Company of Heroes 3 evolves and innovates without losing any of the series’ heart and soul.

After you finish the main story you will find yourself returning to Kyo. Even 65 hours in, it seems that I’m still discovering new things to do; new minigames to play, new missions to find, and more skills to unlock. Despite how long I’ve spent with Ishin! I don’t want to give up, and I’m sure I will continue finding more things to do long after I think I’ve finished. It may not have overhauled the Yakuza formula, but it’s the small things that make Ishin! one of the series’ best.

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.

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

Black Myth: Wukong is one of the best non-FromSoftware games in this genre, joining the likes of Lies of P in the pantheon of excellent Soulslikes. Instead of copying Dark Souls’ homework, it carries you through this journey with plenty of ideas and charm of its own.

The art style is beautiful, and the gameplay is in a form I have never encountered before.

Void Crew is some of the most fun I’ve had in co-op. The structure of a roguelite really lends itself to a Sea of Thieves-style co-op game. I wish there were more ship types, performance gets a bit choppy when you’re using the in-game computers, and I’m not a huge fan of how piloting works, but I’ve already put 40 hours into Void Crew and I reckon I have another 40 in me. Now give me some more ships to play with (please). And let me crash them (please, for non-scamp reasons).

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.

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.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty isn’t a perfect game. The beautifully tweaked combat system is let down by a few useless weapons and some duff level design, but when it does everything right, it feels like a diamond in the rough. This certainly isn’t Nioh 3, but it’s the perfect masocore experience for both new players in co-op, and for those that need something to tide them over until we get Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree.

All we can say for now is that Honkai: Star Rail is off to a very promising start. We don’t know where the journey of the Astral Express eventually leads us. Genshin Impact’s quality has only gone up in the years since it first launched, and if HoYoverse puts the same love and attention into Honkai: Star Rail, this is an adventure fans of the genre shouldn’t miss.

It’s this fantastic interweaving of the strategic and tactical layers that makes Last Train Home such an enjoyable ride in combination with the loving eye for authenticity and immersion.

If I’m making it sound like a mess, it’s not. Great care has been taken to make all of these systems work together beautifully, pulling the best elements of each system into a game that is very challenging, yet satisfying to play. Gameplay has a nice sense of momentum that stops you from getting bogged down in drawn-out strategies, but there’s still plenty of room for careful planning and clever tactics.

It leaves me in a position where I just don’t see what all the fuss is about. I don’t actively hate it, and there are plenty of worse games that have come out this year, but “better than Forspoken” isn’t exactly a glowing compliment. There is something worthwhile in Remnant 2, but every time I started feeling it, something else would tick me off and snatch that feeling away.

My Time at Sandrock is easily the best life-sim of 2023. While it’s not perfect, I haven’t been so immediately grabbed and long-term addicted to a game like this since I first played Stardew Valley, and it’ll be in my regular rota for the rest of the year. It puts its best foot forward with the production and building side of things, then keeps you coming back with seemingly endless side quests and well-developed characters.

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.

Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is one of the oddest games we’ve seen from Capcom in a while. It feels like an indie idea, given a reasonable budget, the kind of game we haven’t really seen since the PS2 era. Because of that, it almost feels hard to recommend. I can’t say, ‘if you liked X, you’ll love Kunitsu-Gami’, because there’s nothing else quite like Kunitsu-Gami. And that’s probably why you should play it anyway. If you’re not an action nut or strategy master, that might be even better, as it doesn’t fit neatly into either of those genres either. It’s weird, it’s wonderful, and it’s well worth your time.

Planet of Lana does many things right, and there are certainly parts you’ll remember, it just doesn’t do too much different. It needed something more to subvert your expectations, but when the inspiration already did this, it’s harder to take it further. Still if you haven’t played these three games, you’ll definitely enjoy your time, or even be wowed by what you find.

The narrative and character writing carried me along from dungeon to dungeon, where the clever puzzle design kept me entertained from start to finish. There’s room for improvement as far as the platforming controls and combat are concerned, but the more I played the less those complaints mattered to me as I became enamored with everything else it had to offer.

Indika isn’t a game you will enjoy playing, but you should do it anyway. Whether you agree with it or not, it will ask you to question the status quo, who has the right to judge others or decide right from wrong. Video games can be a form of escapism, a power fantasy, or mindless fun. Indika isn’t that. It’s something you won’t understand right away. It’s one you’ll want to discuss with others after you finish. It’s one that could change your worldview.

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.

Despite its similarities to so many other soulslike games, it does enough to be different. For hardcore soulslike players, there is the promise of a new story, and alternate endings among the difficult boss fights. For newcomers, Lies of P does a good job of easing you into the action. It hasn’t made me more interested in soulslike as a genre, despite me obsessing over it for the last few weeks, which I guess goes to show just how different it is. Despite how dark and rainy it may seem, there is a genuine goofiness to it that is rare to find, and the promise of a unique story for each playthrough will see it stand out.

Even with a sometimes bland Career mode and the currently disappointing state of Moments, EA Sports WRC is a game every rally sim fan should play. Driving model, realism, variety — it's the pinnacle of Codemasters' experience in the genre, plus the official World Rally Championship license. Rally has finally come home.

UFC 5 is the strongest MMA game ever released, and I’m excited to see where the team takes it online. But if you’re not interested in fighting other players, there’s probably not enough meat in the career mode to fully recommend it right now.

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.

The Brothers remake doesn’t have all of the changes we would hope for, but it is still a remake of an incredible game. It’s clear that deep thought has gone into each of the small interactions that fill the world, with the personality of each brother shining strongly. Without saying a word, Brothers tells you so much, and that beautiful story is still intact. People may want to pick this one up if only for the two-player mode and commentary from creator Josef Fares himself, but it’s hard to call it the definitive version.

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.

Terra Nil is the Bob Ross strategy game about planting happy little trees you never knew you needed in your life.