This might be the most beautiful, intricately hand-crafted open-ish world in gaming. I wish I was more excited to spend time in it.

I think the ending could have been better embellished, provided a little more closure and be a bit less rushed. And gosh does it desperately need speeding up a mite. But I had a splendid time with Kathy Rain, and thoroughly enjoyed a game where I couldn’t see where it might be heading. Kathy proves a complex and interesting character, and, well, I thoroughly enjoyed playing it. Which is the simplest recommendation of them all.

I liked it! More than I expected to like it. But at the same time, after six hours of it, I’ve had enough. The spider labyrinth was astonishing, but it’s not really a mess I’d get myself in twice, when the real joy was in escaping it. I could have spent more time finding secrets and backtracking for loot. And there’s certainly a huge replay potential to RE3 for completionists, and folks who are fond of difficulty challenges. But that ain’t me. I was precisely in the mood for a fairly linear, day-long series of setpieces, and that’s exactly what I got. If that’s what you want too, then the question is whether it’s worth £50 to you. Unless of course you also have pervasive fantasies about being smacked around by a wardrobe-sized bastard wrapped in bin liners, in which case this is a must-buy.

When Quintet disbanded, many of its developers unfortunately faded from the industry. ActRaiser Renaissance is therefore the work of a whole new staff (barring legendary composer Yuzo Koshiro, who returned to revise his epic soundtrack while adding a slew of new tunes). It's always worrying to see a beloved property fall into the hands of a new team, but Sonic Powered have done right by ActRaiser. And that's important, because Quintet's catalogue deserves to be remembered and revisited. With any luck, ActRaiser Renaissance might herald yet another renaissance for the likes of Illusion of Gaia and Terranigma.

I like the idea of Valhalla and some presentation gripes aside, I like its execution. It’s no great revelation but a pleasant surprise, and being a mundane bystander going about their day instead of the plot-critical centre of the universe is an under-explored concept.

It can be very endearing in these smaller moments, but it still all feels bit false, a bit watery. And it manages to draw out tedium at times that should be breezy.

Lovecraft’s Untold Stories lulls you into a false sense of security with its mostly banal horror, and then boom! Penguins screaming like people. I can still hear them. [Premature Evaluation]

When the term "juice" (or "game feel" as it's more ofen called today) was casually coined, it was offered as a reminder to make games pleasing in the hands and eyes and ears of players, so that the player might become more present, more grounded, even in an unreal space. Zenless Zone Zero uses these same principles to encourage the player to live too often in a menu screen. To me it feels like a deeply superficial world. A really cool pair of shoes that sit around in your home, looking great yet going unused because they are uncomfortable and impractical to actually wear.

This is an ambitious, confident debut by a small team that is swinging for the fences. When a game like this arrives, bubbling up improbably from an industry that all too often rewards one million-dollar-sequel after another, it stands to be celebrated. I’d go out into the glittering ruins of Dynevron and rumble into a boss fight and then, somehow, lose the boss, and get sidetracked by some flowers I needed to find, and then go and unlock a teleport gate, and then organically find the boss again stomping obstinately past a fallen cupola, and I’d think "this is a blast, I’m having a blast, this is great." And sure, I don’t tremendously care about any of these people, and it’s never been less physically satisfying to swing a sword at these dogs, but right about then I notice that there’s this beautiful cliff about ten feet away and I can pick things up with my mind and in a matter of seconds all my problems have been forgotten.

There are moments, many of them, during multiplayer and AI skirmishes, where I’m absolutely certain that Dawn of War 3 is the best game in the series, even with its missteps when it comes to cover and fortifications.

Ultimately, The Big Con isn't going to tax you mentally or physically, but it's still a fun way to spend four hours if you're up for a few larks and a big dose of 90s feel-good fun. Mighty Yell have conjured some great locations to thieve your way through here, and their colourful cast of characters (quite literally, in this case) make them feel alive with lucrative opportunity. Against all the odds, The Big Con had stolen its way into my heart by the time I reached the end credits, and I'd have happily paid for the privilege, too.

