Great monsters, stunning locations and a quality mystery makes this one of Supermassive's best.

Weird, good natured, and pretty funny with it, The Good Life stands apart, like most SWERY games.

Back 4 Blood is an exceptional FPS that sets a new standard for co-op zombie murderfests.

In PR terms, it's the world's costliest public beta. There's a lithe control system in the wreckage, but it'll take many updates to dig it out.

Wonderful and distasteful all at once, it entertains and fails in turns, like Frank Worthington. But I loved watching Frankie.

Worth playing for the atmosphere even though its pace and plot are uneven.

A smart, peculiar city builder that ends in a gruelling uphill battle against a rival city.

An atmospheric world with deep, absorbing puzzles, Bonfire Peaks is thoughtful and charming—but without establishing its tricks, it risks leaving less fluent puzzlers behind.

Yara is super lush and wonderful to explore, but the story and main villain are predictable.

With its well executed timeloop concept, Lemnis Gate could be the sleeper shooter of 2021.

Jett: Far From Shore has some epic highs but fiddly ship controls and unanswered questions weigh this space adventure down.

A winning but wayward chimera of survival game, surrealism and storybook adventure.

Beneath the beautiful new look and smart innovations, this is the same Diablo 2 that came out in 2000.

Medieval dynasty is a fun, relaxing survival RPG, even if it's not always exciting.

Sable's lonely, heartfelt journey of self-discovery will sit with me for a lifetime.

This modern remake of the classic puzzle game doesn't stop it from feeling out of date.

Looks better than it plays, but it's got a good heart.

An eye-popping musical adventure that will leave you with a serious case of galaxy brain.

Gamedec is half of a good RPG and falls far short of its tantalising premise.

A long game of choose-your-own-chosen-one with high highs to balance the lows.

A thoughtful response to Dishonored that makes for an entertaining stealth shooter in its own right, but it's the multiplayer invasions that make Deathloop sing.

Hell Let Loose is a fun and accessible introduction to milsims, but I miss the complexity.

Visually gorgeous and emotionally raw, True Colors is an incredible continuation of the Life is Strange series.

A battle royale game that's fun to play in a loose, aggressive style, with melee combat that's trickier than it may first appear.

A pleasant toy for building your own idyllic seaside getaways.

A fun and flexible swarm shooter that’s a little too reliant on being played alongside friends.

But all that nice environment design is wasted by far too much wandering about, talking to people, and collecting trash to sell at vendors. Your character moves with a kind of halfhearted jog, too slow to cover ground, jerky, and unable to traverse any kind of obstacle. Meanwhile you can jump on your horse, which is much faster but handles like a stick of butter in narrow areas. It's all just kind of… slow and tedious to progress. Environments seem large simply for the sake of size. Much like the game's entire aesthetic, it's not really clear why things look the way they do.

Improved platforming underpins a glorious return to one of gaming's most inventive and empathic universes.

A clever time loop setup devolves into frustrating repetition.

A smart historical 4X that doesn't quite match the inventiveness of the studio's best.

A bold and ambitious sequel set in a satisfying, densely connected world.

An intriguing mystery adventure with outstanding writing and performances.

HighFleet has appealing vision, but breaks down due to opaque systems and lack of difficulty options.

A lovingly crafted action RPG with challenging, satisfying gunfights and an extraordinary cyberpunk setting.

An ambitious and atmospheric adventure undercut by some simplistic mechanics.

A conservative but confident return to form from the masters of a much-loved genre.

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles has the rush of excitement of the courtroom but chooses melodrama over mystery.

A better Warhammer game than the last few.

Cris Tales never manages to build its curious premise into an entertaining tool.

Swords of Legends Online's endgame is great, but you're going to have to put up with a lot of crap to get to it.

A smart, funny, heartfelt narrative game that tells a killer story, but doesn't do much beyond that.

Death's Door boils modern action-adventure game design down to its fundamentals, and the reduction is excellent.

A deep but fragmented PvP MMO that's not nearly as original as its early promise suggested.

Another superlative simulation of the Formula One world, now with an enjoyable story mode too.

Monster Hunter Stories 2 may look cute, but it still retains the huge amount of depth the series is known for. No, it's not as expansive or as fast-paced as the likes of Monster Hunter World but that works in its favour. Stories 2 is the approachable series entry point I've been waiting for and has inspired me to return to other games in the series to test out my skills again.

Cruelty Squad celebrates feeling bad in surprising ways, all of them fun.

A clever spiritual successor to Civilization full of both novelties and big ideas.

An excellent combat system buffers a classically unhinged anime story in an action RPG whose ambition outpaces execution.

A lifelike and heartfelt celebration of a beloved toy that overreaches in later levels.

Shortcomings aside, Griftlands is another slice of low-key brilliance from developers Klei. Is there a genre they can't do? The balance of narrative and deck-building made for a much more engaging experience than I often have with card-based titles, even if it feels like more could be done to connect those systems and bolster the storytelling. Still, I'm going to remember my adventures with Sal and the little moments of friendship and betrayal throughout each run. I like playing as a grifter; it ain't much but it's a living.

A brilliant mix of high skill and low comedy, and the best medieval combat game out there.

Roguebook stands out from the pack on a few qualities, but it's not a must-play.

A furiously entertaining action RPG whose horrible monsters are a delight to slay, whether you're playing solo or co-op.

