The core game’s design is showing its age at this point. Many missions are fun activities sandwiched between needlessly lengthy driving sessions. Seriously, the number of times if makes you drive between Sandy Shores and the main city of Los Santos is ridiculous, or having to follow a plane for a full ten minutes for no real reason before getting to board it. It would feel like padding if this wasn’t already a long game without them. In spite of this, the story and characters can carry you through the rougher parts so you can enjoy the heists and the witty arguments along the way.
FAR: Changing Tides is a mysterious, intriguing game. It builds off the inventive mechanics of managing a ship, the adventure you face taking on a vaguely unsettling tone at times. It's also fairly short – I finished it in about five hours – but that means it also doesn't try and stretch out its ideas until it outstays its welcome. This is an original and artistic game that deserves a little appreciation.
Pagan: Control is… pretty good. It’s just a bit underwhelming as it retreads the formula from the first DLC, albeit with a different villain to play as that might be more or less to your liking. The roguelite idea seemed to make sense in Vaas’ insane mind, but just doing it again here diminishes some of that novelty. It’s like one good idea is being stretched across more than one DLC.
After the Fall is a fun co-op zombie shooter in VR, but with a lack of content at launch, awkwardly randomised attachment unlocks, and constantly separating parties between levels, it's not without issues. I really want to love After the Fall and, honestly, I would be at peace with all of its flaws if it had more content.
Solar Ash is one of the best games of the year. It looks gorgeous, its story is pretty unique and surprising, and its set-piece moments get really intense, as you might expect from skating along the back of a black goo and bone dragon. It's a nice surprise to end the year with that any "skating combined with combat and gigantic monsters" enthusiasts, which is definitely already a thing.
Winds and Leaves has potential, but the waggle-to-walk controls, the constant jaggedness and morphing vegetation on PSVR, and the detached climbing mechanic cover up most of it. provided you're at peace with the issues it has, It can be a relaxing and meditative experience, but there are better options out there.
Far Cry 6 feels like a sequel that was made because there needed to be a sequel, that's making changes because it needs to show progress. The previous three numbered games in the series felt like they had their own identity and tried to offer more and more options to the player, but Far Cry 6 is a lateral move towards something that isn't quite the Far Cry I originally loved.
Diablo 2: Resurrected is a great remake of a real classic. It looks and feels just how I remember it from playing in the early 2000s, but with cooler lighting and sharper graphics. It has a few control issues with when using a controller, but it's still a must-play for anyone who used to play it and misses it, and a strong recommendation to anyone else who likes action RPGs, dark and grim atmospheres, or who just wants to experience a treasure from the now distant past.
There's fun to be had with MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries, but it's probably not for everyone. If the management aspect of the game appeals to you almost as much as using a giant mech to launch a salvo of missiles at a large skyscraper-sized enemy, then you'll likely enjoy MechWarrior 5. There's lots of repetition in the gameplay, but it's tempered a little by the changes it goes through as a result of your growing mercenary outfit. It's rewarding if you put the time in, but it's a shame there's no matchmaking to help alleviate the repetition.
Recompile definitely isn't a perfect game – its combat and platforming have issues and it's easy to miss important things – but if you put the effort in, it's a rewarding and enjoyable experience with stunning visual and audio design and an interesting storyline.
I had a lot of fun with Fracked. There a frustrating enemy every once in a while and it could do with a few more guns, but this doesn't do much to diminish the enjoyment. The novel and clever cover system, great shooting, skiing and climbing all make Fracked a welcome surprise that comes highly recommended for PSVR shooter fans.
Greak: Memories of Azur isn't a bad game, but it is one that's got a few too many annoyances. Between aggravating enemies, the limited inventory, and the almost absent AI of Greak's siblings, it's an experience that is too weighed down by frustration to get a strong recommendation. However, if you like the look of the world and some cheap enemies and awkward controls aren't a dealbreaker for you, Greak is one of the best looking 2D platformers I've ever played and the world is interesting enough to keep you going.
Synth Riders might not unseat the VR rhythm action king, as it doesn't feel quite as satisfying as nailing an extended Beat Saber set, but it's one of the strongest alternatives. If you're looking for something different to musical Jedi training, this is definitely a contender.
Cotton Reboot revives a weird 90s shoot 'em up that's quite fun to revisit. However, it doesn't go far enough to justify the price. The remaster is decent, if not as good looking as it could be, and the game can be finished in an hour. There were sequels to Cotton that could've been remastered and included to justify the £35 price tag, but as it is, this is just the first game.
Despotism3K is full of humour that had me laughing a lot, but the high degree of difficulty and randomisation and arbitrary choices that can end a run in a moment had me swearing at it a lot, too. You end up replaying gameplay that doesn't change all that much between runs. Still, it's a good distraction if you don't want to play a huge adventure game, and instead want to throw some puny humans into a bioreactor.
Stonefly is bristling with creative ideas, but doesn't quite manage to deliver them properly. The world is beautiful, but its design damages gameplay, combat is unique but make it very difficult to manage the amount of enemies required at once, and traversal is interesting but manages to feel unreliable due to its mechanical design. It's a game of missed opportunities, but there's still a number of reasons why you should experience this uniquely designed action RPG.
The ship combat and looting might carry King of Seas' piratical adventure for some, just beware that there's grinding through a bunch of stretched out story missions to get to the heart of the game. It's a game to break out when you're feeling extra piratey, but it has enough flaws that you should weigh them up before getting your cutlass out.
Hood: Outlaws and Legends has some good ideas, but the execution is a little lacking. The one mode here is enjoyable but it gets very repetitive, with the clunky combat, slow matchmaking and poor, though admittedly amusing AI, taking the fun out of it. With more variety, whether in the form of different modes or with each map having its own objectives, this could have been a winner, but as it stands it's got a lot of squandered potential.
I really enjoyed my time Maskmaker. Puzzle games like this can easily lead to frustration, but Maskmaker is a thoroughly inventive VR puzzler that walks the line very well. It's a tad short, but I think it might be better that way as it doesn't outstay its welcome or overuse any mechanics. I'd love to give it a better score and it's an enjoyable VR puzzler, but with a few fiddly bits and some pretty serious bug that forced me to restart the whole game, it's lost a couple of points.
Disco Elysium: The Final Cut is a work of genius. I'm planning to immediately replay it, simply because I don't want it to be over yet. The story is absolutely captivating, the world is filled to the brim with detail, and the characters and their motivations are remarkably well thought out. It made me laugh at absurd moment, made me gasp with the twists in the story, and I've developed an attachment to the main character's partner, Kim Kitsuragi, and his endless patience with me shooting finger guns at him as much as possible. Disco Elysium: The Final Cut is a masterwork and you are doing yourself a disservice if you miss it.