StarDrive 2 would be an impressive 4X game. But its annoying tone, eccentric AI and the shallowness of the empire management casts a shadow over it. If we weren’t in the middle of an unexpected flood of 4X games, then its take on space conflict alone would make it worth playing, but at the moment there are just too many alternatives.

I enjoyed almost every minute I spent with Tokyo 42. Few games feel so immediately and consistently inviting - there are no penalties for pissing about in this urban utopia. You don’t even have to feel bad about killing civilians, as they’ll simply flicker back to life once you’ve ended your shooting spree. It’s a remarkable shooter, a solid stealth-‘em-up, and a terrible racing game.

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is a sublime semi-open world that champions quality over quantity, but unrefined combat puts a damper on A44's original gunpowder fantasy.

A stripped down Diablo that oozes charm and loot variety but is probably better suited to a younger audience.

It’s almost absurdly simple. The thing I’ve always liked about twin-stick shooters is a sense of escalating chaos - the idea that you’re only just keeping a lid on waves of baddies. Spartan Assault never manages this: there just aren’t ever enough enemies on screen, nor do they ever feel particularly dangerous.

A hefty expansion that offers up to 20 more hours of what Valhalla does so brilliantly, slightly marred by some half-baked side quests.

A bombastic but simplified RTS with great set-pieces and interesting new ideas in Blitz mode, but a lack of depth that'll shorten its longevity with PC players.

In fact, of all the games I’ve been in, this one is definitely the worst.

For the moments where the procedural stuff just works perfectly, creating a bastard-hard but ultimately memorable level, and for the world itself, which is lovely, The Swindle is worth dedicating a couple evenings to. It won’t steal your heart though.

A stellar crafting experience and surprisingly slick combat aren’t enough to compensate for the flaws in New World’s humdrum and frustrating quest design.

Lumino City really has only one flaw: its cracking puzzles and amazing architecture aren't matched by a similarly memorable story.

Democracy 3 demands a particular mindset to appreciate, where one’s eye is not constantly fixed on winning elections, but it’s a grand political adventure for those willing to experience a story told by numbers and polls. There’s also a surprising, understated beauty about how everything is seamlessly tied together, with every decision echoing throughout the elegant spiderweb.

Burial at Sea has a real pacing problem, stemming from the very literal segregation of its narrative and combat sections. It makes you finish your meat before your can start on your vegetables, where the metaphorical meat is the talking and the vegetables are the shooting.

Solo Leveling Arise is authentic to its anime and webtoon inspirations, but it's too grindy, frustrating, and repetitive to come close to rivaling the best gacha games.

The Sims 4 is good, if a bit plain when compared with the exploding circus of colourful content that festoons previous games in the series, expansion packs littered with dogs and ghosts and hobbies and holidays that are now nowhere to be found...We're back to a clean sheet, and it's arguably the cleanest, most stable and most ready-to-be-built upon sheet Maxis have yet laid down.

Shadows of the Damned Hella Remastered is a crude, mean-spirited, and dangerously unfunny trip down memory lane with a grating cast, middling gunplay, and only the most minor of visual enhancements.

For fans of asymmetrical multiplayer games, Killer Klowns from Outer Space does what many others before have not, almost perfecting the likes of balance, down time, and match length, and it deserves to be considered among the best in the genre. Illfonic’s game fills the gap left by Friday the 13th and checks every box in style, but its lesser-known IP may prevent well-deserved longevity.

Considering it’s ‘only’ a spin-off, this is a riotously fun and well-designed entry in the series - however, it’s built with co-op in mind. Solo play is viable, but play with a friend, and you’ll both have one of the best shooter experiences of the year so far.

This is a game which looks spectacular, sounds downright amazing, implements engaging systems and ticks all of the What Makes A Good Real-time Strategy Game boxes, however its true beauty comes from the moments I’ve experienced that you never will and vice versa. With more campaign episodes due further down the line, not to mention modding and Steam Workshop support, it seems Ashes of the Singularity can only get better.

