While it’s made its ring walk slightly too soon, The Thrill of the Fight 2 is still an incredibly advanced boxing simulation that doubles as a sweat-inducing workout. The finished game will comfortably out-box its predecessor, but Early Access still needs a bit more time in the gym.

You get what you expect from Monument Valley 3, but that isn’t a bad thing. It’s a beautiful, whimsical journey through plenty of impossibly pathed levels perfected for mobile play, and honestly that’s all it needs to be.

Infold Games built a beautiful world I’d not be unhappy to live in. It’s a world in which creativity, passion, and empathy are the highest of virtues and can make a real difference – a message that’s more important than ever. Strolling through the landscapes of Miraland, you can forget about everything, reinvent yourself on the spot if you’d like, and simply space out as you veer from melancholy to wholesome vibes. If such a sandbox, such a retreat, is what you’re looking for, then Infinity Nikki hits the mark dead-on – but it falters the moment you crave a little more substance...For the moment, that is. Infinity Nikki will evolve over time, as live-service games tend to do, and many of its starting issues are in the realm of being fixable.

The ending didn’t sour me on Visions of Mana overall, but did leave me pondering its squandered potential. This is a game that could have brought the Mana series back to its former glory, but it appears that the development team weren’t given the room to shine. If you decide to try it for yourself, you’ll still find a beautiful game befitting of the Mana series, with some of the best battles it has to offer, but just be prepared for a story that goes nowhere.

As a visual novel connoisseur Emio – The Smiling Man doesn’t go to the top of my list. However, it does gain points for taking risks with how horrifying the story is willing to go, and for the few instances of breaking the fourth wall. The pacing and characters are strong, but the way you interact with the world can be repetitive and ultimately frustrating. It’s one for those who love a mystery and don’t mind occasionally hitting a brick wall.

The atmosphere is close to perfect, and the weather effects are some of the best I’ve seen, but the game that takes place inside the world doesn’t live up to the brushstrokes...I really wanted a win for this development studio. The Ukrainian developer has weathered a pandemic, escaped a warzone, and developed this game while under unprecedented pressure. If I could score a game for heart, it’d be a ten out of ten. Maybe one day it will be, but it’s not there yet. One for the sickos.

Two years on, Stray is still a beautiful game. A point-and-click platformer with a unique concept. The Nintendo Switch is possibly the worst way to experience it, but if you value portability over performance then this is still the version you’ll want.

I really enjoyed Ark of Charon’s concept and love the art style of the game, but its lack of polish in terms of onboarding, user interface, and general quality-of-life features make its brutal difficulty a frustrating experience rather than a rewarding one. Protecting this tree is just as tough as fighting climate change and in many ways this 1.0 release does not feel like it brought the game out of Early Access.

I so badly wanted to play the story of a teenager collecting a party of misfits, traveling all over the globe, throwing weapons into volcanos, and discovering the truth behind their father’s disappearance, and I wanted to do so with all of the comforts of modern gaming. I wanted to be able to save before a big boss fight, to quickly input the moves I wanted to make, and to keep in pace with enemy levels even without hours of grinding. I love Dragon Quest 3, I love the HD-2D art style, but I hate that the remake didn’t bring the quality-of-life changes the old boy so desperately needed.

LEGO Horizon Adventures is a cute game that successfully translates most of the franchise’s characters and mechanics into the joyful world of LEGO.

Slitterhead is quite possibly the single most interesting game of 2024, but prospective players need to be aware of the journey that’s ahead of them. If seeing some genuinely bold and indulgent game design decisions is worth fighting against a bit of jank, then this game is absolutely for you. If you want to always know where to go and what to do next, maybe not. Even then, I think you should play Slitterhead, simply because you’re unlikely to see anything like it ever again.

There are moments where The Veilguard is BioWare’s best game, but it’s bogged down in everything else. I’d recommend skipping the throwaway side content and mainlining the brilliant main quests, but you’ll be punished in the final mission if you do. So you have no choice but to fast-travel from combat encounter to combat encounter, all while wondering where the moral dilemmas are in a series known for its player choice. Like the character I created at the start of this journey, I can’t separate The Veilguard from its history, and this isn’t the Dragon Age I remember.

