Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl is an extremely mixed bag so far. While I’m enjoying the atmosphere, the few stealth-based missions (I say “based” but you can just wander in and shoot everyone) have been the highlights. Skif is a likeable enough horrible person, and I like how much there is to do in terms of quests and side content, but it’s held back massively by stifling bugs, unsatisfying gunplay, iffy voice work and sound design, and a general air of being five to ten years behind the modern market. Or maybe I’m just missing the point. Either way, with only around a dozen hours played I’m still in the early game, so perhaps by the time I come to add a score to all this, a lot will have changed. Either way, right now, Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl isn’t setting my world alight. [Review in Progress]

Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire looks to recapture the magic of Skies of Arcadia, but slow combat and clunky controls let it down significantly.

DRIVE Rally is a well produced, fun rally experience. It’s imperfect but there’s plenty of time for tweaks before the full release in 2025. With a unique artistic style, arcade style handling, four charismatic co-pilots and a plethora of stages, there’s more than enough on offer for both beginners and rally veterans alike to enjoy in this early access release. [Early Access Review]

Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland is a baby sized adventure with an all grown up price tag, with poorly designed stages and frustrating enemies.

Elrentaros Wanderings has the makings of a lovely relaxing game, but its repetitive nature and frustrating side objectives kill those cosy vibes.

Shapez 2 is a lovely looking, zen-like, itch-scratching conveyor-a-thon, which fans of factory-builders will spend countless hours delving into. [Early Access Score = 90]

One thing that’s apparent even in early access is how much love and effort is being put into this game. Manor Lords is rich, compelling, and looks incredible at times, and offers a genuine slice of Medieval life for those up for the challenge. As more features are added in early access and some of the bugs are chased out (there’s still one hanging around that stops your families from moving into the homes you’ve built), I’ve no doubt Manor Lords and Slavic Magic will continue to go from strength to strength. [Early Access Review]

Die by the Blade has a few good ideas in its sheathe, but ultimately it fails to generate any genuine excitement.

The Devil Within is, at its core, a very enjoyable, very well-balanced Soulslike Metroidvania that should only improve throughout the early access period. It also features music from Matt Heafy of Trivium, which is a perfect match for the brutal, neo-futuristic, apocalyptic environment design across the three stages here. Whether or not you choose to buy early access games or not is up to you, but The Devil Within: Satgat has plenty of gameplay to get stuck into right now, with a lot more promised over the next 9 to 12 months. [Early Access Review]

As with any survival-crafting-farming game in early access, Lightyear Frontier will only grown and evolve – but unlike many of its contemporaries, it already feels like a complete experience. How long it can sustain my interest with so few possibilities of sudden death or unannounced explosions of violent fury when the wildlife is careless enough to wander through my domain remains to be seen, but if you want a relaxing, good-looking, steady little farming sim with a touch of sci-fi and lots of scope to build and grow, Lightyear Frontier’s early access offering is worth checking out. [Early Access Review]

Bulletstorm VR is disappointing in every way, and while there are few redeeming features early on, there are better ways to play it.

I’ve played over a dozen hours of Enshrouded’s Early Access build now and I still can’t tell you what it is about Keen Games’ fantasy adventure game that makes it stand out for me amongst so many others. Just recently we’ve had Ravenbound and Frozen Flame, both of which present beautiful fantasy worlds ripe for exploration, and both of which have their fair share of fresh ideas. But neither struck a chord with me like Enshrouded has. [Early Access Review]

Flashback 2 is a mind-boggling mess of a game with few redeeming features, and a sequel we just didn’t need.

Jumplight Odyssey throws a lot at you, but the more you play and work things out for yourself, the better the game becomes. Hopefully the aid available as far as direction and tip pop-ups get added through the Early Access phase, as it can be daunting and off-putting. It’s a stunning game to look at, and the level of design on each deck is incredible. Managing your crew’s emotional state and work rate does get easier, and the constant threat of the Zutopans gives you more than enough motivation to harvest materials and keep your ship afloat on the mission to reach the Forever Star. [Early Access Review]

Tales & Tactics is an incredibly dense Roguelike auto battler, that once you put the time into learning you'll never want to put down. [Early Access score = 85]

Adore brings action packed combat to the monster collecting genre, but unfortunately it's just too repetitive and frustrating to recommend.

Playing Dead Man's Diary is simply a tedious experience, and unless you have an invisible wall fetish you should stay well away.

Deadliest Catch: The Game had the almost admirable ability to make me not want to either take up crab fishing in real life, nor to find out what the eventual endgame of its videogame counterpart was.

