A dented chassis for what otherwise has a solid engine, Monster Energy Supercross 6 makes some adjustments to accommodate newcomers, but if you played others before, you’ve most likely already played this one. There’s a decent physics-based racer here, just the presentation doesn’t cross the finish line.

God of Rock has flashy, entertaining visuals with a thematic flair. While its style and level editor excel, the rhythm gameplay and fighting mechanics feel shoe-horned together, creating a clunky and messy whole. The music is great and the idea could work, but this isn’t the rock-charged moshpit that it promised to be.

Another disappointing and short addition to the wonderful Jurassic World Evolution 2, this movie tie-in content is rapidly exposed as bare-bones and dinosaur feed. The new mechanics are tedious, requiring more of the gameplay least enjoyed in the base games, while the admission fee to this additional park ride simply isn’t worth it unless you’re a hardcore fan.

Mr. Prepper doesn’t turn out to be the nuclear catastrophe it initially convinces you it will be. It survives the radioactive onslaught by the skin of it’s dank, burrowed out teeth. There’s something strange in this that can be recommended, but only to those who have a penchant for the suvivalist, resource-management genre. For everyone else, the threat of impending destruction on the surface is likely more preferable to the solitude and depression of the bunker.

In attempting to land another visceral knockout blow, Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns instead Johnny Cage uppercuts itself right in the nads. The underwhelming story chapters undercut the climactic finale of the vanilla campaign, while the new roster is comprised of welcome returning characters, or the uncertain potential of three unique icons. For the price of half a full game, Khaos Reigns doesn't have the substance to hold this timeline afloat.

Achilles: Legends Untold is a disappointing game more for the missed potential and flawed execution of some great ideas. Combat quickly becomes tedious, the story is poorly delivered and though it has moments where it shines, they’re bogged down like the souls dwelling in the Styx. Achilles doesn’t need his heel to stumble from greatness in this case.

City Eye is a surveillance simulation game that has an interesting concept but disappoints in many areas. From bottlenecking progress in late stages by padding the game unnecessarily to repetitive mechanics and a lack of variety, the game fails to capitalise on an interesting premise. You’ll find yourself less likely to be fighting crime, and more likely to be waiting for them to happen.

Ereban: Shadow Legacy attempts a number of ambitious stealth-action components but fails to come out from the shadows with basically any of them intact. A predictable story, underwhelming level design and more bugs than a forest log blunt this assassin’s blade. If Ayana’s journey is the first step in mastering the darkness, I hope a sequel can turn off the blinding lights.

It has suffered in the porting process from PC to PS4/PS5 but Trenches is still worth an hour of your time if you’re into jump-scare heavy horrors. By combining supernatural scares with the real horrors of trench warfare, it can certainly be unsettling at times. It’s a shame the bugs and quality issues can be equally as unsettling.

It’s fun on a basic level, but Bloody Rally Show doesn’t offer much depth after a fashion. The story holding it together is flimsy, as is the wonkiness with randomly generated tracks. However, for those that little simple visuals and lots of customisation, this cheap little racer will suffice.

In reality, Crymachina is a far cry from what it could have been. An overly constrained mission structure of bland corridors, flashy combat that never reaches above button smashing, and a nauseating cliché story that rarely does more than constant exposition, hold back this action RPG from any kind of recommendation.

Although the core game is enjoyable and the stories it can generate will leave lasting memories, Blood Bowl 3 has a lot of problems. For Blood Bowl fanatics interested in PvP, there is fun to be had here, but for the more casual player who likes to play against the AI, it’s a really hard sell. With a few changes and improvements, the game could be a great one, but for now it is a bit of a fumbled attempt at a touchdown.

With its anime-trope-filled story, and starkly unbalanced combat and upgrades, Metal Unit is a passable roguelite in a genre where there are far better options.