Shadows of the Damned was developed under restrictions, and Suda 51’s unique ideas were reused, not allowing them their time to shine. The remaster was the perfect opportunity to add quality-of-life changes, remove repetitive parts, and add in new sections. The difficulty settings also don’t appear to reduce the number of bullets each enemy requires to take out, leading to further repetition in the gameplay. I love Suda 51’s work and really wanted to love this remaster, but it just misses the mark in so many ways.

Putting that divide into a score is somewhat difficult because it’s going to be a compromise that won’t accurately represent either side. An old-school fan who simply wants to bask in nostalgia will rate Sins of a Solar Empire 2 very highly, while someone expecting a little more will inevitably feel disappointed by the wasted potential. I’m counting myself toward the latter group, but I have to respect Ironclad’s commitment to remaining faithful to the original.

At its core, this is still Sonic Generations, so I can’t say I had a bad time playing it, and if you’ve never played it before then I’d absolutely recommend picking this up. However, if you already own Sonic Generations – which I’m willing to bet most people interested in this game do – then I certainly wouldn’t be willing to pay $50 for a handful of new levels that are okay at best.

Citadelum successfully channels the spirit and charm of classic genre entries like Pharaoh and Zeus, bringing this iconic style of city-builder to the modern era, but lacks the variety and content to remain engaging for long. Abylight’s take on this style of game is excellent for those seeking a rush of nostalgia, but merely solid for everyone else.

Reynatis tries to tick many boxes, and in the process ends up ticking very few. Despite some strong presentation and some genuinely fantastic ideas, the execution is lacking in just about every department, with a story that goes nowhere and gameplay that’s more frustrating than fun.

There’s a saying in the sport: you don’t play boxing. It’s a serious sport with dire consequences. Undisputed treats it the same way - it forgets it’s a video game.

The Va'ruun are beyond boring when you get to know them, Dazra is small in the scope of the grand cosmos, and your ship just sits there beckoning you despite there being no new way to customise it, nor anywhere interesting to go. Combine that with annoying enemies and scant new loot to discover and there’s not really much reason to blast off again.

The result is a game that I want to love, but I can’t look past its most glaring issues. Beyond Galaxyland is definitely worth trying because I really enjoyed the story, but the lackluster gameplay drags it down to the point where eventually my drive to see how the narrative plays out was overwhelmed by the fact that I simply wasn’t having any fun.

Epic Mickey: Rebrushed is a frustratingly faithful remake of a game that was already pretty decent. It looks great, and the quality of life additions make it much more enjoyable, but if you didn’t click with the original, there’s not much here that will change your mind.

EA Sports FC 25 has cut the amount of innovations to the bone compared to last year, although the scope of some of them is bound to make a lasting impression on hardcore soccer aficionados. FC IQ might be the strongest new feature in years, but it's also so easy to miss it that people will probably dub it yet another more of the same - and understandably so, given the shortage of surface-level additions.

DeathSprint 66 could’ve been an amazing platformer, but it makes for a disappointing racing game.

I don’t know if I Am Your Beast will be one that I ever come back to, maybe it was better as a one-night stand, experiencing its whirlwind of action and excitement for a little while before moving on to something else. Either way, I’m very glad I got to spend time with it – not many games get the blood pumping like this one does.

Despite all of this, Episode Aigis is still The Answer at its core, and its core is Twotarus. There are a few interesting story beats here, but you could just as easily experience them from watching a cutscene compilation, rather than running around the dungeon listening to them exclaim, “Oh, a treasure chest” and “A shadow. Should we fight it?” on repeat between being jumpscared by enemies that body you off screen. Episode Aigis is undoubtedly the best way to play The Answer and see its story, but if you don’t like Persona 3’s combat, you really need to ask yourself if it’s something you want to play at all.

If you’re hoping Star Trucker will be the kind of game you can play indefinitely, then this isn’t it. It’s fun to play through until you finish the story and unlock all of the different areas, but what it lacks in longevity, the added personality helps make up for. It does a great job of capturing the physics of its setting, almost too well, leading to a steep learning curve, though overcoming it is very satisfying.

