It’s a great escape to the ‘wild west’ countryside, but one without significant bells and whistles.

Battlefield 2042 is trying to be a distillation of what the first-person shooter genre has become in recent times, while also not committing to any single vision, let alone one that Battlefield can claim ownership of.

Although you guide your loved one through most of this experience, How to Say Goodbye is not really about them. It’s about you, in a way that almost never mentions you at all. Death separates us physically, but perhaps not spiritually, or forever.

While it does attempt to carve out its own identity with its slower pace and more intimate storytelling, it’s hard to separate this game from the Batman games of the past. But regardless of its lack of originality, Gotham Knights remains a compelling experience – one littered with intriguing and thoughtful interpretations of characters, and a creeping sense of dread that will keep you rushing through case files, determined to save Gotham from itself.

Diablo Immortal is built to keep going forever and sustain your interest the whole time. Whether it be the voice acted story, grinding for new loot, levelling your Battle Pass, competing in seasonal leaderboards, hanging with friends, or representing your chosen faction, you will probably be like me; hunched over, trying to stay warm playing this game until hell freezes over – and trying to wrap my head about how it could have possibly all come together.

Very few expansion packs for The Sims 4 feel like they overhaul gameplay entirely, but For Rent does just that, reimagining how your Sims live their lives, and how they interact in the real world. While there’s not a whole lot more to the expansion pack than that, its changes to rentals and the introduction of community living makes it a stellar addition to The Sims 4.

Come for the sweet treats, and stay for the cutthroat action as each ginormous Kirby wobbles and rolls its way down pizza and ice cream highways to victory. This party royale is finger-lickin’ good.

These issues aside, Chinatown Detective Agency does some interesting and noteworthy things with its take on the point-and-click adventure game, between its reliance on external tools and your own deductive research ability, some solid story and character work, and a strong commitment to encapsulating a country and culture that is unique to video games by default. It’s a strong mixture of elements, and Chinatown Detective Agency will hopefully spark more adventures like it in our own unavoidably dystopian future.

A Memoir Blue isn’t a story that’s unworthy of being told. Rather, it doesn’t make full use of its chosen medium. Video games have the power to create an affecting emotional experience by making their audience active participants in the world. In A Memoir Blue, the interactive elements aren’t impactful, while the narrative is too metaphorical. Aesthetics aren’t enough to make up for that.

As much as it inspires fun, the larger your theme park ambitions grow, the more Park Beyond throws extreme roadblocks in your way. There is still hope it finds a more wholesome balance in the future, but for now, the quest for the perfect park feels unfairly locked away.

While overtly silly and over-the-top at times, Detective Pikachu Returns effectively balances its light with its extreme darks, wielding its cuteness as a tool to tell an impactful and fairly relevant tale about corruption, felt throughout various cases.

Mineko’s Night Market is a carefully considered, cosy life sim, with an intriguing, low-stakes narrative and plenty of familiar activities to keep you busy. It might not sound groundbreaking on paper, but it delivers on everything it promises, offering a felicitous, feline-filled escape from your troubles.

This franchise certainly hasn’t enjoyed the longevity of its nearest character platforming rivals – Crash Bandicoot, namely – but revisiting the original entry is certainly an illuminating and nostalgic experience. It’s a colourful reminder of simpler times.

While the whole affair is over in a blink, the moreish adventure of this DLC, the first part of a larger story titled The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero, pushes you along with confidence. Short, sharp, and energetic, this is a DLC chapter with high stakes, and equally high reward.

For the grown-up Bluey fans in our household – one who has spent their entire career covering video games, and one who has barely touched a game from the last thirty years – there are as many obvious shortcomings in Bluey: The Videogame as there are charming callbacks. But to the six- and four-year-old, even though there were frustrations, none of that really seemed to matter in the end. Sometimes the bugs and glitches even served as a spark to imagine some logical in-world reason for the mishaps. Is it magic? Is it actually a hidden secret?

