The balance, in particular, isn’t quite right yet. We certainly applaud the fact that the game doesn’t hold your hand, but the contrast is quite stark. In some missions, everything is so broken down and spoon-fed to you that the game guides you through every step like a toddler. And at other times, you have absolutely no idea—and absolutely no explanation—of what you’re supposed to do. The lack of narrative and coherence is clearly a shortcoming. Despite all its flaws, there’s definitely the potential for a fantastic game here. It never becomes as emotionally compelling as Arthur Morgan’s story in Red Dead Redemption 2, and it lacks that childlike wonder of Breath of the Wild, but it all looks great and the massive amount of content makes up for a lot. Crimson Desert is a rough diamond that still needs a good polish. In its current form, it’s an okay game with obvious limitations. With enough post-launch support, it might still achieve what it sets out to do: become one of the better games of the year.

What initially appear to be subtle nods to previous games quickly descend into unnecessary fan service. It doesn't help that every trick in the book is pulled out, and you can often see the jump scares coming a mile away. The game rarely surprises, except in its shift from camp to deadly seriousness. Resident Evil Requiem is a commendable game, but not as memorable as some other installments in the series. The ambitious game was supposed to be the culmination of thirty years of Resident Evil. But it plays it too safe and, unfortunately, rarely manages to truly surprise.

There is much to appreciate about Sons of Sparta. Given that it now takes six years or more to make a big game like God of War, this interlude is very welcome. What's more, Sony Santa Monica isn't taking the easy route by sending Kratos on an adventure in a genre that's new to him. Kudos for that! But within that genre, our favorite demigod suddenly finds himself in crowded company. The “Metroidvania” genre has been enjoying a revival in recent years thanks to Hollow Knight, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, and Prince of Persia. To compete with them, you have to come up with something special. Sons of Sparta is commendable and certainly has an edge for God of War fans, but it lacks that touch of magic to make it indispensable.

The developers postponed the game's release by a month at the last minute, and we can't help feeling that the game would have benefited from a little more delay. Unbeatable is unpolished and unfinished. It's rebellious and punk, sure, but at times it's also frustrating. With the addition of story mode and the integration of numerous mini-games, Unbeatable tries to be too many things at once, and as a result, the game doesn't always hit the right note. But for the modest price of 28 euros, you can't possibly feel cheated.

Kirby Air Riders is an anomaly. It looks like a racing game, but has the rhythm and elements of a fighting game: its own genre. It is simple, complex, and (too) chaotic at the same time. In terms of visuals and performance, this is one of the most colorful and flashy games the Switch 2 has to offer to date. Highly recommended for those who are tired of Mario Kart.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment is an excellent spinoff and action game. In its niche — that of the musou-games — it's even among the best of all time. But what a total letdown of a story. Seriously, how did they manage to drop the ball on plot and world building?

The missions offer plenty of variety and are nail-biting at times. You can play them alone, but just about everything makes you feel that this is not the intention: Black Ops 7 is clearly designed to be played with multiple players. The campaign also works much better when you try to achieve your goal with others. We already knew that Call of Duty is primarily a multiplayer extravaganza. Still, we expected a little more here.

The first The Outer Worlds left us with mixed feelings a few years ago: it had an interesting premise and fun combat, but all in all, it didn't lead to a very memorable experience. The Outer Worlds 2 is clearly a step forward: the combat has been greatly improved and there is more to experience. So what do you get up to? Well, you create a character and walk around with them on different planets. You solve one problem after another by talking and/or shooting. That doesn't sound very original, and it isn't. All in all, we find The Outer Worlds 2 an improvement on its predecessor and, at times, an enjoyable game, but it's certainly not a must-have.

The new 3D matches are indeed better than before, but we still wouldn't call them beautiful. We do think they are better integrated into the whole, and let's be honest: anyone who plays this game isn't looking for pretty graphics. Then there's the new interface. According to the creators, the old one was a mess. We always found our way around it quickly, whereas this time important information is a few clicks too far away. Annoying, but above all: incomprehensible after a year's delay. We also encountered more bugs than we would have liked. What saves the game are the matches: the tactical interface is great and makes matches a joy.

