This Hellboy roguelike nails the ‘Hellboy’ but fluffs the ‘roguelike’. A brilliant recreation of Mignola’s art and surprisingly sharp writing are let down by thin, repetitive gameplay.

It’s the hope that kills you. A trite epithet all too familiar to sports fans (RIP Arsenal title challenge 22/23, we hardly knew ye), and strangely appropriate to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Few have left as heavy a mark on the world of role-playing games (RPGs) as Feargus Urquhart. Across a decades-long career as both developer and publisher he’s worked on three Fallout games, most of the good Dungeons & Dragons titles, and even an unexpectedly successful RPG spin on South Park. That track record makes it all the stranger that the latest two releases from Obsidian Entertainment, the development studio he’s led since founding it in 2003, aren’t RPGs at all. The Honey I Shrunk the

“If it goes badly, you look like a twat – and I do not want to look like a twat.” Mike Rose, journalist turned game publisher, self-described “egotistical maniac”, and among the more outspoken members of British games Twitter, doesn’t sound like most industry figureheads.

It’s been 19 years since the last original 2D Metroid game, Metroid Fusion, which launched way back in 2002. Since then the series has jumped into 3D with the Prime games, and revisited the classics in a couple of 2D remakes, but fans have been waiting two decades for plot threads first dangled on a Game Boy Advance to see their resolution.

The Xbox Series X is a somewhat paradoxical console. It’s the most powerful black box Microsoft has ever produced to play games on, launched at the same time the company keeps saying that hardware doesn’t matter, and all Xboxes are created equal.

This is a different beast to the Resident Evil 2 remake – and a lesser one, in all honesty – but it’s been stitched together with just as much love and attention to detail. They just decided to give it a flamethrower for good measure.

Here’s some good news in these trying times: there’s a growing body of evidence that adrenaline can boost immune response. On that basis, playing DOOM Eternal is essentially medicinal.

Ring Fit Adventure hits the sweet spot for an exercise title. There’s enough depth to the RPG elements to keep you coming back day-in, day-out, without ever becoming so inaccessibly deep as to put anyone who’s never touched Skyrim. More importantly, it actually delivers a proper workout. You can work at your own pace, but if you’re committed you can push yourself hard, and the Ring-Con offers enough resistance for proper upper body sessions. If you want to, you will sweat, and you will get sore, which is more than you can say for every exercise game out there.

It’s been six years and two consoles since the last major home console Zelda game, Skyward Sword, and fans have understandably been getting a little antsy about getting their hands on Breath of the Wild. Originally slated as a Wii U exclusive, it’s been delayed enough to become a launch title for the Nintendo Switch (though there’s still a Wii U version too, for non-early adopters).

Dominic Preston reviews the latest by videogame analysis maestro Ian Bogost, discussing the politics and cultures of gaming in contemporary society. Ian Bogost, How to Talk about Videogames (University of Minnesota Press, 2015)  208pp.