of pride in the libraries of those that are lucky to discover it. This is a game you will hear me celebrating for many years to come.

It's the sequel that does everything just as well as the original, but adds loads to it. And, with the music selection being even better and more varied than in the previous game, this really is the perfect music game. A little strange for the ears of some people, perhaps, but strange in the best possible sense of the word.

While I personally prefer the more textured narrative of Persona 4, the unrelenting focus and intensity of Persona 3 means that it still stands out as one of the greatest and most intelligent video game narratives. The developers haven’t done too much to mess with that (the decision to leave out a “post-game” chapter that was both technically unnecessary but yet well-regarded notwithstanding), and have otherwise focused on modernising both the look and flow of the game to make it the most enjoyable and “clean” version of Persona 3 yet. Persona has a habit of attracting purists, and I foresee the discourse around this remake being particularly volatile. However, personally, I’ll be over there looking forward to the inevitable announcement that Persona 4 will get this treatment too.

This unique blend of action and tactical RPG elements in one, along with the deep level of complexity, finds the combat to be enticing and addictive in its execution.

I love Far From Noise. It's one of my highlights for the year. Not as a game - because it's barely a game. I love it because it's genuine bona fide art, made with that explicit intent and, importantly, successful at it. It's a game that weaves a masterful story, and would only really work as interactive art, because ultimately, what this game is about is a conversation... and it wants to hear your answers as much as it wants to pose questions to you.

I love being able to play Age of Empires II on my console, and for it to play so well on the hardware and with a controller. As someone who consumes anything to do with Romance of the Three Kingdoms with enthusiasm, I’ve loved this latest expansion in a very long line of excellent expansions, too. Now we just need to get a remaster of Civilization 2 as well, and I’ll spend the rest of the year just playing the same games I spent my entire teenage years with.

Dragon Quest III was a pioneer and was very far ahead of its time. The first Final Fantasy had only been released shortly before this game, yet in terms of storytelling, worldbuilding, and themes, Dragon Quest III was much more sophisticated than Square’s inaugural title. The HD-2D engine is just the cherry on top. Thanks to that, this is one of the best retro remakes I’ve ever played.

Grand Theft Auto V really surprised me. For a series I have had very little interest in the past outside an appreciate for technical proficiency, I found myself drawn into a world where lots of bad things happen to a good number of people - and I was often the one perpetrating these crimes. Call it self-aware social criticism or a guilty pleasure, Grand Theft Auto V proves to be a great deal of fun.

You may well find Gal*Gun 2 to be offensive and intolerable. But that’s all the more reason to experience it and discuss it, and because it’s backed by a really good light gun experience that is bigger and (on balance) better than its predecessor, this game is one of the most playable and interesting transgressive franchises the Japanese industry has ever produced.

Really, the question of whether this game is going to be worthwhile to you is ridiculously simple: Do you enjoy nonograms? If you do, then you don’t really need to be a Miku fan to get value out of this. You’re getting 1000 puzzles, and most of them are very well-designed nonograms. That is, by default incredible value. If you don’t like nonograms, then… well, I just don’t know you.

I always have been, whether it's the writings on T.S. Eliot and Poe, films from The Cabinet of Dr Caligari through to Blade Runner, the music of Nick Cave, or games like I Am Setsuna and, now, Crystar. That Crystar manages to be so layered and nuanced with that theme makes it all the more impressive. FuRyu continues to be the publisher to watch for anyone who likes their games with a bit of genuine artistic credibility.

Dragon Quest I and II HD-2D Remake achieves exactly what developers should always be trying to achieve with a retro remake: Breathe new life into something that fans love. With enough new additions to surprise and delight even the most veteran fan of both titles, combined with a gorgeous art style that does so many favours to Dragon Quest, I somehow found myself genuinely excited, enchanted by, and unable to stop playing something I’ve played almost annually for decades now.

It's a game that deserves to be elevated beyond the jokes and seen as a genuine piece of video game art. I would be very interested if those who have come to the Souls series later will find the deliberately unpolished elements of this remake to be as appealing, but given that FromSoftware will almost certainly never touch the King's Field series again, for me, personally, this is as good as it's ever going to get. As a PlayStation 5 launch title, it's a fascinating example of something that is both deliberately old and a brilliant use of the console's very new hardware, and brought together, Demon's Souls is reason enough to own the console, all into itself.