Cronos: The New Dawn gets off to a slow start, with ammunition that is (too) scarce and melee attacks that are clunky and difficult to aim. After a few upgrades, you suddenly go from being a weakling to an elite soldier, after which there is little challenge left. Too difficult at the beginning, too easy after playing for a while. The balance is clearly off, and there are no options to adjust the difficulty level. And once you start noticing that they really do pull out all the tricks of the horror genre—a shadow flashing in the corner of your eye, a flashlight that suddenly starts to falter when things get exciting, an enemy that appears out of nowhere after you pick up an object—the fun quickly wears off. Unfortunately, the intriguing premise and atmospheric setting don't make up for these frustrating moments.

Some minigames are better than others, and if we're being really strict: quite a few are recycled from previous Like a Dragon games. But there are so many of them, and they are so varied, that Pirate Yakuza never has a chance to get boring. With one major exception: the part at sea also belongs in the category of minigames, except that you spend quite a large part of your playing time with it. But those who buy Pirate Yakuza primarily to unleash the Jack Sparrow in themselves will be disappointed. After all, the ship battles are disappointingly simple, and the promised sea would be more like a collection of lakes. Throughout the time we spent with Goro Majima, we laughed hard far more often than we sighed deeply. So we gladly turn a blind eye. Where is our eye patch again?

At first it seems like the game is just slow to pick up, after a while you realize that this is the game. Maybe that's not so bad if you were actually looking for a comic, but if you're gaming for the adrenaline you better look elsewhere. Not every game has to be Super Mario Bros, but when the story carries the full weight, it should feel a little less casual. After wandering around for quite a while and chatting endlessly about the same thing, it becomes clear that what you choose matters anyway. If you play the game all the way through several times, you'll get to a different ending each time. Fascinating, but it requires hours of patience.

Civilization VII is great. Exciting. Frustrating. It's like a Rorschach test: how you look at it depends from person to person and moment to moment. Besides the obvious improvements, many of the game's flaws were perfectly avoidable, which leads us to conclude that this game is not finished. And we take issue with being asked full price for a game that is not yet finished. Our advice: if you're not a huge fan of the series, wait another year. If you are, prepare for a rough ride.

How we like the latest Call of Duty? Well, pretty much like the previous one and all those before it: unpretentious entertainment that slips in as smoothly as a slice of pizza. Not that we mind, because we love pizza.

Visually, the series takes big leaps forward, and the winter setting makes this a perfect game for the end-of-year period. It feels like a warm, familiar blanket. But a beautiful setting is nothing without a good story. This time you and Max must solve a murder, and today she has a new superpower: a peek into a universe where that murder never happened. Not a bad find, but it's never deployed as creatively and cleverly as rewinding in the original game. The further you get, the more the plot also seems to lose its pedals. Bummer.

Those willing to spend two long and frustrating hours sculpting their muscle memory and honing their reflexes will experience a click. Suddenly, you “got" it. Like Neo in the Matrix against Agent Smith or Goku transforming into Super Saiyan for the first time. What follows is a tsunami of serotonin that makes my inner teenager foam at the mouth. In the skin of Goku catapulting vicious Frieza hundreds of feet away after a barrage of attacks. Then to treat him to a kamehameha on his icy face? I dreamed of it as a 14-year-old and this game is my dream in game form. A lot of love for Dragon ball has been put into it. Too bad the barrier to experience it is so high.

So why only three stars? Basically, this is a remake of a PlayStation 4 game from 2015, which you could have long bought for next to nothing. This new version looks even better and adds some bells and whistles, but too little to justify the $70 price tag. Many other games from that era were upgraded for the PlayStation 5, costing a dozen euros or often even free. To charge full price for this is money-grubbing.

It is a good game, but also a game that occasionally falters and makes it painfully clear that the Switch is now the gaming equivalent of an old-timer car. Nevertheless, the graphical style masterfully disguises the Switch's technical shortcomings. The music is also incredibly good. And this game is everything its predecessor was and better. With Echoes of Wisdom, you get to play a kick-ass sequel to the previous “classic” Zelda game: Link's awakening. But that's what it is: a sequel.

