Indeed, if you've only ever played the original Ace Attorney Trilogy, The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is still a massive step up from those early games, both in terms of production values and the complexity of its cases. It might not match some of Spirit Of Justice's late-game twists, but this is definitely one of the better Phoenix Wright games in recent memory, and certainly since the original trilogy. As a prequel, it's also a great place to start for Ace Attorney newbies, offering a great introduction to Shu Takumi's visual novel detective series without all the daft baggage it's accumulated in games four to six. If I were a judge presiding over video games court, the strength of the evidence is clear. Far from a villain in the Ace Attorney series, Chronicles is grade-A goodness. With the full weight of the fiery jury behind me, I hereby declare this to be a most excellent video game.

I’ve had such a time with this. I’ve been bemused, entranced, confused and delighted. I’ve laughed a lot, been slightly creeped out, and constantly astonished at the level of detail in every element of this. There is just SO much to do, to explore, so many secrets I know I’ve missed, and bits I want to return to. This is completely splendid. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Over the past two years, Grounded has cemented itself as one of the best survival games around, with a gorgeous world that's teeming with life. That puts you in great danger, as the massive insects stomping around pose a rather substantial threat, but surviving their attacks and scavenging for materials is a fruitful endeavour. As you make your way through Grounded's biomes, swimming to the depths of the Koi Pond or escaping infected bugs in The Haze, you'll uncover new items that push you even further into this mystery and give survival a purpose. Even if you'd rather sit around and focus on making a cosy home, Grounded's reactive world means that it won't be long until the creepiest crawlies come knocking. It really does feel like you're just surviving in their world, and doing so is a constantly rewarding experience that I adore.

Disc Room might be readily slept on, but if you are the kind of tough game obsessive, a connoisseur of arcade death, or a bullet hellion who cannot resist the call to mastery, these rooms should be approached wakeful and willing and ready to die.

Helldivers 2 has filled an ache in my heart. My friends and I have longed for another fun co-op shooter since we all drifted away from Warzone, and Helldivers 2 has exceeded my expectations on every front - and particularly as someone who's grown tired of live service tropes. Yes, it might be lean in comparison to some live service giants when it comes to unlockables (looking at you, Destiny 2), but I think it has a longer tail by virtue of silliness being its top priority, where twists on simple acts make it a laugh generator and skill venerator. I could go on about how you can switch to first person for crunchier, more accurate shooting. How rockets can turn into explosive skimming stones if you angle them at the dirt. How the orange flashes of a gatling gun cutting through a dense mist is so beautiful it brings a tear to my eye. Oh heck, just buy the damn thing. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Beacon Pines may well be a trope-filled choose-your-own-adventure that keeps its fingers stuck between the pages for you, but its a testament to how well it delivers on its story, art and music that I enjoyed every minute of it anyway - and that I miss its characters now that it's over.

There are still mysteries to uncover and sources to identify in my game, but after hitting two endings, it's difficult to regain that same headspace where I was lost in its world.

As someone who loves the genre, I can forgive so many of Khazan’s defects because of this fierceness. But I can’t deny that the game has plenty of weaknesses outside of those pitched battles. If it was a more concise adventure (a full playthrough will set you back around 80 hours), a lot of the issues I’ve mentioned might not seem like such a big deal. Instead, it leaves me feeling conflicted. I'm caught between lamenting its laborious (and often rehashed) campaign, while truly celebrating its gratifying, in-depth combat. There are some bruising boss fight treasures buried in Khazan for any tough-knuckled soulslike fans, it’s just a shame you have to dig through mounds of uninteresting levels and scores of samey enemies to reach them.

I do feel a bit bad about ragging on The Plucky Squire, a game that's ultimately a fairly fun, inoffensive time and absolutely meant for people who aren't as ailing as me. Its energy is great and upbeat and lovely - a perfect balm in the face of today's horribleness. But I do think it suffers from trying to do lots of things and getting a bit lost within them (for what it's worth, I think it would've done better fleshing out the word-chopping ability, as it really can feel magical sometimes). The combat is fine, the platforming is fine, mostly everything feels just fine. And necessary restrictions on your ability usage means that you're always hunting for a one-note solution, as opposed to feeling like you're really altering the narrative. Even games 'meant for kids' still have those deeper layers beneath the simplistic surfaces, where the creativity of teens aren't underestimated and the oldies can flex their mastery muscles. Scratch away the ink and I don't think there's much beneath The Plucky Squire, sadly.

