A little harmless platform fun - with a charming retro look and fine controls.

This is not about horror. This is not about terror. This is about exploration and experiencing one of the most beautiful worlds I have seen in a game so far. Period. Unfortunately you feel too safe and even though the visuals are exceptional the gameplay is rather conventional.

Quotation forthcoming.

Quotation forthcoming.

Quotation forthcoming.

Rivals is a great expansion for the Rock Band 4 platform. Rockumentary and even more so the Rivals mode will keep you coming back. Together with the content patches that arrived in the last months, Rock Band Rivals is the game that Rock Band 4 should have been to start with.

This is Left 4 Rats 2: Challenging co-op action with loads of Warhammer charme and a well conceived focus on teamplay, but also some flaws.

Quotation forthcoming.

Charming turn based tactics mixing Advance Wars with Fire Emblem, offering a great campaign and exemplary multiplayer comfort including crossplay.

You will remember the breathtaking speed, the spectacular stunts, the great combination of music and on-screen action and, above all, the untamed fun.

Two things will never change with Disgaea: The visuals are outdated. And the intertwined mechanics and systems are among the best you will ever see in tactical role-playing games.

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.

While the Switch version of Victor Vran maintains to keep the basic fascination of the action-adventure/-roleplaying hybrid, the technical conversion leaves quite a few things to be desired.

A great experience that invites you to pause and presents a concept so strong that it leaves you with an insatiable hunger for more.

In its best moments, Blacklist is a welcome return to the roots of the series. On top it gives you more options on how to solve the missions, from Rambo to lightning fast killer to ghost. Unfortunately Sam is too powerful – at the expense of atmosphere and suspense.

A solid port of a decent puzzle adventure.

Forget the tacked on VR (dis-)experience. It is just nuances that seperates Tekken 7 from other beat-em-up heavyweights that seem to be released basically simultaneously . If you can look past a few visual shortcomings and a sometimes weird dramatization you’ll be rewarded with one of the deepest combo-filled fighters out there that will give Injustice’s superheroes a run for their money.

This is refreshingly different from run of the mill action like Call of Duty. Even after the engine update it isn’t pretty, but what it lacks in beauty it makes up for with striking realism and a tense atmosphere.

Quotation forthcoming.

The focal points this year were the engine change from Ingnite to Frostbite as well as the Longshot story inclusion. Espacially the latter can make sure that this years’ football king is actually more than just a full-priced visual update.

Pixel by pixel, it's an old-school point-and-click adventure—and that's a good thing. Kathy Rain has survived the sequel unscathed, investigating better than Inspector Columbo and Mr. Monk combined.

As an adventure it is not challenging, the puzzle solutions are too obvious - at least once you know where your hero squad is supposed to go. But nonetheless this is a heartwarming declaration of love towards colorful zest for life.

With amazing perspective games and surprising puzzle concepts, Viewfinder reinvents itself again and again and stands out from the genre despite a weak story and a lack of claim.

In VR, too, Resident Evil Village is a wild ride through the village of horror, which, however, suffers from well-known design weaknesses and sometimes weak adaptation for VR.

Like the Trials games, Joe Danger delivered simple but exciting fun. With the sequel you'll get even more goodies and options. But for me the lane changes, unicycles etc. were just a distraction from the neck-braking stunts.

On the pitch this is soccer at its finest, even though the defense seems to be weakened. But off the pitch you get a patchwork of more or less untouched game modes, half-hearted emotions and inconsistent atmosphere that favors the English Premier League.

You can still feel the mark the original left on the action genre. But with additions to FPS like Doom or Shadow Warrior 2 the niche of exhilarating combo shooting is getting crowded. Nonetheless: If you hadn’t played Bulletstorm yet, strap yourself in for one hell of a ride.

An interesting dungeon crawler with a distinctive artdesign and tight touch controls. This is the kind of game that makes it worthwhile for Vita owners to be patient.

A charming first act that gives you an outlook into interesting storylines. But since puzzles are too easy and it is rather short all the hopes lie on the conclusion.

This is a remarkable debut of Carbine Studios. With a mixture of well-known elements and fresh ingredients you feel right at home, but keep getting surprised from beginning to end. It has its occasional downer but in the end this is one of the freshest MMOs in years.

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

The foundation with its convincing driving- and collision-physics, fairly smart opponents and the reality-based tracks is more than rock solid. But it is held back by a lot of small inconveniences.

A beautifully designed action-adventure with great characters, believable dialogue and a clever mechanical mix of stealth, puzzles, fighting and teamwork in a surreal ocean of rats.

