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.