Madden 25 is an apt representation of the broader games industry. The push for greater realism and immersion leads to some impressive achievements, but it comes at the expense of everything else, including a sense of ambition. Meanwhile, you’ve got EA College Football 25 over here with goofy mascots, over-the-top spectacle, and a greater sense of fun, and it isn’t afraid to do things differently in the pursuit of making play more interesting. There’s only so much you can do to make football play and feel more realistic, and once you reach that goal, you need to start looking elsewhere to make things worthwhile. Madden feels like it’s at that point, and I think for the sake of polish as much as creativity, EA needs to take more than a year between releases to get Madden back on track.

Dustborn may be one of the most difficult games I’ve ever had to review. The core of the game, the characters and story, is one of the strongest I have seen since Telltale’s era, even if it fumbles towards the end. I love how dynamic and realistic the dialogue is, but hated what that did to the pacing. I adored the political message about speaking up for your beliefs, but wish it had been delivered with more subtlety and nuance. Dustborn makes missteps, but its victories more than compensate.

Despite tackling so many sensitive topics, Closer the Distance never feels out of its depth and shows a surprisingly well-rounded understanding of human nature. Angie might push Conny to be the one who helps others, but her friends in the village have her needs in mind as well. And sometimes they don’t, because sometimes, people just suck. How you deal with that is up to you, and the way you do or don’t resolve the village’s issues will have lasting effects on the people who live there. There’s plenty of replay value, but like with Spiritfarer, I don’t think this is a game I can ever play again.

It’s never going to be on the main stage of Evo, but SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos is fun for fighting game fans who don’t take themselves too seriously. Jump into online lobbies while playing as a boss character and you’ll see exactly what I mean.

Consistency and quality underline not only SteamWorld Heist 2 but the series as a whole. From a game design standpoint, everything is polished and you’ll never feel frustrated. When you lose you’ll know why, and you’ll bring this knowledge to your next attempt. Despite this, consistency comes with its downsides. SteamWorld Heist 2 doesn’t take risks and doesn’t revolutionize the genre, but it doesn’t attempt to. Instead, it offers players a quality game that doesn’t disappoint, while never reaching that ‘must-play’ status.

Cygni: All Guns Blazing isn’t a SHMUP essential, but it’s damn good fun once you start shooting and completely forget all of the cutscenes.

Tokyo Xanadu is a very competent RPG and dungeon crawler with enough systems in place to make it as easy or as challenging as you like. The characters are well-written, and while the story is a little clichéd, the secret ending more than makes up for it. Tokyo Xanadu was originally released in 2015, and I’m glad the upgraded version has finally returned to handheld consoles. Playing on the go is the best way to experience it, and now you can, even without a Vita obsession.

Arranger is a unique concept and adds something truly special to the puzzle genre. The level design and difficulty curve is excellent, adding just a little more challenge with every step. Movement is some of the best I’ve seen in puzzle games, and I wish more thought and attention had gone into other aspects of the design. A lot of my criticism comes down to respecting your audience. Respect them to draw their own conclusions, and to be able to solve puzzles themselves, even if they need a little nudge.

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn simply isn’t memorable in any way. It has perfectly fine combat, but it’s filled with little frustrations that bury the few innovations that work. Movement outside of combat is often unreliable and satisfying, and it’s all backed up by a story that failed to grab me at every turn. There are glimpses of good ideas, but none of them ever get fleshed out.

The Tribe Must Survive is a solid pick-up for those who love a battle against the odds and have the patience to overcome unfair circumstances by puzzling things out over a long time – for the rest of us casuals, it’s not a fun experience.

It may eventually run out of steam, but everything up until that point is a joy to play, even if it didn’t make the smoothest jump to consoles. If you’re a fan of management sims or a school setting, then this will satisfy both points, just don’t expect it to be the kind of game you’ll be constantly coming back to.

