Know this, at the very least: I get the sense that this is it. This is now the The Legend of Zelda blueprint, and from here on out, we live in this version of Hyrule, and we couldn’t be happier about that. This is both a true sequel and a hoisted flagpole on what this series is and where it’s going into the future…

Redfall is disappointing. A moderately enjoyable co-op game set in a stylish and inviting game world marred by repetitive and bland design and a long list of technical shortcomings.

Star War Jedi: Survivor is slightly outlier in its foundational universe and in its pedigree and influences. It’s a mish-mash that somehow makes a whole, but for anyone keen on what that means, I can only say saddle up and enjoy the ride, because for its shortcomings and intimidation in size, scope and IP density, Survivor is one heck of a frontier game.

Delayed a bunch and certainly long-in-the-tooth in terms of its heritage, Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp is still worth signing up and serving for.

Dead Island 2 does leave you wanting more, in a good way. The simple combat is endlessly engaging and gory, thanks to the physics, the weight of each hit, and the next-level destruction that lets you shoot holes through zombies or leave a wound right where your blade struck. In co-op, it’s a blast and funny in ways that watching classic b-movies with friends that feature over-the-top violence. In the end, there’s enough here to make us want Dead Island 3. Here’s hoping we don’t need to wait ten years for the next one.

Dredge is a low-poly, low-fi experience that punches so far above its weight it feels like eldritch magic at times is behind it all. The game’s painted representations of its many characters is charming to a fault, and some of the best we’ve ever seen, while its score throughout, as well as the overall audio design, is perfection. It is a joy to move through, and its discovery and exploration elements are a cut above. It just suffers some gameplay balance issues and perhaps dries up in the activities department a tad too early. Otherwise this is an incredible debut for Black Salt Games and we can’t wait to see what the studio does next.

As a remake, I think Resident Evil 4 Remake kind of falls flat. As a game with shiny new visuals, a more cohesive on-brand story and a darker tone, that also doesn’t change much of what made it brilliant in the first place… well that’s the thing, it’s awesome. How you take that will fall directly into the columns of whether you wanted fundamental change, a basic Remaster (which is what I think this ultimately is), or something entirely new. For the newcomers, you’ll love this and it is an absolute buy. BUT. If you’re into the root of all things; how things started; what came before; genesis and that type of thing, I honestly think I’d recommend giving one of any number of the original re-releases or remasters a go. And if you don't first, and I get that because ‘next-gen’ and all, do yourself a favour and go and play the OG immediately after.

Even though your arms will tire of using pickaxes and rope thingies to climb up some truly imposing cliffsides and mountains, Horizon Call of the Mountain never loses its sense of scale, wonder, and sheer beauty.

The biggest disappointment - outside of the narrative, uneven combat, and characters - comes from the expectation and promise found in the art direction, combat, and Soviet-era Russian sci-fi style. There’s a school of thought that when it comes to a review, you should discuss the content of a game versus what it doesn’t have. The logic is sound, if all criticism comes from a place of unmet expectation, that would be unfair. But when something looks this good, you can’t help but wonder what’s missing. At least in those rare moments when the game shuts up long enough for you to think.

I could have written an essay on its brilliant design, but instead I let it take me on a trip down memory lane while also feeling lucky to be playing a game in 2023 with such gravity, that it sinks everything else around it. Metroid Prime Remastered is perfection.

I’ve avoided as many spoilers as possible and barely scratched the surface of what’s in store for those willing to reward the hard-working developers of Hogwarts Legacy. The game-world is HUGE, and not nearly as checklisty as many other games of this nature. And certainly doesn’t suffer so-called bloat. Rather it’s rich and rewarding and inviting to a fault.

As a remake, it solidifies the source material as timeless and iconic in ways that still feel relevant. Especially now, when it's wrapped up in one of the most visually stunning and immersive science fiction releases we’ve seen.

Add to this a less-than-likeable Frey who barely manages to endear herself upon the player, and even less likeable NPCs and a bland, bland game-world I have no desire to learn more about, let alone live in (take me back to New York and my real-world troubles there, please), and you have a game that just… lacks.

Still, as far as challenge goes on the battlefield, Engage is right up there, and the game’s titular hook isn’t a be all, end all part of proceedings, serving as a functioning tool for combo experimentation as well as another source for that all-important nostalgia. All of which grabbed me far more than any other features of the game. And it’s something I happily engaged in for the roughly 45 hours or so I played and slaved and rewound. And as has become customary for this series, it comes highly recommended for die hard fans, while newcomers, in particular here, will get a lot from the game’s heady tie-in to Fire Emblems past. A great way to kick off Switch gaming in 2023.

Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is a lot more than a retro game collection. Like its namesake, it's more of a celebration, but also an engaging interactive slice of history that adds real context to the act of firing up an ancient “1-bit” Atari 2600 game.

It’s still a relatively short game, about three hours or so if you’ve got your Portal brain switched on - but still a remarkable experience. The puzzle rooms and pacing toward the big GLaDOS reveal, and iconic end and credits sequence is still spot on. Portal is as finely tuned, deep, and fun as ever. Case in point, after firing it up I couldn’t stop until the epic “last room” was cleared. As a visual showcase of what a remaster meets remake can be, as a re-release of sorts, and as a reminder that classic design and pacing will always be just that, Portal with RTX is a triumph. Now bring on Portal 2 with RTX, and maybe some Half-Life 2 with RTX whilst the Source engine is still fired up inside NVIDIA’s labs.

From the outset, and playing on Xbox Series X, The Callisto Protocol is a genuinely jaw-dropping visual assault. It might have the most detailed interiors of any game I’ve ever played, and the variety in art that accompanies these is staggering. From the initial prison sequences through to deep underground spaces where you’ll be navigating an old, abandoned colony to the surface of Callisto itself, the game serves up a terrifying feast for the eyes.

Thankfully, the deep and rewarding combat more than makes up for the sometimes sexless superhero daytime soap opera and the sometimes engaging story you get to watch play out. Marvel’s Midnight Suns is at its best when it has all of the various superheroes do what they do best.

Ultimately it's the setting, art direction, and non-verbal cinematic storytelling where Somerville excels. But even here there are long lulls and a few sections that begin to feel bland. Like when you’re in a cave system trying to avoid attention in a way that feels like a homage to Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee. And outside of the emotional notes touched upon when it comes to trying to reach your family in an oppressive situation, the ending and final act are too obtuse and abstract to make any sort of lasting impact. Somerville is a visually impressive, relatively short cinematic adventure held back by its ambition.

You won’t play a game like it this year, or even from the past few years lest you dabble in the narrative adventure field, and even then Obsidian’s new opus is pretty distinct. Its writing is among the best I’ve experienced for this style of game, while the cadence of its unfurling mystery is such that the game draws you into its world ever so slightly, you’ll barely realise how deep you are into it before it snags you in its binding. Just go into it with an open mind and the desire to sink yourself into a good book, then let the game do the talking for you and strap yourself in for one of the year’s most unique offerings, and one of its best.

The fact that there are several difficulty levels and the ability to fine-tune Sonic’s speed, jump height, and even damage recovery as part of the in-game options is not a great sign and is indicative of the mish-mash feel. In the end, the lack of focus and consistency makes Sonic Frontiers feel unfinished - even if playing in the solid 60 frames-per-second performance mode is great for capturing and conveying a sense of speed and scale. But even here there’s so much pop-in that you lose out on a true sense of awe when it comes to the environments and structures born from the mysterious Cyber Space. Another average, but ambitious, outing for the blue hedgehog.

Where does this leave God of War Ragnarök when stacked against its Game of the Year foundation piece? That’s a hard question to answer. Diehard fans will eat this up, no doubt, but we can’t help but feel it could have gone to another level. There’s just a lot of familiar content and not enough new, from a gameplay sense, to really elevate it above God of War (2018), despite there being room with this iteration of God of War as a generational franchise to do that… unfortunately God of War Ragnarök’s fate wasn’t to be that game.

Those diehards mentioned in the opener above will be happy to know that the level grading system is back, and locked to the higher difficulty setting, which ties into those that want to learn the intricate and subtly deep nature of things. For everyone else who’ll still be scratching their heads at the ludicrousness of it all, from go to whoa, at least you can rest easy on the idea that it’s okay to mash your way through here, and that for Bayonetta, this is all pretty standard stuff -- OTT served with a side of sass, sexuality and style.

No matter the task at hand, outside of aiming down sights to take out enemies, the campaign switches gears and tone and perspective and objective so often that you’d be hard-pressed to become bored with what will happen next on account of the where and how. [Campaign Review = 78]

Even if it ran beautifully, Gotham Knights still feels pretty much unsalvageable. There’s a lot of game to be found in Gotham Knights, a lot of by-the-numbers repetition, and many meaningless tasks that make you think the project began as a live service game like Marvel’s Avengers. And simply shifted focus to become a co-op thing sometime during development. But then again, that’s adding justification to mechanics and progression systems in a game that doesn’t care to explain why you need to craft new gear all the time. There’s no “endgame” or persistent world to support the repetition either. The good news is that there’s quite a bit of story to dig into, and you do get to go head-to-head with several notable villains. But you’ll need to overcome a lot more than the death of Batman to see it through.