What’s good about Black Legend is very good. The gloomy atmosphere and the novel turn-based combat based on 17th century medicine are well designed and smartly implemented. Everything else about this game is either bland, rough around the edges or straight up poor. Diehard fans of turn based strategy games that can overlook the issues will still get something from Black Legend. For everyone else, there are better alternatives.

It manages to strike a unique tone by blending Arthurian legends with the mystery of the Jack The Ripper murders, but Dance of Death: Du Lac & Fey struggles to stand out due to a lack of thought provoking puzzles, painfully slow movement speed and a lack of polish.

Initially, Timothy vs the Aliens appeals with its funky aesthetic and take on the noir/vibrancy crossover trope. Yet that soon wears thin and you’re stuck with an at-times frustrating and extremely bland platform/shooter after a while. However, if old school frustration and cheap games are your bag, this will entertain for a few hours.

While Waiting turns life's mundane moments into a game, sometimes a wait is exactly that, just a wait. While it offers some interesting reflections on patience and funny moments, it can leave you feeling as if there is no real progression or final pay off. If you're after something meditative, you'll enjoy the charming visual art and minimalist features with some casual puzzle fun.

PopSlinger is ambitiously flawed but endearing nonetheless. The lack of accessibility options paired with awkward and clunky gameplay dampens the otherwise inoffensive experience, but it’s a quick jaunt into nostalgia and has a great albeit small soundtrack.

Its issues mean that Rover Mechanic Simulator is a middling experience. There’s a solid core to this game surrounding some impressive 3D rover models. It offers that methodical game play that accommodates gratifying ‘flow state’ sessions to really get engrossed in. It gets repetitive quickly though because of clunky controls, limited depth and a lack of personality.

As one of the most unique video games and individually arresting visual styles I’ve come across this year, Chaotic Era comes unstuck thanks to its abstract approach to gameplay systems, poor performance problems and a lack clear, functioning mechanics. In these times of chaos, there’s only so much obscurity that can be tolerated, before it just becomes a dysfunctional era.

MythForce doesn’t quite entice you to tune in to next week’s episode as the game has a lot of quality-of-life issues to contend with. There’s a big emphasis on co-op with it’s balancing of mechanics and cool team compositions, without the facilities to oblige – making it a slow and painful grind if you want to get anywhere on your own. It delivers on the aesthetic it goes for and the moment-to-moment gameplay is simply fun, but it’s not quite enough to make it out of a pilot episode.

Dark and Deep produces an eerily stylish darkness thanks to the art direction of Gustave Doré and threads of narrative that threaten an engaging tale. Unfortunately, it becomes consumed in its own deep dark, owing to labourious mechanics, disjointed pacing and frustrating puzzles. There’s a glimmer of light in this heart of darkness, but you’ll struggle to find it.

Controlling like a more leisurely-paced Geometry Wars, Sparkle 4 Tales is a languid affair which could have used a little more focus and drive to make it something you’ll want to stick with until the end. As it is, it’s an aesthetically pleasant experience that I struggled to care about after the first thirty minutes.

More of a restful afternoon doze than a full blooded nightmare ridden REM sleep, Skyward Dream is a middling experience that's short and ultimately fine. The parkour and story elements, while initially intriguing, lack any real substance, leaving this a rest that's functional, though not refreshing.

Ageless is a passable but uninspired platformer, that copies aspects from the best, only forgetting to copy the polished and fun gameplay. That is a tale as old as time.

It’s hard not to admire the goal of Clash Force. Releasing a Mega Man inspired shooter in 2020, even sticking to the 4:3 aspect ratio and adorning the wide screen sides with images of the main characters, is bold. This game is obviously a labour of love for Spicy Gyro Games. That said, compared to it’s peers in an era when we have retro inspired titles that are actually pushing the genre forward, it doesn’t do enough to look anything other than a pale imitation of the original’s its trying to emulate.