Is Lies Of P Bloodborne just Bloodborne with puppets, then? I say again, no! Lies Of P is a fitting ode and a definite must play for fans of From's dark epic, just don't expect it to match Bloodborne's supernatural cinema.

A Highland Song is beautiful and does it very well. As a game trying to let us run into that wildness, it trips up sometimes. After playing it, I am left with a desire to visit it again, but also a lingering, vague sadness. I can only be grateful for A Highland Song making me feel that.

It's a large and sprawling adventure, but there's no 'if's, 'but's or 'maybe's about it. Percentages be damned: this is a guaranteed hit for Marvel and strategy fans alike. [RPS Bestest Bests]

So much of what I enjoyed about Roadwarden was its unknowability. You’re a traveller in the peninsula for a little over a month, and it reflects that. You can’t fix every problem, you can’t make everyone happy, and you can’t know everything there is to know. Instead, you take in as much of it as you can, try to improve people’s lots slightly, and leave with a journal full of questions and sense memories.

Sharp as a spike bayonet in the AI department, surprisingly realistic in areas like morale modelling, LoS and armour penetration, SD’s crowning achievement is arguably its interface. It’s hard to think of a wargame that makes control feel so effortless or one that communicates unit details so effectively. [RPS Recommended]

Off-Peak deserved to be something less arbitrary than a point and click. Or it deserved a player with better taste than me. But given how much I’ve had to say in praise of both this and Frog Detective 2, the only two point and click games I’ve played in the last couple of years, I’m beginning to wonder if perhaps I just don’t dislike as many things as I thought I did. It’s always good to shed your prejudices, and Tales From Off-Peak City helped me unload a good few.

My point is: while all this is happening, it feels fantastic. Fantastic and frenetic.

It’s the Baker family’s story and they’re magnificent. Grotesque, yes, but delightfully so. Like Friday the 13th, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street and the rest of their kind, it’s a game centred on its villains rather than their victims. And, like those series, this is a game that can scare you, startle you, shock you, draw a nervous laugh out of you and make you shake your head in disbelief, but mostly it’s just here to entertain. And the Bakers are right at the horrible heart of it all.

Resident Evil Village felt like it wanted to provide something for everyone, but to its own detriment. Those early bits which serve horror fans more were so, so good, and it was such a shame it lost sight of what made things engaging as it careered towards the end. I still had trouble putting it down, though. Even in its most absurd moments.

It may at first seems like a simple card battler, but Floppy Knights evolves into a meatier game the longer it goes on. There’s tough fights aplenty in the satisfying tactical battles with monsters of all shapes and sizes, and the challenge maps require you to plot your every move carefully to succeed. Rose City Games’ venture is just really easy to get along with, through its caring protagonist and welcoming art style, and never crosses too far into becoming a tiresome Saturday morning cartoon. Floppy Knights is a really enjoyable tactical card game that offers more the longer you spend with it, and it’s a joy to experience.

While Snufkin: Melody Of Moominvalley wraps up a bit abruptly and doesn't get the band back together as deftly as I'd have liked, I can't be too harsh on it all. Snufkin's adventure is focused on simplistic fun, where you meet some pals and uproot some order, all within the span of an afternoon. Pair this with a cuppa and a fluffy blanket and that's a holiday to remember.

As the horrors unfold and you learn more about the post, Threshold's commentary becomes clearer. It's about wilful ignorance and excess and preservation at all costs. And about how one's work can feel vitally important, even if you know something's up and your place within it disposable. Of all the horror games I've played, I think this one will stick in my memory as short, to the point, and wickedly immersive. So yeah, if you're happy to take over my shift, I'd urge you to. I'll actually be off now. Call me if you need anything, and keep the pace!

It’s as close to a perfect restoration as you’ll get, and the treatment these genre-defining games deserve.

Particularly nifty is the ability to port your trucks back and forth between maps. If you lose one in a snow drift and can’t yet afford a bigger vehicle to dredge it out, it’s feasible to head back to Michigan and raise the funds in safer environs. That’s the other children’s story SnowRunner resembles: The Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly. No matter the size of your stuck truck, you can nearly always send in something heavier. It’s the simplicity of principles like these that makes the ‘Runner games remarkably accessible, even as they grow in complexity and ambition.

