IGN

Last Stop spins three intriguing tales in an enjoyably vibrant vision of London, but the superficial depth of its dialogue options and redundant quick-time events made me feel like I was just passively pushing buttons to cue the next cutscene, as opposed to having any meaningful influence on the course of events that followed.

Death's Door expertly blends classic dungeon puzzle solving with fast-paced combat encounters to create a memorable adventure across a moody world brimming with secret paths and hidden rewards.

Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector beats the pants off of other recent 40K tactical games, making a run at skirmish wargame greatness. While it's limited in places and the interface can struggle, the tactical combat is well worth the time it takes to learn and the Momentum system rewards your strategic prowess with more capacity to dish out pain.

Indie RPG Wildermyth aims to combine the best of storytelling with the best of procedural generation and succeeds, thanks to great writing, solid tactics, and some very clever design decisions.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD is a fantastic Zelda adventure that’s aged like wine, even if Wii-era motion controls still aren’t great.

Old World is a smaller-scale 4X game than its Civilization forbearers but its new ideas add both interesting depth and intimidating complexity.

Roguebook's dual hero gameplay and overworld exploration give it a distinct identity, but its gameplay feels less focused than the very best deck-builders.

Sniper Elite VR is good enough to satisfy the craving for a solid World War II shooter on the Oculus Quest 2, but its forced story and lack of cohesion can sometimes slow the experience to a halt. The over-the-top arcade combat is fun, though, and that’s where Sniper Elite VR truly shines. Its wide arsenal combined with its nuanced ballistics simulation mechanics at least make it an interesting and replayable sandbox where you can always pop in to shoot a few Nazis.

F1 2021 is the best-looking and most customisable instalment of the long-running Codemasters series to date, and the ability to tinker under the hood of the core career experience and play co-op with a friend is very welcome. With the addition of Braking Point it’s also arguably the boldest F1 game so far.

Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin is a beautifully presented JRPG with a plethora of fun things to do and deep systems I happily got lost in – but a few issues leave it short of being flawless.

Scarlet Nexus' combat is thrilling and its story surprisingly deep, and while it's let down by limited enemy and stage variety, the strength of its characters is enough to lift it high above your average anime inspired action RPG.

Speed Golf is a fun addition, but a poor adventure mode, a slight selection of courses and low replayability results in Mario Golf: Super Rush being an underwhelming entry into the series.

DC Super Hero Girls: Teen Power is a light-hearted, charming, and sometimes repetitive action game that does a lot of things fine but nothing exceptionally well.

I enjoyed my time with Legend of Mana, don't get me wrong, but wandering through its world from one unconnected quest to the next makes reaching the end feel like a very long guessing game – and there’s little or nothing that can be done to remedy that without fundamentally altering the DNA of Legend of Mana.

I badly wanted Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance to be an awesome co-op version of the pencil-and-paper tabletop RPGs I’ve loved for decades, but it just isn’t. It’s a bland, boring trek through repetitive encounters that’s filled with bugs and annoying design choices, and though it allows you to play alone you absolutely should not do that because it’s an imbalanced nightmare.

Whether I'm swinging a sword or plucking away with a bow, combat hits that elusive sweet spot between accessible dumb fun and rewarding, skill-based mechanics where the wheat is separated from the chaff. When you respawn and everyone around you is spamming the battle cry button as you rush headlong into certain death, you just know you're in for a rockin' time. I don't think I'll be putting away this sweaty coat of mail for a good while.

Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 blows off a heck of a lot of heads, but never managed to blow my mind. Its long range sniper shots feel genuinely satisfying to pull off, but the enemy AI is so dimwitted it almost seems cruel to kill them. With an upgrade system that’s largely skippable and mostly uninspired mission challenges, Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 is a competent sniper sim that lacks the edge required to be a real sharpshooter.

Intermission serves as a tantalizing tease of Yuffie's inevitable meeting with Final Fantasy 7's core cast, and an excellent reason to return to Midgar to experience her new exhilarating style of combat and entertaining side activities.

This ingenious blend of RPG mechanics, visual novel-style storytelling, and deck-building roguelike gameplay is a beautiful recipe for a kind of game I never knew I wanted. Even though I’ve already spent the past week getting through each of Griftlands’ campaigns multiple times, I’m still looking forward to my next run – and the run after that.

The Elder Scrolls Online: Blackwood is a nostalgic trip back to Oblivion's turf and step up from last year's expansion in its writing and map, but its quests don't have much by way of surprises up their sleeves.

Chicory: A Colorful Tale is a pristine little adventure with fun puzzles, a surprisingly rich paint mechanic, and a story that's disarmingly real, difficult, and heartfelt.

I do wish it allowed you to look under the hood and see the actual code, but not being able to see all those lines of boring text don't detract at all from the fun of making games. The tremendous variety of Nodons available make it possible to pull off some really complex stuff and I'm really looking forward to seeing what creations the Game Builder Garage community cooks up.

Operation: Tango is a clever and appealing take on a co-op spy experience with eye-catching style and excellent music. It’s short and not all that replayable, and some of the puzzles are annoyingly silly when compared to its best challenges and conundrums, but it’s still well worth a play with a friend with patience and a keen eye for detail.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Storm Ground is a disappointingly mediocre tactical game. The bits of quality game design and pretty graphics that make up the core of it are overwhelmingly obscured by a frustrating single-player and multiplayer grind, then layered over by a thick paste of bugs, inconsistent rules, and an overall lack of content. Underwhelming to say the least.

Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart is a fantastic PS5 exclusive showpiece for the console’s power, and a delightful adventure in its own right.