Phil Iwaniuk
Aside from a handful of updates, PES 2021 is the same as last year's game.
An incredible exploration portal with even greater potential once its tech issues have been addressed.
Thoughtful tweaks and deeper team management make a superb update as other annualised sports series flounder
A fine balancing act of challenge and intrigue, with stabiliser wheels courtesy of Ron Perlman's voice.
A clear and distinct spin on 4-player co-op FPS with atmosphere, ingenuity… and real navigational problems.
A haunting journey through a woodland with a real sense of place, but its breadth of mechanics silts up the pacing. Phil Iwaniuk
Size Five offers both classic platforming and point-and-click adventuring in this self-aware and deeply anglocentric caper
Novel presentation and a masterful complexity curve, but The Pedestrian's very shy about storytelling.
Funny, fresh, and full of surprises, Typhoon's debut blends genres expertly.
Often obtuse in its puzzle design and not that artfully told, The White Door is still effective at taking you to another place.
Still addictively enormous, but more open to newcomers than ever, FM 2020 is a brilliant update to a brilliant series.
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.
A game with unapologetically singular focus, its distillation of deeper MMOs' elements nevertheless results in an experience that all too often feels barren. Phil Iwaniuk
Beneath the fireworks and confetti, FIFA 20’s lacking match fitness.
A gripping descent into something between alternate history and fever dream, realised beautifully in audiovisual flair, and lacking just slightly in the combat itself.
Initially unwieldy but eventually engrossing, Age of Wonders' latest entry translates its Civ-meets-XCOM formula brilliantly to a new sci-fi setting. Even if the elements of that sci-fi are a bit rote.Phil Iwaniuk
There's more than just an endurance racing licence to distinguish Assetto Corsa Competizione from its predecessor. It's more polished, more precise, and offers more scope for long-term single-player satisfaction.Phil Iwaniuk
This top-down retro journey into the 1980s criminal underworld pairs car chases and con artistry
Changes on the battlefield don't make for a Total War experience to match historical and Warhammer entrants, but there's still a deeply involving strategic layer in Three Kingdoms that sits well with its licence.Phil Iwaniuk
As Imperator grows in scale from its Clausewitz cousins, so too it grows in depth and ultimately in unwieldiness. But there's a grand strategy with aeons of play in it for you.Phil Iwaniuk