If you haven't played the Tomb Raider reboot yet, you now have one less excuse. Even though it is well over a decade old at this point, the mixture of puzzles, action and exploration holds up well and is still absolutely worth playing today.

The Plucky Squire is a charming, funny and beautiful action-adventure. It oozes creativity and merges 2D- and 3D-gameplay to a clever action-plattformer. While the game does have issues regarding controls and pacing, the overall experience is great.

Usually only the best horror games manage to create the tension that Ready or Not captures in every level. The build up through slow, tactical clearing of empty room after empty room, followed by the clattering of footsteps a floor above only to erupt in a deadly firefight is unmatched. Aside from a difficult to learn controlling scheme for consoles, its biggest detractor is also its greatest strength. Ready or Not is oppressive and depressing. The violence and hopelessness of the worst a SWAT-team can encounter awaits you in every mission, portrayed in gruelling detail and realism. It's a brilliant tactical shooter with themes and settings so dark, we occasionally had to take a break from the tension.

Marvel's Midnight Suns is a fine tactical RPG and also a great superhero adventure. So if you're a fan of Marvel comics and the game's genre, it is a need to play. But if you just like one of these „sides“, it's hard to get around this game.

Six years after the release of the original version for PS4 and PC, No Man's Sky has made the hyper leap into the switch dimension. The result is one of the best Switch ports and a masterstroke of programming. Sadly the multiplayer mode is missing in this version. If you can live with that, you’ll experience an excellent space exploration game set in a fascinating universe.

While the name change from Stellaris: Nexus to Nexus 5X may not have worked in the game’s favour, Nexus 5“ does deserve to stand in the spotlight. It manages to condense the dozens of ours of a traditional 4X game into 60-90 minutes while retaining much of the strategic maneuvering and political intrigue. While it may not appease those wanting to pour in hour after hour in single-player matches, those looking for faster, more accessible games or that focus on multiplayer should definitely give this one a look.

Even if the expansions are structured similarly every year, Necrom stands out with its great story and a very special environment. In addition, the new arcanist is quite action-packed and, with the crux-mechanic, also slightly more complex to play than the previous classes.

While it can't quite live up to the cult status of its older sibling, Vampire Crawlers is a surprisingly robust adaptation of the visuals, charme and gameplay feel of its predecessor. Especially the twist of trying to build your deck around seamlessly flowing cheap cards into expensive cards is both original and enough to carry the weight of the otherwise very familiar experience.

Anyone who has ignored or missed the campaigns of the last CoD parts should take a look here again with Black Ops 6 at the latest – it’s worth it! But also this year's Zombies mode is a real pulse accelerator and scores with two strong maps, sophisticated power-ups, a driving story, tons of Easter eggs and nice convenience functions such as the save feature for solo gamers. In multiplayer it’s back-to-the-roots, meaning rather compact maps meet tried-and-tested modes and little experimentation. The omnidirectional movement system works great here too and the content roadmap looks promising. Spawn balancing, on the other hand, requires further attention.

It's clear that Obsidian thoroughly considered community feedback during development. The result is a motivating sci-fi adventure that takes the core strengths of its predecessor and improves on it in almost every respect. The scope has practically doubled, the combat gameplay feels significantly more engaging, the mission options are even more varied, and the presentation is clearly superior to that of the first game. It's a shame, however, that the resources – despite support from publisher Xbox Game Studios – weren't sufficient for romantic relationships and German voice acting this time around. The developers also need to improve the stealth gameplay, which didn't feel as immersive as hoped in the test version.

Atelier Sophie 2 picks up lovers of the genre and combines classic gameplay with a dynamic combat system that is very good for the game series. German subtitles should slowly become a must for the series in order to be really popular in German-speaking countries.

If you have any interest at all in railroads, or just want to play a fun sim game, Railroads! is right up your alley. It may not be as complex as other Sid Meier games, but it is all the more beginner friendly for it.

EA Sports and Codemasters deliver another great outing oft he F1-series. F1 23 deliver tons of gameplay- thanks to the addition of Braking Point 2 and F1 World. Longtime-F1-players will be disappointed due to the lack of new features in the career-mode however.

Even though the changes to the career mode in the fourth installment are certainly a tough blow for Tony Hawk fans, we're overall satisfied with the latest remake. The presentation, handling, gameplay, and, above all, fun are all spot on.

