And while it’s not as impactful as Rusty Lake Hotel, or my favourite Cube Escape, Seasons, there’s an absolute ton going on here for a crazy tiny £2.

Overall, I don’t think Atelier Ryza is the kind of game that’s going to change many minds. Though it ended up surprising me, I would argue that I’m the prime audience for it: a lifelong JRPG fan who enjoys dabbling in games with light sim mechanics.

I’ve enjoyed Yes, Your Grace. It’s a pretty game, and the story and subplots have some nice details and solid surprises. I like how you can hear distant armies chanting in the intro, torches in your bedchamber, and the hubbub of the streets from your throne room. The cheerful “Wey!” when happiness goes up is great. I’ve also much enjoyed the thought that the king is actually doing what I tell him, when I have him stand up suddenly in his throne room, declare that he likes his chandelier, then leave. But for all the time I spent making decisions, I felt let down by the ending – and the time and effort it would take to start again.

Evil Genius 2 is at its best when you're building freely, designing perilous Rube Goldberg machines. Speaking as a very large child, the cartoonish art style, theme, and even flavour text, speaks to me. I'm not so fond of the timers and the economic drain pipes that slurp up your minions like bath water. Too much of the game resides in the world map and not enough on the floor of the lair. Sandbox mode feels like a soothing ointment after going through the bee gauntlet of normal mode, and although it lacks challenge, questy threads and basic storytelling, it is far more playful, cheeky and enjoyable. If you're picking this up, that's where to go. It might feel like cheating to give yourself infinite cash, but isn't that what an Evil Genius would do?

This is an idea we’ve seen before, most recently with Quantum League, which Nic Reuben gave a favourable review but I wasn’t hot on thanks to its repetition and mediocre gunfeel. I will say Lemnis Gate is better on both counts by quite some margin, so if you got a kick out of Quantum League then hey, dig in. Fill your chrono-boots. Timey-wimey Tic Tac Toe is still an intriguing concept, and Game Pass provides a handy way to check out games that are more interesting than fun. It’s just a shame it hasn’t made me think harder about where to place my chrono-Xs.

After several months of stalling and dogged perseverance, I finally finished a 350-page book about the art and struggle of being a Japanese literary translator the other week, and not once did it get me thinking about words and language in the same way Grotto did over the course of five hours. When a game provokes these kinds of feelings in me, I don't mind so much if the choices I'm making are actually a little bit fake. Grotto stands on its own as an engaging story about the way we communicate with others and how their meaning can be polluted and morphed over time, and I reckon fans of such things will likely enjoy it even if the game-y aspects of it feel a little undercooked. If it's a meaningful, branching narrative you're after, though, then you'll be better off finding a different rabbit hole to hunker down in than Brainwash Gang's Grotto.

If you're looking for a small Final Fantasy VII-style fix that will whisk you back to 1997 again before Crisis Core - Final Fantasy VII - Reunion comes out later this year, Jack Move should slot into your gaming library very nicely indeed.

I absolutely can’t blame Tindalos for wanting a game with such a recognisable and beloved license to court appeal outside of genre fans, but I also think that if you’re going to make a strategy game, you should probably make it full-heartedly. 2012’s XCOM felt like a genuine revolution in turn-based tactics, but Aliens: Dark Descent too often feels like a compromise, or, more accurately, a console-mise. If you’re thinking, wow, what a snob, then, congratulations. You get to enjoy something more fully than I did, which is much better than griping about things. Dark Descent is beautiful, engaging, and absolutely drips with authentically atmospheric Aliens goo. But, again, like those face huggers, it’s also just a bit too restrictive, and I don’t think it needed to be.

It's good to see Apollo get his time in the sun again, even if this trio of games don't quite do him the justice he really deserves.

Madison is a little too clever for its own good. For all that it can be a bit ridiculous (in an endearing way, at that) it does some genuinely great things, and really takes advantage of everything the in-game camera can offer. But at least an hour of your six-ish in the hell-house will be you swaggering back and forth angrily interacting with things you already found, until you stumble on the solution you need. This massively undercuts the pacing, to the point that the well-crafted scares and monstrous monsters stop being as effective. I'd still recommend it to a horrorficionado, but the rec isn't as full-throated as it could have been. If the puzzle bits were a little easier, the horror bits of Madison would be able to properly shine.