While there are positives, EDENGATE: The Edge of Life feels either poorly planned out or unfinished. The narrative is disjointed and confused, the puzzles are simplistic and there are a few too many frustrations with the game play. There was potential here, but it feels unfulfilled in most facets of the game.

Gods Will Fall should have been so much more fun. An average action-adventure with a few roguelike elements, it’s combat is both fiddly and too simplistic to engage. Its Gods fail to inspire, and its world lacks tangible reward, while hurting the player with its high-stakes warrior loss mechanic.

A colourful third person party shooter with adorable aquatic characters, Otterman Empire is rough around the edges with a tutorial that does more harm than good. The single player and co-op game play flits between fun and pedestrian while the Versus mode might as well be the games saving grace. A decent multiplayer mode that’ll have you laughing at a party or with family, it’s the best part of Otterman Empire by a long way. It’s just a shame that a lot of small issues sour the rest of the experience.

Green Hell VR comes along with all the same challenges of surviving in the tropics you have come to expect from the game. However, the PSVR2 controls haven’t improved the experience, and unfortunately exploring the lush landscape is a boring chore as you only have a few small areas and terrible loading times.

Marred by dysfunctional controls, tired turn-based combat and an abysmal story, Crown Wars: The Black Prince is a dire knight. There are glimmers of the game that could have been within its broken and fractured armour, but this warrior is wounded beyond repair. There are simply too many other games in this genre that are more deserving of your time, and money.

There are a myriad crafting and survival games that are better designed and more refined than this and most of them cost less. It’s simply far too many GAME OVER‘s for my tastes.

Killsquad’s attempt at a twin-stick shooter unfortunately falls flat in almost every aspect of its design. The competent but bland combat, aesthetically interesting but boring presentation and poorly balanced mechanics lead to a functional but ultimately lifeless video game. It’s not bad, it’s just not a lot of fun to actually play.

While FMV game fans will likely enjoy moments of I Saw Black Clouds, there are some core issues here that prevent it from fulfilling the potential that occasionally glimpses through. The branching narrative needs a rework to ensure it respects all of the players’ decisions because right now it feels broken, squandering what spooky atmosphere some decent acting performances manage to conjure up.

The best frag grenades are cooked and as such, Modern Warfare 3 needed a lot more time in the oven to create something explosive. This is the series at its lowest point with uninspired missions on repurposed maps and a story that feels moot after the conclusion. Not to mention an online mode that feels closer to a DLC pack and a Zombies mode that whilst in theory was promising, overall feels incohesive and lacking a stable direction. There’s no bad luck, only bad plans and this one was operating without a blueprint.

A console version of a classic pub quiz machine game, Sabec’s Spot The Difference is fun to play as a group and intuitive enough for a toddler to pick up. Unfortunately, a lack of content means that within a few hours, the images have repeated so often that there’s no more differences to find. There’s much better versions of this concept elsewhere and for a much smaller entry price.

While Battle Rockets is an inventive use of the PSVita to facilitate local multiplayer Shmup battles, it’s just not very fun. That’s especially true of the single player content. The offensive abilities, different for each character, will keep the multiplayer fresh for a little while. In the end though, this game is far too bare bones and lacks depth or longevity.

Repetitive, uninteresting, and lacking in substance, Jumanji: The Curse Returns contributes nothing new or dynamic to the game board genre apart from a dose of movie nostalgia. This game didn’t feel suited to the Switch console, and likely best played on a mobile device because it is short and sweet, but not much else.

Despite a compelling central premise of combining RTS castle building and third-person action, Eyes of War is sullied by its severe lack of content, underdeveloped mechanics and a host of technical and presentation issues. In a couple of years this may be a fortress worth defending, but as of right now it's a settlement in disarray.

Stilted combat, an unruly camera and poor localisation undermine the positives that DISORDER brings to the table. For the asking price, there are many other games doing the same things, only better.

