There's a lot to like in House of Ashes. It can look great (but also a bit ropey at points), the acting is largely excellent, and your actions (or lack of) can really impact the story. Yet, the game element is lacking, which in turn makes the gameplay sequences where you're in proper control end up lacking in scares. This is a fun time, especially if played in a group or online with a friend, but I was more afraid of button prompts than the monsters.

I might be easily pleased these days, but I think Crysis Remastered Trilogy is an easy recommendation for anyone who loves a bit of first-person gunplay. All three campaigns are good to great, visually they look the part, and it can already be bought at a smashing price. Not the definitive package, at least on consoles, but it's very good all the same.

Back 4 Blood takes an old-school approach where it makes sense, and modernises where it doesn’t. It’s heartening to be engaged by a game purely for its gameplay and variety, and not to pad out a progress bar somewhere.

Metroid Dread is likely to give those that have been counting down the days to its release exactly what they want: a thrilling experience in line with what they loved about past games. There are original ideas here - but they’re better considered as evolutions of what came before rather than anything groundbreaking. There’s stumbles here and there with the difficulty and progression signposting, but all of that feels very Metroid. Dread is no Super Metroid, but that game is a stone-cold all-timer. Putting that game aside, Dread is up to the series standard, and is well worth a look.

It’s illustrative of the broader conflict Far Cry 6 finds itself facing with, well… itself. It wants to spin a more involved narrative, but steps back before things get too serious. Yaran Stories hint at deeper worldbuilding, though adhering to the standard Far Cry and open world structure means staleness creeps into exploration and guerrilla activities. Juan Cortez was more accurate than he realized when he recruited Dani to Libertad. Far Cry 6 prefers playing guerrilla over more serious reflection because “blowing up shit is fun,” and Ubisoft just isn’t quite ready to give that up yet.

Alan Wake was and still is an occasionally bizarre action horror game, with some lovely set-pieces, fun combat, and what I hope is a slightly tongue-in-cheek sense of self-importance. I think it stands up remarkably well 11 years after its original release and this Remaster is the best way to experience what I consider to be a modern classic.

I enjoyed playing Hot Wheels Unleashed a lot. The racing is straight up fun thanks to a top notch handling model that really makes the most of some impressive powersliding mechanics. But I can't help but wonder what could have been had we not got a game brimming with DLC and tied, to its detriment, to uninspired track environments.

With so many other incredible JRPGs released in 2021, it’s hard to recommend Astria Ascending. It does have a very pretty artstyle, which is what will draw most players initially. The battle system and customization options can be enjoyable to tinker around with, but the lackluster story and unpleasant cast of characters really bog down the whole experience.

There's a melancholia to Sable, wrapped up in the ruined cities and gigantic skeletons dotting its landscapes, but this is balanced with an infectious core of positivity running through the game. What it lacks in drama, it more than makes up for with sheer creativity and grandeur, leaving you with a sense of serenity much-needed and appreciated in these bizarre times. However, it all circles back to the joy of discovery: you might not know exactly what you’ll find as you peel back the layers of Midden, but it’s bound to be interesting.

Taken as a single-player experience, Deathloop feels complete and incredibly well-rounded. The extra injection of optional multiplayer action is a fabulous cherry on top. Basically, Deathloop is everything I wanted it to be. It’s confident both as a successor to many of the ideas of Dishonored while also expressly its own thing, with a tone and sense of style I absolutely adore. It’s one of my favourite games of the year - and one we’ll surely be talking about for months to come.

Everyone’s going in expecting madcap mayhem, and there’s often no one more stony-faced than someone sitting with their arms folded waiting to laugh. But if nothing else, Grasshopper Manufacture’s latest knows how to make you crack a smile.

Mini Motorways is a game that I can just vibe with. There was a period of time when I’d boot Mini Metro every single day in order to undertake the daily challenge. I can see that being the case again here. There’s an intricate, impossible-feeling balance to this game; it is fiendishly difficult and filled with tactical nuance with even things like the angle of how roads join one another impacting traffic speed - and yet it is also joyously mellow and inviting, the perfect way to whittle away some spare minutes. I can barely say a bad word about it.