So yes, Song Of Nunu won't win any prizes for ingenuity or platforming prowess, but it is very handsomely made, and I had a lovely, heartwarming time with it. It certainly feels like a step up from Rime, the game that helped put Tequila Works on the map for these kinds of soulful adventures, even if it doesn't wrench quite so violently at your heartstrings. If nothing else, it will remind you of simpler, perhaps happier days when every third-person adventure game wasn't just another grim Soulslike you had to endure, and that there's still plenty of joy and warmth to be found in a story about a boy looking for his mum with his big yeti dog friend. Whether you like League Of Legends or not, it's another notch we can add to the recent 'good character platformer' list.

Sonic Frontiers is a really bizarre video game. Don't set your expectations too high and it's a fun time zipping around a few open zones. Yet, it's a deeply annoying and incredibly janky experience if you want to inject some urgency into Sonic and get him from point A to point B with precision and purpose. In many ways, it's a great foundation for a sequel, as there's so much potential here which only needs a bit of fine-tuning to get Sonic from simple to super.

A Little To The Left surpassed my tidying expectations. Feeling that jolt of satisfaction never gets tired, and the sheer variety of puzzles keeps things interesting. It’s a game with lots of little surprises, right up until the very end where the game takes a surprising, but welcome, magical realist turn. With its charming visuals and playfuy soundtrack, its a puzzle game that feels like the complete package.

I really want to like Lords Of The Fallen more than I do. Sure, its bosses might not be spectacular or its maps brimming with character, but thrills abound when you defeat a tough enemy or finally poke your head into a crumbled house and see the cosy light of a Vestige. Moreso when you shine your magic lantern on a wall and it fizzles away to reveal a secret passage or a levitating platform that looks like the Adams Family's kitchen island. The lantern almost elevates it into special territory! And at times, there are flashes of a grand adventure to cleanse a kingdom of rot. But there are just too many little annoyances that prevent the journey and its umbral counterpart from ascending into Soulslike royalty.

Despite Sand Land being a game with an emphasis on traversal, I mostly used the fast travel, because there was never anything happening in the world that I was afraid to miss. It all made me feel listless and petulant - oh, but I don't wanna go there! - which is, I suppose, sort of in character for playing a young demon with limits on his gaming time. I'm going to watch the anime instead now.

For me, I think it was easier to be forgiving of flaws when I was so excited by the newness of what it was trying to do. If you’re keen to try a Quantic Dream game, I’d say Heavy Rain is still the one most worthy of playing, if you can excuse some of the over-the-top elements of the story. And if nothing else, it will be a nice reminder of how far story-driven games have come.

Vran does enough to make itself distinct, and it does it well enough to create the imperative to keep going and going.

This is stunning. It’s just so utterly beautiful, its bucolic scenes hiding extraordinarily lavish and enticing buildings. It’s smart but so modest about that, bulging with brilliant ideas. Movement is amazing and refreshing. And despite the guff, the place itself is fascinating to wander. What a treat. Just a slightly expensive treat. [RPS Recommended]

Endling is not the ruthless survival game I was expecting, but it does a great job of creating tension between the caretaking of your cubs and the dangerous world you need to protect them from. The daily routine of finding food, avoiding danger and returning to your den can feel like you're going through the motions sometimes, but the constantly changing landscape and mix of tender and tense story moments conjure a survival tale that’ll be sure to wrench your heartstrings.

Get Even is a true original, of the kind we all too rarely see made with this degree of gloss, and I found it deeply interesting for all its stumbles.

As someone who doesn't really get on with the source material, I find myself warmed by Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed. It's not all that challenging and sometimes a bit eh, but I liked that easygoing nature more than I resented it. You're free to splosh paint around and stumble into cool mechanical puzzles or simply remove the floor from an enemy and watch them plunge to their death. And while some of the side quests and optional tidbits don't amount to much more than, at most, an end credit sequence, I admire its adventurous spirit. You can tell it tries to do things a bit differently to the usual platformer and for the most part, it works.

With all of that said, technical issues aside, it’s a relief to be playing a Hitman game that is built around the idea of social stealth. The execution may be flawed but it’s aiming in the right direction and the disguise system, which now tips you off when a particularly canny NPC is able to look past your clothes and see the face of a stranger, is as good as it’s ever been.

But while all of the principal cast do a smashing job, Dave Fennoy’s Satan is probably the (morning) star of the show.

