Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Empire City is a game where the effort is clear, yet as a whole, the game doesn't come together in a way that turtles should when fighting crime in VR.

Aphelion isn’t a particularly bad game, but its gameplay and story are a little too safe to create an experience that is memorable.

Much like the pottery it's based on, Kiln is a game that has some creativity but is pretty empty on the inside.

Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss has some interesting ideas, but it hides them behind poorly explained puzzles and deceptively linear design.

Ground Zero is a bit of a weird one. On some levels, it works incredibly well, mostly in the nostalgic feel and wearing its inspirations on its sleeves. On the other hand, it sticks to them too much and doesn’t do anything interesting enough to stand out.

We Gotta Go is a fun idea that has a lot of potential, but in its current state, feels a little too loose and runny to encourage repeat visits for solo players or friend groups.

Last Flag has many fun aspects to entertain players enough for a full weekend of gaming; however, it may be lacking the special sauce to ultimately click with enough of an audience to keep the live-service game running.

Legacy of Kain: Ascendance brings the beloved franchise back after over two decades as a flawed 2D experience reserved for fans of the franchise.

Super Meat Boy 3D has brief moments of fun, but messy controls make it feel a lot more frustrating than was initially intended.

Project Songbird isn’t a perfect experience, nor is it terribly scary, but it does enough right to merit a playthrough.

Crimson Desert is an ambitious open-world game that buckles under its own weight, making it a fun but flawed experience that will leave the player base divided.

GreedFall: The Dying World, unfortunately, misses the mark with an incredibly buggy experience and lacklustre combat, despite a story and world that could have been worth exploring.

John Carpenter's Toxic Commando is a decent zombie horde shooter made better with friends, but one that, despite its short run time, can feel overly repetitive and uninspired.

Ranger’s Path: National Park Simulator fundamentally works, even with some minor bugs and a lack of gameplay variety—the game has a lot of work to create the ultimate virtual park ranger experience. [Early Access Score = 65]

Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered is finally playable on modern consoles in a faithful to the original way, flaws and all.

The follow-up to Planet of Lana attempts to recapture lighting in a bottle by doubling down on its signature 2-D platforming and puzzle elements, but a handful of visual and gameplay inconsistencies make the experience considerably less enjoyable.

Even if it's an imperfect collection, Disney Afternoon Collection now offers even more value, especially for gamers of a certain age.

High on Life 2’s biggest issue outside of technical issues, is that the new additions to the game feel so counter intuitive and work against what made the first game such a cult hit.

Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties is a good remake marred by unsavoury and baffling decisions by the studio, making it a hard game to recommend despite its technical competence.

MY HERO ACADEMIA: All’s Justice took on an ambitious task to make a semi-open world experience fun, but felt strapped by budgetary or technical constraints.

I Hate This Place has some interesting ideas inspired by its comic-book origins, but its moment-to-moment gameplay is dull at the best of times and deeply frustrating at the worst.

Code Vein II builds meaningfully on the original, with stronger companions, more flexible builds, and a story that feels more involved, even when it leans hard into melodrama.

Eldegarde has an interesting idea with its MMORPG styled Extraction game, but is a bit too mundane to stay with for too long.

BrokenLore: UNFOLLOW is a genuinely obnoxious game that barely understands the things it's trying to be about, let alone how to be scary.

Heartopia has some interesting ideas, but ends up feeling pretty shallow and largely forgettable.

For what it is, Pokémon Legends: Z-A – Mega Dimension is a decent enough post-game content update that will give fans of the game even more reason to keep playing.

Marvel Cosmic Invasion is a gorgeous throwback to the days of the Arcade, but one that ultimately feels a little too safe and short for its own good.

Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition is another bare minimum remaster from Aspyr, which doesn't give Lara or the Switch 2 the attention they deserve.

Disappointment is an understatement when it comes to Project Motor Racing. Vehicle control, sub-par graphics, and cost all contribute to the calamity that is PMR.

A.I.L.A told a predictable yet relevant story, but flew a little too close to the sun by implementing too many good features versus narrowing on making a few outstanding moments.

There is a good game somewhere here in RENNSPORT, but there is far too much that needs work to redeem it at this point in time.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 offers predictable but fun multiplayer, interesting additions to its zombies mode, but a single-player/co-op campaign that’s tedious and too goofy by far.

Ambrosia Sky has an interesting narrative, but squanders it with dull gameplay and amateur storytelling. [Part One review]

Bounty Star is a fun mech action game with surprising systems, fun characters, and some light base-building mechanics, but a lack of polish in key places really hold it back.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is a sequel in name only. A flawed but fascinating action-adventure that might satisfy World of Darkness devotees, but few others.