Visually the characters, animation, and cinematics benefit greatly from the use of performance capture, and it doesn’t take long for the physical ticks and mannerisms of the three main players to do that thing where they no longer feel like characters in the story - but, real characters. This is the best the franchise has looked from a purely cinematic level. In the end, New Tales From The Borderlands succeeds because it lives up to its namesake and presents the best Borderlands storytelling since the original Tales.

What you get in the end with Sparks of Hope is a lengthy Switch outing full of challenge and the ability to craft a game style that suits you. There’s lots of room to experiment with all of the micro on offer, but it’s conversely not a requirement you do. It does take itself a bit too seriously (to wit: Edge, the emo Rabbid once bad now turned good), but you can skip a lot of this and just get on with business, which is fun, engaging, modular and deep when you want it to be, and stunningly presented. If you’re a Nintendo Switch owner, this is a no-brainer and will hold you in good stead for the rest of the year, and then some. For everyone else, this isn’t quite go out and grab a Switch for, though if you were to package it up with the first two games, the recommendation quickly switches. Either way this is a fun romp in the Mario universe with Rabbids again, I just wish they never learned to talk.

When the game sings in its strongest moments, however, it’s a joy to play. Solving environmental puzzles, discovering workbenches to upgrade your gear, uncovering hidden Codex entries, evading the enemy in rewarding, stealthy ways that empower the player’s sense of agency, and in unfolding the next bit of connective narrative tissue, A Plague Tale: Requiem is great. Excellent even. But it’s fleeting, and Asobo crashes you down to Earth just as quickly as you might have felt on top of it, driven largely by hard-fail scenarios and situations, bolstered still by antiquated or arbitrary gameplay systems.

On the cynical side of things. NBA 2K is a billion dollar enterprise, it doesn't do things by accident. It chose to put MyCareer front and centre, to put MyTeam right below it, to bury the ability to simply play a game of basketball in layers of menus. The shame of it is that I genuinely think it's the best representation of basketball ever. But they make you work so hard to see that, and I just don't know if it's worth the effort.

Grounded is an impressive entry in the survival game genre and one where the setting of being tiny in a suburban backyard amplifies its strengths as well as the stuff that we’ve all seen before in other titles. There’s just something fulfilling about hacking away at a thistle stem and using the falling debris to craft arrows - and then using said arrows to take out fireflies at night and then using those materials to create a makeshift mining helmet equipped with a torch. Even though the default settings feel overly punishing, and grind-y in terms of crafting, Obsidian does let you make your own rules - which for any time spent playing games in a backyard setting, is a definite plus.

It's not that Wylde Flowers is a wild departure from the genre's norms. But it has thoroughly impressed me – and utterly rejuvenated my wife's interest in virtual chores – in the way it delivers on every standard genre tropes with a high degree of polish, generous design and considerable charm. It's very much one of these games, if you know what I mean. It's just a really good one of these games.

Wayward Strand is a delicate piece of work, as its title might imply. Despite the flight of fancy proposed by the very idea of an airship hospital, it's a remarkably unassuming game–not literally down-to-earth, but certainly grounded in its portrayal of lives nearing their end and one just beginning, and the common hopes, dreams and fears that connect all those lives together.

Return to Monkey Island is the real deal, and like that quote above it’s hilarious. But, if you’re a fan of Monkey Island and the classic adventures from LucasArts there’s an extra dose of joy to be found. A joy that comes from a game and sequel that is born from the past and not one beholden to it.

Ultimately the new Saints Row is a disappointment, especially if you’re a fan of the series. The co-op mode, although highly problematic when trying to establish a game, was commendably solid once up and running, and fun for a while. The new location and characters don’t really land and the sloppy nature of just about every aspect gives the impression of yet another game released long before it was finished. And even though this might sound like a random aside, when a Saints Row game with multiple radio stations features only a handful of memorable or recognisable tracks - to the point where you don’t even notice driving around in silence - you know there are issues.

Cult of the Lamb is a rare piece of art in gaming. It’s probably the best game ever made in Australia at this point and is so because it’s infinitely rewarding. I couldn’t stop worrying about my Followers, or thinking about what they needed next, but I also couldn’t stop abusing my power and letting myself drift into dark places. And I honestly haven’t covered even close to everything. The game is just so full of character and charm and wit and depth. And I can’t recommend it enough -- trust me, I’m a Cult leader.

