News Tower reaches the heady stressful heights of the Tycoon genre, challenging you to keep a newspaper in print and filled with stories every week, to manage a tower of reporters, cleaners, and typesetters, and to satisfy a town of opposing factions, all wrapped up with a lovingly vibrant 1930s golden age string ready to be hawked on a street corner.

Steelrising is a more accessible Souls-like which has plenty to appease rookies and veterans of the genre. A stunning visualisation of revolutionary Paris and a more direct story make for an engaging romp and while the combat has some balancing issues, it has the variety to remain interesting through its runtime. A Souls game with delicious French flavour, you’ll want to hear these people singing the song of angry Automats.

Family Man is a gritty story-driven RPG with a bleak but compelling undertone. The mechanics can feel repetitive but considering the endless peril you find yourself in, there’s comfort in the familiar the further you get. Keep the plates spinning, keep everyone happy and you may just get out of this alive. Maybe.

Proving that even the Grim Reaper can’t catch a break, Have a Nice Death is another rogue filled with snappy combat, gorgeous visuals and slick writing. It’s hard, and sometimes doesn’t feel rewarding, but it’s definitely worth the grind. Feeling like Death never felt so good.

Live A Live makes an impressive case as to why classic RPGs are not to be forgotten in time. The vignette style of storytelling brings an epic scale to an otherwise modest and sometimes unevenly paced narrative. The HD-2D visuals and recomposed soundtrack are standouts in what is already a stellar package that all RPG fans need to play.

A tremendously fun FPS with a quirky and creative presentation, Fashion Squad Police is packed with fast-paced and surprisingly deep non-violent action. A couple of difficulty spikes and occasionally frustrating encounters smudge a slight stain on its beaming overalls, but they’re more a water mark than a red wine stain. Grab your dapper sneakers, suit up your most glamourous get-up and start slapping the dull outta the unfashionable lot.

Lil’ Guardsman never overextends with its ambition but rather perfects everything the game does. With nuanced and hilarious writing, gorgeous visuals, complete with fun deducing-based puzzle mechanics, the game is a king amongst its own kingdoms.

Tinykin’s 3D Puzzle/Platforming and Collectathon experience is one really worth having in your collection. The cutesy and nostalgic presentation offers unique charm in a space that has felt saturated. It’s clearly a game that has been made with love throughout. A few bugs notwithstanding, this is one that should be on your radar.

Excellent writing, an incredible number of choices with consequences that genuinely impact the whole journey, and a ton of replay value, Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! – The Complete Collection is an absolute treat of an RPG, and if you love the genre, you should play it. The only black marks on it were the menu navigation and the bugs I experienced, but they weren’t enough to make me not want to recommend it.

Building on the immense foundations of the original, Jurassic World Evolution 2 provides more of the same addictive management gameplay with the thrill of seeing the prehistoric reptiles in all their glory. The new additions are light and there’s still some minor issues, but it’s all forgotten as you behold a T-Rex emerging from the shadows for the first time.

Henry Halfhead's unique concept and simple yet effective gameplay make it a great sandbox puzzler to cause mischief in. Despite wanting the game to go further with its concept and make the gameplay more ambitious, it settles for a heartfelt and relatable story instead, bringing more feeling into what you do as a result.

The Outlast Trials pulls off a great multiplayer horror experience, whilst keeping the spirit of the franchise alive and screaming. There’s not a whole lot to keep you playing after exploring all the levels and the gameplay itself can feel quite repetitive. With that said, there are some brilliant scares and clever ways to keep you on your toes if you so desire to keep going back to therapy.

Beat Slayer is Hades meets Hi-Fi Rush and it lives up to its name of slaying some brilliant tunes. A superb art direction blended with intense, frenetic rogue-like action and a pumping techno soundtrack make this a mixtape worth digging out the headphones for. It’s not a perfect record, owing to a lighter story and the odd combat quirk, but it’s one worth having in the collection.