Failing to stack up anywhere near it’s contemporaries, Blackwind is a hollow exosuit complete with unengaging combat, mind-numbing exploration and puzzle elements, repetitious presentation, poor story and baffling design choices. There are plenty of potentially great ingredients to this package, but unlike the age-old adage, the sum is certainly no greater than the parts. A meek gust of breeze as opposed to the promise of a gale-force wind.

Your mileage with NO THING will depend on how much patience and thought you’re willing to give it. There’s a story buried in a trippy, simplistic autorunner that actively works to frustrate the player at times. A cool vaporware aesthetic and a hand full of decent songs don’t make it any less aggravating to play or help the delivery of a tale that needed clarity.

If you’re hankering for a game that looks like it comes from the late 80’s/early 90’s and can keep you busy for an hour for a few pounds Sterling, that’s what you’ll get here. It is sorely missing multiplayer, leader boards and game modes that could really elevate it to bigger and better things. Maybe in a sequel…

A sugar glider nature documentary as a video game, AWAY The Survival Series is an interesting idea for an hour. At that point its otherwise buoyant glide is dragged down by erratic camera, game-breaking glitches, poorly implemented combat and awful gliding controls. This one is better left in the wild.

Expedition Zero hooks you in with its first hour of tense atmosphere and excellent world design, only to fling you away with horrendous combat, counter-intuitive survival & exploration mechanics, and a barebones story. This expedition simply isn’t worth embarking on, but maybe one day there’ll be an adventure worth going on.

Ambulance Life: A Paramedic Simulator tries to capture the chaos of an emergency response but fails. Clunky gameplay, stiff graphics and a tone deaf portrayal of mental health leaves it feeling like a missed opportunity and not a life saving experience.

Another oddball, off kilter FMV game from Kimulator’s Films, Sheesh-Man is a step in the right direction for the developers. It’s still rough and struggles to tell a coherent story but there’s enough outlandish gags in here to make it worth an hour of your time.

There are butts, there is a minimal amount of boxing and there’s an abundance of bare scarcity to Bare Butt Boxing. What it attempts in slapstick presentation and cartoon fun, it slips straight onto its butt with, thanks to barely passable gameplay, stifling cosmetic progression and a lack of anything to help it standout. Bare Butt Boxing might bare all, but perhaps it should cover back up.

I’m sure those who loved The Wonderful 101 the first time around will get a kick out of playing this game again on modern day consoles with nicer visuals. For those that hadn’t experienced it before though, this remaster feels like an artifact from a bygone age that couldn’t adapt to a new set of input’s without the Wii U controller. The combat and concept are still sound 7 years on. Everything else needed to be reworked or tweaked further.

If you’re a veteran of Solomon’s Key and are desperate for more, Ghost Sweeper will provide you with what feels like the levels from the 1980’s classic that didn’t make the cut. The mechanics and enemy types have been recreated with a spit shine for modern TV’s and having a second playable character is a nice touch. Compared to modern day puzzle platformers though, Ghost Sweeper feels like a relic from the past that needed more of a refresh that simply updated visuals.

The Edge of Fate is a desperately disappointing follow up to The Final Shape, offering little to nothing of value to the overall Destiny 2 experience. A forgettable story, lifeless new locations and joyless mechanic additions, this is a sad indictment on Bungie's current place in the industry.

The Dead Tree of Ranchiuna is a short walking simulator that may take the words ‘Walking Simulator’ a bit too literally. With a hollow story that feels unfinished, long pauses between any narrative development and repetitive design, it’s difficult to recommend this game when there are many others in the genre that do much more with a similar runtime.

Whilst it may seem like an intermission before Bloodlines 2 comes out, Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong isn’t engaging enough to fill the gap. Lacklustre gameplay, unsightly character models and a sense of “You should know this already” are enough to put off the new players. Maybe for the fans, but that’s only if they’re coffin up the money for it.

