Despite the grim subject matter, Before I Forget isn't just about the pains of living with dementia; it's a deeply emotive tale that highlights an extraordinary life. [Issue#349, p.105]

Ultimately, though, the derivative puzzling and repetitive grid of traversing Sker House at an absolutely snail's pace makes Maid of Sker more like a crawling simulation than a game that truly makes our skin crawl. [Issue#349, p.104]

One of the year's finest grid-based strategy games, a steely and engrossing work of calculation. [Issue#349, p.102]

A gentle joy in a horrible year - a window upon a parallel world that makes life seem a little kinder in our own. [Issue#349, p.100]

As much as Carrion's moment-to-moment feel might benefit from the uniquely wobbly shape it gives you, the game as a whole wears its own amorphousness a little less elegantly. [Issue#349, p.98]

In the end, it falls beneath our expectations as often as it stretches beyond them. [Issue#349, p.96]

This less ambitious, full-priced follow-up is a lesser experience in every sense. [Issue#349, p.92]

Like many of its predecessors, The Origami King marches to an eccentric rhythm at times, but in a challenging year, you'll struggle to find a game that strives to consistently to put a smile on your face. [Issue#349, p.88]

At a time when, more than ever, connecting with others starts by working on ourselves, this endearing twist on the tend-and-befriend genre is a friend indeed. [Issue#348, p.106]

This is a smart, savvy evolution of the "Spire" formula, one you suspect Mega Crit, flattery be damned, would have been happy to put its name to. [Issue#348, p.105]

The puzzles are generic. [Issue#348, p.104]

A game this difficult, with everything to lose from permadeath, should at the very least feel fair; without any balancing of enemies against your character's progress (something that Upstream Arcade has seemingly done none of) West of Dead does not. [Issue#348, p.100]

There's not doubt that chasing the 'Ippon Master' bonus is where the most fun is to be had. [Issue#348, p.98]

The hope is that Riot quickly puts in the work required to fix these issues, which are distracting enough to shake you out of the magical flow state that Valorant induces. If it does, we've got a feeling this one's destined for glory. [Issue#348, p.96]

At launch, matchmaking can't even manage to find a single game. [Issue#348, p.94]

Watching a plan come together, guns and voodoo and bear traps working in perfect harmony, is incredibly satisfying. [Issue#348, p.90]

Creaks may be a break from point-and-click tradition for Amanita, but we're left with a familiar smile as the credits roll, our eyes still wide with delight. [Issue#348, p.102]

Its story is excessively maudlin and self-serious to the point of pomposity - it's no exaggeration to say Naughty Dog gave us more laughs. And as pretty as the scenery is, we'd rather it didn't obstruct us so often when we're fighting; with a tight camera and no way of locking onto individual opponents, you sometimes end up cornered without realising, or struck by enemies you can't see. Combat should be an entertaining, empowering dance, and though it sometimes hits those heights, too often it can't resist throwing too many enemies into the mix. It's supposed to get messy, but not like this...When the world isn't getting in your way, however, it is Ghost of Tsushima's saving grace. [Issue#348, p.86]

Plenty to sink your teeth into, then, but for a game where you play as a shark, we expected more bite. [Issue#347, p.107]

For the most part the puzzles are well-pitched, with clues subtly seeded into the dialogue. [Issue#347, p.106]

If not the spiralling success we hoped, this sweet-natured and sincere game provides an afternoon's worth of uplifting altruism. [Issue#347, p.104]

This is a game of rare thematic consistency and mechanical brilliance. [Issue#347, p.102]

In the end, we gain more from it than we imagined. [Issue#347, p.100]

Though a perfectly engrossing horror game (and a timely reminder that an over-the-shoulder view isn't the only way of looking at an awful place) at times it can feel like a waste of promising concepts. [Issue#347, p.98]

With only the blocky aesthetic and familiar monsters to show for its heritage, whether you're here for the Minecraft or the Dungeons, you'll feel that much more could have been excavated from both. [Issue#347, p.96]

It's one example of too much going on in a game that is crammed with ideas, borrowed and new, all fighting for attention. [Issue#347, p.92]

