Mask Quest is punitive: I have died hundreds of times while playing it. The one bone it throws you is some extremely generous checkpointing, with rapid reloads, and sometimes this only steepens the failure spirals, as you throw yourself at puzzles that measure victory in pixels. I haven't sworn aloud and ragequit so often for years, and this feels appropriate to a game that systematises injustice so hilariously, so horribly. The best outcome, perhaps, is that you stop trying to have fun and simply acknowledge that what's being asked of you is enormously unkind. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Otherwise, Straftat is a marvellous thing, a grungy, underground virtual LAN party that, in pushing so hard in the opposite direction from big, glossy, team-based shooters, breaks new ground for an older style of gunfest. There have been various attempts to rekindle the arena shooter in the last decade, from Epic’s aborted Unreal Tournament revival, through Doom 2016’s disappointing multiplayer offering, to Bethesda’s more successful spinoff Quake Champions. Straftat, though, outguns them all, huffing casually on its cigarette as it knee-slides into the future. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Besides slitterheads, the biggest enemy was really Bokeh Studios' distrust in you, the player. You're forever told how to go about each challenge because the world isn't malleable enough to entertain your investigative spirit. That's with all the emptiness and the irritants on top, which come together to form a deeply unlikeable game. That's unfortunate, because I do think it has some genuinely impressive ideas and delivers, on occasion, some brief bursts of interesting combat and the occasional nice wander. They're just too few and far between for me to recommend it.

All in all then, I'd best sum up Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 like this: it's like Call Of Duty. A good one, I think. Not a bad one. If you like Call Of Duty, you will like this. If you don't like Call Of Duty, you will not like this. If you haven't played Call Of Duty in a while but did like Call Of Duty in the past, then you will probably like this. Now imagine me, as I step back into the fog with my M4A1 and disappear into a lobby filled with the wet squelches of a man passionately eating a lasagna too close to his mic. [Multiplayer Review]

There is so much else that is impressive and charming about Veilguard. The absurdly elaborate and expensive finales that cap off companion questlines; lavish, unique areas rolled out for a visit or two then never again. How story moments of real threat and menace stopped me in my tracks, because it turned out that Bioware wasn’t disinterested in this stuff, just saving it for when it really counted. The fantastic prose and worldbuilding in the huge glossary, filled as you find notes and items.

Shadows Of The Damned: Hella Remastered will no doubt please fans of the original, as it doesn't touch the demonic meat and bones of the original besides giving them a bit of a face lift. For those coming in fresh, it's a fairly good time, but only until you start noticing its nastiness. I respect its zaniness and its double-A feel from yesteryear, but I also despise how its characters and its world portray women. I wish that attitude had been tossed in the bin and 'remastered' instead, honestly.

At the end of it all, my decisions in Wilmot's house felt less meaningful, less driven by my internal ideas about the world, less personal, and less rewarding than in our last meeting. It's a quieter game, about turning down the knob in your brain that says "categorise". That makes it both more chill as a task and less interesting as a game. If the Warehouse is a strong mug of hot coffee, Works It Out is a delicate cup of jasmine tea. Both are comforting, but I find one more stimulating than the other.

So no matter if the game's a bit of a grind, it's a rather gorgeous one, all things considered. And I know for certain that if I visit Akita, it'll be impossible not to think of Shin chan... and his bare arse.

And it is a very cool centipede. And next time I’m too burnt out to even exist outside of bed without the effortless structure this game is very good at lending to otherwise dead time, I’m sure I’ll be glad for the additions Vessel Of Hatred makes. It’s just very hard to get excited about, and some real excitement is what Diablo 4 needed. I might well book another ticket the next time a new destination gets added, but I’ll asking for podcast recommendations for the trip.

I am in real danger of sounding ungrateful, because jeopardy was something I wanted more of in Gris. It's present in Neva, but the nuts and bolts need tightening before it hits an Ori And The Blind Forest, game of the year, orchestral tour sort of level of greatness. That aside - which in fairness is quite a big "that" in an action platformer - I think Neva is a step above Gris. The experience as a whole is engaging and bittersweet enough that I'll even forgive the 'it was all a dream' switcheroo.

