The Bard's Tale IV: Director’s Cut - Xbox One

The Bard's Tale IV brings players back to the cult-favourite world of Skara Brae and Caith for a deep dive into this iconic, old school RPG. This is a game aimed squarely at your dungeon-crawling itch, with turn-based combat and puzzles stacked on top of puzzles.

Perhaps its most important offering, however, is its oodles of personality. This is a game in which one of the four principle classes is a bard who you have to juice up by plying him with booze. He can learn songs for peeling back thorny barriers or taking down walls, such is the power of bawdy singing in Skara Brae. This is a game where you have to visit a review board to learn whether you're allowed a skills upgrade. This is a game with a printable code wheel for soliving puzzles with, for goodness' sake!

This Director's Cut brings a whole host of tweaks and improvements into the mix, alongside a new dungeon, new weapons, new bosses, new armour, difficulty curve tweaks, interface changes, updated localisations and general performance enhancements. It is, in other words, a pretty serious overhaul.

The Bard's Tale IV: Definitive Edition is a souped-up RPG that rewards both returning veterans and wide-eyed newcomers alike. more