The Final Boss

Yoshi-P is not chortin' it.

If Insomniac has proved anything over the last eight years, it’s that they know how to make a hell of a superhero game. Marvel's Spider-Man remains one of the PlayStation 4’s defining action games and a shining example of open-world design, as are both of its follow-ups. Now they’re looking to replicate that magic with Marvel's Wolverine, albeit this time as a traditional linear AAA action game. I got to play about two and half hours at a recent preview event, and while my impressions are mostly glowingly positive, I did come away with a few questions and concerns.

I think my favourite thing about the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy so far is the specific ways in which the developers at Square Enix inject nostalgia. The games launched to date - Remake and Rebirth - manage to nod warmly towards aspects of the original RPG without it ever feeling trite. You can see it in so many aspects of the way the games are curated: the way certain musical sequences are teased as motifs, and then brought in, full-throated, for certain boss fights; the redesigns of (in)famous monsters, and how certain major enemies are deployed in slightly remixed ways for maximum effect

Its bosses are every bit as demanding as those found in a Soulslike, but the journey between them isn't built around constant punishment. Onimusha: Way of the Sword is a game that manages to challenge the player without becoming exhausting, allowing the game to shift naturally between moments of intense concentration and opportunities to simply enjoy stylish swordplay.

Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 seems like one of those lazy Sunday games, where you kill part of an afternoon playing a couple hours with friends. It gets Aliens and understands that forty miles of bad road Cameron envisioned. As a co-op game, it’s not going to change the world. Aliens already did that. But it’s a great excuse to play around in that world again, and I’m eager to see what else LV-558 has in store.