Age of Empires: Definitive Edition is still lumbered with some of the quirks of its ‘90s origins. This is understandable - it is a remaster, not a remake - but those quirks do cause some friction. Beneath them, though, the underlying gameplay remains as solid as a fully upgraded phalanx. Indeed, some of its ideas are almost as fresh today as they were 20 years ago, which says something rather damning about the genre as a whole. The game also looks and sounds terrific, and fans of the original will be delighted.

Ubisoft's PvE shooter fails to extract the best out of Rainbow Six Siege's gameplay mechanics, and the result is a repetitive, mostly bland co-op assignment.

Broken Sword 5 will slowly worm itself into your affections if you expose yourself to its ever so gentle humour for long enough.

Proof that bad writing can ruin anything, Ghost Recon Wildlands feels like the death knell for a particular style of open-world game. Occasionally great moments, like the co-op play and the Sync Shot, are sadly drowned out.

At the moment it’s functional, sometimes fun, but only something that should really be considered if you’ve got three chums who are guaranteed to play with you. Even then, you might be better off with the original Magicka and its slew of DLC or Wizard Wars, which is free-to-play.

Simple and beautiful to look at, Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles is a pleasant distraction but lacks the depth in its combat and economy to stay interesting for very long.

If anything I took on the role of a benevolent eccentric, building a park and bringing long-dead creatures back to life for my own pleasure and fascination, not to gouge the wallets of the people drawn to the creatures I was so captured by. Basically, what I’m getting at is that Jurassic World Evolution made me into John Hammond.

Millennia is a fresh take on the 4X genre that offers a reactive approach to building your nation throughout history, but a few key issues keep it from greatness.

The mission design and story can grate at times, but this is a devilishly fun homage to Diablo 3 and Warhammer Fantasy you’ll want to get your friends in on.

Star Hammer’s combat systems are truly exceptional, but they’re trapped in a bland, forgettable campaign.

You may get a laugh or two, but it’s an otherwise poor shooter that thinks large numbers of enemies are difficulty spikes and distractions will make people forget about the soft locks, crashes, and lack of accessibility options.

Shadows of Doubt is an intricate simulation of a grim corporate world that handles player freedom on a level you rarely see. The fascination wears thin as you delve deeper into the seedy underworld, but the initial intrigue alone is worth the price of entry.

If the filler were stripped out Foul Play would only be a two hour game but it would be two hours flush with ideas instead of five hours sprinkled with them. It would make for a more appealing co-op game, too. You won’t find yourselves saying “Just one more act,” you’ll be loading up Castle Crashers.

The return of classic Assassin's Creed infiltration missions makes this DLC a worthwhile trip for long-time fans and recent devotees alike, although not all of its new ideas work quite so well.

State of Decay 2 is a strong sequel that, bugs and odd design decisions aside, expands on the innovative original in all the right places. The larger map might not add much, but the game is deeper and more refined. I found that the best stories in State of Decay 2 were the ones I wrote myself but, while the game can stand on its own in single-player, I look forward to doing that even more with friends.

Lichdom: Battlemage’s magic system is second to none, and it carries the game. It does one thing exceptionally well, while the rest of the game languishes a bit.

This new space 4X game is nothing novel, but Stardock’s latest release builds on classic strategy mechanics while giving them a contemporary, intergalactic twist.

Most of the time it revels in being mediocre and cowardly by the numbers rather than outright terrible, though there are moments where it manages to be both. If this isn’t a wake up call, showing once and for all that churning out more or less the same stuff year after year only serves to dilute the quality of a franchise, then I don’t know what is. It’s completely shameless, and it’s undoubtedly going to sell phenomenally well.

It’s one of those ‘good game buried in here somewhere’ experiences. Tonally it’s all over the place, and its design may as well be from the dark ages at this point. But there’s an alternate universe in which the likeable, upgradeable Agents and gratifying gear-gating are instead married to interesting, varied missions and an atmospheric open-world. That is what it would have taken for Agents of Mayhem to shine, and the most bizarre thing about its actual execution is how deliberately Volition seem to have shot for mediocrity. This doesn’t feel like a game hampered by ineptitude, but instead by a misunderstanding - or plain indecision - as to who it’s actually intended for.

