The Taking of Annie Thorne

This unique open-world and first-person shooter is pretty much a standalone expansion pack to its Far Cry predecessors. Players explore the fictional US-themed Hope County, partially destroyed by a nuclear war.

You choose your character’s gender and race before creating your storyline, alongside human survivors and animals hired as help in the immersive wasteland.

Side missions are a key part of developing your character as you take part in treasure hunts and take over enemy outposts for fast-track points.

Once cleared, you can return and clear out the bad guys to scavenge more loot, weapons and ammo. Controls are simple enough, with an easy-to-access menu and skill-based upgrade system.

The game isn’t the best looking but it doesn’t lag and I didn’t encounter any glitches. The only downside to Far Cry New Dawn is its storyline – which doesn’t quite pack the punch it promised.

DAVID RAVEN

APP

This one is for gamers

“of a certain age”... relive your

youth with this fun retro handheld

arcade machine. It looks like an

old-school arcade machine and is loaded

with 240 reimagined versions of

your favourite nostalgic video games.

Show your kids what life was like in

your yoof.

My Trouble with Classical Music

David Baddiel starts a quest to like classical music, after his parents’ passion for it led him to form an instinctive antipathy. He is accompanied by people who share his feelings and others who want to open it up for him – including relatives and comedy partner Frank Skinner. When Joe Thorne returns to the small colliery town where he grew up, it’s not for sentimental reasons.

Now a middle-aged teacher whose peccadillos include a gambling problem, Joe is responding to a call from the past linked to his little sister Annie – who, after briefly vanishing, had come home spookily altered.

As in the author’s smash debut The Chalk Man, this is a well-crafted horror-drenched mystery, told by a likeably sardonic narrator. Set partly in Joe’s childhood, there are enough creepy goings-on to keep chills going down your spine. DEIRDRE O’BRIEN When 20-something Londoner Julia starts dating women, her life is turned upside down. This no-holds-barred tale of her adventures (with some graphic sex scenes), is a tender, laughter-filled account of love, obsession and the power of friendship. In one of the years she worked at a London animal charity hospital the author met animals and owners whose sometimes painful stories will tug at your heartstrings. There’s a lot of fascinating detail in this report from the front line of animal welfare.