The best part of the experience is just how much you feel connected to the story and becoming Spider-Man. Even when you factor in open-world design which is a mostly by-the-numbers checklist of things to collect and discover, the world-building and presentation are next-level.

Underneath all of the pyrotechnics is a tale that deals with life, death, and the meaning one can find or cling to. Xenoblade’s story is also as fun as it is heavy and heartfelt, as sad and somber as it is cinematic and action-packed. With a cast of series-best characters and some of the best exploration and combat to boot - it’s hard not to look at Xenoblade Chronicles 3 as anything but a game of the year contender.

After each episode, you even get a chart highlighting the path you’ve taken with spoiler-free hints at the breadth of outcomes and scenes available. And even with all of that, each new twist and turn feels unexpected. As a slice of brand-new interactive choice-driven narrative drama, As Dusk Falls impresses. But it’s an experience held back by its photo-filter visuals and interactivity that never quite feels like an extension of its many dramatic moments.

There’s a touching, melancholy, and ultimately heart-warming story at the heart of Stray, one that plays into the immediately lovable (and somewhat timeless) nature of cats.

In short, because it’s short, you get a more bite-sized piece of the whole Cuphead experience, but its upped challenge sort of makes up for that. I definitely found myself banging my head against the wall, which was to be expected, I just hadn’t wanted to be getting that headache so early on in the piece. It didn’t stop me from keeping on going though, which should give you an idea of the draw and pull here. Part tantalisation, part revenge, all in good fun. Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course has certainly sated my hunger and I only hope that while this is meant to be the last service here, that the kitchen isn’t closed for good.

In the end there’s a great game at the core of Diablo: Immortal, and it’s one that looks, feels and plays, exactly like a Diablo game built for mobile should. In expanding the scope to include a robust system of MMO activities, ways to play, and adding many simple progression systems that all feed into each other, what makes Diablo and other games like it so special was lost along the way. Despite the free-to-play mobile design and stingy end-game rewards, I still wanted to keep playing. The tragedy is, Diablo: Immortal didn’t want me to. It wants nothing more than for me to sign-in, play for a few minutes, log-out, and come back tomorrow.

There’s value here for the matriculant willing to put in the effort, but you’ve really gotta want it. And even as a Fire Emblem diehard I found it a bit of a slog. Repetitive and more often than not caked in superfluous activity, Three Hopes is a mash of ideas drawn out beyond its measure, and if you take into account the option to play through each House’s own campaign, the target audience thins to a specific tine, and you might be confronted with an intimidating wall, looming convolutedly large.

As a classic RTS experience, there’s a lot to like about Starship Troopers: Terran Command - especially in terms of translating the look and feel of the action scenes found in the iconic movie into little slices of strategy. Outside of a few pathing glitches and a couple of animation bugs, the biggest problem here is that the default difficulty feels a little too easy in addition to there being not much on offer once you complete the campaign. Without a fleshed out skirmish mode or even something like a co-op mode to take on the Arachnid together, it’s something of a one and done experience. Still, it’s good to do your part because... service guarantees citizenship.

Describing the game as chaotic in action is definitely apt, and for sheer speed this is one of the fastest ‘Mario Sports’ games to date. In a way, that goes against what you kind of expect to see from Nintendo, but in execution Mario Strikers goes all in on the fast and dirty game of Mushroom Kingdom soccer.

The Quarry delivers on its interactive horror movie premise, the characters are all wonderfully realised, the violence, terror and scares are all here. Meaningful choices, multiple endings and memorial set-pieces sit alongside stellar performances, excellent cinematography and cutting-edge visuals. A summer camp experience you won’t soon forget.

All in all this is a sequel that builds on the original in impressive ways, and a timely reminder of why the rogue-lite genre has taken off in the way that it has.

It is an absolutely stunning game with a great story and an excellent presentation (as well as beautiful audio), but it didn’t quite reach the top of the mountain it set out to climb.

As much fun as it is to see Nintendo Switch Sports bring back some of that Wii magic, that party room vibe, it’s hard not to look at this as anything but a missed opportunity. Having all progression and customisation locked to online play feels like a missed opportunity, and although we couldn’t test the online stuff during the review period it’s hard to see how the Wii Sports formula would substantially improve on the same-room formula.

