It's got heart and charme. But strange narrative pacing, patchy writing and weak presentation slow down this original and pretty RPG considerably. Fans of historical fantasy are treated to a pleasantly sinister Warsaw excursion with a clever combat system.

Blackguards 2 is a way more well-rounded and ambitious game than its predecessor was.

It's basically WarioWare in VR, and it's definitely a lot of fun, especially since you can have a blast goofing around away from the actual games. And an important note: The program will only start if you have set up a playable area of at least two by two meters.

A lively platformer with inventive, albeit sometimes somewhat cumbersome game mechanics, but with plenty of challenges and lots to discover.

You´ve got to hand it to Daedalic: They know, what an expertly crafted point and click adventure has to look like. Veterans of the genre and newcomers alike can give this one a go without hesitation, especially considering the low price tag.

It is a well done, if familiar game. In all its homogeneity with respect to its predecessors, though, Arkham Origins lacks surprise and spark. You'll constantly feel one step ahead of the game.

There is nothing terribly new here, it's got the same old weaknesses and almost no new strengths. But it builds something incredibly solid and lively on its tried and tested foundation.

Atelier Totori features a few elegant mechanics in combat and framing. (…) Let me put the story this way: If you, unlike me, don´t have to look up, what "Shōjo" means, but instead use it as a positive filter during your search for new anime-stuff, then Atelier Totori is right up your alley.

Delivering familiar goods is one thing, doing so with a constantly high quality another – but making basically the same game three times in a row is a whole different issue entirely. I won't complain too much, though, I greatly enjoyed the long hours leveling and exploring this revisited universe.

Fear the Spotlight is a loving homage to the survival horror of the 90s and a damn well-made tale for fans of quiet horror.

Even an unconventional title like The Secret World struggles in a market full of great alternatives without those monthly payments.

You know how these go: Another LEGO game that is just a lot of fun for young and old to explore. TT Games reliably delivers the well-known quality.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is certainly not the pinnacle of Soulslike gaming. But it is a solid entry and I loved its fabulously staged game world and feminine grace. The game is hard, but never unfair, and with the huge skill tree there is still plenty for me to do (...) If you are looking for a Soulslike with East Asian flair, a stylish protagonist and some cool, crazy bosses, I can definitely recommend Wuchang: Fallen Feathers.

Technically, Peach's Performance leaves a lot to be desired, then. Nevertheless, the lovingly designed levels in small fun-sized bites are a lot of fun. The staging of the plays, the many small design options for Stella and Peach's costumes make this one a charmer.

When a toothless campaign and the restrictive unlock policy are the only real problems a new Sturmovik has, sim fans know they're not making a mistake in picking this up.

The bottom line is that I had to force myself to stick with this fundamentally likeable homage. Because as much as it is indeed reminiscent of Silent Hill and similar titles, I found it to be rather dull in terms of gameplay.

A satisfying sequel to the first Life is Strange with an exciting story, plot twists and only a few technical problems.

Luffy and the Riverside feels like stepping into a children's book and letting your imagination run wild. Turning trees into water? Sure, no problem. Turning the pond with the annoying shark into lava to fry it? Of course. The flip is a wonderful game mechanic that breathes fresh air into the platformer genre.

Even though its graphics engine won't win awards anymore, especially on PC, the game succeeds in finding its place in the upper echelons of multiplayer-shooting. If you're looking for a great offline experience, though, you might want to look somewhere else.

Until the next real FIFA, this is a well-playing stop-gap that will firmly hold your attention in the run-up to - and for the duration of - the World Cup.

Tokyo Jungle is a game of many small errors, PS2-level graphics and a fighting system that lacks depth come to mind most prominently. Still, I wouldn't want to miss the experience. Where else can you sent a group of cats with pink beanie hats to fight a towering elephant?

Coming straight from the predecessor with several DLCs, it feels much emptier in comparison and because of the existing problems, it feels unfinished to a certain extent. Not the best way to release a game. I'm sure there will be more to come, but in the here and now, Cities Skylines 2 just isn't yet the evolutionary leap that makes me want to switch.

The static setting, some logical inconsistencies and recurring combination puzzles make it hard to wholeheartedly recommend this one, but it has a striking look and a compelling narrative going for it.

It's a solid and pretty entertaining Smash Bros. clone with a Sony paintjob, which beyond the obvious similarities to the original even manages to bring some individuality of its own to the table.

It's a well-realized trip back to the good ol' times.

It's easy to pick up and play, the cash shop is non-intrusive and the combat is quite dynamic. It's a solid piece of MMO, easily warranting that client download, maybe you even try out your dungeon master chops in the foundry editor?

Telltale's nuanced characters are the reason that, as the Forresters mourn their lost lords, you feel right there, standing alongside them. I almost don't want to return to a TV Westeros, where these stalwart Stark bannermen don't exist.