All told, I like Hard West 2. It's not as easy to get into as Gears Tactics, and it's obviously a less comprehensive experience than your XCOMs. But its revisions to the familiar tactical formula do ultimately work, giving you the tools to face down some seriously stern opposition in spectacular fashion. Taking a slug of whiskey to heal yourself before bouncing a bullet off the liquor store sign into an enemy's back is a delightful synthesis of mechanics and theme, and when you combine that with a brain-tangling network of moves that leaves every enemy in sight sprawled in pools of viscous scarlet, boy howdy, there ain't no better feeling.

So yeah, it has more than a bit of roughness to it. But hoo boy, do I admire its spirit, its extra-ness, its enthusiasm for small-scale RPG design. It feels like somebody put a lasso around the neck of a snorting Disgaea game and corralled it into a pen with Slay The Spire, the resulting gamefoal erupting onto Steam in slime and wires, a cybernetic child of chaos, pixel art, and giant JRPG word flashes. BREAK. BLEEDING. ANTIMATTER. ENRAGED.

This is Full Throttle made playable once again, and that’s something to be celebrated. It’s a really fantastic game, with a lovely story, and brilliant performances. And out of its original timeline it’s free to just be itself, not compared to the last or the next LucasArts adventure to hit the shelves. If you loved the original, this is worth buying for the improved sound alone. If you never played it, then oh my goodness, hurry up!

It may be slight, but it’s delightful.

Despite their respective annoyances, you can't help rooting for Angela and Trevor, and especially Trevor. He has, as he points out, not actually done anything wrong except to not be an awful fitspo influencer, like American Arcadia's most popular resident. By the end of the game you're catharting as hard as anyone at the prospect of victory at the entertainment company at the heat of the show. It's especially great to see how Trevor's concept of what victory in his own personal context means.

Tales Of Kenzera shows great precision in its character and world design, in the writing, in the voice acting, even down to individual animations. But it lacks precision in some areas of the combat, in particular the platforming, which arguably is the bit that matters more in a platformer. For me, I'm not sure it does! Despite my frustrations - I have evidence in the form of furious texts to a friend about how many times I attempted one sequence where you have to sprint up waterfalls to a timed gate, and another that features a jump-dash in time to land on a platform floating on a lava fountain - I'd like to see what other tales can be told in Kenzera.

While Worms W.M.D. might evoke the halcyon days of Armageddon, it’s more than capable of standing on its own as another high point for the series.

LawBreakers is more than good enough to foster a large community. Its zero gravity segments offer something that no other FPS can, and everywhere else it’s a solid, polished shooter. If you like the sound of it then I’d jump in now and build up some experience. That way, when ranked play launches, you’re ready to blast off.

Demonschool has a very clear intent in its design, and it succeeds in that intent with perfect marks. I adore the characters, setting, combat, side content, design, music, everything. As soon as I finish writing this, I’m going straight back to playing more of it. There’s just nothing that looks, sounds or plays quite like Demonschool, and I feel very fortunate to live in the same demon-free world as it. [RPS Bestest Bests]

As with Fullbright’s previous game, Gone Home, Tacoma won’t be for everyone, but it’s a masterclass in environmental and gradual storytelling. It weaves an intriguing story against the backdrop of a believable near-future culture. I think its linearity combined with my extensive exploration means I won’t replay it unless I suddenly think of a question I want answered or until I’ve forgotten a sufficient amount that it feels like a new discovery. But that’s not a criticism. I got everything I wanted from that playthrough and I loved it. [RPS Recommended]

There's a pure, authentic, passion for game development in Tchia that I’ve not felt in a long time. What a wonderful game. [RPS Bestest Bests]

I'm super into it. It's crunchy but friendly, playfully secretive, and familiar in many ways but nonetheless refreshing. I lost half a day to "fact checking and screenshots" for sheer desire to keep playing, and a few minor issues aside, my only real problem is that there's only one of it.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the guns feel great and the maps are equally well designed, but I need more, Treyarch. I can’t even customise my Operator, and there’s like, hardly any to choose from really. It didn’t take me long to unlock practically every weapon and see every map, and I can’t envision myself sticking around for too much longer if the game doesn’t get updated pronto. And I think this is the heart of the issue. It’s like Cold War has stalled on the way to a patch it scheduled in advance to save time, and we’re now just awkward passengers growing more impatient as we wait for it to lurch forwards. [Multiplayer review]

