Nicola Ardron's Reviews
Resident Evil 4 is a stone-cold classic, a genre defining game that surpasses expectations even now.
The Witness is an outstanding game, one that slowly reveals its brilliance and assumes the players intelligence rather than guides it. It is an absolute must play for puzzle fans.
Titanfall stands out as an example of how there is still plenty of room for innovation and newness in a crowded genre space. It's superbly executed and incredibly fun to play.
Spiritfarer is a unique and special game. A management sim that manages to blend its various systems with a poignant and bittersweet look at life and death.
One of the best multiplayer games available today. Rocket League is a fantastically fun, frenetic game and you'd be hard pushed to find a better arcade-style football game anywhere else.
Aragami is a superb stealth game with a gorgeous visual design and a protagonist that feels as lithe and graceful as you'd expect a ninja to be.
By far the best first person shooter released this year. It is often brutal and totally unflinching in its depiction of the violence people do to each other, but it is also hilarious and moving and tells a very human story.
Black Ops 4 is an excellent entry into the series. Some may mourn the loss of the single player campaign, but this is the tightest most balanced multiplayer the franchise has seen in a long while.
Apex Legends is a superb game featuring an excellent array of heroes, tight, responsive gun play, smooth movement, smart communication system and an astonishing level of polish in a free-to-play game.
Kentucky Route Zero is a masterful piece of interactive storytelling. Mysterious, mercurial, and exquisitely beautiful.
Paradise Killer is a singular experience. An open-world detective game set in a weird, neon world where everyone is a suspect and each piece of evidence feels genuinely earned.
A great tie-in and a solid game in its own right, The Escapists: The Walking Dead is an enjoyable and surprisingly deep head-scratcher.
They don't make them like this anymore. Modern Warfare Remastered has received the treatment it deserves and is an incredible boxed extra for Infinite Warfare
Blackwood Crossing is a surprising release, a game that delicately explores the difficult emotions of grief, guilt and love told through the eyes of two orphaned siblings.
Forager is a fiendishly addictive incremental game with crisp, low-fi visuals, compelling game play loop and clever pacing. Just make sure you don't have to be anywhere before you begin playing!
Wilmot's Warehouse is a game about categorising and sorting items that will test your spatial reasoning as well as your ability to recognise patterns, and it will make you feel smart while doing so
Borderlands 3 doesn't add much to previous iterations, but is a still a smart, almost rhythmic shooter with superb movement, deep RPG systems and more guns that you can shake a stick at. You might need to mute the dialogue though.
Röki is a wonderful fairy tale adventure with an affecting story, delicately told. It's a shame that this Switch version doesn't take advantage of the unique console features, but it does nothing to diminish this lovely, warm point and click adventure.
Forma.8 is an utterly gorgeous and affecting take on the familiar 2D Metroidvania style game with some clever puzzles for your plucky little probe to navigate.
A fiendishly difficult 2d arcade-style platformer that will have you simultaneously shouting at the telly with rage and delight.