At its core, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is an excellent movement-based exploration game with a deep admiration for the games that inspired it. Up there with the best, even. But it never quite reaches the level of greatness it could have easily achieved. I wanted to love Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, and in some ways I truly do, but it ultimately misses the mark a little bit more than I expected. Still, to let it pass you by would be a crime. That soundtrack! That level design! That visual style! What a treat, even if certain mouthfuls leave a bitter taste.

Gosh, it could be a lot better, but I really enjoy playing what it is.

Chernobylite's a genuinely good time, folks. The ease of the crafting and the management side of things might lack depth for some, but it does give you a constant sense of satisfaction as you bring goodies back to base and watch it grow. Similarly, the simplicity of its party management ensures balancing their needs doesn't detract from the fun roguelite loop it's got going on. The Chernobyl wilderness might be distinctly "bad vibes" here, but Chernobylite the game gets a big, irradiated thumbs up.

So no matter if the game's a bit of a grind, it's a rather gorgeous one, all things considered. And I know for certain that if I visit Akita, it'll be impossible not to think of Shin chan... and his bare arse.

It’s less dramatic than some of Dontnod’s other outings (and probably not for those with short attention spans given the pacing), but Tell Me Why remains a good entry in their the library of stories about families and sad magic – and it’s probably the most hopeful one yet.

I’m really glad that I checked it out as, despite some issues, Boltgun is marvellous fun. It’s a highly entertaining shooter that had me grinning from ear to ear on many an occasion, and is one of, if not the best representation of the Warhammer 40,000 universe available on your personal cogitation device.

This is a good Total War game. I love Total War games. I could spend forever comparing every element of it against its corresponding point in previous Total War games, and we’d none of us feel any the wiser for doing so. I suppose the frustration for me is the thought of what sort of a mind-blower Troy could have been if it hadn’t needed to be a Total War game in its entirety, but could still have gotten away with copying the two-layer strategy format.

Even if the game’s final moments lacked the emotional wallop, South Of The Circle’s story, presentation, and visual direction hit every mark for me with the biggest surprise being the nuance and the way it handled its themes. It's a shame about the ending - but it’s about the journey, not the destination, right?

Iron Harvest is a throwback to one of the last golden ages of the genre, often feeling as old fashioned and crusty as that association entails, but frequently reminding us of the essential appeal of extremely large robots chilling out in timelines where they shouldn’t be.

This is a game that that understands its own entirely disposable nature, that knows it's landing at the tail end of overwhelming zombie survival fatigue. Instead of trying to resist that, it embraces it, resulting in a breezy, messy adventure that has zero nutritional value, but will fill your bloodstream with yummy, delicious sugar. Dead Island 2 is a stinky trash game, and this filthy racoon had a grand old time rolling around in it.

For a while, the front of my brain resisted a little, and I mentally changed terminology to things I was more familiar with, but eventually I stopped this. Things get lost in translation, and change in the retelling, and Black Book is clear that a precise choice of words is very important. Vasilisa is a koldun, she casts complex zagavor on a journey to resurrect her dead fiancé, and I’m absolutely there for the ride. Somewhere else, a long time ago.

Age of Wonders III does the big fantasy conquest thing if that’s what you’re looking for, and Stardock’s own Fallen Enchantress is worth a look as well. Sorcerer King deserves plaudits for being something altogether different rather than yet another iteration of a game we’ve been playing for decades.

Event[0] is probably too short for its own good, less because of (kill me) ‘value’, but more because it limits how far it can take its idea. What’s there is very glossy as well as clever though. Despite its sometimes very obvious limitations, Event[0] feels like the start of a beautiful friendship.

The result, for me, was anxiety. A low background hum of “did I miss something”, combined with the high notes of being unable to find the next new area. It was enough to shade my entire experience with Carrion, turning a pleasant enough Metroidvania with a one-of-a-kind protagonist into something I felt like I was struggling to escape from. Your mileage may vary. But for me, I was happier with the GIFs.

In practise mine was an entirely solo flight, but I enjoyed it. It's a little repetitive, there are some slight snags where the game might forget that you already hit that story beat and makes you do it again, but Flock is full of good-humour, freedom, and playfulness. It's the sort of thing you wouldn't play all the time, but could check in with after a long day. Tomorrow, you think, I must have a job where I email people. But tonight, I will hunt for that elusive Sprug that pretends to be a fruit.