It is a game of surprising depth, and while Röki’s point and click backbone may prevent it from delivering the constant, one-two gut punches we saw in the likes of Edith Finch, this is certainly one of the closest attempts at capturing its mechanics-led story structure I’ve seen since. I thought Röki was going to be a cute and throwaway little puzzle game with a light adventure wrapping, but Polygon Treehouse have gone so much further, and so much deeper than I was expecting. Like all great folklore stories, there is a quiet devastation lurking beneath Röki’s picturebook world, elevating this mythic tale of gods and monsters into the pantheon of all-time adventure game greats. [RPS Bestest Bests]

It’s still very much an involved strategy game, and not one that transcends its genre enough to convert players with perpetually itchy feet and twitchy thumbs. If painstakingly planning out breaches down to the literal tenth of a second doesn’t appeal to you, you’ll want to look elsewhere. For all you really cool strategy fans, though, fill your cyberpunk boots.

None of the irritating things are huge, and in a few patches time Sable will probably be in much better shape. But right now, there are a lot of small irritants to get under your skin all at once. It is, I'd venture to say, a perfect Game Pass game. I simultaneously loved the beauty and strangeness of Sable's world, but was tormented by having to exist in it.

Mirage takes the good bits from what the series has become in decades of not being a stealth RPG, polishes them up a bit, and puts them together with some of the best bits from the early games in the series, in a neat little package. It's smaller, sure, but you don't miss out on anything, and when you've finished you don't feel like you wasted any time. This is how big companies should make better games.

I do think it is too “hurt me plenty” for me, only just. The sensation of being slapped right back to the start every time and having to repeat the opening level is as likely to produce a frustrated sigh as it is to inspire a “one more go” mentality. In this case, new minibosses have started to appear to offer some variety. But I’m probably bowing out, at least for the time being. That’s okay. I can appreciate the knuckle-cracking attitude of improvement-by-death while also being ready to lay down my demon razor and die no more. You win this one, ScourgeBringer.

As a faction, however, the Wood Elves are a worthy addition to Total War: Warhammer’s burgeoning list of fantastical armies. Distinct and terribly tricky, they make the game feel new again, while forcing half-arsed commanders like myself to up our game.

It’s also really fascinating to play with a nearly four-year-old, who just can’t get his head around playing as the baddies, and incessantly asking, “So is HE a goodie?”, “But is SHE a goodie?!” with every introduced character, not quite able to grasp the complexity, but then suddenly shouting encouragement to help break everyone out of prison. I think I might have broken him.

Old Man’s Journey is a game with all of these prickles of delight but where the interstitial matter often feels humdrum. It’s short enough that you can still pick those delights out even if you’re not satisfied with the rest of the interactions, but you can’t help but wonder, what if it had found a way to make the whole thing shine?

Conquest, it turned out, was the easiest bit of the game. Maintaining civilisation afterwards was where the real skill came in. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Hob is like a beautiful example of how to make a third-person action game. Like a filmmaker who has learned every detail of cinematography, direction, lighting and set dressing, but never thought to care about the script. In that, I found it impossible to escape the sense of lack that pervades its beauty, both in an overall motivation (beyond “because it’s there”), and in the “why?” of everything you do. It’s fun to play, it’s often extremely clever, but – well – it lacks at the same time too.

Some will no doubt chafe against the fact there's not more to do here, but for me Dome Keeper is fast becoming my new Dorfromantik - which is ironic considering its original Ludum Dare prototype was formerly known as Dome Romantik. Ultimately, it's a chill, calming survival game with just the right frisson of tension to keep things interesting between waves, and navigating its myriad upgrade options against the increasing escalation of its beautifully paced danger levels is always a thrilling treat. It's the type of game I can see myself booting up to unwind with at the end of the day, especially when it plays so well on the Steam Deck, too. It's really sunk its claws into me over the last few weeks, and just like its morass of creepy shadow monsters, has smashed its way right into my heart and completely disarmed me. It's a real keeper, all right.