Is it due to the fact that the game is released on both the previous and current generation gaming consoles, which limited the developers? The game takes itself very seriously, and we can't imagine that they deliberately left one of the most annoying elements of the previous console generation - the many (hidden) loading screens - in the game unless there was a technical need for it. Add to that the wooden and terribly dated character and facial animations, and the result at least does not live up to what you should expect from a video game anno 2024.

So yes, FC 25 feels a touch different again, and the immensely popular Ultimate Team is also back, but whether that's worth the full price - target price 65 euros? We doubt it. We feel that EA is on the right track and knows where it wants to go, that's for sure, but FC 25 just doesn't feel "finished" after all these years: the focus is still too much on fast breakaways, defenders still look a bit clumsy and after a while you realize that tactics that work excellently in real life are useless in FC 25. For us, it could be a bit more.

Anyone who read the manga in the 2000s must acknowledge: what this game looks like is how the static manga images came to life in your head. It is of the last things Akira Toriyama did before his death: congratulate the developers for bringing his creation to life so beautifully. Rightfully so. So really one for the fans, because the gameplay is okay, but it doesn't break any pots: it's a typical action game in an open world.

The little brother from the same developer as the Tour de France 2024 game targets a very small niche: cycling fans who can't get enough of details and numbers. Like Football manager, PCM is a manager/simulation game. You don't take your place on the bike yourself, but you do determine every possible detail: you arrange sponsorship contracts, hire trainers and scouts, develop new equipment, determine training schedules, race selections and race strategy. The wet dream for cycling nerds like us, in other words.

The game occupies a rather strange place on the spectrum. On the one hand, it wants to be a racing game, where you control your own rider and determine how fast he drives, when he sits in time trial position and how he cuts corners. However, a cyclist is not a car, and the controls feel rather clumsy at first. It gets easier as you persevere, but we suspect many players will soon drop out.

An emotional but beautiful storyline. Beautiful graphics. 'Tales of Kenzera: ZAU' is a remarkable game for several reasons. Yet, as a player, you are left a little hungry.

A video game where it is more about the appearance of the female protagonist than about the game itself, and that even before its release. No, we are not talking about Lara Croft from Tomb Raider, but about Stellar Blade. And that's a shame, because under that thick layer of controversy lies a fine game.

'Garden life: a cozy simulator' is - as the name gives away - a cozy game for young and old. You get the freedom to do everything the way you want. You don't need a green thumb or gaming experience. Moreover, the game looks beautiful. The main drawback is that it can quickly feel monotonous.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the heartbreaking, immersive story. Except the creators have tried to push two games into one, and the action-RPG portion leaves much to be desired. With a little more focus, this game would not have ended up in the mid-range.

Agreed, 'Helldivers 2' is at times a highly entertaining game. But we did not dare to predict that the game would get off to such a strong start. For that it offers too little depth as far as we are concerned.

After releasing at least one new game almost every year, developer Ubisoft simply fails to surprise with Assassins Creed Mirage. What was supposed to be an homage to the first games feels too much like déjà vu. The same moves, the same controls, the same missions in a similar setting. There is wear and tear on the golden formula of yesteryear.

He lands in theaters next year, with a movie of his own. But until then, Super Mario continues to reign supreme on the Nintendo. 'Sparks of hope' is yet another game centered around the world's most famous plumber. Just a shame that the piping shows more wear and tear than in the previous game.

"A spreadsheet with soccer players," a friend once called Football Manager. He was right, but it is a damned addictive Excel file: in the meantime, we have invested another fifty hours or so in making our local team virtual champions. If you ask us, Football Manager would be better off switching to a subscription formula, but okay: for about fifty euros you get a whole year of spreadsheet fun.

What is successful, however, is the way you are forced to go outside the game. Googling answers, looking up articles on news sites, decoding images and audio clips, searching Twitter, delving into source files and deciphering codes. You do it all, although you have to know your way around the Internet and your PC. Acolyte is an intriguing and original detective game, but due to the high technological threshold not for everyone.

A nice offer for fans, whether they are fans from the very beginning or young newcomers who have gotten to know the blue-haired hedgehog through recent Hollywood films. The price tag of around forty euros is hefty, but you get four excellent retro games in return.

