Though similar in title, Arcania: Gothic 4 bears little resemblance to its predecessors. It is a traditional action-based role-playing game, which lets you play as an adventurer in the battle against ancient evil forces. The story and graphics are among the game's strongpoints, while almost every other aspect is bland and unorigonal.

Gran Turismo 6 is a massive game, and it is fantastic in its best moments, but the shortcomings of the series are getting difficult to ignore. Most notably the awful sounds and the lack of a proper damage model.

Unless you are a big Mario Kart-fan, this game might not be worthbuying. By all means, it's fun the way only Mario Kart can be, itlooks more stunning than ever before and if you need new tracks it caneasily offer hours of entertainment. But Nintendo must have made this game on autopilot.

It's part UFO: Enemy Unknown and part Commandos. This military game of chess is not as deep as it could have been, but still one of the strongest launch titles on the 3DS.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 leaves much to be desired in its lacklustre campaign, but the multiplayer is where the game truly shines. Awesome weapons, fast-paced gameplay and the overall sense of polish might make this the best Call of Duty online experience at the moment.

A great introduction to action role playing games like Diablo.

An exciting adventure with interesting characters, but the recipe has been used to death at this point.

Quotation forthcoming.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising offers easy fun. It may be simple, but it works, and even if you go back to the same areas a lot of times, it doesn't get boring.

Ridge Racer 3D does not bring anything new to the genre, except 3D. It does, however, follow a well-tested recipe; and it succeeds in doing so. All in all, this is a good racing game, and the added three-dimensional effect literally brings a new dimension to handheld racing.

Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled is a superb kart-racer bogged down by a frustratingly uneven difficulty and a very unstable multiplayer.

With improved physics and an incredible depth in gameplay, PES 2014 is a step in the right direction for Konami. The game still suffers from weak AI, lack of licenses and few innovations in their gameplay modes, but its the closest the series have come in matching PES 6, the highlight of the series.

Isle of Armor is big, colorful and filled with familiar faces and feelings, but there's a real lack of brand new content.

Albeit initially bland, the game soon turns into a challenging and charming platform game. The 2D sequences cause nostalgia, and the game as a whole is thoroughly well designed. The few problems – especially the annoying music – are not enough to describe De Blob 2 as anything but a great game.

NHL 17 might just be the best hockey game there ever was, but returning annoyances and few real changes make for a game that isn't much better than its predecessor.

As a Wii U launch title, Black Ops II strives to innovate upon the well-known Call of Duty-formula, and to some extent it also manages to do so. While it still is very much the same game previously released on Sony's and Microsoft's consoles, it is the ability to play the game single-handed through the game pad that should be Nintendo's selling point.

Dawn of War III is exciting and brings a thrilling multiplayer experience to the table, but a lack of variety and a focus on grinding takes away from its attempt to be a deep, but fast-paced experience at the same time.

Quotation forthcoming.

Cold War offers its share of highs and lows during the net exciting campaign, and familiar multiplayer. The best moments are when the developers allow themselves to slow down the pace, and let the player feel the tensions of varying aspects of the Cold War.

With Everspace 2, Rockfish takes the leap from roguelike to a full-fledged space adventure in a giant galaxy. Here there are endless things to explore, but a lack of variety means that the experience quickly loses its zest.

Game Freak delivers yet another solid game. It doesn't bring a lot of new stuff to the table, but the small changes and refinements are for the better. It might be time to change things up a bit though.

Quotation forthcoming.

The most open ended series on the planet returns. You are free to carve your own path, make allies and disrupt or keep the peace. It can be confusing and slow at times, but leaving your story is great fun.

Tales of Arise is an experience with good sides and bad sides. On one hand it is a great adventure in expansive and gorgeous environments, with a stellar action oriented combat system that might be the series best one so far. On the other hand the story – while interesting – is told in a really frustrating manner, with way toO much dialogue that has no real place or purpose.

Gemini Rue is yet more proof that you don't need expensive budgets to make good games. This retro-styled adventure delivers a great story and fun point & click-based gameplay. It's probably not for everyone, but adventure fans will find plenty to like here.

Twelve Minutes is one of the most interesting games of 2021, but it might not be one of the best.

Sherlock Holmes Chapter One is a fresh new start for the nearly 20-year-old game series, and to some extent manages to reinvent the wheel.

Awakening is a great expansion. It delivers around 20 hours of role-playing goodness, which flows better and is more varied than what we got in the original game. We also get new and interesting characters and a bunch of new abilities and items to play with.