Railway Empire should be so much better. There are some extra track types and junctions that I’d like to see, but it’s still one of the best when it comes to the actual creation of a railway line. And on the economic side of things, it boasts a huge list of resources and manufactured items, reactive cities that change their needs as they grow and buy goods. And, of course, there’s the stock market shadiness. On paper it’s my dream railway sim. The reality is considerably more disappointing.

It really is a lovely thing, offering a good amount of game for a tenner, rising above its own gimmick to be a little bit special.

Ara is an interesting and enjoyable spin on the Civ concept but becomes unwieldy long before it's over. Figuring out how to build a thriving empire will be an enjoyable challenge to people looking for a certain kind of production chain game, but I don't see its malnourished AI and ballooning micromanagement keeping them around once they do.

There’s an undeniable air of gorgeous, faint melancholy that the game does lean into instead of trying to scrub out. I don’t want to spoil too much about the frogs, but learning about their place as the natives of the planet is a real highlight. The main thing I’d like to impart here, though (especially if you’re growing somewhat wary of self-conscious ‘cosyness’) is there’s some real thought and craft gone into how to create an experience that’s a genuinely relaxing, pleasant place to spend time, while still being nifty and satisfying as a mini-open world game. It is - a thousand words later - a nice time.

I don’t understand the logic of breaking a small game up and then releasing it within the same 30 days. There’s a decent chance that the elements introduced in Chapters 2 and 3 (March 8th and 22nd) will elaborate this into something far more gripping and involved, and I’ll eventually look back at this first chapter as a slow start. But by using this peculiar release method, all the emphasis is on a fussy and ultimately not very interesting introduction.

It's just a brilliant meld of strategic card battling, smart puzzles and warm, characterful storytelling. Not only is Foretales constantly adding new riffs and wrinkles to its own cause and effect formula through its growing cast of fuzzballs, but its well-conceived story missions keep you on your toes throughout - as all good card games should. Yes, there are moments when its choose-your-own-adventure foundations can sometimes get the better of you, but for the most part Alkemi have conjured something truly wonderful here. If you're looking for a narrative deckbuilder to scratch that Hand Of Fate itch, this is one card game that's definitely earned its seat at the table.

But that's also precisely why The Thaumaturge ends up feeling like such an interesting, rough-hewn gem of a game. It's those wonky edges and the almost-but-not-quite-there presentation of them that gives it such a unique sense of character and personality, as well as the space and depth to debate its themes and ideas long after the credits have rolled. There's a lot to applaud and admire here, particularly in how each one of its systems feeds and complements the others, and it makes its own crop of flaws easy enough to forgive and overlook when considered as a whole. Pride may not be the most favourable trait in the world of The Thaumaturge, but given what Fool's Theory have managed to accomplish here, I'd say they've got plenty to be proud about.

Each battle is small and short and self-contained, so Bad North has all the ingredients to be a moreish barnstormer. The problem is that they combine with mixed results, much like the members of my extended family and homemade sloe gin.

It’s a triumph of a game despite some flaws, and certainly one of my peak gaming moments of 2015. Bright, cheerful, ridiculous, and most of all, absolutely determined to ensure you have fun. (Recommended)

Sofia have made the absolute best of a bad situation here, and I’ve had a good, freeing time taking part in what basically feels like an interactive design conversation. You’ll probably want to, you know, play something fun though.

The dynamic changes to terrain are impressive and highlight how exquisitely detailed the world is, and even when I reach the sixth expedition and end up cursing the impossible list of tasks I need to complete in order to unlock the pyramid, I find it hard not to start all over again as soon as I’m done.

It completely has me in its grips now. I want to know what it means that the later dungeons are for adventurers only, not merchants, and I want to know just how big a store I can run, and will I ever get security guards to deal with these bloomin thieves? It’s very charming, very beautiful, and both its comprising halves are enjoyable in their own ways.

It’s an accomplishment, and it’s certainly better and more original than the vast bulk of games in the physics-gimmick subgenre, but I respect it a lot more than I like it.

I appreciate how different it is, how on edge it kept me. This is a game trying not to fall into formula. The tense, never tenser, could all go a bit Frank Spencer structure is probably going to offer some great things in terms of Hitman’s now-traditional drip-fed new contracts and elusive targets. Maybe we’ve had enough spectacle and bustling streets now: maybe purebred stealth challenge is a vital change of pace, and escalation.

I rather liked its undemanding nature, as it meant I was better able to enjoy this five hour romp and relish its superb character work. Yes, it’s a rather slight detective game compared to your heavyweights of the genre, but its winsome cast, gorgeous music and sharp writing go a long way to make up for it.