Ultimately, Mortal Shell will make you want to headbutt your monitor out of sheer frustration. The puzzling nature of the map, the repetitive placement of enemies, the lack of options all coalesce into a big arm that holds the game back from being really good, to just good. No matter times I try and swat it away with thoughts of the meaty combat, that arm simply won’t budge.

I am going to give it a “Holy gherkins: It’s got couch co-op!” award, because couch co-op is a beautiful feature that deserves nothing but praise, in a thoroughly confident and largely successful game that seems solely designed for you and some mates to laugh with it, at it, and at yourselves until the frogs come home. It’s camp, sure, but as Susan Sontag put it, “Oh no! The bugs, they’re everywhere! The frogs! They’re too big!”

Has the world moved on from Pharaoh? You bet your dynastic ass. It doesn't have the complex AI interactions of storybuilders like RimWorld, you don't have loads of different advisors relaying tensions around the city, or worries about public utilities in the same way as a Cities Skylines, and it's probably not as inventive in some ways as the new class of city builders like Timberborn, Foundation or The Wandering Village. In 2023 any kind of Pharaoh, even one with an impressively rebuilt tomb, is still a very well preserved old king. But what a king it was, and A New Era preserves it very well. How can you not feel a bit magic building a giant statue of a cat in the middle of your desert city?

Overall, I don’t know exactly how I feel about For Honor. It sometimes feels like a Ubisoft hired a bunch of scientists in white coats to observe Dark Souls PvP from behind reinforced perspex and experiment on it with Dota DNA in a mad attempt to recreate a tame monster in a safe environment for their own nefarious ends (profit). What they’ve made is an interesting chimera, something that is both more accessible but sometimes just as unforgiving.

I've been playing management games for a long time, and it feels odd that Planet Coaster 2 should make me feel so stupid. The method of building something as simple as a set of restrooms is elaborate and sticky, and requires so much returning to a side menu to resize grids or twiddle the angles that my brain just starts to reject it. Like I say, more patient Planetfans might feel the pain of this troublesome interface less keenly. If that's you and you're willing to risk a face full of chlorinated slider bars, then dive right in. But for new players like me, it's a painful belly flop.

Oblique though it may be, there’s an extraordinary simulation at work here – one that refuses to be gamed, and teaches you that transport is a service, rather than a money-printing exercise. In my experience, a great management game is distinguished by its central lesson, and Transport Fever 2 has one worth learning.

Persona 5 had such a strong sense of cohesion, with the deliberate pacing of the combat matching the slow burn of story development, which is just absent in Strikers. It's not that Persona 5 Strikers does anything badly. I'm just unsure why Atlus felt the need to give it the Musou treatment. If you want to make a Musou game, make a Musou game. If you want to make an excellent Persona game... make a Persona game, innit.

Where Weird West breaks away from its RPG forebears is in its rejection of turn-based fighting. Instead, it controls like a twin-stick shooter, asking you to aim and react under pressure. That might be a dealbreaker for some genre fans, but the messiness of open combat is balanced by three things: the ability to gather an AI posse about yourself, a hefty kick for knockbacks, and a Max Payne-ish dive that stretches out the seconds, giving you extra time to swing your shotgun in the right direction.

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy is a nearly flawless remaster of a mixed bag that I’m still incredibly fond of, even after so many deaths. These games might not be nearly as genre-defining as they seemed in the ‘90s, and we probably got carried away because 3D platforming was new and exciting, but they’re still so full of character and silliness that it’s hard not to be charmed.

It’s that rejection of fast travel and a devotion to twisting paths that makes this one of the purest devotees of an old Souls philosophy. The carefree amputation of half the city’s populace is keeping my fingers and thumbs entertained, sure, but the shortcuts and secrets are keeping my brain occupied, especially in the later parts. If you missed the first Surge, but always meant to take a look, hop into this one instead. Think of it as a shortcut to a better game.

