I was in it for the plinkety-plink rush of clattering into a huge pile of gems. I was in it for the five item chest boogie, the mindless yet mindful monster shepherding, the giant meteors and the rainbow scythes. Those are all still here, and you can push into further and deadlier territory than ever before, especially if you get far enough to unlock the endless mode, or the modifier that lets you keep upgrading weapons past their usual point. Vampire Survivors is a bigger, better playground now - albeit one with a bodyguard blocking the final set of swings.

I can’t quite bring myself to hate it. But I knew that going in. It wins enough on concept to make the execution kind of secondary, and honestly, it’s got much more substance than I expected. So, while I can’t recommend that you part with your cash to experience RPGolf Legends this very second, I can absolutely recommend that the effervescent fountain of sparkling madlads at ArticNet keep doing what they're doing, because the world needs more unshackled visionaries like them. However, with the Lunar Steam Sale on at the moment, you could get What the Golf and the Grandia HD Remaster for less money, alternate between the two, and have a much better time.

When the story is this earnest, it feels churlish to berate it too harshly. Its heart is in the right place, and if anything, I wish there were more slice of life games out there like this. Plenty of games start off domestically, but they often leave it behind in favour of something more spectacular and fantastical. I want more games like The Kids We Were, that have the confidence to focus on the humdrum rhythms of everyday life, and that evoke the same kind of feelings as the films of Makoto Shinkai, Mamoru Hosoda and Hirokazu Kore-eda, and the novels of Shion Miura and Hiromi Kawakami (and if these games do actually exist, please tell me about them. I want to consume and absorb them into my consciousness as soon as possible). They may not end up feeling much like the games we're used to, but I'm glad they exist all the same.

In the end, if what you wanted was a traditional dating sim populated with (in Akabaka's own inspired words) Cthulhu-presenting anime girls, Sucker For Love may not be exactly what you were hoping for. But if you want a one-and-done horror visual novel that knows its lore, revels in gore, and just might surprise you with a genuine sweet moment or two along the way, then there are many worse ways to spend an afternoon and a few quid.

Deflector is really tough. Alien-like minions will just spew a slow orb or two at you, but tougher foes can vomit lines of the bloody things, to the point where just standing your ground feels like beckoning death. Staying on the move is key to survival, but levels will bring acidic pools and towering spikes rising from the ground to bear at you, variables that’ll easily throw you off your game and send you packing to an early grave. This is all done against the backdrop of a sort-of story where a giant tardigrade-esque creature ferries you between levels. Every Deflector run starts the same: heal up, interact with the big beastie, and select which room you’d like to be transported to. You’re presented with a big overview board of subsequent rooms, with pathways snaking between them, including which arenas house powerful enemies and exclusive rewards. [Early Access Review]

It's creepy, but Lixun treats it all as quite ordinary, even when he's trapped in a haunted mirror verison of the Tian family home. The fear is more bound up in what happened to the Tian family itself, because in a way it could happen to any family - and, indeed, does. Firework spins a lot of plates, and it's worth playing just to see them all being kept in the air.

The central, notionally interactive premise of fiddling around with camera angles, retuning signals and slapping censorship buttons isn’t engaging enough in the moment to make you want to dive back in and uncover the two thirds of the game you miss, but one helping of the news is more than enough. A strange, funny, and enormously ambitious game, Not For Broadcast is unlike anything else I’ve played.

It's a completely 2D game with hand-drawn art, and you're basically trapped in one room with a cat for the whole game. The setting is perhaps vaguely Edwardian but mostly unmoored by its strangeness. But it's so immersive! It's very easy to imagine how it feels to brush your hand over the cover of your encyclopedia of plants and flip through the pages. To experience the slight panic as a customer approaches and you sweep secret letters and tools back into the hidden drawer of your desk. The gentle animation of all the plants makes them feel so alive. The pattering of the rain on the windows. It gets cold in the shop, especially in the rain. If only I could persuade Hellebore to come and sit, purring, on my lap sometimes. Ah! Hello sir! Why yes, I have just the thing to help you sleep. Let me see now... Strange Horticulture is quiet, meticulous, delightful, dark, and beguiling. An utterly lovely game. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Windjammers 2 is a banger. I didn’t really know what to expect from Dotemu’s revival going in. I assumed it’d be catering to a very specific audience that didn't include me, and I wasn’t entirely wrong: it doesn’t even give you a tutorial before throwing you headfirst into the mayhem. Once you’ve mastered the basics, though, whether you’re a newcomer or someone steeped in the history of the Neo Geo classic, this is arcade action in simple and enthralling form, beckoning you in with a surprisingly low skill barrier to entry, a dazzling art style, and an eclectic mix of characters to master.

As far as Rainbow Six Extraction goes as a whole, I think there's a lot of good here. The missions are challenging, the aliens are clever, and the progression system is rewarding enough to keep you interested. Nothing is going to blow you away or keep you playing for hours on end, but it works as an FPS you can have a really fun time with on occasion. Sometimes that's all you really need, isn't it?

For all these little improvements, though, the time-honoured pursuit of watching a party of adventurers sprint across a map at a snail’s pace has been left untouched. And I know this might seem like a petty thing to complain about, but I’m dead serious. As I’ve stressed, between its surprising and inventive level design, its genuinely compelling character writing, and its various interlocked secondary games, Expeditions: Rome keeps you in a constant state of looking forward to what comes next. And unavoidably, that excitement dampens fast when you’re just sitting there waiting for people to move across a map.

Thing is, dungeons only exist to further EXP and FP. Aside from numbers and forms, there isn't anything else to chase. You clear dungeons to watch grades and bars rise. Crack open chests at the end of a dungeon and you'll get some tokens. What do they do? Up some numbers. I suppose this gives the game a clear focus, but it's one that gradually wears you down. This a game built for churning through, and that's the problem. Nobody isn't so much as saving the world, but clearing it, instead.