I think the rules are still a bit too opaque for my liking. But they are, typically for Inkle, very elegant, and trust them to be the developers to weave them in with stories of knights and chivalry in such a neat way. Inkle are still better at story than strategy, though. I’ll beat Mordred one day. I just suspect it will take me a long while, is the only thing.

But this is all running around the question of how Far Cry 6 actually feels to play in combat. Well, yeah. It feels decent. Again, just about every hostile area in this world follows a tried and tested template. Either stay stealthy and disable some alarms, or just go shooty bang and leather people with bullets. There's always a storage room with resources. There's always a captain with more health. There's always something to get out of it. And that just about sums up Far Cry 6, actually

There’s every chance you’ll have more patience for those half-minutes of nothing, or that the rules of the game won’t distract you from the delicacy of the stories, but for me it ended up being more water than wine.

At present, Stormgate is a potentially good game that makes a poor first impression. Six missions, only three of which are playable for free, makes neither a good campaign nor a good deal, while the game's most interesting factions are hidden away in the multiplayer, where you need to do a lot of on-the-spot learning to get the most out of them. All that said, I don't think it's a game anybody should write off. Behind its blandifying art style is a very tactically chewy strategy game. If you're a fan of the genre and have friends who are likewise, there's good fun to be had in its 1v1 multiplayer, which I should stress costs nothing to try out. [Early Access Review]

It's not overly complex, doesn't take itself too seriously, and still has plenty of depth for those who just want to hose down a bungalow.

For all that Syndicate does wrong – and none of those things will be any surprise to those who’ve played any of its predecessors – it’s a game packed with enthusiasm. I’ve seen people describe it as just another yearly product from the assembly line, but the city is such an extraordinary creation and the people within it have such energy and joie de vivre (not to mention joie de tuer) that I’ve found it infectiously entertaining. Repetitive? Yes. Revolutionary? No. But an engaging and exuberant slab of blockbuster entertainment? Absolutely.

I’ve had an enormous amount of fun playing this, obsessively clearing the map of icons, occasionally relenting and accepting I need to do one of the main quest threads to progress, riding around on the backs of mammoths, diving off cliffs into pools hundreds of feet below, wrestling crocodiles, being dazzled by sunsets, escaping labyrinthine caves, and using my “hunters vision” to track enormous beasts. It’s undeniably great fun, and unquestionably a huge achievement. Just a very, very recognisable one, for all the best and worst reasons.

More than anything, I’m delighted that it’s tried so damned hard to be more interesting, more involved, more intelligent. That it falls short is a shame, but that it reaches higher than most is to be lauded. Gorgeous-looking, exquisite-sounding, and ambitious in its desire to be interesting, there’s a lot to congratulate. That the experience is punctuated by tumidity in its writing and puzzle design is the issue.

It’s a good sign that such a short game has me thirsting to know more about an obscure occultist who lived 400 years ago. In one scene, Doctor Forman admits to a patient that he merely has “the gift of logical surmise”. With that in mind (among other crimes) it would be easy to see him as the charlatan he is said to be by his enemies. But there are also moments that reveal a more complicated and conflicted man. In a short game full of haughty songs and jokes about willies, that’s an impressive achievement.

I’m probably not the best person to rate the physical ins and outs of a mountain climbing game. But as a consumer of pop culture tales of derring-do, and a horrified audience member to that callous motivational speaker, I dig ByteRockers attempt to find the right genre fit for the singular, intense mindset of a potentially lethal hobby.

There’s slow-burn greatness in Phoenix Point. It’s a game where you might be exploring a site, bracing for ambush, but instead find an abandoned theme park dedicated to a novelty boy band of hedge fund managers called the Lucrative Lads. Where you dread the thud of a parasitic worm dropping from a roof to the ground at your feet. Where the cold utilitarianism trained by XCOM slowly melts, and ideology begins to influence your diplomacy. It’s warmer, stranger, than its genremates. But it’s harder work to enjoy. Like its most outlandish guns and powerful armours, it takes a few hours’ research to get there.

It is, in fact, a perfect game to play in the background while listening to podcasts. Or perhaps while listening to the audiobook of Moby Dick, and add The North Water and Jamrach’s Menagerie to your whaling horror reading/listening lists as well, if you’ve got the stomach for them.