A solid port of an entertaining building-crafting-roleplaying hybrid. Unfortunately the rough edges of the PS4-version haven’t been smoothed out.

WoW Classic is a great trip down memory lane into a more quiet but also more rugged Azeroth, including all classic problems and faults.

You could almost forget that Saints Row 4 started as a DLC for the third part. But even though you’ll find a lot there is to like, starting from over the top humor and super powers up to the brilliant Dubstep Gun, it can never fully separate itself from its add on roots.

The well-told campaign is a little short, but this is compensated for by a plethora of things you can do offline. Unfortunately none of the extra battle modes are available in versus mode, while the online battles suffer from balancing issues. Nonetheless: If you’re tired of Street Fighter or Tekken it’s time to let the superheroes take care of business.

With human competition Nidhogg stages captivating sword fighting duels. But the surprisingly deep fighting system suffers from lack of content and a weak campaign.

It has its share of problems, but nonetheless this is a very good adaptation of Monte Cook’s bizarre sci-fi world - decisions, conflict and fascinating characters included.

This is a captivating fight of an impressive heroine with her inner demons. Ninja Theory delivers a very unique action adventure that challenges you a a variety of levels.

With all the DLC from the initial PS4-release included from the get-go, this is a content-rich strategy RPG monster that will not let you sleep for months.

Even though EA passed (again) on the chance to make this franchise a serious contender for Team Fortress 2 by making the player too dependent on luck when it comes to getting new content out of the in-game sticker packs this is crazy good action with a lot of humor.

A captivating sequel to the murderous anime thriller with new elements, more weird situations and an interesting plot.

Jurassic World Evolution 3 exudes dinosaur love like no other game – making its predecessors completely obsolete.

If you played it already on a older system, the playthrough video with the director’s commentary is the only thing new to you. But it is worth the full admission price tag? Not really. If you missed out on the thoughtfully crafted adventures of the siblings, this is the version to get, though.

A courageous blend of jump&run, rhythm game, musical theater and story-based adventure. I just can warm up completely to the audiovisual presentation, which is too retro for its own good.

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

Sunless Sea sparks my curiosity and it is beautifully designed. The exploration of a Lovecraftian ocean is well crafted and well told.

As in the first season the third episode is an emotional highlight.

The foundation with its accurate statistics and believable correlations is as rock solid and convincing as always and on top of that you’ll get the best match presentation in the series’ history – which doesn’t mean that much if you consider that only a few years ago they still used oversized dots. Nonetheless this is the stuff that soccer fans’ dreams are made of. Who would have thought that animated spreadsheets could invoke more emotion than the latest FIFA or PES iterations?

The connection between game and player is not as deep as on Vita. But the “big” Tearaway is a beautiful detour into a paper world full of creative design ideas.

This is arcade racing at its best. Yes, it is not perfect. But the few weaknesses are peanuts compared to the on-the-spot racing experience it delivers.

Slightly enhanced, but unspectacularly ported re-release of the crossover rpg from the realms of Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem.

Wildfrost is an excellent roguelike deck builder, able to stand out from the crowded genre with fresh ideas and outstanding presentation. The ice-cold level of difficulty still needs a bit of fine-tuning.

Entertaining journey into the slightly “different” Final Fantasy world Gryimore, filled with Pokémon’esque creature collecting as well as challenging active time battle fights.

Phoenix Wright as you know it: Surreal characters, great dialogue, interesting cases and top notch anime artdesign.

Byrne's fight for survival is a unique horror trip into the psyche of humans.

Even though the addition of futuristic weapons and new movement options could mark a paradigm shift, the campaign is as always: explosive and well-paced but in the end meaningless and bar any surprises. The multiplayer on the other hand is exciting and fresh and will keep you glued to the screen for a long time.

Falling Order mixes acrobatics with exploration and challenging light saber battles. Excessive enemy respawns and unnecessary backtracking reduce the enjoyment, though.

Quotation forthcoming.

Routinely designed puzzle-platformer with freshly added co-op-capability. While it still is a lot of fun, it cannot recreate the emotional impact of its predecessor.

What starts as a classic point-and-click adventure soon becomes a surreal reading-trip for friends of the paradox.

The campaign delivers as it did on other systems, but suffers from framerate issues. The multiplayer drags the Wii U experience down. I can live with the small number of available players, even though some modes suffer from that. But the connection losses are a big disappointment.

