Does every game “for” grown-ups need to have blood and rude swears? No. And by the same token, games for tweens don’t need to be patronising, and it’s not like if I had a 12-year-old kid I’d buy them Cyberpunk 2077 for their new console, because that’s not at all appropriate. Thank goodness there’s this, then: an imaginative, fun action game that has a nice story about family and personal growth at the heart of its epic adventure, and a good sense of humour, where you turn Aphrodite from a gracious tree back into a bitchy hot girl.

I also don’t want it to sound like that bit of collectible busywork spoils what is ultimately a very good mix of satisfying snapping and eyes-agog wandering. You can always just capture the requisite frames while you’re passing by, looking for your own shots, and - truth be told - the striking vistas you’ll win access to are very much worth a spot of picture-matching. Come for the lessons, stay for the landscapes.

Despite these missteps, though, Episode 2 was still exactly what I wanted from this game, and that's more Coffee Talk. I wanted an excuse to hang out with these characters again and check in to see how they're doing - a feat I've continued to do with Toshikazu Kawaguchi's now three (soon to be four)-strong Before The Coffee Gets Cold series - and Hibiscus & Butterfly absolutely delivered on this point. I wouldn't say it's a better visual novel than the first Coffee Talk, but it is more of the same ingredients, and that's fine by me.

The story and dialogue itself is also super simplistic. I actually appreciated this more and more as the game went on. The whole thing had a flavour of Final Fantasy about it – you join a band of activists in an unfamiliar city, fall in love with one of them and fight against a mysterious and dodgy regime.

Minit is that most rare of joyful things: A really good idea, done really well. [RPS Recommended]

It might sound like I'm pretty down on MW2's multiplayer after all that, but trust me, I think it's a strong time! Aside from a couple of overcomplications, the game still excels at delivering an arcadey shootybang that's paced well, with a wealth of modes and weapons to satisfy all types of player. [Multiplayer Review]

It's just fun, isn't it? It's not groundbreaking, Toem, but it's somehow nostalgic and modern at the same time, a silly world that you can just enjoy, guilt-free. No overwrought commentary on modern society. No hidden meaning. Occasionally some hidden socks, or ghosts you can only see when you're wearing magic sunglasses, yes. Mostly having fun and taking pictures. I was here, I played Toem. It was good.

If you’re a fan of old school Castlevania-esque games then this is the ticket for you. A perfect recreation of the mould, but filled with its own strange story and theme. For those of you who aren’t this is a tough recommendation. You’ll need a lot of patience to get to the oddities I found so compelling, but if you want to know what Indiana Jones would be like if he fought mecha-dinosaurs instead of Nazis… well, you absolutely do want to know don’t you?

This is a game that, despite its derivative nature, manages to delight in the details enough to make me remember why I loved the games that inspired it to begin with.

So perhaps what The Eternal Cylinder is really about is how the spirit of creativity flees ahead of all those forces that seek to flatten and homogenise it, how it will take on any form to do so, and how Ace Team are one of the strange families fleeing with that light into the unknown that lies ahead of us. That Ace Team have managed to keep making these outlandish games is, all on its own, a chance to be hopeful, a motivation for us all to evolve, and certainly a good reason to buy The Eternal Cylinder. Which you should if what I have said about this game appeals to you even remotely.

The setting will largely dictate whether or not it speaks to you. I found it more appealing than the other big Creeds of recent times. I lasted mere hours in Odyssey's ancient Greece, and the same for Valhalla's 9th century England, but much longer in Mirage's golden age Baghdad. That simply comes down to being more into Islamic architecture than Greek myths or Viking longboats. Assassin's Creed, for all its faults and weaknesses, is as close as video games can get to time travel tourism. I'm glad I went on another trip.

It’s such a warm game. Touching and heartfelt, masterfully capturing the cosy excitement of the places and stories we explore as children.

While The Beast was fun to binge through in a few days (around 21 hours, with plenty more side-quests still left to do), I feel like I've had my fill of Techland's specific brand of open-world design for now. But if the zombie parkour itch hits again, I think it says something that I'll probably return to Dying Light 2's sprawling cityscape over another scenic alpine excursion.

If you love Doom and you're the kind of Guitar Hero player who wants to 100% Through The Fire And Flames, then I think Metal: Hellsinger might have you obsessed. For me - who only played Guitar Hero on Normal mode at parties, and whose only understanding of heavy metal comes from Wayne's World - it remained an excellent five hours. Party on.

It’s a game where old-school decisions too often trump good ones. A blast from a past I never lived through, where puerile humour and “area complete” screens tease you about not being a “real player”. Ion’s tongue might be in its cheek, but I’ve got little interest in what it’s saying.

The buggy, like the rooftops, is a temporary form of safety. All of the enhancements in the latest edition – new loot, new levels, new end-game excess – are icing on the cake. Dying Light is about creating moments of safety, empowerment and comedic triumph in a world that wants nothing more than to tear you down, and The Following is a perfect expansion of that central tenet.

