XCOM 2 is, without a doubt, one of the best tactical turn-based strategy games I’ve played. Across multiple playthroughs, I’ve rarely found myself bored. The game has a notable learning curve, and mistakes are often met with harsh consequences—but that’s precisely what makes it so compelling. The punishing difficulty perfectly aligns with the tone XCOM 2 sets: one of desperation, risk, and resistance.


XCOM 2 tells a powerful story of rebellion and resilience. Without spoiling too much, you begin as the leader of a fledgling resistance movement, equipped with only a few soldiers and a mobile base of operations. Your mission? Take back Earth from alien occupiers. The game masterfully sustains a sense of vulnerability, making every mission feel like you’re battling against overwhelming odds. At its core, it’s a story about humanity’s refusal to surrender—even in the face of near-certain defeat.

Beyond the main narrative, the real beauty of XCOM 2 lies in the emergent stories that unfold through gameplay. The choices you make—both right and wrong—shape your own personal war journal. There are countless moments where a tough decision must be made: do you sacrifice a veteran soldier who’s been with you for dozens of missions to save the rest of your squad? Those choices stick with you, and it’s these emotional beats that make XCOM 2 so memorable. As a nice touch, the game even lets you write obituaries for fallen soldiers—a small but meaningful feature for those who want to honour their digital comrades.


The core gameplay loop is straightforward but deeply satisfying. Your mobile base acts as a hub where you’ll build facilities, train soldiers, conduct research, and craft new gear. Missions come in various types, often beginning in stealth where you scout the area and plan an ambush. The combat is turn-based and team-oriented, allowing you to move your units in any order before passing the turn to the enemy.

The base game features four soldier classes, each assigned randomly after a recruit is promoted. Every class has a unique role, and building a well-rounded squad is essential. With branching skill trees, you can customize soldiers further—no two units need to feel the same unless you design them that way.

A divisive element for some is the RNG system behind hit chances. It’s true that you can miss a 95% shot and land a 10% Hail Mary, which can be frustrating or exhilarating depending on how the dice roll. But for me, those unpredictable moments—when a last-ditch shot miraculously lands—are what make the experience so memorable.


A quick word on the expansion: War of the Chosen is one of the most impressive expansions in recent memory. It adds a wealth of content including new story missions, soldier classes, enemy types, bosses, weapons, armour, a faction-based world control system, and even a soldier bonding mechanic. XCOM 2 stands strong on its own, but War of the Chosen elevates it to a whole new level. If you can grab it on sale (it’s gone as low as £2), it’s a must-have addition.


XCOM 2 is a challenging, rewarding, and deeply immersive strategy game. It blends tactical depth with emotional storytelling, letting you craft your own unforgettable moments on the battlefield. With a strong core experience and a stellar expansion in War of the Chosen, it’s a game I constantly find myself returning to. If you enjoy strategy, squad management, and stories shaped by your decisions, XCOM 2 is essential. A strong 9/10 from me

Halo: The Master Chief Collection brings together six iconic Halo titles—Halo: Reach, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 2: Anniversary, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, and Halo 4. That’s six brilliant games (well, maybe excluding Halo 4) for just £34, which is an absolute steal for the amount of content on offer.

The Halo series was hugely influential in shaping the FPS genre, and while the earlier titles do show their age—some sections of Halo: Combat Evolved can feel like a bit of a slog—they’re still absolutely worth playing. I grew up with these games, and even today, I still find myself jumping in for a few matches or replaying a classic campaign.

Each game in the collection has received a minor facelift, and despite their age, they all look great. The standout here is Halo 2: Anniversary, which received a full remaster, and even a decade later, it looks gorgeous. One of its best features is the ability to switch between the original and remastered graphics and music at the press of a button—something I wish more remasters would implement. On top of that, every game in the collection runs at a smooth 60 FPS, a first for the franchise. This improvement makes a noticeable difference, making combat feel smoother and the overall experience more polished.

One of the most underrated features of the collection is the ability to install only the parts you want, which helps manage its massive file size. With everything installed, it can exceed 100GB, but you can choose to install just the multiplayer or campaign, and even mix and match between games. For example, you could have Halo 2’s campaign installed while keeping only Halo 3’s multiplayer. It’s a small but incredibly useful feature.

The Master Chief Collection still has an active multiplayer scene which is as entertaining as ever. Finding matches is quick across all game modes, and there’s a huge variety of options, ranging from 2v2 battles to 16v16 skirmishes. Whether you’re looking for classic arena gameplay, objective-based modes, or just some casual chaos, there’s something for everyone.

Maybe I’m looking at this collection through the rose-tinted glasses of someone who played Halo 3 every day after school, but for me, this is an easy 10/10. The sheer amount of content, the quality of life improvements, and the nostalgia factor make it one of the best gaming collections ever released. At this price, it’s an absolute no-brainer—whether you’re a long-time Halo fan or someone experiencing these legendary games for the first time, The Master Chief Collection is well worth your time.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is a brilliant game, and I personally believe it stands on par with Baldur’s Gate 3. It’s clear that DOS2 laid the foundation upon which BG3 was built, as so many of its core mechanics and design philosophies carry over. While I haven’t played any other entries in the Divinity series and can’t compare it to previous titles, I’ll mostly be drawing comparisons to BG3, given their similarities.