Greyhill Incident could have cornered a niche in the market, yet its forgettable story, poor dialogue, and lazy gameplay make it one to miss.

I expected to love Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer, but the teen humour is painful and the shooting is just okay.

Disney Speedstorm has plenty of potential, but at present the racing feels unbalanced and there's far too much currency to get familiar with. [Early Access Review Score = 55]

I don’t mean to be down on a smaller dev who has made a competent enough indie shooter, but I feel this genre is at a point where if a new entry isn’t doing something unique, then it needs to stand out some other way, and Hyperviolent just doesn’t. If you’re after a few hours spent mashing demon brains and roaming around looking for keys and matching doors, then Hyperviolent has you covered. If you’re after something fresh and new, maybe not so much. [Early Access Review]

Animal Shelter Simulator should be a game full of joy and life, but in reality it's just bland, repetitive and hard to control.

Digimon World: Next Order is grindy, unintuitive and just plain dull, and no amount of exciting evolutions will change that.

If Stitch Heads continue along this path with Superfuse through early access, they will almost certainly have a winner on their hands come the full launch. They understand the genre and know exactly what fans want from it – right now it just needs balancing and expanding. The aesthetic is cool and the universe is interesting, and the Fuse system is just fantastic. The cathartic thrill of looting and levelling is hamstrung a little by the sense of repetition, but it’s early days yet, and Superfuse has the potential to be a genuine hit. [Early Access review]

Sports Story is a huge disappointment, with a ton of technical issues, a lack of tutorials and unenjoyable new sports making it one to avoid.

Goodbye World tells an interesting story about game development, but the slow pacing and gameplay issues really let it down.

With plenty more to test in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, we’ll update this review to include a breakdown of its multiplayer, but as far as the campaign goes, Infinity Ward has put out a solid effort that surpasses most Call of Duty campaigns we’ve seen over the last five years. It’s a good sequel to 2019’s reboot, but still follows some all too familiar tropes, with some of the characters not getting the spotlight they deserve. [Review in progress]

With clunky combat and poorly explained mechanics, Lovecraft’s Untold Stories 2 fails to hit the mark in any meaningful way.

Way of the Hunter sacrifices fun for realism, and coupled with some other aggravating elements is a game I cannot recommend.

I think ORX is looking very promising so far, but in its current state it does (understandably) have some issues. There’s no playable tutorial to speak of, just a few screens of text and pictures that pop up when you first start a level, and it’s simply not enough. It takes a lot of trial and error to figure out how all of the intricate systems work together, and I can’t imagine everyone will have the patience to do that without much in the way of guidance. [Early Access Review]

Sword and Fairy: Together Forever looks pretty and has some fun moments, but constant cutscenes and a poor translation make it hard to recommend.

While Vampire Survivors isn't even technically out, the latest update has made this Early Access title so fun to play. [Early Access Score = 80]

DNF Duel is an extremely welcoming fighting game that I’d recommend to genre veterans and newcomers alike. The battles are tense, the visuals are out of this world and the inputs and tutorials make it really easy to pick up and play. I never thought I’d truly get into this genre of video game, but DNF Duel managed to drag me into it and I couldn’t be happier. [Review in Progress]

Aztech Forgotten Gods has a great setting, but that doesn't excuse how bad controlling the main character feels.

That Babylon's Fall comes from Platinum Games is perhaps the biggest surprise here. A banal, uninspired hack 'n' slasher with no imagination or personality.

CrossfireX has some interesting ideas in Remedy's dual campaigns, but everything else feels dated and generic.

The Anacrusis looks to be everything I want from a spiritual successor to Left 4 Dead. The pick up and play nature is compelling from the drop, and the 70s sci-fi setting is so refreshing. The AI Driver really makes every session totally different, facing different combinations of aliens in different settings doesn’t get stale. I know the next few months of my life will be spent replaying the game over and over again with my partner, and I can’t wait. [Early Access Impressions]

Between lackluster combat, outdated graphics and the horrendous stripping mechanic, it's very hard to think of a reason to recommend Akiba's Trip: Hellbound and Debriefed.

Black Skylands is only in Early Access at the moment, but I’ve had a lot of fun with it. While combat can get frustrating at times, the rewards across the different islands make it well worth it. The story is engaging, and the open world has been meticulously crafted to provide such a wholesome experience. If you enjoy the trailer, I’m sure you’ll have a great time exploring Aspya and building your own home in the sky. [Early Access Review]

Neptunia ReVerse has enjoyable combat and engaging RPG systems, but it's not worth enduring the "fan service" to experience them.

