More than just dread, Devotion’s use of paraphernalia also helps to convey the emotional weight of Fengyu’s family tragedy.

Keep playing and each turn reveals with increasing certainty that this is a game totally at one with itself, from its audio-visual spectacle to its pinpoint control to its interweaving narrative and now its longevity. Unlike Selene, I keep coming back to Atropos by choice. Long may its immaculate, horrifying loop continue. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Familiarity is the fear killer, and there are only so many caves you can crawl through before the monsters become obstacles to sprint past rather than terrors to flee from. If I’d been able to explore more naturally without the threat of excessive backtracking, maybe I’d have shifted to that mindset a little later on - though I still spent many hours quivering through the dark. Creating a Forest that can go toe to toe with Subanutica’s Ocean when it comes to dread is a huge accomplishment, even if the full package still has some leaks.

Desperados III may dismay profanophobes and Commandos 4 devs short of confidence, but it’s hard to imagine anyone else not warming to it swiftly. I can’t wait to see where Mimimi take the engine next. With WW2 spoken for, I’ve got my blistered quicksave/quickload fingers crossed for Medieval Nottinghamshire. [RPS Bestest Bests]

This is such a treat, and I fear that the (perfect) name will mean too many people look past it. I love that it’s not mocking anything in particular when it apes early 90s arcade games, and yet feels like it’s mocking the entire universe at the same time. I love that it feels cruel, yet I couldn’t make a good argument to justify why, especially when half your time is spent jumping about a magic pony. So trust me, pick this one up.

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade doesn't just make a good first impression. It also makes a lasting impression, which is something that's been missing from mainline Final Fantasies in recent years. The bits in between could be more succinct, sure. Chapters could be less drawn out; there could be less cramming yourself through endless tight spaces to disguise its loading screens; heck, you've fixed the goddamn doors Square Enix, why couldn't you have fixed the nice little paper signs on Ma's Soft Drinks shop, too, eh? Despite all that, and the fact it's probably twice as long as it should be, Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade nearly always has enough highs to balance out the lows. Its action barrels along with a joyous spring in its step, and even the cinematics leave you gasping for breath at the absurd spectacle of it all. Final Fantasy XV may proclaim itself to be "the Final Fantasy for fans and first-timers," but I'd argue Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is a much more fitting recipient of the title. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Plunkbat’s systems read as simplistic when compared to other modern multiplayer games. There aren’t dozens of character classes with hundreds of interlocking skills. There is no AI director monitoring players to dole out excitement in set portions. Safe zones and bombing zones are randomly placed. But its loose grip upon player’s experiences means you’re more free to decide the kind of excitement you get from it. Back on the menu, I immediately hit the button to join another game. [RPS Recommended]

THUMPER, with its minimum of menus and explanation and guidance is absolutely pure, to the point that those who do not enjoy its light-from-darkness aesthetic will think it too small, to samey, too one-note, too much about the same sound playing forever. Perhaps it really can offer nothing to those people, or perhaps accepting that is it very fucking sincerely intended to be the same state of mind held for an eternity will let it seep into their veins after all. For the rest of us, let it take its place alongside Devil Daggers, reigning in hell.

I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but it’s at least as good as Slay The Spire. [RPS Bestest Bests]

I cannot possibly express to you how brilliant Wildermyth is nor how fully I recommend you play it and get started on your own. It is one of the best games I have ever played and it will bring you more delight than you thought possible. [RPS Bestest Bests]

In multiplayer, Titans feel like an actual godsend at times, screaming down from the heavens as they do like avenging angels. They’re improved since the first game, as is everything else, more flexible and yet more focused at the same time.

It’s easier than ever to be drawn into the world of Football Manager 2019, and set about becoming the next Pep Guardiola — or perhaps for the more modest and realistic amongst us, the next Steve Cotterill.

It’s still the smartest, most elegant, most entertaining adventure game ever made. And now, if you want, it looks new and sounds amazing.

If you’ve built a sufficiently nice world for me to run around in, I like just running around in it. There’s a lot of busy work, an eagle, and stabbing people brutally through the throat. Sometimes when you jump off a high thing you land in a load of hay. So, so far, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is a very good Assassin’s Creed game. Which is what we were all expecting, wasn’t it? Except this one lets me ignore all that and roleplay as a big buff Greek neighbourhood hero. I’m alright with that.

Cyberpunk 2077 is huge, sprawling, complex, and deeply flawed. It’s at its best as a fairly straightforward singleplayer action game, with likable characters and thrilling capers in a fascinatingly detailed open world that looks better than any game before it. It’s at its worst if you want it to be an RPG, an approach-as-you-please Deus Ex successor, or a polished piece of software. I enjoyed my time with it a lot, and I even want more of it, though I’m going to spend years complaining about its flaws. I’ll enjoy the complaining, too. It reminds me of the Eurojank games of yore, then, but maybe it’s fairer to say that it reminds me of the previous games from developers CD Projekt Red. After eight years of one of the most grating marketing campaigns imaginable, Cyberpunk 2077 is here, its ambitions beyond its means. Cyberpunk 2077: Enhanced Edition when?