For a game I was so quickly sold on by its trailers, I came away disappointed by Schim. It very rarely showed glimpses of the great game it could’ve been, but never committed to that level of fun puzzling gameplay. Instead, I was left bored as I hopped around the shadows. While the story and overall aesthetic are fun at first, they can’t carry the entire experience when the gameplay has very little of substance to offer.

I enjoyed my time with Seeing Stars but found it was not as visually satisfying as the base game and first DLC. While I could understand certain solutions, I felt less smug when I looked at them afterwards. There is something beautiful about a perfectly organized shelf, and Seeing Stars isn’t filled with as much symmetry, things fitted neatly into spaces, and perfectly measured gaps. If you enjoyed the base game, you’ll still want to play the DLC as it gives you more of what you love, it just doesn’t offer the big changes and quality of life options we were hoping for.

Beyond Good & Evil holds up. It’s still an enjoyable adventure that will fill you with nostalgia for the 3D character platformers of the PlayStation 2 era. My only hesitation is that I wish Ubisoft had upgraded the more dated aspects rather than just including cosmetics – that I initially wasted money on believing them to be upgrades – only to create more hype for the sequel that is somehow still in development. It’s great that people will get to experience Beyond Good & Evil for the first time. They’ll just have to understand it in the context of the era it was created for.

It’s been a busy year for lengthy JRPGs, and Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance isn’t the best of the bunch. It’s a solid JRPG adventure with a lot to love, but you’ll be sent back to your last save file pretty regularly, and depending on how long it’s been since your last save, that can suck the energy out of the room instantly. As a result, SMTV feels like stalling a classic car. Someone will tell you you’re an idiot for not understanding the gearbox’s nuances, but a smooth ride will be preferable to juddering down the road.

V Rising has finally taken its final form on PS5, and it’s a fun survival crafting experience – if, for some reason, you’re looking for another one. And if you like the idea of V Rising, but you can’t quite get into it, there are literally dozens of other survival crafting games you can try instead.

Wuthering Waves is ultimately a would-be usurper trying too hard to be like Genshin Impact to trust in its own strengths, making it feel like an outdated copy in many aspects. Sporting truly fun combat and fresh movement mechanics, an interesting world, and plenty of content to explore, it has the core necessities for a prospering future in place. Before it can realize this future, Kuro Games must address the game’s many flaws and then define a new identity for it – one that goes beyond its inspiration.

There is so much to praise Another Crab’s Treasure for. The story and characters are genuinely delightful, and I love the fact that a studio dared to innovate on a formula as strong and established as soulslike. These innovations are even successful in places, though others need closer examination and refinement. I could see what the team was trying to accomplish in so many places, which made it even worse when the game didn’t live up to the vision. But my primary takeaway from this experience is that the state in which Another Crab’s Treasure has launched on Switch is unacceptable. It simply doesn’t work, and you definitely shouldn’t buy it.

As with all yearly titles, you always have the feeling the dev team is keeping something in its pocket for the future, but it’s a big improvement over last year’s game. That said, if the wide range of experiences available here weren’t enough, the level of refinement achieved on the track proves the EA Sports F1 series is a staple for motorsport fans.

Ultimately, XDefiant is free-to-play, so there’s not going to be any buyer's remorse if it’s not for you, but I found it to be a surprisingly competent and enjoyable shooter. It straddles the line between COD’s bold, nonsense plays, and Counter-Strike’s methodical strategy, with a few typical Hero Shooter staples thrown in for good measure. When you’re playing with randoms online it’s almost always going to devolve into that nonsense gameplay, but when I’m playing a multiplayer shooter without a group, that’s exactly what I’m looking for. I’m not sure it’ll change the shooter landscape, but XDefiant is doing more things right than Hyper Scape ever did.

Feeling more approachable than its byzantine predecessors, Men of War 2 is a solid entry into the iconic franchise, keeping its core tenets intact: It’s challenging, highly moddable, and offers tons of ways to experience the game – unfortunately, it comes with the same baggage of jank, preventing it from reaching higher spheres.

