Mick Fraser's Reviews
Die hard fans of XCOM will likely fall in love with Phoenix Point, a hard-as-nails challenge that offers procedurally-generated replayability and a suite of tactics to help you thrive on and off the battlefield.
There's a charming aesthetic to The Stretchers, bright and colourful and aimed squarely at kids, but the slapstick, ragdoll humour will appeal to grown-ups too
Sniper Ghost Warrior: Contracts isn't the prettiest game and certainly not the most accessible, but it's an enjoyable budget title, and worth picking up for fans of stealth-based action.
Even with no shortage of challenging side-scrollers to get into these days, Black Future '88 is more than worthy of your time and does more than enough to stand out in an increasingly populated crowd
Terminator Resistance suffers from a chronic lack of charm that can't even be saved by evoking its hallowed source material.
Earthfall: Alien Horde attempts to fill a spot still left absent by L4D3, but unfortunately fails to capture the magic or atmosphere of the genre's best.
Experiment with the different player characters and get on board with the surprising tactical depth, you'll find there's a lot more to it than meets the night vision body-cam.
Dark Devotion is an atmospheric action RPG that emphasises exploration and survival, but it's let down by its frustrating obtuseness
MediEvil is a hallowed classic, undeniably, and it's presented here with a shiny new look and comfortably familiar feel, made with enough love and attention to resurrect its appeal for existing fans.
A spiritual successor to Fallout: New Vegas in every way, The Outer Worlds is better written and more polished than we've since come to expect from the franchise it emulates.
There's certainly enough new content here to keep fans interested. Shadowkeep's lunar surface is no Dreaming City, but it holds enough new surprises to make it worth checking out
Freedom Finger is an enjoyable little indie that gets away Scott-free with things that might crucify a AAA title, and provides a few hours of tongue-in-cheek, utterly knowing humour at the same time.
Thanks to a series that genuinely gets better with every iteration, Sniper Elite 3 remains one of the best snipers sims of this generation
I've had fun playing Breakpoint, but to do so I've had to just accept the flaws and push through them. The constant flow of loot and the shooting tick my boxes, but everything good seems to come at a cost.
With Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince, fans will rejoice at what is, in every way that matters, a return to form for Frozenbyte's fantasy adventure.
A decent port of a good game let down by technical issues.
Despite a number of performance issues and combat that feels just a little too loose and mashy compared to its genre-mates, Code Vein presents a unique take on the Soulslike formula
Overland is a simple but effective survival game that evokes elements of the genre's best and puts them to good use
Like Father, Like Son is an interesting VR experience that mostly succeeds despite lacking the charm of the source material
Daemon X Machina is a fun and frenetic mecha game with a hell of a lot going on. It occasionally gets too busy for its own good, but competently out-Anthems Anthem in terms of gameplay.