A series that has spent too long paying bashful tribute has, at long last, emerged from the shadow of its classic debut. [Issue#332, p.112]

This is a case study in how to get it right the first time - and, finally, students of this genre will discover what happens when devs don't have to spend the first 12 months of a loot game's life knocking it into shape. For one, the future looks bright. [Issue#332, p.108]

Dozens of hours later, we're still not sure how we feel about it. It's a game of contradictions, open and flexible in its level design, yet resolutely strict in its combat... It is a brilliant game, that is certain. but it is often a difficult one to truly love. Naturally, we can't put it down. [Issue#332, p.104]

We may have no experience of 1980s Taiwan, but Devotion carries the tang of authenticity in both the sharply observed detail of its setting and its more imaginative flourishes, including a gorgeous interactive storybook episode. [Issue#331, p.122]

This clever, funny, hallucinatory head trip may leave you frazzled, but Tholen's wonderfully singular vision will be burned into your brain for a long time. [Issue#331, p.120]

What used to be a decent fighting game with comical breast physics is now a pervier DOA Xtreme with punches instead of presents. Honestly, we're getting a bit old for it, and so is the industry around it. [Issue#331, p.116]

New Dawn is a clearing of the air after Far Cry 5, but calling it a "new dawn" is preposterous. What we have here is a sideways hop, a purgatory of a sequel in a series that has no idea what to do with itself, beyond giving you another mapful of nodes to flip. [Issue#331, p.116]

Never has a physics-based vehicular puzzle game bestowed such a vivid sense so generously before. [Issue#331, p.114]

The Occupation's design could take a few cues from its world when it comes to balancing the analogue and the digital. [Issue#331, p.112]

We'd be lying if we pretended we didn't have some fun with it. But it only works in the same way a McDonald's occasionally hits the spot: this is cheap, junk-food gaming that comes with a side-order of regret. [Issue#331, p.110]

A classic reborn in wonderful style. Capcom's hot streak continues apace. [Issue#331, p.106]

The lasting impression is of a game that, for all its charms and potential, simply wasn't quite ready for takeoff - and that what might have been won't arrive for a couple of years yet. [Issue#331, p.102]

Eastshade may not be the game it could be, but it paints a picture many others could learn from. [Issue#330, p.122]

It may not give Supercell sleepless nights, but if you've ever thought Clash Royale could be improved by adding Cinderella on a motorbike, well, fill your boots. [Issue#330, p.120]

This is a game that prizes style above all else, and emerges a mess because of it. [Issue#331, p.118]

Sweetest of all, the satisfying thrum of a finely tuned engine. [Issue#330, p.116]

It's a game that follows the steps of another while changing the rhythm - and in doing so, never settles into its own groove. [Issue#330, p.114]

The pacing ensure playing Kingdom Hearts III is a bit like being dragged through a theme park while hungover. [Issue#330, p.112]

When this enthralling hybrid is delivering blood by the bucketload and thrills by the dozen, you won't exactly be thinking about what it isn't. [Issue#330, p.110]

Metro Exodus is a mood piece, and it hits the mark brilliantly by building detailed environments and laying set-pieces within them for you to find, as if by chance. However, in its efforts to emphasize that it's a long-form experience, its storytelling comes across as plodding, and every time a glitch or framedrop appears you're pulled out of a 4A's rare, and beautiful, post-apocalyptic vision. [Issue#330, p.106]

Apex Legends arrives fully formed, feature complete, free and quite, quite brilliant, a game that pushes its host genre forward, refining and redefining its template in the process. [Issue#330, p.102]

Pikuniku's got legs, even if it lacks the stamina to fully get over the finish line. [March 2019, p.122]

This is a game about stories that has a knack of producing really good ones - when you're doing well, and especially when you're doing badly. [March 2019, p.120]

Without a clear motivating engine to drive your actions, it can feel like you're constantly playing just the top layer - that strategy wrapper of base-building, resource management and upgrade trees you might expect in an XCOM or Total War - without ever getting to play the actual game bit buried underneath. [March 2019, p.118]

This is one hybrid genre piece that's ever so difficult to put down. [March 2019, p.116]

Suda has a punk attitude to amking games, so at this point we decide to adopt a punk attitude to playing them. We put down the controller, and walk away. [March 2019, p.114]

Its magic can feel frustratingly elusive, but the thrill of chasing it down just about makes it worthwhile. [March 2019, p.112]

Vane is unfinished, its few ideas undermined by its shoddy foundations. If it really were a painting, you'd get Banksy to frame it. [March 2019, p.108]