Cupid Parasite: Sweet and Spicy Darling is all over the place, mixing some touching slice-of-life storytelling and interesting character arcs with endings that explicitly juxtapose this for some exciting set piece. Playing this game without the original was a fun experience as parts of the other stories were slowly revealed to me, and I never felt as if I needed to play the first game. The choice to include only good endings, sweet, spicy, or balanced flavors, is a great addition and something I’ve noticed otome games trending towards. However, whether it is mixing up the genres, or using Greek and Roman god names interchangeably, something feels confused and lost. The truth is I don’t like chocolate, and while there are definitely parts I enjoyed about Sweet and Spicy Darling, there was a lot left to be desired. However, if you like to feel surprised rather than comforted, this is the selection box for you.

Senua’s Saga could stand to learn more from the giants it is inspired by.

Fabledom doesn’t have the depth to keep you playing forever, nor has it committed to its theme and unique twist hard enough to keep you perpetually enchanted, but it’s a very solid and above all charming city-builder that’s worth checking out before pigs learn to fly.

Homeworld 3’s campaign is a majestic space odyssey showcasing some of the innovative spirit of its predecessors and its presentation is stunning. Though its co-op elements are founded on a good idea, the War Games mode feels like it cuts away some of the best aspects of the game in the rush to be a portion-sized multiplayer experience for the modern age. It’s an enjoyable space RTS before being a strong Homeworld title.

Sand Land definitely isn’t essential, but if you have an interest in vehicle combat or a classic story written by one of manga’s greats, it’s worth playing. If you see Sand Land at a reasonable price, you’re going to have a good time.

King Arthur: Legion IX is a solid RPG with crunchy and satisfying turn-based combat that takes place in a setting you won’t soon forget – a bit janky and rough around the edges, but good fun.

I often found myself lost for hours in the world of Stellar Blade, but I was also pining for what the game could’ve been. The world-building is excellent, but the dialogue is not up to the same standard, and the story’s illusion of choice funnels you down the same path. There is a lot of promise here, but it fails to convert that into excellence.

TopSpin 2K25 deserved a few more refinements, be it on the technical side of things or in the roster. But it has a solid gameplay foundation, and it can be exciting both on and off the court. While hamstrung by a couple of minor shortcomings, there’s more than enough here to give us hope for the future of the TopSpin franchise.

The Rising Tide is considerably more content-packed than the initial Echoes of the Fallen DLC, but it doesn’t change 16’s fate. If you want more of Clive Rosfield’s adventures to defy the gods, then The Rising Tide is for you, but if you only have a passing curiosity, then you probably won’t regret skipping over Leviathan in Final Fantasy 16.

Rise of the Ronin doesn’t have the production values of something like Ghost of Tsushima, but it’s mechanically and thematically superior. If you can handle the choppy frame rate, flat visuals, and stilted performances, you’ll find an open-world game with a lot of heart, a true identity, and plenty of nuances to master.

Alone in the Dark’s biggest flaw is that it’s unfocused, unwilling to commit to its core premise, and unable to settle into anything that feels comfortable. When it’s in its puzzle-solving element, everything feels great, but in trying to ape other recent games in the survival horror genre, it ultimately falls apart.

Ex Astris is a very solid start for Nous Wave Studio and worth picking up for anyone willing to sink their teeth into a deep combat system on the go or wanting to experience a mobile JRPG without the gacha looming in the background.

The moral choices didn’t really stick. In Papers, Please, you are helping your family, the women being trafficked, and the citizens generally. In Corponation, you are only helping yourself. There are multiple endings, but the ending I reached had a twist that felt so obvious I didn’t realize it was meant to be a secret. There are just too many hints given throughout to make it feel clever, and like many other aspects of the game, it struggles with balance. A glimpse of a good game can be seen here, but it couldn’t quite stick the landing.

The inclusion of some of otome’s more worn-out tropes made it fall a little flat. There is the bad boy who stalks and drugs you and changes his ways through the power of love. I get that it’s a fantasy, but I think these storylines should be put to bed, along with some other bombastic but less problematic ones. A lesser point is that Akari doesn’t have a face, something I always found creepy. I want sweet romantic stories in my slice of life without feeling someone’s life is at risk.

