Dark Nights with Poe and Munro is a well crafted FMV story with branching plotlines. Well acted and scripted with it and great value for six distinct episodes into the bargain. Well worth spending a few evenings with.

Infestor offers a couple of hours of gentle puzzling and platforming and is relatively enjoyable. It's not going to turn any heads with its graphics or gameplay but it doesn't ask too much of you either.

Skate City is alright. There are better skating games out there for sure but if you're looking for a mellow take on the genre, this'll do for a while.

Returnal is as bold as it is relentless. Taking the best of Rogue-lite mechanics, third person shooting and foreboding sci-fi atmosphere; Housemarque have delivered an evolution of their excellent pedigree while masterfully demonstrating what the PS5 can do. While the notable difficulty will be a test for some, conquer it and you will be rewarded with a game that is slick, ruthless, and dangerously addictive.

Terminator: Resistance was a fairly average PS4 game that did enough with the license to appeal to us as fans. Playing through it again in 2021 has been enjoyable enough though and its old-school level design is actually pretty refreshing in this era of open-world titles. It's just a shame that the PS5 facelift and new DLC didn't add anything to the experience but if you want a reason to replay the game, this is it.

Make no mistake, Angels with Scaly Wings is a romance tale first. Despite the crime story and talk of sci-fi, the game really wants you to date dragons to unlock more intrigue. It's not for me. With the more interesting snippets of information locked behind multiple playthroughs, this leads to something I just don't enjoy. The presentation is decent but the use of multiple artists leads to a lack of visual cohesion. Above all, I dislike how sudden the relationships advance.

R-Type Final 2 just doesn't live up to the hype, or the weight of its own history. Ultimately, it feels a little unfinished, like they underestimated the initial Kickstarter and had to deliver a game, even if it wasn't the one we all dreamed it could be.

Trails and Traces: The Tomb of Thomas Tew is a point and click adventure game with two easy platinums. It's pretty ugly and the voice acting is very poor but the script is alright and the puzzles, though simple, will keep you reasonably entertained for the short running time.

Gravity Heroes is best played with others. Whilst you can tackle the campaign alone, the boss fights seem to be scaled for multiple players. It's also where the game's creativity resides. The controls can take some getting used to but the gravity mechanic does mean thinking about foes from all angles. Combat is fine although a little more variety could have helped with weapons, in particular, being on the small side. It's all presented nicely with some detailed visuals but the remaining modes don't appear to offer much in the way of longevity.

Buildings Have Feelings Too! is a bit of a misnomer, this is more Urban Regeneration Simulator, but that’s not quite so snappy. Hamstrung by not explaining its more complex mechanics that well before burying them in a sub-menu, this feels like it needs a little more polish to be a success.

Pocoyo Party is a fun game for those with younger kids in their household, replicating the look and feel of the TV show well. Notably it uses the DS4 tilt functions to great effect, which is more than we can say for 99% of PS4 games.

Terra Trilogy is a compilation of three shoot 'em ups that take a lot of inspiration from some early arcade titles and they all have potential but are let down by some horrible difficulty spikes and cheap level design.

Super Meat Boy Forever changes from a difficult, traditional platformer to a difficult auto-runner. It retains a lot of what people like about Super Meat Boy but the change from pure platformer to what amounts to a two button control scheme might put some people off. What the designers achieve with those two buttons is something to be applauded however.

Papa's Quiz uses Jackbox-style technology to offer up some solid quiz gameplay. The stiffness of voice acting hurts the atmosphere though and ultimately the game is a bit too dry to really succeed as a party game.

Fantasy Friends is a simple enough life simulation game for children that offers up some basic entertainment but does begin to feel like work rather than play and doesn't go far enough in terms of gameplay to warrant its hefty price tag.

Heal is the sort of classy title that we've come to expect from Jesse Makkonen and it offers an afternoon's worth of gentle puzzling and some stylish atmospherics. It's not quite up there with his Distraint games but Heal is a likeable taste of what this talented developer is capable of.

Smelter is a tough 2D action platformer with some less engaging strategy elements between levels. The presentation is great and there are lots of hidden items to find and trials to challenge yourself with, but the difficulty does cross a line at times which is detrimental to the fun.

As a solid puzzle platformer title with an innovative dimension shifting mechanic, World Splitter almost has everything it needs to be a new Indie darling. However, overly simple presentation and occasionally frustrating moments hamper things somewhat.

Darq is an incredibly atmospheric, if brief title about being a self-aware dreamer that is stuck in a nightmare. This game oozes spookiness with satisfying puzzles and Tim Burton-esque surrealism, but skimps on the actual horror elements which could have been its Darq’s marquee feature.

Honestly, I found parts of Ravensword: Shadowlands charming. It's a game that was low-budget almost a decade ago but the smaller scope resulted in a simple RPG I found surprisingly enjoyable. Technically, it is unpolished and has a tendency to break but playing through it didn't feel like an obligation. The combat lacks depth and the main quest can feel bland. Luckily the uncomplicated nature of it all made this feel rather brisk to play.

Stellatum's classy, upgrade-heavy take on the classic vertically-scrolling shoot 'em up was good in 2019 and is still enjoyable today. The improved visuals and haptics are welcome but we'd have liked to have seen some tweaks to the gameplay too.

Poison Control is a fun ARPG as you descend through the circles of hell. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, and neither should you. Get to it dood.

El Hijo is a western themed stealth-em-up. Very much a game to concentrate on, but once you hit your stride you'll have fun. The juxtaposition between the two player characters and their interlocking storylines is well done.

Disco Elysium: The Final Cut is a fantastic game, especially now the major bugs seem to have been squished. It's one of the most immersive games I've ever played, has great presentation across the board and once all the issues are patched out it'll be superb and unmissable.

Overall, I find C-14 Dating to be a little bland and forgettable. The story does emphasise friendship before romance and the stat building doesn't become a genuine chore. Unfortunately, I didn't find the characters particularly engaging or interesting to talk to. I wasn't especially enthralled by the archaeology-laced writing either. It's presented well but none of it really stuck with me.

Tinker Racers starts promisingly with a great home-made aesthetic and some inventive track design. Unfortunately, the restrictive campaign hampers a game that barely moves beyond a clever concept. The racing is competitive but success in the latter stages seems to require more than a slice of luck. Local multiplayer could at least deliver some longevity but the lack of vehicle and race options result in a very narrow, frustrating experience.

You have to admire the scale and scope of Outbuddies DX, a Metroidvania that is packed full of gameplay mechanics and ideas. It's arguably too slow, too long and a little bit unfriendly in terms of its clumsy interface, controls and map design but your patience is rewarded especially if you enjoy exploration, platforming and big boss battles.

Lost Words: Beyond The Page is an excellent exploration of the relationship between a young girl and her grandmother with superb voice acting for the lead character. Very much recommended.