In Park Beyond you can rely on a pinch of theme park magic to make your constructions truly spectacular. But for that, you'll have to bite the bullet. After all, on console, controller control is so clunky that it regularly becomes frustrating. And the many crashes we encountered during our play sessions almost made those controllers fly across the room. So Park Beyond, in this state, is mostly for those with a strong stomach and a lot of patience. Which comes in handy on a roller coaster.

Grab your spade, your flying pig and your pirate hat: it's treasure hunting time in Dragon Quest Treasures. There is some fine loot to claim, though not all that glitters is gold. Our conclusion: Treasures mainly is a good introduction to the series for somewhat younger or less experienced gamers.

You are catapulted from the top of the food chain to the bottom, and giant ants and spiders simply look horrifying. Although in "Grounded" it does not result in horror, but in an exciting and smoothly playing adventure game in which, thanks to your ingenuity, you must survive long enough to figure out how to get big again.

In 'F1 Manager 2022' you manage an existing Formula 1 team and literally decide everything. Which mini-part of the car will be further developed, which departments will be expanded, which sponsors will be brought in and which goals will be set. Even during the grand prix, you determine the race strategy and try to lead your team to victory. Great detail, but therefore rather meant for a certain niche.

The developers responsible for ‘Soulstice’ took a good look at the ‘Devil May Cry’ series. The dark, sinister atmosphere in the desolate world from the game is spot on, and you almost effortlessly conjure smooth and flashy battles from the controller. So where does it go wrong? In the way the camera works. It is mostly fixed, but jumps between scenes, suddenly taking you in completely the wrong direction. The clumsy and awkward way the game handles this is your most difficult opponent.

After each direct hit, you can see in slow motion and in great detail which trajectory your bullet traveled, where and with what force it hit the animal, which vital organs were pierced and at what point your poor prey died. No gratuitous violence, but a realistic, almost scientific representation of how you killed that innocent pheasant or that cute little deer. After more than three decades of playing video games, there is very little that makes us uncomfortable, but 'Way of the hunter' occasionally made us gulp.

If the "Total War" series had been a cow, PETA would have been at the door a long time ago. That's how milked she is. When you're not fighting, you're trying to build your empire. This part of the game combines both the best and worst of Total War: on the one hand, the factions you can play differ substantially and all offer a different experience; on the other, after a strong start, the campaign collapses like a pudding. You focus mainly on one powerful army, so the overall overview disappears somewhat from view. Too bad.

All good things come to an end, and so does FIFA. Not that the game itself will cease to exist, but from next year it will simply be called EA Sports FC. In any case, the latest edition in the series could not be more FIFA: the moments on the pitch are great, those off it a little less so. There are times when it seems mostly a commercial for itself. The menus are garish and lead you everywhere but where you want to go. They also make it clear where Electronic Arts wants players to spend the most time: in flagship/milk cow Ultimate Team, where you build the strongest team possible and compete with it online. But once you get busy you notice how Electronic Arts manages to make soccer just that little bit more appealing every year.

Mindlessly ramming buttons, Dynasty warriors has managed to make it a (semi-)entertaining pastime for years. For the second time, the series is teaming up with Fire emblem. At first glance, a striking choice. The latter series is known for its tactical gameplay. In Fire emblem warriors: three hopes, it comes together in a potpourri of violence and drinking tea.

The characters move stiffly, the animations look like they are from a game from two generations ago, and there is little atmosphere or tension. The voice actors are either overacting or unintentionally soulless. And that's a shame for a game that consists mostly of dialogue. The game is clearly suffering from anemia, and we can only hope for a miraculous cure when ‘Bloodlines 2’ hits the market.

Are we that stupid now? Or is this puzzle really very difficult to decipher? To be honest, we thought so several times during ‘We Were Here Forever’. The new puzzle game - which you can only play in pairs - is quite a workout for the brain.

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin constantly balances between homage to the series and bombastic kitsch. The new gameplay - it feels more like a soulslike game than your typical action-RPG - is refreshing at times, but not spectacular enough to make the game rise above mediocrity.

No detailed explanation, no elaborate story. Whoever starts Lumote: the mastermote chronicles is immediately thrown into the game. It is a straightforward puzzle game that looks simple, but has quite a high difficulty level. Unfortunately, the level design remains largely the same throughout the game and although the puzzles thus become more difficult, it all quickly feels repetitive.