Atelier remains the comfort food of video games, and Atelier Sophie 2 is one of the more comforting snacks. With so many dense and complex games releasing around one another at the moment, having something that is light, warm, and good-natured is a nice release. I don't know if launching immediately after Elden Ring and Horizon, and immediately before Triangle Strategy works in Sophie's favour, but if you can resist making those comparisons, what you'll see here is one of the most refined and beautiful entries in this long-running and utterly wonderful JRPG mainstay. The game deserves better than to be compared like-for-like with these other titles, as it no doubt will be.

At its core, Danganronpa is a melting pot of various philosophical puzzles that pulls together in such a way that it connected with me on a very deep, very real level. Without giving the ending away, the ultimate fate of all the characters (including Monokuma) left me more than a little shaken, and any game that's able to connect with me at that kind of primal level must be worth the investment.

This game is memorable. It's one I'm going to keep referencing back to, both as an example of really clean, effective writing, and an intelligent concept executed with startling precision. It works as discussion on social interactions, the role technology has on our lives, and a critique of the increasing reliance we have on social media. It's superb, different, and an essential experience.

Every time I think I'm losing interest in Pokémon, Game Freak does something to reinvigorate me. The Pokémon Pearl and Diamond remakes last year were fine, though I ended up spending more time just playing the original Pokémon Pearl again. I needed something like Arceus, I think, to get me to once again drop dozens of hours into a single game. This is a brave, bold game into new frontiers for Game Freak, and it confidently promises a new and revitalised future for the series.

As one chapter in something that is almost experimental for video games – a genuine epic, spanning decades of game development, a half dozen consoles, and a dozen titles – Trails From Zero is a very fine entry indeed. The rich complexities of the narrative engage the brain, while the charming writing and characterisation also make for an entertaining experience. The story is everything to this series, so it’s just as well that is spot on, though thankfully the combat is enjoyable in its own right, and it’s all backed by excellent aesthetics. If you are new to The Legend Of Heroes, this isn’t a bad place to start. If you’re a veteran of the series you must surely love how one of the best games in the series has finally got the full localisation it always deserved.

Baldur's Gate is a classic and a masterpiece, and its sequel might just be better (depending on who you speak to). Brought together in a comprehensive and complete package, not only do you get hundreds of hours of some of the best RPG action ever conceived, but if you're like me and more comfortable with controllers than keyboards and mice, you're finally able to play this masterpiece in the way that you prefer. There's no other way to say this: by virtue of being two of the greatest games of all time, this combined edition pack is one of the best releases of the year.

Shadow of the Colossus is, in a way, overwhelming. It’s not just that the beasts that you are fighting are so massive, and the challenge in taking them on with nothing but a sword and bow can, at first, seem monumental. It’s overwhelming for its emotive power, its rich themes, and its uncompromising vision. There’s nothing genuinely like Shadow of the Colossus out there, and hopefully this new, pretty version, as superficial as that prettiness is to what makes the game so important, encourages a new generation of players to try it for themselves.

This is a quirky and fundamentally experimental JRPG that in many ways remains out there on its own. The chapter-based approach to simple (but enjoyable) narratives that take place across time and space allows for an experience that is both varied and flexible. Throw in the most excellent application of HD-2D art for the remake, and the fact that this is the first time this game has had a formal release in the west, and Live A Live is an essential experimental title for the curious and those that enjoy playing things that are genuinely different.

Australia has a long history and heritage in video games, but very rarely do I see Australian game developers aim to contribute to our national body of narrative work like Wayward Strand does, and I cannot express in words just how admirable I find this effort to be.

Bound isn’t going to be an eSport, and doesn’t really care about that. Nor is Bound for people looking to unwind after a hard day’s work with passive entertainment. There’s nothing wrong with games being either of those things, but Bound is for a third audience; it’s for the people that want something thoughtful, meaningful, and intelligent.

It is impossible to put down.