Of the Life is Strange games I've completed (2 is still woefully unfinished for me atm), True Colors is my favorite. It strikes the perfect balance of focus on Alex as a person, the town of Haven Springs as a community, and how the two interact and change each other. While I'm still not sold on the superpowers as a mechanic or narrative device, they're unobtrusive enough to be fine, and do provide more to actually do besides walking around, looking at things and talking to people. If you liked previous entries in the Life is Strange series, you'll probably enjoy this one. It's a tighter, cleaner take on the formula, but at its heart, it's still the balance of magic and mundane that’s become signature to these games.

WarioWare: Get It Together is unabashedly Nintendo, fulfilling its mission statement to the letter with alarming precision, but also not rocking the boat very much at all. The game’s one big change - controlling a cast of characters - didn’t turn out to be that big of a deal after all. The result is a wonderfully infectious game to play alone - while it lasts - but the true value of the package will be in playing it with others.

This was a review I picked up on a whim, looking to try something new, and now I’m walking away with a strong new game of the year contender. Psychonauts 2 is fun, funny, heartfelt, and handles its themes with a deft and gentle hand. Thanks to its great recapping, anyone can play regardless of their history with the series, and I recommend you do!

Twelve Minutes ultimately presents a compelling, thrilling experience that feels more than worth the price of entry. It has interesting things to say through its looping core conceit, and it’ll tease your brain more than a few times - sometimes genuinely, sometimes through slightly cheap requirements to progress. I also admit I was less of a fan of where the story went in its later stages - but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t hooked. The journey matters more than the destination, after all - and a gripping journey this is.

Ultimately, the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Siege of Paris DLC is a worthy add-on with a good story and great emphasis on more interactive gameplay. While its narrative stakes feel relatively low, Eivor has real impetus in how everything unfolds throughout the well-paced plot.

The Ascent’s ambition is often the most surprising thing about it. I went in expecting a decent, simple cyberpunk top-down shooter. Instead, I got a compelling action game that feels great to play, and an introduction into a world I can’t wait to see expanded in future sequels. The Ascent is the type of indie superstar game you bring up to prove how much can be accomplished by a small team today.

Monster Hunter Stories 2 is a win, with so many quality of life changes from its predecessor on 3DS. It’s welcoming and accessible, familiar yet new, complex but not too confusing, and has plenty of surprises waiting for players and I can see myself playing it way beyond this review.

To a certain type of player, Legend of Mana is likely to be considered the perfect remaster. It touches up the visuals, but not too much. It makes quality-of-life changes, but preserves the original design and difficulty – warts and all. Some may find that preservation detrimental, with this twenty year-old game showing its age – but it does also make this the new definitive way to experience a classic.

It’s the sort of arcadey sports experience that doesn’t really happen any more. Most sports games now are simulations – so I’m so glad to get another game that carries the spirit of older, arcadey, more silly sports games. The adventure mode’s shortcomings don’t dent that significantly enough to stop me from recommending Mario Golf: Super Rush – but just don’t go in expecting an all-time-great sports story mode.

If you like the sound of a deep RPG with extensive combat mechanics, Scarlet Nexus shouldn’t disappoint. If you are expecting something more akin to Devil May Cry, you might find the extensive storytelling gets in the way of the gameplay a little too much. With that said, you can still enjoy it if you’re not an anime connoisseur. There’s plenty of fun to be had for all players because it’s great once it gets going – but I fear it might lose people in its opening few hours.

Game Builder Garage seems to want to showcase just what it’s like to make a game, albeit in a simpler way. It’s sometimes challenging to the point of being headache-inducing. It is unrelentingly complicated. When it clicks, however, it’s fun, magical, and incredibly rewarding.

This is a full-fat, planet-hopping, mystery-filled adventure that PS5 owners will lap up and non-owners will resent not being able to play, perhaps through no lack of trying. Miles Morales and Demon’s Souls were superb launch titles for the PS5, but we’re now through the looking glass. The bar has been set. The PS5 has arrived.