With very few options for variety, NASCAR 25 Just doesn’t offer enough in terms of depth.

If you’ve watched the trailer for Bye Sweet Carole, you’ve seen the best parts of Bye Sweet Carole. The game takes a demo's worth of content and stretches it out over four painfully long hours.

Yooka-Replayee does make some improvements to the 2017 original, but fails to fix the fundamental flaws its predecessor so divisive.

EA Sports NHL 26 is a good base game with some decent improvements in their more niche modes. Players of those modes should be happy, but players looking for a larger leap in the game as a whole shouldn’t hold their breath.

Star Wars: Beyond Victory - A Mixed Reality Playset is a fairly simple game with a good payoff for fans of narrative games or people who just want a sandbox to play in and it comes at a price that makes it a lot more enticing for people to give it a shot.

Nicktoons & The Dice of Destiny has some promise with its stacked cast of characters but never pulls the idea off. Middling gameplay, poor visuals, and mediocre writing really hold it back.

Alien Rogue Incursion Evolved Edition is a tepid but well-written downgrade over its otherwise atmospheric VR release, sporting minimal graphical upgrades over its 2024 counterpart.

Dragon Song Tavern: Cozy & Adventurous has a few good ideas, but they’re marred significantly by some amateurish game design.

Baby Steps, no pun intended, seems like a step backwards for Bennett Foddy and team. Losing the battle between fun and frustrating, frustrating and annoying, always wins when it comes to Baby Steps.

Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree has a lot of half-good ideas—each one marred by questionable design decisions.

Donkey Kong Bananza’s DK Island + Emerald Rush DLC is a decent enough expansion that is NOWHERE near worth the asking price.

Herdling is a captivating, albeit flawed experience that never has any low points, but never hits any genuine highs either.

Drag x Drive is a novel take on wheelchair basketball, one that takes full advantage of the Joy-Con 2 controllers. While limited by an overall lack of content, the game still creates a good foundation for the future.

Mafia: The Old Country is the textbook definition of fine, which is a shame because the first game was such a stark contrast to anything that had come out at the time and had so many unique ideas. For this sequel to come out and do little else than push the boundaries of visual hardware is genuinely disappointing. Like I said, the story is definitely worth experiencing, but the game isn’t going to be remembered.

Despite a lack of scares, Static Dread: The Lighthouse combines an engaging gameplay hook with a compelling narrative to keep players invested right up to the end.

Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles 2 is a good continuation adaptation of the anime. While it doesn’t do much to set itself apart from the first game, the almost quality-of-life changes make it feel like a justified experience.

The Edge of Fate accomplishes its unenviable task and lays down some solid foundations. In the process, it also taps into some aspects of the Guardian experience that have long been ignored, and brings back some of that retro-futuristic aesthetic that made the first game so curious—an encouraging omen as the game embarks into this new territory. Let’s just hope we all get to Bungie’s destination in one piece and see what fruit it bears.

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot Daima Adventures Through The Demon Realm - Part 1 is another solid piece of downloadable content for Kakarot, one that captures the essence of the latest series, making it worthy of a look for fans of the Daima anime.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers had such interesting promise, only to lose itself to building a game on frustration rather than learning and fun.

Shadow Labyrinth has a few interesting ideas, but this dark interpretation of PAC-MAN fails to deliver on the fundamentals of a Metroid-like experience.

Ultimately, Tamagotchi Plaza is a fairly lacklustre game but one that appropriately represents the Tamagotchi brand to the point where enthusiasts and young children may forgive its shallow gameplay loop.

While Space Marine remains a must-play for WH40K fans, the Master Crafted Edition would've been better off as a paid upgrade to the existing Steam edition.

Dragon Is Dead has a great sense of style and a lot of good ideas, but its execution of mechanics makes it feel a bit confused about what it wants to be.

Trash Goblin has the foundation for a genuine cozy game, but implements half-hearted sim elements for an experience that never feels as satisfying as it could.

Game of Thrones: Kingsroad does a good job of recreating the world beloved by many, and letting us live in it. But the microtransactions really make it feel like Netmarble doesn’t respect the players' time.

Despite its flashy looks, Empyreal is a bog-standard ARPG that somehow lacks any of the things that make these games fun and interesting.

Wall Town Wonders VR successfully relocates its mixed-reality experience into a more traditional feeling VR game that manages to keep the essence of the original release for a new player base to get lost in.