The first time you’re given the chance to surf down a sand-covered mountain in Atlas Fallen, it’s invigorating. You immediately want to do it again, and you can. Anywhere there is sand, you can surf, and slide, and leap great distances while admiring the stunning horizon. A moment like that doesn’t exist for the game’s combat. And when lacklustre combat makes up the bulk of Atlas Fallen’s loop, it makes it that much harder to work up the motivation to continue exploring everything else the world has to offer.

This is not the WWE 2K rival many assumed it would be. Instead, like its real-life counterpart, AEW: Fight Forever aims for something different. At times, it feels wild and cheesy, and strange art choices make it an uncanny experience. But equally, it embraces this cheese, elevating its action and storytelling with a welcome silliness. Confidence is key – and AEW: Fight Forever just about gets away with being the quirky, odd duck in the world of serious wrestling games.

Rough and ready, just like Frey, Forspoken is a tale worth stomping through one high-stakes, magic-infused battle at a time.

The game ends by imploring players to donate to gibbon conservation, and by condemning the social media fuelled obsession with gibbons as exotic pets. The true goal of the game – raising the plight of the gibbon as one of the most endangered primate species in the world – is admirable and touching. If anything, the simplicity in the game’s design only serves to stop this key message from being crowded out.

The DioField Chronicle is a competent tactical RPG that will keep you amused until the repetition sets in. The progression systems are solid, the moment-to-moment gameplay is engaging, and you may even find moments where some of the characters grow on you. But its world does not feel grounded or real, and the only consistency I felt in its story was in predicting which overused political intrigue trope it would employ next.

If you find yourself in the right frame of mind, the unhinged nature of Saints Row can be cathartic, particularly if you find yourself in a good series of missions where the writing and humour aren’t too manic, and the action isn't too humdrum. In the end, Saints Row succeeds in recalling and refreshing the affable personality of the dormant series, but this reboot is simply a return, not an evolution.

You may trample your own path through the post-apocalypse, but you must be ready to accept the consequences. In exploring this concept, and allowing human morals and values to shape each individual journey through the post-apocalypse, the tale of Broken Roads lands with a devastating impact.

In attempting to recapture Zelda-era nostalgia, Airoheart is mostly successful. Its potential shines through pieces of the game’s many dungeons, gorgeously-rendered pixel lands, exploration loops, and clever puzzles. But Airoheart is very much held back by a lack of refinement and finesse, and largely stands in the shadow of its predecessors and everything that’s come before.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League feels like it was designed as a single-player narrative adventure, with plenty of love and care devoted to its killer story (which should rightfully be considered among the best DC adaptations), before it was transformed into something else entirely. In individual parts, it shines incredibly brightly and there are strong, clever choices in the game’s narrative – but like Frankenstein’s Monster, the way it’s put together means it doesn’t quite realise its true potential.

I don’t see myself sticking out hours upon hours of further gameplay, but the handful of salty, vinegary chips that make up the foundations of Skull and Bones have kept me well sated for the past two weeks – and I can’t deny I’ve found myself thinking about the game even when I’m not logged in.

The mere fact that Open Roads does not feel like an exciting new perspective for a game to offer is weirdly encouraging – and perhaps, for some players, this will tap into something in their lived experience that makes it all the more compelling. But Open Roads simply isn’t a road trip that everyone needs to take.

There’s always more blood on the horizon, making Gungrave G.O.R.E. feel like a break-neck romp with little room to move or breathe along the way. While dotted with moments of joy and violent freedom, the action of the game quickly devolves to repetition – making it a largely enjoyable romp, but one that only rarely makes a meaningful impact.

Regardless of your relationship to Call of Duty, your feelings about military shooters, your investment in the rebooted Modern Warfare saga, or how much or little you like to play the new Call of Duty online multiplayer every year, the Modern Warfare III campaign feels more like an indicator of a series in decline than a misstep. Microsoft, which recently completed a purchase of Activision, is banking heavily on the future of Call of Duty, and the annual release schedule is unlikely to slow down any time soon. As a long-time player, though, I find myself thinking that it might finally be time to step away. [Campaign Review Score = 40]