Dying Light: The Beast has great parkour and melee combat, but a bland story and an uninteresting Beast Mode mechanic leave it fun, but ultimately forgettable.

Silksong is a technical feat. So densely packed is its world that maintaining a laser focus on forward momentum is borderline impossible. At every opportunity, I found myself pausing the main campaign just to prolong my time in Pharloom...Little did I know that pacing myself wasn’t necessary. Mechanically, Silksong is just as expansive. Superior fluidity of movement and a less obtuse approach to building the perfect bug warrior made traversal and combat feel like a treat to be savored at every opportunity...Ultimately, games like these live and die based on how well their worlds are built, and Pharloom is one of the best from an architectural and visual perspective. It’s a shame that its fierce difficulty spike and pacing issues in the early game will absolutely turn less hardcore audiences away, because it’s clear that Silksong is seven years of love, care, and dedication splashed on a screen. Equal parts breathtaking and brutal, Hollow Knight: Silksong proves it was worth the wait but won’t go easy on anyone.

Gears of War: Reloaded brings a nearly 20-year-old classic back to life in stunning fashion. The remaster sharpens the action and polishes the visuals, but while the gunplay is timeless, clunky AI and a barebones story remind you this is still a product of its time.

Mafia: The Old Country drastically improves on its predecessor, delivering a gripping mob tale that hits harder than a punch from Tony Montana. It’s just a shame that it’s a much better movie than it is a game.

Dead Take is a sublime horror game filled with some phenomenal performances expertly heightened by the live-action nature. It's unique, fun, and fantastically paced.

Tales of the Shire offers a cute cozy adventure that perfects its fishing and cooking, but fails to succeed in any other area synonymous with the genre.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is yet another great Soulslike with an entertaining and satisfying combat system that's impossible to put down. I wish its boss fights would break the mould a little more, but the depth of the Madness feature makes even the more irritating areas worth the pain…This is the next challenge that fans of Elden Ring, Dark Souls, and Black Myth: Wukong need to face. You’ll probably end up using swear words you didn’t even realize you knew, but if you can stomach the difficulty, you’ll be rewarded with the standout Soulslike of 2025.

From start to finish, Donkey Kong Bananza is a riot. I wrapped up my journey to Bananza's credits in a little over 20 hours. Your mileage will vary wildly depending on how much optional content you decide to invest time in, but that's the beauty of it. If you're not big on collectathons, there's still plenty of game here for platforming purists to enjoy. I can't recommend enough taking on the various trials – think Shrines from Breath of the Wild – littered throughout the world, though, especially if you're a fan of 2D Donkey Kong. While performance issues were largely nonexistent in handheld mode, quite severe frame rate drops were commonplace when docked, especially during certain boss battles. This doesn't take into account any day one patches that may or may not arrive on release, and not egregious enough that your enjoyment will be hampered.

College Football 26 is a step up from last year, there is no doubt about that. The game looks stunning and plays differently enough from Madden to justify sinking hundreds of hours into it.

Enchanted by Nature kicks The Sims 4’s wackiness up a notch in all aspects while not feeling too overbearing, and even though Fairies and the new world are perfectly fine additions to the game, they might not blow Simmers away. Where the pack really shines is in its new Natural Living skill, enchanted Gnomes, and new items like the Living Houseplants. They’re all standouts of the pack, and while it’s not going to be worth getting this DLC for one of those alone, there’s a big chunk of content on offer here that has something for every Simmer.

Death Stranding 2 is a phenomenal offering. It's among Kojima's very best work not just for its narrative, but for the near-limitless variability in its gameplay opportunities.

Rematch has the juice to be the next big multiplayer phenomenon, and the game you'll be screaming at your friends in for years to come. Move over Rocket League – this is the arcade football game we’ve been waiting for.

Date Everything’s main draw is its crazy premise, but thanks to its storylines that are brought to life by seasoned voice actors, it is more than just a silly idea. It is a surprisingly heartfelt experience that expertly blends silly and sentiment.

It’s such a shame that the key selling point of the Mario Kart Switch 2 game, its open world, falls a bit flat, because pretty much everything else is so, so good. Ok, the lack of kart customization bothers me a little, but with a crazier cast of characters, fun items, and incredibly imaginative tracks, the racing is as good as it has ever been...And in Knockout Tour’s hectic 24-player battle royale-style matches, it’s even better, proving that Nintendo can still deliver surprises that completely change the way we play its iconic games. I never thought I needed or wanted a BR-style mode in Mario Kart, and now I’m sitting here questioning why it’s never been added before. If only it had been called Mario Kart Knockout, eh?

F1 25 hits all the same notes as F1 24, but it isn’t just a reskin; it is a stylish upgrade that will punish you at a moment's notice if you get out of line. You may have dreams of becoming Max Verstappen, but it will quickly turn you into Lance Stroll.

