With Wrench, you have fun. Set 12 years after Watch Dogs 2 we find out a lot has happened to Wrench. He left DedSec, started his own company, had it stolen from him. He got married and divorced and beat his ex husbands car up with his hammer - which is now my favourite weapon.

Ultimately, Bloodlines is about the past and how it affects your future. From Aiden and his PTSD to Wrench and his anxiety and trust issues. The Watch Dogs team told a brief (about 6 hours if you do all the side activities) but memorable story.

I am excited for the next Watch Dogs game after playing the Bloodlines expansion.

In late 2020, Microsoft announced it had purchased Zenimax Media. This added several studios to their Xbox Games Studios roster - for a total of 23. This included Bethesda Softworks who have made the Fallout and Elder Scrolls games, id Software who have overseen the newest Doom games, and MachineGames who rebooted Wolfenstein. But there is one studio that usually flies under the radar - Arkane.

For context, Insomniac Games are a games studio acquired by Sony in 2019 and are considered (by me at least) as the most consistent Playstation Studio, putting out a game for Sony pretty much every two years, they are very good at what they do and surprisingly do not crunch for their games. I believe that they are the best Playstation Studio.

Arkane, however, is a developer with teams in Austin, Texas and Lyon, France. They are responsible for games like Prey, Dishonored, the upcoming Deathloop and next years Redfall. They were a Zenimax Studio and were therefore acquired by Microsoft and made a part of Xbox Games Studios. Their games are first person, have violence and usually let you approach the missions in a few different ways - they are great developers whose games have great artistic styles.

The imagination of Double Fine is front and center, and I hope that this becomes a flagship franchise for Xbox in the future, because more psychonauts will definitely be a good thing.

Verdict - 10/10 - The Game of the Year.

Below are some of my favourite screenshots I took during my playtime.

A little over two weeks ago, Netflix premiered a new animated show called 'Q-Force'. The first season has ten episodes, each coming in at about a half hour each. It stars Sean Hayes, Wanda Sykes, Laurie Metcalf, David Harbour and Matt Rogers amongst a strong voice cast of cast of guest stars.

The plot focuses around the West Hollywood team of agents for a CIA type organisation called the AIA. The West Hollywood team is also known as Q-Force, as it is the place that the AIA sends its queer agents to keep them out the public eye.

If you watched the trailer for this show you'd definitely get the impression that the show relies on stereotypes to tell it's stories, and it does, but as groundwork to build a team of characters you will actually grow to like by the end of the first season, as these characters grow past their stereotypes, learn from each other and manage to bring down a conspiracy that goes back nearly 3 decades. The team includes Steve 'Mary' Maryweather (the leader), Deb (the muscle), Twink (the master of disguise), Stat (A hacker extraordinaire), Buck (the token straight) and Veronica (the deputy head of the AIA).

I believe that this show succeeds in outsmarting it's expectations and building past the stereotypes for a simple reason - Queer talent is heavily involved - The writers room, the voice cast, the animators and the directors, all have queer people working within them to create a unique show.

It's not perfect, some characters definitely feel underdeveloped compared to others but this could simply be remedied with another season. But the groundwork for a great queer show is there.

Verdict - 8/10

At time of writing, all these games are slated for release in 2022.

Saints Row, Aug 23 - A complete reboot of the legendary franchise, it's revitalising its story after going off the rails in Saints Row 4. While some criticise the game for not looking like games past, it is a reboot, and one that looks to evolve Saints Row into a true competitor to GTA while taking advantage of the fact that GTAVI is still years away.

Horizon Forbidden West, Feb 18 - Guerilla Games long awaited sequel may have caused controversy in its crossgen pricing, which was rightly rectified. It will undoubtedly take over the gaming world in the week between its launch and that of Saints Row. It looks to be a great improvement on the previous game and will hopefully live up to its hype.

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, Mar 25 - Inspired by Borderlands 2 dlc, Tiny Tina will embark on her own quest as dungeon master in what seems to be yet another gun filled, fun adventure with an amazing voice cast.

Redfall - The first exclusive title to Xbox after the acquisition of Bethesda, from the team at Arkane Austin, is a vampire hunting looters shooter. While only a CGI trailer has been shown off, it promises an adventure unlike anything Arkane has done before. It may end up being the best co-op shooter to play through with friends on Xbox.

Starfield, Nov 11 - The big one for Xbox, the first game Bethesda Softworks has released in 25 years that hasn't been Elder Scrolls or Fallout. It is a sci-fi RPG that promises to be like no other. I love a good sci-fi RPG, and I'm sure I'll love this one when it launches on what seems to be a stereotype release day for Bethesda.

God of War Ragnarok - The big one for PlayStation, the second and final part of Kratos story through the Norse Mythology and what seems to be an epic adventure through the nine realms. It promises to be an epic adventure with a rumoured 40 hour long campaign. It'll definitely be taking up a lot of my time next year.

Gotham Knights - A new game from Rocksteady, unrelated to their Arkham Games, you will be able to play as members of the bat family. Gameplay was shown off at DC Fandome and more will be shown off this year. Hopefully this will live up to the legacy of Arkham, even if the story is completely unrelated.

Redfall is an upcoming cooperative shooter developed by Arkane Austin and published by Bethesda and Xbox Games Studios.

The story focuses on the town of Redfall, Massachusetts which has found itself cut off from the rest of the world and is beset by vampires. These vampires were seemingly created through a laboratory experiment gone wrong and have taken over the town, helped by a group of human cultists who worship the vampires and hope to join their ranks. You must stop them.

You (and upto three of your friends) can choose to play as four different characters:

Devinder Crousley - A cryptozoologist and inventor. He creates his own weapons and was investigating Redfall as the vampires took over.

Layla Ellison - A student at Redfall Technical University studying Biomedical Engineering. She volunteered for a medical trial at the Aevum Therapeutics Research Facility. However, something went wrong and as a result, Layla developed intense telekinetic abilities.

Remi De La Rosa - A determined combat engineer who has spent her life in disaster zones. She has a robotic companion - Bribon - and wants to rescue help the survivors of Redfall.

Jacob Boyer - An ex-military sharpshooter turned private contractor. He has a vampiric eye and a spectral raven, but how he got either is unknown but is connected to the strange goings-on in Redfall.

Arkane have, at time of writing, not shown off gameplay of Redfall and we will likely not see any gameplay until E3 2022 in June. However leaks have described the gameplay as akin to Borderlands - which is certainly a departure from the gameplay of other Arkane games such as Dishonored, Prey and Deathloop - but I believe Arkane can pull this off.

Releases summer 2022 for Xbox Series X and S, PS5 and PC. Also day one gamepass release.