Stardew Valley’s blend of pixel charm and gentle pacing makes for an excellent little escape.

Uneven, bleak and unflinching. You won't enjoy it, but it's one of a kind.

Effortlessly stylish, perhaps to the detriment of substance. But Superhot isn't one to miss.

Lovely and challenging with enjoyable crafting and survival elements, but poor river controls make it harsher than it should be.​

With more pronounced effects than the first expansion, Snowfall adds new challenges and complexity.

A few good ideas, but Prospekt is hurt by uninspired design and infuriating combat encounters.

A brilliantly funny, disturbing, and entertaining visual novel, but the lack of interaction won't appeal to everyone.

At launch, SFV is merely serviceable for the seasoned online warrior. For the beginner, it is simply abysmal.

Layers of Fear is an intriguing experimental haunted house, but without a proper sense of pacing, it fails to scare.

​Stunningly rendered close-ups of nature make Unravel’s somber fable and irritating death traps just worth surviving.

Aquatic Adventure distills the Metroidvania into its most essential parts and says something meaningful with it.

A big ‘ol chunk of game with a lot of things to do, and just as importantly, new ways to do them.​

A captivating journey into a beautiful, atmospheric wilderness, with a touching story that doesn’t always hit the right notes.

A half-hearted recreation of some fun movies, with almost nothing to offer over its predecessor.

Baba Yaga has more of Rise of the Tomb Raider’s fun platforming and gorgeous Siberian cliffsides, but the condensed format only strengthens its problems.

Exceptionally tough, rewarding strategy and a masterful reworking of the XCOM formula. We’ll play this forever.

A great start, but American Truck Simulator will really begin to take shape when more states and trucks are added.

An ARPG with weak combat and too many bugs, Bombshell isn’t worth your click-click-clicks.

Blade and Soul's excellent PvP is buried beneath a mountain of tired MMO tropes that are sometimes frustrating and rarely innovative.

A little too streamlined in places, but Rise of the Tomb Raider does a lot to improve upon its predecessor.

A wonderfully executed, brilliantly stressful reinvention of party-based dungeon-crawling, Darkest Dungeon is great fun, even when it’s cruel.

Blow does it again. Exquisitely layered puzzles populate a world that will keep you guessing.

Fun combat, great writing, and a great look, but with pacing and progression tuned for a mobile experience, not the PC.

A cleanly executed idea falls short because of flat characterisation and a dissatisfying lack of consequence. If only real papers were this toothless.

Sharp, multilayered satire that remembers to be a game even as it makes fun of us for playing.

A great tactical RTS with all the gorgeous aesthetics and atmosphere of the original series.

A beautiful remaster of a game that tries to recreate the magic of the original Resident Evil, but repeatedly fails to do so.

More rich quail rather than plump-breasted pheasant, but still a rare and satisfying bird.

A beautiful story-driven adventure game with a compelling story and great characters, set on an island filled with intriguing mysteries.

That Dragon, Cancer tells a valuable story despite its uneven delivery.

The PC port doesn't introduce much new and certain elements could be stronger, but Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen still shines as a uniquely enjoyable RPG.

Tharsis is well made, but not well designed—an attractive, interesting board game idea, but only the first draft.

An attractive medieval survival sandbox that unfortunately gets bogged down in too many demands for time.

It's not a sim, but it's the best rally game in years.

A diverse array of factions to try, that drag the Total War series back into the Medieval era.

Confusingly good fun at first, Dragon Quest Heroes soon falls into a familiar, inane rhythm. Dynasty Warriors' audience will at least get something out of it.

A crowning achievement for Vlambeer, and one of the finest action-roguelikes ever made.

Rainbow Six Siege is an accessible and deeply satisfying shooter that rewards planning and teamwork over a quick trigger finger.

The presentation is aced, but Hard West’s turn-based combat is too rote to be engrossing.

The explosions are amazing, and it’s fun in short bursts, but Just Cause 3 is ultimately an unremarkable, shallow experience.

Like diving into a pile of leaves from the top of Big Ben, the first time is a thrill, the fifth is a yawn. Assassin's Creed: Syndicate's new toys entertain for a while but the novelty ends hours before the game does.

Sloppy controls make for an infuriating platformer. If you want a modern Sonic game, get Generations instead.

Still untouchable on the footy front—but shelf life and that inconsistent 3D engine chip away at its tender Achilles.

Brilliantly captures the look and feel of classic Star Wars, but beneath its cinematic flair lies a pretty generic multiplayer shooter.

​Game of Thrones gets the feel of Martin's universe right, but it relies too heavily on familiar themes to form a memorable identity of its own.

A brilliant strategy game that manages to be both broad and deep, challenging and accessible.

A true wizard’s wheeze, and a fine return for one of gaming’s oldest tactical classics.

The graphics get a little prettier, the story gets a little darker, and another Call of Duty counts time as we march together toward death.

An ideal gateway into the city management sim, but with too little room for forward-planning.