Quotation forthcoming.

Despite sharing a whole lot of similarities with its predecessor, Destiny 2 excels where it counts. The shooting and loot hunting is as addictive as ever, and even though the characters and story feel like they're still lacking several layers of dept, the grind has never felt so good.

PES 2012 does nothing revolutionary to the series, but the new Off the Ball control and slightly improved gameplay raises the overall experience. Still behind it's EA Sports competition, who offers a more fine tuned approach to the sport, Konami at least takes one solid step forward this season.

Quotation forthcoming.

Europa Universalis IV: Rule Britannia adds many worthwhile mechanics the British region and beyond. The coolest one is the new mission system, but due to being part of the free 1.25 England patch, its impact on the expansion is lessened.

Beautiful and streamlined puzzle, but the story drags.

Avowed offers a strong atmosphere, colorful personalities, and a gameplay loop that is entirely serviceable. However, it fails to excel in any particular area, including the character-driven narratives that Obsidian are known for. And so, Avowed fails to fully deliver on its potential.

It's an engaging and unique game with lots of depth and replayability, but sometimes you feel like more of a spectator than a player.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is almost the perfect sequel. Sadly, improvements in gameplay, story, visuals and more is mired in an undercooked package, with horrible performance and fatal crashes plaguing, at the very least, the game's launch week.

The Definitive Edition of Sleeping Dogs is first and foremost for new gamers who haven't played the fun original. The extra missions are decent, but more of the same and the graphical improvements, while fine, aren't stunning.

No Longer Home is not your typical game, being both vague, concrete and altogether dreamlike in its portrayal of what it means to grow up.

While The Cave doesn't succeed as a pure platformer, it certainly makes up for that with charm and humor The character specific areas are great and somewhat manages to undermine the fact that the main tasks have to be repeated three times for you to see everything the game has to offer.

Valkyrie Elysium is a fun and entertaining action game that feels like it should have been a full blown RPG.

Dead to Rights: Retribution is fun, fast and exhilarating. You go from shooting to cracking jaws with your fists in mere seconds, and the mechanics for doing so are rock solid. It slows down at times, but this is still a worthwhile ride.

Velocity 2X might look and feel a bit simple, but beneath that lies a rather entertaining hybrid of a shoot-em-up and a 2D platformer. It works best in small doses rather than long play sessions, but manages to score a lot of points on charm, aesthetic and tight game design.

Not much has changed since the first game in 2006. Fortunately, the foundation is still very solid, with an entertaining and beautifully brutal combat system, a great sense of freedom between the missions and satisfying role-playing elements.

Quotation forthcoming.

The long awaited Symphony of the Night revival has fast, tight combat, great environments and some interesting RPG mechanics, but is unnecessarily padded with a convoluted and cliched story. Some trimming and more emphasis on core mechanics would have this game a lot of good.

Hugely engaging monster hunting, but not without major problems.

NHL 19 is a good hockey game and the Chel mode is fun, but the game fails to make changes that separate it enough from its predecessors, something especially noticable when the graphics engine has been the same for so many years in a row now.

Styx: Master of Shadows is a fun and challenging game that gives you great freedom to explore its vast levels. Some problems with the controls persist, but they won't ruin an overall worthwhile experience.

There hasn't been a lot of tweaks to the overall LEGO game formula, but The LEGO Movie Videogame manages to feel fresh and exciting to play. Levels are shorter, there are less collectibles, and the experience feels much more focused than in previous games. It is a great argument for the less is more approach to game design.

Despite being both fussy and clumsy throughout parts of the barely 15 hours the game lasts, Atomic Heart has just enough character and cool sequences to make this a game that might be well worth a closer look.

I'm sure this will be something very special for those who already love Pokémon and games like Animal Crossing and Dragon Quest Builders 2. But once the initial wow feeling is gone, there's little that makes me want to return to Pokopia.

Luigi's Mansion 3 is charming and gets more challenging by the level, but its boring ghost-fighting and money-collection-focused gameplay gets old fairly soon.

A stylish, well-made game held back by some technical challenges that are particularly evident on the Switch's old hardware.

Tales of Kenzera: Zau does a lot of what many other good games have done in the past, without excelling in any areas. The platforming is mostly solid - with a few glitches here and there - and the combat system is entertaining enough. Admittedly, there is not a lot of variety, and the game never quite reaches the same heights as the sources of inspiration Ori, Super Metroid and Hollow Knight.

