Phantom Fury sometimes falters in its basic elements (and it can be a little buggy too - fair warning) but its devotion to detail is so laudable I don't care. Chekhov said that if you have a prop on stage, then that prop must serve a purpose to the story. Hemmingway said, nah, that's bollocks, inconsequential details are important. Phantom's Fury feels like the latter; a devotee of inconsequential gizmos. Its clocks are fully animated gif timepieces. Its cream-coloured PCs make clicking hard drive noises when you switch them on. And, very importantly, its toilets flush.

You know what I'd buy, actually? I'd buy an anthology collection called Tales From Aveum, that has stories about a carpenter who's building a mansion in the shanty town clinging on the sides of a giant bottomless pit, and the bored noble who's a secret magic assassin, and whoever it is who has to train new recruits in arm strength. Make it more focused, pick a lane with your tone, and baby, we'd have a stew going.

It's a decent, fun game if you liked Road 96 and while I don't think it's essential, it's endearing to see a developer like their characters enough to want to do more with them. Nice, too, that they had the runway to do it rather than move on to the next thing. You get the feeling they wanted to do more, even so; there's a DLC in the form of an interactive e-book bridging the gap between Mile 0 and Road 96, which costs almost as much as Mile 0. It's nice to go back - but my gut tells me it's probably time we all left Petria behind now.

I wish I could say I was surprised by the sloppiness of Black Ops 7's campaign, but the sad reality is it's part of a long-running pattern with Call of Duty's annualised releases that has only exacerbated in recent years, with direct sequels to the series' various offshoots feeling like warmed up leftovers from a twelve-month old meal. That said, it is still disappointing considering the comparative quality of the last two Black Ops campaigns, and at a time when old-fashioned linear shooters are extremely scarce, Black Ops 7's failure to offer up something even modestly enjoyable is keenly felt. [Campaign Review]

Though simple, Lethis comes across as modern and thoughtful, not chained to nostalgia. I’ve enjoyed my time with it for the most part, but I’m ready to part company with it now: I feel I’ve seen everything and any revisit would simply be repetition. I’d love to see its art approach applied to something a little more organic, though.

Predictable and nice, if you like that sort of thing, but quick to go stale.

It's Travis who carries this version of No More Heroes, and occasionally makes you forget that you're actually playing what is a rather mediocre port in 2021. Unless you're a mega-fan, I don't see why you should play this version over the Wii one, because it lacks many basic PC-specific improvements you'd expect from a remaster. But mainly, it loses a lot of charm without those motion controls. I can't believe I'm saying this, but maybe it's time for me to pick up a Wii.

Overall, despite all the frustrations, I enjoyed being a broody detective cat. I just wish the game itself was as strong as the story it was trying to tell.

It would be unfair to single out AO Tennis 2 for replicating the banality of tennis when every sports ’em up has the same conceptual flaw.

All of this could be fixed with future updates, but I think the devs have built themselves into a corner with the fundamentals of Minecraft Legends. Adding more content and complexity won't solve the issue of the awkward control scheme and lack of precision - something that all RTS games need in order to be great.

The balance is all off, and its slog of a campaign and the attempts at streamlining make this a disappointing extraterrestrial outing.

And yet... I recorded all these complaints with a detached sort of "hmm" rather than major frustration. It's one of the most low-stress strategy games I've played this year, and its detail comprehensible once you've picked up the stone it's hiding under. It's a combination of engaging and undemanding that grand strategy seldom manages, and has enough Trek stuff to work for someone who's seen most of the serieseses but only once, and can only sometimes tell if something's a reference to an episode or wholly new. How the boon of such a familiar setting will stand against the weight of that setting's expectations I do not know, but if you go in wanting an enjoyable game that you kind of already know, Infinite will be a pleasant little surprise.

There are a ton of great ideas here, and I particularly dig this whole concept of a management game that’s about a production line for silent slaughter rather than cash-generation as such, but the best stuff can struggle to breathe through the excessive micro-management. The stereotype-heavy gags and iffy translation make things more of a drag than they deserve to be too. It’s well worth persevering with MachiaVillain despite this.