It’s rare that a developer is able to wrestle this kind of ambitious technical witchery into the shape of an actual game, but Noita pulls it off. Fast and loose, or tight and controlled? It doesn’t matter, I’m having fun either way.

Aptly for my deficient problem-solving skills, if this is something the developers wanted to address, I don't know what the solution would be. More onscreen information, such as the ability to know how long it will take a group to reach a certain point in the maze, would make it easier to plan out your traps, but it might dispel all of the game's difficulty. Total information works in games like Into The Breach, but it doesn't mean every tactical game should be 100% predictable. In many games, the fuzziness and opportunity for mistakes is where you find the fun. Maybe then, instead, there needs to be a greater set of options for what you can do as a player when something does go wrong. Snatching a messy victory from a mistake-triggered defeat may be more enjoyable than a clean victory where you're watching your complex machine of interlinked traps do exactly what you planned. For that, Asterion will need to be more capable, because once your trap sequence is broken, it's already too late to fix.

There is so much else that is impressive and charming about Veilguard. The absurdly elaborate and expensive finales that cap off companion questlines; lavish, unique areas rolled out for a visit or two then never again. How story moments of real threat and menace stopped me in my tracks, because it turned out that Bioware wasn’t disinterested in this stuff, just saving it for when it really counted. The fantastic prose and worldbuilding in the huge glossary, filled as you find notes and items.

Clearly the Deponia series is loved by enough people for them to keep making more of them, so I’m sure this will be as gleefully received as the rest. But it’s a nasty, stupid, and most damningly of all, badly constructed adventure game. The animations and art are lovely as ever, the music’s great, most of the voice actors are decent enough, but good grief, please, no more. Just make it stop.

My overwhelming impression is of a game that wants to set its own pace, its own "high noon" rhythm. And I quite liked that. As a roguelike its quirks will either endear you to it or make you grimace in mild frustration. Its up-and-down pacing, both on and off the battlefield, makes it hard to recommend to people who like their roguelikes snappy. And while I thoroughly enjoyed the cowboy chatter, it might grate on anyone who wants to hurry up and hit the next showdown. It's a slow burn and the opening hour doesn't communicate the intention particularly well. But as anyone who has really tried cooking beans over a fire can testify, once they're warm, they're just fine.

The Final Station is a simple game, which is always just compelling enough for its duration. I’ve come to think of it as an efficient, low budget horror movie: it has a high concept it can’t afford to show directly and so it wrings as much as it can from the mystery and the satisfaction of piecing the plot together from snippets. It’s only a shame that its action suffers more from never having a particularly interesting concept of its own.

The issue is, it’s just so unremarkable. There’s no great depth, no interesting meta-narrative, no unique pull. It’s just a bit more Pillars – a section you’d not have minded in the main game, but never remembered a while after. Which makes it hard to get particularly excited about – especially at £11.

Neo Cab is certainly strongly anti-corporate. I already agree with that, so I don’t know if Neo Cab has the power to change minds. But it does excel at capturing how messy things are becoming. How it can be difficult to know what the right thing to do even is. How some people have more breathing room to be ‘good’ than others.

If you’ve silently stormed, kicked doors, frozen synapses, or formed jagged alliances in the past and enjoyed it, expect to break lines with a spring in your step and a smile on your face.

I don’t know if I can recommend this to someone who isn’t a word nerd. But at the same time, what Inkle have achieved in Heaven’s Vault is tremendous. I don’t know what to compare it to, because there isn’t anything. I can’t remember what the Ancient for love is, but I know it contains the word for heart, which contains the word for life.

The measure of an open world is ultimately not the story it tells but whether you’re happy to kill time within it, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance offers plenty of ways to do that, even if a lot of them will, in fact, get you slaughtered. It isn’t the departure I was hoping for, thanks to a shortage of character to set against the nuance of its historical sandbox, but the grubby realism is a pleasant shock next to the tales of elves and dragons that are its nearest competition.