For a series that's always excelled at feeding players' imaginations - from sniping off hats in SteamWorld Heist, mixing magic cards in SteamWorld Quest, or speedrunning its platform challenges in Dig 2 - Build just lacks that spark of creativity to launch it into SteamWorld stardom.

When played locally with others or when the netcode is as good as it can be, Street Fighter V is an astonishingly good fighting game. Simplified without being dumbed down, deep without being utterly impenetrable, it’s as good as the series has ever been. I’m glad that there’s no need for a number at the bottom of this review because how do you score this game? In many ways, it’s the perfect fighting game, an easy 10, but it is woefully lacking in some areas. Waiting for content to be added to the game sucks, but what’s a month when you could be playing this for many, many years to come.

Dawn Of Man’s great triumph is that, a dozen hours after I’d picked my first berry, forging my first iron sword felt like an immortal accomplishment. [RPS Bests Bests]

Quotation forthcoming.

Some games are like chips. Even if you’ve got pals to play with, maybe wait until this one comes as cheap.

Consider the real promise of the game then, the underlying fantasy. How thoroughly can you make this talking rat regret its life choices? That’s still a fantastic sell.

Some of that is Rama's fault, and some of that is the game's, and some of it, again, is my fault for being older than Rama and perhaps, having more in common with him than I care to admit. I suspect that if you are not me, you might relish this more, but please be prepared for a lot of emotional labour.

I think this is precisely why I'm so frustrated with HighFleet. There's a brilliant game in here somewhere, but in its present state it's buried under endless frustrations and restrictions that do little but irritate me and cut me off from engaging with it the way I want to. I hate that I don't love it except in infrequent moments of greatness, and that the frustrations keep piling on at the same rate as I find more impressive details about it. It's kitted out for the stars, but just needs another tune-up or two to escape the atmosphere.

If you were hoping for a new squad-based game with the finesse of XCOM, or the many tactical choices of Jagged Alliance 2, this is not it. Mordheim is dumb. Mordheim is flawed. Mordheim tries hard and doesn’t succeed. This is not a happy Christmas, everyone, but the misshapen horror of Faschnat. It’s your present from Krampus.

As it is, it’s a lovely, fun game that too frequently reminds me of its mistakes. And despite that, I want to keep playing. Which is probably rather important.

It's idealistic and earnest. Cris Tales has bundles of heart, but I never found it too cloying or saccharine.

For a game about spies, Phantom Doctrine is atrocious at providing you with information. It doesn’t set up its pieces in an interesting way, it just pretends to – and while it has some neat ideas I haven’t gone into detail on, that’s because I so rarely needed to engage with them.

On high difficulty, class roles and weapon choices form a complex interdependent mechanism.

Whether that’s a dealbreaker, I’ll leave between you and your rig. If you can run it, though, Romeo is a Dead Man provides smiles, surprises, and memorable swordfights, especially once it warms up. It probably won’t go down as an all-timer in Grasshopper Manufacture’s ouvre, and in 20 years’ time, I doubt YouTube will be recommending me Romeo videos as often as it currently does Killer7’s Russian Roulette scene. But that’s fine: quality slashing and organic zombie gardening can still count for plenty.

It’s extremely funny...What a very lovely thing. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Its corpo dystopia may be further along the tech ladder than we are, but I take heart in the fact that Flat Eye's still only set in 2022. If they can course correct away from several world-ending visions of what's to come, perhaps we can too.

Coziness is a choice, though, and Tiny Glade initially reminded me of that old quote from Ford about the Model T - you know, the fact that the car came in any colour you wanted as long as it was black. For my first few hours I worried that Tiny Glade offered any vista as long as it was twee. But the more I play, the more I’m sure that’s not really true. My personal limits are tweeness, but I'm inclined to believe that’s me rather than the game. To put it another way, I can’t wait to see what real talent does with this lovely thing.

You’ll have a good time with Dead Rising 4. But you won’t feel as though you earned it.

You get to be methodical. Curious. Work through all the different species you need to research. Log all the specimens you need. Update all the taxonomies until you know everything you can about this world. You can order it all, and order your mind. You can imagine Ellery’s careful steps. You listen to the deep, slow breath of the ocean rolling overhead and around you. Ah. Lovely. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Devastation’s too throwaway to be a game many of us will still be talking about beyond this month, but it’s a blast, and not simply on a guilty pleasure basis.