A celebration of the franchise, One Piece Odyssey is a well-made JRPG with an interesting cast and pretty and colorful worlds, ripe for cozy exploration.

The Old Country is definitely old school, but I would never call it stale. It's sheer genre purism: familiar mafia tropes, no experiments - and that's exactly why, fans of classic Cosa Nostra material will immediately feel at home. If you'd rather treat yourself to Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather for the twentieth time than give Barry Levinson's The Alto Knights a chance, you've come to the right place.

Again, Killzone might not have won all my heart. The unresolved story, uneven pacing and deficits of the AI prevent Shadow Fall from being that unmissable evergreen, Guerrilla undoubtedly were hoping to create. But it won my utmost respect. Contrary to many other launch titles past and present, this actually does feel like a step forward. The devs quite clearly had their minds set to more that just being in stores on day one.

LittleBigPlanet Karting is Sony's equivalent to Mario Kart's Wii-Version. Not bad by any means, but hamstrung by unbalanced extras and an all to conservative driving-model. With some friends, this is still a lot of fun, but special this one ain't.

As a whole, Dawnguard is either to expensive or too spiritless to really shine, maybe even both. In its best moments, it manages to surpass Skyrim in some disciplines, but it doesn't quite harness all of the potential its fascinating new areas and fractions seem to offer. A good new episode then, but not an essential one.

On the whole, I like the changes to this year's game; FC IQ and the player roles fit into the game well - with the exception of a few lapses - and it simply feels good in your hands. I also really like the new Rush mode, much better than the overly cool Volta, which never really kept me hooked for more than few minutes.

In spite of lots of bugs and systems that aren‘t quite ready, Stalker 2 exceeded my expectations. It is truly rare that I desperately want to see everything a game world has to offer - but once the Zone‘s deadly beauty and shocking immersion had grabbed me, it never let me go once.

As soon as you invest the requisite time and a bit of cash in Project Spark, you'll find it to be a wonderful tool that leaves little to be desired.

Well-made homage to the early days of gaming with an unfortunate use of AI art. Moreover, its physics system hampers movement while AI behavior can be erratic, making a lot of the puzzling a frustrating experience.

Pandora´s Tower is a game that takes its time to reveal its own charm and qualities.

More of this quality can't be a bad thing, even though you're not as panicked anymore as you were when the main game came around.

For a developer so adept in the mimicry of familiar horror tropes, it's both ironic and tragic that their take on 'pod people' horror, of all things, missed the mark. A bloody shame.

Even in the original game I liked Kazuma's story in Okinawa but only now that Kiwami 3 strengthens his relationships and ties to the place and its people did I build a strong emotional bond to one of the best locations in the entire series.

Suspenseful mystery thriller that's a bit too straightforward and doesn't quite live up to its narrative potential. However, it convinces with its lively dialogue.

I am having a lot of fun with The Lamplighters League, which is mainly due to the fact that it designed its rules around highly individual characters that create great room for synergy effects. This results in maximally satisfying combat scenarios in which you feel really clever when you have once again taken out five or six enemies in just one round.

After an absolutely splendid first half, Hack 'n' Slash suddenly starts to get pretty much impenetrable by Act 4, if you don't know your way around the logic of an algorithm. Right there, in the middle, the game just skips a few steps of badly needed explaining and – at times – just drains all the fun from the proceedings. It's a fascinating peek behind the workings of a game, for sure. It has heart, wits and a good sense of humor, but it will still lose a good amount of its players long before it's over.

Technical difficulties aside, Telltale delivers good material, even though it doesn't quite match the previous episode.

A small and inexpensive experience without goals, tasks and many other stressful things. During creative building you can relax nicely. Ideal for short rounds in between.

Nice repurposing of Nintendo's NES classics, but the local multiplayer mode in particular lacks the options to become a real party hit.

Laysara: Summit Kingdom is a light city builder in an unusual yet beautiful scenario that lacks in terms of content and some quality-of-life-features.

If I didn't know better, I probably wouldn't be able to tell Banished's all the more impressive solo-dev origins. It achieves everything it set out to do and has no real weaknesses. Also, 20 Euros is a fair asking price for a complex city-building survival-sim that knows full well how challenging and enjoyable it can be to start out small. If you need quests, missions or declared goals in your sims, this is not for you. Everyone else: Enjoy! Winter is coming and the children are starving.

In the end, Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader delivers exactly what fans want from it. Owlcat Games has succeeded in creating a very good, albeit text-heavy CRPG conversion, which is only held back by the remaining technical shortcomings.

With Beyond the Dawn, you can easily dive back into the world of Tales of Arise and experience the engaging dynamics between Alphen, Shionne, Rinwell, Law, Kisara and Dohalim. The world has been enriched with new monsters, dungeons and other small elements that encourage exploration and promise a good time.

