The emotional story is this game’s biggest asset, but gets lost in long text passages and is included in quite weak mechanics.

In the beginning Valheim seems to be the standard run-of-the-mill open world survival game following well-known templates. But then the fun seriously kicks in and you get drawn into this norse world. [Early Access Score = A-]

I like samurais, I like strategy and I like castle-building. Nonetheless Stronghold: Warlords can’t reel me in. There is solid content on display, but it lacks finesse and depth.

While the changing biomes and surfaces are a nice idea, the core with its simplified farm labor is presented too lackluster and monotonous.

Loop Hero delivers an entertaining flow, has a certain esprit and the card placement is a neat idea. But the visuals are bland, there is too little tactical impact and the constant repetition gets tiring.

Technically very clean Switch port of this equally atmospheric as well as beautiful adventure – now with photo mode and gyro controls.

Iconic monster trucks competing in repetitive events. Steel Titans 2 shows too much untapped potential when it comes to the interesting licence.

Entertaining coding on a fictitious old fashioned computer. There is a lack of complex commands and overall challenge, though.

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

A charming minmalistic endless racer, that will keep you entertained for 90 minutes or so, before it loses its touch.

Quality over quantity: These three blizzard classics aged remarkably well, haven been modernized competently and are enhanced by loads of bonus material.

Beautifully presented retro collection with a great game selection and modern comfort. But almost every title was included in other Capcom collections.

Stylish Noir thriller showing off an interesting story with tense climaxes. But in terms of gameplay and mechanics it stays trivial.

A very tasty Persona experience with a hint of Koei’s Warriors for good measure.

Indie gem, hardcore platformer, robot fairy tale all rolled into one. This is a creative mix that also includes loads of funny retro references, puzzles and great storytelling.

This challenging battle platformer feels like a three-dimensional Hollow Knight spiced up with Zelda and Souls. That may sound great, but the lackluster art-design, some frustrating deficits as well as bugs hold Blue Fire back.

With its great art and world design Shattered draws you in. But the fighting system as well as some bugs dampen the spirits. Having said that, this is a decent souls-like.

Technically very basic, but well working cooperative online escape game with a focus on communication and collective puzzling.

Yes, the enthusiasm of the 80s is gone. But this still is solid old school entertainment.

A tense detective story with great characters and a love of archaeology.

This is no trash, no “The Worst of Us” - this is playable. But as an experience in the context of recent games with a similar setting this is a lower tier.

As irresisitable as a cat video: Even though you encounter some minor issues (which is absolutely untypical for Nintendo) this is a package you need to get. The well designed, extremely motivating and already content-rich 2.5D-platforming meets a full-fledged Bowser-expansion with a touch of open world.

Haven is no prosaic drama centering around the burden and the suffering of love, but a rather sensitive and charming piece of youth literature wrapped in an interesting action adventure.

Solid, yet clunkily presented wargame.

Very good entertainment with a faceted battle system. It looks and feels great on PlayStation 5.

The werewolves deserve better... Cyanide cannot keep the quality level you got used to after games like the Styx franchise.

The Ultimate Edition is definitely the best console version of one of Remedy’s finest games. But even with all DLC included it lacks the fidelity that you can get on a high-end PC.

If you want nothing more than a party snack, this is it – especially with the cross-platform gaming. But in the long run it lacks variety.

A felicitous sequel with a dark atmosphere, great puzzles and dramatic encounters. Trial & error can become quite frustrating here and there, though.

Ys 9 builds on the strengths of its predecessors, but doesn’t enhance it with modern visuals.

What is there, entertains only briefly - and the banishment of the other episodes behind a payment barrier is crap. The scope could also be more generous in general: If you deduct Stockpile, which is currently too haphazardly for me, only three modes remain in very similar arenas; The character skills and special attacks of the hero cars are too interchangeable for me. Ultimately, however, I'm curious to see where the journey with Destruction AllStars is going - both in terms of new content and the question of whether it might become a full-price title at the beginning of April.

