Peter Parrish
- Thief: The Dark Project
- Dark Souls
- Alpha Protocol
Grim Fandango represents the pinnacle of 90s adventure games and is arguably the finest videogame noir created to date. This remastered edition stays largely faithful to the source material, preserving it in digital form with some worthwhile extras and tasteful improvements.
Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity revisits the company's Black Isle roots, resulting in a High Fantasy, party-based RPG in the traditional style. Strong thematic hooks, well-written characters and reactive quest design, all resting on an original set of tabletop-inspired mechanics, make this a triumphant return.
Crown of the Ivory King's snow-swept ramparts are an exemplary example of intricate, looping level design. This third and final release wraps up the most consistent set of DLC I've played since Fallout: New Vegas.
Crown of the Old Iron King is another accomplished and well-constructed addition to Dark Souls 2, with a pair of bosses who rank alongside the best the series has to offer.
Suitably self-contained and demonstrating some of the best level design in Dark Souls 2, Crown of the Sunken King suggests that FromSoft's DLC team may well be up to the daunting task of creating three essential add-ons.
In many ways Dark Souls 2 is the technical and functional superior of the first game, but it does lack some of the semi-intangible magic of the original like its superlative interconnected world. Nonetheless, an impressive and essential sequel.
With Souls titles now a pseudo-genre of their own, there's an inevitable familiarity to the rewarding challenges, deft storytelling, and intricate, shortcut-laden level design of Dark Souls 3. But familiarity alone should not detract from this third title's fine implementation of ideas and mechanics. The enigma may be waning, but there's still nothing quite like a Souls game.
A must-have samurai sandbox title for those who treasure player agency and reactive narrative above high-level production values. WotS 4's absurdist videogame take on Yojimbo is surreal, funny and magnificent.
A concise central mechanic, framed by a clever, form-twisting premise and outstanding design in art and sound. Other games wish they could be this cool.
Inside’s fraught four hours of oppressive pursuit, smart environmental manipulation, and unsettling imagery exhibit a consistency and obsessive attention to detail that few other games can boast.
The new money lives up to the Blood Money in this darkly comic, icy cool stealth/brain-teaser/drop-a-toilet-on-a-target's-head-'em-up. It's a hit, man.
Familiar strengths and themes combine with FromSoftware’s apparently endless capacity for creative fantasy design in a finale of suitable grandeur and pathos.
A meditative game of player-driven exploration, Future Unfolding has a rare and valuable commitment to letting people unfurl its discoveries at their own rate. The near total lack of guidance brings great reward.
A combat-heavy, side-scrolling jaunt through the wonderfully unhinged realm of Ancient Greek mythology. Apotheon unites presentation and theme to tremendous effect through its stylised, Grecian pottery worlds.
A well-paced, well-observed and suitably vicious opening episode, showing that Telltale's latest series is up to the task of matching the theme and tone of the Game of Thrones source material.
A touching and bold portrayal of World War One in wonderful animated style, Ubisoft Montpellier's Valiant Hearts shows that videogaming doesn't have to be an Anthem for Doomed Youth.
Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes is a short, but mechanically very sound, sandbox stealth appetiser for The Phantom Pain. Just be aware that its value is in experimentation and replaying scenarios, rather than lasting narrative.
For a game about dandy robot businessmen trying to fleece a robo-miner of his hard-earned gains, it's surprisingly charismatic. A laid-back Dig Dug with a gentle scattering of Metroid.
Like its winsome protagonist, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is fixated on pursuing the riches of high-seas piracy and seems reluctant to be drawn into convoluted Templar plots. The most self-aware Assassin's Creed title to date, and one that makes the most of some aging mechanics.
Swery does Telltale, by way of an obsessed, time-travelling detective and lots of references to Boston. D4 is as unique and strange as you'd hope; and (unlike Deadly Premonition,) a decent enough PC version.