Mixtape is a coming of age story about friendship, change and growing-up that – depending on your age and the expectations you come in with – may be just be your favourite game of the year. As an old grey-beard that grew up in the nineties, and was similarly…rebellious, it certainly hit all the right notes with me.

Resident Evil Requiem is an incredible game. I’m sad I didn’t get to review it early for you, but just know that if you’ve been waiting for my thoughts, it’s really damned good. My favorite in the series, in fact. I loved Resident Evil 4’s remake, for the first 75%, but that game went on a little too long. Resident Evil Requiem’s pacing leads to a snappy, scary, breath-taking time that no other series can quite match. It’s an amazing title, balancing survival horror and balls-to-the-wall action like few ever have before.

A tremendously well-crafted gameplay loop, great art-style, a splendid soundtrack, and plenty of content to lose dozens of hours in – with more promised to come in future updates. I would have liked a bit more original art and mechanics, instead of mostly re-treading designs from Vampire Survivors, and a few balance changes and late game choices hamper the long-term playability a little. Still, Vampire Crawlers is one of the best roguelike deck-builders on the market right now. It’s fast, charming, addictive and tremendously well-crafted. Poncle has done it again.

Saros is a ton of fun to play, especially if you prefer a character leveling system to a ‘git gud learning patterns’ one. It is stunning to look at and has an excellent soundtrack. An emphasis on its weak story wastes some solid acting performances and an incredible art style. By the end of my 14 hours, I felt a tinge of disappointment at how close Saros was to being incredible.

SIGONO’s newest adventure tells the story of environmental struggles that naturally become personal. After what seems a long life yet lived and having nothing to show for it, you’re invited to look back again and understand. Sometimes they’re happy thoughts. Sometimes, it hurts so much you’ll want to crawl up in a hole and die. Sometimes, retrospection gets all too real. OPUS: Prism Peak’s answer to this middle-aged conundrum is to look back, walk straight forward, and be nicer to yourself. It couldn’t have worded it in a nicer, more beautiful message.

Twisted Reflection is one-of-a-kind. I found myself enjoying the world-building of a Monster Hunter game for the first time, thanks to a strong cast of characters backed up by an interesting premise and stellar visuals. The combat is fun, and the world mechanics all work together to keep you busy, whether it’s completing quests or taking on challenges with your best Monsties. I wholly recommend Monster Hunter Stories 3 to anyone who loves the idea of an animated-like adventure, complete with a modest amount of mechanics that do not burden the player.

PRAGMATA is a fantastic video game. Solid gunplay, excellent variety in its hacking, incredible visuals, and an enjoyable story work together to create what I hope is a new IP that we’ll see a lot more of in the future.

As of today, Marathon is a bit too light on depth, content and variety to be warranting an unconditional recommendation, with too many design flaws that could alienate newcomers. Now, the ball is in Bungie‘s court. Can they turn Marathon into a truly unmissable multiplayer experience? Currently, they are only halfway there.

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun’s Nintendo Switch 2 port is an excellent (if expensive) way to experience this wonderful title. Mimimi Games was one of the best, and Shadow Tactics was where they started to shine. At $40 MSRP for the base game and $20 for Aiko’s Choice, it isn’t cheap, but it is fantastic.

I very much enjoyed my time with Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth, and for those looking for an adorable and charming way to spend a few hours, I would heartily recommend it. It is visually stunning, enjoyable to navigate and play and made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. If you are into cosy, story-driven puzzlers, then I would definitely encourage you to check it out.

The world of Novo is as captivating as ever. The puzzles on offer, enhanced with deeper mechanics are well thought out, and the expanded narrative provides some answers and takes some risks with its story telling. Planet of Lana 2 can’t quite escape feeling a little familiar, but who’s going to complain about more of such a good thing?

I went into Call of the Elder Gods with a little trepidation, because I’ve played quite a few narratively focused puzzle games of late, and I feared I was a little burnt out. Thankfully, it’s a worthy sequel. Call of the Elder Gods is filled with some genuinely well-designed brain teasers, and a plot that eventually had me hooked, further fuelling my desire to solve the central mystery. If you’re looking for a new puzzle game to challenge you mind, this is a call you’ll want to take.

MOUSE: P.I. For Hire was worth the wait. The team at Fumi Games has matched their fantastic artwork with solid gameplay, great writing, and fantastic audio. Shooter fans are eating Gouda with this one… Ah, hell, I already used that one.

Despite my irks with the game, I couldn’t help but feel entranced by its atmosphere. It won’t take long for you to figure out what’s gone horrible wrong in Minakami, but the side stories you catch glimpses of as you saunter through run down homes and village walks paint a picture of terror, violence, and sometimes regret. You’ll encounter some messed up events as you get to one of the game’s many endings and, despite my issues with Mio, she handles these encounters with far more grace than my scaredy bones could ever. Repetition is in FATAL FRAME II’s nature and though I find more comfort from the horrors of Minakami Village behind the camera lens, it’s hard to deny that the game would be complete without its gorgeous setting and haunting narrative. Take a snapshot and hope you don’t miss.

