Paul Renshaw

Coming from Dynamic voltage Games is a curious mash up of game styles - Final Star. Playing out as a horizontally scrolling shooter with RPG elements, it would appear to be a fairly unique proposition. But can the actual game live up to the potential, or will it be ultimately disappointing?

If the first Asdivine Hearts has passed you by and you’re jumping in green with Asdivine Hearts II, then you need not worry - KEMCO have thought of this, and helpfully included an in-game booklet to make sure you are up to date with the events. However, should you not wish to read that either, then in a nutshell, Light Deity and Shadow Deity have a scrap, make up, then have to take out the Creation Deity (who made them) to save the world. Make sense? No, me neither. However, what with forewarned being forearmed, I set off into the world of Asdivine Hearts II to try make sense of it all.

It’s that time of year again, when our thoughts turn to all the games we've played in the previous 12 months and how best to rank them. In this list I will share what were, for me, the best games I played and attempt to explain why. The thing is, you won’t be seeing Red Dead Redemption 2 included in here! So, in no particular order, here are my Top 10 Xbox One Games of 2018 - excluding that behemoth!

Battle Princess Madelyn has an interesting backstory. According to the website of developer Casual Bit Games, the creative director's daughter wanted to be in the classic Ghouls 'n Ghosts game. He told her that although he couldn't put her in that game, he could make her one of her own. That game is the one you see before you, a Ghouls 'n Ghosts homage with a female protagonist that harks back to the classic gameplay and graphics. But does replacing Arthur with Madelyn make this a better game, or is it just political correctness gone mad?

Bullet hell shoot 'em ups, eh! When you've seen one, you've seen 'em all. In an attempt to shake up the genre, Spacewave Software and Degica Games have added a new twist to the familiar vertically scrolling gameplay. What if, instead of just dealing with the waves of enemies, there was a PvP element introduced? What if the screen was split vertically, and in addition to firing straight up, you could aim attacks at your rival on the other side of the screen? Welcome to the world of Rival Megagun, where these features are front and centre as you try to survive an alien invasion.

Being an ancient and slightly crumbling gamer, I can remember way back in the mists of time to the early arcade racers, such as Top Gear and the original Outrun. I can even remember playing Ridge Racer in the arcade in a full size Mazda MX-5 - I tell you, that was an experience. Hoping to recapture the glory days is the latest game from Aquiris Game Studio, Horizon Chase Turbo. From the moment I saw it in action via early trailers, it evoked such a sense of nostalgia I knew I just had to play it.

Another entry into the currently popular strategy genre, this time around the game in question is based on a popular series of RPG games from Modiphius Entertainment. The developers, Auroch Digital, have taken the source material and transformed it into a turn based strategy game - Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics. Given the setting of an alternate WW2 universe, where a small team of Allied soldiers have to take on the might of Nazi occult research, does the game work, or should it have stayed in the realms of D20s and imagination?

It seems like we are in the middle of a revival for the tactical gaming genre at the moment, with Space Hulk Tactics, Achtung! Cthulu Tactics and this game, Phantom Doctrine all arriving within weeks of one another. Coming from CreativeForge Games, Phantom Doctrine revisits the Cold War era to relive some of the paranoia and tension that was around in the 1980s, as relationships between the East and the West seemed to be worsening.

Fallout 76 immediately feels familiar, and if you've played the earlier games in the series, you'll feel right at home.

Coming from Stormseeker Games, Infinite Adventures is described by the developers as a "dungeon crawling RPG inspired by classic dungeon RPGs; with fresh new mechanics, combat and progression". Promising procedurally generated levels to explore, and a host of monsters and bosses to take down, how does this game compare to those that inspired it? I gathered my party and set out.

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?