Soul Sacrifice gives you a huge amount of content while constantly confronting you with decisions. It is hard not to get lost in the easy to control, yet challenging and frantic battles, even though the core mechanics get repetitive too soon.

Tactically interesting and tense spin-off, that doesn’t reach the main series’ quality, also because of a few bugs and control issues.

Crimson Desert is massive and visually stunning, but to truly enjoy its game world, you’ll have to be willing to make some compromises. The controls take more than a little getting used to and can be a real pain at times, whether you’re using a gamepad or a mouse and keyboard. The quest design and gameplay guidance are among the worst I’ve experienced in a long time. The story leaves me completely cold, the characters spark zero interest, and while Crimson Desert strives for immersion with its detailed, vibrant world, high-quality animations, and many features, it repeatedly undermines that immersion itself.

A slick interface allows you to easily govern an entire empire and to direct its people like a crafty strategist would move chess pieces. The game misses tactical and diplomatic depth, but this is what an excellent spreadsheet program might look like!

While the AI still has its downs in certain situations, it is a major improvement over the last time we met Karl Fairburne. Sniping in all its infamous glory hasn’t been this entertaining in a while. But the extreme X-ray camera is not for the faint of heart.

It lacks variety in the long run, but with the right group of people around you Evolve is a great romp with beautiful visuals.

A nice retro collection with two Disney oldies still delivering while offering a steep challenge. But even with all the bonus content it has a hefty pricetag.

Stagnation instead of progress: Milestone once again lives up to its reputation of preferring fast recycling instead of developing the franchise in a meaningful way and addressing points of criticism in terms of AI, among other things.

At its core this is still a good hockey game. But it is streamlined too much towards arcade-action while offering basically the same content as last year.

The mobile centre court offers all the playable modes, the full career and the same visual experience as the "big" versions. But that also means it's still stuck somewhere between arcade and simulation while adding a totally useless online mode.

A narratively weak Soulslike, it nevertheless boasts a brilliant and challenging combat system and fresh ideas. On top of that, it has one of the best game worlds in the genre and stunning visuals.

Listening to well written dialogue and mixing drinks while meeting interesting characters - this is a little storytelling gem.

Precipe of Darkness 3 is not only a brilliant Final Fantasy spoof, but an astonishingly well working 16Bit-RPG. The combat system with its wicked classes is well-though-out. Unfortunately the game is rather short.

Sneaking, shooting, smuggling: Star Wars Outlaws delivers a good and compact open world adventure, but without ever wanting to deliver more. Protagonist Kay, on the other hand, is a real asset to the franchise, while minor bugs and AI weaknesses slow down the otherwise good game flow.

The brutal combat, the cops and robbers attitude, the explosive narrative are as entertaining as they were two years ago. And although it of course looks better on the new consoles it doesn’t do the hardware justice.

Story and world lore could be more defined, but Remnant delivers an adrenaline-fueled intelligent adventure - kind of Dark Souls with brute shooter flair.

Classic real-time strategy like Command & Conquer with base building – I’ve missed you. Unfortunately when it comes to battles, brawn is favored over brains.

Challenging, ridiculously old-school platforming with puzzles that challenge your brain as well as your hands – I like it.

Birds as investigators? Caricatures of the romantic era as the art design choice? Aviary Attorney is a gem. An interactive graphic novel with style, humor and its own take on Phoenix Wright.

The LEGO expansion scores with a great toy world and of course everything that is great about the main game,, but lack of content as well as missing active building are quite disappointing.

I really would like to fall in love with Assetto Corsa Competizione. And would it be only for the driving physics, this is a dream on four wheels. But bugs (loads), half-baked features and incomprehensible design decisions leave the impression that is still an obvious beta version with a hefty price tag.

Headlander is a uniquely funny, sometimes weird and visually very distinctive action-adventure.

The sequel to the rather disappointing Toukiden at its core is a motivating demon hunt with an entertaining story and an open world, that shows a few visuals deficits.

While you might complain that Capcom doesn’t offer a complete bundle of the first ten classic Mega Man games, this collection with all its bonus material is worth the trip down memory lane.

At first I thought this just another twinstick shooter. But this is much more than meets the eye. The world of H.P. Lovecraft was put in a pleasing pixel design while mechanically it manages to challenge you from top to bottom.

Northgard looks good and plays well on Switch. The building strategy sports a clever control scheme and ships with all updates. Nonetheless it still keeps some minor flaws.

SWAT missions on speed: this is visceral 2D-action surprising with versatile equipment choices – best player cooperatively.

Quotation forthcoming.

This is a solid start for the planned trilogy. Mixing stealth, shock effects and survival horror, the experience is truly terrifying - at least in the beginning. Towards the end it becomes routine while the minigames and trial & error sequences become tedious.

An entertaining thriller adventure with supernatural puzzles that is overshadowed by technical flaws.

Intense battles in which heroes and cannon fodder soldiers have to work together to achieve victory. Expect a surprisingly long and entertaining campaign plus brutal multiplayer skirmishes, which are in desperate need of more content.

