Paul Renshaw

Are you old enough to remember the 1990s and in particular the modified car scene back then? Max Power magazine ruled the roost, featuring ridiculously altered vehicles (seriously, why spend £20,000 modifying an Astra when you could just buy a much better car with the same money?) and a variety of half naked women. Now that we're in 2018, surely those two things aren't still going to be around? Are they?

Every now and then a game comes along that can only be described as "a cross between Game X and Game Y". And so it is with Fall of Light: Darkest Edition, the latest title from the development team at Rune Heads. The games in question this time around are Dark Souls, for the gameplay and mechanics, and Diablo, for the camera angle and view of the action. So can a third person, action adventure experience with the difficulty of Dark Souls and a non movable camera fly in this day and age?

Remember the days of Command and Conquer? Remember how the simple rules of the early games gradually got more and more complicated as time went on, moving away from the easy to master, hugely rewarding gameplay that made people fall in love with the series? As more rules were added, more people seemed to be turned off, and by the modern day, real time strategy games had become obtuse almost to the point of ridicule.

Space Hulk has come to Xbox One in the shape of Space Hulk: Tactics, and I am almost besides myself with anticipation. Have Cyanide Studios done my memories proud, or was I destined to be disappointed?

SOULCALIBUR VI, eh? What with this and Tekken 7, if there’s one thing that Bandai Namco are good at it’s keeping a long running and fan beloved story going. The world has been imperilled by, and saved from, Soul Edge more times than you can shake a stick at, but each time we get drawn back the story feels fresh and the fighting action has been top drawer. Can Bandai Namco pull it off again, or is SOULCALIBUR VI one step beyond?

Coming from a single developer - a man by the name of Johnny Ostad - comes a new entry into the retro style RPG. Having seen the trailer and gotten a distinct early Zelda game vibe from it, I was very keen to dive into the quest and see what Shalnor Legends: Sacred Lands had in store for me. See, back in the day, when I was a poor student, I did spend an entire term's grant on a Super Nintendo just to play A Link to the Past, so I was well up for this game.

Have you ever played a Dark Souls game, and thought "The only thing that would make make this game better is a load of big ass guns"? Well, have Toadman Interactive got a treat for you!

Coming from Fishcow Studios is Moonfall Ultimate, another entry in to the side scrolling adventure genre. Billed as a "2D side-scrolling, action-RPG, set in an industrial gothic universe", and with a choice of three distinct character classes to choose from, on paper this sounds like a great game. Backed up by an exciting trailer, I was excited to dive into the universe and see what Moonfall Ultimate was all about. So please, come with me to a world of hacking, slashing and spell casting!

The latest, and hopefully greatest chapter in the Destiny 2 saga has now been released to the waiting public. Called Forsaken and released in a bundle with the previous two expansions, can Destiny 2 get back on track after a rocky patch, or is it too little too late?

Coming from developers Cosmic Picnic is Adios Amigos, a new local co-op adventure game, promising "serious astrophysics in a comic setting". This sounded intriguing, so pausing only long enough to grab my son, we blasted off into the universe to see what awaited us.

Dovetail Games’ Euro Fishing is currently the best fishing game available on Xbox One. But now those same guys have decided to try and take the crown from themselves with their new release, Fishing Sim World. Can this topple Euro Fishing, or will it be left on the bank with a dry net? I grabbed my best bass spinning round and set off to find out.

Coming from developers Motion Twin is Dead Cells, a new old-style game, if you follow me. With a retro pixelated look, and promising proper old school difficulty, Dead Cells is touted as a rogue-lite, Castlevania inspired action platformer, with a twist of Dark Souls. If you can imagine Dark Souls in 2D, then the comparison is actually a good one, as the threat of death in this game is strong, and if you die, you start again. So, facing this level of threat and also facing a castle that reconfigures itself for every attempt at the game, I went in… head first.

I'm a real sucker for an RPG, and of the genre, JRPGs are my particular favourite. I can't even imagine the amount of hours that I've sunk in to the various Final Fantasy, Suikoden and Lost Odysseys, so when a new JRPG - Fernz Gate - arrived I just had to check it out.

When I first heard about Distrust and saw that it was ‘inspired by John Carpenter’s The Thing’, I was immediately sold. See, this film had a huge impact on me when I watched it back in the 1980's as a young man, so much so that I'm getting shivers just thinking about it! Of course, now I'm a grown man I'm not freaking out any more, but a game inspired by the film had me intrigued. Coming from Alawar Premium, Distrust is set on a remote Arctic base, and so for that reason alone, I pulled on my best woolly pully and set off through the snow.

Are you old enough to remember the 1980s with any clarity? If so, have Pixel Trip Studios got a game for you! Based on the classic Paperboy and packing in more ‘80s references than you can shake a stick at, The VideoKid is a gloriously retro love letter to the culture of decades past. But is it also a good game? I pulled on my neon leg warmers and dived straight in.