Those complaints aside, I'm deeply into what Chivalry II offers, ie. a daft bloodbath. The moment-to-moment warring inspires many brief instances of silly movie violence. Chasing a disarmed opponent to the edge of a pit and booting him down, before being booted in yourself by the sneak who's been behind you the whole time. Chucking firebombs at your enemy's feet. Or chucking firebombs at your own feet, for that matter, in a spiteful final stand. Or leaping from a wall with an overhead axe attack but missing by two very important metres and crumpling your legs, granting your target ample time to crush your skull with his own cartoonishly appropriate weapon: a blacksmith's anvil. Chivalrous? No. Art? Well, just look at those colours.

Hitman 2 is about possibilities; the maps, weapons, and disguises all make it sing. Patience is it’s own reward: if you study your foes, if you watch the movement of guards, the placement of certain elements, you’ll get back what you put in.

The Banner Saga 2 is a beautiful sequel. There are moments where, as I watch the drama unfold in the dialogue and cutscenes, I almost forget I’m playing a game that came out in this decade. There’s an evocative sense of timelessness about the story and world that few RPGs create. And now that the combat has become a strength and not a weakness, immersing myself in the richness of The Banner Saga’s dying world is almost as enchanting as cracking open the weathered pages of my favorite fantasy novels.

The central, notionally interactive premise of fiddling around with camera angles, retuning signals and slapping censorship buttons isn’t engaging enough in the moment to make you want to dive back in and uncover the two thirds of the game you miss, but one helping of the news is more than enough. A strange, funny, and enormously ambitious game, Not For Broadcast is unlike anything else I’ve played.

More often you'll be gently ribbed by levels that reference the first game. The aforementioned shooting gallery's targets are effigies of the flying saucer, the monolith, and the briefly-erupting volcano from which you and they saved Muckingham. I very much enjoyed this, but I can imagine it has smaller returns if you didn't play the first game. The same is true of all those small changes I liked. But at the same time, if you didn't play PowerWash Simulator, you'll just come to PowerWash Simulator 2 as the best damn version of a game where you slowly waterblast crud off a toilet you ever did see. Not much to complain about there.

In many ways, I feel the same way about Football Manager 2018 as I do about football in 2018. I love the sport, but I found so much of the talk around it and the personalities involved more than a little bit tiresome.

I am willing to forgive Expelled! a few glitches in the matrix given the juiciness of its plot and the energy of its telling. I've ultimately had near seven hours of engaging fun with it, which feels ample. Now, far from its golden age inspirations, I'm relying upon that more modern phenomenon: internet sleuths. Solve this case for me so I can watch it on YouTube.

My own enjoyment of Rosewater feels like a contagion in that way. Not just from the joy that palpably went into its creation, or the fact that the star-studded voice cast (including Arthur Morgan and the narrator of Baldur’s Gate 3) clearly had the time of their lives. I enjoy it because it reminds me of the games I could spend a month on back in the aughts. Other times, though - when I’ve spent a half hour wandering around, exhausting dialogue options in hopes of connecting the dots that will let me move on - I’m reminded of the adventure games I’ve played in the intervening decade which iron out the snags that Rosewater so often gets stuck on.

I was thoroughly entertained during the couple of hours that the story lasted. It’s brief, yes, but it’s packed with ideas, both in the plotting which is alternately creepy and humorously self-aware, and in terms of level design and modifications to your toolset.

Yakuza 6 is an excellent standalone adventure for newcomers and a brilliant send off for Kiryu without the clutter of the other yakuza games, for better and for worse. I'm just happy I can hang out again with my favourite yakuza dad, who now smoulders at max settings.

The studio has promised adjustments to this mode (some may have already been patched in by the time you read this). But I’ve yet to feel the benefit. That sense of dissatisfaction leaves a reviewer in that old laundry drum of morality. I should probably be out on the cyber-streets demanding improvements. What do we want? More costume unlocks! When do we want them? After you nerf the Towers! But that means yet more work for the developers, and then I’d have to face the other problem of Mortal Kombat 11: the recent reports that its studio is a harsh place to work, a place of unhealthy working practices and months of unhealthy overtime. Crunch, in other words. But they’d probably spell it “Krunch”.

There is a contagious fury in Hell Clock's bones, louder than its flaws or features list. Pajeú staggers, weakened, through a razed village in a storm. When he returns, he is the storm. Still spinning, still winning, made of wrath and gunsmoke and a circle of blades and lightning that just keeps expanding with every suspiciously perfect upgrade. I am certain there are numbers under the hood, stewing like the spirits of avenging dead, nudging the RNG just so. Much obliged, furious ghosts. One more run it is, then.