At times it's a bit ugly, other times the AI is a bit daft, and even and even though I can't quite make out its calling as a flight-simulator on a console: unlikely as it may be, give Birds of Steel a chance.

With clever puzzles, likeable characters and a polished, modern reworking, the two Another Code games look great on the Switch. Lengths in the story or the lack of bonus material only amonut to minor drawbacks.

Killer Instinct still has it, no doubt about it. On the other hand, six or eight characters respectively is an almost shamefully small amount of content. This is not a debut, but the third game in a series that only brings one new character to the table. So to me, this is clearly a game of two sides, as it even stays pretty basic when it comes to game modes. Still, I do like what's there, but even at those 20 bucks it's a bit meager, especially compared to everything else that came out on current gen in recent years.

Once again, Sonic Superstars is a case of 'could have been great'. The playability is basically there, especially Amy's double jump is a blessing... And yet, in the end, nothing really fits together all that well.

Tales from the Galaxy's Edge is staged so lively and gets many of its interactions just right ... The actual battles are repetitive shootouts in very straightforward arenas, where rarely anything else happens. You do meet familiar characters in entertaining sequences, but all in all the shooting action is a bit thin and uniform in the long run.

The routes are short and monotonous, but the handling of the truck conveys, in an atmospheric way, what it must be like to steer a truck through space.

It's missing some depth, for sure. But the potent editor and regular new playable content and worlds ensure that children especially will always have a lot to play and tinker with.

Even though its level design capabilities are kind of rudimentary, the game still manages to give its short intense bursts of action some variety, ensuring that you return to it for another round. This, and the lovingly – and knowingly – dilettantish Amiga-style graphics makes this a really solid sleeper of a game. Had Dungeons and Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara not come out shortly before, this would most probably haven gotten more buzz.

If you liked Second Son, First Light is a decently priced alternative to taking on the older game's campaign a second time. If you haven't played Second Son yet, though, at around 40 bucks now it's clearly the better deal.

Creative project with both playful and narratively imaginative ideas, which, however, remains too superficial and is over all too quickly.

Brings to mind the great football managing sims of old, but doesn't rely only on that nostalgia. It plays well and is beautifully approachable.

Unstoppable Gorg is a wise investment, if you´ve got a knack for the Tower-Defense-genre and prefer your sci-fi a little bit trashy.

In the end Warp is still a nice game, which does not realize its own possibilities and completely stagnates in the second half.

War of the Roses still has the potential to become a real jewel of a game. Coming patches and updates will determine if it'll go under in the storming sea of middling arena action titles – or if it will become an exotic insiders' tip that'll win a devoted following apart from renaissance fair enthusiasts.

Fans can truly enjoy Star Trek Voyager: Across the Unknown, but the game is not easy and the gameplay could be more varied.

Ridge Racer Unbounded then, a game on the quest for itself. It takes elements from almost every arcade-racing game in recent years and tries to build something for itself, with some success. Online, with a little help from the powerful editor, the game shines the brightest. Ridge Racer fans of old might not agree with it as much. Nevertheless, I hope for more games from this new side of the franchise to come.

What remains is a passable action game over the course of all of its four character-arcs. It's a shame that the exploration just isn't where it needs to be, even if Mercury Steam manages to marry its new fiction with the history of the series. Had this come out between Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclesia, people would have forgotten about it by now. Still, Ecclesia is for years old by now, and the fans really long for a new Castlevania in the classic style. If you're one of them, have a look into this mirror. It's got some ugly cracks in it, but you might still like some of what you see.

A well-playing strategy game with an all too varying difficulty level, weak story, technical imperfections and annoying always-online.

Between accessible button-mashing and tactical depth, Invincible VS strikes an intriguing balance. However, it does not hit the mark in every area.

Atomfall combines English provincial idyll and open gameplay with a solid, if not necessarily exciting, first-person action RPG. However, the combat, stealth and progression are not incredibly elegant and there's issues with player guidance that should be worked on urgently.

Ultimately, Velvet's emotional journey of revenge is what drives the experience: brilliant storytelling and characters clash with a lackluster remaster that still hasn't shaken off its old flaws.

A solid real-time strategy entry to the Terminator universe, then, with engaging gameplay and tense missions, but the story leaves a lot to be desired ... There's definitely a lot of micromanagement here, but if you get used to it, you'll be able to keep everything under control and shouldn't face insurmountable problems. Terminator Dark Fate: Defiance does a lot right and is definitely worth a look if you like real-time strategy and the Terminator franchise.

This is a game that puts the racing experience front and center. The physics model of the pros at Milestone is a piece of art that has only matured over the years. The sensation of speed might not be there yet and the console versions' 30 FPS are an issue, but the handling of the bikes is almost perfect.

Even though the project as a whole still feels uneven, the strong puzzles in Broken Swords' final chapter right some of the first part's wrongs.