Necromunda often oscillates between a brilliant indie gem and a frustrating mid-tier game. Some moments, it’s the best Warhammer 40,000 action game – as you mow down enemies and watch their skulls explode to its rocking tunes, and look stylish doing it as you chain grappling hook shots and double-jumps. Other times, you miss a major story beat because an important character’s audio mix was too low, or feel like you’re pixel-hunting for enemies like it’s Warzone.

Taken alone, any one slice of the game – like a single house, the village itself, even the way combat handles – has its issues. But combined, it merges into something that’s still special – even if it isn’t quite as brilliant as Resident Evil 7 or 2 Remake. It’s an easy recommendation – though if you didn’t back in 2017, you might want to play RE7 first.

While Returnal’s marriage of rogue-like loops and serpentine story isn’t perfect, it’s a dark, engaging, and innovative experience which provides plenty of gameplay grunt to match its brain-teasing plot. There’s symbolism to ponder, Easter eggs to spot, and tons of memorable moments across the 20 or so hours it’ll take you to reach the end the first time, with yet more to unlock and mess with after you’ve mastered the core concepts on your initial clear.

If you’re the sort of player who got really mad about the national Pokedex in Sword & Shield, you might also bemoan the level of content here. But I think this is plenty, delivering far more than the original and with a whole lot of replay value – it’s just a shame the developers felt the need to stretch it out artificially to justify what they’ve managed to build. Even with the grind, I do adore this game, though. It’s a video game safari that manages to evoke the sense of wonder of the real thing. It’s a worthy successor to the beloved original; a comforting, gorgeous, lovely little thing that soars when it just basks in its core conceit and lets you at its content.

While the backtracking remains, it feels much less painful this time around thanks to it being part of a game with smooth performance that’s ultimately much more fun to actually play. The game is considerably improved as a result, and much of what made the original quietly special can now shine far more brightly. It might not be perfect, but within this slightly flawed framework beats the heart of an absolute masterpiece. Those who fell in love with Nier through Automata should go into this with a clear expectation that this is not that game – but if they do, they’ll find much to love.

A-Train: All Aboard! Tourism won’t be for everyone. That’s not just because it’s part of a niche genre – it’s also because of the way it’s structured and the time commitment to truly get into it and dig deep into the ‘good stuff’. It never quite goes off the rails, but sometimes you’ll wish the journey could be a little quicker – and not everyone will be able to stick it out. If you manage that – and more fervent fans of transport sims should be able to do that – there’s a bit of a hidden gem here.

Everything that made that original game special, and ultimately a cult classic, is faithfully and lovingly reproduced here. It’s a safe reimagining, but simply on merit of all the small modernizing touches, which add up to a lot, it’s also pretty clearly a better game than the original – and considering how much I loved that game, that’s no small feat. I can see many more hours in my lair ahead – and with potential updates and DLC down the line to address some issues, true world domination could still be ahead.

Honestly, It Takes Two is one of the most pleasant surprises in video games I’ve ever had. I went in more or less expecting a fairly gimmick-laden brief but fun escapade, but it’s so much more than that. This is a game that I would recommend to anyone who longs for the kind of no-holds-barred childlike fantasy so common in the 80s but seems less common today. If that is you, don’t sleep on this real gem.

Ultimately, Monster Hunter Rise is a solid, standalone entry to the series which pulls back on the scope of recent games on more powerful platforms, but doesn’t skimp on the fundamentals that made the Monster Hunter name. While it does feel like a smaller package in terms of grand story presentation, the new additions and quality-of-life fixes make it less grindy to play, with greater flexibility in exploration, navigation, and resource collection adding to the portable possibilities.

Murder on Eridanos feels like The Outer Worlds at its best. Roleplay, diverging quest lines, and carefully balanced absurdity have always been at the heart of the game, and this DLC feels like a freer exploration of that core concept. Without having to juggle the high-stakes of the main story across an extended run-time and multiple planets, there’s more leeway to knit a larger cast of more interconnected characters together for a more engaging mystery.

I’m not sure I’m yet at the point where I’ll be able to play Ghosts ‘n Goblins with the proficiency that so wowed me to witness as a child. But playing it always gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling that’s entirely at odds with the fiendishly challenging, unforgiving nature of Knight Arthur’s adventure. It’s an all-time classic, and seeing such a game resurrected so lovingly on new platforms is always welcome.