I'm a little saddened that I have these reservations, because Sands of Salzaar is a colourful and likeable blending of familiar ideas, elevated by a unique vibe. While I wouldn't quite call it compulsive, it definitely tempts you to keep playing, or go back in again a few hours later. It's just a shame it takes a little too much time and guesswork to get there.

God Of War feels like a game crafted from the ground up by a team of many people all pulling towards the same thing: to make you feel emotions about these two boys. But also, to really enjoy it. [RPS Bestest Bests]

For the most part, though, Monster Hunter Rise is another stonking addition to the series, and in my books a more than worthy successor to Monster Hunter: World. There's a generous and playful sense of freedom here that keeps combat and exploration feeling fresh, and the momentum of its hunting-led missions means you're rarely spinning your wheels as you seek out that last elusive armour part. It's kept me playing much longer than I ever did with World, and I can't wait to see how it develops with its imminent Sunbreak expansion later this summer. [RPS Bestest Bests]

There’s definitely some dark stuff in there and the characters have a real spark of life in them, but it doesn’t quite stick the landing - and that’s kind of how I feel about Vertigo as whole, too.

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]

The Gunk is good rather than great, then, but given it's on Game Pass you'd be silly to pass it up. Maybe it's just the time of year, but watching each region unfurl in a bubble of light and colour, not knowing what it's going to look like until the last minute, feels very much like pulling back the windows of an Advent Calendar, with each de-gunking revealing yet another jaw-dropping treat for the senses. It's Christmas comfort food for lazy afternoons on the sofa, and at just under five hours, it can be done and dusted in just a couple of sessions, too. Very good vibes indeed.

As negative as I’ve been, I would recommend Fights In Tight Spaces wholeheartedly as it is, because the action at the heart of it is honestly incredible. When everything’s going right, it engages my brain like I’m doing a particularly hard sudoku. The problem is there isn’t much besides that going on. The whole game feels like it should be one of the best things I played this year, but somehow I came away from it saying just “okay.”

So, some of White Shadows' individual parts are flawed, but I did really enjoy my time with it. If you don't really mind the game's simple puzzles and you're willing to ignore the exposition dump at the end, I'd recommend it. White Shadows offers two hours of creative, chilling designs, joyous musical set pieces and enough screen-shottable sights to fill your hard drive.

I’m honestly confused by how much I enjoyed my time with Icarus. It relies on repetitive loops and often uneventful hiking, on tedious punishments and uninspired objectives. I am not a patient person, and yet, it does enough. The storms are terrifically atmospheric, basic crafting still feels compelling when you’re doing it for the umpteenth time, and oh, I haven’t even mentioned the way it models individual planks tumbling and getting stuck on each other when you chop down a wall. Despite the jank, Icarus’s (eseses) systems feel meticulous, on scales both big and small.

This year has blessed us with games that radiate care, where you can tell that the people who made it really loved the process of making it. Wytchwood is like opening a hand-drawn pop-up book and finding a cheeky little hag inside, throwing snares at living pumpkins and yelling, "I'll chop you good!" at giggling little changeling mushrooms. And who wouldn't want to tick "chop annoying little mushroom good" off a to-do list? [RPS Bestest Bests]

Endwalker isn’t quite as tight of an experience as the previous expansion Shadowbringers and definitely suffers from a few pacing issues, but it’s still a must for Final Fantasy fans and exceeded all of my expectations. It’s also showing its age graphically now (the grapes memes attests to that), but if you love the main FF games and still haven’t tried this MMO yet, then you really need to fix that (when the game goes back on sale again of course) as you’re missing out on one of the greatest FF tales of all time. A genuine must play despite its flaws.

I could go on with describing Mechajammer's flaws and failures for far, far longer than I could stand playing it any more. The sheer relief at exorcising my complaints are the closest I've come to enjoying it since my brief excitement at the promise of its character creation screen. Between its awful, threadbare design and a shocking number of bugs and major glitches, this has been an absolutely miserable experience and not even close to fit for release.

Even with these grumps about plot and characters, even with the sad lack of co-op or Forge mode at launch, this Halo ring is still a luscious national park devoted to rampage, Tarzan swings, hammer blows and big drums of plasma (my GOD these are fun to chuck). An open world Halo is something I didn't even realise I wanted. I'm glad I got it. It has taken the series a while to look outside its corridor shooting monoculture for inspiration. But now that developers 343 Industries have broadened that corridor to the width of plains and stretched it to the height of mountains, it'll be hard to go back. You can't drive a jeep full of snipers down a corridor.

It probably isn't going to set the world on fire. A dull first hour certainly isn't going to help. As fun as it is, the story is pretty well trodden stuff. Yet combine an over-the-top world and tone with slick dogfighting and you've a potent package. Chorus will sing for you, even if it takes a moment to find the right notes.

Perhaps I'm being a bit harsh here, but that’s because Solar Ash’s movement is brilliant and I hunger for more ways to roam its wastes. Don't expect one fluid joy ride, but when it does come together it really does impress. If you’re after a few hours of slicin’ and skatin’, I’d say it’s worth strapping those blades up.

It feels consistent. It’s workmanlike without being uninspired, fascinating without being flashy. It’s like a loveable cockney chimney sweep with a sparkle in its eye. It might be too mundane to scratch the itch for high adventure, but if you’re feverish for a grounded low fantasy ramble with the occasional giant rat, Wartales will cure ya. Also, apropos of nothing: I still haven’t played Battle Brothers yet, so I don’t know. Go away.