This game is a masterpiece, and yet it still could have been so much better.
It’s still an intelligent, heart-warming puzzle game, but replaying the re-mastered version of Grim Fandango sadly wasn’t everything Phil Hartup had hoped for.
The PC version of GTA V is without any doubt the most technically accomplished video game ever made. And yet, it still has flaws.
Don't commodify the people who modify PC games.
Net nostalgia.
It might provide the most unambiguous bad guys in history, but WWII is surely is getting a bit old now.
It took 30 years, but the gorgeous Elite: Dangerous lives up to the game that so many players imagined the original space-trading classic to be, beyond its basic graphics.
From Borderlands to Payday 2, by way of Left 4 Dead and Destiny, the world is full of games that just don’t quite work when played solo.
The ratings labels on the boxes may say a game is only suitable for older teenager or adults, but that's usually only about violence or gore - real maturity in games is often rarer, and harder to define.
As the reaction to The Order 1886 has demonstrated, we seem to have reached a point a developer can think that five hours of entertainment justifies not just the price to the consumer, but their own efforts.
What sets this game apart is its perspective on the past: it’s not often you get to play as the Big Bad Nomad himself.
In real life, the magic of football lies in its unpredictability. But in Football Manager, players hate elements that undermine their years of careful planning.
Alarming as it is to see the traditional major parties all trying their hardest to look the same, it comes down to who you think is least likely to make things worse.
Many multiplayer titles offer in-game boosts - for a price. But is it fair when someone beats you by getting out their credit card to bypass learning skills and grinding through upgrades?
Is it a text adventure? Is it a puzzle game? Is it some sort of visual novel? This acclaimed gaming take on Jules Verne's classic tale is an innovative approach to storytelling.
It might be a tasteless joke, but the thousands of people proud of being part of the "PC Master Race" know they're getting the best bang for their buck when it comes to gaming.
The reason so many mainstream games are so violent isn't because of lack of imagination - it's just that, for now, it's the most effective way to create a compelling, competitive experience for the player.
Twitter might be here to stay. Those block lists, those grudges, those bridges we burn – we could be stuck with them. And that is a sobering thought.
There haven't been any all-time classics in 2014, but the industry as a whole has made some promising innovations.
What can we say about construction projects where possibly hundreds have died, but we don’t know how, who they were, or even where they were all from?
What’s wrong with a self-assembly hero? A player-created protagonist doesn’t just solve the problem of players feeling unrepresented by the characters in their games, it crushes it.
This game isn’t trying to be a serious study of life, the universe or anything else – it is its self-awareness that makes it so good.
Acclaimed survival game This War of Mine gives players the chance to experience the wretched conditions of civilian life in a major city under siege.
Empire-building games, from Crusader Kings 2 to Civilisation V, feed our desire for power and control. But if you try to replay history as an ethical god-king, guess what happens? France invades.
Buying a game before the development process is finished is always a gamble – too often, it either goes very right or very wrong.
Should a game provide “value for money” and pad out its story with as many tedious hours of fetching things as possible, or is there merit in a short, sharp ending?
We should always be wary when outside agents attempt to co-opt video games to service an agenda - but I'm not talking about "social justice warriors", I'm talking about the gun lobby.
You’ll never go too far wrong with a commercial product that makes the players feel like supermen, but this is a miscalculation on the part of the developers.
We have reached the point where, for games to progress as an art form, the mainstream examples needs to be about more than just killing things for the sake of it.
When the balance of challenge and reward in a game gets out of sync, players can end up doing length, tedious tasks in exchange for a “win”. Do we even know what fun is anymore?