The presentational and balance problems ultimately don’t take too much from Bravely Default 2. There’s a brilliant game here, with heart, smarts, and an admirable adoration for the classics of the genre. Its charm cannot be denied – and it provides a helpful cushion against those uneven and rough edges. With that said, to embrace a cliché – this is absolutely one for fans of the genre, who want a difficult, system-driven RPG – and aren’t as worried about the visual presentation.

While Super Mario 3D All-Stars was content rich but low on actual effort, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury feels like a necessary release. It brings one of the best ever Mario titles to a platform people actually own, but also adds a new exclusive that’s completely worthwhile. It easily cruises onto the list of best Nintendo Switch games – and it’s a great start for Nintendo’s 2021. Just don’t leave us waiting too long for an Odyssey 2, yeah?

Little Nightmares 2 is a superb sequel that carries on the impressive tone of the original, but improves in all key areas. This isn’t explosive horror, there’s no gore or torture, and for the most part you’re jumping onto levers, solving puzzles, and climbing up furniture, but that doesn’t mean Tarsier hasn’t created a standout horror experience.

It’s clear that Respawn still has the chops to make a quality Medal of Honor game. There’s a lot of heart here, and an attention to detail that must be admired. With that said, it’s clear the studio had troubles accomplishing its goals in VR – and the result is a curious VR experience that’s worth experiencing, but equally is nothing like a VR system seller. It stands strides behind Alyx – but then again, so do most VR games.

If you’re after action and full-on horror, The Medium will likely leave you wanting, and considerably so. This is more of a slow burn, the twisted plot unravelling over six to eight hours. I found the pacing to be ideal, with the game throwing just enough moments of high intensity into the mix to keep things interesting. There is a big bad of sorts, but don’t expect traditional boss fights, with encounters being designed to be intimidating and scary rather than difficult. Bloober clearly wanted everyone to be able to see this story through to its conclusion.

Taken individually, Hitman 3 feels like great value, with plenty of variety and lots to do. When taken as a whole, the World of Assassination trilogy is hands-down one of the best and most complete-feeling trilogies in video game history. It’s a fitting finale for 47 – at least for now – and it has naturally left me thrilled to see what IO does with James Bond or whatever else comes next. It might only be January – but I can pretty much guarantee this will end the year as one of my 2021 favourites.

In the midst of such intense anticipation and scrutiny, it’s easy to get carried away with what Cyberpunk 2077 could have been. The final experience might be more familiar than many predicted, with plenty of elements that aren’t perfect, but it's dripping with detail and engaging stories. With so much to see and do, Cyberpunk 2077 is the kind of RPG where you blink and hours go by, which is just what we need to finish off 2020.

As far as next-gen titles go, Immortals Fenyx Rising is definitely one you should be adding to your list. It’s available on almost every platform – sorry, mobile gamers – and looks fantastic on the Xbox Series X, which I got to review it on. Overall, it’s a charming, cerebral and funny time-sink adventure that’ll really cheer you up and distract you if you’re having a quiet festive season this year.

Though somewhat stylistically uneven, Demon’s Souls PS5 manages to capture the spirit of the original game. The experience is certainly not for everyone, but if you manage to get your head around its steep learning curve and obtuse mechanics, Demon’s Souls will give you a rewarding experience, seeped in an unrelenting and oppressive atmosphere that you will almost certainly never forget.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild isn’t just one of the better entries in this storied series – it’s also one of the greatest games of all time. To this end, the mission of living up to its inspiration is perhaps impossible for Age of Calamity. It is nevertheless successful at what it sets out to do, however – providing a fun, interesting and exciting new adventure that fans of that game will surely enjoy. It won’t stay your appetite for Breath of the Wild 2 – but it’ll keep you occupied happily enough all the same.

Sackboy: A Big Adventure isn’t the most attention-grabbing PS5 launch title. It’s fair to say it’s been completely overshadowed by Demon’s Souls and Spider-Man: Miles Morales, but it offers a wonderfully crafted alternative to what are more mature titles. Sony is on a roll with the PS5, with Sackboy: A Big Adventure being yet another title PS5 buyers should seriously consider adding to their collection.