Is it a must-have VR title? No. But there are precious few of those. It is a pretty decent VR title though, with a strong conceit and pleasant scenery. That makes it notable enough. To be honest, what it really needs is support for sticking your arms out at your side and flapping around like Big Bird, but perhaps the later Vive version and/or Oculus Touch support might let us live out our Michael Keaton mid-life crisis fantasies.

Harvestella is far more than the sum of its unexceptional parts. Almost every aspect of it just does the job it’s supposed to do, but it all slots together so well that it becomes a compulsively enjoyable experience. If you’re looking for a meaty JRPG to gobble up in palatable chunks over the ever-longer nights, you absolutely cannot go wrong with this one.

Even playing by yourself, though, I'd give The Ascent a hearty recommendation if you're after a fun, shooty RPG in a stunning cyberpunk universe. Just bear with its wild difficulty spikes and slow-burn early game, because it does become more engaging once you finally transform into an actual cyborg with a hydraulic fist for a hand.

I had a great time with John Wick Hex. It tiptoes the line between tactics and puzzler in an engaging way, has a ton of character, and feels exactly as minimal as it needs to be: you pick up a working vocabulary of Wickensian tricks, just in time to be tested on them. Its slip-ups tend to just make it more charming, while most repetition can be offset by going for challenges that ask you to play quicker and smarter.

Headlander’s hugely charming, basically, and though it doesn’t run too far with the humour of its concept, it absolutely makes the gimmick work from a play point of view. It’s got more steam in its engine than other recent, similarly high-concept Double Fine endeavours too, working hard to stay vibrant throughout.

I haven't had the performance issues everyone's been fretting about, for what that's worth. It ran absolutely fine on “medium” with my usual anti-blur options, until I put everything up to "high" again for screenshots and it became both uglier and much slower. Colossal Order have been quick to issue acknowledgements and a second review build of graphical fixes, and “intend for these performance improvements to be delivered at or very shortly after launch”. But glitches that only happen in fancy mode matter little to me, and will probably come out in the wash.

Catalyst occasionally infuriated me, and at other times simply passed me by in a blur, but on the whole I enjoyed my time with it. The movement is still wonderful. The world is still beautiful. There’s still nothing else quite like it. It’s better than the first game in most ways and there are still umpteen ideas in here crying out for a better implementation. So I’ll end in the spirit of the game, with a refined version of what I said last time: Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is good and you should probably play it, but damn, it could have been superb.

If you’re a little bit curious, or if you enjoyed any of the games with which it shares its DNA, Virginia may be one of the oddest and most fascinating things you’ve played in a long, long time. Vivid Virginia is a hell of a lot more than plain old “walking.”

At its best, Dead in Vinland is compulsive, and a great example of systemic roguelike storytelling. Just be prepared to scratch your beard constantly at some baffling writing decisions. Or, be prepared to buy a fake beard, I guess. All Viking games should now come with beards. New rule. You heard it here first. Also, mead. And an axe. You’d think we’d be able to download axes by now.

Some foundations are laid that might make for stronger follow-ups, but as it stands Batman does not have the emotional punch of The Walking Dead’s better episodes, the intriguing oddness of Wolf Among Us or the shockingly heavy consequences of Game Of Thrones, and worst of all it makes cracks in Telltale’s aged wall highly obvious. I should not feel bored in a Batman game, but bored is what I felt for most of it. Bring back Joel Schumacher, all is forgiven.

That story, of a vast civilian population forced into a total war footing, Partisans tells very well indeed. If you’ve got even a passing interest in the war on the Eastern front, or you enjoyed the various Commandos, Desperados and Shadow Tacticses of this world, I’d recommend it without hesitation. This machine kills fascists, one quicksave at a time.

Where 2KDrive shines is in its races, which ironically, feel freer than its open world.

Thing is, Marvel Rivals can still be an incredibly accessible hero shooter, one that does allow people who don't care as much as me about Competitive Stuff to just hammer buttons and play as muscular people who frequent the screens of the Odeon as much as Kojima spends his time 3D scanning beautiful people. There isn't anything wrong in that! In fact, I think this is great. People can just hop in and have fun in a free game that doesn't even seem particularly predatory in its microtransactions...The extra thing is, Marvel Rivals is also a PVP hero shooter that lacks the restraint of Overwatch and turns matches into slightly formless blenders as a result. The fact I can't remember any of the map names is a testament to this, where normally I'd have those sightlines and chokepoints memorised. It won't be a surprise to you that I won't be sticking with the game. and if you're someone after The Next Competitive Timesink, I don't think you will either.