As a spiritual successor to some of my favourite RPGs of all time, Pillars of Eternity does those games justice with its ultra-traditional story, presentation and mechanics. But I recommend other people check it out as well, as it offers a sprawling world to explore, and a fantastic cast of companions to interact with, making it the perfect example of a retro genre done right.

The Fame & Strategy Expansion Pack for Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII adds even more depth to the game’s systems, and brings the game to the Xbox One for the first time as well. If you missed the original release of Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII, then this is obviously the way to go, and I do think that diehards will also find enough of worth in the expansion as well to justify the purchase.

From the second that I stepped into the game's world and into the first village that would become a base of operation for a few subsequent hours, I was hooked as wave after wave of nostalgia hit me.

The Last of Us 2 epitomises everything about overly-produced, mass market-friendly content that many of us are becoming exhausted with. SWERY, knowing full well that his game will be castigated on Metacritic and widely mocked, has satirised every mainstream expectation of a video game in Deadly Premonition 2. There’s nothing that suggests that anything within this game is not an entirely deliberate, surrealistic subversion of expectations, and while Deadly Premonition 2 is not for everyone (and potentially offensive to some), games as an art form are better off having works like this to exist in parallel to mainstream entertainment.

What is important is that I came away from this game very happy. It's a joy to play, the overall experience is video game comfort food, and I don't think I'll ever get bored with the way Gust approaches the alchemy systems with the same sense of experimental creativity as the alchemy in the game itself.

Zen Studios is by far the most proficient developer of digital pinball out there. I don’t think there can be any debate about that. But the studio has utterly outdone itself with Pinball FX 2 VR, to the point where I can’t actually see myself playing pinball outside of VR going forward.

Cute, charming, happy to a fault and challenging, Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX is everything that you want to see in a great rhythm game.

It is the one game like this that reminds us that games are an art form. The only question is whether you’re looking to experience a true work of art, or have a bit of fun. If you fall into the latter camp, stay well away.

It’s the grandest vision for the series to date, and adds an entertaining dash of culture shock to the exceptional, and unique blend of the best noir this side of Raymond Chandler and the surreal, offbeat, sharp humour. Once again, it really should be the last adventure for these heroes, and yet if the writers at Ryu ga Gotoku have more plans for them yet, be that somehow more sequels, prequels, or spinoffs, I am quite sure they’ll be able to hook us in all over again.

I cannot thank the developer enough for The Town of Light. Not only are we beginning to acknowledge the injustices our ancestors committed, we are exploring how to prevent it from happening again by telling these important stories instead of burying them.

No game, film, book or otherwise has been more effectively in capturing what the experience of exploring the universe must be. Lonely, hostile and unforgiving, Hello Game’s effort works so hard to reject the convention on how games are made that it’s easy to understand why people expecting something more traditional might come away disappointed.

Bury Me, My Love is a remarkable exercise in building empathy. It’s a simple game, but so much more razor focused and successful at creating authenticity than most games that have budgets of a hundred million. Most importantly, however, is that no game is telling a story of greater importance to the world at the moment than Bury Me, My Love. The games industry and those who play games keep arguing that there's the potential for video games to have the emotional power and potential to be the next great art form. Here’s your proof.

A Rose in the Twilight is, in its entirety, a metaphor for the rose itself; it’s a truly beautiful masterpiece, but it’s also a gothic kind of beauty, in that it’s more than happy to stab you sharply, even as you appreciate everything about it. It’s a ravishing, masterful work, that will be played by just a handful, but hopefully remembered for a long time to come.

I really loved the moment-to-moment movement of The Last of Us 2. I enjoyed plotting my way around, trying to minimise the amount of combat I needed to get into. I loved the rhythms and structure of the game, and as one of the final big shows for the PlayStation 4, it makes me wonder why we’re even bothering with a “next generation.”

Europa Universalis IV is the finest strategy game on the market. And it just got better.

Though the play room is where it's at its most pure, that sense of playfulness runs through the entirety of Astro Bot: Rescue Mission, from its creative level design and innovative use of VR to its cute characters, awe-inspiring environments, and subtle dose of black humour. Pure, joyful escapism doesn't get much better than this.