I hope it isn’t lost amongst the PS5’s bigger, noisier releases, as it’s something different and uplifting. It’s rare to find such tension and threat in a game that’s also so peaceful, but Giant Squid has managed it. In truth we could all do with a bit of light in our lives at the moment.

More importantly, while not explicitly marketed towards children, I worry how those who do end up playing it are going to come away from this. Bugsnax has PEGI and ESBR ratings of 7 for mild violence, which I simply don’t agree with for its ending alone, and isn’t that a strange thing to have to say. Bugsnax is a pleasant little gem of a game, but I don’t think I’ve ever encountered another title that came so close to ruining it all for me so close to the finish line.

Launch games are rarely remembered as earth-shattering experiences years later, but at the time, elements of them always feel magical. On PS5, Miles Morales has both of these feelings down – it’s familiar and unsurprising, but some of its technical presentation will wow you nevertheless. If you’re picking up a PS5 on launch day, for that reason this will surely do.

I’m a big fan of Dirt 5. It’s not going to garner the praise of a Gran Turismo or a Forza, but it’s exactly the kind of game I was after. It’s fun, easy to get into, full of variety, looks pretty, and features cars that slide beautifully around corners. Dirt 5 is a feel-good game at feel-bad time, which is about the best time for it to exist.

Watch Dogs fans and more die-hard anarchists among you might enjoy it more, but between the short storylines, underwhelming tech and mission types and the general “everything is on fire” vibe, it just doesn’t rate highly for me.

It’s a shame, then, that some of the level design choices don’t really pair up with the engine Toys for Bob has built this love-letter to 90s platforming games in. Loose and floaty physics, an abundance of different mechanics that often feel part-baked, and some design choices that feel sadistic – rather than simply difficult – leave this approach to Crash Bandicoot feeling less like a true sequel, and more like a licensed spin-off.

Squadrons feels like more than the sum of its parts. Most importantly, it does exactly what it set out to do – and does it very well indeed. It’s EA’s smallest-scale console Star Wars title yet – but also its best. Fleet Battles feel a little long and sometimes listless, and some will no doubt pine for a little more content – I personally would’ve really liked to see a 20-player (or more) deathmatch mode. But it’s nevertheless difficult to really criticize such a tightly-wound, complete package. As such, it’s an easy recommendation.

It feels like this review is a list of shortcomings – and to be honest, it mostly is – but one can’t ignore the sheer quality and classic appeal of the trio of games included. However they’re wrapped up, the main thing you’re going to be doing is playing the games, and so three classics bundled together running well and looking as you remember is a fine offering from Nintendo. I still think Mario deserved a more lavish birthday celebration, but the classic titles in this collection really can’t be diminished.

Vicarious Visions has proved that Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater was more than just a product of its time, and that – like skating itself – it has every chance of penetrating the mainstream once again. The studio should be lauded for twice proving that it is a steward of 90s nostalgia, and that it can reanimate games to be just as good – if not better! – for their second turn under the sun.

Crusader Kings 3 is my Game of the Year so far. If you’re looking for a new strategy title with some RPG flair that will suck you in for 500 hours or more during this endless lockdown, then it should be on your wishlist already. Better still, future support is already assured – there’s one expansion already in the works plus a few flavour packs coming soon if the huge base game isn’t enough for you.

Whatever angle you’re coming from, it’s fair to say that PGA Tour 2K21 will likely satisfy your golf game needs. If you’re new to this sort of game, you’ll be gently introduced by well-crafted tutorial mechanics and charmed by the quiet chill of it all. If you’re a lapsed EA Tiger Woods player, you’ll likely be impressed by the systems and mechanics HB Studios has built up over the last four games to differentiate their take. And if you’re a Golf Club veteran, this is another solid entry, iteratively improving on those that came before. It ticks all the boxes, and it’s great to see fully-licensed PGA Tour golf back at the forefront of sports video games once more.