Without going into too much detail, the story of DOS2 revolves around you and up to three companions as you journey to become Divine. The narrative is well-crafted, and the villains you encounter along the way are compellingly written. Like in BG3, each companion has their own personal story that seamlessly weaves into the main narrative. However, unlike BG3, you must choose three of the available companions, and those you don’t pick become unavailable after Act 1. Fortunately, Act 1 is long enough to experiment with different companions, get a feel for their personalities, and explore their personal quests before making a final decision.

Some companion stories are stronger than others, and in my experience, they tend to work best when told in the third person. For example, in my second playthrough, I had Lohse as a companion, and I thought her story was fantastic—one of my favorites. But when I played as Lohse in my third playthrough, I found that her story was much more impactful when experienced through her perspective rather than as her. While I haven’t tested this with every origin character, I imagine many of them work the same way, so I’d generally recommend playing a custom-made character for the best experience.


If you’ve played Baldur’s Gate 3, DOS2 will feel very familiar. However, its combat system differs in a few key ways. Instead of the traditional D&D-style system of Movement, Action, and Bonus Action, DOS2 uses a pool of Action Points (AP), allowing for more flexibility in how you approach each turn. Personally, I prefer DOS2’s system, as it gives more freedom in how you execute your moves. It's also worth noting that this game is not based on D&D. It has its own spell system, abilities, and mechanics, so while there’s some overlap, you won’t find staples like Eldritch Blast here.

One of my favourite aspects of DOS2 is its environmental interactions in combat. Nearly every surface or cloud you encounter can be altered with different elements. See a puddle of oil? Set it ablaze. Notice a lingering cloud? Cast an electric spell to turn it into a charged storm. Standing in a pool of blood? Cast a healing spell to make it restore health instead of just being a mess on the battlefield. This level of interactivity adds an entire extra layer to combat, which I sorely missed when playing BG3.

Another major gameplay mechanic is the armour system. Instead of just a health bar, characters have Physical Armor and Magic Armor, which determine their resistance to certain effects. Physical Armor blocks physical-based status effects like Knockdown, while Magic Armor prevents magical afflictions like being Charmed or Stunned. This system forces you to think strategically—mages naturally have high Magic Armor but weak Physical Armor, making them vulnerable to physical attacks. Conversely, heavily armoured warriors might shrug off physical strikes but struggle against magic casters. This dual-layered armour system adds extra tactical depth and makes encounters more engaging.


Divinity: Original Sin 2 is a phenomenal game that delivers deep tactical combat, excellent storytelling, and an immersive world filled with meaningful choices. While Baldur’s Gate 3 has refined and expanded upon many of its ideas, DOS2 still holds its own and, in some ways, surpasses it—especially in combat mechanics and environmental interactivity.
If you love RPGs, especially ones that challenge your strategic thinking and offer player-driven narratives, Divinity: Original Sin 2 is absolutely worth playing. Whether you’re coming from BG3 or just looking for an outstanding RPG experience, this game is one of the best in the genre.

Probably the most popular Rogue-Like game out there, with the DLCs there is plenty of content to keep you busy, it's a good game to play when you find yourself scrolling aimlessly up and down your steam library.

I was gifted this game on release by a friend who was really into Warhammer at the time. We played for a couple of hours, thought it was fun but also just really kind of a Left4Dead clone. I came back to this back in early 2021 to play with a different friend and I just got sucked in.

The combat in this game is cathartic and cutting down hordes just seems to always be a good time and this game definitely benefits from running on max settings. The atmosphere and level design are also on point, each of the 3 acts takes you to completely different areas to help keep things fresh, each level is designed in way to feel unique and memorable.

The banter between characters also makes their unlikely alliance together feel genuine, whether it be in the keep or during a mission, the characters always have something to say. Some people might find this annoying after a while but I find them endlessly quotable.

The only real negative thing I would say about this title is that most of the fun comes in the late game, As this game has RPG elements in it, you're forced to slowly bring up your character thus being forced to play on the easiest difficulty at the start. Everything on recruit difficulty just feels...underwhelming. The hordes are small, the specials and elites are few and far between and there really is just no challenge which can make the early game feel like a slog. This game really shines when playing on at least Champion difficulty as this is when the game gets the balance just right and the fights start to feel intense

This is a great co-op game to play with friends and none of the classes or the subsequent careers feel entirely useless. I definitely recommend bringing some friends as the AI aren't the smartest I've seen.

9/10

Resident Evil 8 was a good ol' time, it doesn't quite reach the same scares as Resident Evil 7 did in my opinion and I feel they both suffered the same issue in that the fear kinda goes away after the first couple of hours into the game. The introduction to this title does a great job of giving the feeling of going against overwhelming odds which i don't think many games in this day and age get right

I don't really have any complaints about this game, the last chapter or two get a little ridiculous but then again most games in this series have their ridiculous moments.

Overall fun experience, kinda turns into normal First Person shooter but the 3 hour mark. in my opinion it's a Buy on Sale kinda game