Pathway is a serviceable roguelite built around the fun idea of tailing Nazis across the desert in a jeep. However it lacks personality, character and narrative worth getting invested in. Its combat will satisfy for a time but quickly becomes too familiar for genre fans, and too dull for anyone else to jump aboard.

LOVE is a charming game that ties a time bending puzzle box to a lattice of interwoven dioramas that await the player’s intervention. It’s like a Rubik’s cube but instead of coloured tiles, there’s bite sized narrative adventures to uncover. Not all of the stories are impactful because they’re told exclusively though character gesticulations rather than text or vocal performances but more than enough stick the landing to make this a satisfying experience.

An effective story, some excellent performances from its cast, and very good production values do much to cover up its minor flaws and, as such, help Erica stand out from the crowd, when it comes to full motion video games. With a nice tight runtime, it’s also a game that doesn’t outstay its welcome. More of this kind of thing, please.

The Switch version is undoubtedly the worst way to play Layers of Fear 2 – but it’s still worth a look for horror fans who only have the Nintendo hybrid console available to them. The game itself carries an engrossing narrative set in a game world that’s constantly trying to surprise the player through a 5-7 hour adventure. While the puzzles are middling and the visuals less impressive than the other versions of this game, there’s plenty of scares and a thick atmosphere without a massive amount of gore.

A bland and uneventful horror puzzler, S.W.A.N. offers nothing new yet still manages to disappoint. A disjointed narrative, ugly visuals and monsters that seem about as uninterested in events as the protagonist is make for a forgettable game.

King of Seas is a delightfully chill and humorous title that’s best experienced on a Sunday afternoon as you wish you were a swashbuckling pirate taking down warships with enormous cannons. Whilst the combat can be fiddly and the procedural nature may play with your sense of direction somewhat, there’s plenty to enjoy in this light-hearted sea tale.

Biomutant is an ambitious animal populated open-world with so much to do most players could spend 60-70 hours exploring without seeing everything. However, size is its downfall. The player will get lost and bogged down in the morass of thousands of side quests, thousands of superfluous items, before they realise there’s not much plot to hang it all from. Add a number of glitches at launch, no lock-on in combat, and a narrator that will drive many players to distraction, and sadly Biomutant does not live up to its lofty ambitions.

As an epic sci-fi story or as an elaborate futuristic dating simulator or even as a third-person shooter, Mass Effect Legendary Edition has a little something for everyone, and puts many modern narrative-driven RPGs to shame. It may not quite be the full-blown remake that many hoped for, but it’s still the ultimate way to experience Shepard’s story, regardless of your history with the franchise, and easily takes top spot in the running for my game of the year so far. Even the Mako sections are less annoying…

A poor physics puzzle game with a limited amount of content, Newtonian Inversion is a basic budget title reminiscent of an unfinished tech demo. Of the 16 levels it contains there’s just a single headscratcher worth thinking about. Sir Isaac Newton said “What goes up must come down”. I hope this one stays down.

Excellent use of the DualSense haptics, improved visuals and 4K resolution @ 60 frames per second mean that the PS5 version of Manifold Garden is the definitive version of a truly excellent game. Transforming the tenets of M.C. Escher’s artwork into a fascinating and enigmatic puzzle game, this title is still one of the best in the genre to release in recent times. If you’ve yet to play it, this is the best way to do so. If you’ve already got it on PS4, you’ll get this upgrade for free and it’s worth another look.

Retro Machina is a charming and well-constructed Metroidvania about a little robot who dares to question its existence. The beautiful graphics and crumbling art deco world will impress, and its fun but challenging combat and robot slaving puzzles will keep many players satisfied for the entirety of its 10-hour run time.

A fun new take on the concept of “team deathmatch”, Hood: Outlaws and Legends is a blast to get into it. However, with one game mode and promised roadmap content down the line, it’s a lot to ask players to buy into on faith in later additions.

Before We Leave is as close as I’ve ever come to sticking with a city builder and, for that, it deserves enormous credit. The non-violent nature of the gameplay is also to be commended. However, it’s all still just a little too dizzying for me and, if you also struggle with the level of micro-management this type of game fosters, then this likely won’t be quite streamlined enough to change your mind.

