PS5

From the moment Clair Obscura: Expedition 33 boots up and almost without fault across its 25 to 50 hour runtime, the player will be treated to a modern masterpiece that wows with its visual and aural delight — often in spite of its macabre…

Now, the previous game had similar themes, but this was presented in a much more linear way. Your fox would go from level to level, completing traversal puzzles in semi-open areas. You could explore to find secrets if you wanted, or you…

Games like Blue Prince make me wary. With a 90+ rating on Metacritic, this is a game that has met with widespread critical and mass approval, yet it left me feeling a little bit underwhelmed. Blue Prince is a puzzle game first and foremost,…

I first became interested in I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream about ten years or so ago when it had its first re-release on Steam (having originally been released almost thirty years ago on MS-DOS). I didn’t persevere for very long when I…

There’s a lot to unpack in the story, and I feel that a lot of people, particularly in my age bracket, will get something from it. You have elements of loss of youth, acceptance of failure, and what I felt was the concept of mid-life…

Immersive Sims like Thief, Deus Ex and later Bioshock and Dishonoured used to be some of my very favourites. First person games with non-linear ways to make your way through large, complex levels — often driven by a compelling narrative.…

The original Commandos was one of the smartest, best looking and most innovative games of its time. Back in 1998, there was practically nothing like it, but in the nearly thirty years that have followed, various remakes and remasters of…

When Amerzone landed in my inbox, I could hardly believe it. Not only was it only just a few months ago that Microids published a plush, incredibly well-crafted remake of the thirty year old Empire of the Ants, but now they’ve gone ahead…

It's been 22 years since The Thing released for PS2 & Xbox, which is actually longer than the time between the launch of the game and the movie that its story was based on: John Carpenter's The Thing. When I heard that The Thing:…

Seven years on from the previous mainline entry, Dynasty Warriors: Origins' developers have opted for a few major changes to the series, hoping to revitalise the series after a period of increasingly prevalent "sense of déjà vu and…

I've been playing platforming games for most of my life and my daughter Robin loves Dav Pilkey's Dog Man comic series. So, what could go wrong with the two of us giving Dog Man: Mission Impawsible a shot? As it turns out, not much. Dog Man:…

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead has the advantage of having one of the best Astral Horror properties at its back, and in a time when horror is having a moment it couldn't have better timing. When I say Astral Horror, I mean that A Quiet Place…

When System Shock came out in 1994, I really was too young to appreciate it. At just 11 years old, I remember popping the CD into my Pentium 166 (MMX) powered Hewlett Packard PC and shortly after, I was absolutely soiling myself. Not only…

A couple of months ago when I previewed Empire of the Ants, I was excited by several things — the amazing graphics, the focus on gamepad based control and the kind of things the game had me doing. There were reservations though — a couple…

Some games are great because they live up to their epic ambitions and blow audiences away with the scale of their vision. Other games are great because they somehow capture a moment in time, a feeling or an idea — even though the execution…

Let’s School is a game where you can restore a school to its former glory. You have to manage it well so that your students can pass their exams and achieve their dreams in later life! Everyone has a different experience at school. In Let’s…

When Frostpunk launched back in 2018 it became an instant classic by fusing together base-building, society management and an almost-hopeless post-apocalyptic setting. Frostpunk 2 manages to build on every element of that as it challenges…

Sometimes, the most straightforward ideas are among the best. Empire of the Ants takes an idea so simple — that of the tiny, highly social and surprisingly intelligent insects referred to in the title - and transforms it into an almost…

The best offense is a good defence if Dig or Die's core gameplay loop is anything to go by. More than a few years back, before Battle Royale's became the hot new thing, sandbox games were having quite a big moment. It was then that Epic…

Ikonei Island: An Earthlock Adventure is the latest game in Snowcastle Games' Earthlock series. Within Ikonei Island, you are encouraged to explore the titular tropical island in its entirety and restore the shrines you discover along the…