None of the separate parts – the platforming, the construction, the light strategy – stand out as particularly refined or able to stand toe to toe with games that just focus on one of those things, but Q-Games has put them all together in a package that is much more than the sum of its parts, hiding its flaws under the satisfying pace and multitude of unlockable rewards and newly discovered recipes.

A bit skinny for a wargame. I can’t deny that I’ve missed getting stressed about logistics or big picture strategy, and it certainly hasn’t set my heart aflutter in the way that I hoped a Warhammer wargame would. But there aren’t very many wargames that are this easy to dip into, either. It’s got a focus and simplicity that’s often lacking elsewhere, and it could be indispensable for anyone looking to dip their toes into the genre.

More-user friendly, more fun, but still boasting all of the bark and bite you'd expect from a top tier racing sim.

I came for the promise of pigeon romance, but I stayed for the surreal world these fowl reside in.

The Sims 4 Horse Ranch has given me the equestrian content of my dreams, with a wide variety of horse breeds to choose from and beautiful riding animations. From adorable little farm animals to artisan wine making, there is a lot to love in Horse Ranch. I am only left wishing it was all a bit less Western.

A range of technical issues are holding it back at launch, but a combination of satisfying combat and likable characters has delivered the foundation of an excellent superhero game.

Delightfully chaotic and ruggedly lovable, this is a decidedly old-fashioned shooter that succeeds on the principle of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it.'

It is, perhaps, not a very good adventure game, but – and this is despite the first act – it’s a compelling bit of interactive fiction.

A spiritual successor to Dead Space that blends and riffs on ideas from the best horror games of recent years, with plenty of blood and guts to go around, though a lacklustre plot is its one minor flaw.

Where life finds a way, Exoprimal has lost its purpose. Defined by boring combat and a lack of innovation, I’m left feeling like that Brachiosaurus in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – hopeless and yearning for more.

This near-future sequel has all the components it needs to become a classic entry in the multiplayer series, but it feels like 2042 is many updates away from reaching its full potential.

The Long Journey Home does a superb job of making you feel like a stranger in a strange place. The aliens you encounter are all established and regard you with mild curiosity rather than alarm. You’re properly up against it and that can be very gripping. After six hours, however, it’s just draining, and because every objective is a mini-game, there’s almost no respite from the moment-to-moment struggle.

Just Cause 4 refines everything that made its predecessor great. It’s still one of the most generous and bombastic open world games, but its new systems don’t progress the sandbox as much as they should.

AEW’s first foray into videogames has much room for improvement across its odd-looking character models, slim game mode offerings, and poor AI balancing. That said, in the right crowd, you might enjoy it for its schlock and solid controls.

A year of updates has helped fill out its light content, but the real magic was there from the start. Rare’s take on cartoon piracy encourages you to behave as a cartoon pirate should: a little bloodthirsty, a little silly, and almost always drunk.

Updates and new content releases would do wonders for Spintires, as at the moment it's little more than a pleasingly ground-churning tech demo. A muddy, messy and fun tech demo that gingerly touches on a deeply held love of playing in the dirt that you might have forgotten about.

Nine Dots Studio's RPG will appeal to people who love fiddly systems and have enormous patience. But if that isn’t you then it'll simply feel like a time drain.

Three Kingdoms' first piece of DLC is largely more of the same, but that's no bad thing when the base experience is so good.

OutRage: Fight Fest is frenetic fighting fun, taking everything we love about fighting games and combining them with quick-fire party chaos.

A refreshing take on the survival sandbox with a robust approach to progression and countless ways to tackle each mission. Sadly, harsh penalties, bugs, and crashes combine to make this a frustrating off-world expedition.

Alone in the Dark is a weak survival horror pastiche largely devoid of original moments. The occasional dash of character in its 1920s Deep South setting can't make up for repetitive puzzles and the feeling we've seen all of this before.

I sincerely hope this isn’t the last we will see of Tyranny, because - in its current state - it has ended with a whimper, absent of a single fight or NPC who could be characterised as memorable, or quests that would inspire anyone to start the game all over again. Obsidian’s dark RPG deserves a better expansion than Bastard’s Wound.

