In summary, I'd say there's good news and bad news with Starfield on PC. The quality of the game is clear and unlike, say, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, we're not seeing disruptive problems that ruin the experience. However, there's clearly work to do. The options menu isn't descriptive enough or helps the user in any way in tailoring the game to their hardware. Basic features like field of view control, HDR, gamma and contrast controls need to be added, as well as official DLSS and XeSS support...Tackling the disproportionately poor Nvidia and Intel performance also needs to addressed, while there's the sense that the game isn't properly tuned for the major CPU architectures used in today's PCs. Optimised settings clearly yields large performance dividends though, suggesting some degree of scalability, while the DLSS mod is a must for RTX users and can help both performance and image quality for Nvidia owners - but let's hope to see some genuine improvements from Bethesda in Starfield's first major update. [Digital Foundry]

Part visual novel, part rhythm game, part interactive animated movie, Goodbye Volcano High taps into the sacred relationship between music and coming-of-age in ways that would be impossible in any other media format.

Eerie and loving by turn, Bomb Rush Cyberpunk is a gloriously haunted video game.

Micro-developer Lunar Division melds scientific rigour and faithful devotion into one, creating an entirely singular game about the depths of space, the limits of your own mind, and the divine beauty of mathematics.

There's so much of this stuff, from the elegant unspooling tutorials to the steady introduction of new ideas. New skins! New colours! There's an entire separate mode I haven't had time to mention yet, which takes the basics of the game and makes it musical, which actually means adding a time pressure and a sense of an ending to things.

Sea of Stars' well-considered inspirations are shot through with smart, modern sensibilities, creating a more-than-welcome addition to the contemporary throwback RPG club.

FromSoftware delivers a superlative action game that builds on its Soulslike pedigree while staying lean and laser-focused.

With a slow burn opening that lays the groundwork for a potentially brilliant sci-fi thriller, Fort Solis initially shows plenty of promise - but its story loses momentum in its later chapters, and fails to stick the landing.

Mixing repetitive, imprecise combat with annoying characters and a landslide of nonsensical, proper noun-stuffed lore, Immortals of Aveum is almost so bad it's good. If only.

A delightfully macabre homage, this asymmetrical horror could finally threaten Dead by Daylight's crown, if you didn't spend more time fighting the servers than Leatherface himself.

An enchanting, emotionally charged visual novel with a new take on deck-building and tarot divination.

With excellent stagecraft and meticulous detail, Baldur's Gate 3 conjures the illusion of perfect freedom - and then it disappears.

Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is a cerebral but hugely characterful stealth tactics game filled with creativity and depth. And fun pirate stuff.

Wholesome, harmonious and completely unwilling to settle, this is one of the most generous games in years.

Frontier's annual management sim offers some small refinements over its predecessor but a lack of major upgrades means it doesn't snatch pole.

Absurd, unrelenting and endlessly creative, Turbo Overkill is a masterfully composed symphony of violence.

Atlas Fallen echoes other mid-00s slashers with fun melee combat and cool ideas, trapped in a run-of-the-mill open world.

A fascinating but flawed experimental musical game that fails to live up to some heavenly potential.

Food and family converge in this beautiful slice-of-life tale.

Remnant 2 is an ambitious sequel stuffed with delightful - and deadly - surprises.

An expressive, characterful entry point for metroidvanias.

A standard management sim with a coat of cosy paint lies under the short-lived novelty of using love as a resource.

Bullet hell games bust through into wild new territory with this fidgety arcade treat.

Pikmin 4 fills itself and your time with a rich array of things to do, things to find, goals to chase and places to explore. It may start slow, but when it all comes together, it really does sing. It preserves the series' oddities - it doubles down on them in some regards - and yet opens the series up in a way Pikmin has never managed previously. It's a fine reward for a decade of fan patience and a lot of thought by Nintendo's top brass on how best to continue after Pikmin 3. It's a skillful evolution of a series which has been left feeling a little overlooked for too long. Is this Pikmin's true breakthrough moment? Who knows. But without a doubt it's one of Nintendo's best games in years.

While crafted from familiar pieces, Capcom's latest shooter is an enjoyable combination of mechs, dinosaurs and general silliness.

It's interesting. By the end of the adventure, Oxenfree 2 has tied up a lot of mysteries. It had for me, anyway, and with a web-like game such as this there's always reason to go back in, make different choices, and see what else is waiting in there to be solved. But there's this other feeling to everything too, just as there was in the first game.

A beautifully written and illustrated tale of young people trying to change their world, which comes alive on replay.

Ghost Trick remains the delight it always was a decade later. Even on a second playthrough, this unique mystery firmly held your interest until the very end. Some occasional puzzle frustrations and control adjustments can't mask the witty humour, clever premise and unforgettable cast that rivals Ace Attorney. I quickly realised how much I'd forgotten after 12 years, so rediscovering this adventure was an utter joy. Second chances don't come around often, so I hope it finds that wider audience this time. This remaster is easily the definitive way to play.