When it’s doing what it does best, The Curious Expedition 2 really shines. If I could strip at least some of the roguelike out of it, along with some of the enthusiastic colonialism, I’d be enchanted. But I can’t. Instead, I’ll say there’s a fun game here, if you're prepared to knuckle down and learn from past mistakes. And, I suppose, if you pretend that all the treasure you plunder gets flown back off-camera, after each successful run.

Twelve Minutes' time loop puzzle is layered and weird, but its short time limit doesn't find the sweet spot between tense and frustrating.

Though I sometimes grew weary of the donkey-work of cables and repairs, I definitely relish the new state of sustained fear Surviving Mars brings to city sims. It means that even small accomplishments feel so much bigger.

Figment 2 is an overall solid game, but it’s just a shame that it feels like second violin to Figment 1. Even so, getting to peer inside the minds of the folk over at Bedtime again is always a treat. Playing Figment 2 solo is fun enough, but if you're after a fun co-op game with a young player 2 in mind, then it's a great shout.

As I mentioned at the start, Dordogne is not a taxing game, and it won't challenge you or make you think differently about the world around you. But it is a very sweet and tender coming of age tale that's the perfect little mini-break for such a busy time of year, and I enjoyed the three hours I spent gawping at its truly gorgeous watercolour scenery. It's well worth a pop on Game Pass if you have it, but even if you don't, you'll feel much better about yourself at the end of it than spending the same amount of money on the latest Marvel dross at the cinema - and it will no doubt stick longer in the memory, too.

Beyond: Two Souls feels like a Frankenstein creature; a television show with interactivity jammed in for the sake of it. It’s an interminable cutscene that demands your input at every moment, constantly disrupting the flow of the story to do so, but doesn’t reward your actions with any kind of meaning. And being held hostage to every second only means you have a whole lot of time to think about how Ellen Page deserved better.

Bulletstorm is lots of silly fun, and deserved to do better in 2011. It’s still lots of silly fun, but it’s hard to quite get as behind the desire for it to do well when it’s being released at full price with very little new put in.

Home Safety Hotline is definitely in the Daniel Mullins vein of game ideas, where a game starts as something and becomes something else, and while Home Safety Hotline is very thoughtful and has a brilliant framing, it never fully transformed. Which is perhaps ironic, given the ending.

I think the best I can offer is that if you like the kinds of games I like (and you can get a sense of that through my author tag) I think you will like and value this.

Aside from some glaringly wooden dialogue in the early chapters, As Dusk Falls is a thrilling story that had me hanging on every word. It immediately establishes an incredibly tense situation and I couldn't stop playing until I'd seen it through. While some might stop after one playthrough, the narrative flowchart for each chapter shows that there's much more to experience, and the ability to jump back in at any point of the story is a welcome alternative to doing an entirely new run. As it became apparent that the story was drawing to a close, I found myself desperately hoping for just one more scene so that I didn't have to leave the characters behind so soon. Whether As Dusk Falls gets a direct sequel remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: I can't wait to see what Interior/Night do next.

It probably isn't going to set the world on fire. A dull first hour certainly isn't going to help. As fun as it is, the story is pretty well trodden stuff. Yet combine an over-the-top world and tone with slick dogfighting and you've a potent package. Chorus will sing for you, even if it takes a moment to find the right notes.

It’s a good way to relax for a few hours.

Crucially though, just as I would one hundred percent go to a real-world Jurassic Park despite the near-certainty of getting hypermaimed in a portaloo, I will one hundred percent keep mooning over this game’s wonderful dinosaurs, right up to the point where my attention span is chewed to bits by micromanagement raptors.

Atomic Heart’s lack of satirical bite might just be one of the most consistent things about it. For every miserable onslaught of respawning bots, there’s an intoxicatingly tense run-and-gun battle. For every work of artistry in the sound design and environments, there’s a scene of utterly sub-par scripting. It’s glorious and tedious, polished and patchwork all the same time, and while there’s an anarchic part of my brain that wants more ambitious-yet-wonky games like it, stronger is my hope that Mundfish’s second game has a tighter grasp on its own strengths and weaknesses.