This is definitely a great mystery, with a variety of puzzles, challenges and laid-back gameplay. I wouldn't hesitate to increase this game's score if some minor problems were rectified.

Achilles: Survivor is an entertaining and well crafted addition to the bullet heaven genre. The tower defense element adds a level of strategy, which is enough to make this game stand out against the likes of Vampire Survivors.

Madden NFL 12 is a two-edged sword. On one hand it offers new players, post-trade rosters and some new features. On the other hand it is essentially very similar to the Madden games released over the last years, but if you are a fan, you will probably not be disappointed.

Marvel's Avengers tells a surprisingly gripping tale and has gameplay that packs enough of a punch to (almost) make you forget about the messy loot system and less than stellar performance.

This is a very enjoyable shooter with lots of action, amazing graphics and a wonderfully authentic cyberpunk-atmosphere, but it's somewhat let down by an erratic difficulty and a relatively short campaign.

The new Trackmania is a blast to play. It's beautiful and chaotic in a lot of the right ways, but it's also thoroughly surrounded by bad design choices and a general lack of guidance.

The Wonderful 101 is a good game, marred by insisting on repeating both enemies, inside jokes and half-baked variations. The combat system works excellent, and is enough to make sure the game thrives.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion is without a doubt the best version of the game, and it's nice to have the game on new platforms. It's almost comical that the game is out on Xbox and Switch all the while Square Enix seems to be ignoring those platforms for the Final Fantasy VII game people really want to play.

Guardians of Middle-earth is the first game to bring the immensely popular MOBA -genre to consoles. Thankfully it does it well. Small, but clever changes makes controlling heroes easy, and the fights are both engaging and fun.

A charming retro styled point-and-click adventure set on a remote farm in the fjords of Norway. The beautiful environments and the nostalgic graphics outweigh the few cliches and strange puzzles. The simple one-button interface in «Milkmaid of the Milky Way» makes it accessible for a modern audience.

Storywise Gravity Rush 2 tries to do too much. It tells three completely separate stories, one of which is totally unnecessary and another that stretches on for far too long. That said, the iterations in gameplay mechanics are a welcome addition, and the colorful new environments are a sheer joy to explore, especially with the new photo mode that lets you share discoveries with other players.

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask does not upend the series' tried and true formula. It's still a delightful puzzle game embalmed in an engaging adventure, filled with eccentric characters in an exciting world. But it would be lovely to see something new added to the core.

Batman - The Telltale Series is a good game with one of the best Batman stories in a good while. Telltale takes huge risks with the Batman universe, and thus makes the game an engaging and exciting experience.

This is an expansion that offers a number of small but noticeable adjustments that make life as a hunter, if not easier to survive, then at least easier to deal with. We get new monsters, new areas, and a lot of new equipment to play with. A solid expansion with new content.

Pode is a decent puzzle game which allows players of different generations and with different video game backgrounds to have lots of fun together in a warm and mysterious atmosphere. Sometimes the best and most memorable moments in a game are not the ones that happen on the screen, but what happens with the people you play it with.

Total War: Warhammer 2 is more spectacular than its predecessor, but fails to innovate when it comes to depth and strategy. The Vortex mechanic is wonderful and the factions diverse, but with the game's extreme dedication to fantasy, it might be a tough sell for the traditional fans of the series.

Draugen weaves an interesting, short story about Edward and his ward, the young, energetic Lissie. The search for his little sister takes the pairing to Graavik, a remote village in rural Norway. But the mystery is far bigger than they know. It is a short, concentrated and well executed story based game.

While Tyranny doesn't revolutionize the isometric role playing genre, its story, characters and progression system certainly demands attention, and makes for a fun, dark and interesting game.

The single player mode suffers from a lack of variation, but the competitive and team based multiplayer is a fantastic addition to both the Ratchet & Clank universe and the Tower Defense genre as a whole.

A fun and adventurous point & click game in the style of classics like Fate of Atlantis. The only downside is that the puzzles are often a bit too silly to fit with the story, but they're still quite entertaining.

Rune Factory: Frontier is far from perfect. A lot of things could have been better, and especially the time management can become a nuisance. If you soldier on, this can still be an incredibly rewarding game. A sometimes fantastic experience marred by a myriad small issues.

If you’ve yet to try a game in the Farming Simulator series, this is a good entry point, but it does not offer a lot for veterans.

