Philippa Warr
As with Fullbright's previous game, Gone Home, Tacoma won't be for everyone, but it's a masterclass in environmental and gradual storytelling. It weaves an intriguing story against the backdrop of a believable near-future culture.
Abzû is a beautiful game. It's a game stuffed with fish and colour and movement and music. I love those things. Sometimes you feel like you're actually inside an episode of Blue Planet (I recorded the video above during one such moment). But I don't love wrestling for control of an experience which feels expansive one moment and restrictive or unpredictable the next.
Battleborn isn't a bad game in the sense that it lacks work or effort – the team has clearly put in the hours – it's just that, for me, it's an uninspiring result which can't justify its hefty price tag.
Put simply, I'm looking forward to more.
TL;DR: Life Is Strange is really, really good.
Life Is Strange is still a strong candidate for my game of the year but this episode raised a bunch of problems.
Ultimately, A Story About My Uncle is a pleasant but wobbly experience which only takes a few hours to finish. The checkpointing can be a frustration, the voicework is idiosyncratic, the prettiness can tip over into twee-ness and the story's conclusion lacks punch. In the moments when it finds its feet you get glimpses of a pretty platformer with a great sense of momentum. It's a shame, then, that the way the action and the other elements of the game are integrated keeps stopping that momentum dead.
Kalimba is relatively short if you're looking to just rattle through the story mode – I got through the it in a couple of hours – but the longevity comes from the repetition and the desire for that perfect run. I am now going back through the levels trying to get gold on all of them and make my totem pole glorious.
Throughout all of this is the lovely music, the gorgeous artwork and a moving story. That intro sequence brought a lump to my throat, but I wasn't sure whether the game would be able to sustain that ability to be affecting once it became less cinematic. But as the story plays out and I completed tasks I was fed more snippets. The game gradually reveals what's behind the tragedy of the forest and that emotional facet is unspoilt by unforgiving and unadventurous mechanical requirements.
The philosophical side of the game won't be for everyone, and you can largely leave it alone or skim the texts if you really don't get on with it. I really enjoyed digging into the archives so I'd recommend giving it a good go, but ultimately it shouldn't get in the way of enjoying the excellent puzzle side of things.
Shelter 2 has a memorable visual identity and a considered soundtrack, but in terms of survival and a rewarding exploration of the space there's just not much there.
Sunset is a wonderfully atmospheric slow burner and a valuable addition to a medium where the predominant approach to conflict is to just give you a big old gun and invite you to get stuck in.
Smite is an enjoyable experience and fun to dip into. It was also useful when I wanted to scratch a MOBA itch (which sounds like some horrible ailment) and didn't have the level of concentration I still need for Dota. There's a refreshing exhilaration which comes from being down on the board instead of up in the sky and it might catch an audience who bounced off other MOBAs or found them dull or frustratingly complex.
The enjoyment I have got out of the first month so far has been worth the cost of the game and there's also still plenty to do. I'm only halfway to the level cap and when you hit that you'll get access to things like the 40v40 PvP Warplots which feature customisable and destructible fortresses. It'll be the strength of the updates which will govern whether I'd recommended subscribing long-term, but so far Wildstar is looking great.
With such a light story and relatively sparse worlds the game needed its combat to feel polished in order to shine. Sadly the unwieldy controls mean it's an interesting-looking game which never quite delivers.
There is potential for amusing cat-and-mouse exchanges, but a lobby full of humans is hard to find.
Despite an attractive veneer, Planet Alpha offers rote and shallow platforming. Try Playdead's Inside instead.
A glacial pace and abundance of busywork make My Time At Portia a tough recommendation.
An ambitious game but one which exposes and compounds the weaknesses of solitaire.
Visually stunning but mechanically lacklustre, Valiant Hearts gets in the way of its own storytelling.