Yes, things look prettier. But scratch the surface to plumb the depths as the saying goes, and Sins of the Fathers Anniversary Edition’s flaws become that bit more glaring. The polished aesthetics may well be enough to sway those avid nostalgia hunters, but I can’t be sure that new players will be at all interested.

Sonic 4 is an utter mess of a game, cobbled together in a manner that puts the entire franchise to shame. It feels sluggish, broken and lazy, but at least it only lasts a couple of hours!

Given the pedigree of Ron Gilbert and Double Fine Productions' past works, a lot of people will be understandably excited by the prospect of The Cave. On paper, it sounds appealing, with its variety of characters and plethora of reasons to replay. It looks charming and, at first, the humour hits the spot. Problems lie with its inability to give you any great reason to replay it. It's just all too disappointingly shallow.

So many times during this review I quit the game just because I couldn't be bothered to solve a puzzle, only to realise I had to keep playing to give it a fair shot. My opinion would start to sway a bit more positive, then I quit again for the lack of care. Which says everything about Magrunner: Dark Pulse really.

Battleborn ended up stretching itself too thin by trying to include too many modes.

As a tower defence shooter hybrid, Excubitor has the potential to be an adrenaline-charged, strategic masterpiece. However, a number of aspects have let the game down and this left me feeling disappointed.

The Callisto Protocol is one of the year’s biggest letdowns. It is joyless, contrived and feels unfinished, as if the studio rushed it out prior to Dead Space Remake’s launch on January 27, 2023. Like Black Iron itself, I can’t help but feel the project was abandoned at some point. It feels so wrong for a game that looks and sounds this great to be so devoid of spark and quality control. It’s fitting that after traversing every tight nook and cranny, the only feeling left once the credits have rolled is that of having life squeezed from you.

The Long Journey Home had so much promise but Daedalic forgot to make it playable. They focused on the big picture, on the huge epic universe, without realizing that it’s the small stuff that’s important.

Level design is cramped and unfair, the controls are imprecise, the interface is from a completely different genre of game and is extremely cluttered and unhelpful, and the whole thing is just painful. 2Dark is extremely frustrating, extremely badly designed, and extremely not fun. I’m glad it wiped my saves. Avoid.

NaissanceE could’ve been a neat game but Limasse Five should’ve just stuck with making a cool artistic world and left the actual gameplay at home. I may have then complained that there wasn’t enough game in it, but at least I would have actually enjoyed it.

There may well be a half-decent game lurking beneath the facade of tired jokes and nods to RPG tropes and stereotypes, which Citizens of Earth then insists of portraying anyway, however it’s far too caught up in its own bravado to realise it.

I had hopes for Yesterday, but they were beaten out of me during its absurdly short playing time. I got actively angry at the game at several occasions just because of the leaps of non-logic I was supposed to take.

It’s been awhile since a game repulsed me. Not in a gruesome or transgressive way, just in a way that’s unenjoyable thanks to frustrating controls and its unfunny execution. Don’t get me wrong, it’s clear in its intent and you’ll know how you feel about it early on. However, it’s very unappealing and is a reminder as to why these sorts of games are better as experiments rather than full releases. If you like overcoming frustration, maybe you’ll find something worthwhile. I don’t.

Journey of a Roach attempts some nice ideas and is pretty cute, but altogether isn’t a particular good or enjoyable adventure.

Right now the small player population is seriously harming what makes Ravaged stand out, but even when you do end up in a big battle on a fresh map, its best attributes are lost underneath layers of niggling issues that just prevent it from being an enjoyable experience.

Fire is a sweet, innocent adventure with a very kid-friendly style, and it hurts me to kick it in the teeth. But I will. Behind those innocent looks lies a very basic adventure, with no story, no dialogue, no characters, no personality, and no satisfaction.

Depicting the horrors of an asylum with animated pictures was a tender touch to sensitive imagery. Even the 3D animations conveyed moments with care. But the story is confusing and painfully disappointing and the translation errors make matters worse. So I can commend LKA’s efforts, but I can’t recommend The Town of Light.

King’s Bounty II is a game where it takes forever to do anything. I averaged maybe 2-3 short battles for every hour of gameplay – perhaps 20 minutes of fun for 40 of drudgery. All this is doubly frustrating because somewhere under all this crap is a pretty solid strategy game. I just wish that King’s Bounty II would stop jerking me around and just let me play it!

If you were to summarise it in a puzzle, Puzzle Agent 2 would be a paint-by-numbers picture: formulaic, messy, and unable to hold the attention of all but the most easily perplexed.

Fat Shark have managed to shoot themselves in the foot by simplifying a formula that worked rather well. Rearmed 2 does enough to remind players as to why the series is often remembered fondly, but quickly blurs the image by stuttering over its best features.

It’s a shame that Infamy devolves into such juvenile practices as there are some nice flourishes on display – for instance, the hand-drawn aesthetic lends a quaint, homely feel to adventuring that feels refreshing in light of the grandeur that western RPGs typically strive for – yet it’s impossible to root for a game that makes such a critical misstep.

Overpass is for a certain type of sadist, and it’s been awhile since a game made me want to stop playing it as quickly as possible. It might have its polish and intent, but the mechanics they serve are frustrating. Perhaps everything I mention makes the game all the more interesting, a game that isn’t for noobs like me and something that would sit comfortably between Surgeon Simulator or Getting Over It. But this makes for a niche game that will bug anyone else. I get the appeal, but it’s simply not fun.

Fat Shark have managed to shoot themselves in the foot by simplifying a formula that worked rather well. Rearmed 2 does enough to remind players as to why the series is often remembered fondly, but quickly blurs the image by stuttering over its best features.

There was one mission that brought out the intensity that I expected, but it was over too soon and right back to the problems that preceded it.

The only way to experience the whole game with relative ease is by dipping your toes in the online pool. Unfortunately, most of the title is plagued by repetition, lifeless design, and enough Japanese obscurity to deter most enthusiasts, meaning Moon Diver's appeal is broken quicker than Ryan Giggs' super injunction.

Overall an immense disappointment.

The only way to experience the whole game with relative ease is by dipping your toes in the online pool. Unfortunately, most of the title is plagued by repetition, lifeless design, and enough Japanese obscurity to deter most enthusiasts, meaning Moon Diver's appeal is broken quicker than Ryan Giggs' super injunction.

Long term Magic fans will want to avoid Magic 2015 to avoid utter frustration, whereas newcomers should look further into the Duels of the Planeswalkers’ back catalogue for a more appropriate and fulfilling platform for inauguration.