Full Throttle Remastered is a great versjon of the aging adventure game. If you’re interested in checking out a classic adventure game, this is a great opportunity.

LittleBigPlanet Karting offers great fun for the creative and those who love karting games. It can at times feel a little empty, the characters a little flat, but the driving experience is good, albeit a bit chaotic. As always, the online community has great potential and will decide the success of the title.

A well-composed horror experience that will perhaps be primarily remembered for its unique and compelling setting.

The Banner Saga 2 picks up right where the first game left off, with powerful storytelling and stunning graphics. Sadly, some changes to the game mechanics have practically eliminated the tension and excitement that made The Banner Saga a truly unforgettable experience.

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is a technical marvel, and offers a lot of great treasure-hunting moments throughout. The characters and their dialogues are also a huge part of what makes the game work – this makes the plot quite enjoyable, despite it (and almost every other aspect of the game) being incredibly formulaic. If this is not the end, but instead a new beginning for Uncharted, I really wish Naughty Dog would make something that's way less shooter-y and way more unique going forward.

Despite being only a small game, Europa has a whole lot on its mind. The developers expertly combine heavy themes of climate change and existential dread with an absolutely stunning world, and it's only a shame we don't get to freely explore it more.

Antichamber teaches you to expect the unexpected, and while some of its later tasks may prove ridiculously difficult, the initial half of the game never seizes to amaze, nor surprise. It may fool you into thinking you have some kind of clue about what’s going on or how to break the mold, but trust me, you don’t.

Rollerdrome is stunning to behold and great fun to play, but loses some of its flow as it starts to swamp you with more and more stuff to look out for and get hit by.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II doesn't offer a huge amount of surprises and fits rather neatly in with the rest of the series' later releases. The small changes to the formula ensure that the game is among the more interesting Call of Duty releases in a while. The robust multiplayer is among the best of the best, and will quench trigger-happy gamers' thirst for a while.

Except for the Left Behind DLC, none of the other additions actually add to the experience. The game is just as good as it always has been, but with improved graphics being the only real selling point, the package is not enough for a second buy.

A perfect plattformer for the youngest players, but without much of a challenge or depth for more experienced players.

Shadowrun Returns suffers from a few design flaws and a rather short main campaign, but it’s still an entertaining RPG. The strategic combat is interesting, but too easy even on hard difficulty. The RPG system is rather shallow, and none of the games important decisions are yours to make, even though the story is solid enough. This’ll be a nostalgic trip for older gamers and a good introduction to an old fashioned RPG for the younger ones. Sadly Harebrained rely too much on the community for new content.

Fallout 4 VR delivers a vast, living world, with a great atmosphere that was made for exploration in virtual reality. Some of the game mechanics like the menu system needs polishing, but Bethesda has given us a viable alternative to playing the game on a PC or console.

Nuka-World doesn't have much depth or intrigue to its story, but the world is varied and exceptionally fun to explore. There is enough content here to satisfy anyone who wishes to just walk around and get to know the park, especially if you're eager to expand your arsenal and Nuka Cola collection.

An atmospheric co-op game that offers just enough of a challenge to keep the players engaged.

A dazzling dose of ninja nostalgia, with a soundtrack so good it could be the best of the year.

The story is at times highly confusing, the the challenge is at times a bit too hard, but you'll still have fun jumping between bodies as you fight your way through nasty creatures from the great beyond.

At first glance, New Super Luigi U looks exactly the same as New Super Mario Bros. U. New Super Luigi U feels almost the same as the prequel, but with shorter levels and less time to finish them it has it's strengths in the levels with high amounts of speed and timed jumps.

This unconventional real-time strategy game has both great strengths and clear weaknesses. It offers unique opportunities for intrigue during peacetime, but unimaginative and simplistic combat during wartime. Its long campaign is a true treat for fans of the TV series and books, and contains many hours of great strategy.

Though roaming the game's beautiful open worlds is bound to amuse more or less anyone for a few hours, the Xenoblade games will mostly appeal to the kind of JRPG player who enjoys the genre for its challenge and complexity rather than stories. In this light Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is somewhat surpassed by its more ambitious and polished Wii U predecessor.

DuckTales Remastered is a brilliant remake of a classic game. The levels are rebuilt and just like you remember them on the NES. DuckTales Remastered serves you a delicious nostalgic feeling, but I think this game would fit better on a handheld console.