Welcome back... to Turrican. This collection is a wonderfully nostalgic flashback trip to a brilliant run-and-gun franchise, that still shows impressively, why it was so special back in the days.

Challenging hommage to classic fight platforming like Shinobi, Strider and the likes – in a matching retro design.

The predecessor’s upward trend is continued. But nonetheless technically as well as mechanically there is plenty of room for optimization.

Gods Will Fall follows an interesting path, but the battle system is botched, the world loses its' fascination too soon and thus the compulsive repition gets frustrating.

Action snack for the occasional funtime. Mechanically motivating re-imagination of an arcade classic, that unfortunately ends too soon and looks quite cheap.

The mysterious story and especially the polished presentation make sure that Mare is a VR adventure gem.

The entanglement of two realities is an interesting concept. But The Medium shows too many design weaknesses, can become tedious and doesn’t live up to the expectations you might have in an intense horror game.

You can’t help but love the robot and the orphan. Unfortunately neither the simple point&click mechanics nor the simple story are above average.

Small and sometimes clumsy, but nonetheless charming action adventure in the tradition of The Legend of Zelda.

Offroad racing with good driving physics and appealing DualSense-utilization. In terms of modes, content and tutorials Milestone has taken quite a few steps back.

Technically clean remaster of the pixel-brawler. Mechanically, on the other hand, time wasn’t kind and left Scott Pilgrim behind most of the competition.

Solid, but utterly unspectacular anime roleplaying game modeled after the Atelier series.

Nicely presented puzzle game with a light-/shadow-theme. But it just doesn’t take off, neither mechanically nor in the narrative.

This is not a worthy successor. Extremely simplified controls as well as an unsteady difficulty hamper precision and rhythm in this partially randomly generated auto-runner.

Rich exploration of a mysterious world centered around two endearing protagonists.

For the conclusion of the trilogy IOI relies primarily on the tried and tested; A combination of cleverly designed assassination playgrounds and creative methods to achieve your goals. Unfortunately AI problems and script bugs stop Agent 47 in his tracks here and there.

Weird, hypnotic and etremely relaxing. In the long run it suffers a bit from repition, but nonetheless this is a fascinating arcade trip.

Quotation forthcoming.

Quotation forthcoming.

Quotation forthcoming.

Creative, tense and physically challenging future sports duels. Game modes and presentation are very minimalistic, though.

Quotation forthcoming.

Quotation forthcoming.

If you have the chance to play it on an old system with Kinect this is a decent rhythm game.

A good soccer game with more strengths than weaknesses, loads of licenced teams and a great presentation. But while it looks better than ever it still is stagnating overall.

Visually impressive basketball sim that is simply breathtaking on the court. In terms of game moeds you feel the old gen remains – as you do in the still annoying micro transactions.

Welcome to the club of exceptional world designers, CD Projekt RED! Night City is the visually most impressive city you’ll find in a game. But most importantly, story, characters and even the side missions rock hard until deep in the night. Dive in. Enjoy.

Quotation forthcoming.

You feel like adding a few puzzle elements to your Dark Souls light? Then you should check out this little adventure that adds a creative aging process to the fighting and exploration.

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.

Ambitious mix of shooter and slasher, but extremely short and technically only mildly interesting. As a demo it would be interesting, as a full-fledged game it is insufficient.

Prettier, better framerates, more content: “Next Generation” is a stunning upgrade from No Man’s Sky on PlayStation 5.

A great example for psychological horror, unfortunately held back by some frustrating puzzle designs and the laborious door and inventory handling.

The presentation is deterrent, but the core mechanics offer some fun, especially for a game-party.

On PS5 Eivor’s adventure is not flawless either, but brings you an always entertaining mix of exploration, story, battles and town development – while constantly looking great.

Great art design and well constructed puzzles. The controls on Switch are not ideal, though.

Pacer is better than the previously released Formula Fusion – but disappoints nonetheless despite its nice flight model.

The crossover of Bridge Constructor and The Walking Dead works well, but doesn’t offer the creative energy from Bridge Constructor: Portal.

Solid RPG with a battle system reminiscent of Final Fantasy’s active time battle system and boardgame-like level exploration.