Developer Asobo Studio says Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is a ten-year project with many additions to come. That makes sense, as it’s a brilliant base package with so very much to love that I can still see myself returning to for years. For me, the casual, it’s a perfect low-stakes, relaxing gaming experience. It’s a technical achievement and an excellent training aid, but it’s also a brilliant piece of escapism, transcending its purpose as a tool to become something far more widely enjoyable – and I can’t recommend it enough.

What Skater XL does well is make you obsess over an 8-set of stairs, or return again and again to a simple curb. You will keep going back to line up the perfect angle, the exact spot to crouch into an ollie, tre flip and land a crooked grind. That’s great, that’s street skating in its essence, and it’s an achievement to capture that. But outside of that microcosm, as soon as you pan out, it steps on its own shoelaces and stumbles into a bush.

That simplicity is overridden by originality and vigor, then – but I also know all too well that some fans of the older Paper Mario games will once again walk away a little disappointed. This is still undoubtedly no Thousand Year Door. Perhaps the next outing can bring back a little of that RPG depth – but regardless of that, this is still the best Paper Mario game in years.

It has its moments, but like Jin Sakai in the opening hours, the past holds it back. It’s Open World: The Video Game. It’s far too easy, too - the lack of consequence for failure makes it feel like you’re just going through the motions. If you’ll excuse the wind-based pun, it’s a breeze. While playing it, I often found my mind wandering. By the third and final act, I just wanted it to be over. Like the samurai, Ghost of Tsushima feels like a relic of a bygone era.

When the credits rolled on The Last of Us Part 2 I was still buzzing from the excitement of the final few hours. My loyalty shifted between characters. I grew to love who I hated and dislike who I loved. I laughed, I teared up. I felt anger and elation. It’s the new high water mark for video game characters and I can’t wait for everyone to see just how special it is. As soon as it ended, I booted up New Game Plus and I’m experiencing it again with my eyes open, the context of the finished story imprinting new meaning into those early scenes and characters. I’m not swiping in the dark anymore.

Disintegration is a warts-and-all exercise in genre nostalgia. The squad shooter has been missing in action for so long, and it’s a pleasure to have it back, with an even greater emphasis on tactics. But the gruff storytelling and rough edges are a reminder of what we were happy to leave behind in the mid ‘00s – along with ugg boots and The Black Eyed Peas’ My Humps.

This remaster is a winner. It’s a stellar package, and hopefully a template for what is to come. The minor shortcomings are all due to the age of this title – but this is an old game. You have to take it for what it is – a glorious little piece of history. In presenting that, this is a practically flawless release – but the old-fashioned, less friendly design in places will mean this one isn’t quite for everyone.

By offering such a wide variety of experiences to please both handheld and docked players alike, 51 Worldwide Classics ends up a worthy follow-up to the DS Clubhouse Games in spite of its flaws. It quietly becomes another must-own Nintendo Switch title. It’s not a big-budget, mind-expanding adventure – but it’s a fun, generally solidly-constructed collection of eminently playable classics. It’s video game comfort food, and has been a delight to meander through in the present day’s isolation.

When a classic is remastered, there is really only one mission: don’t mess it up. Monolith and Nintendo have admirably improved upon a Wii classic, delivering the one version of this game that people should now aim to play. It’s true that some of the original game design frustrations remain untouched and performance is solid but sadly not perfect. These things barely matter, though; Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition is easily a must-own for any RPG fan with a Switch.

There’s nothing wrong with a little nostalgia, but even by the time I’d faced down the Arch-illager in his tower – no more than a handful of hours after starting – I was already sick of Redstone Golem mini-bosses, and Dungeons seemed to have exhausted its borrowed ideas. Like Diablo, this is a game designed for multiple playthroughs on increasing difficulties, but few players will feel compelled to return to a seam that’s all dried up after a single day’s exploration.

Ultimately, though, it’s down to a breathlessly dynamic battle system to provide Gears Tactics with surprises. Something as safe as setting your soldiers to overwatch, so that they can shoot at moving targets in the enemy turn, becomes endlessly watchable when those enemies can pinball between killzones, knocked about by bullet spray.