The Precinct takes a welcomingly sober approach to videogame policing, focusing as much on the mundane as the action-filled aspects of the job. But this isn’t enough to make enduring hours of its repetitive mission design and poor writing worthwhile.

The marketing materials surrounding Lightfall built it up to tell the story that would lead us to the space game’s final chapter. But Bungie should know one thing: if it wants to keep its players happy, it should never make a promise it can’t keep. [Review in Progress]

If there's something to love in Biomutant, it's the vibrancy of its environments and its brilliantly dynamic combat. Unfortunately, you have to wade through so much repetitive, tedious open-world slurry that it becomes hard to enjoy.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice serves up a strong story and world but is marred by repetition and occasionally confusing level design, which holds it back from achieving its full potential as an instant VR classic.

For all that The Bureau get’s wrong, it is at least a passable tactical shooter with a novel, well-realised setting. If you love the golden age of science-fiction, there’s something here for you. Just don’t expect it to ever get truly interesting, because XCOM Declassified never captures what XCOM is all about.

As a Dead by Daylight fan, The Casting of Frank Stone had me squealing with joy at its easter eggs, hints, and lore. This combined with its mysterious plot and engaging dual-timeline structure kept me invested even through the most hands-off sequences. Still, I was left wanting more interactivity, and the game’s conclusion is likely to go over non-DBD players’ heads.

A unique premise, great sense of style, and a number of novel design concepts aren’t quite enough to compensate for Slitterhead’s repetitive mission structure and lifeless combat.

Payday 3 takes its beloved predecessor’s multiplayer heist formula and elevates it across the board, making for a thrilling experience, provided you’ve got a crew to play with.

Consortium is a tragedy. There’s an extremely clever game to be found within, but only when it works. It’s just the first part of a planned trilogy, and I have so many questions that I won’t be able to help myself, I need to play the second part. But I can only hope that it’s not held together by chewing gum and sellotape again.

Echoes of the End makes a strong first impression with inventive puzzles and focused combat, but its uncompromising appetite for challenge and precision is painfully difficult to overcome, and undercuts the power of its protagonist in the process.

At times, it still feels like it’s in Early Access, not because it’s buggy, but because it’s missing that spark and polish that’s kept Worms alive for so long. Yet I do hope this isn’t the last we’ve seen of these escaping sheep. There’s a good foundation, and a need for inventive A to B puzzle games.

Gripping supernatural subterfuge meets perfunctory mechanics. Worth it to explore the World of Darkness, though.

Its colourful cast of characters handles Batman’s absence well, but mismatched features and puzzling progression means it trips as much as it triumphs.

While missions can be frustrating and the new diplomacy system is nothing to write home about, Stronghold: Warlords should satisfy devoted fans with its new, gorgeously realised setting.

The building tension and well-written characters make this small town mystery captivating, but it bites off more than it can chew in its rushed depiction of a man struggling with his mental health.

With excellent maps, slick and expressive movement, and the superb new Overload mode, Black Ops 7’s core multiplayer experience is brilliant. Zombies fans have plenty to sink their teeth into, even if a lot of its modes return from past games. BO7’s campaign, however, is its biggest disappointment, and its Endgame experiment mostly falls flat.

I can cheerfully recommend it to people who may never have encountered the game before. But if you’re a Heroes of Might and Magic fan, who never needed high-definition anything to enjoy these games, then the chances are that GOG already had you covered, and there’s not much for you here.

It isn’t complex enough to satiate veteran RTS players and doesn’t offer mountains of content, but Minecraft Legends delivers the basic loop of attacking and defending territory and finds the odd inventive way to use its iconic IP.

Too many basic lessons on how to treat players go unlearnt. Even over its short duration, initially colourful scenarios become sadly static and tired. Journey of a Roach has some promising ideas, but unfortunately struggles to demonstrate them at their best.