Relationships don't just encompass those with whom we drink our pumpkin spice lattes, or those we work beside, or take out to the cinema, or plan a roadtrip with. There is meaning in the anecdote you share with a train conductor, the mini-rant about the local council you have with a fellow dog walker, even (god forbid) the blue joke you get from a taxi driver. Kind Words 2 isn't about forming friendships (it admits as much when it asks you never to identify yourself). It isn't even about community, as every live service game seemingly wants to be for its own purposes. It's simply about passing someone in the street, seeing their hurt, and telling them it isn't the end of the world.

Mouthwashing's a hard one to review, namely because I have to dance around the story in fear of spoiling it for you. I hope I've at least got across how it tells the story and how it really is a well-told, succinct descent into a crew's deepest darkest secrets and struggles. Trust me, you'll want to play it in one or two sittings, mainly because you won't be able to peel yourself away from it. The only times you might, are when it doesn't signpost those solutions well enough. Go forth and swill your mouth out with this one, I say.

And so, I have sometimes struggled to enjoy it in the same way as I enjoy written fiction with the same style of storytelling. The longer I spent in James' personal hellscape, the more I could accept it as the video game equivalent of Alisdair Gray's Lanark, but I also don't have the patience to analyse every detail within its 16 to 20-hour story, as some will. And ultimately, I can't help but feel underwhelmed by how much its sacred history has chained this remake down.

If you’re a die-hard survival glutton, and you wait a while for updates, you might find some fun here, since the framework does have those tiny sparks of playful ingenuity I’ve alluded to. Otherwise, uh: game bad. Don’t buy it!

This isn’t a game to mindlessly consume and it’s not going to give you a boost of tasty brain endorphins. Phoenix Springs is a game that demands you slow down, and whose purposefulness will entice some players but put others off. In this way, it feels like an island, entirely its own thing. I don’t completely understand the story - or at least I think I don't - but that’s the point. There are some frustrations with its puzzles, but Phoenix Springs has an incredible point of view and it sticks with it wholeheartedly, and that’s something I can respect the hell out of.

Despite my whining here at the end, I do genuinely believe Metaphor is a very good RPG and a grand adventure absolutely worth undertaking. It's slick in its presentation, in its storytelling, and especially in its combat. Everyone, no matter if you're a strategy god or a story hound will be served a good slice of both, perhaps spurring on more of an interest in the one side you hadn't explored before. And it's a better game than Persona, particularly Persona 5. But I think its focus skews more towards combat and less towards its characters, which makes it more of a thing that you'll put down and go, "that was really great", and not, "I want to exist here forever with my pals".

Ara is an interesting and enjoyable spin on the Civ concept but becomes unwieldy long before it's over. Figuring out how to build a thriving empire will be an enjoyable challenge to people looking for a certain kind of production chain game, but I don't see its malnourished AI and ballooning micromanagement keeping them around once they do.

It’s a bit like Serie A in that way then, is FC25. And while I remain privately furious that the move away from the FIFA licence seems to have left EA without the adequate rights for some of Serie A’s best teams (honestly, you should see the ‘We have AC Milan at home’ travesties in place of the licensed teams), I am pleased to say I’ve had more raw, honest enjoyment with FC25 than I have any of its recent predecessors. Partly because it feels like the PC port got the required amount of love this year, and partly because I feel just slightly more empowered to play a different style of football this year. In my heart of hearts, I know that this inch-by-inch progress doesn’t justify £50 on a ‘new’ game every year. But here I am, playing it anyway and enjoying it like a comfy old favourite jumper that’s just had the elbows repaired.

The big challenge, again, is spicing up the roguelite layer, or perhaps thinning it even further back to the parts that matter. If Breachway can manage that, it will satisfy me more than any chantarelle ever could. [Early Access Review]

Is Grunn for you? Well, do you like the feeling of doing things that took you a long time before, again, but really fast? Do you like weird and delightful discoveries? Do you like going ‘ah!’ really loudly when a mystery clicks together? Do you like dying in various ways and unlocking new endings and knowing to do things a little differently next time around? Do you like knowing how many coins you’ve picked up? Actually, Grunn doesn’t tell you that unless you pick up another coin. That’s annoying, Grunn. Please sort that. Otherwise: Grunnderful stuff. Gnome notes. Dig in.