It isn't a bad game, but Stitchy in Tooki Trouble is just too slow moving and simple for anyone with platforming experience.

It's fun for a game or two, but when you realise how much less The Game of Life 2 costs on mobile you'll want to spin again.

The Uncertain: Light at the End isn't a bad game, but so much of it feels uninspired and done before that it fails to thrill or excite.

One of the best things about Valheim is that it it doesn’t hold your hand, but doesn’t leave you floundering in the dark, either. Although it does leave you stranded in the woods, quite literally, with nothing but your bare hands and some talking ravens for company. [Early Access impressions]

With sluggish combat and not much in the way of new ideas, it's hard to recommend Tears of Avia to all but the most hardcore tactics fans.

Second Extinction is very much a Left 4 Dead stablemate, but it stands on its own thanks to its enemy variety and compelling atmosphere. [Early Access Review Score = 75]

Ary and the Secret of Seasons is fun for a while, but the technical issues really effect it, and stop you from having a great adventure.

Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? tells an enthralling story, but the basic grindy gameplay detracts from the overall experience.

Street Power Football has a variety of modes and courses in which to play them, but with no real tournaments and unsatisfying gameplay, it's hard to find any enjoyment in it.

With its bouncy physics and ludicrously aggressive AI, Tiny Racer feels unbalanced at best, completely unfair at worst. This makes for one of the least fun racers around.

It’s still early days for Torchlight 3. Right now it’s a decent dungeon crawler, but even in this heavily saturated market there are still occasional gems, and in its current state Torchlight 3 simply isn’t that. With work done on the skill trees and classes, and the injection of a little spectacle, it could become something great. As it stands though, it’s really just another dungeon crawler.

Time will tell if Crayta makes an impact on its intended audience, but I sincerely hope it succeeds, because it’s definitely one of the best creative games on the market.

Farmer's Dynasty could have some appeal with a blend of RPG, farming and life simulations, but it is a woefully optimised piece of software with frame rates that judder to a halt after thirty minutes of play.

Am I a convert? Not yet, and I may never be, fully. But I’m glad I finally had a chance to see what everyone else has been telling me for years.

Star Horizon simply has too many issues to warrant playing. Poor graphics, voices and variety make for a dull experience, and one level is broken to the point of unbeatable. If you want to blast some enemy ships, just play Starfox again.

Blending together a turn-based RPG with card battles and roguelite mechanics, Gordian Quest has a certain magic to it, despite its repetitive gameplay loop. [Early Access Score = 75]

Table Manners is disappointing and frustrating at the same time, and feels like a bit of a wasted opportunity to make something fun and different and entertaining.

Dawn of Fear is a poor attempt to recreate the magic of a survival horror classic, with too many problems to gain any sense of enjoyment. Brok3nsite has tried to create a nostalgic tribute to Resident Evil, but in the process they’ve somehow made it worse than the original. Perhaps its biggest omission and ultimate failure is its scare factor, creating predictable moments of terror that never hit as they should.

Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition on Nintendo Switch suffers too many technical hiccups to be worth getting in its current state despite being chock full of loads of content.

A poor offering from Red Dev leaves us with a game almost impossible to recommend.

Earthfall: Alien Horde attempts to fill a spot still left absent by L4D3, but unfortunately fails to capture the magic or atmosphere of the genre's best.

A disappointing package which fails to showcase the appeal of the classic series. Bad boss fights and bad mini games make this remake hard to recommend.

WWE 2K20 lacks anything new,with a poor story mode and bad animations, and the wrestling is plagued with technical issues that ruin any kind of enjoyment you may have.

Ready Set Heroes has a good concept, but the execution doesn't match up to the ideas with an over-reliance on the players familiarity with in game language, combined with unresponsive controls and frustrating gameplay.

Decay of Logos has an interesting story of a quest for revenge with some interesting supporting characters but is massively let down with the various amount of bugs that hampers progress and can cause major amounts of frustration.

With impossibly light trucks that flip over if you simply sneeze, incredibly repetitive gameplay and a pointless, bland open world, Monster Jam: Steel Titans just isn’t fun to play.

While I do have a fair few hours invested in Fade to Silence, its slow opening and lack of direction had me struggling for longer than I would like... [Review in Progress]

Pumped BMX Pro is a decent game with loads of tricks to keep you occupied but the precision of the jumps and the steep learning curve can be quite off putting.

