I lapped up all the skulking, whispering skullduggery and a few of the plot twists caught me by surprise. I can't wait for more.

All in all, it has to be said that Northgard is an extremely promising premise. It has a good storyline with challenging campaigns. While there are some minor hiccups here and there, overall, it's an awesome addition to the RTS genre.

A little more slickness and tactical depth might not have hurt. But overall, I found my time in the cockpit of a giant doom robot to be quite a giggle.

God of War is one of the most sublimely constructed action games of all time. It may lack a little of Souls' depth, but this is more than made up for with bombastic appeal, setpiece variety, and top-tier storytelling.

Overall, TT Isle of Man is merely good, rather than great; the complexity of the handling and the accuracy of the track are very well realised. The hope is that it can scoop up a cult following and we can have some multiplayer fun, otherwise, the replayability just isn't there.

If you've had long enough since FC4 or Primal to hunger for more, or you just really hate religious cults, there are many hours of mindless, gun-nut paradise to enjoy here. But it has to be said that if you've played one, you've kinda played them all.

To be honest, Waking the Tiger is worth it for the National Focus trees, new general mechanics and decision system alone. If, like me, you have little to no real knowledge of what the heck was happening over there during the war, Waking the Tiger will school you real quick and in that beautiful, delicious way that only Hearts of Iron IV can.

Today is hopefully just the start. Right now, Sea of Thieves might have the best-looking water in the world, some incredible charm, and excellent co-op, but it’s also astonishingly light on content.

Time will tell how this game develops but I truly hope that they continue the support and add more content and features to Pure Farming 2018, hopefully, to make it the fantastic game it so nearly is. It's already got much more crop diversity then Farming Sim 17, and the potential to better it is there for all to see.

For all the fervent hatred of Konami that forms the current gaming-hate-bandwagon of choice, based on its own merits, Metal Gear Survive isn’t a terrible game. It’s not a great one for sure, and certainly not near the pedigree we expect from a Metal Gear product, but it’s a serviceable enough survival game that benefits greatly from layering in a few of The Phantom Pain’s systems. It won’t scratch that same itch of sneaky badassery that has made Snake a household name, and it’s almost certainly not worth the full $40 / £35 asking price, but there’s definitely fun to be had here even if it doesn’t come close to troubling the series’ heights.

While I’ve greatly enjoyed my time with Kingdom Come: Deliverance though, I have ultimately bounced off for now due to crippling performance issues that I’m suffering. If there’s the slightest doubt that your PC is going to struggle to run Kingdom Come: Deliverance at playable frame rates then I have to recommend you take a wait and see approach in order to see how it’s patched over the coming months.

The core of the game is sound, it just needs to be more upfront with the player about what it’s doing. It’s really frustrating for me because I keep booting it up and I keep playing it, but eventually tangled web of systems gets the better of me and I’ve got to close it in a rage. It pains me because with the easily identified issues to the interface this is a game which would comfortably clamber up to 8.5, perhaps even 9 out of 10. Who knows, a few patches down the line, maybe Railway Empire will get there. After all, no train arrives quite on time.

I found Nantucket to be high on style but thin on substance, but its modest price point saves it from my more barbed harpoons. It has some pleasantly nostalgic reminiscences of Sid Meier's Pirates and a management system that borrows some of the more surface-level mechanics of Paradox games - both of which are good things. Plus, it really is the only thing that does exactly what it does. The originality of the concept is worth something even when it's not necessarily backed up with mechanical innovation.

If you're willing to think of the prefab fantasy setting as comfortingly familiar, Spellforce 3 is a pretty fun. The voice acting is terrific, and the plot easy to understand without requiring weeks of learning why THESE giant wolves are different to other games' giant wolves. Whether this familiarity is a brave counterpoint to the endless setting creep of gaming is really a matter of personal taste. And if you're looking for a fantasy RPG/RTS hybrid, this is a promising contender. However, by trying to do two things at once, it fails to be really remarkable at either.

Everything about Seven is just a bit of a shame. Fool’s Theory has come so close, and in doing so proven itself the jack-of-all-trades, master of none. A game of this budget lives and dies on having one or two insanely unique or memorable standout features, and yet Seven lacks in this area. With the thousands upon thousands of games now at our fingertips, it’s never been harder for devs to get noticed. None of Seven’s particularly bad, it’s just not especially memorable.