Fluid movement, excellent level design, gratifying combat and a bombastic soundtrack make SPRAWL a fantastic and challenging shooter. It has the odd problem with traversal and a frustrating late-game bug, but SPRAWL has the systems to match its ambitions. As you fight half a dozen mechs and ping off headshot after headshot, you’ll forget all about everything else.

Trails Through Daybreak takes the series to new heights of drama without losing any of the series’ strengths or structure, and features a fun double battle system that somehow doesn’t get in the way of itself. It’s also a viable jumping-in point that hasn’t come along in a while for those looking to dip their toe into this long-running series and finding it daunting. The dawn of a new era.

Mediterranea Inferno is unafraid of tackling a multitude of serious themes and exploration of the more immoral, shadowy parts of human desires. It has moments where it’s too brash and its themes won’t sit comfortably with many. But, for those who descend into this psychological character study, there’s a host of beautifully rendered, disturbing imagery to feast upon.

If you’re a fan of Philip K. Dick’s seminal work, Silicon Dreams is absolutely worth your time. It’s not the most interactive game but it expertly explores some thought provoking themes that are synonymous with Blade Runner via an engrossing game play loop and well crafted dialogue. It’s only 4 hours long but you’ll want to play this game twice.

Star Wars Squadrons is a terrific dogfighter, reminding you beyond anything else that Star Wars, when done properly, is supposed to be really, really fun.

Retro inspired first person shooters don’t come any more stylish than KINGDOM of the DEAD. A fantastic soundtrack is matched by a macabre hand drawn art style to create an atmosphere that feels unique to this game. It has a few bugs and some anticlimactic boss battles but there’s a lot to love about this game beyond those rough edges.

If you’ve never played a solitaire video game, The Solitaire Conspiracy is the perfect gateway into them. Bithell Games have created an accessible yet deeply strategic twist on the classic card game that includes an espionage narrative delivered via FMV’s featuring famous faces. There’s some ludonarrative dissonance between the drama of story told and the relative calmness of the game play but it does little to spoil one of the best this genre has to offer.

An incredibly accessible game, ‘Please, Touch The Artwork’ is a masterful interpretation and adaptation of modern art into well designed story and puzzles. There’s a few foibles to work around but otherwise, this is a unique experience that comes with a strong recommendation.

Despite looking pretty impressive the first time round, the visual upgrades alone to Metro Exodus make it a worth entry in the PS5’s catalogue. It might help to play the others first, but when this is the conclusion, it looks and plays too good not to. Just work on those trigger-pulling muscles for the haptic feedback.

A Juggler’s Tale is a short but very sweet atmospheric 3D puzzle side scroller. With a unique dynamic of controlling a marionette, puzzles become more thoughtful. The game is visually stunning and has a wonderful gaming experience. Intense at times with a wicked twist, the only downside is it’s short run time. Easily recommended to fans of Little Nightmares, or Puzzle side scrollers in general.

NotGames have commandeered the airwaves with Not For Broadcast. An immensely funny satirical romp through the lens of news broadcasting that really hasn’t been done before. Its specifically British tone might not click, but the surreal and poignant narrative is one to admire. The gameplay is overwhelming and it doesn’t develop, leaving me wanting more. However, if you like your FMVs and branching narratives, this one has it in spades.

Carving a destiny through The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante is a surprisingly heart-rending and engrossing experience. It won’t be for everyone – it’s a text heavy game and it navigates some heavy subject matters – but if you have a soft spot for interactive fiction, this is one of the best examples of the genre for quite some time.

A bitesize indie adventure guiding a herd of fictional creatures back to their home atop a mountain, Herdling has charm in spades, and a wonderful minimal design that prioritises experience over everything.

Lake is a casual, explorative and chilled narrative driven game where you get to immerse yourself in the quaint charms of Providence Oaks. The game features simple controls, wonderful performances and likely the most relaxing game play you’ll experience all year.

Continuing with the series' revival, Legacy of Kain: Defiance is again another spruce up of the old vampiric duo from 2003. Fans will appreciate the new look, quality of life improvements and better camera control. It may be a hard sell to newcomers, but it's still an accessible game in its own right. Paired with the Soul Reaver remasters, it's a good time to take a bite into it.