A brilliant, massive sandbox of systems, albeit largely the same one Bethesda has been making for years.

Challenging but immaculately calibrated controls power an exciting and enormously rewarding sci-fi roguelike.

It’s got nothing on Final Fantasy at its best, but it’s still an excellent example of the genre with some fun twists on RPG traditions.

A great expansion, and a promising sign of things to come. Some minor issues aside, Heart of Thorns is a clever addition to one of the best MMOs around.

Kingdom is a fun, gorgeous management game, but trying to learn its mysteries eventually becomes a slog.

An entertaining superhero power fantasy, let down by awful Batmobile combat, a laughable villain, and serious performance issues.

Vermintide is a brilliant twist on the Left 4 Dead formula, and deserves much of the same praise heaped on Valve.

Rebel Galaxy’s combat can be a lot of fun, but there's little depth and a lot of repetition.

A straightforward cliché that feels out of place in the new wave of cRPGs.

Tales from the Borderlands is a big, funny adventure with great characters—worth playing even if you don't like Borderlands.

Beautiful, touching and messy. Life Is Strange is good—not great—but I'd recommend it to anyone.

A technically excellent educational game, but dry for all but maths enthusiasts.

Both genuinely original and a smart physics puzzler, but aggravating in places, Mushroom 11 falls a few inches short of a classic.

Brash, solid, run ‘n’ gun goofiness that’s a tad too underwrought to be truly brilliant.

A complex, challenging, and grimly satisfying simulator.

A satisfying, self-contained adventure that plays to the series' strengths, but doesn't add anything novel outside of its storytelling.

One of the best story-driven games on PC, 80 Days is beautifully written, effortlessly charming, and thrillingly unpredictable.

PES finally finds the balance between stout sim and accessible arcade, but a poor port cast shadow on an otherwise great game.

Armikrog’s memory puzzles and tenuous humour are a low point in the adventure game renaissance.

A solid expansion addressing the right problems, but still shackled by its core game’s choices.

A generous stealth sandbox masterpiece that will delight both new and existing fans of the long-running series. [Dec 2015, p.50]

A peculiar experience that’s personal, sincere, and full of questions to unpack, though it asks them far too bluntly.

A beautiful adventure with heart, humour, and satisfying hacking puzzles you can enjoy even if you don’t know anything about coding.

The fact that this is basically a one-person project only makes it more impressive, from the excellent use of simple graphics to convey emotion, to the fantastic lo-fi soundtrack. It may or may not be the best RPG you play this year, but it’s certainly going to be one of the most worthwhile—as memorable as anything in, say, The Witcher 3, and every bit as worthy.

Still the best football game you can buy for your rig, but FIFA 16 feels unambitious.

World of Warships is Wargaming’s finest vehicle combat game, but its free-to-play model is getting prohibitively expensive.

Provides nice visuals, new buildings, and some fun options for crafting and managing your city.

Blood Bowl 2 is the flashiest iteration of the game so far, but its dice rolls are frustrating, and its amble ruleset isn't introduced well to newcomers.

A punishing take on the Rogue-inspired genre, Bedlam is weird and colorful and stressful.

A worthy end to Dragon Age: Inquisition. A lengthy quest with a satisfying pay-off makes up for some unimaginative encounters.

A masterpiece of audio and visual design, SOMA is atmospheric, cerebral, and occasionally frustrating.

An exercise in heavenly multitasking that’s exhilarating alone but better with a friend.

Brilliant writing and puzzle design make this first expansion a success, although it's a little familiar in places. [Nov 2015, p.72]

Charming and accessible, but this is a game to play with the sound off while you're watching TV. [Nov 2015, p.62]

A cute chess set for 40K fans and an unusual twist on the classic game, but skip the campaign.

An excellent stab at a traditional point-and-click, but with classic problems holding it back.

Satisfying car combat and a beautiful wasteland mostly make up for repetitive melee combat and lackluster story.

AI flaws and a limp campaign let down an otherwise-accomplished RTS revival.

Type-0 certainly gets real-time combat right, but this port of an RPG that began on handheld is otherwise not much fun to play on PC.

The best Shadowrun to date, but the series is starting to go grey.

More of the same, but with an increased focus on combat and dungeons. If that appeals, The White March may be worth a visit.

Casual and silly yet still tense and exciting. It's a shame there's no online multiplayer.

Too brief and inconsequential to live up to expectations. One for Dragon Age lore obsessives and ardent completionists.

Satisfyingly freeform missions and rich systems to play with, set in one of the prettiest cyberpunk cities on PC.

A solid survival horror experience unfortunately plagued by bugs and control issues.

A vibrant presentation doesn’t save Sentris from a lack of depth or direction.

Fun, not-too-hard stealth puzzles that look great, wrapped up in a humdrum story with a boring protagonist.

Over quickly and hardly exhilarating, but illuminating in a way games rarely bother to be.

The pleasure of creative block-building meets the satisfaction of puzzle-solving. [Oct 2015, p.66]