I love Rocket League. I love it because it’s a near-perfect example of game design; an invented sport that understands how to create feelings of triumph and tension, sometimes flipping the script in a few seconds of controlled chaos. That’s rare enough for me to recommend the game strongly to anyone who isn’t allergic to online play but there’s more: Rocket League takes place in a world I want to be a part of. It’s a place where sport is carnival, the playing field is level (no paid-for boosts or buffs here, just cosmetic unlocks), and competition doesn’t require blood, sweat or tears.

It’s such a shame. Risk Of Rain 2 is delightfully weird, with an enviably eclectic menagerie of beasties. Runs that go well can branch off in wildly different directions, where items twist character abilities into novel new uses. But the sad truth is that I can’t click with any of the early characters, and the path to unlocking the good ones is long and paved with too-quick deaths. Stick your neck out if you want to – I’m headed indoors.

A finely crafted card game sealed in a meta-narrative wrapper that you sometimes have to tear off when it snags, but when that wrapping falls away, Inscryption reveals itself as a rare shiny. A clever game without taking itself too seriously. Metafiction always runs the risk of being pompous and showy. By contrast, this is an impish game, trollish even, repeatedly reinventing its own rules. A beautifully cursed creation. [RPS Bestest Bests]

It’s a winner. Sixteen tons of detail, sixteen tons of character, sixteen tons of riotous bug blasting, spelunking co-operative goodness. Deep Rock Galactic is a company I’ve got no qualms about selling my soul to for hours more to come. [RPS Bestest Bests]

I do understand the appeal of getting a chonky “choices matter” game like this to put it in Steam tag parlance. If you have that vacancy to fill, go ahead. Let’s face it, there aren’t many other options at the moment. I myself have made many bad calls in my time as a Ranger, and even I wouldn’t mind seeing the repercussions of my major decisions play out. But if I have to fight through listless combat, buggy UI, and an onslaught of juvenile gags to see one of the many endings, I’d rather leave the snowfields of Colorado behind. To hell with the consequences.

It's a genuinely impressive space game that hides its best bits, not in way that asks you to track things down but in a way that asks you to grid search in case you miss anything memorable. The more memorable bits themselves feel like they get cut off too soon, and the fun bits are kneecapped by the limitations inherent in making a game this size. Ambition does not have to mean making something literally larger than anyone else, and you don't have to build an entire universe to make a game last 130 hours. In fact, I'd rather you didn't.

I can point to one thing that will make me keep coming back to Battlerite, and that’s the way that after every death I say to myself: ‘I could have avoided that’. If I’d read my opponent better, if I’d timed that ability correctly, if my aim had been more accurate – then victory could have been mine. I’ll never anguish over it for long though, because a few minutes later I can be in the thick of another match. Battlerite takes the best part out of MOBAs, making the joy of teamfights accessible to anyone who’s only interested in that element of the genre. [RPS Recommended]

It’s by no means the best Final Fantasy game there’s ever been, especially once it forces you to bid farewell to your easy-going road trip and sit on a literal train for the rest of the story, providing tiny, tantalizing glimpses of other open worlds that might have been if only they’d had another ten years to actually finish the damn thing, but I’ll eat my chocobo hat if it isn’t the most interesting, experimental and important one the series has ever seen. [RPS Recommended]

The one thought that kept occurring to me during my first playthrough was this: I can't wait to collect everything and get all the upgrades so I can stop worrying about sniffing out air vents and puzzles, switch my brain off, and just play some goshdarn Doom. It took me about halfway through my next run before I realised something: all this exploration, all this bloody gold collecting, it's not something you're supposed to do once as a fun extra before the real game starts. It's an integral part of the cadence of a game that veers repetitive and thin without it. There's just plain less to do here. Less to combat. Less reason to replay levels. This is a solid enough FPS that I don't regret playing - sometimes, it's downright captivating - but between the mech, the dragon, and all the medieval armour, something vital has been crushed under all that extra weight.

But at the end of your six to eight hours, you'll have had a fun, satisfying and historically informative time. You'll also start to mutter, "The many shall suffer for the sins of the one!" to yourself every time you drop a slice of buttery toast on the floor in real-life. While The Forgotten City is a bit rough around the edges, it's a fantastic proof of concept, and its small team. Watch this space for whatever Modern Storyteller do next.

I want to love Frostpunk 2, and I think that's precisely why so much of this review is negative. It deserves recognition for the courage to push into something new rather than play it safe. It's far more compelling, interesting, and super atmospheric than its peers, but that ambition has cost it a singular intensity and focus that leaves its fresh narrative and design too contradictory to carry it to the same heights.

Some of the additions in Afterbirth break whatever thematic cohesion might have existed more than what has come before. Laser-cyborg Isaac doesn’t quite fit with my reading of the game but then, what the hell, maybe it’s just a game about shit, blood and tears after all. And it’s a fantastic example of the form.

What I will praise highly is how Control indulges its own ludicrous nature every step of the way.