Gareth Brierley

The gameplay is quite addictive and you’ll really want to check out the recipes on offer, cooking things up. The controls aren't the best though and you will find yourself lost with what to do multiple times, but if you fancy yourself as a feline chef then Chef’s Tail could be for you.

Experimenting in the creation of low budget games that could be seen as an art pieces is something that should be applauded and whilst The Dead Tree of Ranchiuna fails to reach the heights of other titles, it’s still worth a look.

For platform fans, Unbound: Worlds Apart will be a delight. It's a challenging game, but completely fair and with some well-worked checkpointing that ensures that dying is not a pain. It's inventive as well, with the use of portals helping your puzzle-solving and way through the adventure.

There are problems with text size and some big glitches when playing in the first person, however the inventiveness and story win over these misgivings. In all, The Enigma Machine provides an experience that stays with you way after the game has finished. 

Fatum Betula is a game - and an experience - that feels old school yet completely new and unique in the same breath. The lack of guidance is something that will split the gaming community, but it must be agreed that the surreal visual design is fascinating, disturbing, and brilliantly designed.

The big conclusion of this hands-on time of playing Crusader Kings III on Xbox Series X comes into view via a couple of points.

The Longest Road on Earth is thoroughly enjoyable; an experience that is capable of sincerely touching the player. The music is wonderful and the whole journey a delight.

Aery is a series that just keeps on coming. For fans, they will enjoy more of the same gameplay in Aery - Dreamscape, but in brand new environments and with some newly added features built-in. If you’ve struggled with these games before then there’s nothing extra here to drag you in, but on the flipside, fans will be in their element.

If you’re a sucker for the many other ‘mechanic’ and ‘simulator’ games on the market, there’s a chance you’ll get along with Rover Mechanic Simulator. It's relaxing at times, but you’ll need to love taking things apart - and putting them back together again - in order to get the most from it.

There are bits that drag a bit towards the end and you may only become emotionally engaged with certain elements of the story, but if you're after a bit of shadow play that's more involved than just making bat shapes with your hands on the bedroom wall, then In My Shadow is the game for you. 

If you’re a fan of the franchise, Murder Diaries 3 - Santa's Trail of Blood does a good job of trying something different, spinning it with a Christmas theme that works well. 

Deiland: Pocket Planet is a very family-friendly game, one that is complete with cartoony vibes and inoffensive gameplay which is full of imagination. The concept itself is an unusual one, mixing farming sim ideas with planet progression. Yet whilst the visuals and soundtrack are nice, making progression does sometimes seem to take an age.

Ever Forward is a pretty great little puzzler that just so happens to have a wonderful narrative weaved in. The originality of the stages is worth highlighting, but there is a bit of a struggle in terms of the gameplay mechanics and the movement of Maya; it feels a bit too slow and not always accurate in its response time. Aside from that, Ever Forward is a puzzler that is worth consideration. 

Timothy vs the Aliens will run for anything up to four hours or so and it’s quite nostalgic to play through it, reminding much of games from the Xbox 360 period. It has a lovely visual language, employing a black and white world to great effect. All the mechanics work very well and there are collectibles to find for the purists at heart. However, it does all feel a bit empty and fails to excite enough for you to want to look forward to your next playthrough. 

Aspire: Ina’s Tale will deliver some mixed feelings. The world-building, the scenes of identity and magic it manifests while travelling through the world are all to be loved, as is the main character of Ina and the creatures/characters she meets along the way. Some of the platforming and puzzle-solving is also decent but the movement of Ina becomes a bit frustrating at times, especially in terms of gameplay accuracy.