Sea of Thieves

The first thing you see when you drop into the Sea of Thieves isn’t the sea; it’s a table, a grubby, worn, wooden thing in a dingy tavern, dimly lit by candles, the hurdy-gurdy strains of some shanty (or Ride of the Valkyries) warbling in the air. There’s a woman at the bar who’ll offer bits of gossip or refill your tankard (for free - the business model is unclear).

Through the door, out into the too-bright sun, and you’re greeted by shanty lean-to stores and tents - where you’ll pick up Voyages, and (eventually) buy new boots, hats, weapons, tools - all looking like they’ve been cobbled together from the remains of whatever ships washed up here before you did. A short distance away, bobbing on one of the best water simulations you’ve ever seen, is your ship. Part vehicle, part home base, she’s your Falcon, your Serenity, your Black Pearl.

As a great captain once said, what a ship is - is freedom.

Destiny 2

The short version of any Destiny 2 review is this: If you liked Destiny, you’ll like Destiny 2. If not, you probably won’t. Most of the changes are quality of life improvements, leaving the whole thing feeling much more like an expansion than a sequel.

 The one area that’s seen a lot of attention - both from the devs and from press coverage - is the addition of a story, and it’s the story I want to talk about here.

 Destiny set a low bar for game narrative, thanks to most of it famously being hacked out 9 months before launch. To be honest, I’m not sure Destiny 2 has better writing, as much as there’s just a lot more of it; there’s still a lot of cliche and a dearth of subtext (everyone either says exactly what they mean or makes a joke), but the thing that bugged me most about it was the lack of cost.

 Spoilers follow.

Don't Starve Together

Most of the time I've spent with Don't Starve to date has been vicarious; charming as it is, the Tim Burton aesthetic never quite clicked with me, and the gameplay was just a little too punishing; I prefer my games with a little more direction included, or at least some kind of instruction beyond the title, even if it's as simple as No Man's Sky's "reach the center of the galaxy at some point".

My wife and her sister, however, meshed immediately, so I've spent uncounted hours sitting on the sofa with Winston or Wendy or Woodie tramping around the procedural landscape, offering advice, if not assistance.

But now Don't Starve Together has launched on PlayStation 4, and I'm pitching in to "help".

No Man's Sky

I was going to leave it at No Man's Diary, but after a couple of weeks with this, I feel like I've digested it enough to talk about in a more review-y kind of way. No Man's Sky is too big, too different, too weird for any initial gut reaction to be properly accurate.

It struggled to live up to the hype - but then, how could it not? Pitched as the biggest, most ambitious game you've ever heard of, never mind played, No Man's Sky is a functionally infinite universe of planets to explore, mine, trade, and fight among. Gameplay is relatively simple - it's essentially resource and inventory management, with simple combat layered on top - but the "I'll just go over here and..." factor means there's always something on the horizon: an alien outpost, an ancient monolith, another upgrade you're just a few more minerals short of...

Hitman episode 4: Bangkok (and Bonus Summer episode)

One town looks very like another when your head's down over your target, brother.

So far, Hitman has taken us to an exclusive fashion show in a Parisian mansion, a secret lab located under an Italian seaside resort, and the Swedish Embassy in Marrakesh, so a hotel seems a little... ordinary? Certainly, it's the first location where an ordinary person could find themselves without being a high-flying international assassin for hire.

But the Himmapan luxury hotel is no ordinary venue; this is, after all, Hitman, and that means plenty of backroom areas rife for exploration and exploitation.

Hitman: Marrakesh

Another month, another exotic, sun-drenched location to explore; IO Interactive only just managed to get this one out in May, but they are just about managing to keep to their one-a-month “schedule”, and Marrakesh is yet another change of pace from what’s gone before. Where Paris was contained clockwork, and Sapienza was sleepy and flexible, Marrakesh is tense and claustrophobic.

The targets this time around are a banker, currently holed up in the Swedish embassy, and an army general looking to use public unrest surrounding the banker’s paramilitary-assisted avoidance of prosecution to build up support for a military coup.

With violence brewing, 47’s sent in to prevent the fall of a government… or, more specifically, the building contracts that said government has awarded to the ICA’s construction-company client.

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

The cliff-notes version is this: the writing is as good as it's ever been, and Naughty Dog have squeezed near-unbelievable performance out of the PS4. The gameplay is... well, it's Uncharted: slightly floaty (but mostly forgiving) puzzle/platforming interspersed with fairly loose gunplay, but both are spiced up by the introduction of a grappling hook, which opens up possibilities for both traversal and Tarzan-swinging aerial takedowns that simply never get old.

Narrative-driven games are always more difficult to talk about. Potential spoilers abound, even when discussing the opening stages.

So I'll try and avoid spoilers, as always, but... Pyrates - ye be warned.

Hitman: Sapienza

Six and a half weeks after it launched, I've still not done everything there is to do in Hitman's excellent inaugural mission, Paris; so of course, here comes episode two, set in the sunnyAmalfi coast town of Sapienza.

If I didn't manage to rinse Paris yet, I don't think I'll ever see everything there is to see here - Sapienza is colossal. Aside from the villa that acts as a sort of focus for the new Story mission - which itself feels almost a third the size of the Palais de Walewska in Paris - there are winding streets, apartments, offices, a beach, boat docks, sewers, and more to explore.

And of course, there are loads of NPCs to choke unconscious before stealing their clothes.

Platinum Demo - Final Fantasy XV

Confession: I've never finished a Final Fantasy game. Not even VII (I once got to Gold Saucer). In fact, I've never finished any JRPG; something about the systems, the style, or some other aspect of the things just never clicked with me. A few have come close; Final Fantasy XIII, once I worked out what the hell was going on, but that was cut short a mere 28 hours in when my PS3's hard drive failed, and I've never worked up the energy to start again.

But, despite my own lack of synchronicity with JRPGs, they're one of the juggernauts of the "hardcore" gaming community, so I keep coming back, thinking that maybe this one will finally let me in, allow me to glimpse what it is that everyone else seems to love so much.

Based on this demo, Final Fantasy XV will not be the one to let me in.

Hitman (2016)

Hitman is not an action game. Despite its title, it’s not really a “murder simulator” either, though I don’t doubt there are some who’d call it that, pearls firmly clutched; no, after a lot of hours spent exploring the cavernous mock-settings of the ICA training facility, and the opulent, baroque Parisian palace, I’m pretty sure it’s a puzzle game. A huge, sprawling, complex puzzle with dozens of solutions - and, yes, okay, quite a lot of murder.

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Full disclosure: I've not played much of Dragon Age Inqisition yet. I think my current play time is still under 20 hours, I've got at least two other party members to recruit, and the Inquisition's fortress of Skyhold hasn't even been mentioned once in my time with it.

Still, I think it's enough time to know two things: one, I'm going to get a hell of a lot more hours under my belt; and two, it has some problems.

Halo 3

I keep telling myself, "Next, I'm going to do a No. Boot Sheep hasn't said No yet, and he really should, since that was the first thing I ever drew him saying".

I really thought Halo 3 would be it. Despite its pedigree being a pair of games that, while enjoying massive critical and financial success, always annoyed me, this is actually... not...bad.

There, I said it.