Lunar Lander Beyond attempts something of a reboot of the Atari classic with a modern wrapper. But underneath the shiny hood, the gameplay is virtually unchanged, difficult, and dull, and the extras have done nothing to implement a reward system that might keep newcomers trying to develop the skills needed to enjoy it.

Failing to trigger even a basic form of tension, Anthology of Fear neglects to live up to its name. The exploitative use of mental health themes, boring gameplay and technical frustrations culminate in a case simply not worth wasting your time solving. Exorcise your demons by playing one of the many better predecessors that this title rips so egregiously from.

It had a chance, and with plenty of nods that will please fans The Edge of Reality should have been the ultimate Doctor Who gaming experience. Instead, dull puzzles and a surprisingly flat atmosphere – along with a dreadful use of the Weeping Angels – leaves The Edge of Reality somewhere that should have remained undiscovered.

Whilst visually appealing, Daydream: Forgotten Sorrow has infuriating depth perception, technical issues and a story that doesn’t offer much engagement to see you through the end. There is a good game in there somewhere, but at present Daydream: Forgotten Sorrow unfortunately feels unfinished, unpolished and unrefined.

While the opening 30 minutes might convince you otherwise, The Fridge is Red is an uninspired walking simulator with little actual game to engage with. A cool retro art style and sense of atmosphere dissipate out of this open fridge into the ether of a bland, empty and lukewarm room. This fridge is sadly more grey than red.

This is a simple game with a simple mission with only the bare minimum of content to keep you playing. Usually, even the simplest games are at least polished in one particular way or another with either beautiful graphics, or some interesting gameplay gimmick to keep you coming back. Galactic Warfighter has no unique selling point. It is as generic as its name suggests.

So there’s really not an awful lot to recommend, despite Snakeybus doing what it does fairly well. In this climate there are so many better games at the £10 price range you can get stuck into that it’s not even worth the minimal RRP. It’s doing solid numbers on Steam which is great, you can’t begrudge a game that definitely has its fans. It’s just really not for me. This bus journey offers little thrills and a whole lot of frustration. Much like a normal bus journey then, I suppose.

Early impressions are poor and don’t really get any better from there. Tennis World Tour 2 – Complete Edition is a sterile, sluggish experience from start to finish, and has little in the way of reason to stick with it long-term. If you absolutely must play a tennis game, you might need to dig an older console out of the cupboard. Avoid.

Crime Boss: Rockay City is exactly what we thought it would be. A turgid waste of a solid central idea with a cast stacked with actors who sound like they’d rather be anywhere else or are just purely hateful. There’s a little delight in falling into b-movie nostalgia, but it’s few and far between. There’s very little here to recommend because very little of it works, if anything at all. Well, the title is fun to say at least.

Another drop in the vast ocean of action RPG’s, The Last Oricru brings nothing new to the much-treaded waters. Worse still, it lacks the refinement and polish to make it a barely passable romp, feeling as rough around the edges as Alpha Protocol did back in the day.

As it stands Tennis World Tour 2 has a chance to wear you out more than an actual game of tennis.

A series as imaginative and as entertaining as Trollhunters deserved a better tie-in video game. Defenders of Arcadia has a few enjoyable moments and it certainly looks the part but uninspired combat, tired level design and a story which feels more like a TV clip show than a cohesive narrative means it falls well short of fan expectations.

Mechanic Battle has an internal battle of wanting to be a halfway average game or a terrible excuse for a cash grab. Either way I hope the lessons learned from the making of this game is that you get as much love as you put in, and this one is still waiting for their parents to come back with the milk.

Transformers: Beyond Reality is a missed opportunity that has little to offer gamers or Transformers fans alike. If you want your Transformers gaming fix then stick to Transformers Devastation or the War For Cybertron trilogy.

It’s a tonal hodgepodge, almost completely unfunny in every attempt, but a half-decent metroidvania structure is Clunky Hero’s saving grace. Don’t expect to find magic in this fantasy land, but you can enjoy the game for how it plays.

