[T]he day that I find the final object in the database, I'll most likely be ready to move on for good.
When all's said and done, that's a fantastic way to take a break from reality for a couple of hours. For all my gripes, I'll be surprised if any other game this year makes me laugh as much as Jazzpunk did.
For all of its speed, channelled from FPS games of the distant past, Tower Of Guns encourages thoughtful play. Despite the randomisation of enemies, pick-ups and areas, every distinct element that can appear is a known quantity, and that means the risks and possibilities are always obvious. But no matter how much experience you have, if you can't think fast enough – and, no insult intended, you probably can't – you'll still struggle to survive.
Through it all, I laughed, I cried and I savoured the tension. At one point I paused the game and shook my head in frustration, faced with too much bad behaviour in too short a time, but I'm hooked and excited to see what comes next. Episode one ended with an ill-advised bang but episode two continues with a whimper. And that's as it should be.
It's lovely to play a game that covers unexpected ground and Year Walk certainly does that, although the player character feels like a curator of folklore rather than an individual partaking in a personal spiritual experience.
I don't find it quite as exciting as Warlock II, which has such an unusual and habit-shattering structure, but they are very different beasts, despite appearances.
It feels good to finish on a complaint. When I was writing about Path Of Exile a few days ago, I felt a bit mean finishing on a sour note, but The Hobbit left me feeling a bit grumpy. Admittedly, burning through a Lego game as quickly as possible isn't the best way to play, and I'd probably feel more fondly toward this one if I'd dipped in and out over a period of weeks.
For those willing to invest time into the New Game +, into the covenants and the raiding of other players' worlds, there's far more to uncover than I'll probably ever see. As I said at the beginning, Dark Souls II is a very good game. These have been some of the reasons why as well as some of the reasons why I don't think it's quite as great a game as I'd hoped it would be.
The Walking Dead explores survival and suffering to great effect, and it continues to do so here. It's disappointing, however, that when the setup created an opportunity to explore a society built among and upon that suffering, the game failed to scratch beneath the surface.
My own love affair with baseball started with the book Moneyball and Out Of The Park was the next step, long before I grew attached to a team and lost the months from April onwards to late night live broadcasts from distant timezones.
There's plenty to admire in Krillbite's debut but, like a child itself, it's messy, loud, confusing and it grows up far too quickly. The length is the key isssue. For all its efforts to get inside both the player and the characters' heads, Among The Sleep doesn't linger long enough to leave a mark or more than a fleeting memory.
The title is evocative, don't you think, and even though the graphics are functional rather than fancy, the music and the sound of solitary engines in the vast loneliness capture something of the magnificence of travel and expansion. It's a game that really does impress with its scale and part of the cleverness of the automation is that it lets you sit back and enjoy the worlds you colonise or subdue.
Like its protagonist, Murdered is dead on arrival. But if you do play it, gather an audience and have some fun. Sure, you shouldn't speak ill of the dead, but it's the best way to endure this particular afterlife.
Against strong odds, Larian have fulfilled the early promise and the extra time, effort and money has all been invested wisely. The sausage has become a steak, succulent and flavoursome, and I have a new toy to play with and return to over the coming months and years.
I wish it were more literary or theatrical in its presentation and style, but perhaps that would distract from the aspects that I admire. A fair few people have reacted to the brevity and lack of resolution by suggesting that the game is unfinished but that doesn't seem to be the case at all. It may be a little rough but Unrest is deliberate in its approach to the idea of playing roles and even though I don't entirely approve, I will defend to the death (or mild shouting) Pyrodactyl's attempt to introduce new elements to the conversation.
Despite its flaws, I'm extremely glad that such a thing exists and that I overcame my initial sneery cynicism. If I had a slider to turn that particular internal setting down in my brain's menu system, I'd probably be able to enjoy films that don't fill me with anxiety and existential dread as well.
For all its mechanical similarities to the RPGs of yesteryear, it's that character, wit and playfulness that most capably satisfied my nostalgia and made me look forward to whatever InXile put their minds to next.
With a party of four, it's an enjoyable diversion and the four classes are well balanced and complementary, but the traps, layouts and enemies aren't quite disruptive enough, and even on higher difficulties the routine of combat tests endurance rather than creative solutions.
It's a 4x game, sure, but it's a not a high or low fantasy one. It's weird fantasy and the weird cuts through to the playstyles as well as the art and fiction.
At the centre of the debate will be one of the finest entries in the Alien canon in any medium, and one of the finest horror experiences in ours.