An investigative autobiographical game exploring cold war espionage through the effect that that had on a family, Cosmic Top Secret is a fascinating concept that combines stark reality with Monty Python-esque eccentricity. The content of the game is captivating, following one woman’s quest to uncover her parent’s classified history. It’s a shame that the moments between the engrossing revelations often feel clunky or rote.

A savage monochromatic roguelike shooter with a difficulty curve reminiscent of a vertical straight line, Nongunz: Doppelganger Edition is tough to love early on. Over time though, the smart risk vs reward system rises to the surface and the slick gunplay becomes challenging rather than simply impossible. While it doesn’t match the heights of its more modern day peers, it’s still worth a look if you’ve got the time to dedicate to it.

Stacks on Stacks (on Stacks) is an excellent example of taking a simplistic core concept and mechanics then using them in a plethora of inventive ways to create an enjoyable experience. It’s colourful and quirky yet easy to pick up and very intuitive. The Nintendo Switch feels like a natural fit for its structure, built up around short bursts of play, but the multiplayer is a little too much for the handheld consoles screen at times.

It brings nothing new in terms of gameplay, but Terminator: Resistance Enhanced has other tricks up its sleeve. Namely a decent story and some of the best use of license to a movie franchise in a long time. If you haven’t played the previous gen version, there’s no better jumping point than here.

It may not be action-packed and your enjoyment mileage may vary, depending on your views on roguelikes, but Insurmountable is a unique take on a genre that has begun to feel a little stale for me. With an interesting premise, good replay value and a nice clean look, it’s a game I’ll certainly keep installed on the PC for a while and boot up for a quick run from time to time. A good, if somewhat tense, time will be had.

Though it’s pretty derivative, Devil Slayer Raksasi is a notable take on the roguelike. Its directly overhead camera perspective is novel but serves really to draw you too far out of the action, and its randomly earned drops leave it straddling the line between roguelite and roguelike. The real problem is that most of its other elements have been seen before and in better games.

The Colonists might not be the deepest of settlement games but it’s an engrossing one with a focus on productivity. It’s simplistic enough to act as an excellent introduction to the genre while having enough depth to please veterans looking for a challenge. What’s more, it hasn’t lost anything in the jump from PC to PS4.

What could have been a fun and entertaining 2D slice of action instead falls into drab, unfairly punishing territory. The Skylia Prophecy could have done its homework, rather than crib the worst parts of older, more difficult platformers.

A simple game with a new control scheme to get used to, Skate City is no frills fun. Yet rather than sounding detrimental, the chill vibe it brings to addictive arcade gameplay is a welcome addition to the handful of skateboarding games on the market.

Brief and concise, but being no less affecting for its brevity, Before I Forget is heart-breaking and uplifting in equal measure. The framing of the story induces a genuine sympathy and understanding of what those who suffers such conditions go through, but successfully stops short of crossing the line into patronising schmaltz. I urge all of you to experience it for yourself and make sure you avoid spoilers for maximum effect. I cannot recommend this enough.

Flipping the dungeon raid on its head, Legend of Keepers is a roguelike-strategy game hybrid that’s worth your time. It might have its tongue firmly pressed to its cheek at times but underneath its irreverent exterior is a deep and engrossing tactical gem. This is once corporate ladder you might want to synergise with.

MotoGP 21 is undoubtedly the best looking game in the series. It also makes fantastic use of the DualSense controller on the PlayStation 5. For every step forward this game takes forward though, it feels like it takes a step back elsewhere. It’s still a very challenging but equally rewarding motorbike racing game and worthy of carrying the MotoGP name. The iterations without value adding innovations are starting to take their toll.

Lasting a few fun hours, Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion is a simple but effective Zelda-like adventure in a colourful veggie-filled dystopia. However, this salad dodger’s gameplay is derivative of dozens of other better games, and it doesn’t really do anything to explore its novel concept.

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.

On the surface Poison Control looks to be cut from the same cloth as Persona, brimming with cute characters, witty script and changing hearts. But under the poison mires you need to clear and the poor shooting, the gameplay lacks polish and chokes on repetition, and the story often descends into caricature and mishandles a sexual assault. Its style is really only skin deep.