The Digital Fix

Earth Defense Force 5 doesn't do much to get away from the series standards of campy story telling and underwhelming graphics, but does improve upon the series' unique appeal by reducing grind, increasing enemy variety and giving soldiers some new tricks to get around the battlefield. There's nothing quite like EDF and this is the definitive entry in the series.

A worthy successor to the legacy laid out by Symphony of the Night that stands on its own with a compelling new universe and highly customizable build system.

A romp through a cursed forest playing as a cute little critter. It's not doing anything groundbreaking or new by any means, but what's here is worthwhile for a palette cleanser between other platformers.

After a steep learning curve Sairento treats you to a tactical orchestra of blades, bullets and acrobatics. Its a pure joy to dissect each stage while performing amazing feats and killing with style. Its like no other game on PSVR and I highly recommend it.

While not doing much that point and click games have not done before, Irony Curtain does what it does very well. Its very funny, extremely pretty and tells a good story. You cannot ask for much more than that really.

Solid fighting game mechanics that are easy to pick up yet highly competitive and rewarding to master. Solid online netcode. Disappointing single player offerings.

Vacation Simulator is without a doubt an amazing follow up to Job Simulator. It brings fresh ideas to the table along with the series trademark humour. Its very fun to play and even more fun to mess around in its varied environments. If you loved the previous game you will love this. Both me and my family were glued to this game the whole time we played it, its a joy to play.

It'll make you wish you got trapped in a French island prison in the 90s.

Death's Gambit takes a slightly less punishing approach to progress than other games in it's sub-genre and is all the better for it. While the vast majority of world building and gameplay concepts are a loving pastiche of Dark Souls, Death's Gambit's balanced challenge, sense of humour and unique visuals allow it to stand on it's own feet and earn a rightful place in the game collections of those souls who are drawn to the fire of the first flame and others who simply enjoy a challenging adventure, laden with mystery.

F1 2019 makes itself available to a bigger audience than ever before with its considerate difficulty curve and fan pleasing content additions.

The definitive version of the Mario Maker concept, for better or worse. Super Mario Maker 2 delivers a charming, easy-to-use, but tool-heavy creative romp with near endless potential future content.

A few technical issues aside, if you are looking for an old-school platforming title with quite a bit of gameplay variation then look no further, Effie is a fun game to play.

Detective gameplay mixed in with Yakuza DNA wrapped up in an engaging crime thriller story with superb voice acting and memorable characters.

Persona Q2's gameplay is a clever offshoot from Persona 5's highly refined battle system and is a consistently fun challenge. It's story isn't quite the serious social commentary of it's console sibling, but the fun and fan service on offer is fantastic.

My Friend Pedro is one of the year's best titles, and is easily among the Switch's premier indie titles. It's funny, it's stylish, and it's challenging in all the best ways, and definitely needs to be played by anyone looking for their next quick hit of action gaming.

Golem Gates is an RTS that tries to take a new approach with its card game deck-building mechanics, but they don't go far enough in differentiating the game from all its similar rivals.

At the start of my playtime with Mini-Mech Mayhem, I thought that the whole game was a bit too random and made any tactical judgements pointless. After a bit longer playtime though I think I realised this was intentional and the true knack of this game is to maximise your chances of gaining points, watching the action map and using your interventions wisely.

Layers of Fear 2 is bursting at the seams with creativity and tension, with stellar writing and voice acting. Sadly let down by some outdated gameplay sections that should have been left in the early 2000s.

As long as you don't mind the insane story and the games many profanities you will really enjoy Trover Saves the Universe. Its bad language can be turned off but in my opinion the game is better with it. I don't think it will be to everyone's taste but it's bright, fun and never overstays its welcome. Its VR implementation is very good and never gets in the way of enjoying this wacky adventure. I really enjoyed it and I think most other VR players will too. It's unique and should not be overlooked.

Green Planet provides an end game and sense of conclusion to Surviving Mars, offering up enough challenge and new content to keep those already interested on the hook and perhaps even provoke some fence sitters to reach into their pockets and pay up for a ticket to a potential future.