There’s not much else to say about Frog Detective 3 without ruining the plot or stepping on punch lines to jokes. Here's what you need to know in short: it has the same earnest, good-natured fun with the same effortless comedy as the previous two games; it'll take you around an hour to complete (an hour and a half if you’re busy trying to do kick flips on your scooter); and finally, if you’ve played the first two then you’ll have a riot with this final episode. For those who haven't played 1 and 2, the complete trilogy is available to play over on Game Pass named Frog Detective: The Entire Mystery, and I highly reccomend you check them out before this one.

But if you don’t mind button bashing through some brawls, just to see more of these good fellas solving bad problems with their strong fists and stern words, Yakuza Kiwami 2 is ready, once again, to get ridiculous.

It is its own unique idea, that while not world-changing or particularly revolutionary, is quietly brilliant in its delivery. I only worry that it’s slightly too quiet.

Will dog lovers and cat-haters get as much out of Stray as someone who, as we speak, has two stretched out purr machines on the bed behind her? Probably not, in all honesty, as fully inhabiting its feline lead is at least 50% of the appeal here. But even if you're not massively into cats the same way I am, Stray is still a remarkable action adventure game in its own right, and whose naturalistic approach to 3D platforming is among the best I've seen. It proves we don't need condescending slathers of paint to point us in the right direction anymore, and that there are better, more immersive ways of traversing dense and detailed play environments. That's something worth celebrating in my books, so take note Lara Croft, Nathan Drake and every 3D action hero of the last twenty years. A good game of billiards isn't the only thing you'll learn from this four-legged fluffball. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Some of that action will involve fetching rare fish from the belly of an even bigger fish so you can serve up the ultimate dish of forgiveness to a scheming casino lord, and yes, you'll also be hunting down mischievous creatures in the forest to help out the village ranch. It's all in a day's work for this unlikely pair of world-saving do-gooders, but gosh darnit if I didn't also enjoy every second of it. It may be slow to get going, but once Sam and John find their feet, Eastward roars to life like nothing else. Pixpil have created a world of exquisite detail here, and its winsome cast are easily the best bunch of NPCs you'll meet this side of Toby Fox's Undertale. It's been a long time since I've cared this much about the everyday folks in an RPG, but as Eastward handsomely proves, pigs really do fly in this excellent retro adventure.

Requiem is certainly a dazzling display of detail, colour, and considerate art direction but it never quite reaches the momentum of its predecessor even though the stakes are unequivocally higher. Huge set pieces and a wider selection of abilities make sneaking through soldier and rat-infested areas feel like a thrilling, if slightly repetitive challenge, but Requiem’s story fails to hold the same level of drama and spectacle.

If you're burned out on Stardew Valley, or never even really got that fire going, Coral Island could be exactly the trash covered paradise you need. [Early Access Review]

For fans of the series it’s really entertaining. It might not set the world on fire, but you can set some virtual bits on fire yourself if you want. I think running towards an abbey with terrible purpose, yelling “KILL CHRIST! AND BURN HIS HOUSE DOWN!”, is the energy a lot of people want right now. I dunno how well that would play in Texas, though.

It's a big stodgy dinner plate piled with dissonant RTS ideas, the baked beans of unit management mixing with the Coco Pops of auto-battling. It's such a map-clearing jambalaya that it's difficult to tell which elements are working together and which are simply crowding out the fun parts. For all the things I can say about Hero Hour's design, it's not by-the-numbers. I can't even tell you if I enjoyed it or not, it's so much like eating a fistful of rando-flavoured jelly beans. And I suppose that in itself is kind of remarkable.

Regardless of its limitations, Exodus still deserves its place among its underground comrades. In many ways it’s better, and I’m very glad they didn’t just repeat the same subterranean journey again. And yet, for the studio, this installment might also turn out to be a fabulous curse. Because if there are any further shooters set in the Metroverse, they’ll won’t be able to return to a life of tunnel vision. Not when we’ve seen Metro is capable of so much more.

This is really superb. Wonderful new puzzles, not over-complicating or trying to be a level of impossible above what came before, but still offering new challenges and new scope for the same tools. And a whole new story that lives within Talos’s original, but is communicated entirely through community discussion, and feels extremely reactive to the dialogue choices you make. It’s everything you could want an expansion to be.

