I both love and hate Ark: Survival Evolved, but it's remained my most played game for years now. The most notable feature was the taming of dinosaurs, which set it apart from other survival titles, and by God I love dinosaurs. I never even touched official servers, but instead had hundreds of hours doing my own thing solo or with my partner. It was relaxing, exciting and sometimes downright miserable.

The thing about it was the range of issues that were never addressed, the bugs that were consistent throughout its lifespan. Even in single player I lost so much. Still, I can't help but love it, and now that the remake exists I suppose it's time to lay it to rest. RIP Ark: Survival Evolved. I'll never forget the highs and lows.

Capcom modernising their Resident Evil catalogue was no small task, and they obviously had to make some tough decisions, but the end result was more than impressive. With such a revitalisation of the series (starting with 7 respectively) it made me fall in love all over again. Out with the old, in the new: third-person, photorealistic visuals, tweaks to the story, expanded maps, just a complete overhaul.

Resident Evil 2 was fantastic to play, the police department one of the best experiences—including all the backtracking. If the game was set solely in that station I would’ve loved it just the same. The added threat of Mr X stomping the corridors made for some stressful moments, the stalker enemy a mechanic Capcom clearly likes. Definitely a favourite of mine, I hope my love for the franchise never fizzles out.

It’s simple, Maneater’s appeal came from playing as a shark. There’s really nothing like it that comes to mind (apart from the 2006 Jaws Unleashed) , so it definitely filled a gap in the market. Progression was enjoyable with starting off as a baby and growing up into an uber shark while evolving and customising it with different looks that provided certain strengths—very light RPG elements sprinkled in with a checklist of things to do, usually the same tasks over and over in each of the eight regions. The repetition got a little stale later on.

It was pretty in terms of visuals, challenging when it came to bigger enemies, and the humour was good in its mockumentary style. I liked it, and consider it mindless video game fun.

I probably should’ve followed the recommended order of the Rusty Lake series, which involve the Cube Escape games, but I didn’t and therefore had no understanding of what was happening story-wise in Rusty Lake Hotel. All I know is that there were animal people and their ideas of fun were peculiar, to say the least.

Regardless of that, I really loved it—the artstyle, the puzzles that were in the same vein as escape rooms and the overall morbid themes. Having no prior knowledge I definitely didn't expect it to go in the direction it did. The difficulty was fair, but with any puzzle game some parts were trickier than others. The nice thing was the option to replay rooms, and I did just that several times due to missing items. I thoroughly enjoyed it and even consider it a highlight of the year.

Like a playable Pixar film, Kena: Bridge of Spirits offered an experience of beautiful visuals and straightforward yet thrilling action that held some challenge to it. With puzzles, platforming, collectibles, epic boss encounters, as well as a companion system in the form of little Rot sidekicks, it always had my attention. It wasn’t open world despite claims of it being so, instead large portions of the map were locked behind linear story advancement, and backtracking was encouraged to reach previously inaccessible areas.

I always find it obvious when love and attention is poured into a game, and I believe that's what this title was built on. The story was emotional and focused on those she helped rather than Kena herself, telling of their regrets and delving into their grief without lengthy exposition. I thought it was fantastic.

Ravenous Devils caught my attention because of the unique concept of being a point and click cooking simulator with gory depictions of slaughter. The aim was to manage a tailor shop and kill its customers to use their meat as ingredients in the adjoining pub. Aesthetically it was great with the 19th century London style, the environment updating visually as progress was made through an addictive gameplay loop of trying to appease customers and make as much money as possible. I was able to completely zone out, even had a little routine with each working day.

At the time of playing there was no risk of being discovered—it was impossible to fail—but a new mode that includes policemen has been added since. It's obviously good when developers take on the feedback from their players.

The Inheritance of Crimson Manor was a first-person exploration puzzler that consisted of going from room to room in a Victorian era mansion while solving the various mysteries of the family that once inhabited it. I enjoy games like this; puzzle solving without time constraints or threats, it’s a relaxing experience—while it attempted a creepy atmosphere, it became clear that the creaks of floorboards and other sounds were on a loop and didn't mean anything.

There was even an unfolding story that I thought was decent enough, told through the environment. At the time of playing the only issues I had were the lack of quality of life, but as far as I know there's since been updates that have addressed them.

I've always got a lot to say about open world games, mostly about how they're not all that fun when you get down to the copy-paste content, and while Elden Ring was still guilty of some of that—several reused bosses and dungeons—they achieved something special in how they went about it. There was no visible checklist of the usual bloat, in fact, there were no arrows pointing the direction to go, no hand-holding other than a quick and optional tutorial. The emphasis was on exploration, encouraging the player to discover whatever they could find.

