Despite a plethora of decently challenging and fast-paced levels, Lost Orbit: Terminal Velocity’s lack of level and gameplay variety stop it from being the next arcade classic.

Sonic Superstars is full of ideas, and while not all of them land (especially the co-op), the inventiveness on show and core gameplay makes it worth checking out.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is a mixed bag. A fantastic returning campaign, some decent multiplayer and terrible co-op makes MW an interesting entry.

Total War: Rome Remastered is a solid technical remaster of a classic game, but fails to legitimately improve and adapt for modern sensibilities.

Iron Danger won’t change your world, but it’s a wholly unique game that may appeal to dungeon crawling fans.

Hitching framerates and drab visuals take away from an otherwise decent hack and slash with a terrific atmosphere.

Pikuniku is a bizarre and often hilarious puzzle platformer that is too hamstrung by its brisk campaign to make it much more than a neat distraction.

The performance issues may hamper the immersion and fun in a world with a structure that only has so much to offer.

Rain of Reflections: Chapter 1 is a competent point and click adventure with fun ideas and an interesting world.

A bare-knuckle slugfest, Skybolt Zack is a scrappy rhythm platformer with fun to be had for those who don’t throw in the towel.

The jank and glitches present in RoboCop: Rogue City - Unfinished Business make it hard to give it a higher score, but this is about as fun as uncomplicated FPS games get. Buy it, blast through it over a weekend, smile the entire time.

The experience is mired only by several bland game features, some grating repetitiveness, and an odd lack of personality from the officers.

The new polish looks nice, but there isn’t much to keep any newcomers coming around.

Sons of Ra is a tight and fast-paced competitive game with a neat setting and flavorful presentation, though does suffer from some balancing issues.

Way of the Hunter is a deep and immersive hunting sim with beautiful visuals that fans of the genre will love. Unfortunately, its slow-burn gameplay and pacing, combined with the precise shooting mechanics make this game hard to recommend for new players.

The undead series about the undead stumbles a little in its revival episode, though it still retains tension, great setpieces, and undeniable heart.

An unremarkable story is outshined by engaging, if difficult, puzzles, and a persistently creepy atmosphere.

Ditching the simulation-heavy gameplay of previous Olympic games is a smart move that creates a more enjoyable experience, especially in multiplayer, but there’s still a lack of lasting replay value.

While it's not perfect, Super Arcade Football is an entertaining way to enjoy the beautiful game.

Astra Exodus is a fairly decent 4X strategy game with some interesting ideas and a surprisingly good tactical combat system, but it’s bogged down by a lack of polish and some technical issues.

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is a blindingly bright love letter to the entire series with a sheen that’s often diminished by its own technical shortcomings.

A solid first lap for a racer that might need a bit more time to hit top speed, LEGO 2K Drive is still worth playing whether you’re young, old or somewhere in between.

Despite its faults, Bear With Me has a lot of charm and heart. It likely won't blow you away, but there is enough content with The Complete Collection to warrant your attention.

While repetition defines The Sojourn as more of an attractive collection of brain teasers than a rich narrative experience, its intricate levels and creative puzzle design will engage any player looking for gratifying challenges of a slower pace.

With some post-launch love to improve some of the more lacking areas, AO Tennis 2 could be a real winner. For now, though, it is likely a game that only dedicated tennis fans will truly enjoy.

While Maneater could be regarded as something of a one-trick pony, it’s still a very good trick that you’ll enjoy while it lasts.

WWE 2K Battlegrounds isn’t a bad game, especially coming out in such a disappointing time, but it may have done better on the mobile market and won’t scratch the itch for every fan. With some tweaks, however, Battlegrounds could be seen as an entertaining, above mediocre distraction, with a goofy look, remembered as the less offensive alternative.

Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment are undeniably great games but even with updated graphics and improvements to control schemes, they show their age and are not well suited to home consoles.

Phoenix Point successfully introduces a slew of new features and mechanics that sufficiently evolve the XCOM-inspired genre of strategy games, though is brought down by some buggy, wonky, and unbalanced implementation of some mechanics.

While minimal features and a noticeably short playtime offers an experience that is almost fleeting, its tragic story and heartfelt message leaves an everlasting impact.

While Greak: Memories of Azur can be occasionally frustrating, the design and world-building are effective enough to make it worthwhile and enjoyable for players of all skill-sets.

Pacer’s lacklustre career mode and some dodgy event types might be turn-offs, but the core racing gameplay makes up for it.

If you can forgive some of its cheesy narrative moments and glitches, Man of Medan shows promise for a future franchise. You just have to play with a friend to fully appreciate it.

Granblue Fantasy Versus is a fun and addictive new challenger to the fighting game throne.