Tunic is a near-flawless experience that celebrates games and gaming from a bygone era in one of the boldest, most confident displays of game-design and creation I’ve ever experienced. Its nostalgia game is strong and my heart strings have been well and truly tugged, strumming a tune(ic) of thanks and adoration for an adventure truly elevated and engrossing; challenging and full of surprise and wonder.

Outside of a few mostly inconsequential panel-based vignettes scattered around, and levels that take you from a small town through to a backwoods swamp and then through to industrial and supernatural locales, Forgive Me Father’s narrative is mostly a mystery. In the end it’s hard to look at this as anything but a missed opportunity, where the mix of old and new doesn’t quite come together. The horror aspirations amount to little more than set dressing. Fast-paced shooting is where Forgive Me Father settles, a place where enemies move in predefined patterns and strafing is just about all you need to do to survive. As fun as that can be in doses, there’s little incentive to keep going once you realise that’s all there is.

Through excellent world building, great characters, and a branching story, you’ve got a great slice of locally-grown sci-fi well worth digging into. Or, pointing and clicking through. And even though it’s held back a bit by its not-that-great inventory system, and a few cumbersome puzzles, the story is where it shines.

It’s just very easy and bite-sized in the grand scheme of it all. None of the cool ideas are ever fully fleshed out and it tends to feel one-note after a while. I get it if you’re a crazed brick collector, as that’s what these games are designed around, but as a gaming experience outside of co-op, I found it, as Vader would say: “all too easy”.

Getting the grapple-hook is nice and shifting the action to modern urban environments is cool, but it's all a little jarring. That said, the retro-inspired first-person shooting is by far the strongest aspect of Nightmare Reaper, and the mix of levels, secrets, loot, and rogue-lite elements is something that works together to deliver immediate, addicting, and engaging action.

There’s just so much to discover and learn for yourself. I didn't want to spoil the experience, because for me it was incredible. Gritty and majestic, all at once.

And if it's racing with a story that you're after, The Crew and Need for Speed franchisers have you well covered with their mix of outlandish, goofy storytelling and arcade style racing. Perhaps if Legends cut the story entirely, pared down the overly long career mode, and simply focused on being a multidisciplinary arcade racing game, it might find that niche it once occupied on the shelf, back when it was simply known as TOCA.

In the end, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is a confident and very welcome step forward for the Borderlands series. It embraces its action-RPG roots in ways that feel fresh and familiar, and does so without being a detriment to the core concept of being an experience with a bazillion crazy guns to equip and have fun with. But in keeping a lot of the core of the series, in terms of mechanics and UI, and even the number of gun types (sniper-rifles could have been removed entirely), there’s just enough holding it back in a place where it, well, borders on brilliance.

At any rate, what’s here is fun and it’s Nintendo and there’s co-op for families or friends, but it’s all just so incredibly lite-on. And I say this with full appreciation and love of the likes of Super Mario Odyssey and Luigi’s Mansion 3 and Yoshi’s Crafted World -- there’s no challenge outside of 100% collection of items and in beating Treasure Road times, the rest is simply a cakewalk, and unfortunately all the bad doggo Awoofys in the game can’t make me think otherwise.

In the end it’s interesting because even though there’s thematic weight and meaning behind all of the open-world elements, they never really come together in a way that feels in-line with the smooth hand movements of Akito and KK performing a charged up elemental attack. Disappointing combat, lacklustre progression, and way too many collectibles-to-find aside, the Tokyo you get to explore serves as an impressive and memorable backdrop for a supernatural tale. With some great cinematic storytelling across the main narrative and the many side-missions you discover, Ghostwire: Tokyo becomes more than the sum of its parts.

There’s a franchise-in-waiting here, it just needs more than a few tweaks and hell of a lot less forced character.

Dawn of Ragnarök could have given us new items in shops, different resources to gather and craft with (though you can upgrade gear to a new tier, which is a nice addition) and more fun with its economy. And while there are differences to what we’ve already played through in the base game and its other two expansions, they don’t make the experience different enough. That said, however, the story here can’t be faulted, nor the treatment of the sagas and history of the Vikings and Norse myth, which is Dawn of Ragnarök’s best element.

And that’s what GT7 reminds you of throughout your journey -- that this series has always held car and automobile culture as its anchor point, and in return has become a part of that culture itself. To some, there may be aspects of GT7 that feel static or sterile, but Polyphony Digital isn’t the fun uncle, it’s always been the serious one. And in Gran Turismo 7, what we get is a serious dose of incredible, be it from an historical and cultured perspective, or in learning how to just drive.

