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]