Gareth Brierley

I worked as a labourer for the summer when I was 18. The rest of my fellow builders affectionately called me "The Idiot", which might give you an insight into my digging, mixing cement and overall construction skills. So I was very pleased to get the chance to prove all the naysayers wrong and show how I'm actually a king of the building trade in Construction Simulator. But can I build a skyscraper in an afternoon without breaking a sweat or will I, like previously, just lay one wonky brick in 8 hours?

Neonwall, embraces all things neon and puts you into a weird 1980's world of colour and blocks that hope to test your motor skills and fry your brain into a visual overload. But does it remind of those city lights in a film noir, or is it like a cloudy winter’s day outside Blackpool’s finest amusement arcades?

I've only ever come across one person named Spencer. He was a guy I was aware of at college, but we never spoke too much. He always wore a hat, a blue suit and a pair of cheap plastic sunglasses. He liked jazz and rolled up cigarettes and talked very loudly about books. But now, thanks to the wonders of gaming, I've got to meet another Spencer - just this one is very different. He's a sort of colourful square thing with short legs, a pair of boots and big eyes. I haven't heard him say a word, but he can jump a bit. I can't be sure if he digs jazz or not though.

It’s always strange to go back to a city you’ve built and cared for after a sixth-month break, discovering the state that it's in. I expected it to carry on without my steady hand of guidance to develop into a striving world-class city, with statues of me in every town square. And when I appear again there would be celebrations in the streets and festivals dedicated to my good work and deeds. Alas, in Cities: Skylines none of this has come true; I've still got a problem with sewage pipes and people hated the new park I built because it’s next to a factory. Perhaps it's time to start all over again.

Does the Assassin’s Creed franchise keep going from strength to strength with Odyssey, or should Ubisoft have taken a year off from the jumping, the stabbing and the murdering?

The Amnesia games were always something that I've looked at from afar, never having the chance to experience. So with this delightful package of three games in one it could be said that I was excited to experience what this horror world had to offer. But did it make me hide behind the sofa, or roll my eyes in a weird mocking manner?

Being in charge of a police force is tough - as many of us would have experienced before in the original This is Police. Just like the life of a real world officer, you have too few officers and too many crimes to contend with. You have the mafia offering bribes on one side and the local mayors office asking you to turn a blind eye to the corruption all around you. Then you have the officers themselves to deal with; many have serious alcohol problems that affect how they do the job and some just want a day off so they can go and see their favourite movie star. And to compound all this, you are stuck with a limited budget, limited resources, and a limited patience. But hey, it’s all in the life of being the Sheriff.  

So I've been having a lovely time down south in Mexico, sunning myself, drinking tequila and trying to run a successful Railway Empire. But now the time has come and I'm heading north once more to build more tracks and to make sure milk and meat are distributed to hungry citizens everywhere. However this time we are going further north than ever before, to the sometimes frozen wilderness of Canada and The Great Lakes. So pack up your fur coats, put away your sunscreen and get on board as we head up north.

So here we are with the penultimate episode in the deeply political and highly intriguing saga which is The Council. The writers and developers have an even trickier job this time round than with the last episode, which was the complicated middle chapter. Here they have to set up most of the exposition and narrative to let the finale fully blossom. So how does it fare? Does it get the taste buds wet with anticipation or is it like a vegan sausage... alright, but a bit of a disappointment?

Bouncers have always been the gatekeeper between the mundane rainy outside world, and the pleasure dome of nightlife and the countless possibilities inside the club. They hold the power to make your night either utterly amazing or very poor indeed. With Out Of The Box, you can experience that power of the bouncer, but it’s a tricky job... as ten minutes into this game will reveal to you.

The humble platformer used to be the daddy of all gaming genres. We’d have iconic team leaders like Sonic, Mario and Crash helping sell games by the bucket-load in order to keep their hungry audience happy. In more recent years the adventure games, the first-person shooters and a multitude of online sport games have taken that mantle away from the platformer and it’s been left to the the indie market to embrace the genre. Wenjia is one of those, with its simple mechanics and beautiful world. But does it hark back to those bygone days of platform glory?

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is the final part of the trilogy for the newest incarnation of Lara Croft. The first two games by Crystal Dynamics were brilliant; brutal game changers. Lara was broken, vulnerable and learning her trade. Yes she was exploring tombs again, but in an open world environment, with RPG type upgrading and skill collecting. It must be said, I loved the first two games and the direction they were heading and so have been eagerly awaiting this instalment. I haven’t been disappointed one little bit.

RPG quests. I’ve done so many that I think I need a holiday… at least from the darkest dungeons. You know how it goes. “Can you go and kill the evil bloke in the desert who is magically making sand into his evil minions?” Yeah, no problem. “Can you find the orb of Ballbag on the Mountain of Mandy and then bring it all the way back here in the next two hours?” Okay… sure. “Can you also locate Dave the Destroyer, all by yourself?” It all gets a bit too much sometimes and I seem to be the only one ever grafting. In Shadows Awakening I had to carry the ashes of some bloke’s wife to the some burial grounds. Why? It's all about experience points, levelling up and cash - the crack of gaming. But does Shadows: Awakening hit all the right boxes in the epic RPG checklist? Or does it fail at the first quest?

From the Ashes is a bit of DLC that is set near the latter stages of the campaign (you have to complete a certain main mission before you can even attempt the DLC) so there are some spoilers coming up if you haven’t played the base game yet.

I've played so many sim games over the last few years that I can’t remember what my real job is anymore. Is it a farmer, or a NASA technician? A firefighter, or maybe it’s just a plain old city planner? I’m very confused. So with Airport Simulator 2019, I have been left to compose my mind and work hard at becoming the best airport manager the world has ever known. But how did I get on? Was I Concorde soaring across the sky, or a paper airplane trying to get off the ground?