Tera is all about active fighting. The battles feel more dynamic than in any other MMORPG and the design of enemies and the exotic world is praiseworthy. But if you look behind all that, you'll find monotonous quests and an almost non-existent story.

While in terms of story-mode finally on par with the sports game competition and filled to the rim wrestlers, modes and match-types, technical issues and longterm problems dragged around now for years hold this years’ wrestling back.

Beautiful, content-rich and extremely elegant: This action adventure not only feels feels like Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but can almost equal its tremendous quality.

The real-time battles offer countless variations, you enjoy a lot of freedom. The monumental story about the power of true friendship delivers memorable moments full of humour and drama. One of the best role-playing experiences on the PS3.

The driving experience is awesome and together with the gorgeous drifts Hotshot Racing is one of the best arcade racers of this era.

Start up, choose your song, have fun. It is as easy as that. And you can even enjoy the dancing with up to four players. Nonetheless Just Dance could improve on a level of motion recognition. Sometimes it still is too easy to mislead the system into giving you credit for something you didn't do properly.

Ten years after its original release, The World Ends With You still is an interesting and above all original roleplaying expereience. A bizarre story, interesting characters and dynamic team battles show off its creativity.

An exciting, interactive gangster thriller with an idiosyncratic look and great speakers.

Solid roguelite RPG with fancy pixelart visuals and pleasentlc tactical turn based battles.

A playfully successful stealth adventure with an appealing level design and an amazing variety of modes - but unfortunately it's not better than part 4.

Despite the lack of polish and variety Darksiders Genesis is an entertaining spin-off that keeps a lot of the franchises’ staples intact.

Pendulo is on the right track. The conspiracy thriller with its’ complex story keeps you on your edge, while the puzzles are mostly conservative, but are nicely tailored to the narrative.

Conceptually it reminds you of Atlus’ Persona games and even though it is too linear and a tad on the grind side of life, you’ll get a long lasting game full of dynamic turn based tactics.

With its focus on the core elements this is not only a streamlined version of the option-overkill in the full-grown PC version. It serves as a reminder of how simple, yet entertaining the series began.

A solid remake of a solid, albeit short biker adventure that is primarily focused on storytelling and the characters rather than puzzles.

Challenging, classic, colorful: Luigis Add-On brings a new feeling to the retro-platformer, but frustrates with its inert controls.

After SSX this is the second successful reboot for former EA Sports Big franchises: With FIFA 12 as foundation the mechanics in Street feel much more down-to-earth compared to the predecessors without losing their arcade touch. But physics and AI still need improvement.

Telltale, your script is really really good: Great dialogue, brilliant conflicts and a sense of stealth action. But the deficits like playtime as well as the hardly challenging puzzles remain.

The new visit to the Oldest House is thoroughly enjoyable, while expanding on the strengths of the main game.

Cycling, photographing, enjoying: something short but wonderful narrative adventure with many exciting stories.

Overall this is a decent, yet seemingly old-fashioned Switch sequel to the 3DS roleplaying games which showed an original approach to turnbased tactics.

Most of the puzzles are well balanced and cleverly connected – a bit of experimenting quickly leads to the correct solution. Although finding alternative paths can be frustrating.

At first glance just another shooting gallery, the clever inclusion of bullet hell elements and the weapon smithing make this an interesting, yet short VR action game.

Charming and sensibly improved platformer that lacks challenge and diversity in the long run.

Although you’ll find just a few fresh touches within the proven formula, they lead to a few interesting new tactics to take your opponents’ worms down. You want Worms? You’ll get Worms!

Invincible VS is a well-crafted and stylishly animated 3-on-3 brawler. It stays true to the cool source material, and the characters are brought to life effectively. Unfortunately, it lacks standout features and thus falls short of some of its competitors.

At first it may remind you of the latest Telltale adventures. But in the end this mystery thriller is more like an interactive David Lynch movie to which Quentin Tarantino and Abel Ferrara wrote the script. And yes: It is fun to play – even with the spot-on Kinect controls.

This is it. The final compilation of the enormous storytelling universe that is Kingdom Hearts. And it delivers. Especially in terms of filling some gaps in the early story while convincingly bridging games from Birth by Sleep up to Dream Drop Distance while preparing for Kingdom Hearts 3.

Anyone who was bored in history class won't fall asleep here. The Berlin Apartment has a lot of heart, even more charm – and if you're looking for a well-told, interactive German history experience, you'll currently find little better.

The experiment “Shooter-MMO-crossover” has not completely failed. Especially the competitive firefights are quite entertaining. But then again, as a full-fledged shooter it doesn’t have any significant impact while as an MMO it doesn’t have enough content. Welcome to Destigrind.

Exciting and very unique shooter for sophisticated players, that mainly lacks mode variation.

Taken the complexity out of its notorious fighting mechanics was a good choice - especially since playability wasn’t sacrificed over it. Having half of the roster staying hidden behind DLC definitely isn’t that smart.

This is by far the most ambitious and thought through musou game that Omega Force has produced yet. While staying true to the basic formula the action-roleplaying elements as well as the true-to-the-source art design make this an engrossing experience.