Despite a few issues throughout and bland playable characters, the recruitment system and campaign manage to offer just enough for Watch Dogs: Legion to be worth hacking into.

Ultimately, ICBM is a tight and compact little game illustrating global nuclear war in a digestible manner.

It isn’t the best game in the rhythm genre (that’s Gitaroo Man), but Melody of Memories is going to entertain a lot of people, make a ton of money, and get fans playing through the whole series again.

For a game that showcases perhaps the most dynamic and wholesome athlete in generations, MLB The Show 22 ironically feels like the flattest and safest version of itself.

While certainly rough around the edges, Raji: An Ancient Epic is an earnest swing that shows a ton of heart and some great ideas.

Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia does not quite reach the heights of truly great tactical RPGs.

On the overall spectrum of FF titles, while not the worst, FF8 is neatly placed in the middle — some great ideas, but at the cost of a confusing tale.

Despite some flaws, Disintegration’s genre fusion presents a worthwhile alternative from your traditional FPS experiences.

Reigns: Three Kingdoms adds plenty of new ideas and frustrations, but anyone looking for a bit of regicide on their Steam Deck could do far worse.

The Rumble Fish 2 isn’t the most groundbreaking port ever, but there’s still a solid fighting game on offer here.

While Metal Wolf Chaos XD isn’t about to set the world on fire with its stellar graphics, revolutionary gameplay or thought provoking and hard hitting narrative, it does hold a place as unique and ridiculous piece of gaming history, and I’m glad the West has been given a chance to properly celebrate it.

Though it has its faults, if you like sex jokes and puzzles tied into a decent point-and-click dating adventure, Larry Laffer’s latest outing is the game for you.

Conan Unconquered’s core mechanics are fun and playing with a friend can be a blast. I just wish there was more content.

The lack of variety and a failure to really stand out among the stiff competition hamstrings Black Future ‘88.

Layers of Fear 2023 really isn't the most necessary remake ever and those who didn't like the original games certainly won't be converted, but this is a pretty compelling package for psychological horror fans.

Flawed, but not a failure, Code Vein offers the same hardcore Soulslike action with less of a barrier of entry, making for a decent gateway into a growing genre.

Even if the puzzle density and technical issues may drive you to madness, this cosmic horror still has something unique to offer.

While it has plenty of rough edges, Pieces Interactive's take on horror royalty is the best the series has been in decades.

A fun budget fighter that has its core mechanics in the right place but is currently missing a lot of content, Battle for the Grid is a good fighting game with the potential to become great.

Darkestville Caste is a valiant attempt at creating a spiritual successor to one of the most beloved point and click games ever made, and, on some levels, it succeeds.

GreedFall has some of the most compelling characters and storylines so far this year. Unfortunately, they're buried by dated technology and a serious lack of polish.

Like A Dragon Gaiden should tide fans over until Infinite Wealth drops as a shorter yet still enjoyable romp, but this is hardly a series highlight.

While Lone Ruin is currently sparse on content, there’s some solid gameplay foundations here that could be built upon in the future.

It is a rough diamond that is in need of some refining and shining, but still provides a good bullet hell experience.

If you haven’t played it yet, and have a few willing mates that’ll join you, Gang Beasts is worth checking out.

Though the mediocre UI makes the game needlessly intimidating, Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Storm Ground is an engaging tactics game that successfully mixes systems from multiple genres.

It’s definitely bigger, and there’s certainly more, but there’s still a lack of polish around the edges that stops it from being definitively better.

Far Cry New Dawn is an interesting experiment for the franchise. While it borrows some mechanics from the Ubisoft family that feel out of place and suffers from frustrating padding, the core Far Cry experience might be enough to tide you over once it finally gets going.

When it works, Friday the 13th is a truly exciting bout of cat-and-mouse gameplay that offers plenty of thrills and tense moments, but technical issues, clunkiness and a laborious levelling grind can add up to frustration.

Blades Of Fire gets in its own way sometimes with busywork-heavy quest design, but the unique combat and enjoyable weapon crafting save it.

The positives outway the cons in this indie title. A short and flawed yet satisfactory game, Path To Mnemosyne is recommended for anyone who is looking for a good brain teaser.

Beyond a Steel Sky isn’t a perfect game, but it’s made with a lot of love and attention from the developer.

City of Brass is a fun and swashbuckling adventure that gets seriously hamstrung by its clumsy and sluggish controls. Recommended to any masochist out there who wants to get punished on the go and doesn't mind looking past some issues.

The textbook definition of a rental game, Painkiller is a blast to play over a weekend, then never think about again.

