Entertaining, innovative, stylish and full of character. Action music game mix Hi-Fi Rush is the kind of game the word "smash hit" was coined for.

Playful, strong round tactics spectacle with many guest stars from older parts of the series, compared to whose stories the new plot seems comparatively pale.

Technically impressive remake of a modern horror classic: This Dead Space feels brutally good, sounds strong and gets on your last nerve.

The technology, which is impressive in places, stumbles over questionable design decisions, an uninspired game world and a combat system that is only visually exciting.

Solid Japanese role-playing game with decent technology, a good combat system but weaknesses in terms of demand, tension and storytelling.

Routine but immensely fun monster hunt with slack environment optics and few innovations. A few real innovations and monster graphics would be desirable.

Charmingly staged retro flashback à la Shinobi: 2D action fireworks with many bosses, but few highlights.

Creative, bold & powerful: a refreshing survival game with a surreal game world, complex game mechanics and an exciting story.

Fairytale adventure game in a beguiling open game world between Studio Ghibli, Star Wars and Zelda - despite technical stuttering a real action-adventure insider tip.

An atmospheric, empathetic but playfully limited indie adventure.

Colorful, wild alien first-person shooter with talking guns - the gritty humor hits the mark, the gameplay is just so-so.

An end-of-year Japan RPG highlight: Chained Echoes from solo developer Matthias Linda is epic, emotional, challenging and gripping. Mechanically to the point and narratively mature - a real JRPG gem.

A faithful remaster of the PSP classic: Game mechanics are a little gray, but atmospherically up to date, it works as a prequel for the original game and remake.

Too much of a good thing: The outstanding combat system, including great Marvel fan service, almost sinks into an annoying mush of unnecessarily ramified micro-management, boring dialogues and boring hiking tours in environments whose optics seem to be ten years old.

Game progress that is too slow, little co-op mechanics and a lack of incentives to grind are sobering.

With Unbound, Criterion take a big step in the right direction and delivers gripping action races paired with exciting police chases.

Horror fans can't avoid this title: ingenious, extremely atmospheric visuals, an extremely finely woven carpet of sound and a juicy portion of gore make Callisto one of the scariest games of all time.

Unique, exciting and clever, Pentiment is a beautiful yet educational adventure - a quiet but valuable gem in Xbox Game Pass.

The classic cyberpunk action-adventure Lonn looks clumsy and unpolished for long stretches, but with its balanced mix of fights and puzzles it can still be entertaining overall.

Addictive and happy: pixelated top-down roguelike with very simple gameplay - but the spiral of rewards has an enormous pull effect, every run makes the endorphins spill over, there is a lot to discover and experiment with.

Somerville is very pretty, the gameplay is decent, but the content is unfortunately not gripping enough for an adventure.

Despite the larger world and more tasks, the playground for explosive silliness only motivates in the short term. It gets more fun in co-op with up to four participants, but only with friends or online mistakes.

Warzone 2.0 is the necessary modernization of the still entertaining Battle Royale variant of Call of Duty. DMZ as an extraction mode is a successful extension.

A milestone in the franchise - in both good and bad ways. In the end, the flaws of the 9th generation prevail, these editions do not go beyond disappointing average.

A milestone in the franchise - in both good and bad ways. In the end, the flaws of the 9th generation prevail, these editions do not go beyond disappointing average.

Even the nice setting with vampires in the Wild West can hardly save anything: The hectic gameplay with annoying opponent spam, which no combat system can cope with, is unimaginative and lacks a real spark of charm.

Atmospheric killer hotel with likeable characters and sensible innovations. It is a pity that the introduction and conclusion were artificially lengthened.

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