You can't argue that Naughty Dog hasn't thrown everything at this, and though its tendency towards maximalism doesn't always work, the results are frequently astonishing. This is the kind of game you get when you have unlimited budget and manpower and no one to say when - even if you wish sometimes that someone had. As a big-budget action game, then, The Last of Us Part II is almost without peer. As a sequel to that story, it is deeply, daringly, fascinatingly flawed. [Issue#347, p.88]

It's relatively easygoing, then: contemplative and calming. [Issue#346, p.107]

A finale that blends Lovecraft and Spielberg seals the deal. [Issue#346, p.106]

Any gimmicks would have muddied the waters - what you need to bring a golden-age beat-'em-up bang up to date, it turns out, is a team of fans with the hands of a heart surgeon and an eye for why we fell in love with it in the first place. [Issue#346, p.105]

There's an abundance of character here, sure, but what Bleeding Edge needs most is a personality - preferably its own. [Issue#346, p.104]

Derivative and at times off-puttingly insistent and flimsy unlocks, it's nonetheless some of Infinity Ward's most considered design in years, and a sign it's ready to get back in the fight. [Issue#346, p.102]

Captivating and uncanny, Paper Beast is a rare one: a distinctively weird game that'll stick with you long after your brain has filtered out the little hiccups and frustrations. [Issue#346, p.100]

Its moments of brilliance are worth experiencing, but they shouldn't blind anyone to the shortcomings of a sequel that, underneath that beautiful surface, is as frustratingly flawed as the first. [Issue#346, p.98]

As the game strays further from this core fantasy, its charms are dulled. Nioh 2 is a rather conservative sequel. [Issue#346, p.96]

We suspect Chimera Squad might not be to the taste of genre purists, having sacrificed perhaps a little too much of the player's control over strategic outcomes in favour of reactive encounters. In some ways, it's XCOM for those who prefer action games - a hybrid that isn't afraid to ruffle some feathers, even if the resulting beast loses a little of its identity. [Issue#346, p.94]

There simply isn't enough game nor story to justify such a drawn-out campaign, as attritional wear and tear causes those well-oiled cogs to grind. The more we pop, in other words, the keener we are to stop. [Issue#346, p.92]

All we can say is that six hours of Resident Evil 3 is just enough - and we're aware that's both compliment and curse. [Issue#346, p.88]

There aren't playstyles in modern Doom so much as players who use absolutely everything, and players who die. [Issue#346, p.84]

A breathtaking way to polish off the definitive videogame nostalgia project, certainly - padding aside, the first 30 hours of Remake suggest that this is change for the better. By the conclusion, though, you may feel like things are going off the rails in more ways than one. [Issue#346, p.80]

The resounding impression is of a game that has not emerged from early access because it was finished, but simply because its developer needed it to. Wolcen's early success may suggest that was a wise decision. We do not expect it to last for long. [Issue#344, p.122]

Series fans will know better than to expect an epic, but even by its own standards Kinda Funky News Flash is a short game...After 20 years in the shadows, Ulala's return to the spotlight involves a few too many missed beats to recommend. [Issue#344, p.120]

In the end, it's only a singleplayer mode away from true greatness - but if we've learned one thing from fighting games this generation, it's that none is ever going to get everything right. [Issue#344, p.118]

Provides you with plenty of stealth mechanics but leagues of ground to cover, and that tension is deadly. [Issue#344, p.116]

While it ties its narrative strands neatly enough to work as a standalone story, Mizrahi and Scout would be well worth a sequel. [Issue#344, p.114]

A game that is not only at its best when played with other humans, but is critically dependent on them. [Issue#344, p.112]

We think about exactly what it means for a PS4 game to have cracked open sculpting, composing, coding, performing, curating, cinematography and game design for more players, more kinds of people, all at once to a nearly unlimited degree - alongside a philosophy that might encourage the most reluctant to consider what they might be capable of, and what it might mean to them. How does it all stack up? It feels almost silly to ask. [Issue#344, p.106]