Despite some of the innovations lacking, the hallmarks of the series are still very much here. Excellent characters, creepy visuals and sound design, a gripping story, and a hard-to-solve mystery with branching paths and multiple endings. I would recommend the other games in the series more, but Death Mark 2 is still very much worth your time.

After SnowRunner, it just feels like a step back for the series. However, the game is solid, and grows exponentially the more time and dedication you invest in it.

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden presented me with a choice: engage with what little there was that would excite me in the game, or make my own fun. I chose the latter, and like the choices offered in the game, I suspect it wouldn’t have mattered much either way.

Rising Lords squanders its strong foundation and beautiful visuals due to a lack of depth despite a very long time in Early Access, making it too shallow for experienced genre fans. More casual enthusiasts will probably get their money’s worth, though.

I really wanted to like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League – you can tell a lot of people worked very hard on it. I love the Arkham games and there isn’t another studio I’d have trusted to tackle a concept like this, but everything good about this game is undermined by its games-as-a-service shackles. There isn’t a single thing in here that wouldn’t be improved by the kind of actual level design and quest design you can get in a story-focused single-player game (or even a co-op game, at that).

Granblue Fantasy: Relink is brilliant, while it lasts. Part of me appreciates a shorter JRPG story instead of a 60-hour marathon, but there’s just not enough build and intrigue to make me care, and if you aren’t familiar with the cast ahead of time, you won’t be made to care about any of them either. It was fun while it lasted, but I’m both glad it’s done and sad it’s over. At least those cities look really nice.

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy is a mostly solid port of a trilogy of games that are at best messy and at worst frustrating for all the wrong reasons. The series’ signature gameplay has been preserved very well, and the three games in the collection are a lot of fun to play, as long as you don’t mind the characters being all over the place. A bit more care could have been put into the PC port, but the complaints I have with the port are minor at best.

Ready or Not features levels where you break apart a child exploitation ring, assault a streamer’s house whilst they’re livestreaming, get called to an active shooter situation on a college campus, and pick through the aftermath of a shooting at a gay nightclub. There’s trying hard and then there’s this.

War Hospital falls a bit short for me as a video game – it has good ideas and scratches that management itch at least a little bit, though it’s quite repetitive and feels too punishing at times as opposed to simply challenging. It somewhat grinds down your will to play, which isn’t the best quality in a game. What it excels in – ironically, exactly because it grinds down your will to go on – is making you experience the sheer overwhelming despair and helplessness the brave people serving in these field hospitals must have felt as they fought to save as many lives as possible only to lose a countless number of them along with their own sense of humanity. War Hospital is a valuable history lesson and I’m glad I experienced it.

While it’s not perfect, I truly enjoyed my time with The Lost Crown. The platforming and world-building are top-tier, which makes up for many of its pitfalls (remember those in the original?). It matches up with the metroidvania greats: Hollow Knight, Axiom Verge, Symphony of the Night, and Ori and the Blind Forest in terms of the game’s map, hidden secrets, and platforming challenges. The Lost Crown gives metroidvania fans everything they crave – if that’s what you’re here for, you won’t be disappointed.

Warhammer 40,000 is such a great universe and being a Rogue Trader is probably one of the coolest experiences you can have in it – as such, I really want to love this game and want it to succeed, especially after Baldur’s Gate 3 brought such momentum to the genre. Owlcat has failed, for me at least, to make the most of this opportunity. I have confidence that this game will be a fantastic CRPG a year from now, if the developer puts in the effort to calm the machine spirits, but at the moment I simply can’t heartily recommend it to anyone that isn’t a fan of the studio’s previous games or a fellow Warhammer 40,000 nut, and that’s really a shame. I hate that I can’t stop playing it. Slaanesh is making me do it, I swear.

Echoes of the Fallen by itself isn’t anything incredible, but it finished strong and had me excited for the next expansion pass installment. If you loved Final Fantasy XVI, then this is a great way to revisit those characters. If you’re on the fence, then wait until The Rising Tide launches before making a purchase.