You’ll need persistence and patience to get the most out of O—O. It’s a tense and challenging retro inspired arcade game that’ll grate on the nerves long before it delivers any satisfaction. A convoluted, unnecessary plot is offset but pleasing yet basic visuals, smart single button game play and a toe tapping soundtrack. There’s glimpses of real ingenuity in O—O. The rest of the game occasionally feels like it’s overtly challenging in order to make the content stretch further.

A short, oddball FMV game that’s like a time capsule full of dead memes and forgotten pop culture, There Is A Genie In My Szechuan Sauce Remastered sure is something. Behind the rough editing, shoddy camerawork and cringeworthy acting however, there’s a few snippets of hilarity that some might find entertaining.

Music Racer: Ultimate looks awesome and sounds great, but it flatters to deceive with mind-numbingly bland, unengaging gameplay mixed with some shockingly bad level design and poorly thought out structure. When the solution to making your game more fun is to only listen and look, but not play, it becomes the video game form of “should have been an email”.

It’s a sum of bland parts, from the vastly over-used story cliches, to the lacklustre gameplay.

Glover returns with very little fanfare and sadly, it's not going to win a new audience with a lackluster remastering. The physics-based puzzles are still fun to attempt, but there's so little else here, one could argue it should have stayed back in the 90's.

In Nightmare is a pale competitor to other titles of the horror-adventure genre. Stealth that’s preferable to charge through, puzzles that are the blandest of time-wasters and a narrative of dark themes burdened with typos and poor delivery. Real nightmares threaten your sleep with terror and fear, whereas In Nightmare only threatens to bore or frustrate you to death.

Tomb Raider IV-VI just feels like a collection of relics from an era when we didn’t know any better. And honestly? Some relics are better off staying buried.

Even for a series renowned for reusing material and rehashing a tired formula of mindless yet oddly satisfying gameplay, Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires is a hollow package. If this is all the series has left to offer, it may be time to let the Three Kingdoms war themselves into oblivion. A bland, shallow title with little to offer even those who enjoy the repetition of Musou gameplay, Empires is as regurgitated as a game can be.

This desert revenge adventure loses its way in the heat and the bloodlust. Whiplash inducing story inconsistencies, mind-numbing combat and stealth, alongside a complete lack of real exploration cause Blood of Mehran to suffer a fate worse than death - exile into a barren and unending trial of tedium. At least the landmarks are nice.

Whilst the market for something neon-soaked and high octane may be lacking, Cyber Clutch: Hot Import Nights isn't going to be the game to reignite that spark. Shallow content, lacking multiplayer and just overall poor performance will see this one up on the blocks.

Considering the resurgence of the Turtles franchise of late. It’s disappointing to see the brand reduced to this. If Fisher-price produced a game titled ‘My First Beat-em-up, this his would probably bit it. Stick to the pixel perfection of Shredders revenge for your Turtle Time.

Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown is too little, too late. Instead of innovating, it instead takes ideas already popularised and doesn't even pull them off properly. Lacklustre visuals and a flat future aesthetic don't do anything to bolster its chances, not when better contemporaries are available.

An earnest effort at recreating the puzzling contraptions of an escape room mixed with an Outlast-like antagonist, Scholar’s Mate falls victim to the most insipid storytelling, boring gameplay and obtuse puzzles. While it may look the part of a horror game, the only true terror will stem from the fact you could have just gone to a real escape room, and gotten more value for your money.

Dreamworks All-Star Kart Racing is really trying to play with the bigguns but just isn’t doing enough differently to justify why anyone should care, especially if you’re a Switch owner. Name recognition can only get you so far and not even everyone’s favourite giant green ogre can save this one.

Ultra Mission might be remembered as the very last game for the PSVita, but it’s not a memorable game in and of itself. A budget top down shooter that’s clunky and shallow, it’s an hour of content that’s quirky but has a number of design issues that make it a forgettable farewell to Sony’s handheld.