NBA 2K26 delivers the most enjoyable gameplay in years: faster, more dynamic, with improved shooting mechanics and animations. Its atmosphere and offline modes shine, but online play and microtransactions undermine the experience. A great basketball game with notable flaws.

Cult of the Lamb takes a much more casual approach to the Rogue-Like genre and presents a much smoother and streamlined experience. This however means that the randomness of runs, the variance and challenge all get left on the wayside with the latter being relegated to the higher difficulty settings. No matter the difficulty, Cult of the Lamb seems to struggle in balancing its many progression systems with many players maxing out aspects of cult progression halfway through the dungeon progression. Despite those flaws and a relatively short completion time of roughly 10-15 hours, we thoroughly enjoyed time spent with Cult of the Lamb and may even return to it sometime later for a second playthrough.

Sky: Children of light is a fantastic looking adventure, where you can fly and explore a magical world. Communication happens over emotes and you can find friends by taking their hands. It's a free to play game with the options to purchase style items for real money.

INDIKA is a wild ride through an alternate Russia in the 19th century. The often philosophical story and the three fascinating main characters carry the game even in the moments where it’s getting dragged down by dull gameplay. Paired with an excellent soundtrack and extremely dark humor the developers show that they are capable of making incredible interactive entertainment.

Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping is just brilliant. It is for the most part a straight up evolution of the first game but that is certainly not a bad thing. It keeps the charming characters, the witty jokes and references, great music and voice acting but improves upon most criticisms we had. A better hint system and overall a smoother puzzle solving experience are just what this game needed.

Iwakura Aria is a mysterious visual novel that may seem sweet as sugar at first glance, but it harbors some secrets and human abysses. The plot is resolved halfway through, but the beautiful love story of the protagonists, together with the great music and breathtakingly beautiful artwork, is worth continuing. So if you want to be told a love story from Japan in the 1960s with dark plot twists, you will definitely find what you are looking for.

Despite some rather annoying trial-&-error sections and puzzles which feel a bit too easy, Little Nightmares 2 managed to excite us from start to finish. Visuals are great, sound design is awesome, gameplay offers a fair amount of variety and the environmental story-telling again works excellent. Sadly this scary adventure is already over after roughly seven hours.

Lego Star Wars The Skywalker Saga is nothing less than one of the best Lego games so far. The game remains all the series' strengths concerning style, lovingly presentation and family-friendly slapstick humor and makes well use of the prestigious license with a great mixture somewhere between tribute and parody.

Not every single game mode might be more than a nice bonus. But especially with the Jamboree Buddies system and some other creative inventions the core board game mode benefits a lot. In addition with the fully new co-op mode Bowser Kaboom Squad and the competitive Koopathlon mode for 20 players Super Mario Party Jamboree is just one of the best entries to the Mario Party series, maybe the best so far.

Raccoin adds a delightfully physical element to the booming gambling rogue-like genre. Where games like Balatro are mostly cerebral, Raccoin finds a new and addictive mix between strategy, skill and luck. With a treasure trove of special coins, all interacting with each other in unique ways, we can't help but lose all of our hard earned money to the charming virtual raccoon.

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is SEGA’s ambitious new entry in the kart-racing genre, combining familiar mechanics with deep vehicle customization and a wide variety of race modes. While drifting requires more skill than in competitors and gadget management has some limitations, the game impresses with its content, creativity, and fast-paced action. Overall, it stands as a strong contender for the genre’s top spot, offering both fun and challenge for racing fans.

Dragon Age – The Veilguard isn't without its flaws, but it shows Bioware's qualities after titles like Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem. The new "Dragon Age" may be less tactical, but delivers high-impacts battles that still preserve enough RPG-elements to be intensive and deep enough. With tons of choices and consequences to make, player are going to be hooked to this adventures for weeks.

The PSVR2-version is a great way to dive into the Angry Birds-series. With an unlimited supply from levels around the globe, an intuitive handling and good level design, fans of light puzzles games will get their enjoyment out of their purchase.

WWE 2K23 is another step forward fort he wrestling-franchise. 2K Games and Visual Concepts literally worked on every department and delivered a game that surpassed it already successful predecessor. Despite it's flaws, WWE 2K23 is great fun and the perfect game for the Road to Wrestlemania.