The Outer Worlds is alright, innit. It’s good fun. Sit back and let the orange and neon wash over you. Boo the cartoonishly evil corporations. Exhale through your nose at their Diet Toothpaste. I bet I’ll play it again, in fact. But you can tell it could have been great, if it had taken a few more risks. Real space cowboys take risks, don’t they?

These enhancements are great, sometimes even game-changing, but Paradox are offering so much for free that it makes the actual premium DLC less vital.

Good performances, some very nice animation (albeit embarrassingly similar to Telltale’s look), and a couple of passable puzzles, just aren’t enough to compete with some astonishingly dreadful design decisions, the monstrously slow pace, agonising traipsing, unskippable repeated dialogue and laborious cutscenes, violently pisspoor platforming and action sequences, complete lack of introduction or explanation of who anyone is for people new to the long-dead series, ghastly controls, cheap and tacky on-screen prompts, obviously designed for tablet interaction, and god-awful instant deaths.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it, and I definitely won't be alone in that. Cult Of The Lamb absolutely oozes charisma and excitement at the tiniest opportunity, and it's hard not to be taken in by the loving attention to detail on display while you're playing. The combat aspect may be a little lacking in content, but it's good enough to hold its own and keep me entertained between periods spent carefully taking care of my growing legion of adoring followers. And sacrificing them for my amusement, of course. That bit's important too. [RPS Bestest Bests]

My opinion of Children Of Morta has improved, and I can see it finding a happy audience. But if I wasn’t reviewing it I doubt I’d have got there. It leads with its worst foot and you have to grind for hours to drag the other one into the dance.

It's another superb explorer's game.

In short, this is a hulking jaunt through a gauntlet of scum, traitors, filth, and heretics. The social landscape of 40K's galactic hellwar is fuelled primarily by hatred and secondarily by a twisted sense of honour. And it's so overblown it is often Verhoeveningly funny. But within the confines of its own delightful cesspit, the story does its job. It gives us an excuse to see a chaos demon smashing the graves of a thousand unknown souls to pieces. The guns 'n' galumphing likewise serves its weighty purpose. From the perspective of an outsider, this is a well-crafted third-person action game with a story somewhat bloated with lore. From the perspective of a fan, it may be pure ambrosia.

But goodness, it’s a tiny-but-then-not-tiny, lovely thing with so much character and a wonderful sense of adventure. It’s a gentle seafaring tale I’m looking forward to playing through with a child when I next see my smaller family members but which I’m more than happy to play for my own enjoyment as well. I think I’m on my sixth distinct playthrough at the moment and still discovering new things.

Whether you have a satisfying ending or not is very much down to your choices, and yours alone – which, for a game like this, couldn’t be more fitting. Yes, it runs the risk of being a massive anti-climax if you make a few duff decisions, but even that has a kind of poetic justice to it – it’s just another tragic tale to be woven into your ever-eventful banner...Overall, I think you will have a good ending – and one worth the pain you’ve had to endure over the. course of these collective 40-odd hours

Gripes aside, I love Digihaven for everything it does, and I love it even more because of how accessible and simple it makes such a magical tabletop experience. It’s not just a great tactics game in its own right, but a gateway to introduce the Monopoly-scarred to how nifty, gratifying, and ambitious the best digital board games have become over the last several years. Gloomhaven? Massive bloody grin-haven, more like. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Eco Lifestyle adds some of the most interesting stuff to The Sims 4 I’ve ever seen. I just wish they had taken it a bit further towards its natural conclusion.

Share this game with other people, if you can. Play together on a couch, passing a controller around and commenting on the story together. Wear your fluffiest pyjamas and make chamomile tea. Bring tissues as well. I hope you’re comfortable with crying in front of others, because you will shed a tear or two. I bawled at least four times. Five, if you count the trailer. But by the end, I wasn’t sad. I was just glad this game existed. [RPS Bestest Best]

Minor puzzle misses and yucky subplots aside, Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjois is this year’s first major surprise. It really keeps you hooked until the end with its smart and subversive approach to horror visual novels, and its antholgy of ghost tales will give you major chills. A potential cult classic, for sure. Here’s hoping it gets the attention it deserves. [RPS Bestest Bests]

The game's online sandbox spaces have an eerie vitality in their mangling together of realism and colour-coded objective design. I am perennially fascinated by how the swarm thinks in Battlefield online, how that little pebble tumbling through a gap in the fortifications becomes an avalanche. Add a narrative component, however, and you create expectations of meaningful context, consequence and even introspection that the creators of military shooters are seldom able to fulfil.

