Halo Wars 2 is simultaneously conservative and inventive. It’s definitely trying to evoke traditional RTS games – which is not entirely a bad thing given the recent dearth of them – especially when it comes to the campaign, but elements like base construction and Blitz mode make it stand out enough that it doesn’t feel like you’re just going through the motions for the hundredth time. A clumsy UI and weird, sometimes fixed, keybindings and controls reveal its console heritage, but there are a surprising number of benefits to that side of the design.

Again, so much of this criticism really wouldn’t feel relevant if the game’s own storefront (if it has its own website, I cannot find it) didn’t describe something totally other than what’s being sold. This is not an open world game, there’s absolutely no exploring, and you don’t gather twigs to build a nest.

Overall, I don’t know exactly how I feel about For Honor. It sometimes feels like a Ubisoft hired a bunch of scientists in white coats to observe Dark Souls PvP from behind reinforced perspex and experiment on it with Dota DNA in a mad attempt to recreate a tame monster in a safe environment for their own nefarious ends (profit). What they’ve made is an interesting chimera, something that is both more accessible but sometimes just as unforgiving.

This is charming and silly and gentle and fun, ridiculously intricate and lovingly crafted. It’s not hardcore, it’s not going to outfox you, but it doesn’t want to be doing that. This is one of those instances where you wish “casual” hadn’t become a meaningless nonsense term in gaming, because it would nicely capture the feeling of a puzzle book that’s magically come alive, a Where’s Wally where you get to poke and prod the characters. It’s a calm, calming and pleasingly silly game.

What we’ve got here is a solid stealth-action core with some lovely level design – both visually and in terms of the vast array of possible ways to accomplish your objectives – wrapped up in something equal parts drab and cynical. The gore, the Farmvilleish reward system: these are there as contrived hooks for the less discerning man-shooter enthusiast. It’s highly telling that the rest of the game would be barely effected if these were removed...I do like that core, though.

A really splendid example of the form, with enough original ideas of its own within the standard to make it interesting. It’s a good, solid game, that’s occasionally extremely tough, but always fair. The pixel art is lovely, and although the backgrounds are a little bland, animations go a good way to make up for that. Lovers of chiptunes will delight in its soundtrack, authentic to the 8-bit era, and well composed. It’s the sort of game that deserves to stand out, not get lost in the mix.

Despite its flaws, Tales of Berseria has numerous interesting stories to tell. If the developers had cut the flab and focused almost exclusively on the cast of characters – with some combat thrown in – then I think this would have been a must-play. As it is, I think it’s still worth playing if you’re a fan of story-focused JRPGs, as long as you know you’re strapped in for the long haul. I felt more connected with the game’s characters than I have to any group in a long time, and it’s worth putting up with a few hours of pain for that pay off.

That’s where I’m at with the game personally – invested and interested but also frustrated and bored at times. More broadly, the thing I’m struggling with is why I would recommend this to someone when Sunless Sea exists, has a similar sensibility and is more polished. It feels more like something you’d suggest after a player of Sunless Sea has exhausted their interest in that particular game but is still excited about the style of story.

This isn’t going to entertain the brainboxes who demand Stephen’s Sausage Witness before they’ll get out of their four-dimensional beds, but for a chilled puzzling time, they don’t get much better than this. It’s really splendid.

I love this whole genre, this found phone genre that if I call a genre enough will magically become a real genre.

It’s got as many flaws as an outdated Windows operating system.

It’s fine, it passes the time, it could be a lot better with a clearer interface, the removal of its gibberish plot, and much fairer windows for the timing challenges, but none of that would raise it much past “above average”. It’s just an average idea, done reasonably well. And sometimes that’s enough.

It’s the Baker family’s story and they’re magnificent. Grotesque, yes, but delightfully so. Like Friday the 13th, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street and the rest of their kind, it’s a game centred on its villains rather than their victims. And, like those series, this is a game that can scare you, startle you, shock you, draw a nervous laugh out of you and make you shake your head in disbelief, but mostly it’s just here to entertain. And the Bakers are right at the horrible heart of it all.