This will again get a 9/10 for me, with the price possibly being the only reason some people may hold off on purchasing it. But again, it is totally worth it if you play the game as much as I do. It's always fascinating to see how SCS slowly expands these vast road networks into new territories. I just now find myself wishing SCS would extend the Scandinavian DLC further up into the Scandinavian countries closer to the Arctic Circle. I would absolutely love to see some snowy or even icy roads, then we can go full-blown Ice Road Truckers. One can always wish. But I digress, back to ETS - Italia. Enjoy the long journey, and watch out for the Polizia in their Lamborghini. Happy trucking, enjoy beautiful Italia.

American Truck Simulator: New Mexico is hugely enjoyable, and if you didn't nod off while driving before, the vast expanse of New Mexico and its assorted highways is a must for any ATS fan.

This Wolfenstein has been broadly politicized and has been the no-doubt eager focus for political stunts and controversy. Which is odd, really, seeing as how at its heart it’s one of the most clear-cut examples of an FPS that we’ve seen in a while. No tricky resource management stuff, no new sub-systems to learn, just straightforward running and gunning, with a side-order of throat-slashing. And leg-removing. And eyeball-popping. And forehead-hatchet-burying. And exploding with diesel-filled grenades. And evaporating with laser guns. Typical, uncomplicated Wolfenstein stuff!

I think we’re at the stage now where ‘good enough’ just doesn’t cut it with Call of Duty. There are so many alternatives out there that an average COD isn’t just a waste of money, it’s a waste of time. If you want the full experience and continued support from the map packs, you’re looking at a $100 outlay. That’s on top of the insidious loot crate mechanics. While it’s purely cosmetic based, for now, data mining has hinted weapon drops will be coming in loot crates soon. Call of Duty: WWII really isn’t a good enough game to justify those costs. The three game modes mean there’s probably something in here for everyone, but it’s doubtful many will get their money’s worth when you take the short campaign and the obligatory map pack into account.

I could wax on about Assassin’s Creed Origins for a long time. For all its foibles it’s a staggering achievement, and most certainly the best the series has ever offered alongside Black Flag. Those who prefer the dense city networks of the original games may bounce off it a little, but for anyone even remotely interested in the prospect of The Witcher and Assassin’s Creed crossing paths, this comes highly recommended.

Providing thrilling gameplay, a flowing combat system, pleasing Tolkien landscape, challenging charismatic bosses, deeper story and a bigger end game mechanic to keep the player entertained for many many hours, today Middle Earth Shadow of War is one of the best games available in the third-person RPG-action genre.

The Evil Within 2 is definitively better than the original. An already great horror game has been refined and expanded, offering just the right balance between overwhelming oppressiveness and a satisfying fight for survival. It’s another love letter to fans of Resident Evil 4.

Rogue Islands, even though it looks disarmingly simple at first sight, is a challenging and immensely enjoyable game for those who love to play challenging titles. It’s a simple take on the survival genre mixed with gung-ho FPS action makes it a really unique and memorable experience. I'm a relative newcomer to the rogue-like genre, yet I adored Rogue Islands, poised as it is perfectly between enjoyable and challenging.

We've played games like this before, many of them really excellent and with depth and character. Oriental Empires certainly looks nice and has a classical Chinese feel that helps it along its way, but once you're through the surface, it's a lacklustre 4X without a great deal to set it apart from the pack. Much of the time, Oriental Empires feels like playing a game of Total War where you auto-conclude all of the battles, but with a penchant for very slightly unfair and unavoidable disasters.

Regardless of how its future looks, today we get to enjoy Total War Warhammer 2. With all its polish and rich Games Workshop lore, it’s the most well balanced and enjoyable Total War game so far, and that’s a strong accolade.

No tutorial I could find. Graphics reminded me of World of Warcraft, or Far Cry. The first Far Cry. All of the equipment power-ups are just +1 to this, +1 to that. It's like WoW with all the fun taken out. As for the fighting, it seems to be just furiously clicking and a bit of dodging. They've been making great martial arts games for years. Why change the process to something weird and less enjoyable? I did like how you learn new attacks by beating enemies who use them. But that was the only real positive for me.

Overall Observer is good at what it does, but it’s not the sort of place I overly enjoyed being in. Rather than pelting headlong down the horror route, it straddles an awkward thriller line that didn’t overly entice me. At no point was I desperate to boot it up and find out what happened next, no doubt partly due to the busy, often dizzying art style that made me feel like I was sat in the back of a hot car on a long journey. For those after a narrative driven, cyberpunk fix Observer certainly fills a hole though, provided you can deal with yet another take on technologies potential impact on humanity.

PES 2018 is Konami’s classic back at its strongest on PC, and the small changes to the feel of the gameplay have genuine ramifications on the pitch. It might lack the big budget feel of FIFA, most keenly felt in the match atmosphere, commentary and the lack of TV-like production values, but it plays a damn fine game of football.