Elden Ring is among my favourite games ever. Those frame hitches, while significant, marred mere moments in my playtime with From's masterpiece. I played 95 hours of Elden Ring, and I could have played oh-so-much more. I will, probably. I railroaded myself with my weapon choice, but I found dozens of amazing looking spells that I'd love to try out. And I can't PVP at level 150, so I'll need to start a new character if I want to invade people. And there are two other endings that I didn't achieve — you aren't thrust immediately into NG+ in Elden Ring once you achieve an ending, but I don't think you can achieve other endings later. I already kind of know how to do them, I think. Well, I think I know, anyway. But I don't know what I don't know, so…

Shadow Warrior 3 left me wanting more on the account of the relatively short campaign being the entirety of the experience. But there’s something to be said about that. A repetitive shooter that structurally doesn’t change over the course of several hours yet doesn’t grow old or feel tired. A gem of a first-person shooter, an interactive rollercoaster, and one hell of a good time. So much so it’ll have you lining up to go again.

Deep, complex, and approachable, Total War Warhammer III is an intense, engaging triumph.

As an action-adventure, an RPG, a narrative, and open-world sandbox, and a way to simply spend time exploring a breathtaking world – it falls short. Engaging at times, thrilling too, but also disjointed, clunky, and unfocused in ways we didn’t expect.

And so what looks like a fun, cartoony jaunt on a skateboard, that can actually be played as such, early on, can also very quickly turn into a deep and unforgiving monster wrought with indomitable challenge and pedestal moments brought on by death-defying triumphs. It’s the sort of slowburn game communities build around, in league with titles like Super Meat Boy, the Trials series or Cuphead, to name a few. Games where challenge is key, but bragging rights are better.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Expeditions: Rome. The tactical combat held my attention throughout. It has some weaknesses elsewhere, for sure. But like an effective party, they work to offer support. Tinkering away in your camp, or shuffling pawns across the strategic map might not get the pulse racing, but it provides an opportune moment to catch your breath, to rest and recuperate before pulling on your armour and once again striding onto the battlefield where you belong.

Dying Light 2 Stay Human’s greatest achievement is its freedom of movement, and the playground Techland has designed for you to best leverage that is a triumph of what feels like infinite proportions. At its most fundamental core, at the headiest tine of it all, the game’s promise of an open-world with zombies and near limitless freerunning opportunities is delivered to the letter. Unfortunately there’s much around those three pillars that simply isn’t delivered to the degree it’s obvious the studio would have liked. Whether it’s in performance, pacing or overall balance, across every system Dying Light 2 has cracks in its seams.

As a slice of classic top-down action-RPG goodness, Nobody Saves the World is the first surprise gem of the year. The fact that it’s available on Xbox Game Pass on PC and Xbox makes it something of a must-play if it's the style of game you dig. Then again there’s enough uniqueness and charm with the class-based Form system to warrant a go for even the most casual of RPG players. Fun, funny, and just all-around great.

As a Rainbow Six Siege spin-off it’s fun to see all of the gadgets and mechanics of that game make their way over into the co-op space. The gun-feel is also on point. The ease at which you can throw out a recon drone or line up a head-shot through a wall is endlessly satisfying. And with all of its tactical stealthiness, Extraction plays unlike anything else we’ve seen in the co-op space. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to give the experience a true identity it can call its own.

God of War remains an utterly brilliant action-adventure, where the former is as good as the latter. The bond between Kratos and Atreus is wonderfully handled, nuanced, funny, and heartfelt. A sentiment that speaks to the overall narrative, an engaging slice of Nordic mythology that also paves the way for the sequel - God of War: Ragnarok - due later this year on PS5. Really though, all you need to know is that one of the best games of the last decade is now available on PC.

What we get when all’s said and performed in step with The Gunk’s level design, is a fleeting experience really only good for the Achievements (your first G is a whopping 50, and this rarely lets up), or for a chilled and relaxed romp through an alien world whose FernGulley storyline is face-slappingly on-the-nose. I mean, it’s actually quite fun, despite Rani’s overly contextual Mepsipax design, which is entirely at odds with everything I’ve gunked at you here, but it did suck me in.

When viewed through a cinematic lens, White Shadows becomes an easy experience to recommend. The wonderful art direction, cinematography, animation (for the most part) and other elements do come together to create a cohesive and visually surprising journey. There’s variety here, quite a bit of it considering the very short runtime. So even though it doesn’t quite emerge, fully formed, from the shadows of Limbo, Abe’s Odyssey, or Another World, White Shadows certainly makes its mark. However fleeting that might be.