Nothing about Space Invaders Extreme is fundamentally different to how it was in Space Invaders, but it is the greatest arcade game packaged up in a way that the modern audience will find it palatable. Hopefully people are still playing this 40 years down the track, as I am still playing the original, because it deserves to be. It's just that good.

I don't have much to say about Death Stranding that I didn't already say back in 2019. The game remains the excellent and unique piece of art that it is. The "Director's Cut" stuff is an absolute bust and I'm disappointed that such cynical "blockbusterisms" have been applied to Kojima's work in particular. However, this is more than outweighed by the utterly different tone that eminates from the game, now that it comes across as reflective rather than prophetic. It might be sobering, but it's worth musing over.

Untitled Goose Game is the most charmingly misanthropic game that has ever been created - and that's something I didn't even think was possible.

I cannot say enough good things about Caravan SandWitch. It is a top-tier chill game. You can tell the instant Sauge steps foot on Cigalo: it’s especially calm for a post-apocalyptic planet, save for a massive storm brewing far out. The very few elements that didn’t work in my favour aren’t enough to even consider lowering my score for the game. That yellow van is instantly iconic the second you lay eyes on any visual of it. Caravan SandWitch has simple controls, colourful graphics, and oddly enough no sense of pending doom (despite Cigalo being on the edge of extinction.)

Because I was so emotionally invested in the game, I started to lose time while I was playing it. I don’t think it’s an overly long game, but I do think that its length will be wholly dependent on how good you are at understanding its logic and puzzles. It wouldn’t matter if it was over in an hour, though. The game is deep, meaningful, and powerful. It’s reflective, different, and beautiful. It may well end up being more divisive than Ueda’s previous masterpieces, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a masterpiece, from one of the industry’s true auteurs. Play this game. Even if you hate it, it’s going to broaden your horizons around what games are truly capable of.

I already know that this will be my most-played game on the Switch over the longer term. Once you start playing Civilization, it has the most incredible ability to make you lose all sense of time, and desire to play anything else.

Where the Arland series introduced me to Atelier, it was the Dusk series that really solidified in my mind that it really had become my favourite JRPG property. By the end of Shallie I was six titles in and knew I would play anything else that came out of Gust the second it landed. If you're one of those that is new to Atelier (and thanks to Ryza I know that there are a lot of you out there), then here's your chance to catch up on three of the most distinctive and interesting JRPGs of the PlayStation 3 era.

The best art tells us something of relevance to the world around us. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is a dark and intense fantasy of ghosts, vengeance, and human resilience through the bleakest of nightmares. It’s unfortunate that it offers such a strong allegory to the real world, yet it does and that makes it all the more thought-provoking, however inadvertent it was for the developers. Thankfully it’s also exceptionally good to play, even as it challenges your intellect and moral core.

Trails Through Daybreak is a new starting point for a new, epic arc (with the second chapter already out in Japan). By the end of it, I was not only invested in the new characters and contribution to the Legend Of Heroes history that was being created through their actions, but I wanted to go back and replay all the rest of the games in this series all over again. More than a single game, The Legend of Heroes is an expansive project, and it’s inspiring every time I get to play one.

Steins;Gate has a deep and interesting story to tell and does so through characters worth investing in. The writing is excellent, the presentation folds seamlessly into the rest of the package and the game itself will stick with you long after you have reached its conclusion. It remains, years after its original release, one of the best visual novels available on any platform.

The story is beautifully haunting, with flawed characters yet a deep undercurrent of pure, unadulterated love. It is about taking time for emotions to ebb and flow before moving from one scene to another. About understanding what motivates a person’s actions. About life and death and every incredible or miserable memorable moment. On a personal level, Fragments of Him has reminded me to be kind and empathetic, and love with my whole heart; my life has been made better through the experience.

Steins;Gate Elite is not only the perfect visual novel improved, but it's also a shining example of what the top tier of visual novels should look like.

