Though I sometimes grew weary of the donkey-work of cables and repairs, I definitely relish the new state of sustained fear Surviving Mars brings to city sims. It means that even small accomplishments feel so much bigger.
Vermintide 2 might be shameless about its inspiration, but, critically, it recreates it really, really well, at a spectacular scale. I can't speak to whether I'll still be showering the land with rat legs a few months from now, but I fully expect to happily spend the next few weeks, at least, knee-deep in the rodent dead.
The fights can be plenty challenging, especially if you venture online or into the openly-described-as-unfair gladiator arena mode, but I was never able to shake the sensation that they're just a delivery vehicle for a really great cartoon.
I cannot currently think of any reason why I would ever uninstall Into The Breach
You might as well just play (or replay) its many post-campaign side missions and modes, really.
Rare unquestionably need to apply new meat to these beautiful bones. I've enjoyed the ambience of Sea of Thieves so much that I want it to be something that stays in my life for a long time to come, but, in its current state, I know that is impossible.
Already, New Mexico makes ATS significantly different – that much more varied, more of a place to explore, rather than just one to tick tourist traps off the list.
Hand of Fate 2 wisely switches away from Hand Of Fate's purity, which saves it from repetition but discards its trump card in the process.
WoL is most easily described as a comedy game, and though it is indeed a prime-cut ribtickler, that can be a backhanded compliment – as if jokes are all it has. WoL does something far more accomplished, far more rare, which is to be joyful.
It's a shorter tale full of high-points, and wraps up lingering storylines while also leaving the door open for further adventures in the world of Dunwall, Karnaca and beyond.
Maybe Serial Killer is a great idea with appealing style, saddled with iffy design and insufficient flexibility. Walks the walk, but the talk's another matter.
It's big on personality too, from the wide choice of thief avatars to the Gangs Of New York toughs and the comedy cockernee urchins, and I dig the Darkest Dungeon But Chipper cut-out art style.
'DLC' desperately undersells War Of The Chosen, this fat and bursting sausage of turn-based splendour. I think I might have found 'XCOM 3' a mite more appropriate.
Tokyo 42 is an inventive and strikingly attractive game, with a very natural blend of stealth, combat and figuring out a path, unfortunately hamstrung somewhat by absolute fealty to its isometric perspective. ... An impressive accomplishment, but sometimes a grating one too.
Is Vanquish the legendary success that you may have heard others describe it as? Nah, but it is a distinctive and solid good time with excellent movement and controls, and some delightfully tricksy setpiece battles.
Get Even is a true original, of the kind we all too rarely see made with this degree of gloss, and I found it deeply interesting for all its stumbles.
Scanner Sombre is at its best when you're left to your own devices, lonely yet in awe of the sights you see and make, but suffers when the game itself is pulling the strings, whether that be to evoke empathy or terror. I absolutely recommend it, for its four or so hours of dot-matrix world-generation have pleased me greatly, but you should go in knowing that it stumbles over its storytelling hurdles and should instead be treated as, like the titular scanner, a remarkable technological toy.
Pretty much exactly what you might have expected from the Walking Dead folks doing Guardians. Which is to say competent enough as these things go, but far less suited to manic action-comedy than it is to languid angst and survival.
This could, as I say, have been all comic pratfalls and Goat Simulator destruction, but instead it's an extremely careful study in how snakes navigate their bizarre bodies around, then transplanted into broadly well-done puzzle-places. I feel in awe of how well-realised this is, almost more than I actually enjoy it. I really do enjoy it though, so much so that I ended up picking it up for my Switch too (making it only the second game I own for Nintendo's latest toy).
Throughout, I was conscious that I was playing something that was almost aggressively designed to be disposable, and for that reason I can't say it feels close to my heart – but at the same time, I might just keep it hanging around my hard drive to fill idle half-hours now and again.