City 17 at eye level, a shaky hand reloading the pistol.

On gut choice, Half-Life: Alyx gets ahead of three quarters of the games, which makes it a clear favourite in the community's eyes. The detail is more mixed. Rediscovery climbs high, ahead of around 60% of the field, and so does art style, though that line rests on only three duels, so treat it as a signal to confirm. Connection, controller feel and the soundtrack all hover around the middle. But fun drops off, ahead of just 20% of games, and desert island stays low. There's the tension: you dream of experiencing Alyx for the first time again, you just don't take it with you.

That figures. It's the only game in its bracket that exists solely in virtual reality, and the headset changes everything: you don't fire it up for a quick session at 3am, you clear the space, you plug in. The spontaneous fun question just isn't its question.

So, who is it for? For you if you own a headset, if you want the medium's technical and sensory showcase, an immersion nothing else delivers. Much less so if you play with a controller on the couch, or if you want a game to dip back into in small doses.