As I said at the start of the review, Star Ocean 2 is the masterpiece of this series. As a hardened, die-hard Star Ocean fan, I can even excuse the fifth entry in the series in my head, and almost no one likes that one. However, the second occupies a particularly special spot in the upper echelons of the genre. With this remake, Star Ocean The Second Story R, the original has been modernised in the most clever and appropriate way, maintaining all the great qualities that people remember from the PlayStation 1, while giving the aesthetics a luxurious overhaul that makes the game comparable as an artistic endeavour to the finest of the genre today. This is, simply, not something that someone with even a passing interest in JRPGs should overlook.

In the end I came to the same conclusion now that I did back then: I had fun with the game itself, but it was the narrative that will no doubt be what sticks with me for some time.

As someone who has been a lifelong fan of Final Fantasy, World of Final Fantasy was specifically designed for people like me, and I love Square Enix for it. Respectful of its heritage, but creative with how it presents it, this game has had a far more meaningful impact on me than almost any other game I’ve played this year. So, thank you, Square Enix. It feels like a gift.

Really, the best way to describe Everything is that it’s a game that lets you play as everything. I don’t mean that in the sense that you can play as anything, though you can do that (at least, any of roughly 1000 different things coded into the game). Rather, I mean that it’s a game that lets you play as a conceptual Everything – that one grand, all-encompassing thing that we are all part of, that binds us together, and that exists within all of us.

Bloodstained is absolutely, unapologetically a game made for Symphony of the Night's many fans, and it lives up to that legacy better than I ever could have hoped for.

Monark is a smart game. It knows it, and it wants you to know it too. Some may well find that it's even pretentious. But it’s also in so many ways a boundary-pushing and innovative experience, and one that I imagine will be unique for a very long time to come. Putting aside the disappointment that comes from realising that it could have attacked with its themes more, I don’t think there is any other way that the creative team could have delivered on a more coherent and compelling vision and, really, it is experiences like Monark that keep me interested in this medium. Don’t let this one pass you by, folks.

I’ve played a lot of visual novels in my time, and a lot of them are favourite games, but I’ve got to say, as a student of Japanese history, and a lover of good storytelling, Hakuoki is right up there with my favourite games ever made. Any game that, after finishing, I can put down and say to myself “if that story was presented to me as a novel I would have loved it just as much,” is a good game, as far as I’m concerned.

Highly refined, beautiful to play, deep and intelligent, it's as endlessly replayable as the very best board games, and deserves to be respected as such.

Just as Journey is a beautiful game, it has a beautiful heart, and that makes the ending (which I won't spoil, even though you really should have experienced it by now), all the more heart wrenching, but ultimately beautiful.

Like I said at the start, The Park is an absolutely terrifying game, but what’s continued to haunt me about it long after I’ve put the controller down isn’t Chad the Chipmunk, or the Bogeyman, or the Witch – it’s how distressing and real the game and its themes are once you peel back those monster story trappings.

I’m so delighted to say that Lust For Darkness is the real deal. The fact that I can compare it to one of the greatest erotic thrillers of all time in Eyes Wide Shut, and not break down laughing, is in itself is a great credit to the developers. The game lacks the sheer mastery and refinement that Stanley Kubrick had over his canvas, but this is still leagues ahead of the clumsy, overly-simple idea of “horror” that most game developers aspire to.

NieR is a remarkable piece of art, and this remaster touches up the issues people had with the original without compromising what made it such an impactful work. It’s going to be interesting to see if people give it the look that it deserves this time around, because this really is the greatest game of all time, and has always deserved more than “cult” status."

As an existing fan of Disgaea, this new one is, despite the incredible focus on big numbers, more of the same, and that is fine by me. The extended level cap is hugely indulgent and entirely unnecessary to the tactics JRPG format, but at the same time it's part of Disgaea's inherent self-awareness and genre-transgressive humour. It very much wants you to see it as a silly indulgence. Couple that with the genuinely funny, satirical script and the rich tactical core that, once you peel back the excess is as compelling as always, and Disgaea 6 shows that the developers at Nippon Ichi still know how to get a player both deeply invested and laughing along with the thing. I want to say that I don’t think there’s much more that can be done with Disgaea. To me it seems that the hyperbolic potential of the series must have peaked now. But then I thought that exact same thing after Disgaea 5 and this new entry has certainly corrected me on that count.