Looking for a challenge? Then Submerged: hidden depths is not the right game for you. After all, this game is meant to be a quiet adventure, and it is. Maybe even a little too quiet.

Unfortunately, the quality of the new tracks varies: Toad Circuit feels like a rush job, while Paris Promenade perfectly captures the wonderful chaos of Mario kart. In summary, we're happy for more Mario kart, yet we're a little disappointed that the first part of this expansion doesn't reach the towering level of the original.

Windjammers is a mixture of volleyball, tennis and air field hockey, but with frisbees. All of that poured over in a visual flair that's bulging with neon and other early 90s sauces. Also 90s: the difficulty. Even the easiest opponents are very difficult.

Do you know that indefinable feeling that you have to like something? That everyone in the amusement park is having a great time, but your mind is elsewhere? That's what we experienced when we played Horizon: Forbidden West, the long-awaited new hit for Playstation. Yes, it's very well put together. Yes, it looks stunning. And yes, the battles are wildly exciting. Yet we feel something niggling. Is it the magic of that first encounter that has disappeared?

Jump, swing and solve puzzles. Scarf is a standard puzzle platform game. A fine game, but it doesn't really warm you up. It is a worthy start for a small game studio, but there are still working points.

They say that you should never change a winning team, but year after year the same team gets boring. Especially if you bought into the previous iteration of Mario Party for Nintendo Switch, this version offers little new under the sun.

A new graphical style, the expansion of the Grand Underground and some quality-of-life adjustments cannot disguise the lack of ambition with this remake. This turns Shining Pearl and Brilliant Diamond into viewing boxes that show that Pokémon was a great game series even in 2006, but that we have moved on since then.

A new graphical style, the expansion of the Grand Underground and some quality-of-life adjustments cannot disguise the lack of ambition with this remake. This turns Shining Pearl and Brilliant Diamond into viewing boxes that show that Pokémon was a great game series even in 2006, but that we have moved on since then.

Up to 128 players, regardless of whether they play on PC, PS5 or Xbox Series, can take on each other online at the same time in epic battles. Getting that done without too much lag and hiccups is a technical feat and works wonderfully. Too bad the amount of bugs in our test version was too high to make the game really excel.

With Vanguard, Call of Duty returns to the roots of the series: World War II. The solo campaign is entertaining but short, and the multiplayer is exactly as expected: full of action and adrenalin. However, the few novelties are not spectacular enough to lift it above mediocrity.

Aside from its wacky premise, F.I.S.T. is a more than solid game that plays smoothly and looks great - especially thanks to the PC and PS5's graphical processing power. But the difficulty level is quite high - due to the clumsy controls at times even a little too high. So prepare for frustration and disappointment, and very often try again.

'Clone' is rarely a good category to be categorized in, yet Nickelodeon All-star Brawl is a creditable fighting game. Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros: Ultimate still offers more value for money, but the mechanics and gameplay of All-star Brawl are surprisingly good. If you are looking for a decent platformer or are a hardcore fan of the genre, you should definitely give the game a try.

Lost Judgment is a combination of a thriller movie with a smoothly playing and well-furnished action-adventure game, where you will easily need twenty to forty hours to reach the end. So much for the good news. The game suffers from the same disease as many Japanese genre rivals: it wants to cram too much into one game. A little more focus would do the series good.

A gripping story, beautiful landscapes and convincing characters. Life is Strange: True Colors looks very promising, but still this game could not fully convince us due to the slow pace and sluggish dialogues.

WRC 10 FIA World Rally Championship is the full name of the game. Quite a mouthful for the official video game of the royal class in rallying, already the tenth in the series. WRC 10 builds on the solid foundation of its predecessors, and that results in a very enjoyable racing game.

RiMS Racing is full of good intentions, but doesn't really excel in anything. With a little more attention to detail, and with a lot more content, RiMS Racing 2 will probably be a hit. But for now, we remain a bit hungry.

King's Bounty II may not be the most original or visually impressive game we've gotten to play lately, but it does manage to translate a typically childlike fantasy to the screen. And childlike fantasy is just the thing everyone can use on occasion.