If you are indeed a Kerbalist, you will definitely spend more hours with you favorite space travelling critters. The mission editor is powerful, while the included missions are challenging. Nonetheless this expansion is a bit superficial and still omits interstellar exploration or colony management.

This is only a small puzzle adventure from Norway, but if you’re looking for a decent co-op-experience this might be it.

The exploration of this detailed and living space station is impressive. But it lacks depth in terms of storytelling as well as core mechanics.

A visually crisp shooter package with an interesting campaign, enthralling maps and intensive Zombie skirmishes. In each of these three areas a little more content overall would have worked wonders. A solid cohort, but definitely inferior to Infinity Wards Modern Warfare from last year.

The concept is imaginative and puts you in control of a rather cool monster. But leveldesign and monotonous gameplay are disappointing in the long run.

It feels occasionally outdated, but overall this is a surprisingly entertaining 3D remake of the SNES rpg classic Seiken Densetsu 3.

After it became a sleeper hit in Nintendo's eShop for the 3DS, this entertaining platformer found a new home on the PC.

If you stumbled over Dancing all Night because you like rhythm games, you might be in shock since it is very much story-driven. While the mechanics are solid you will be probably better off with Hatsune Miku’s last outing.

A good Assassin's Creed for those who prefer stealth, parkour and a small but still formulaic open world.

German developers Yager put the horror of war on the screen – brutal, ruthless and depressing at times. In its' quiet moments it generates a fantastic atmosphere set in the Dubai desert. But this is still a shooter and regarding action and especially AI it falls short.

Outside its beautiful presentation it doesn’t offer anything new to the brickworlds we got used to over the course of the last twelve years. Having said that, the charme of Lego games in recent years is undeniable and shines through in every of the Lego Dimension inspired areas.

A pleasant surprise: Journey of the Broken Circle turns out to be a small, but nice playable essay on human relations.

Same procedure as every year... a few optimizations here and there, but unfortunately also noticeable improvements that make things worse. If you don't need UT, you can stick with EA FC 24.

Stylish visuals and challenging fights: On the highest difficulty setting this is very close to Dark Souls in 2D.

Inspired by classics like Chrono Trigger, Phantasy Star, or Suikoden, and filled with dynamic turnbased battles, this is a gem for any aficionado of 16-bit-roleplaying.

An atmospheric journey into Scandinavian fairy tales with loads of interesting puzzles. If only the story about the siblings Lars and Tove would have been giving more space to flourish...

Quiplash still steals the show, but together with Blather Round it is not enough to save this rather weak selection of party games.

The small challenges are entertaining, the confused concept is not. The hidden shortcuts that need to be discovered and the lack of clues make it hard for me to appreciate this charming puzzler.

Quotation forthcoming.

While the concept with its modern twist on the classic shmup works on the iPad as well as on any other system, technically the conversion is not as convincing.

Even with a decent amount of recycling there is enough content, neat track design and mostly a decent driving experience. But with the apalling technical problems the motivation keeps grinding to a halt over and over.

An interesting story and intelligent puzzles help to transform this adventure into a good thriller. This is an enchanting retro trip with clever ideas.

Like in its first outing roughly six years ago, de Blob 2 is a charming and creative jump & run. But while the audiovisual design aged very well the low challenge level is more evident than ever. Which makes it perfect for a family game, on the other hand. And that is something you can’t have enough on consoles that don’t come from Nintendo.

It is mind-blowing how time flies with this game. At first it seems like Eufloria just offers relaxed zengaming, but the more you look the more entertaining strategy for explorers and conquerors you'll discover.

Crysis 3 gives you incredibly detailed, beautiful locations. But the core design is not as modern or progressive as the engine and the AI is far away from standards set by Crytek with their first Far Cry.

Tethered is easy on the eyes. And easy in terms of mechanics. While it is always a joy to watch over your devoted followers the micromanagement soon becomes tedious and redundant.

If you are an oldschool aficionado you’ll get a nice collection of six NES classics with slight enhancements like in-game-saving (once per game) and rewind function to tone down the extreme difficulty. Plus you get a heap of bonus material like artworks and the soundtracks.

Most of the time it feels fascinating to shape an ancient civilization. You have a plethora of options at your disposal but sometimes it can become frustrating with the amount of detail you are involved with. That the presentation is very static doesn’t help either.

Solid expansion to the strategic journey into the Victorian era with rather superficial content.

Music based Tetris variation with its dynamically changing playing field is as good on consoles as it was on PC. A beautiful enhancement of a modern rhythm game classic.

A fascinating trip into as living world full of mysterious puzzle machines.

From time to time you feel that the original is from a different era, considering that it is seven years old. The battle dynamics have been surpassed by the likes of Kratos, Bayonetta or Dante’s modern alter ego. Nonetheless it still is a thoroughly entertaining action-adventure that aged very well.

There is no doubt: This Total War has its moments where it shines in size, content and strategic power. But in the end you won’t remember all the things it succeeds at, but the plethora of annoying little things, where the Roman conquest falls short.

More of the same? No, better. Machine Games took the best elements from New Order and threw all the frills overboard. The result is a stylish prequel that managed to entertain me more than its big brother.