Chimera Squad is an XCOM game with its own identity. But in carving that identity, in adding characters, it loses some of its own character. It hopes to create a more engaging story, but the story it creates is nowhere near as memorable as the ones we create for ourselves when everything turns to shit. Still, XCOM: Chimera Squad is perhaps the best value proposition I’ve seen in video games for a long time. It’s well worth the modest price, it’ll last you a long weekend, and it still delivers some of the best turn-based strategy around. I just wish it had been brave enough to let us live with our mistakes.

At times it felt almost overwhelming to actually be playing it – like Square Enix had made a game specifically for me. I just wish the loyalty to the source material lasted throughout. Despite that, there’s no denying that this is the best Final Fantasy has been in a long time.

It’s still worth playing, but Resident Evil 3 Remake is a step backwards for Capcom, coming off the back of one of the best games of last year. It’s gorgeous to look at, the jump scares will get you, and it’s like stepping into a comfy pair of slippers. But even though your feet are cosy, it never feels like home.

Alyx has been the last week of my life, switching between this virtual reality world and the horror of our actual existence. In a week where we’ve had all the time to do what we want, it’s been hard to do anything but think. Alyx is the only thing that has grabbed my attention away, like an alien barnacle waiting high above with a hungry mouth and a sticky tongue.

When you’re right in the thick of it, zipping around like a toddler after a pack of Smarties, efficiently and methodically laying waste to the hordes of hell at 900 gibs per minute, this is the strongest Doom has ever been. It’s the combat of Doom 2016 expanded in clever ways, built upon in layers, like the skin and muscles of a demon that you remove in chunks with each trigger pull. Playing it is like catharsis, a virtual wall punch for the modern age.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is everything I hoped it would be, and it’s yet another stellar release that showcases a confident Nintendo at its best. It is excellent, and is easily another must-own Switch title – at least, if you can understand and embrace Animal Crossing’s uniquely lazy pace.

Warzone is, like its skull-masked, kevlar-tucking “operators”, entirely solid. It bloody well should be, given its pedigree. But there is remarkably little interesting here – aside from flourishes like the sinister gulag section – to command our attention. It’s not particularly beautiful, and makes up for that with enormity. Sure, this is a CoD game we’re talking about, so fantastical theme park aesthetics were never an option, but nevertheless there’s a lack of character here that is in no short supply in other games of this genre.

For my money it probably doesn’t best SF4 – there’s something special about the way that game moves even if it is now ugly as sin in comparison to its successor – but Street Fighter 5 is easily one of the best fighting games of this generation, perhaps only bested by the dark horse that is Xbox’s Killer Instinct.

The learning curve is a bastard and, while the matchmaking is generally pretty good in terms of finding you opponents, you’re going to die again and again, in awful and hideous ways. It’s grim and beautiful, with no single-player mode outside of the tutorial. And if that sounds awesome – and honestly it is – then you know what to do.

Zombie Army 4 is the reanimated corpse of gaming’s past, stitched together from the best bits of Sniper Elite. It’s a B-movie pastiche stuffed with classic movie references and thousands of heads (and bollocks) to pop. But most importantly, it’s a new game. A new, fairly-enjoyable video game in 2020 – what a concept.

If you’re already a Warcraft 3 fan, this is shaping up to be the absolute best version available , and it’s a real treat to see each new model and map in action. If you’re a World of Warcraft fan who missed out, this is a great opportunity to see the beginnings of characters like Arthas, Jaina, Sylvanas, and Thrall. If you’re an RTS fan, this is a polished take on an important piece of the genre’s history. [Review-in-Progress]

As any Trekkie will tell you, discovery is addictive, and Journey to the Savage Planet is almost all discovery.

But whether you’ve grown up with Goku and friends, or you’re a first timer who’s never fancied sitting through 300 episodes without getting to play a part in the action, this is still a great way to experience the classic story.

Phoenix Point is all a little too like XCOM to move the genre forward in any huge way.

Fallen Order is a game whose worst moments are serviceable, and best moments are memorable. It’s worth experiencing by Star Wars fans hungry for an original story that doesn’t settle for trite, and action game players looking for a decent – albeit flawed – combat.

Despite these annoyances, despite the fact that it’s a game designed with decades-old sensibilities, I enjoyed my time with it. It doesn’t have the conclusion we’ve been waiting two decades for and it barely drives the story forward at all, but the climactic battle is as satisfying as that 70-man tussle in the first game’s harbour.

