• Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla

    December 3, 2020 - By 

    If you have been playing Assassin’s Creed games since their inception thirteen years ago, then you will already know how the franchise has redefined itself multiple times during that period, expanding outward from a relatively straightforward adventure to a more open world approach. Of course, the core storyline is as pleasingly bug-nuts as ever: deep breath… in the modern day, tech rebels enter the “Animus”, an enhanced virtual reality device that allows the user to relive the genetic memories of their ancestors. Through this interface, they can discover information about an ancient secret war that has been waged across the centuries between…

  • Resident Evil 3 (Capcom, Multiformat)

    July 30, 2020 - By 

    Following hot on the shambling heels of the brilliant Resident Evil 2 remake, the latest port in the long-running series is very much a mixture of mercies. It is undoubtedly as exciting and enjoyable as its predecessor but it is also very short. Just when the game is hitting its stride, it strides even more quickly towards its denouement. It giveth and before you can savour its wares it taketh away. For many players, this will not be a problem: reminiscent of classic releases that could be completed in one or two sittings, Resident Evil 3 seems to be designed…

  • Fallout 76 (Bethesda, Multiformat)

    January 2, 2019 - By 

    To quote The Big Lebowski, “sometimes you eat the bar… and sometimes the bar eats you.” It is both fair and heartbreaking to say that Fallout 76 has repeatedly eaten the bar since its initial release, largely because the core DNA of the game is so far removed from the traditional Fallout experience expected from fans of the franchise. It has received a drubbing not too dissimilar to the amount of toxic bile that was heaped upon The Last Jedi when it appeared in cinemas. Some of this castigation is justified, and some of it is the usual predictable self-entitled ranting from armchair critics with nothing better…

  • Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar, Multiformat)

    January 2, 2019 - By 

    After a pack of dynamite fails to ignite, you chase after and then jump onto the top of a speeding locomotive train, hoisting your friend up from the side just before he comes just a hair’s breadth of being cleaned by a passing metal pole. Before you can catch your breath, you are moving through the carriages towards the engine room, picking off enemies with headshots before they can do the same to you. After you halt the train, metal wheels squealing as it comes to a stop, you discover a coach with a hidden room before more bandits arrive…

  • Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey (Ubisoft, Multiformat)

    January 2, 2019 - By 

    Just as the creators of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been building for a decade towards the conceptualisation and creation of Avengers: Infinity War, so the designers at Ubisoft have spent the same amount of time visualising the game world at the centre of Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey. It is arguably the most vividly realised title to date in the long-running series but it also plays fast and loose with concepts that fans have come to love and expect. These changes – some of which are cursory tweaks of basic mechanics, and some are fundamental shifts in the presentation of the virtual world…

  • Far Cry 5 (Ubisoft, Multi)

    May 29, 2018 - By 

    The Far Cry franchise has never been known for its bashfulness but this most recent episode not so much pushes the envelope as takes that envelope and uses next level origami skills to transform it into a lethal weapon. From beginning to end, Far Cry 5 is a no-holds-barred romp of cartoonish ridiculousness, albeit one with a sting in its tail: while other open world games are set in fairy kingdoms or irradiated wastelands, here the player is invited to frolic in a gonzo vision of rural Montana replete with grain silos, roadside diners, white picket houses, plantation mansions and the like. Look for…

  • Assassin’s Creed: Origins (Ubisoft, Multiformat)

    November 17, 2017 - By 

    Have we been spoilt by videogames? It is a question that often wanders into the mind, particularly when playing franchises like Assassin’s Creed, in which long gone historical eras are casually presented to us in graphical form as if this is the most normal thing in the world. So inured are we to the alchemy of the craft that we are presented with a moving, to all intents and purposes living, representation of Revolution France, Renaissance Italy or, in the instance of Origins, Ancient Egypt, and we still find room to complain that it is not real enough. Perhaps our desires will…

  • Angry Birds 2 (Rovio Entertainment, iOS / Android)

    August 13, 2015 - By 

    One cannot help but be impressed by the Angry Birds phenomenon. There are few other apps that have been so downloaded to so many mobile devices and other platforms the world over. Quite the achievement for the once relatively unknown Finnish development house Rovio Entertainment, who has developed the initially wacky idea of a war between birds and pigs into an all-conquering, money-raking force of doom. The appeal of the Angry Birds franchise is easy to identify, as it takes no time at all for casual gamers to adapt to the simplest of concepts: knocking structures over by catapulting little…