Despite a stunning art style and puzzles as gratifying as they are numerous, a disappointing lack of features prevent Degrees of Separation from outshining others in its genre. When you're willing to overlook the repetition in favour of its intriguing central mechanic, however, this charming title will prove itself worthy of your time.

Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance is a fun action game to play with friends whose deep combat gets overshadowed by a clunky lock-on mechanic and untimely framerate drops.

While its third act strays too far from what initially made it great, Fall of Porcupine boasts likable characters, welcoming visuals, and plenty of fuzzy moments in its narrative.

Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection is an enjoyable look at two and a half great games, but not in their best forms. It has much of the DLC and extra bits thrown in, but nothing new that makes this collection worthwhile, except to new fans.

The greatest enemy in God Eater 3 may not be the Aragami, but a stagnated system and potential fatigue instead.

A gorgeous comic book aesthetic and unique premise helps to alleviate Deep Sky Derelicts’ rudimentary and uneven card-based RPG tactics.

Woolley Mountain is a touching homage to 80s and 90s gaming, but modern audiences may struggle to get along with it.

Undeniably entertaining and often thrilling, The Hong Kong Massacre's chances of matching its inspirations are seriously undermined by a lack of care, variety, and an utterly lifeless story.

Marvel's Avengers is held up by a surprisingly excellent single-player campaign and let down by its stagnant gameplay loop and widespread technical issues. We definitely can't do this all day.

King of Seas looks great and has some fun ship-to-ship combat but is let down by its underwhelming exploration and basic story.

Shock connoisseurs may enjoy Martha Is Dead’s body horror and gore, but there is a lot of muck to wade through in the game's short playtime.

id Software's magic touch with the old ultra-violence isn't quite enough to completely save Rage 2 from the rest of its sloppy and seemingly rushed trimmings, but if you want to play as a superhero who isn't fussy about killing, you're well set here.

Aragami 2’s persistent bugs, technical issues, and a lackluster presentation bog down what can otherwise be a fun and intricate stealth action game.

While charming in its use of gothic horror themes and tropes, Rogue Lords barely does enough to stand out from previous turn-based dungeon crawlers.

Genesis Alpha One could become a good game, but at the moment, it’s limited, slow and very boring indeed.

Regiments may give you the opportunity to try yourself out as a combined arms commander, but it doesn’t go the extra mile to flesh out the experience to the fullest.

Terrible balancing, repetitive gameplay, and a scarcity of content make Vicious Circle feel like a game that wasn't ready to be hatched.

The marvel of evolution gives way to a gameplay loop that quickly irritates without enough variety to spice it up, which, when combined with poor combat, fiddly controls, and repetitive crafting, all add up to an experience that might drive you bananas.

There’s a sad irony in the fact that The New Order was so refreshing as it didn’t rely on tired modern FPS conventions like cover shooting and regenerating health, yet here’s Youngblood trying to get a slice of the homogenised live service pie with systems and mechanics that feel completely alien for the franchise.

Blair Witch on the Switch remains an unnerving and creepy experience that has plenty of interesting gameplay concepts, but it‘s also severely lacking compared to other versions.

Line War introduces awesome and innovative ideas for real-time strategy gaming, though it’s bogged down by technical issues and not quite enough ambition.

An interesting game that makes mashing together different songs almost effortless, Fuser lacks a gameplay hook to keep you coming back.

Terminator: Resistance doesn't do much new, and it doesn't do much well, either. It's lagging in almost every department, yet when you put it all together, it's a charming relic that may just surprise you.

Even with all that said, though, Pepper Grinder’s core gameplay is still ridiculous fun, and raising the flag at the end of each platforming level still feels triumphant, if only for short-term pleasure. Pepper Grinder is a short game, only four to six hours, so the lack of other compelling aspects feels disappointingly underwhelming. Still, the thrill of the precision-heavy chase is an oh-so-tempting one, even if you won’t remember the chase very well afterward.

In trying to subvert expectations, The Last of Us Part II discards the best aspects of its predecessor to provide a rote revenge tale that is ill-considered, ending on a note that makes everything — all the violence, all the loss, all the struggle — feel utterly, hopelessly pointless.

Monster Harvest is a simple but engaging farming sim with an interesting twist that makes a good first impression, but ultimately suffers from bugs and the weight of its own ambition.

Monster Truck Championship offers decent and enjoyable gameplay, but some overarching flaws muddy the overall experience.

While the game has interesting concepts and ideas, some odd design choices and an atrocious tutorial hamper Old World’s ambition.

Nuts had the potential to be something really special, but can’t quite see the forest for the trees.

I can’t help but wish Byking and Bandai Namco added something more, something fresh to really help One’s Justice 2 stand out and truly be ‘Plus Ultra’.