Blending classic stealth mechanics with puzzle-y sniping, Contracts 2 gets the job done.

I am utterly in love with Wildermyth. With this full release bringing it to five main campaigns and fleshing out endless generic ones, it will satisfy your RPG craving like nothing else.

World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Classic's endless grind is brutal, but the way it fosters community and relationships is still magical.

Necromunda is a sight to behold, but it's undermined by wonky shooting, superfluous mechanics, and bugs.

A straightforward tactics game buried beneath an impassable mountain of roguelike metagame.

Solasta's storytelling may not be up to much, but its tactical combat and accessible approach to D&D rules make it worth considering for CRPG fans.

Piloting insect mechs in a beautifully tiny world is a breeze, but heavy resource grinding stops this adventure taking full flight.

Knockout City punches above its weight as a complex and uniquely fun competitive brawler.

The narrative is strong and dark, but the game beneath it struggles to keep up.

Fun, cartoonish pirating, which makes you feel cheeky rather than evil.

A compelling cyberpunk story told in an imaginative way, and one that will really test your moral compass.

Biomutant's stunning world barely survives the painful narration, broken progression, and dearth of stuff to do.

Playing Mass Effect Legendary Edition is a constant see-saw of noticing an improvement, then wishing it went further. You can sprint outside combat, but only for like three seconds. There's a dedicated melee button, yet no way to separate the sprint and take cover actions to separate keys. You can skip the elevator rides, which are the only way to hear banter that could be filling the stretches where you jog from place to place. The graphics are better, but there's no FOV slider. [Mass Effect 1 score = 77]

Riding and maintaining your bike is great—the boring world, dull missions, and overly serious tone, not so much.

An accessible online heist game with some fun systems that wrestle with clumsy combat and an ugly presentation.

Below Zero is a mostly brilliant sequel to the best survival game of all time.

If you can overlook the minor niggles, Resident Evil comes highly recommended. [Nov 1997, p.215]

All three of me agree, there's nothing quite like it. Quantum League is worth your time.

Wobbly and unstable in all the right ways, and some of the wrong ones too.

A grimly beautiful collection of killer horror set-pieces, with some of the most memorably grotesque enemies in Resi history.

An extremely intelligent sci-fi interrogation sim that’s unpredictable for all the right reasons.

The result is a competent remaster and the best way to play this classic Total War, but it still can't compete with its modern heirs.

The RTS layer is limited and repetitive, but the platforming levels are well-designed and challenging.

Nier Replicant is a fabulous remaster of a lauded but messy cult classic, improving it without giving up on its essential strangeness.

Oddworld: Soulstorm's charm, characters, and sincere narrative are imprisoned within buggy, erratic software.

Crash 4 is the kind of retro throwback that actually earns its spot as a successor to the original trilogy. There’s the occasional bandicoot stumble, but it's a responsive, precise platformer that looks as good as it plays.

Trials of Fire's list of features may read like a videogame word salad, but the resulting combination makes for a fine RPG feast.

Buried by an unsatisfying combat loop and bad campaign, Outriders is a forgettable loot game that ends right as it's getting started.

Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth is a brief but fun foray into a well-worn genre. The mode-swapping and elemental attacks are enjoyable, but the game is over just when it starts to reach a proper crescendo, with 100 percent of the map revealed (and presumably all the gear and spells) in under six hours. Not quite a full symphony, but a fun little ensemble.

A little abstract in nature, but Genesis Noir is an all-around stunning audio-visual adventure.

Shelter 3's environment may be pretty, but it's not enough to forgive a game that ultimately feels unfinished.

A superbly stylish and surprisingly challenging management game, Evil Genius 2 is let down only by its tendency to bloviate.

Narita Boy's digital twist on a classic fantasy tale is engrossing if a bit disorientating.

Spacebase Startopia is a missed opportunity to meaningfully build on a classic, but it's still an entertaining management sim.

The setting of Onomichi proves that the long-running series still has some tricks, making Yakuza 6 a worthy finale for its main protagonist.

An excellent co-op adventure that doesn't take itself too seriously, and that's the only place it falls short.

A decent if generic strategy game that lacks the big personality and siegecraft of earlier entries.

Maquette has enough interesting ideas to push any adventure gamer past the finish line.

Not the finest physics simulation ever, but good enough to convey a uniquely challenging discipline—plus, all the customisation items in the world.

This is the sort of smart, focused resurrection of old games I want more of, something that feels old and new with every expedition step. I managed to put more than 40 hours into this quote-unquote small game.

Old School RuneScape is a massive but compelling time sink, and even after all these years, there's simply nothing else like it.

Classically styled and rich in detail, Nebuchadnezzar's city-building fun is hindered by micromanagement and trading issues.

Little Nightmares 2 understands exactly what it wants to be, and mostly pulls it off.

Nioh 2 runs and plays beautifully. Ever since Dark Souls set the world alight, FromSoftware have had plenty of imitators come for the crown. Often, even the better ones come with the caveat of not being as good. Nioh 2, though, evolves what was already unique about Nioh into something that Team Ninja can very much call their own. It might be operating in the same genre space, but Nioh 2 has its own flavour, and it’s like nothing else out there.

Strikers walks and talks like Persona 5, but no social game and bland combat make it one strictly for gigafans.