If you’re coming into Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora purely as a fan of the films, then there’s a lot for you to get out of this – it lets you explore the world like never before and take part in the culture it created for the first time. However, if you care about it more as a video game first, then it’s nothing special. Ubisoft yet again refuses to make any steps forward when it comes to open-world design, even when given free rein to make something wild and fantastical like Pandora should be.

The dialogue is snappy and funny, the main characters keep you invested, and it’s cool to see the story of Invincible from another perspective. The only thing it’s lacking is the rawness of the Prime Video series.

Despite all this, I do like Persona 5 Tactica – just not as much as I had hoped. It’s another fun adventure through the Metaverse with characters that I love and a style of gameplay that – while not as deep or challenging as I wanted – I do enjoy. However, as much as it breaks my heart to say it, I think it’s time to let the Phantom Thieves ride off into the sunset because this spin-off proves they don’t have infinite longevity, and we’re all sick of waiting for Persona 6 at this point.

Tales of Arise is a solid JRPG, if not the strongest Tales series entry. Beyond the Dawn is disappointing, even by the standards set by the main game. If, for some reason, you’ve read this review without playing the main game, rest assured that it’s decent fun. This DLC expansion, however, can be left out of your cart.

Like A Dragon Gaiden is a game that fans of the Like a Dragon series will want to play, if only to bridge the gap in their knowledge of Kiryu’s whereabouts between games. However, those who aren’t as invested in the series can probably skip this one, unless they are really interested in the new combat. At the end of the day, it is still a Like A Dragon game with all the goofy fun that goes along with it. However, it is one of the more lackluster games in the series, and is not as robust as your usual entry.

I can’t fault the developers of Gargoyle Remastered, they did an excellent job of converting Gargoyles. Gargoyles is just kind of terrible to begin with, and short of a ground-up remake or reboot, no amount of pretty graphics is going to change that.

While not every game in the Jackbox Party Pack 10 hits quite right, the few that do are some of the best the series has ever seen. Unfortunately, as high as the highs are, the lows are just as low, with FixyText souring the experience somewhat with unfortunate desyncs and boring prompts.

As with a lot of these things, they get better as you settle into it, gathering more powerful weapons and generally getting better at the game, but I can still name so many other similar games that I’d rather play instead of this.

At the regular setting, enemies don’t telegraph their attacks, and you need to go into accessibility if you even want to have a chance at dodging. Your dodge also offers limited or no invincibility frames and a short range, meaning you are unlikely to come out of a fight feeling powerful. The different weapons you grab, and the boons you pick up don’t add to the depth of the gameplay, while let down a visually stunning game.

If you like visual novels, I would still likely recommend Saltsea Chronicles if only for the things that it does differently. My largest disappointments come from what was felt promised and didn’t deliver. The story attempts to do something with mystery, but these feel so telegraphed that the bigger intrigue would be if the twists never happened at all. A worthy attempt, that doesn’t quite hit greatness.

Unlike Slay the Spire, this is not an endless roguelike. Maps are predetermined and have a set number of paths, though you can’t explore all of them in one go, so you’re still incentivized to go back several times. There are also secret locations you can unlock by bringing certain heroes. Team composition is also important because some characters unlock additional powers when teamed up with certain other heroes. The biggest problem with the game is that it’s a bit janky. Targeting your cards at the right character is sometimes difficult, and there is always a delay between playing the card, the little character animations this triggers, and the sounds of the animation. It’s also a very easy game, so those looking for a challenge won’t exactly get one here.

All in all, Hexarchy is a casual turn-based strategy game worth checking out.

What most interested me is that the ending you achieve isn’t only in the choices you make, but in the way you play. Without spoiling the surprise, even meta aspects of how you play lead you down certain paths. You can’t save at a seemingly important choice and go back and see the other path, but you have to play again, and you will notice a whole different outcome. This way of path choosing was an innovation that I had never expected, and what left me thinking about the smaller things I do in real life too. This system is something special, and despite smaller issues with the characters, this system has shown a new era for visual novels.

It’s certainly not a bad roguelike if you’re into the genre. The content there is engaging enough to keep you going for a while, just don’t expect it to be the kind of game that’ll be in your regular rotation for years to come.