It’s very much the spiritual successor it purports to be -- with forward thinking design and elements that flow in a way that reminds you of the timeless nature of the fluid, stylish combat of old. The lack of co-op is something you feel, but in terms of cinematic spectacle this is the Master Chief carrying the flag once more for Xbox. Albeit in that new-school form of being able to jump in and, well, play anywhere.

This is one of the best detective titles you’ll play and its story and voice-acting is a pure joy. Just don’t go in expecting any high level of visual sheen, or system fluidity.

Tavern Master is a pretty simple and straightforward game at heart. There's not much in the way of frills, and it would likely benefit from some injections of personality. If I was playing backseat designer, I'd love to see the addition of conversations with regular patrons or some extra narrative dressing around the special events. At present, while on Tuesday you play host to a wine tasting and on Friday there's an executioner's meetup, the only real difference is for the former you have to put cheese on the menu. Still, with the sun rising over the castle walls, the stream gently gurgling in the background, and the birds chirping away in the nearby woods, it really is a lovely spot for an executioner's meetup.

The real lesson here is to stop releasing unfinished games, whether that’s server woes, optimisation issues, immersion-shattering bugs or, as is additionally the case with Battlefield 2042, an undercooked core gameplay offering that would have benefited from at least another year in the oven.

Even with a lacklustre Zombies experience, Call of Duty: Vanguard is Sledgehammer Games’ best Call of Duty to date. The studio is finally hitting its stride in getting its vision of the series to where it should be. The campaign is a rip-roaring five hours of fascinating character stories mixed with memorable locales, while the new additions to the admittedly by-the-numbers multiplayer are more than welcome. While it may not change the formula in any meaningful way, what you’ve got here is a great Call of Duty game.

There’s an upgrade system to offer up replayability and variation, but there’s just not enough about the world, characters, and story to elevate it above anything more than a fun tech demo to put your new GPU through its paces.

Forza Horizon 5 is so stacked it’s hard not to feel a little overwhelmed with options. But there’s never really a sense that you need to do any of it, or progress through a series of checklists before moving on to the next thing. And in the end this might be the genius at the heart of Horizon, you’ll want to keep moving, keep driving, simply because you want to. Because it feels right. And in creating a vast, beautiful open-world in which you can do that very thing, Playground Games lives up to its namesake.

There’s no cash-in on the overall success of the MCU here, or on the Guardians of the Galaxy movies in a standalone sense. This is a pure videogame born from the paper and ink flesh of the comics before it, imagined as an interactive slice of the IP’s universe. And it absolutely works. The action-RPG lite approach was conclusively the right decision to make, which allows the game’s absolute strength: its story and characterisation, to truly stand out. This is a surprise hit for me, and one of the most enjoyable games from a written and performed perspective you’ll play this year.

Age of Empires IV isn’t something strictly for fans, there’s no accrued history you need to know before jumping in. It does however feel like a natural extension of Age of Empires II’s brilliance -- and for that does feel like the return of something great. What you’ve got here is a modern progression of the age-old, well, Age of Empires formula with all of the style and depth you could hope for. As a foundation for more campaigns, more maps, and more of everything to come it’s exciting. The documentary approach to the four campaigns on offer is not only a winner, but a confident step forward for the series. Historical warfare with an eye toward the educational. Age of Empires IV is not only one of the very best slices of real-time strategy gaming, period, it’s a candidate for best game of 2021.

A great concept with the right amount of heart, that simply loses its way too often in so much broken form.

With Back 4 Blood available on Xbox Game Pass on PC and Console there’s reason to jump in if you’re looking for something new to play with friends. The look and feel is familiar and the action is engaging and chaotic when played with a group. For a while that is. Thanks to the sameness that permeates across most levels and backdrops and the predictability of the pace, it doesn’t take long for this Left 4 Dead spiritual successor to wear a little thin.

The real test of whether or not Tales of Arise is for you will be in your desired level of investment, because the requirement for here, is nothing shy of massive. But what you get is a charming game built from tentpole JRPG, anime and manga tropes, glammed up the wazoo, and pegged down with a solid fighting and combat system, stunning animations, a unique art-style and maybe the best presentation in the series yet. I for one loved my time with the game, even at its cringiest, because the payoff for growth in power and the game’s pure characterisation is worth watching the handful of Alphen skits being a big dumb idiot.

The themed levels are fine, but leaning into more SEGA history would have definitely added to the celebratory feel of Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania. A fine return to monkey-in-ball form, by the way of past glory and frustration.

