True, Splitgate 2 does a decent job implementing the fundamentals of a firstperson shooter, and occasionally makes a deeper impression with flourishes that can't be found elsewhere. But in moving too far towards established tastes, it more closely resembles what its creators profess to fight against. [Issue#413, p.120]

Rematch, especially with friends, is an immediate, exhilarating caricature of football. Its pared-down mechanics inject joy back into a sport that's been hollowed out, both in real life through surrender to capital and geopolitics, and as simulation, in the gears of service-game profit-making machines. [Issue#413, p.118]

It helps, too, that the story is surprisingly engaging. [Issue#413, p.116]

It's an amusingly quirky notion, but it wears thin as you empty bullets into pile after pile of stationary stationery. [Issue#413, p.114]

Its world feels considered. There are decent performances from its cast among the graphical artefacts, and zippy pacing that respects your time and conjures a sense of playing the Schwarzenegger role that never was. But it's been released in a technical state that makes it impossible to enjoy its ideas, with core components of its action left underdeveloped. For the player, that's frustrating. For those who made it, surely, it's heartbreaking. [Issue#413, p.112]

The Alters is unique in how it explores trust, regret, choice, self-sacrifice, labour and autonomy through its characters every bit as much as its pylon puzzles. [Issue#413, p.110]

As an open-world game, it might be too light for some, but World earns the suffix in other entertaining ways. [Issue#413, p.106]

This is a grand, unwieldy behemoth of a sequel, buckling under the weight of its features and bombast. In lacking a sense of direction, though, it sometimes delivers in unexpected ways. [Issue#413, p.102]

Beyond breaking a set challenge score for each level, the prospect feels more like an endurance challenge than a great deal of fun. Strange Scaffold thus shows once again that it has no shortage of slick ideas. With this hook, though, we need a little more to keep us on the line. [Issue#412, p.123]

When it's embracing the ridiculous, Deliver At all Costs shines like a thrashing, paint-dipped monster fish. [Issue#412, p.121]

If patience is required, though, it's equally repaid. Playing as the Sandfox remains inherently pleasing, along with the game's story and atmosphere. A little post-launch care could see it truly shine. [Issue#412, p.120]

So while Monster Train 2 can initially seem more like an expansion than a sequel, it favours potency over a reimagining of the basics, using trusted design as a basis for even more excessive combat creations. It's all about bigger, weirder kinds of damage. If, that is, you're prepared to think like a mad scientist. [Issue#412, p.118]

The Precinct may boil policing down to a numbers game, but they never add up to much. [Issue#412, p.116]

Above all, there's something fortifying in the game's message, however awkwardly it's delivered: keep walking; there's always a way out of the darkness. [Issue#412, p.114]

No but(t)s about it: Takahashi's most complete-feeling game since Katamari sees him operating in a mode that suits him... down to the ground. [Issue#412, p.112]

Despite its shortcomings, then, Revenge Of The Savage Planet turns out to be a game that was worth saving. [Issue#412, p.110]

MercurySteam's worldbuilding adds clutter, not depth, obstructing a concept that's left feeling embryonic. [Issue#412, p.104]

Unfortunately, the solution it has landed on is missing some essential thing that has always made Doom work, another concept you wouldn't necessarily associate with this series: elegance. [Issue#412, p.104]

Whatever the project's origins, the result is a thrilling blend of ideas, a game that, despite its fashionable and familiar components, feels wholly unprecedented. Moreover, Nightreign firmly establishes the studio's designers as not only masters of their own domain, but now a new, hitherto undiscovered realm. [Issue#412, p.100]

There's an interesting personal story here, yet when it comes to the work itself, we can't help but feel we've gone a little too far back in time. [Issue#411, p.123]

Yet despite these conveniences, Junkster never stops feeling awkward and clumsy to pilot. [Issue#411, p.122]

Still, the bits of level you ARE meant to interact with are as high-quality as ever. [Issue#411, p.121]

What keeps you playing, though, are two aspects of Minter's games that can always be relied upon: his enthusiasm for spinning ideas in hundreds of different ways, and his essential good taste. [Issue#411, p.120]

Unlike in a game such as Limbo, the main challenge is not finding solutions to puzzles but performing them. [Issue#411, p.118]

Tempest Rising doesn't revolutionize the genre, but nor does it depend on nostalgia. And if there's a gap waiting for the Veti to arrive, it's immensely gratifying to fill it with a gratuitous quantity of tanks. [Issue#411, p.116]

At first glance, Post Trauma appears to be a meaningful iteration on a familiar formula, but in practice it's more like a cover of a favourite song on the radio. You tap your foot, but you long for the original. [Issue#411, p.114]

For all that it celebrates tight spaces, Skin Deep is anything but claustrophobic. [Issue#411, p.112]

Stick with Bloom & Rage through the hard times, though, and you might well be ready to take comfort in that lie. [Issue#411, p.110]