After Elden Ring set the bar impossibly high for what's expected of open-world RPGs, Nightreign delivers a fantastic accompaniment to FromSoftware's core portfolio. It's unafraid to turn the established Souls formula on its head and ask if it can mesh well with other genres. While the answer is a resounding yes, Nightreign won't be for everyone. For series veteran fans with no interest in multiplayer, it's a hard sell. Solo play is an officially supported mode, but it feels much like an afterthought. Played with the intended group size, however, Nightreign is an irresistible co-op experience with far more depth than I expected.

Above all else, Doom: The Dark Ages has utterly fantastic combat. Moment-to-moment action is among the best in series history. But ultimately, in a desire to expand on a winning formula, id Software has fallen short of the high bar it set with Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 gets it right in all the areas that matter. Its storytelling carries emotional depth, and the characterization makes you care about everyone you meet on your journey through this beautifully imagined world. Throw in a combat system that puts mastery above grinding, and you’ve got a classic RPG that, like Baldur’s Gate 3 before it, should appeal beyond its target audience, so much so that a game of the year nomination feels inevitable.

Dragonwilds’ core gameplay doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it ticks all the boxes of what makes survival games so addictive while bringing fresh ideas to the table that work wonders in minimizing genre fatigue. Jagex’s roadmap promises core updates to every facet of the game, and with a foundation as solid as this, there’s every chance it could become a leader among its peers. The biggest issue, by a country mile, is an overreliance on unfun, semi-scripted events that, right now, only serve to cause frustration.

Stygian: Outer Gods is a game that diehard Cthulhu fans will enjoy. But is it polished enough for those less familiar in its early access state to appreciate? Not really. It’s unsatisfying to play as an RPG fan, and while its atmosphere is stellar, as a survival horror lover, I was expecting more scares. However, as a Keeper for Call of Cthulhu, it struck a chord and embodied that unsettling design every good eldritch game needs. Ultimately, if you’re looking for a short adventure that’s bound to improve, then Stygian: Outer Gods is a great choice.

While the adventure borrows heavily from Bloodborne, Dark Souls, and Stellar Blade, it never quite manages to match them. This is because it feels like more of a tribute act rather than a game that drives the genre forward. As fun as AI Limit is, we’ve seen it all before. However, if you’re craving more of that classic Soulslike gameplay in a slick anime art style that’s always rewarding to play, then there’s still lots of fun to be had in AI Limit.

Atomfall is a totally gripping nuclear mystery that rises above the Fallout comparisons to become its own brutal beast.

Assassin's Creed has been fighting to find its identity for over a decade, and thanks to Shadows it's finally rediscovered it. Sure, its combat can be clunky and some story beats felt oddly placed (particularly Yasuke's backstory), but Shadows is exactly what Assassin's Creed needed to prove it still has a beating heart. Whether you’re looking to explore the stunning world of feudal Japan, storm the gates of an enemy castle, or fall in love with the many NPCs that populate its world, Assassin's Creed Shadows is an immersive treat that cements itself as the best Assassin's Creed game since Black Flag.

MLB The Show 25 doesn’t make any massive changes, but it didn’t need to. If you are a baseball fan, I highly recommend picking up MLB The Show 25, and if you are a sports fan who hasn’t tried this series yet, it’s the perfect year to do so.

Mechanically, 2K25 is a very similar game to 2K24, just as 23 was before that… Normally, it would be hard to get that thrilled about an annual update, but this definitely captures the excitement of the new Triple H era with its Showcase mode, and that is enough to make it the best WWE game since 2K started developing them. So, even if you have 2K24, you won’t want to miss wrestling with Roman Reigns this year.

Businesses & Hobbies is a conundrum of an Expansion Pack. While it offers some fantastic cross-pack functionality with other DLC, it’s let down in other areas by only featuring two new skills, an underbaked candy creation system, and a small world with interactable set dressing I’ve been speaking about since My Wedding Stories. If you’re someone who loves Rags to Riches playthroughs, familial play, and legacies, this is the pack for you, but the sour aftertaste of something that feels all too familiar to Get To Work in some ways keeps it from being something truly great.

What makes these dichotomous chapters so engrossing, however, is their sheer scope. Where throughout It Takes Two you were largely traversing smaller, indoor areas and keeping to confined spaces, Split Fiction feels like a bold statement of what Hazelight can really do with an expanded budget. Some areas are bewildering in size, while others pack in so much detail you can’t help but ponder where all the loading screens have been hidden.

Two Point Museum is so much more than just a grind to build the best possible museum, it also offers plenty of exciting features, a great deal of customization, and it's all complemented by a good sense of humor that adds an extra layer of depth to the game.