For me, the biggest issue Anthem has right now is its loading times. I’ve never seen a game with so many loading screens, and some of them are utterly unnecessary. There’s an incredibly intrusive feature whereby if you fall behind your squad, a tethering mechanism kicks in and drags you forward via a loading screen. The fact that this happens when you’re barely 100 yards away in the same instance is mind-boggling, but more irksome is the frequency at which it happens.

Even those who enjoy a word puzzle will find Wordhunters frustrating and dull. It lacks any spark, and should be avoided.

Even before playing on live servers I’m not afraid to say that Battlefield V’s multiplayer is great. That is simply undeniable. It’s impossible to not care about the result of each match, tense finishes seem to happen almost every other game and the moment to moment action is incredibly satisfying.

Nickelodeon Kart Racers is just about a passable karting game. It feels rushed and bland, meaning there's little here to inspire you for very long.

Although I applaud Bigmoon for trying to bring this niche motorsport into video games properly, the end result is awkward and feels unfinished.

It’s a shame but Yo-Kai watch Blasters could have been a good game, but it’s let down by a lack of variety in what it offers in itself and against its predecessors.

It’s a shame but Yo-Kai watch Blasters could have been a good game, but it’s let down by a lack of variety in what it offers in itself and against its predecessors.

There’s some excellent design work on display here, but it’s just lacking that touch of polish that a finished product needs and while the adventure mode is good it just highlights how little use LABO has outside of its own wheelhouse. Maybe, just maybe Nintendo needs to help developers integrate LABO kits into their games as bespoke controllers, it might be that that finally helps LABO take off.

With so many great rally games already available, V-Rally 4’s poor handling and inconsistent AI just can’t compete with its competition. It should have stayed as a fondly-remembered retro series.

It’s a broken, buggy, disjointed mess. Perhaps the biggest plus point is that it’s mercifully short at around 4 hours long.

The Switch port has almost everything going wrong with poor visuals, a higher price point than the other platforms, and poor use of Switch specific features. In its current state, you’re better off either buying it on another platform if you must have it, or skip it altogether. I hope the developers can either improve the visuals through patches or work on.

An uninspired, unoriginal Left4Dead clone that suffers from wishy-washy shooting and a lack of polish.

A poorly written game with gameplay that feels stiff and archaic, along with endless waves of enemies that take far too long to beat.

As its name suggests, playing this at times is painful, void of fun, and a chore that could've been avoided had a lot more care been put into it.

A good premise that just doesn’t match up to it’s execution, much like one of Akko’s spells.

As a Switch port, this is very good but as a game it is not worth your time unless you’re a die hard for a Sin City like aesthetic and need a new match 3 game with it.

The premise of Extinction is brilliant in theory, but its execution is boring and hindered at all times by a camera that refuses to point where you want it to, and a control system that often doesn’t even respond to simple commands.

This is brilliant, it’s everything I wanted the game to be and maybe even a little bit more.

It's such a shame that Bravo Team is bad because Supermassive has made some great games, but this is by far the worst.

While it looks lovely and isn't a bad game by any means, Star Allies is aimed at a very specific age group, and most others will find it far too easy and, sadly, rather dull.

While TT Isle of Man: Ride on the Edge accurately captures the sense of speed as you barrel down the country lanes of the iconic circuit, its twitchy handling undoes the experience entirely.

A tedious slog that sullies the legacy of its vaunted predecessors.

The thing is, what Dissidia NT does do well is hamstring itself from actually being good. A good fighting mechanic can only carry a game so far, outfitting the game with so little in the way of modes to actually experience is bad enough, but to then completely lock away a staple mode of fighting games to force people to repeat play stagnant modes is practically unforgivable, especially for a story based franchise like Final Fantasy.

As is often the case with looking back on the past, Mario Party The Top 100 makes you remember that things were never really as good as you remember.

Slain: Back from Hell is not worth buying in its current state on the Switch. Get it on PS4 or PC if you have to because it just isn’t fun playing a game that slows down and can’t maintain a locked frame rate. If these issues are addressed in upcoming patches, it will be worth it.

In a game that can be finished in under an hour, Bubsy doesn’t so much as strike back, but rather say a few harsh words before getting pummeled into the ground.

Touhou Kobuto V: Burst Battle is the worst Touhou game I’ve played and one that you should avoid unless you absolutely must own everything Touhou.

An adventure that will only appeal to people who really miss the old ways.

Jettomero: Hero of the Universe is visually very beautiful, but it feels like a game that contains a number of unfinished ideas wrapped up in a gorgeous package.