What could have served as a reminder to how good it once was, Crysis Remastered is instead a broken mess that needed a lot longer in the oven. Terrible AI and awful graphical glitches just suck any semblance of fun out of this.

A modern, “retro-inspired” title in the shape of Shovel Knight and Ghost ‘n Goblins, Sword & Bones is clearly a small team’s love letter. Once that veil drops, however, it just devolves into a needlessly hard platformer that doesn’t feel like persevering with.

NeonLore as a concept is an intriguing one. A combination of mediums – a game that’s less interactive than a walking simulator and audio books that benefit from a visual component to set the vibe – is a unique prospect. It’s such a shame that the developers couldn’t really follow through in terms of quality. It looks the part, sounds excellent and understands what makes the Cyberpunk theme so special. There’s just far too many rough edges and easily avoidable issues that mar the experience.

New Tales from the Borderlands is a sequel that seemingly forgets everything that made the original so special and shoehorns in a story that simply doesn’t keep you engaged. Whilst it’s visually lovely and feels like it’s a Borderlands experience, it’s all style and no substance. Without heart or humour, this feels like a cash-in, and for a sequel to one of the greatest narrative games of all time? That’s just not good enough.

Ultimately, the Perplexing Orb is a disappointing game. The concept is simple and rather than make the most of that basic concept by realising something impressive or exuberant, it’s just a rudimentary set of obstacles to overcome. There’s a few hours of blasé game play surrounding a handful of levels which really nail this concept. The EU release might have been delayed but we’ve not really been missing out on much.

Otherwar unsuccessfully pulls off being a tower defence game or bullet hell, and instead is just my hell. Slow waves of enemies, long periods of downtime, and a broken in-game economy that doesn't make working towards anything feel fulfilling.

Whilst it's clear to see what games have inspired Wreckreation, the game itself pales in comparison to its forebears. A hollow attempt at both arcade fun and badly shoehorned in "live service", Wreckreation is a game as shallow as its unnecessarily large map.

Cthulu: The Cosmic Abyss falls prey to the greatest source of madness: boredom. Bogged down with its litany of technical issues and crashes, its fragile story and bland walking simulator gameplay fail to inspire even a modicum of intrigue. It's not Cthulu who'll cause your mental degradation, but the endless tedium of trying to reach the finale of this abyss.

With a brand new but convoluted UI, slowdown and framerate drops during match highlights and a severe lack of polish overall, Football Manager takes a huge swing and unfortunately doesn't hit the mark this year. The fundamentals of what makes this series great are present, but buried under the weight of everything that needs to be fixed.

Like an unopened box of Celebrations full of only Bounties, Chocolate Factory Simulator promises much and is visually appealing, but delivers very little else. From the laborious process of actually making chocolate to the tedium of upgrading your only source of 'help', this is one factory Charlie would probably send all of his grandparents to visit instead.

What could have potentially been a good hybrid of walking simulator and multiple choice adventure is instead buried under boring gameplay and eye-straining visuals. Ashwalkers squanders any narrative replayability by being an all-round drab experience that is as uninspiring as the wastelands it’s set in.

On the surface, Hellpoint should have been a worthy contender. But too many technical issues suck any real enjoyment out of it.

Played almost entirely on one screen with clunky controls and game play which has you at the mercy of a random number generator, Mittleborg: City of Mages is quite a tedious game to play.

One thing I do know is it is far more fun to watch than it is to play. Find a streamer gung-ho enough to punish themselves, and watch them for a bit. I had more fun writing the review than I did playing the game.

If you like those slide puzzle mini-games you find in many other games, Cubicity is a cutesy, leisurely game built around that core concept. There’s 6 to 8 hours of content in this original package with the hint of more to come later but in less than half of that time, you’ll have seen everything this game has to offer. It’s easy – far too easy for my taste as it becomes boring quickly – but this is a comfortable way to kill an hour or 2 before the monotony sets in.