Pikmin’s a childhood game for me, but not one I actually played: it was way too hard for me as a youngster, but I loved watching my sister play it. I was taken in by the silly plot and characters and the creative world. Today, that wonder still remains, but now I can say as well that its gameplay is incredible, and really stands out among RTS games. And, while it’s less insurmountable than it was when I was a kid, it’s actually still really hard, especially if you’re aiming for 100%. A bit of that difficulty comes from the controls, which have not aged well - actually hitting enemies with your Pikmin is unreasonably hard sometimes - but most of it is from this being a balanced game with a strict time limit that’s aiming for difficulty. Graphically, it has aged pretty poorly, looking very blurry on a modern TV, but I’m impressed that this is a 2001 Gamecube game that runs smoothly even when you have 100 separate Pikmin on screen. The enemies are creative and challenging, the music wears after a while but is generally good, and overall, I’m so glad that this franchise started to get so much more love with Pikmin 4 - it really deserves it.

I really like this game. It’s very different from the pre-reboot Tomb Raider games, don’t get me wrong, taking on an Uncharted-like, cinematic vibe, but it’s still incredibly good. The story’s somewhat basic, but I find it works, the open world is good and has collectables that feel worthwhile but aren’t too overwhelming, the combat’s basic in some ways but works very well, and the setting is really atmospheric and surprisingly varied, for taking place on only a single island. And I know it’s a controversial topic in some parts of the internet, but I really like this game’s version of Lara; she’s sympathetic and likeable, even if some of her arc feels a bit rushed. Overall, one I definitely recommend.

When I was a kid, one of my favourite games was Jedi Academy: when I thought about the future of Star Wars games, this is what I imagined, and I love it. The gameplay is sublime, with fantastic swordplay, a wide variety of moves, and good Force implementation. The sound design is fantastic (because it’s Star Wars, every Star Wars project has great sound design), it looks fantastic in pretty much every way, and the story is really solid and enjoyable. I’m not a fan of games where the main cast doesn’t shut up for 5 minutes, and that did wear on me a bit, but for the most part I found them all endearing - Cal and BD-1 were both great in particular, and I genuinely like them. I did encounter a few bugs, mostly related to in-combat movement, but nothing game-breaking. It’s also a somewhat short, fairly easy game - I finished it on hard with 80+% completion after 17 hours - but I got it for about £5 on sale, so I really can’t complain.

Dark Souls III is a masterpiece. Both of the other games in the trilogy were masterpieces too (even II, which I’ve softened on quite a bit), but Dark Souls III is the polished jewel, the completed masterpiece, the closest thing I think we’ll ever get to a perfect soulslike. The gameplay is tuned to perfection, every weapon and animation feeling perfect, the story is probably the least obscure of the whole trilogy, but still compelling, and the atmosphere is at its bleakest and most rich. I definitely think you need to have played the other games to get the most out of it - so many calls back to the previous games right the way to the final boss - but it’s worth it. Every bit of difficulty in the trilogy was worth it for the raw catharsis of finishing this game. Can’t recommend it enough.

Shadowrun is honestly one of the coolest tabletop RPG settings, and this is a worthy CRPG adaptation, though it’s definitely flawed. The actual gameplay is pretty solid, if standard, tactical CRPG, though the UI could be better, the story is pretty good overall, though some dialogue comes off as clunky, the music’s nice, if some tracks repeat way too often, and the thing that’s best to me is how much it oozes the dark, cyberpunk atmosphere of the setting. One of the most glaring aspects, and one that’s brought up fairly often, is the fact that this game’s story is really short, and it is: but given that the game’s generally pretty cheap, and regularly goes on pretty generous sales, I can look past it. And the workshop is chock full of free custom campaigns that tend to be pretty fantastic. This is far and away the weakest of the Shadowrun CRPG trilogy, but that doesn’t make it bad.