To play New Horizons is to retreat to a fairer, kinder place, where even the supposed bad guy is a philanthropist who gives you interest-free loans you can pay off at your leisure. Animal Crossing has always been a pleasure; never has it felt quote so essential. [Issue#344, p.110]

What the game asks of you might be fairly standard shooter stuff, but the act of playing it out with your own hands lends it a fresh magic. That's Alyx in a nutshell: this is a Half-Life game almost to a fault, the old formula polished to a 2020 shine, made new again by the way you manipulate it. The Gloves aren't the new crowbar or Gravity Gun, the defining tool of Half-Life: Alyx. Your own hands are. [Issue#344, p.102]

There are just 20 team leaders in the game; the 500 subs available from the gacha can only bring so much variety, and pale in comparison to the almost 6,000 available in Puzzle & Dragons itself. We've been playing that game for seven years, and it still finds new ways to excite us. That this barren, boring work should share its name is an outrage. [Issue#343, p.122]

When it isn't engaging in playful (self-)mockery, it finds ways to explore videogames' quirks in witty, insightful fashion. [Issue#343, p.120]

A larger problem: the sense that The Suicide of Rachel Foster is messing around with borrowed ideas it never quite understands. [Issue#343, p.118]

Age of Resistance Tactics would merely be tolerably mundane, were it not brought low by a UI as cumbersome as the game's title. [Issue#343, p.116]

The solid fundamentals of its design shine through more clearly when you're playing alone. [Issue#343, p.114]

This is a generous game in both deed and spirit, and, as such, one it's tremendously difficult to dislike. [Issue#343, p.106]

Much like its hero, then, Bloodroots is perhaps a touch bloated in the middle - but the gore-soaked trail it'll trace in your mind will leave a lasting mark. [Issue#343, p.110]

It's exactly how we felt the first time we played Portal, and the first-person puzzlers that followed afterwards, and it's been a good while since we last played one. Tunnel Vision is more than comfortable in that shadow and, honestly, so are well. [Issue#342, p.122]

An imperfect, but highly original game that pokes affectionate fun at the not only very Japanese, but very human, desire for everybody to get along. [Issue#342, p.120]

An astonishingly polished debut from Lego's new studio, and further proof that there's much, much more still to be made from the humble brick. [Issue#342, p.118]

It's to Super Crush KO's credit that, after rattling through its brief but bouncy campaign, we immediately dive back in for another crack at perfecting our high scores. It is some of the best gaming junk food around: moreish although not particularly nutritious, best enjoyed in small moments of convenience and often while watching something else. [Issue#342, p.116]

It's wonderfully refined, boasting a glut of ideas without ever feeling overstuffed. [Issue#342, p.114]

This is a beautiful game from top to bottom: a feast for the eyes, a treat for the ears, a test for the brain and thumbs and a good old stress-test for the heart and tear ducts. This is a rare sort of debut: one that marks out its developer as one to watch. [Issue#342, p.112]

While Genesis may already be fading from our memory, those looking for nothing more than 15 hours or so of punchy, demon-slaying action will no doubt have an appropriate response. It matters not. [Issue#342, p.110]

This is a fresh take on the battle royale that deserves to be experienced. [Issue#342, p.106]

By the final cut to black, we're looking forward to making more connections like the ones we find here, before we take our final turn off Interstate 65 and fall into the Zero's dark, enveloping embrace. [Issue#342, p.102]

It's delightful stuff in full flow, and while there's not much to it - just ten levels are available at launch , each lasting only a few minutes - there's significant replay value in committing level and spawn layouts to memory. [Issue#341, p.122]

No Shin'en game plays as good as it looks; this one, however, comes closer than most. [Issue#341, p.120]

Sharp, funny writing is elevated by superb voice acting. [Issue#341, p.119]

It's unlikely Innocence will lead to an epidemic of similarly snappy games, but we'd love this particular contagion to catch on. [Issue#341, p.116]

It becomes, in the very best sense, an anarchic fetch quest played by Takahashi's whimsical rules. [Issue#341, p.114]

Its heart is in the right place, but its feet are not - and when you're walking a new path, that's always going to be a problem. [Issue#341, p.112]