Visually pleasing and at its core a very decent co-op platform-action it lacks finishing touches.

Quotation forthcoming.

Tense hunt for dangerous creatures in an interesting setting.

Who would have thought, that the fastest racer around would not be on Xbox One or PlayStation 4 but on Wii U? This modern rendition of the F-Zero principle is not original in any form, but awesome fun nonetheless.

For a good while this is a quite motivating, in terms of storytelling quite tense thriller - with a rather disappointing ending.

The live concept is fresh and surprisingly well implemented, the new controller brings a new spin to rhythm games and with GHTV you have two channels of 24/7-songchoice. But the attached microtransactions are too omnipresent.

Borderlands 4 motivates with tons of loot and tight gunplay – it is and remains one of the best loot shooters ever. Now that the story and endgame has returned to most of its old strengths, you can easily spend dozens of hours here before boredom sets in. Only the open world wasn't really necessary.

With only slight control deficits and lower visual quality compared to the PC version, this is a clean console port of the best city builder in recent years. But nonetheless you’ll miss the editors and the additional expansion packs.

Despite frustrating moments, parkour and action come together culminating in demanding and exhilarating challenges.

EverSpace 2 is a snazzy loot shooter with intense combat that could do better with its story and world.

In Switch’s launch lineup, this is the biggest surprise. A fascinating rhythm game that takes advantage of the touchscreen, sports a wide ranged soundtrack of almost 120 songs and an interesting art design.

Entertaining remake of a classic game with well-known strengths and weaknesses, but nonetheless one of the best stories in the franchise.

If you like silly games mixed with stealth, this charming little indie gem might just be the one for you.

The best virtual representation of the premier class so far convinces with realistic optics and extremely comprehensible driving physics - thanks to extensive setting options, the frenzy is recommended for beginners and simracing professionals alike. Only the pointless F1 Life mode leaves us at a loss.

Quotation forthcoming.

Thanks to the technical power of PC VR this version is even better than on PlayStation VR. With a great amount of options catering to all hardware specs and VR needs get ready top be drawn into the most immersive version of Skyrim.

This feels more like an elaborate add-on. While the new recipes and locations generate a lot of fun and the online-capabilities deliver, the story-mode once again is just another accumulation of uninspired levels.

A great competitive shooter if you are willing to invest time and can accept the slow character progress.

Physics based experiments and a charming steampunk atmosphere: Vessel transports you into a fascinating puzzle world.

It is as motivating as it is relaxing to take the charming mushroom on a treasure hunt filled with puzzles. Nintendo delivers a strong start into the new year.

While the staging and the characterization of the fractions still is sub-par, this is better than Ashes of the Singularity in every aspect, especially in terms of the large scale skirmishes that give you an optimal strategic viewpoint.

With its visuals Echoes might lure you into believing that it is as captivating as Fire Emblem Fates. But in the end this is the weakest and most unnecessary entry of a franchise I played and loved dearly since its humble origins.

Presentation and humour are as charming as ever, level and mission design are incredibly varied, the challenges are a league of their own. Don’t let this gem pass you by.

As long as you find capable team players this is a fun romp, while with the wrong “mates” it becomes a tedious mess. That aside it lacks a little refinement here and there and mission variety – nothing critical though.

A charming farewell of the puzzle sleuth.

In its best moments it delivers gruesome strategy, where every lost soldier counts, where every lost conflict is permanent. But it also shows old problems and bland mission design.

This time the screenplay just doesn’t work. But even though this is the weakest episode of the whole series by a mile, it still shows enough “Walking Dead” to be entertaining.

Overall it lacks the punch of the first two episodes and focuses too much on action, while character development is put on the back burner. Nonetheless I am curious how Telltale will continue their journey to Pandora.

Quotation forthcoming.

It is loud, it is silly and wonderfully weird. The mixture of skate action reminiscent of Jet Set Radio, the ludicrous weaponry Insomniac is known for and open world rail shooting delivers an arcade action overkill I haven’t seen in quite a while.

Fascinating action adventure with a convincing motion scheme – but also problems in terms of AI and weapon handling.

The finale of the civil war drama might have an outdated presentation, but relies on a deep story as well as faceted turn based tactics as well as character development.

This is a well planned and content rich but also very conservative tower defense.

Firewatch is a quiet mystery for gamers who know how to listen. A strong script and exceptional dialogue direction make Firewatch to one of the best interactive storytelling experiences you can get your hands on.

The granddaddy of shoot-em-ups gets an interesting touch remake, but fails to motivate in the long run.