Stylish with (now) four playable characters, gorgeously rich move-sets and (still) unfortunately micro-transactions. Also it is a little but prettier, a little bit faster and a little bit more difficult.

When it comes to farming and ist various phases, Sakuna shows off some good ideas, but these are thwarted by monotonous fights and clumsy micro management.

Kingdom Hearts’ rhythm-game spin-off brings you a huge soundtrack library of beautifully arranged music embedded in merely average 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.

Repetitive, screamingly colorful and as shallow as a baby pool. Godfall is seems polished, but is as dull as anything. Nonetheless it can drag you in with its simple concept and powerful fight system.

This is one of my multiplayer favorites when it comes to VR shooters. The free climbing and gliding empowers a tense and technically clean battle for survival in VR. But it shows flaws in terms of content and variety.

Technically Let’s Sing is an entertaining karaoke game with interesting modes, but also well-known strengths and weaknesses from yesteryears’ iterations. And the song choice is rather disappointing.

On Switch, the downhill biking is reduced in every aspect: visually, mechanically and in terms of content.

Like its predecessor Age of Calamity delivers an entertaining mass brawl in the Zelda universe, albeit one that is held back by some of the same problems that all of Koei’s Warriors face, mostly monotony setting in eventually.

4K and ray-tracing seem to push the Series X to the limit, but in perfomance mode System Redux definitely looks better than the original – and runs smoother. Nonetheless the core stays the same: a weird cyberpunk thriller with repititive mind-games.

Yakuza’s comeback shows off a great fighting system, while the tasks that you’re following are tedious and boring.

Despite additions like crossplay and a 60fps performance mode this is merely a halfhearted remaster of a once very good arcade racer. Having said that, the still terrific autolog system keeps you motivated, while the pursuits are still highly enjoyable.

In performance mode this cloud-version of Control works surprisingly well, but displays some compression errors. Quality mode on the other hand is utterly useless.

Harmonix brings you a cool and surprisingly complex DJ simulation with more creative freedom than you can handle as well as neat online functions.

You like jump&runs and find the world of Little Big Planet adoring? Then there is no way, you should pass this game by. On PS5 the visuals are crisp, while audiohaptic feedback enhances this charming platformer.

With Connected the Resonair team delivers the puzzle piece that was missing in the original: an entertaining and fun multiplayer mode.

This remake is more or less a disaster. Behind the crisp comic visuals mechanically almost nothing is left of what made this game a diamond in the rough back in the days.

This milestone of action roleplaying games didn’t lose any of its fascination, while receving a new audiovisual presence with this excellent epic. An awesome modernized epic.

Gears Tactics offers aggressive and fast-paced turn-based tactics. It works well on console and is enriched with another companion as well as more enemy types.

In some aspects The Falconeer is a fascinating exporation adventure. But you also encounter repetitive action and balancing problems. Nonetheless you can experience intense dogfights in a neatly presented water world.

Imagine the gamedesign cores of ICO, Shadow of the Colossus and Journey merging into a brand new adventure... The Pathless takes you into a scenic open world full of ruins, mythical secrets and fantastic colossuses.

This is Grid’s dirty brother. And it shows similar flaws in terms of depth as well as on the technical side. Nonetheless this can deliver short-term arcade off-road fun.

A strong Assassin’s Creed episode, a motivating open-world-game.: Eivors adventure is not faultless, but delivers an always entertaining mixture of exploration, story, battles and estate development – while looking gorgeous throughout.

This park builder is too big for Switch. It is not completely unplayable, but fun is scarce.

The action rpg obviously took its inspiration from the Zelda-series, while scoring with its own game world as well as the puzzle design.

This icy region with its numerous legandary Pokémon, a neat story and the Dynamax adventure gives you a lot of fresh content to explore.

Despite showing off all the ingredients of a good Cyberpunk thriller in terms of content, storytelling and mechanics it is as satisfying as a blue screen.

Astro’s Playroom is a creative surprise. For the PS5 launch Asobi Team serves up a jump-and-run highlight – preinstalled!