Post Void is a masterpiece of compulsive motion and hypnotic, irresistible sounds. It does something to my brain that I’ve never experienced before. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Unfortunately, good vibes simply aren’t enough to save Bandle Tale from its overwhelming busywork. It too often gatekeeps the fun behind skill tiers and layers of crafting that never felt totally satisfying to me, but at least the constant repetition etched the beautiful pixels onto my eyeballs. That’s good. I think?

The good news is that even at its worst, Furi is something rather special. Even the trudging between fights has some fairly nonsensical but engaging chatter and the scenery is gorgeous. Better still, pressing ‘x’ (or whatever equivalent your gamepad has – it’s playable without but not very effectively), automates all of the walking so that you can sit back and watch, or go and make a brew.

The story felt like work to experience. The best way I can think to sum up this feeling is to say I enjoyed Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture far more on PS4 and that was because after the first chapter I lay on the sofa watching and listening and luxuriating while my companion dealt with the controls.

I can’t shake the frustration that the Savage Planet could have been something more, but that might be because I’ve been spoiled through reading reams of outlandish sci-fi. It’s populated by the pulpy bug-eyed monsters of the fifties, rather than the oddities dreamt up by the likes of Iain Banks or Greg Egan. Or Liu Cixin. Or China Miéville. Or Ted Chiang. Or Peter Watts.

There’s a special appeal, too, for Dota players. It’s remarkable how effectively Artifact captures the structure of a Dota game, where semi-isolated struggles build to climactic battles that see every hero converge on the same lane. Though not always: Artifact’s well of possible situations runs deep, offering variety where other CCGs dry up.

The Necromancer has turned out to be a fantastically gruesome expression of all Diablo III best qualities. With nice skills and good looks, it’s an enormous pleasure to tour all Sanctuary’s old haunts with a new special someone. [RPS Recommended]

A few gripes aside, then, the 'roleplaying musical' concept has proven itself a winner here, and if Summerfall ever want to give us an encore – once more, with even more feeling? – a sequel would be wholly welcome. Plus, isn't it nice to hear those Last Of Us actors harmonising for a change, instead of pretending to kill each other?

I’ve been having a hard time lately; I’ll spare you the details other than to say that I felt significantly better for every moment that I spent in American Truck Simulator’s America. That’s my highest recommendation.

It is flat, and it is tedious, and it is often gross as hell.

For the most part, though, Dawn Of Ragnarök is more of the AC Valhalla you like: more boating around singing, more armour, more raids (in which I kept getting referred to as Eivor but we'll let that one go). More NPCs with UK regional accents. More sub-bosses for different areas, leading you towards a big boss. A big new weapon and new, grim ways to instakill enemies. It's not game changing but it does feel game subtly-altering, and if you had to get one Valhalla DLC it should be this one. I think the best endorsement of Dawn Of Ragnarök is that it's fun, and it made me want to play Valhalla more. Job done.

It's telling that the missing feature I desire most is not an emote or a graphics setting or a - pffft - "mandatory pass". But just some way to auto-rematch, so I don't have to tap Y at the end of every game within a 10-second countdown to re-enter the queue for another game. This is how moreish (and perfectly named) Rematch is. My biggest complaint is that I'm sick of the game asking "Do you want to play again?" Of course I do.

It’s all focused firmly towards evoking the period though, and here, Creative Assembly’s love for history absolutely bleeds through.

Mooncrash is an enormous paddling pool compared to Prey’s Olympic swimming pool. There’s none of the depth, but it’s a heck of a good time to splash around in.

It’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre as remade by Eli Roth, starting with the worst possible thing that can happen and then daring itself to go further. Shock tactics so persistently silly that they become the equivalent of a flaming bag of poo on a doorstep. I will always defend the right of horror fiction to be horrible, but never excuse it for being so dull in its depravity. One of the game’s six chapters is named after the Biblical Job and by the end of the game that’s who I felt like. I’d suffered through great and terrible hardships but was no closer to understanding why.