Since 2007, little has changed in the formula of No More Heroes. The third volume is no exception. No More Heroes III is rough, fast, bizarre and brutal. And that makes the game simultaneously great and frustrating.

The game offers an immersive crusade experience, but thankfully doesn't take itself too seriously. Despite the many severed limbs, there is plenty of room for a dash of humor. Now if the developer could only do something about the large amount of bugs on PS4, they just might have a cult hit up their sleeve.

The game, with its flamboyant characters, fast action and simple controls, at times resembles ‘Wii Sports’ - still one of the best-selling sports games - and that's a compliment. It is also touching how enthusiastic the diverse participants are, whether they win a medal or lose hopelessly. Even in the virtual Olympics, taking part is more important than winning.

The fighting system of Guilty Gear Strive requires tactics and precision, and the solid soundtrack full of roaring guitars supports the epic battles. What we liked most about this fine fighting game is the distinctive graphic style of the cutscenes that is carried through into the game, making you feel as if you are playing the lead role in a great anime.

Scarlet Nexus aspires to be an anime. It succeeds with flying colors, as evidenced by the beautiful style, but regularly loses itself in the story that is difficult to get going and requires a lot of attention to be able to make sense of it. Thankfully, the lightning-fast battles make the heart race and leave you wondering what happened. But in a good way.

35 years after its original release, 'Alex Kidd in Miracle World' is being re-released in a polished version that feels wonderfully nostalgic. Aside from some additional dialogue, levels and modified boss battles, it's still essentially the same game as it was in 1986. While we praise the way the player can now seamlessly switch between the new and original graphics, it feels like a missed opportunity not to change some of the basics. The controls are still as clunky as they were back then, and the unforgiving difficulty level still causes a lot of frustration today. Fortunately, there is the ability to use infinite lives, otherwise many controllers would perish.

A decent game, but as memorable as its successor - 2017's brilliant NieR: Automata - NieR Replicant is not. The captivating story and the creative use of camera angles that allows different game genres to blend seamlessly show its potential, but the game cannot hide the fact that it is already more than a decade old.

Loss, grief and processing. These themes are central to 'Lost words: beyond the page'. Heavy subjects that are beautifully put into words and images, in a way that is also accessible for children. Just don’t expect a great challenge.

Genre remixes often get lost in good intentions, but Disco Elysium pulls it off just fine. The dialogues fit perfectly with the visual style that portrays a world as captivating as it is gloomy. All top notch, but still we'll stick with three stars. Why? Because the console version we tested was plagued by bugs that sometimes even made it impossible to progress further.

Spacebase Startopi’ taught us that aliens are just like people - they're cranky if they don't get a latte in time, tweet about their day and leave a giant pile of trash behind - and that running a space station is damn hard work. The game won't achieve the same cult status as the original, but as a strategic building game that doesn't take itself too seriously, it's good for several hours of solo and multiplayer fun.

It's remarkable how quickly 'Little Nightmares 2' takes hold of you. The constant sense of unease is excellent, which makes it all the more unfortunate that the game is artificially stretched by puzzles that are unnecessarily drawn out and complex. And so this beautiful nightmare ends in an ordinary dream.

Ys IX: Monstrum Nox offers an engaging story, smooth controls and challenging combat. Unfortunately, the game also suffers from dated graphics. It is a shame that it took two years to be released in our country, as this makes it difficult for the game to compete with more recent games that can draw on the graphical computing power of 2021.

In just four hours you're all set, but thanks to the multiplayer mode you can easily add several more hours. For less than 15 euros you can't expect an absolute masterpiece, but you get some carefree entertainment that will catapult you back to the 90s.

Call of the Sea is basically one big escape room, in which you go from location to location while solving varied and mostly interesting puzzles. Sometimes, however, developer Out of the Blue expects a little too much, which can lead to frustrating moments and a wandering player.

To become a fixture like Fortnite, though, Destruction Allstars needs more content than its current four game modes and handful of courses. In any case, Lucid Games has already announced plans to continually expand and improve the game at least during its first year, so the future looks bright for PS5 owners.

There is a lot to be pleasantly surprised by The Medium. What Bloober Team has accomplished as a relatively small developer is remarkable, but there’s a drawback to the game. One that makes playing the game a next to schizophrenic experience.