They’re always the first mods I installed in skyrim. So many times you get a surprise dragon fight after just clearing out and looting an entire dungeon. I hate killing it and then not being able to pick up the bones because oooh no you’re already carrying too much!

I’ve just picked up Brotato yesterday, it’s a roguelike bullet hell where you build up your character and try to survive 20 waves using loads of different weapons and items. The great thing is you control your character with just one analog stick, but it’s a lot harder than it sounds. Reminds me a lot of old flash games I used to play as a kid. I’ve only played for a few hours so far and managed to win one run. Personally, I love the experience of figuring out a gameand working out optimal strategies, an itch which Slay the Spire has been scratching for a long time for me. I can already tell I’m going to invest a lot of time into this game, I was hooked right from the beginning. Loving the sound of SMG bullets decimating entire hordes of enemies. Well worth picking up on steam, plays really well on the steam deck. The game is only £4 at full price, and it’s 20% off right now.

Cautious optimism is definitely the way to go with this one. The showcase here definitely looks good, but how many promises can they actually deliver on? I’m hoping most of the planets have some sort of content that doesn’t include the classic Bethesda radiant fetch quests. The cities look promising, animal/wildlife designs look good, and the space battles remind me of Star Wars Battle front 2 (in a good way!)

The special preorder editions are slightly concerning, I’m hoping most people haven’t forgotten the Fallout ‘canvas bag’ debacle and learned their lesson. Stop preordering games! It doesn’t matter what the extra bonuses are if the game behind them is no good. Especially the 5 day early access that plays on your FOMO. Everyone’s waited this long, you can wait a few extra days. I’m waiting until reviews are in and we see some release gameplay. Don’t forget that Bethesda are also known for extremely buggy day 1 releases.

If it does actually turn out really good, this might be the final excuse I need to upgrade my 6 year old PC and give my GTX970 a nice retirement.

Some of my favourites right now: -Wingspan: 1-5 player game about birds from all over the world (with the European, Oceania and Asia expansions). Build up your board of birds and make future actions you take have more effects. There’s a solo mode and Asia expansion introduces a special 2 player and 6-7 player mode. As a birder myself, can’t recommend this game enough. -Parks: Small but in depth 1-5 player game about exploring US national parks. You buy gear and set your hikers off on a trail that changes every round, to collect tokens and visit national parks. Games last up to an hour that feels like it flies by. Box design is the best I’ve seen, everything just fits together perfectly in a tiny box, making it much easier for travel. -Terraforming Mars: Most complex game I own, for 1-5 players. Games can take 2-4 hours sometimes. You play as a corporation and compete with others to terraform mars the fastest. You raise the three global parameters (temperature, oxygen level and water) and increase your terraforming rating, all while managing your resources by playing various project cards. Has a challenging 1 player mode where you’re racing against the generation counter to terraform mars in under 14 generations. Expansions are a bit expensive but I can recommend Prelude and Hellas & Elysium, for extra cards that can be played at the start of game to kickstart your resource generation, and a double sided map you can use as a replacement for the base game board.

Other notable mentions are 7 Wonders, Tokaido, Mystic Vale and Ticket to Ride

This is definitely huge for me. Nothing quite as frustrating as watching an unskippable cutscene every time you die to a boss.

Slay the Spire for me. Got all the characters to A20 with multiple heart wins, 700+ hours in across phone and steam deck, still having a blast with every run. The awesome thing is that every run is so distinct, every card in the game can be good in the right scenario.