Ultimately Nightmare Reaper's a fun retro-styled FPS with a couple of rogue-lite elements to introduce some loot-fuelled pizazz to bloody proceedings. While it lack of full commitment to the rogue-lite reward loop knocks it a touch - you're still in for a treat. The game's sheer volume of randomised weaponry and twisty levels make it worth picking up for retro FPS veterans or newbies alike.

In general Arranger is an imaginative, cheerful, funny game that doesn't outstay its welcome. I think it'll provide a great challenge for puzzle enthusiasts, but it's kind enough to throw at someone who is only just getting into them. In specific, I still haven't been able to solve the optional mine puzzles. But that just makes me want to try again.

If you’re at all intrigued by Ni No Kuni, I’d strongly advise you to just go and play Revenant Kingdom instead. It’s a far more enjoyable JRPG than Wrath of the White Witch, and it won’t make you feel like snapping your keyboard in two out of a white-hot fury of your own (if only because its actual mouse and keyboard controls are much easier to get to grips with in the first place).

In short: good fightin', rushed writin'. The storytelling is markedly more generic than the previous game (even that was a bit too Marvel for me), and I'm less in love with the character design overall. I miss the big ringed chrome arms of Jax, for instance, the skittering sharpness of D'vorah's spikey limbs, or Kollector's blessedly messed-up arm anatomy (he's not playable so far). So for franchise-agnostic fighting game dweebs, it might not capture the imagination with the same might as its predecessor. But otherwise there's enough klassicism to Mortal Kombat 1 (and enough fan servicey callbacks) to please the diehards. A totally acceptable (akkceptable?) follow-up, provided the online kombatants follow through.

The result as a whole is that Botany Manor is extremely peaceful and focused puzzle game, even as the puzzles increase in complexity. It is an oasis of calm. You know that everything you need is around you somewhere, and that you have all the time you need, and this makes it immensely satisfying when you do figure the puzzles out - because nobody helped you at all. You can take your time cataloguing apples. You can look for the different duck models that are hanging around. You can carefully examine the cards on the board game to discover which animal's heartbeat will stimulate this meadow plant. I only wish Botany Manor was longer - I would buy any DLC you care to name, be it a Succulents Pack or a Winter Plants Special, or what have you - except I have a suspicion it is perfectly balanced as it is.

In its present state, Duelyst is fantastic, and with time it’s likely to only get better.

I think my CS days are behind me. It's an FPS that requires a lot from you, and those after a shooter you can sort of switch your mind off to should look elsewhere. But if you're a newcomer, lapsed player, or veteran, I think CS2 offers up thrilling matches that can twist and turn after a smart play or a remarkable shot. Many will find it's rather close to CS:GO with neat upgrades to grenades and extra pop to maps, while another portion of the community might just want CS:GO back. Right now CS2 is a great iterative update to a tried and true formula... that's missing an awful lot of fan favourite stuff. Give it time, though, and I think it's onto something pretty special.

If you're after a new, turn-based take on Monster Hunter, then Monster Hunter Stories 2 largely delivers. The story isn't going to make your jaw drop, the world's rather bland, and it lacks in-depth crafting options. But - and it's a big but - the combat is genuinely a lot of fun, and collecting monsties is very moreish. Plus, I like being able to ride my monstie in battle and pull off special moves that practically nuke monsters from orbit. Len Goodman would give that in isolation a 10, at least.

Of every choice I made in Many Nights A Whisper, I am open to learning what this says about me the least. I really wanted to nail that shot, and what kind of selfish fool ignores such an obvious advantage with so much riding on success? This isn't about me, I reason. Of course, it's actually been about me the whole time.

Vermintide 2 might be shameless about its inspiration, but, critically, it recreates it really, really well, at a spectacular scale. I can’t speak to whether I’ll still be showering the land with rat legs a few months from now, but I fully expect to happily spend the next few weeks, at least, knee-deep in the rodent dead.

It’s the campaign crouching that impressed me the most, the way it dips its toe it a ‘light RPG’ direction. I’m enjoying this new trend of RPGs-but-not-RPGs; action games that borrow the language of the more complex genre – side quests, character levelling, exploration – but in such a way that there’s never any doubt you’ll miss a pixel of it. I’m thinking of things like Metro Exodus or Control; games which put you on a longish leash, but take you for a walk around a world that is so hand-crafted that it feels rude not to gobble the whole thing up. Gears 5 left my belly nice and fat, and keen for the next course.

