Hopefully, like me, you’ll have booked a bit of time off around the festive period. And coincidentally, Valve’s Winter Steam Sale kicked off just a couple of days before Christmas. Since so many of us and our friends are off, this marks the perfect time of year to dip your toe into the wonderful world of co-operative games.

What’s this? An entirely new genre, you say? Well, arguably that’s exactly what Valve presented to the public in 2008 with the original Left 4 Dead, and its superlative sequel the following year. But was it really a new genre?

There shouldn’t be any arguments when I claim that the original Diablo was a masterpiece. Launched in the 90’s, it defined a new genre of dungeon crawling, successfully mixing traditional Rogue/Nethack elements with beautiful visuals, real-time combat, class selection, an innovative loot system, and haunting music. Let’s look at the series as a whole, and the genre it largely created.

When Slay the Spire launched, back in January 2019, it represented the pinnacle in what became a well recognised genre - Deck Builders. Let’s delve into that genre and see lies beneath the surface.

Deckbuilders! I love 'em. Slay the Spire got me into this genre digitally, after originally feeling the pull of Magic the Gathering in the late 90's. After over a hundred hours playing Slay the Spire, the classic that invigorated the whole genre, I had the bug, bad. So since late 2019 I’ve been hunting for more. MOAR! Here’s a round up of a few favourites.

I was recently offered a beta key for the upcoming Ampers@t dungeon crawler and then a curator key for the recently released Ouroboros Dungeon. What better time, then, to also review the classic crawler, Unexplored?

What happens when Slay the Spire has a baby with DOTA Underlords? We're about to find out in Hadean Tactics.

As the proud and excited owner of a shiny new Valve Index kit to go with my almost-new all-AMD rig, I thought I’d outline the journey to getting it all working, exclusively on Linux.

ΔV: Rings of Saturn continues to expand, adding new POIs, crew, upgrades and more in their latest series of updates.

In Type Knight, you fight skeletons, bats, wraiths and more via the awesome power of your rapid (and hopefully accurate) typing.

If you would cry happy tears at the thought of a modern successor to 80s games like Thrust and Gravitar, then brace yourself for a river. Developer John Watson is making that dream a reality with his first commercial release, Gravity Ace. And you can try it for free!

Welcome to another review in the PIN (Play It NOW) series, where we highlight under-rated games that didn’t get the praise and attention they deserved on release and still don’t to this day. Until now! This time, we’ll take a look at PixelJunk Shooter by Q-Games Ltd.

State of Mind is the latest title from Daedalic Entertainment. It's a mix of over-the-shoulder exploration and old-school adventure, but presented in beautiful graphics rendered by Unreal Engine 4 with some of the finest voice acting you’ll hear in a video game.

Welcome to the another review in the PIN (Play It NOW) series. Conscious that all previous PINs have been action games, this time I’m covering Invisible Inc from Canadian studio Klei Entertainment, a superb stealth/strategy hybrid in the mould of XCOM.

Welcome to another review in the PIN (Play It NOW) series. This time we’re taking a look at Supergiant Games’ second title, Transistor. This stylish game is a unique mix of action, RPG and tactics, set in the future during the outbreak and subsequent onslaught of a man-made enemy known as The Process.

Welcome to the third review in the PIN (Play It NOW) series. This time, we’re covering a game that is so good, you’ll be devastated when you finish it. It’s quality-over-quantity, it’s Gunpoint by Tom Francis, sole developer and owner of Suspicious Developments.

Welcome to the second review in the PIN (Play It NOW) series. We’re going to be looking at quite a recent title called MidBoss by the awesome Kitsune Games and ported by the excellent Ethan Lee. A game full of superlatives then, and now here’s my PIN, urging you to take a look.

Welcome to this new series of reviews, called Play It Now. With PIN, I’ll cover amazing games that you might have missed. They’re not big titles, they’re not all that recent, and maybe they just didn’t get the limelight they deserved. They’re all great games that I’ve either enjoyed playing, or that I’m still passionate about today. Here, we'll look at Flamebreak.

WEATHER FACTORY launch their first game, a dark, Victorian adventure inspired by Lovecraft. We take a look with an in depth review on the day of release.

I love tower defence games. So I thought I’d give you all a list of some of the best, some honourable mentions, and outline a few of the titles I’ve yet to try, in the hope that you’ll tell me why I should!