If you’re already into puzzle-heavy VR titles and can overlook a few technical frustrations, there’s definitely fun to be had with House of Da Vinci VR. It’s not quite on the level of The Room VR or I Expect You To Die, but it’s close enough to be worth checking out, especially for that hands-on, mechanical puzzle feel that this series does so well.

Moroi has a genuinely unique aesthetic and a distinct sense of atmosphere, but little else going for it.

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage - Tape 2 not only fails to conclude its story in a meaningful way, it highlights all the ways the entire story’s structure doesn’t really work.

Steel Series is a decent action-adventure game that feels like a long-lost video store rental that fans of the genre should appreciate despite its by-the-numbers design philosophy.

The Hundred Line - Last Defence Academy is a pretty solid turn-based strategy game buried under an avalanche of terrible anime tropes and mediocre storytelling.

Chains of Freedom is too caught up in its own macho army aesthetic to really have a connection with the player. Otherwise, it’s a half-decent tactics game.

Rusty Rabbit has some interesting ideas, but they’re buried under tedious and somewhat undercooked gameplay.

The Renovator: Origins is as bargain basement as they come for horror games that aren’t remotely scary. I’d be more upset if it wasn’t so commonplace.

KARMA: The Dark World tells a mildly interesting story, but it squanders a lot of good potential with simplistic gameplay and obvious symbolism.

INAYAH - Life After Gods has an interesting look but lacks the depth needed for challenging combat, and the incentive to explore its world to make for an interesting Metroid-like.

Rebirth of Souls is fairly standard fare for an anime game, but it will be welcome for content-starved Bleach fans.

Atomfall is a stunningly beautiful, yet flawed, experience that could be an easy recommend due to its presence on Xbox Game Pass, but becomes harder on other platforms.

Slime Heroes is a decent enough “Babies First Dark Souls” but fails to do anything interesting with the core concept of being a Slime.

Carmen Sandiego tries to revive the gameplay of its classic PC predecessors, however it fails to innovate in any meaningful way.

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage - Tape 1 tells a beautiful coming-of-age story, but takes far too long building up something that never pays off.

Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered is a history trip to a dark, odd time in Lara's history, covered in the same thin base coat of modern paint.

Warriors: Abyss can provide a fun experience for the Warriors die-hards, but could be skipped by everyone else.

Alien: Rogue Incursion successfully transports players to the terrifying world of the Aliens Franchise in a VR experience that doesn't overstay its welcome.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 had a lot of promise, with its gripping story and beautiful landscapes, at least until the technical issues started showing up and completely ruined the experience.

Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O does its job at introducing new fans to the franchise. It’s a fun refresh of an older game, but you won’t be missing out if you don’t pick up this title.

Sniper Elite: Resistance sticks to its guns and plays it safe, reiterating everything that makes the series great without introducing anything new.

Whether you’ll enjoy Star Wars: Episode I: Jedi Power Battles depends purely on nostalgia, but for the modern day this game just doesn’t hold up.

Synduality Echo of Ada has an addictive value at first, but needs to add more content and customizability to maintain concurrent player base.

Home Sports is a less-than-stellar attempt at bringing a compilation of sports into a single package. Between no replay value, bigger game area requirements and some funky physics, it’s safe to say to skip this one.

Despite its flaws, the unsettling atmosphere and experimental narrative make Among Ashes a fascinating experience for horror fans.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is incredibly promising, but needs more time to cook.

Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival has potential, but with it’s overwhelming animations and pricey day-one DLCs, it’s hard to recommend to anyone looking to get into the series.

In Sink is a fun and stylish puzzle game to play with your friend online, but suffers from some puzzles dragging out for too long and sometimes the hint function does the opposite of its purpose.

Mirthwood fails to inspire any feelings similar to its namesake.

Empire of the Ants is visually beautiful and narratively fascinating but isn’t consistently fun to play.

Slitterhead’s clunky controls, forced stealth, and dull cutscenes make it a tedious, frustrating 15-hour experience that feels like watching paint dry.

The Grand Archive Story Pack isn’t very grand and is pretty light on story. There’s some new pathways to explore but not enough substance to recommend this expansion over other DLC in the franchise.

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead while intriguing on paper, is too inconsistent when it comes to pacing, difficulty and world building to really make an impact.

Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered is a mixed-bag experience. While I was a fan of the game when it was first released in 2011, you can really feel its age in this remaster.

Yakuza Kiwami is a serviceable port of a solid remake that finally gives Nintendo audiences a taste of the Japanese beat-em-up favourite.

Voidwrought is fast, fun, and fluid. Despite some late-game balancing issues, it still makes for an entertaining Metroidvania experience. The soundtrack alone is worth the price of admission.