So it definitely leans into the lite in roguelite, but it's a good version of that, and it does much more with its story and characters than you might expect. Turnip Boy Robs A Bank fully commits to the bit, doesn't feel the need to explain itself, and it's having fun - all things that are big ticks. I suspect it's not super welcoming to a player who isn't already a Turnip Boy fan, and, indeed, it's my second favourite Turnip Boy game, but I still hope there are more games in this world that are all a bit different, every single time.

Wargroove, on the other hand, is faithful to not just the spirit but the body of its inspiration, keeping both the pleasures and some pains of the old toy war game, pointedly refusing to change most of the basics, and instead simply adding extra layers: online multiplayer, map editing, a “puzzle” mode. It’s not so much a spiritual successor as it is a full-bodied recreation of the franchise, with skeleton horsemen instead of tanks. The impeccable Into The Breach already established itself as the true successor to Advance Wars, but I’m perfectly happy to have the old GameBoy cartridge more or less repackaged, even if some of the old dust is trapped in there with it.

Prey is a game that’s smart about almost every aspect of itself, and yet with that, so crucially modest. It doesn’t yank the camera from you, doesn’t force you to sit through cutscenes, doesn’t demand you sit still and listen to its backstory. It’s content to be itself and let you find it, which is a damned rare treat in this hobby. Even more amazingly, for all its array of abilities and powers, you can finish the game without touching them, perhaps even find a narrative rationale for doing so. It lets you improvise, explore, make big decisions without needing to tell you they’re big. And yes, it absolutely does let you turn into a cup. [RPS Recommended]

Ultimately, it's not the machinery of Citizen Sleeper I'll remember, not the ticking clocks and the rerolls, but the hackers and the mercs, the drunks and the shipyard workers. Because like Feng once said: systems aren't important, people are.

I’m amazed that Ratropolis works so well. I’m amazed it works at all. I extracted many hours of satisfaction from it before I hit the wall, and it’s a game I will return to with every patch, because there’s something excellent here. It’s time for my humble rats to become gaming heroes.

I was half expecting Suikoden to feel childish but it doesn't. Instead: a prodigious, precocious sprog. A genre in its infancy and prime at once. Sheer fuckin' magic. Two of the most uplifting, absorbing, tragic and sweet JRPG stories ever penned. This is what the human soul is best at.

All of these facets weave together to make Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer one of the most engrossing adventures I've played in a long while. It's heavily reliant on extending the narrative of its forebear, however, and like the Kathy Rain 1 Director's Cut, many of its more interesting twists and turns exist to iron out the rough patches of plot from the first game. But sequels don't necessarily need to be fully standalone experiences, and you can probably blast through both Kathy Rain 1 and 2 in the span of a long weekend. If that sounds favourable, give Kathy a go. A detective has indeed been born, and as a femme Gabriel Knight, she carries the torch of a niche genre in fine form.

I’m conflicted. Conceptually, The Crimson Court is very much my cup of blood, but the execution, particularly when it comes to the first mission and the curse, sometimes feels off. That said, Red Hook has clearly been taking feedback seriously, and changes have already been made to make things a little less punishing.

It's deftly done, and goes a long way in smoothing over some of the cracks that emerge from its simplified take on Papers, Please's gate-keeping. Overall, I had a very good time with it, and wolfed it all down in almost a single serving. It's probably a good one to play with kids and young teens, too - a kind of Baby's First Papers, Please, if you will, that can introduce them to the core concept while also giving them a jolly good story at the same time. For adults, Lil Guardsman may ultimately miss the point of what Papers, Please itself was trying to interrogate all those years ago, but you can’t deny its heart always tries to be in the right place.

Making entertainment media rooted in the recent past is never easy. The interactive nature of games makes that even trickier, and Paradox is no stranger to certain groups deciding that presenting historical reality is equal to endorsement. Victoria 3 succeeds at rendering a tumultuous chapter in world history with a straightforward grace that educates as much as it entertains, encouraging reflection and empathy in the process.

I find it difficult to picture the person who wouldn’t enjoy Starbound. Parts, sure, but the whole is this sincere, incredibly ambitious sandbox that’s as full of charm, and space-faring pirate penguins, as it is stuff to build and places to explore.