It ate up my time, that’s for sure. It was also my first Fromsoft title and I think it was the best possible introduction. I racked up over a hundred hours with a mage build. Sure, there were some frustrations with difficult bosses, but that was a part of the package.

My time with Inside may have been brief, but it left a positive impression. As a 2.5D platform game, the aim was to progress from left to right into increasingly dangerous terrain, with various obstacles to overcome. The puzzles were physics based and the story largely ambiguous, depending on the setting to tell a wordless narrative. I was invested for its entirety, absorbing the dread that mounted from the beginning. The whole package was a pleasure to sit through, the scares more quiet and subtle as opposed to aggressive—parasitic worms, murderous sirens and a grand finale of body horror that came as a delightful surprise.

As far as indie games go with hits and misses, this one I'd consider a gem that didn't overstay its welcome, but rather offered a few hours of immaculately designed gameplay.

Described as a morbid Stardew Valley, Graveyard Keeper had a lot to it and offered many many hours of content. I usually don't go for these sandbox style crafting games where the content lies in the inconvenience—to complete one task you must first do several prerequisites, rinse and repeat where nothing is ever straightforward. It's the grind that loses me, and this definitely had slog, but it was charming with its humour, and more importantly it was addictive.

The skill trees provided a lot, the customisation options pretty fun when it came to the graveyard and chapel. Several townsfolk offered questlines, yet were only available on a specific day—seven characters for seven days—and I found I often missed that window and had to wait. Still, I put a lot of work into this game, so it did something right.

Shadow of Mordor certainly butchered LOTR lore (genuine fan fiction, would have been better as its own thing), but other than poor storytelling it was a good game with its Nemesis system being unique—having random orcs promoted after killing you was hilarious. The more I played and unlocked new abilities, the more I got into it and had a great time zipping around the map. Being a little aged now, it wasn’t what I’d consider pretty in terms of visuals, but nothing beat killing those orcs.

The first time I played I got overwhelmed in a few minutes by a Captain that just kept calling reinforcements. It was a fairly valuable lesson, stealth obviously the way to go. When the time came I was able to brainwash, it hit a whole new level of enjoyment.

Call of Cthulhu was inspired by the tabletop RPG, set in 1924 and featuring a rather sullen private investigator. I swear, this game was made for people like me who go nuts for the Cthulhu Mythos. It was far from perfect with some poor character models / animations as well as some jank systems, but it ticked a lot of boxes: the atmosphere, the visuals, the cult shenanigans and sanity loss.

Any form of combat was minimal, instead it mostly consisted of stealth alongside its detective work of questioning various characters and searching for clues. While some sections were frustrating, I really appreciated the story and had more fun than expected.

Initially, I was excited for Season of the Malignant since I considered myself done with the base game. I didn’t mind rolling with a new character—Druid this time—as it’s just how these seasonal events work. Unfortunately, though, the new content was underwhelming, including a very poor portion of story.

The new dungeons, Malignant Tunnels, were bland and boring. The new main boss, Varshan, had mechanics that just made him a pain to deal with. The Battlepass was okay, but nothing special since the nicer cosmetics are always in the store. All in all, what Season 1 offered was minimal.

When I got into Diablo IV at its release, it was all I could think about. The visuals were stunning, the story compelling with the epic return of Lilith, and everything about the world was just so wonderfully grim—I know it’s always been that way, but I was surprised it was maintained considering the state of things today. The campaign was peak enjoyment with memorable moments, and I really liked running with Necromancer.

As for the end-game content, I had fun for a while with working my way up World Tiers and farming Nightmare Dungeons. There were also Helltides, Whispers of the Dead and the usual World Bosses. It was enough to keep me busy for a time, but eventually turned into a slog. I’m not a competitive min-maxing player that wanted to optimise everything and have the best build / gear, therefore it ran its course and that was okay. The experience was worth it.

I was late to Kathy Rain, but the release of the Director’s Cut put it on my radar. There’s nothing like a good point and click where you can get lost in the puzzles and narrative, and Kathy’s adventure didn’t disappoint in that regard. As a character she came across as the edgy teen, her dialogue sassy and sarcastic, but quite honestly I liked her more for it.

The most fun I had was trying to figure out the unfolding mystery, as well as the various obstacles—usually people—that got in the way. What pleasantly surprised me was the horror that came out of nowhere, the weirdness that came from the Twin Peaks inspiration getting altogether freaky.