Burning Shores doesn’t add a great deal to the story and character development is seemingly optional, but if you want more beasts to bash, more ways to bash them, and gorgeous scenery to ogle at, you won’t be disappointed.

Peppa also likes to constantly call out what you should be doing, and this will play over anything anyone else is saying, giving you double audio. I would say that this double audio error happens more often than not. The only time it isn’t present is in cutscenes. It has subtitles so I tried to play with the volume off, but as this is aimed at non-readers they will really struggle with it.

After a decade of troubled development, Dead Island 2 fails to offer anything new or substantive. Its middling melee combat, nonsensical story, and awkward dialogue choices all make playing it a slog, and even at its very best, it fails to rise above being merely inoffensive. It may be pretty, but that's not enough to save it from being a dull experience from start to finish.

The simple fact is, if you’re an RTS veteran, then there isn’t anything here for you. However, if you’re new to the genre, then this might just be the best introduction there is. It gets you into the right mindset and teaches you the conventions of RTS, challenging you just enough so that you have to improvise strategies. It’s far from the pinnacle of the genre, but it will make you hungry for more.

Looking at it by itself, the Forge of the Chaos Dwarfs DLC is another love letter to Warhammer Fantasy, doing justice to a highly-anticipated faction, and evolving the gameplay formula in a good direction on the campaign map with interesting mechanics. Glory to the military-industrial complex, glory to Hashut!

As of today, EA Sports PGA Tour is a very solid starting point for the franchise, and one that allows EA Sports to get back in the game.

Meet Your Maker’s gameplay loop of raiding and building is an absolute winner. Just like with Mario Maker, user-created content keeps the experience feeling fresh and exciting the whole way through. Unfortunately, there are just too many small frustrations for me to say I’ve had a great time. It’s a better concept than it is a game, and unfortunately doesn’t live up to the magic of the games that came before it.

Sometimes you just need to relax, calm down, and breathe in the culture, and Tchia lets you do just that. It's got its issues, the technical side of things is a bit lacking, and the combat can become a bit tedious with time, but when you're just wandering, seeking out new stories, taking in all the world has to offer, everything else falls away.

9 Years of Shadows can be frustrating in places, but if you’re looking for a 2D Metroidvania with solid combat, enjoyable platforming, and beautiful world design, it ticks all of those boxes.

It takes a lot of getting used to, but eventually, you start to sink into what the game wants, and it gives you some great fast-paced action. There’s even a few Metroidvania elements thrown in, as you’ll need to take abilities from later levels to get essential collectibles from older ones. Its content is a little simplistic right now, but this is definitely a game to watch as it develops.

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

Paranormasight takes the best elements from all the greatest visual novels and mashes them together for a gripping supernatural thriller.

A game that falls short of its potential. I like what it’s offering, but the execution is just a little off in almost every aspect. If you play through the single-player campaign, you will have a good time, but it won’t last more than two or three playthroughs, which is not good for a mode that brands itself as a roguelike.

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

Resident Evil 4 Remake is the legendary game given more than just a new coat of paint. The visuals and sound design are brutally oppressive, the combat is sharper than a knife’s edge, and the world will make you want to uncover every corner. It’s as enticing as it is engaging, and intense as it is exciting. Resident Evil 4 is back, and it’s better than ever.

WWE 2K23 does what any annual sports series should do. It gets the roster as up-to-date as it can, expands on the game modes that are already there, and refines gameplay little by little. In a year when the WWE games will finally have a big competitor in the upcoming AEW: Fight Forever, this is a solid entry to remind everyone who the king of the mountain is.

Sure, it’s the best version of Persona 4, but a lot of that legwork was done in the Steam port, so it’s hard to really give much credit to this. Still, Persona 4 Golden is a great game with a wonderful soundtrack and a combat system that absolutely rules, which makes it worth playing (or replaying) for any Persona fan.

I still think Persona 3 is the best Persona game, and Portable is the best way to play it. It may not have all the shiny, flashy, high-end graphics and animations of Royal, but it offers a touching story, bombastic boss fights, and one of gaming’s best-ever soundtracks.

That’s Forspoken’s biggest problem – everything I like about it gets dragged down by the unrelenting dullness of everything else. The story is boring, the characters are boring, the enemies are boring, and the world is boring.

Of course, it looks gorgeous. I won’t spend too long banging on about graphics because there’s literally a video at the top of this page, but modern advancements in lighting really lend themselves to this setting, with the brushed metal of your suit and the ship reflecting light. The darkness is actually dark, too, adding to the tension when you’re guided only by torchlight. In a nice touch, the lighting occasionally comes into play in combat, with red emergency lights strobing, illuminating the creatures closing in on you, getting nearer and nearer with every blink.

SpongeBob Squarepants: The Cosmic Shake isn’t a bad game, but it’s not a particularly great one either. It exists firmly in the middle, a game that is slightly more good than it is bad, and a game that could be quite good with just a few tweaks and changes. If I were an eight-year-old kid with plenty of time and patience, I don’t think I could find much to fault here, and given that’s primarily who this game will be aimed at, that’s probably good enough.

What you will remember about Hi-Fi Rush is just how charming it is. It’s so rare for a game from one of the major developers to take a creative risk, and Hi-Fi Rush does just that. Not only is the core of the game innovative, but the way each character is written takes a big risk of having people switch off before they develop and you grow to love them. I hope Hi-Fi Rush is incredibly successful. I hope it teaches the industry that creative innovation can also create profits, and we see more new and interesting ideas from the big boys in the future.

A competent, if not groundbreaking change of pace for the SpellForce series that is a good foundation for future additions.

Aside from a few bugs and a bit of dodgy writing, Hogwarts Legacy is one of the most enjoyable open-world games I’ve played. Not quite Elden Ring, but it embarrasses the Assassin’s Creed games when it comes to mission variety and a sense of exploration.

As you can probably tell from the dozen mentions of Monster Hunter in this review, it’s tough to separate Wild Hearts from what it’s inspired by. These games both fit into their own niche genre of action game, and both excel at different things. But even through all my frustrations, and all the times I shut the game off after getting knocked down a single time, I still want to return to Wild Hearts with friends to get better gear and take down bigger Kemono – and that’s a good indicator that this game is doing something right.

If you’re a JRPG fan either looking to return to Symphonia or experience the story for the first time, Tales of Symphonia Remastered is a great way to do it. It might get a couple of strikes for being an “imperfect” experience, but it’s still a quality one.

If you loved the original game, then Octopath Traveler 2 is exactly the sequel you were hoping for, but at the same time, if you thought the original fell a bit short, this is the game you wanted the first time around...None of the greatness from the first game was lost in either the writing or the gameplay, and although the new additions aren’t mindblowing, they add up to make a much improved overall experience. This series’ unique approach to storytelling and masterful turn-based combat system shines brighter than ever, and it’s sure to cement itself in the memories of JRPG fans for a long time.

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.