Road 96’s narrative may not reach the heights of the best the modern adventure genre has to offer, but it cleverly distracts with a cast of intriguing characters and the promise of procedurally generated road-trips. The novel concept doesn’t always work, but when it does, it offers a very personal and gripping journey through a country on the verge of dictatorship.

Rough Justice 84 contains loads of 80s retro vibes at least in graphics and score. Altough the gameplay is quite simple and seems slightly repetitive in the long run, it offers a lot of good and innovative approaches, of which one would like to see more. It is to be hoped that the courageous overall concept will be expanded in the future - even with a different setting.

It is no big deal that Oxenfree 2 mostly uses the same dye trivial gameplay mechanics as its predecessor. But the new characters do not reach the bunch of friends from the first part and the story itself suffers more from its partly trashy nature. As a fan of the original, you may still enjoy this short adventure. If the first part has already been an ordinary game for you, you should better steer clear of it.

Dune: Awakening has everything a survival game fan would love & like: crafting, building, fighting. But this is also the downside of the game, for being to well known to genre fans. Still a nice choice for survival enthusiast as well as everyone that's interested in the world of Dune.

Assassin’s Creed Nexus introduces a groundbreaking Virtual Reality (VR) experience to the iconic gaming franchise. The game maintains the essence of the series by integrating familiar characters and the Animus simulation. The innovative VR mechanics offer an immersive blend of climbing, running, and combat, providing players with a unique and entertaining adventure. While calibration issues and occasional glitches may pose challenges, the game’s successful combination of realistic movements and engaging gameplay ultimately makes it a compelling addition to the Assassin’s Creed legacy.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is a worthy successor to the classic first-person adventures of Samus Aran. The blend of shooter, puzzles, platforming, and exploration works well, although the core gameplay is somewhat linear. What most of the regular combat lacks in style, the superbly designed bosses more than make up for.

Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name is a more than solid spinoff for the successful Yakuza-series. With a satisfying fighting-system, tons of side-activities and the typical Yakuza-humor, Like A Dragon Gaiden make veterans happy and gives newcomers a chance to get into the series easily.

NBA 2K23 leaves us torn: On the one hand, it’s an almost perfect simulation of the sport delivering a high amount of detail and gameplay-value. On the other hand, the experience is heavily harmed by microtransactions and in-game advertisments.

The 16:9 format in anniversary mode provides a much better overview when playing, the performance is great, unlimited lives in anniversary mode prevent frustration for newcomers and the numerous extras such as the 60 challenge missions, the new intro and outro cutscenes, the mirror mode that can be unlocked and the museum mode fit in well. Sadly Tails' AI isn’t very reliable, a few features known from fan-remakes are missing (like a save-state function) and the two DLC packages leave a stale aftertaste. What remains is a not error-free, but nevertheless entertaining collection of Sonic hits.

Days Gone has been a great open world action game on PS4, but has been right on the edge on the former PlayStation. On PS5 it's mainly the same game, but with much better graphics, slightly better controls and substantially better performance in each of the render modes with some advantages on PS5 Pro. Content wise there are no big reason for getting the game a second time with just the new Horde mode as a nice contribution.

Afterlove EP is a mix of visual novel, rhythm game and a life sim that teleports us to the beautiful city of Jakarta. There we accompany Rama, a young musician who recently lost his girlfriend and is now trying to find his way back to normality after grief took over his life.

To sum it up: MotoGP 25 is a huge leap for the racing series and the best instalment in ages. Milestone scores points with two major changes: the switch to Unreal Engine 5 and the customization options in Arcade and Pro gameplay. If you were looking for a motorcycle-racing-game, then MotoGP 25 is a very good alternative.

Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is a humorous, ultra-relaxed life simulation with some creative freedom but low gameplay demands. It's fun to connect the Mii villagers, dress them up, feed them, and play with them. However, you're essentially doing the same things over and over again, which is why some will quickly lose interest, while others won't be able to get enough even after weeks.

Chorus may just be the surprise hit of 2021 for anyone who loves space combat and a surprisingly deep and interesting sci-fi story with cosmic horror elements. Thanks to slick movement and a variety of fun powers, combat never gets old and remains challenging through the surprisingly long and varied campaign. This already great package is rounded off with great visuals and sound design as well as a solid technical performance throughout the game. The fast-paced combat may scare some less experienced players off, but for anyone who enjoys blowing up enemy ships at break-neck speeds, this is a very easy recommendation.

Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream is a tightly crafted real-time tactics game that blends stealth, puzzle-solving, and emotional storytelling. Set in a beautifully rendered, dystopian city, the game follows a trio of characters with complementary abilities who must work together through intricately designed missions. With its smart level design, intuitive isometric controls, and a surprisingly personal narrative, Eriksholm stands out as a hidden gem in the genre. Minor frustrations aside, it’s a strong debut from indie studio River End Games.

Few fictional universes are as dense and impenetrable as that of Warhammer 40k. Owlcat Games (previously known for Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous have managed to create a gripping story of the darkness that lurks in man, accentuated by stellar writing and a combat system that masterfully increases in depth as the game goes on. Despite some bugs and technical issues, this easily counts among the very best delves into the grim darkness of the 41st Millennium.

EA Sports UFC 5 is a great MMA-game and a solid successor of the series. Thanks to the Frostbite-Engine, fights became more intense and gruesome than ever before. However, all the blood serves a purpose and underlines the overall gameplay. "EA Sports UFC 5" does lack in career and overall options though.

In Sound Mind offers a varied and unique horror experience that aims to unsettle you without the reliance on gore or jumpscares. Instead, this deep delve into the human psyche offers creative puzzles, interesting monsters and story that you won’t want to put down. The game’s presentation does suffer from outdated textures, an occasionally choppy framerate and some odd lighting issues. But the experience as a whole far outweighs the mistakes made along the way.

While Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered is absolutely a product of it’s time it mostly doesn’t feel like it in the parts where it counts. The gameplay is fluid and varied. The story itself is mostly cliche but the dialogue and its treatment of women is very outdated and sometimes even gross. On the other hand the dialogue between Garcia and Johnson is raunchy and crude but still gives me a good amount of chuckles.

The iOS port of this PS2 classic is well done and also includes some features from later games. Even after so many years, Hitman: Blood Money is still a game absolutely well-worth experiencing if you haven't yet.

Banishers: Ghost of New Eden isn't a perfect game, but a great example, why games are much more than a sum of their single components. The dual character combat is fun and just one of the aspects, where Red and Antea form an inextricable unit. The world looks nice and is worth exploring. The heroes are pleasant and there is a lot of room for experimenting in the skill and perk system. What's partly absent is the moral dilemma within the decisions, which could have intensified this unique action journey.

WWE 2K26 still delivers entertaining wrestling action with plenty of content and familiar strengths inside the ring. However, the game is increasingly overshadowed by aggressive monetization, a slow progression system, and only minor gameplay improvements. While fans of the series will still find moments to enjoy, the lack of meaningful innovation and the heavy focus on microtransactions make this year's entry difficult to fully recommend.

While the technical leap is rather meager, developer Game Freak demonstrates great courage in terms of content with the switch to real-time combat, successfully enriching the gameplay. If this radical change for the series isn't a no-go for you, you should pick it up.

FIFA 22 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S is definitely the next big step for the series – thanks to its better graphics, overhauled gameplay and a more realistic approach to football. However, Electronic Arts still has to sort out some balancing-issues that come along with the next-gen-technology.

Nine Noir Lives is a nearly purrfect point and click adventure from Silvernode Games. You play the cat-detective Cuddles Nutterbutter and his assistant Tabby Marshmalleow to investigate murder. Dark and fun at the same time, a bit messy here and then but overall, if you have a lot of time to resolve all the riddles, a great game.

Little Kitty, Big City has a lot of problems with its controls and other technical aspects. In the end those problems did not bother me too much though. Guiding the Kitty through the city, meeting cute little animal friends and just doing what cats are known to do was very pleasant and fun. The game is never too challenging or also never puts any animals at risk, which makes it perfect for a cute little romp over one or two play sessions.

Simon the Sorcerer Origins is not a perfect adventure, but with mostly beautifully designed puzzles and typical Simon humor, it is a worthy successor that clearly breathes the spirit of Adventure Soft's originals.

Elden Ring Nightreign sets itself apart from the award-winning main game with its fast pace and co-op focus. While several issues still need to be addressed, if you crave challenging co-op action, you should definitely join the Nightfarers in their fight against the Nightlords.