There is, throughout, a slight air of artificiality to Torment: Tides of Numenera. It has been made to please a specific crowd, and sometimes that shows; sometimes that comes at the expense of what matters most. This is outweighed entirely by the scale of this accomplishment. Torment is the weird, wordy, wise and wicked roleplaying game we’ve so desired during these long years of heightened spectacle. Not a total triumph, no, but close enough.

It’s a stylish, retro-futurist love letter to computing, engineering and ’90s videogame level design. It also feels like the prelude to a better game.

Shadowrun: Hong Kong is a substantial and in some respects lavish cyberpunk romp, which, if looked at purely in its own right, is only really guilty of a bit of visual and narrative flab.

The satisfaction of a fully-ticked list kept me going to the end, and I happily lingered for a few more hours to identify objects I'd missed. The highs of Strange Antiquities – and there are many – match those of anything else I've played this year, and surely put it up there with Blue Prince among the best puzzle games of 2025. It is fiendish and delightful, and hopefully, one of many more Strange games to come. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Football Manager 2016 isn’t the best of the 3d match engine era – I think that’d go to 14, which consolidated lots of ideas into a redesigned tactical system – but the apparent improvements to both long- and short-term AI make it a much more involving and reactive experience.

Granblue Fantasy: Relink has absolutely no pretensions about it, isn't saying anything, and is quite dedicated to it's fantasy. Good guys are good, bad guys are bad, and a hot witch who explodes roses everywhere in battle is cool. So are attacks the size of a planet, and monsters with hands on strings flying everywhere, and pirate captains who are also dudes with big cow horns. Unless all of that doesn't sound at all cool to you - in which case, best avoid this game, if I were you.

That, I think, was always the strength of Life Is Strange anyway. People liked spending time with Max and Chloe. I'm long since past the point where people listening to mimbling guitar while looking out the window is anything but annoying to me now, but True Colors moves the series forward, and is perhaps a better reflection of how the teens who might have loved the original Life Is Strange games are growing up, too. Alas, as much as I liked its enjoyable cast and Alex's interesting empath powers, the rest of True Colors just falls short of true brilliance. Life Is Strange games are often given to painting their issues in black and white rather than shades of grey, and I'm disappointed True Colors ended up using such a limited palette, too.

There is so much I adore about Saltsea Chronicles. The characters, the setting, the look of the damn thing. It's all absolutely wonderful, and I would gladly make several more roundtrips with the De Kelpie crew without batting an eyelid (although I will make a stop at cat island Los Gatos every. Damn. Time. Mark my words). It's just… that ending. It's a sticking point I can't quite resolve, causing that dreaded FOMO net to creep back in and loom eerily around my shoulders. Perhaps that's the point. Perhaps my desire for a heroic and triumphant final flourish simply doesn't fit within the confines of what this ragtag bunch of ordinary folk can realistically achieve. Perhaps, it's a story for another time.

That I love the game even with a Virtual Boy palette is testament to how lovely it is. Very lovely. And very smart.

Fallen Order wants you to feel like a fighty, telepathic space priest, and for about 20 hours or so, it does that. Stick with it, and you might also find a cool, yellow lightsaber.

It’s not the most polished shooter but it does shine in all the right places, and it builds on the huge potential of Red Orchestra, which I loved. There are very few games that can match the feeling you get when you watch an artillery strike destroy a treeline and push up with your squad mates under the cover of smoke and deafening explosions.

Frog Detective 2 is a game you can hold in your head all at once, and cherish. I think it’s great.

I’m in love with Mordhau. [RPS Bestest Bests]

But Paradise Killer also backs the style with substance. The Syndicate’s lifestyle is supported by the mass abduction and eventual murder of normal people from our reality, who become a kind of cattle class. They’re banned from doing basically anything, placated by soft drink mascots, and give their literal blood to a cause they never benefit from.

Despite those reservations, and the sometimes plodding nature of the matches, there’s a lot of brains to Faeria. It’s certainly more interesting to me than vanilla Hearthstone, even if many of its cards lift directly from the big book of CCG mechanics. It’s a game of risk, reward and really bad decisions. It’s many times more thoughtful than Duelyst, which is always my yardstick for card games. But at the same time it is much less climactic, less explosive, and less creative with its minions and their abilities.

The villains are better, the combat feels weightier, it looks better. To top it off, it's cheaper. I don't regret spending time with Majima again but, 'free' NG+ or no, if I'd paid full price for this thing I'd feel well and truly hornswoggled.