This is no Metroid Prime, and that’s a good thing. Rather, this is a reminder of what it means for a game to be of the Metroid half of a Metroidvania, and then some. That this IP exists in both the first-person genre-defining Metroid Prime series, and in its traditional 2D side-scrolling self is a testament to its flexibility and EMMI-like defiance of not being confined to a single shape...And in Metroid Dread, you’re not only getting arguably the best Metroid game to date, but maybe the best game of 2021.

Despite some of the zannyness of the overall experience, the meaty “gritty and grounded” story content is top shelf, and it’s difficult to not just want more and more of Esposito’s Castillo. And you’ll definitely be playing awhile, especially if you choose to go all-in on the game’s many treasure hunts and other game-world challenges.

Diablo II: Resurrected presents the very best version of an all-timer, and benefits from all of the patches and updates it received from Blizzard in the early part of this century. Stuff that helped fine tune an already great game, turning it into something that stands the test of time.

Gravity-defying loops and curves sit alongside integration with real-world sections and plenty of room for breaking race lines, if you’re the overzealous type. And the deeper you go into the game as it’s meant to be played, with fully upgraded cars, the more a hidden level of depth emerges and a truly challenging racing game materialises. It’s just a shame it’s largely hidden from the outset.

Although it has its shortcomings, I’ve been really impressed with FIFA 22. EA has delivered one of the most in-depth career modes to date, and the new additions across the game’s other modes are most welcome. I do hope to see more iteration across the board, but the gameplay this year feels top notch. It’s a huge step forward for the series, and a proper showcase of what the new consoles are capable of.

It’s not that it plays like a game from a different time, the overall design and flow is both time-worn and engaging -- it’s just that in certain areas it begins to feel a little disconnected. Secrets and treasure mostly come in the form of cute little hats for your Rot and the blue-crystal currency to buy more hats. So, the incentive to explore isn’t really there from a thematic or discovery context. We wish there was more finding spirits and restoring the village stuff as opposed to chests bursting open with a currency you never feel like you actually need.

Saying Deathloop plays with the form isn’t mere hyperbole. In much the same way great films defy comparison, or push their respective artform forward, Deathloop does so for the first-person shooter. By pairing the idea of ‘where to go’ and ‘how to approach’ with that of a deep underlying mystery, Deathloop is as dense a puzzle to solve as it is a combat playground to conquer.

Interesting combat aside, what resonates and exhilarates about Lost in Random is its story first and foremost. The adventure that Even embarks on is one to savour and one that lives up to the wonderful art direction and visual design. The characters, the dialogue, the discoveries, the animation, the voice acting, the music, the presentation -- it all comes together wonderfully. A game well worth taking a chance and rolling the dice on.

This is a moving postcard to the 70s and 80s as far as influence goes -- as if David Bowie, Pink Floyd and Genesis found each other on a moving platform designed by Terry Gilliam rapidly coasting through the far reaches of space, powered entirely by solar sails and positive thought, and decided to jam.

The Siege of Paris is better than Wrath of the Druids, but fails to wholly expand upon the base game. It’s introduced elements feel like feelers, rather than complete implementation of new systems, and it actually could have been longer. Moreover, neither of the game’s key expansions feel like they impact Ravensthorpe or indeed, even England, enough given how much effort and investment is involved in them. It might be wishful think, but in all we’re looking at a series that still relies too heavily on repetitive gameplay loops and lacks dynamism and game-world feedback on your conquest of it. Still, after having spoken to the team at Ubisoft Montreal in-depth about all things Valhalla, we’re optimistic about the extended future of Valhalla and potential new content, and if not here, then what everything will mean in Infinity.

King's Bounty 2 lives up to its name in the sense that it delivers abundance. Like an ultra-compressed version of Skyrim, it feels full of things to do even if it doesn't necessarily excel at any of them. The combat is solid. The role-playing is solid. The questing and adventuring and writing and everything else are solid, too. It's comforting and familiar and simply does what it does without a great deal of fuss. In many ways it feels like the ideal pandemic lockdown game. I'll happily load King's Bounty 2, pull up the covers and settle in for the weeks and months to come.

As fun as it is to venture into a location called ‘Call of Battle’, a bombed out city with retro-FPS vibes, there’s nothing new it brings outside of aesthetics. Without any sort of detailed traversal or environmental interaction it all feels like you’re running around an overworld in an early 3D game from the late '90s. And with that one could argue that No More Heroes has always been about style over substance. The series’ unique blend of action and over-the-top self referential insanity is here, but one can’t help but wonder if that’s enough? Wonder how great a Suda51 joint could be if the mechanics and feel matched the virtuoso style on display.