It's hardly the deepest strategy game around, but it effectively sets up the loop these games revel in, one thing feeding into another so you can never quite find the right moment to put it down [Issue#341, p.110]

"Unbearable" is definitely one word for Pathologic 2, but that hides a few others: engulfing, ingenious, profound, invigorating. [Issue#341, p.106]

The overriding sensation is that, 18 years of waiting later, this is not the game we had dreamed of... And despite the areas in which it clearly struggles, Shenmue III does ultimately leave us wanting to see how those plot developments are resolved, and to take our virtual tourism to a new frontier. Whether we, and Hazuki, will get that opportunity... we'll see. [Issue#341, p.98]

There is, after all, something quietly revelatory about a big-budget videogame that has as much in common with the work of Bennett Foddy as Ubisoft's boilerplate sandboxes. Far from a masterpiece, then, but Kojima's first post-Konami release HAS laid the foundations for something greater. Which is fitting, since that's what he's had us doing for 60-odd hours. [Issue#341, p.102]

It takes a level of persistence that many won't be inclined to reach. [Issue#340, p.120]

It spits you out, head spinning, with a message about overcoming failure through unorthodox thinking; one last surprise in a game that encourages you to readjust your perspective in every sense. [Issue#340, p.118]

One thing is certain: Concrete Genie's identity crisis proves its creators still have some maturing left to do. [Issue#340, p.106]

There are no 'game over's, only a zen-like cycle until you are enlightened enough to progress beyond it. [Issue#340, p.11]

Those vibrant looks belie a challenge that is sometimes tough but - with one notable exception - exquisitely fair. [Issue#340, p.112]

Modern Warfare is precariously balanced. On a straightforward level, its multiplayer is admirable in its reform and a touch undercooked in its execution, while the inventiveness in its six hours of campaign remind players why this became such a juggernaut name in the industry. But underneath that, there's an unease about the way Modern Warfare pushes the player's buttons without demonstrating respect for or responsibility to its source material. [Issue#340, p.110]

To focus on what's missing would be to overlook the joys that remain. [Issue#340, p.106]

To focus on what's missing would be to overlook the joys that remain. [Issue#340, p.106]

To focus on what's missing would be to overlook the joys that remain. [Issue#340, p.106]

For now, though, we'll settle for appreciating those moments, the ones that outlast the frustrations, where we sit back in our chair and marvel at the results of our own work. And on that basis, Planet Zoo is a triumph. [Issue#340, p.102]

As uneven and unpolished as it is, Fallen Order is still the best game to emerge from EA's stewardship of the Star Wars license, even if that's to damn it with faint praise. [Issue#340, p.98]

Only the length disappoints us. Even by the studio's standards, Pilgrims is a slip of a thing. [Issue#139, p.122]

If not quite a five-star ride, Neo Cab is an empathetic and stingingly perceptive insight into the challenges of freelance life. [Issue#139, p.121]

It's competent but insufficient and disparate, full of ideas that haven't been fleshed out or meaningfully linked, as if it's all stripped back from a broader original vision. [Issue#139, p.120]

Memorable? Undoubtedly. But we'll have that drink now, thanks. [Issue#139, p.119]

This simply has the air of a development team biting off more than it could chew. [Issue#139, p.118]

As for a return trip to hell to see how alternative choices might have played out? It would have to freeze over first. [Issue#139, p.116]

Crazy as they may seem, it's these musical dreamers that ensure Kine makes your heart skip as your head rings - wrong notes and all. [Issue#139, p.114]

As a whole, it just doesn't hang together as seamlessly as we'd hoped. [Issue#139, p.112]

It might not always say what you want it to hear, but the words stay with you. [Issue#139, p.110]

The super-soldier fantasy's lost beneath generic mechanisms for grinding. [Issue#139, p.108]

Shadowkeep delivers on our expectations, giving us more of the things about Destiny we like, while reminding us that nostalgia ain't what it used to be. [Issue#139, p.106]

It feels best when you're making snap decisions, the action moving along with a satisfying pop, pop, pop rhythm that echoes the films. [Issue#133, p.104]