For all of its creative solutions and ideals, Watch Dogs 2 can’t help but see California as an open carry state, and while I’ve enjoyed portions of it enormously, it doesn’t go far enough in stamping its own identity on what is, eventually, another city of crime, cars and firearms.

A game of everything, a game of nothing. Eternal, unknowable, remarkable, infuriating, Kenshi defies easy judgement. Kenshi is. I implore you to play it. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Is it currently fun? Undeniably. It’s gross, silly, and more than a little thrilling, and while the matchmaking system is a bit rubbish, there are always plenty of active servers to choose from manually, ensuring that you won’t have to spend much time looking for a game. But for that single mode to remain fresh, a frequent injection of new stuff is going to be necessary.

We Are OFK is not a traditional story that offers closure, which can be frustrating, but in many ways that is We Are OFK’s entire point – life happens to you, whether you want it to or not.

What is a fair critique is that, ultimately, none of it matters very much. As I said, the state of your ship is what keeps you going. You fight more to earn more to buy more. In this way it is a very transparent game. But also a repetitive one, and overall, a mixed bag.

So aye. Like any stew, there's a lot piled in. But the principle ingredients are filling and simple. Endless Dungeon's core design, if we want to break it right down, is made of the following stuffs: turret, door, nest, money. There is nothing in these elements, or even in the "verbs" of the game, to make it unique. Hundreds of games use the same ingredients, even aim for the same taste (lighthearted Aliens). But Amplitude's recipe here, their choice of spices, results in a uniquely pleasing dish. They sprinkle the turrets, they keep the nests chunky, they bake the money into the doors. (God, I'm hungry.) The result is an absolutely stacked dish that roguelike-likers will be very happy to gorge on. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Despite some wonky physics, Flipping Death melds its platforming and puzzle elements seamlessly enough leave fans of both genres at least satisfied (though it’s more puzzle than platform). But the unique art style and comedic punches are what ultimately enticed me to stay in Flatwood Peaks a while longer.

It’s a shame, too, that so much of the game takes place on the rusty, pitch black tug, because when the lights are on, it looks fantastic. Items and textures are impressive, and the acting is very solid. I rarely get to play interactive fiction with such strong production values, especially with all the variation and replay value on offer. I’m on board. I enjoyed this one, and if Supermassive Games continue on trend, I’m optimistic for the rest of the series.

At its best, Satellite Reign has more in common with Commandos than Syndicate. It’s a splendid construct, built to endure and to sustain repeated playthroughs in various styles, but I can’t shake the feeling that, minute by minute, a little more chaos and unpredictability would go a long way.

It’s the fast food of honored fantasy tradition, much as Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor was, and this is the king-size upgrade...But by God, it’s delicious.

Homeworld 3 leaves me in the strange position where I want to play more of it, but I’ve basically had my fill of the campaign, I’ve got no interest in PvP, and War Games mode is silly difficult in single player. It’s like having a set of really nice brushes but no canvas, so to speak. I guess this is probably where mods come in - the game is supposed to be launching with built in support and tools on day one. I get that "It’ll be great with mods" doesn’t come across as a ringing endorsement, but to reiterate: Homeworld 3 is a pretty good time in a very good sci-fi setting. I can’t recommend it wholeheartedly, but I’m also hoping it finds enough of an audience that it paves the way for a more experimental sequel or expansion in the future - and if you've been longing for 21 years for a followup to Homeworld 2, I can’t see you being too disappointed.

I still like Absolver a lot, probably even more than I did before launch. Thanks to the myriad possible move and combo loadouts, along with the various weapons and classes, PvP is both challenging and full of unexpected comebacks and knife-edge duels, but it just doesn’t feel like a complete experience. Bugs, server issues, a small, dull open-world and the lack of modes is definitely holding it back.

Still, there’s loads here to like. It doesn’t feel like an all-time classic, probably because the original Race Driver Grid nailed the feeling of metal and rubber clattering down San Francisco hills far more convincingly. Think of this more as the track-based sibling of Dirt 5, with everything good and bad that comparison implies. But as with that game, there are few mass-market racers better than this in the current climate, so it’s definitely worth your attention.