The part that felt they didn’t fit in with the rest of the game was the reliance on stealth. There are numerous stealth sections throughout, and I felt they were put there to make it feel more ‘gamey’. There should have been more faith in the words as the gameplay, as they are the strongest aspect, and the stealth is just a distraction. Clearer maps to work your way around also would have done a lot for the exploration and prevented some frustrating backtracking.

Football Manager 2024 is inevitably an end-of-cycle game. SI's passion meant that even this year, we got a number of decent innovations, some surprising like the improvements in animation. However, the outdated engine and gameplay patterns, more and more easy to read, are still there with them. You'll play it and enjoy it, but don't necessarily expect a memorable release.

If you’re just in this for the puzzles, then The Talos Principle 2 is a fantastic puzzle game that, despite its difficulty, carefully crafts itself to be accessible to everyone with innovative mechanics that all interlink in ways that will keep surprising you. Taking the game as a whole package though, the narrative greatly drags it down both in terms of the quality of the writing and how it’s implemented as part of the experience.

In all, Thirsty Suitors is an incredibly strong basis for a game but needed so much more to ensure it was ready to play. From a technical standpoint, there is still a lot of jank here, and while it doesn’t crash, everything feels low-budget and not quite finished. This is seen most in the facial animations, and in a game that’s all about emotion it really hurts it that everyone hits you with a blank stare. It feels like such a missed opportunity. For everything that Thirsty Suitors does well, it feels that a little bit longer investing in the game could have turned it into something great.

Unfortunately Rogue City begins to malfunction almost as often as RoboCop himself. The framerate stutters on Xbox Series S, audio drops in and out, and textures pop in and out during cutscenes. I had one enemy, clearly dead, just stand bolt upright in the middle of the room. It's not really a showcase for Unreal Engine 5 on console.

On a technical level, Star Trek: Infinite has been a stable experience for me, though not without some rather annoying hiccups that I’d describe as typical Paradox launch shenanigans. Some missions were bugged and could only be completed by reloading to previous points in the game due to the wrong conditions being given, for example. Nothing in terms of visual glitches or crashes on my end, though.

There’s the usual minor improvements in visuals, and EA Sports finally implemented full crossplay. Vision passing sometimes makes passing easier, though most matches move so fast that you don't benefit from the player tags and icons anyway. You can fire coaches in franchise mode, too. That’s about it for new additions, though. Franchise mode and other existing modes remain largely unchanged, and HUT Moments is the only new mode this year. NHL 24 is a solid new entry, despite some balance issues, though it feels like it’s time for a bigger, more ambitious refresh.

It’s a shame, as there’s real potential in Mineko’s setup. It has a strong blend of the fantastical and mundane, and that’s refreshing in a genre where “fantastical” usually just extends to “you can run an entire farm by yourself and not die.” The art direction is also bolder and more striking than we usually see, and it goes a long way in creating a unique, mildly eerie atmosphere that helps sell the island’s mythology.

I wanted to like Ty 4 a lot more than I did, and while there is some fun to be had with the game, I found myself wishing from start to finish that it was the 3D platformer game I pictured in my head when somebody said Ty the Tasmanian Tiger.

What distances it from Persona – and it really is similar in many ways – is the detail and design of the monsters, as well as the real-time combat. There are a huge number of systems at play here, combos, special moves, elemental effects, partner skills, and special skills all work together to help you take down what can be fairly difficult bosses. The downside of a condensed story is that you won’t be as close to the characters by the end but it did what it wanted to do effectively, and I’m excited to see what else comes from the team.

I hope Ubisoft continues to make city-based Assassin’s Creed games because it’s refreshing to play something this tight and focused after the more bloated, RPG-focused AC games, but the developers need to update it for modern tastes. From the tech powering it to the structure and base mechanics, I’d love to see where the series could go with a proper overhaul. I’m not asking for a completely different game, but the physics and parkour controls feel drastically dated, and it’d be nice if they could find a way to let us infiltrate buildings beyond making us search for keys like it’s Doom.