Rock, Paper, Shotgun's Reviews
'DLC' desperately undersells War Of The Chosen, this fat and bursting sausage of turn-based splendour. I think I might have found 'XCOM 3' a mite more appropriate.
Norsca is a brilliant last hurrah for Total War: Warhammer. It's full of spectacle, monsters and thrilling wars, but where it really succeeds is in its campaign twists.
It's the Cronenbergian cyberpunk game I never knew I wanted, and it's shot right into my top ten of the year so far.
Its zero gravity segments offer something that no other FPS can, and everywhere else it's a solid, polished shooter. If you like the sound of it then I'd jump in now and build up some experience.
For whatever reason, this feels like a game that wants to reach as high and far as the games that came before it, and simply can't.
If you've never Nidhogged before, this might be the best place to start since you'll almost certainly be able to find a non-laggy game much more quickly, but it's missing some of the original's elegance, and not just in the visual department.
Rez Infinite is the greatest VR game to date
Hellblade is brave for tackling psychosis so directly, and braver still for pouring so much of its efforts into its narrative. It's unlike anything else I've played this year, and for that reason it deserves a slice of your time.
WoL is most easily described as a comedy game, and though it is indeed a prime-cut ribtickler, that can be a backhanded compliment – as if jokes are all it has. WoL does something far more accomplished, far more rare, which is to be joyful.
A completely wonderful Metroidvania, but at the same time, another Metroidvania.
I tried so hard to like this one, because of its immediately attractive qualities, and the huge promise of that opening phone call subterfuge puzzle. But despite eventually revisiting that idea once, it never lives up to any of the early promise. Gosh though, someone ought to make that game.
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.
With a better, more involving path, this could have been really something. As it is, it's the glorious The Long Dark with a reason for surviving, and that definitely proves enough.
Slime Rancher is a delightful, irrepressible thing with a manageable space to venture out into. A bouncy rainbow in a sludge of sprawling, mud-coloured shooters. I am so glad it exists.
I only wish that the mechanics and feeling of Pyreball lived up to that strong storytelling, because it so often feels like an interruption to a great tale.
It may be slight, but it's delightful.
If you put up with its clumsiness, there's a tough-as-nails isometric twin-stick action-me-do (that's the one!) here to play. Just one that doesn't really stand out from the crowd.
I don't think Aven Colony is terrible, despite these 1,500+ scathing words. The combination of survival and constructing a frontier colony is still an intriguing concept, and Mothership Entertainment have used the alien world conceit to create some novel, if ultimately irritating, obstacles. But the balance is all off, and its slog of a campaign and the attempts at streamlining make this a disappointing extraterrestrial outing.
I got my money's worth and I've got enough complex games to play. I want more that are simple and that are as satisfying as this, and while I'm done with it for now, I'm betting I'll be drawn back before the year is done.
I can't talk about The End Is Nigh without comparing it to Super Meat Boy because in so many ways it feels like a conscious alternative to some of the defining properties of that rapid, colourful, classic game. But measured on its own qualities, The End Is Nigh is a good game, but not a memorable one.