11-11 Memories Retold is something precious; it’s a rare foil against the lies about war that filth like Call of Duty and Battlefield get away with far too easily.

It is something Ubisoft needs to learn about its games on a very fundamental level: when the company isn't sanitising its narratives and characters to target a Call of Duty-sized blockbuster, it makes better games.

Fantasy Grounds isn't a game in and of itself. But it's almost certainly going to end up being my most valued piece of Steam software.

Make no mistake, Papers, Please is a political and sociological statement, and often it's quite a distressing one. But it also stands as proof of the power of games to extend beyond the boundaries of simple entertainment and thrills, and it tells a hell of a story in the process.

That gorgeous big screen makes for an incredible display of the game's endless winter, and if you're in the mood for the big television experience, you need only dock the console once you're back at home. The added benefit is that the game doesn't tax the Switch's battery anywhere near as badly as games like Zelda does, and I've been able to use the game to make train trips absolutely bearable with a good pair of headphones, for both the trip and the return.

I have to go back to 2018 and NieR Automata (wow… that was six years ago now) to think of a game that has stunned me quite as much as Unicorn Overlord. That’s not to say I haven’t loved plenty of other games in the interim, but I’ve been waiting for a sequel to Ogre Battle 64 for 25 years now, and this delivers. I am so glad that Vanillaware was the developer to see the opportunity, because no other team in the industry has the talent to do something like this.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles is the best version of one of the greatest video games. This review was largely pointless in the sense that just about everyone knows that it’s a masterpiece, and yet, as of time of writing, there are “only” 2,500 user reviews on Steam. For the love of Hatsune Miku, please don’t let this be a “cult classic” a second time around. If we’re going to ever take video games seriously as an art form, it needs to start with games like this being part of the canon.

Smart ideas paired up with smart writing and an enthralling mystery make for another true game of the year contender.

Konami could have done more, for sure. There are several titles that really could have been included in this collection for the sake of completion – Metal Gear Solid 4 remains locked to the PlayStation 3, while MGS Acid and Twin Snakes look pretty set to be lost to time at this point. Sure, MGS V remains a viable product in its own right, but Konami really could have filled us in on the rest...With that being said, the original Metal Gear Solid trilogy isn’t just a trio of great games that people have strong nostalgia for. They’re genuine masterpieces and deserve to be preserved into perpetuity. This collection is a perfectly adequate way of preserving them for this hardware cycle.

If you exclusively follow the main narrative then you’ll find that in Lost Judgment, Ryu Ga Gatoku Studio has delivered something every bit as compelling and interesting as anything Raymond Chandler ever wrote. The central crime story is a riveting and often uncomfortably poignant reflection on society (and Japan’s legal system). If, on the other hand, you’re more interested in more Yakuza-style zany side-styles and a deep collection of highly playable mini-games, the Lost Judgment has you covered there, too. I can’t see how anyone could fail to love this game.

I’m not the world’s biggest fan of platformers, but I can’t help but delight at what Kirby and the Forgotten Land offers. It’s bright, wholesome, charming, funny and memorable. It’s also a near-flawless example of Nintendo at its very best.

Perhaps the best way that I can describe just how much I've appreciated Final Fantasy VII Remake is this: The original Final Fantasy VII was my least favourite in the series, but after playing the Remake, on a whim I loaded up the original game. Within the first couple of hours I was already so much more invested in it this time around. Being able to visualise the action of the original through the lens that the Remake has provided me has made the game more vibrant, interesting, and emotionally engaging. I don't necessarily see FFVII Remake as a replacement to the original game, as remakes generally are. It's a complement to it, where the developers have built on the world and characters in such a way that it's like two sides of a single coin - for me, at least, without one, the other doesn't exist. Making me love the original Final Fantasy VII is something I never thought Square Enix would achieve, but we do live in the strangest times.

What you are getting with Metal Gear Solid V is hours upon hours of the vision of one of the most creative and artistic directors in video game history.

Fear. Pure fear. The most primal of emotions is the overwhelming one while playing Layers of Fear.