It’s weak. It’s unambitious. It takes a license and slaps it on a distinctly average game. And then stomps on the best bits of the license so all that’s left is the cool-looking T-800 and some vague references. What’s the weakest definition of terminate? To stop. Just stop. Target stopped. The Stoppernator.

Pokemon Sword & Shield is all too often a bit disappointing, and in some places actually feels a little unfinished, but it also fully provides that warm, fuzzy feeling that one expects from the series. Crucially, even through frustration, never once did I think about putting it down, which is to its credit.

Pokemon Sword & Shield is all too often a bit disappointing, and in some places actually feels a little unfinished, but it also fully provides that warm, fuzzy feeling that one expects from the series. Crucially, even through frustration, never once did I think about putting it down, which is to its credit.

Pokemon Sword & Shield is all too often a bit disappointing, and in some places actually feels a little unfinished, but it also fully provides that warm, fuzzy feeling that one expects from the series. Crucially, even through frustration, never once did I think about putting it down, which is to its credit.

For the first time in years, Need For Speed has remembered why people used to play it so religiously, and recognised the more recent elements that put them off. I’ll take a missed checkpoint or a dodgy police bust now and again in exchange for a return to Underground’s unlock structure and tuner fetishism; for Hot Pursuit’s high stakes chases; for an EA release in 2019 without an RNG element designed to slow progress.

If you do manage to hold out, you will be rewarded with flashes of brilliance, it’s just that those flashes are buried as deep as the core story is buried in the endless dialogue.

Another Call of Duty that doesn’t really change anyone’s mind about Call of Duty. Whatever’s there that I thought might actually be making a leap was seemingly just good marketing. In that sense, I suppose, it’s been pretty successful. [Multiplayer review - score = 60]

This is the sort of game that only Nintendo could make, and it’s a follow-up to Wii Fit that feels worthy of that game’s exercise chops while also far more firmly and confidently a video game. Minor hardware issues and a story that’s frivolous to the point of bordering dangerously close to annoying, are small issues in the grand scheme of things. This has quietly arrived as one of the most original games of the year – and better yet, is one of my favorites.

It’s safe, but very welcoming. I can even see it developing into sequels if Microsoft chooses to support it and the fans embrace it, which I have no doubt will happen – some games are just made to cosplay. For those that were disappointed with Fallout 76 going online multiplayer, this is the single-player RPG you’ve been looking for. If you’re hankering for somewhere you can while away the hours talking shit, chuckling and prodding at the locals, you won’t be disappointed.

Where Shadowkeep’s story will take us remains to be seen, but the inclusion of Destiny’s core mechanics in a brilliantly revamped location has reinvigorated Destiny 2 just as it was starting to get a little stale.

I really wanted to like Breakpoint. Ubisoft has a habit of making mediocre games – Assassin’s Creed, Watch Dogs – really shine with a sequel, but this is a significant step back. I would rather play Anthem – at least traversal doesn’t make me want to put my head through a window in that game.

Dragon Quest 11 has its flaws, and it may ultimately function as a breezy trip down memory lane for the experienced and a fabulous gateway experience for the uninitiated, but that is exactly what it sets out to be. At that, it is perfect.

Flawed though it may be, sometimes a distinctly B-tier game is exactly what the doctor ordered – especially at this time of year, in a sea of mega-hyped triple-A. You have to know what you’re getting into, accepting the poor narrative and slightly botched execution of some of its cleverer ideas, but Code Vein still has a recent amount to like. Come for the combat and the intriguing blood code system – and stay for it. The rest? Well, hopefully it’ll be better next time.

With a gorgeous presentation and smart and minimalist tweaks, it’s as charming and enjoyable now as it was in the nineties. Let down only by the lackluster dungeon creator and some uneven performance, the design of Link’s Awakening nevertheless holds up brilliantly, which in turn makes the slavishly accurate recreation worthwhile. It’s undeniable proof that the classic Zelda formula still works – and hopefully after Breath of the Wild 2 we can get yet another classic-style Zelda.