The predictable, mechanical side of Frontiers of Pandora pervades every aspect of this visually impressive experience and stands in stark contrast to the wonderfully organic and vibrant environment. It's two sides that don't fit well with each other, don't belong together - the movies made this part of their central message.

Maybe 15 heroes were too many, and the rest, from the scope to the quality of the levels and enemies, fell by the wayside? I have no idea. Either way, it's another pretty nice pixel brawler that you definitely have to play locally with one to three friends.

Even today, NiGHTS into Dreams is one of the most interesting titles you can download onto your console. But in light of some of the fundamentally flawed design decisions the game has retained from it's 32-Bit days, 'interesting' alone just doesn't cut it anymore.

All of the preconceptions have been rectified, DiRT Showdown s a reasonable, competent expansion of the series that not only could offer the possibility for another spin-off in a traditional rally direction, but brings back that good old Destruction-Derby-feeling that so many seem to have a craving for. Don´t keep saying "there are no more games like that". Here is one. Enjoy.

Gotham City Imposters is by no means a bad game. The few maps it offers are expertly balanced for its type of play. But after a short while, there is just not enough to keep you coming back and in everything it does, it gets outclassed by the likes of Team Fortress 2.

Especially when playing with mouse and keyboard, Toxic Commando is a fine shooter for up to four players - even if lacking variety in the long run.

The Suda51 faithful will find more of the same, wrapped in at best mediocre gameplay - no surprises to be found. And that is probably the most damning thing you can say about one of his games.

Monster World is the real highlight of these Vintage Collections... You have to hand it to old action-adventures: they manage to stay surprisingly young.

But these problems fade from memory when Quicos adventure, after about three hours, reaches its mesmerizing, moving climax. You'll sit there, speechless, lump in throat, in wonder about the emotional impact of this brave little game – letting a fantastically cathartic final song wash you out of the game. It wasn't always fun and you're not even sure you want to play it again. What you're sure of, though, is that you just witnessed something that has made videogames a bit more mature.

All things considered after a promising start, this title leads into an ultimately disappointing experience. If you like the design and also have a soft spot for games like Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, you might find an afternoon's worth of decent entertainment with this.

The Inner World is a game of opposites. While the puzzle design and characters of this debut manage to pleasantly surprise, the voice acting is in parts atrocious. Also, the stark contrast between the quality of the background art and the rather crudely drawn characters is a bit jarring. Still, this unevenness only really hits home because the rest of this point-and-click adventure is really well done.

The stronger of the two expansions presents itself as a worthwhile new "Mini-Control" that will effortlessly entertain you for three to four hours.

Terminator 2D: No Fate is a near-perfect T2 nostalgia capsule: tightly directed, beautifully animated, and packed with iconic moments. It’s also very short, though, so it’ll mostly appeal to side-scroller fans who don’t mind running through a game multiple times.

A Machine for Pigs is like a fully automated haunted house ride suffering a power outage. The carnies sure do their best to keep the tension up, banging against the girders from the outside and shooing some freak show attraction through the corridors every once in a while. The ride's boss even throws sinister letters over the paper mâché wall for you to read. Well-written as they are, you even like the story that they were going to tell you. But you just can't help but hope that somebody would finally find the god damned breaker box to get this whole thing going for real.

As much fun as the central gameplay loop is, the graphics and performance unfortunately make the comeback of Dragon Quest Monsters look like a relic from the past.

In the end, it's all right there in the title. There's nothing here to elevate it above mediocrity.

Is Lego 2K Drive something you can make your kids happy with? Yes, absolutely. And what about the adults? Well, if you look beneath the surface, you'll notice that not everything is perfect. In some situations, the controls could be a bit more sensitive, the power-ups could have more impact, and the rubberbanding is a bit too noticeable.

A new protagonist, punchy third-person combat, and more agile Na’vi enemies give the DLC more bite than you’d expect. Not essential, but an easy recommendation for fans of the base game.

Come to terms with the fact that iRacing Arcade feels like a top-down racer mimicking a regular one and you just might enjoy rubbing doors with an overly aggressive, sometimes unfair AI competition.

More of the same. Hardly a bad thing bad in this particular case.

If you get along with the trial and error concept, you may get some enjoyment out of The Splatters.

Where Winds Meet impresses with a strong Wuxia atmosphere and a vast, vibrant world. At the same time, it feels overloaded: multiple in-game currencies, cluttered menus, and bugs slow down the flow. Still, somewhere beneath it all lies a satisfying free-to-play experience.

Even though Unity arguably is the braver game of the two, Rogue might just be the better one.

Of course, this isn't really that sophisticated in terms of gameplay, but Resurgence's story and characters really shine, by skillfully continuing on from an early TNG episode. If you're like me and you're a fan of the TNG era, you'll probably really suck this one right up.