Aragami 2 absolutely channels highlights from the past three decades of stealth-action, but it also files a lot of the bumpy bits off. Immediacy over complexity.

For those first few hours, Battlefront 2 struck me with gorgeous moment after gorgeous moment that’s made me reevaluate what’s possible with 2017’s technology. It’s a shame that the fighting frequently gets bogged down by chokepoints, and any long-term appeal is undermined by a progression system that can’t shake the pay to win shadow which continues to loom over the game. [Multiplayer review]

If you reckon you've got a higher tolerance for battering the 'skip dialogue' button though, by all means go for it. There is, as I say, some excellent, dumb fun to be had here.

This is a smart, gorgeously presented game, novel and peculiar, and as I mentioned at the start, with a lot to not quite say. I’m not convinced by the ending, I think it aims for too much “Ahhhh but ahhhhhhhh” and not enough, “Oh.” But the journey toward it had me intrigued, and the game’s final sequence is utterly stunning – level design you won’t have seen elsewhere.

Albino Lullaby delivers all the atmosphere we were hoping for, but then fails to have a sturdy enough game beneath it.

YIIK might have been able to get away with some of its issues if other areas were able to pick up the slack. I’ve sat through plenty of tiresome combat to find out what happens in a story, and a convoluted plot can be fine if it’s allowed to breathe through interesting characters. But Alex himself is this game’s millennium bug, preventing the player from even rooting for their own actions, because they are all filtered through this deeply unlikable proxy.

If you're allergic to puzzle games, though, it's not a gentle introduction to the genre. Depending on the ending you get, it might feel a little abrupt at the finish, but there are some puzzles in there that feel revelatory to solve. You feel smarter than one of those sheltered Mensa kids whose parents force them to learn to play the tuba. I figured out that bit with the blood serums, godammit, I should be eligible for lifetime membership of your little genius-person club without any tests.

Cyberpunk 2077 is the game that sprang to mind while I was mulling over how to approach this review. It’s also a janky, overambitious RPG full of sweary, violent people doing horrible things to each other. The difference is that, by and large, the characters in Cyberpunk are compelling, well-rounded characters with depth and nuance. They’re frequently likeable, even caring, forcing us to deal with the contradictory aspects of human nature. Elex 2 has none of that, it’s just a game filled with deeply unpleasant people.

Maybe Serial Killer is a great idea with appealing style, saddled with iffy design and insufficient flexibility. Walks the walk, but the talk’s another matter. For some, that’s going to be forgivable because of its conceptual novelty and stylistic verve (which includes unlocking wackier or film-inspired character outfits and maps). Me, though – I want to scrub all evidence of Serial Cleaner from my PC before its lovely look tempts me into having a tedious time all over again.

Ancestors is a mish-mash of ideas, some good, many awkward and poorly executed. Down another evolutionary branch, this might have been a solid ape sim about swinging from branch to branch and raising a family of hominids across the eras. But here, even the sometimes pleasing “floor is lava” tree-swinging can’t be saved from the slavering jaws of those clingy context-sensitive menus, nor the mess of barely explained HUD elements, nor the obnoxious video filters.

It’s a really well made and sometimes great portion of turn-based tactics, but more often than not, it was frustration rather than strategy that drove me to go maximum boyo.

Lego Marvel Avengers is very much what they’ve already been, but with most of the magic missing.

Right now, it’s lacking, and not just in musical numbers.

At the heart of Sea Of Solitude is the idea that all emotions can have a positive or negative form — love can be twisted to be something unhealthy or saddening, for example, just as being alone can be quiet solitude or debilitating loneliness. I’ve no doubt that Sea Of Solitude might seem facile to some people, but that just means it isn’t for you. I think it’ll probably be for a lot of other people.

It makes me too sick, and because the underlying experience collapses from operatic space disaster into rinse and repeat all too soon, I am not minded to endure that awful lurching sensation. Despite that, some of my VR confidence has been restored. Maybe this thing can happen after all.