If you’re after a smart implementation of Threes-like input and tile-based battling, Tiles & Tales does that, and is free!

Despite a heavy dollop of Silent Hill, it’s a horror game unlike anything else I’ve played thanks to the smart use it makes of its historical setting. If you’re interested in thoughtful, fearsome games, don’t let this one slip by.

Sanctus Reach’s unit and faction design and flexible mechanics deserve a much better campaign and fewer constantly recycled objectives.

The pleasures of a focused strategy title like Civilization lie in juggling the numbers in just the right way to succeed. Those found in a freeform city-builder like Sim City come from unleashing your unbridled creativity on a blank canvas. By sticking on a rigidly deterministic (and, thus, politically questionable, however well-intentioned) reading of two centuries of European history, Urban Empire fails to tap either of those joys, revealing its incessant march towards the present is not an ongoing process actively shaped by individual players, but a foregone conclusion simply waiting to be ushered in.

There’s greatness here, and damn, it’s so funny and cutesy-sarcastic. The puzzles are top notch, and the dungeons, when properly equipped, often a pleasure to plough through. But there’s just so much annoyance layered on top for absolutely no discernible reason, beyond presumably a fear that their sequel didn’t feel sufficiently different. The silly thing is, it was.

Ladykiller does a lot of good, but that doesn’t mean we should overlook what it gets wrong.

It’s definitely got a place in my games library, and it’s a really good way to play a version of the board game my friends and I enjoy even though we’re rarely in the same city at the moment. It’s not hellishly expensive so I don’t feel bad suggesting someone pick it up for a couple of afternoons of play. I will say, though, that I didn’t form any attachment to the single player stuff, nor was playing with the AI appealing. I’m going to be sticking to my human (or post-human in the case of the ghosts) buddies from now on.

This is all the work of one man, Thomas Lerdy, and he’s absolutely nailed it. If like me you’ve been craving a good implementation of the puzzle for PC, then you’ve found it in Pictopix. If you’re looking for a fun, brain-using puzzle presented splendidly, then now is the time to discover why Picross/Nonograms are quite so great.

I’m very glad it exists. If it is simply interactive fiction, it’s a wonderfully inventive take on it.

Glittermitten Grove is nothing but misery. Build, wait for meters to refill, endure, repeat, self-loathe.

I’ve had a mostly splendid (and occasionally aggravating) time with it, and for its minimal price really strongly recommend you give it a look.

It’s a frustrating expansion, though there’s every chance patches will address some of these complaints. McMillen has already said that portal percentages and other issues mentioned are on the list for patching. Pick through the shit and you’ll find the nuggets of gold, but if I hadn’t sucked every last drop out of Afterbirth, I’d rather be playing that than Afterbirth †. As it is, I’m just about won over by the promise of new things, many of which are solid additions, but there’s a lot of dreariness to tolerate.

It’s pure agony at this point that they’re re-running the exact same bloody plots yet again for a third five-part series, as if they weren’t miserably worn out before even Telltale scooped them up off the floor and blew off the crust and fluff. That they’re not even trying to take the slightest new angle belies a barren and bereft production not worth dragging your own mutilated corpse through.

It’s pure agony at this point that they’re re-running the exact same bloody plots yet again for a third five-part series, as if they weren’t miserably worn out before even Telltale scooped them up off the floor and blew off the crust and fluff. That they’re not even trying to take the slightest new angle belies a barren and bereft production not worth dragging your own mutilated corpse through.

I’m not convinced that playing a nation like South Africa or Canada will ever be quite as engaging as playing Britain or Germany, at least not when it comes to the war itself. They still have to play catch up, and they’re always going to depend on the superpowers. Together for Victory doesn’t simply buff the Commonwealth nations to make them more viable however – it gives them more options and more nation-defining decisions, especially in regards to creating an alternate history. It’s an entirely different focus, and a welcome one.