Yet in all its clockwork detail, I admire it all the same. Buying into its world, bugs and all, has yielded the satisfaction of cases closed and the comedy of killings that completely stumped me. It took me 9 hours just to find the killer of the tutorial mission. For in-game days all I had to go on was an initial - A. Then for more hours, only a first name. After endless dud leads, dopey mishaps, and one bullet in the back by a security guard who found me snooping in her office, I finally found a surname and address for my suspect. I gasped a zealous "gotcha!" at my screen, and understood that something about Shadows Of Doubt felt special. It might not match the prints of the grail-esque single city block. But I think the immersive detective sim has found its first true killer. [RPS Bestest Bests]

All I’ll say is that defeating the Shogun is far from the end, with more difficult challenges awaiting those brave enough to venture forth after the titular ruler is toppled. Even then, there are always new tactics to discover, new toys to play with, and new characters to be trialled on the battlefield. I fear my time with the game is far from over (complimentary). [RPS Bestest Bests]

Coming off of playing hundreds of hours of the sprawling Elden Ring, particularly the DLC, it was refreshing to play a Soulslike with a more manageable length and back to basics approach. The unusual setting and beautiful, appropriately shortcut-stuffed environments were a delight to adventure through. While you have to actively embrace the intricacies of the systems on offer, they’re smart, inventive, and I hope to see some of the ideas built on in the future. Enotria is the epitome of the AA game, with all the good and bad that comes with it.

As someone who doesn't really get on with the source material, I find myself warmed by Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed. It's not all that challenging and sometimes a bit eh, but I liked that easygoing nature more than I resented it. You're free to splosh paint around and stumble into cool mechanical puzzles or simply remove the floor from an enemy and watch them plunge to their death. And while some of the side quests and optional tidbits don't amount to much more than, at most, an end credit sequence, I admire its adventurous spirit. You can tell it tries to do things a bit differently to the usual platformer and for the most part, it works.

The cracks in its facade are stark because it’s otherwise such an incredibly vivid work, and the life breathed into it by its animators, artists, and actors is potent enough to survive some deeply odd writing and tonal choices. There’s a wonderful story, I’m sure, to be told about Kratos’s journey from destroyer to conciliator - the glimpses at mythological wonders that are allowed to exist in his presence without getting suplexed into paste here are stunning - this one just feels like it skipped a few steps.

It's a lavishly made and occasionally engrossing epic, definitely a game you'll relish more if, unlike the average reviewer, you can afford to take your time. But it doesn't have the wackiness and starpower of its most obvious rivals, the Final Fantasy 7 remakes. Its major characters would be bit-parts in Midgar, filling out the crowd at Seventh Heaven. Jill is the lady by the jukebox trying not to get mistaken for a mop. Cid makes for a captivating presence behind the bar, but he's clocking off early tonight. And Clive? Clive is that woebegone regular who's sort of a hit with the ladies but who insists on telling everybody about his domestic quarrels and who just won't sodding leave.

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.

I do feel a bit bad about ragging on The Plucky Squire, a game that's ultimately a fairly fun, inoffensive time and absolutely meant for people who aren't as ailing as me. Its energy is great and upbeat and lovely - a perfect balm in the face of today's horribleness. But I do think it suffers from trying to do lots of things and getting a bit lost within them (for what it's worth, I think it would've done better fleshing out the word-chopping ability, as it really can feel magical sometimes). The combat is fine, the platforming is fine, mostly everything feels just fine. And necessary restrictions on your ability usage means that you're always hunting for a one-note solution, as opposed to feeling like you're really altering the narrative. Even games 'meant for kids' still have those deeper layers beneath the simplistic surfaces, where the creativity of teens aren't underestimated and the oldies can flex their mastery muscles. Scratch away the ink and I don't think there's much beneath The Plucky Squire, sadly.