Grime II is a phenomenal video game. Every aspect of it is a huge improvement over the original. If you have some patience and love a good Metroidvania, Grime II is the best one I have played since the Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. I cannot recommend it enough.

WWE 2K26 does exactly what a yearly sports game should do. It fixes some minor issues from the previous title. The Island mode is more enjoyable, going full in on the wacky version of what wrestling games can be...It’s expensive as heck if you want the top tier edition, coming in at an eye watering $150 MSRP in the US. If you’re happy with 2K25 there may not be enough here to warrant a full purchase, otherwise it’s an easy recommendation for fans of the industry.

If you are a fan of narrative games, then I think you will like Wax Heads. There is nothing out of the ordinary here – but the story is engaging, and the art style is fantastic. Unfortunately for me, I did find some of the gameplay tedious, and there is a lot you need to remember and take in to fulfil your role as a star employee. I appreciate the hard work that has gone into making the game, and what the creative team have tried to achieve here, but for me it just didn’t hit all of the right notes.

As someone who mostly cares about the core mechanics above all else, I’m pleased to report that Invincible VS lives up to my lofty and possibly unreasonable expectations. The combination of IP authenticity and gory combo focused combat is a mix that for me doesn’t really get old and is incredibly fun. Fans of the show will absolutely want to get their hands on this, if for no other reason than to further immerse themselves in the universe.

People of Note tries to do a lot – a video game-musical, with turn based combat, a world of musical references and plenty of dungeons and puzzles. Some of that is pretty great. Alas, the gameplay felt to me like a track stuck on repeat, and the story didn’t quite have enough going for it to be truly worth the journey. This is one album I won’t be playing again any time soon.

Crimson Desert is an amazing game full of wonder and frustration. I spent 110 hours completing its story and did not see half of the map, including the titular sandy-red expanse. It is an incredible achievement, living up to the promises and hype, while still needing a lot of love to get it into tip-top shape.

Make no mistake, Super Meat Boy 3D is as pure a punishing speedrunning platformer as you’ll get, just like its predecessors. It’s fast, tight, infuriating, hilarious, bloody and just outright white-knuckle fun. But yeah, f**k this game right off as well.

It lacks the depth and variety of some of the genre’s greatests, and the painfully slow unlock of new content is a huge problem, but I still had a good time putting in run after run, tweaking my weapons, creating increadingly broken builds with infinitely stacking effects. Feels like a game that, with a handful of tweaks and some new content added, could turn into one of the genre’s bests.

With weighty platforming and crunchy, satisfying combat, this is a world full of heart and incredible detail presented with an eye-catching art style. It’s backed up by a punchy soundtrack that elevates every pixel on display. REPLACED oozes style and imagination, and it’s almost everything I wanted it to be.

The golden era of track-based arcade racers may be behind us, but that didn’t stop Milestone from developing a marvellous one in this day and age. This reboot of Screamer has all the core elements of a modern classic: a meaty single player campaign with a rich story, a fantastic sense of style, a snappy arcade-style driving model with a high skill ceiling, and plenty of content to enjoy in both local and online play. Screamer is bold, exciting, but most importantly, incredibly fun, and it may just be one of the finest arcade racers in years. If you miss the good old days of fantastic arcade racers with personality, do yourself a favour and buy Screamer.

While not as groundbreaking of an evolution as last year’s game, MotoGP 26 pretty much does everything right. It tweaks both the simulation and arcade riding styles, it adds more options to career and multiplayer modes alike, and offers plenty of content and customization options. It has a few technical issues that are atypical for this series, and it may still lack the incredible depth and variety of the licensed F1 games. Yet, MotoGP 26 is a fine step forward for an already excellent racer, even if its iterative nature makes it a less essential upgrade than last year’s game.

Full of charm and humour, Darwin’s Paradox plays out somewhat like an interactive Pixar film. It certainly looks the part, thanks to some gorgeous artwork and animation that adds a layer of polish and charm to the game that just about camouflages some of the its weaker design elements. Fans of the genre will want to get ‘kraken’ with this one.

Directive 8020 is a solid sci-fi yarn let down by some early snark-filled writing. The plot is serviceable in showing you some gorgeous locations full of people you may or may not want to save, and a bevy of monsters you’ll get bored hiding from. If you’ve enjoyed the studio’s previous work, then rest assured that Directive 8020 may well be worth checking out.

If you’re looking for a story-driven title in an interesting world, then Tides of Tomorrow is probably going to be for you. Just don’t expect too much challenge along the way. When it comes to saving a dying world, what choices would you make?