A Plague Tale has a story that’s way more detailed than the escape-to-safety romp I was expecting, involving bloodlines and ancient power, and one extremely evil leader of the Inquisition doing an extremely evil voice.

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.

But this just wasn’t for me. Ultimately, there’s only so excited I can get by the prospect of being (let’s all say it in Chod’s awed whisper) an entrepreneur. Maybe I’m just becoming more prone to escapism as I age, but there’s just not much of a thrill for me in getting really, really efficient at flogging grape juice and tables to people.

I’m in love with Mordhau. [RPS Bestest Bests]

This makes it all the more disappointing that a bunch of these mysteries are unsolved, left suddenly dangling at the end of the game as if waiting for a sequel or chunky DLC to tie them off. I wish my adventure on the Helios hadn’t ended so abruptly and I feel a wee bit short changed, but I’d still be really pleased if they announced an add-on — like being cheated by a 20s newsie, but he did it with a bit of flair and a cheeky grin, so you let him get away with it.

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”.

If you prefer your pleasures somewhere on the periphery of your attention, you’ll find there are plenty to pluck off the branch here.

I think it’s a generally inoffensive game with extremely charming presentation that’s badly suited for the ritualistic plonking down of oneself in front of a chunky desktop PC, but would probably be a welcome distraction on the Switch.

Conquest, it turned out, was the easiest bit of the game. Maintaining civilisation afterwards was where the real skill came in. [RPS Bestest Bests]

I really enjoyed it, I really appreciated having a methodical, forthright adventure game to play, with excellent art and animations, good music, great acting, and a story worth hearing. I just wish I’d been more of a detective as I did it.

It’s an undisputed heavyweight, and an experience I’d recommend to anyone.

I don’t know if I can recommend this to someone who isn’t a word nerd. But at the same time, what Inkle have achieved in Heaven’s Vault is tremendous. I don’t know what to compare it to, because there isn’t anything. I can’t remember what the Ancient for love is, but I know it contains the word for heart, which contains the word for life.

It’s going to take a heck of a lot for anything to beat this game to be my favourite of 2019. What a splendid treat.

Photographs is a very novel experience (well, a very short story experience, fnarr), lovingly crafted, if not fully composed. I don’t love it as a puzzle game, but it’s a vignette of vignettes, and I like it for that.

It’s Winter is very specifically about nothingness – by which I mean, though its blood is rich with walking simulator platelets, it is not about dreamy escapism, but rather about feeling purposeless, even trapped, by one’s situation. We all know the feeling: that certain kind of boredom, where it’s not that there’s nothing to do, but rather that everything feels futile.

It is, very much, A Tropico Game, but it knows how to go big, how to feel like it’s playing with the citybuilder big boys, instead of remaining in its safe soft play corner. There’s plenty of stuff I’d change, especially tonally and in terms of international relationships, but I played it happily until I couldn’t see straight. I’m left thinking it should have called itself Ultimate Tropico rather than the implied exhaustion of sticking at 6 at the end. [RPS Bestest Bests]

But that travel, maaaaan. It absolutely nails it. If you’ve ever sold nearly everything you own and bought a plane ticket to somewhere that sounds cool, if you’ve ever read ‘On the Road’ and ‘The Beach’ on an airport bench because you’re that much of a walking cliché, it’ll resonate with you immediately. It understands that a heavy bag can make you feel lighter, for all the cut tethers it signifies.

Shadows Die Twice is a beautiful, masochistic misadventure. Some of its boss fights are so stupendous, I dare not speak about them. It is a test of mettle and nerve that proves From Software are still winning the arms race against us cheesey rats. A brutal master who snaps the shield and broadsword out of your hands, and looks you up-and-down for what you are capable of. No more blocking, chump. You’re going to learn ballet. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Suffice to say, I’m enjoying it more than its predecessor. It is chunky, it is moreish, and every time I come back to it in the evening it is like taking a big bite out of one of those mega Snickers you can only find in the cinema. All this praise might seem out of place moments after critiquing the game’s toothless practice of political commentary by obfuscation. But honestly, don’t worry about that. We humans are idiot creatures of contradiction, and we can thoroughly enjoy a rock solid shooter even as we recognise it as being vapid hogwash.

A brisk run at Trüberbrook will take you around five hours or so, but it feels like, if they’d have had their ‘druthers, the team would have made it twice that. Trüberbrook isn’t bad, but it feels like a wedding cake with a couple of tiers missing. Beautiful icing, great craftsmanship on show, but somehow not all there.

Baba Is You is immediately completely superb, a puzzle game where you literally rewrite the rules as you play.

I’ve had such a time with this. I’ve been bemused, entranced, confused and delighted. I’ve laughed a lot, been slightly creeped out, and constantly astonished at the level of detail in every element of this. There is just SO much to do, to explore, so many secrets I know I’ve missed, and bits I want to return to. This is completely splendid. [RPS Bestest Bests]

The nicest layer of the flawed lasagne: being a sneakf.ck and listening to voicemails that don’t belong to you. And then, presumably, getting a chat show in America and a job on morning TV.

Accompanied by pleasant ambient music, and some deeper depths of complexity I wasn’t expecting, I’ve had a very pleasant time mucking about with Vignettes. Which is its absolute purpose. It’s a toy, but a detailed one, and one that belies interesting complexity.

It doesn’t hurt that it’s also weird, full of surprises, stupendously daft and often laugh out-loud funny – though not always for the intended reasons.

Dawn Of Man’s great triumph is that, a dozen hours after I’d picked my first berry, forging my first iron sword felt like an immortal accomplishment. [RPS Bests Bests]

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

As someone who loves a bit of space-trucking, it is indescribably refreshing to have some handcrafted characters sprinkled into the mix.