A wildly impressive mix of survival, creative building, exploration & combat primarily developed by five people. Valheim manages to find and maximise the special sauce within all of its components.

An influential masterclass in the application of atmosphere and subtlety. Beautiful, powerful, surprising and mesmerising - Journey is a must play.

A whimsical perceptual puzzler full of smart ideas. It’s just long enough, with its brevity perfectly exploring its core concepts and ultimately satisfying greatly. Very impressive.

Deckbuilding… reverse-tower-defence… strategic… dungeoncrawler… roguelite? Hard to describe but wickedly clever. Polished, fun, challenging & very addictive. Set to be a classic - play it.

Beautiful and slightly mind-bending at times. Fantastic music, writing and VO. Controls can be a bit janky, and puzzles feel a bit directionless in the middle acts, but overall very, very good.

A unique & interesting take the genre, attempting to link the difficulty of wilderness, survival, adaption & even evolution with gameplay. The result is obtuse and at times painful, but I respect it.

If you like Katana Zero or Hotline Miami, but wished they were in 3d (and had grapping & wallrunning), you’ll love this. Challenging but not punishing, and very fun. Great to look at too.

Buggy & janky, but if anything it only adds to its humour and charm. You drive through eastern Europe with your uncle in an absolute jalopy. Like the car, sometimes this barely works - and it’s great.

A very fun and extremely beautiful metroidvania-like exploration/adventure game which somehow feels a little unrewarding at times. Co-op is a bit of fun but don’t expect it to be an ongoing staple.

Turn-based survival with an insanely cool aesthetic, atmosphere and tone. Foreboding and dread are everywhere, but the game somehow manages to balance with an air of charm, irreverence & humour.