The expansion is so large, so full of stuff, that the puzzle sequence forms a very small part of it. It’s just a very, very frustrating part. Grit your teeth. Take deep breaths. Hope that the pathfinding behaves. You will be able to get back to what you enjoy about Fallout, I promise.

I really liked Kiki’s face in the top-right corner of the screen, pulling an adorably smug expression as she pew pews her little pistol. But this isn’t a novelty animal Instagram account. Adorable only gets her so far, I’m afraid.

A remaster that takes a characterful, if clearly old game, and doesn’t quite give it the love needed to hold its head high in 2021. After Sega’s amazing PC run - launching Yakuza 0 and Persona 4 at £15 earned a big thumbs up - this feels like wanton gouging, and for a game that is more interesting than essential. Maybe the devil made them do it. Either way, it's a shame.

So, The Quarry isn't perfect by any means, and you can throw in some QTE or choice moments that feel like they cheated you on top of that. But even if it were perfect, its full price entry sticker might still feel like a pretty big ask for some people. It's also not actually that frightening, if I'm honest. Instead, it goes more for "tense and thrilling" even at its most hightened moments. But The Quarry improves on almost all the flaws of Supermassive's Dark Pictures Anthology, and picks up the baton from Until Dawn as if all those years haven't passed at all. It's cool, creepy, a bit funny, and a great summer horror treat for anyone missing monster movies.

I feel like, as much as I’m enjoying it, the side missions and gun farming only has a limited appeal once the story missions are over. And my stomach churns to think of making my way to the level cap just for the sake of ultimate completion. At level 26, I’m enjoying The Division. At level 30, I’m worried it’ll get repetitive.

The problem, really, is that while both aspects of Murder By Numbers are pretty good, neither of them are given enough space to really breathe. There are too few picross puzzles for puzzlers, and there’s not enough visual novel for VN lovers. I wouldn’t not recommend Murder by numbers, but it would perhaps have benefited from being a bit longer than it is (an easy demand to make of an indie game, I’m sure you’ll agree). Still, though, it’s worth a poke around if you’re a fan of either genre involved. And I still can’t get the theme song out of my head.

Sniper Elite 5 maintains the series signature sharpshooting across some gorgeous locales, but its renewed emphasis on close-combat encounters often feels like a shallow sidestep away from your rifle, leaving objectives feeling flat and monotonous. The game's at its best when you can sit back and snipe like a champ, but when the campaign constantly forces you into tight, muddled environments, it ends up distracting you from that glorious sharpshooting. The new Invasion Mode ups the ante and makes missions more tense, while the new weapon customisation system lets you personalise your sniping experience, but the amount of time spent sprinting around means that Sniper Elite 5 often fails to hit the mark.

I think of the themes FromSoft's Miyazaki is so fond of revisiting, of monarchs clinging on to life and power well past their time, and becoming something warped and hollow in the process. And I can't help but see an exhaustion in Nightreign, despite splotches of sprightly inventiveness. I'm left asking why I should want to throw myself at these bosses once again, absent much of the delight or discovery that would give these challenges context. Instead, this is challenge for challenge's sake. A stripped-off part of FromSoft's creative identity with little appeal absent the whole. And ultimately, I'm left wishing they'd sit back down at the bonfire and have a good, long rest, until a real spark makes itself known again.

It looks just lovely, a bold and distinct cartoon style that’s something I want to see more of. And it’s important not to underestimate how much the voice acting adds, including daft singing characters.

The new aliens’n’ocean stuff is thoughtful and entertaining, pushing the sci-fi further and helping Beyond Earth take much-needed strides away from Civ V, building it at last into a game you have to figure out rather than just go through the motions with. It still comes up short on character compared to the best Civs and, of course, Alpha Centauri, but it’s without doubt less anodyne than before.

I enjoyed Ghost Song overall, but that middle act slump did almost kill it dead for me, too, which is a shame, as underneath it all, this is a very accomplished Metroid-like for such a tiny dev team - and it will certainly fill that Hollow Knight shaped hole in your life while we wait for Silksong, especially if you're a Game Pass subscriber. There's still plenty to admire about what Old Moon have made here, but there are enough fluffed notes in the mix that it just stops short of being a harmonious whole.

Even outside of those giggling japes, there are endless smile-raisers. The inventive playfulness of Blendo is on full display. There's a James Bond styled opening song that you walk through as the credits roll. Exposition chats are accompanied by an old-fashioned projector that lights up the room with figures and diagrams. Finish a level and the game will sing "Niii-naaaaaaa!" in celebration. It's got so many little flourishes like this. Granted, I'm predisposed to love a Blendo Game, after the smash cuts of early free games like Thirty Flights Of Loving, and the hacker heisting of Cowboy. But if you haven't played anything from this studio before, Nina Pasadena's sci-fi jokeathon is certainly the place to start.