Vikki Blake
We're still making progress through Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, but so far it's been just the game you'd expect: a lush and vibrant world spread over the typical Ubisoft formula.
A smudge of systems from other Ubisoft games fail to coalesce - and sometimes are plain crippled - in this weak open world shooter.
The west is an empty, lonely place in this well-timed release - but that's not exactly what you're after from an MMO.
An intimite, mindful story of journalling what matters hits a few small bumps in the road.
In Scorn, a game of wonderfully horrible atmosphere and smart, hands-off puzzling is undermined by some dodgy checkpoints and wonky combat.
Volition's Saints Row reboot won't set the world alight, but there's a punchy game here with some pleasant surprises.
If it hadn't have been for that thoroughly unjust Rewind right at the end of my playthrough, The Quarry - with its stunning visuals, wonderful voice work, fabulous score, and intriguing plot line - would have been one of my favourite games of the year thus far, and one of the best horror romps for some time. As it stands, though, it's hard to feel anything but disappointment for a game that took all my time and effort and just discarded them without warning. It's one thing to kill off a character; it's another to kill off a player's enthusiasm.
Those small - or big, depending upon your personal view - irritations aside, there's a lot to enjoy about Chinatown Detective Agency, and the story's just about worth the ride. Personally, I'm a little tired of the penchant for retro pixel art, but if you can make your peace with the other lightweight or frustrating mechanics, Chinatown Detective Agency introduces you to a memorable cast and takes you to some striking places. What a crime it is, then, that such a promising premise doesn't quite do enough with them.
Mediocre combat and tiresome activities hold back Ghostwire: Tokyo's otherwise spectacular, otherwordly atmosphere.
A good premise and gripping start is undermined by a second half of bugs, bad writing, and grossly overused clich's of mental ill-health.
Rainbow Six Extraction's tactical PvE is good, punchy fun with a squad, and has a couple of nice little twists - but that's about it.
Radiohead's near-genreless music is paired with a remarkable first-person walkthrough that's just a touch light on interactivity.
Mundaun's haunting, pencil-sketch style works wonders, but a few repetitive fetch-quests and slightly underwhelming systems hold it back.
An otherworldly journey that runs out of things to do.
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is enjoyable enough at times, but weighed down by a deluge of unnecessary systems and bullet-sponge combat.
Gentle storytelling and challenging puzzles on an island of intrigue.
A short, sharp and fairly shallow take on the famed franchise nevertheless delivers on the full Aliens power fantasy.
This platformer is perfectly perfunctory in every way.
Nothing new but there's some lovely texture in this dark fable.
Backbone's sumptuous pixel art and promising narrative threads are undermined by flat gameplay and a non sequitur of a final act.