Star Wars Battlefront II houses a decent single-player campaign and good multiplayer, but, like the otherwise slick design of its multiplayer maps, that accomplishment is often obscured by distractions. Normally, my brain blocks out in-game monetisation, letting me enjoy the game for what it is. Battlefront II changes that because spenders get a real advantage here. You cannot help but notice it encroaching on everything, plastered all over the game’s convoluted, drawn-out progression system.

Deliver At All Costs has tons of potential, but it doesn’t know what to do with it. A solid storyline is neglected in favor of chaotic quests, but the missions aren’t varied enough to stave off repetition for long. It's a game of competing ideas and intentions that would have been better explored across two entirely separate and fully realized projects.

With flavourful combat mechanics for each faction and a cast of bombastic characters, Storm Ground is a worthy introduction to the Age of Sigmar setting that's marred by some rough edges.

It’s missing that spark of personality and something that ties all the scenarios together. And it’s in desperate need of a great deal of polish.

Eventually, you’ll probably find that Mighty Quest is not worthy of your whole attention. But play it with a podcast on, stick to the Ubi-designed castles early on, and you’ll be happy - not least because you’ll avoid the self-consciously loopy screech of its trad fantasy characters. Rayman this is not.

If you normally struggle with the multiple complexities of a 4x strategy game, Starships is a great introduction to the genre.

The sad reality is Strafe exasperates as much as it exhilarates. For every fleet footed show of sharp shooting it conspires to blast itself in the food with devious tactics and a steady slew of quite ‘fuuuuu!’ moments to players brave enough to endure the onslaught. There’s a really solid, often graceful FPS in here, one beefed up with generous side content – the 10 room horde mode-esque Murderzone and online speedruns break up the crushing campaign. Yet ultimately, you can’t quite outflank Strafe’s unfair, overwhelming slaughter.

1C Entertainment's attempt to reinvigorate the long-dormant series proves two things: its turn-based tactical combat is timeless, and making a compelling open-world experience is harder than it looks.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League offers some fun, frantic action, but it gets lost in shallow, repetitive mission structures and frustrating narrative sensibilities.

Sometimes repetitive, sometimes eye-rolling, and sometimes just plain busted, Saints Row 2022 is far from perfect, but that doesn't stop it from being a chaotic good time.

It's hard to ignore the need for a little extra TLC to smooth out the edges, but the fundamentals of an arresting tactics-and-strategy game about building a criminal empire are in place.

By the end, most of its sights and systems will be all too familiar. But between its uniquely provincial setting and dedication to undergrowth stealth, there’s more than enough novel in Sir that you’ll gladly be the rabbit in its lights at least one time through.

Here’s the thing. I can sort of appreciate Goat Sim, but it leaves me a little cold. However, I showed it to some pre-teens, and they thought it was the greatest game they’d ever seen. Their sides still hurt from laughing.

An initially intriguing game that quickly reveals itself to be a slight and unimaginative shooter. An opportunity missed, and a let-down on a technical level to boot.

Although its light tutorial and lack of feedback throw it off balance, Rise of Industry’s in-depth production tools and supply chain mechanics - not to mention waffle options - will meet the demands of any production sim fan.

A fairly fun bullet-hell shooter frustrated by under-realised features and missed narrative opportunities. Ultimately, Hired Gun falls into a pitfall all too common to Warhammer adaptations: that of only ever feeling skin deep.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 fails to recapture the original’s magic, instead magnifying the worst parts of Troika’s classic, with janky combat and occasionally woeful performance issues. Long-time VTM fans may enjoy haunting Seattle’s snowy streets, getting to know its well-written cast, and testing each clan’s unique playstyle, but it’s a far cry from what it could have been.

There’s a great game in here, somewhere. Rapidly getting into jaw-droppingly huge wars spanning multiple worlds is brilliant - it really is. And there’s no other RTS that gives players so much destructive power. But the lack of tactical depth and focus on constantly rushing makes Planetary Annihilation tiring.

Beneath We Happy Few’s flaws is an excellent story, some clever first-person exploration, and a bunch of stunning design work. But the rest of the experience feels profoundly self-conscious and unsure of what it actually wants to be, imposing on you in some areas while remaining hands-off elsewhere.