Like far-East philosophical quotes spread around the environment promote, Boikido: Heartfelt Reunion is a game about relaxation and going with the flow. Anyone looking for a directed, structured experience isn’t going to find what they’re looking for here, but those with some time to unwind here are there will be pleasantly surprised with a well-designed game that runs well and sets out what it accomplishes to do.

Projection: First Light does a lot of things right. The visual style is pleasing and the story is quite charming. The puzzles have been well designed often allowing for more than one solution to moving Greta through the levels. The many levels slowly incorporate new challenges as the gamer progresses, and the collecting of butterflies allows for multiple playthroughs. If you’re a fan of puzzle platformers that you can speed through, Projection will cause some angst, due to the finnicky shadows - particularly in the timed puzzles. Despite that, Projection: First Light is a fun, relaxing puzzle platformer for all ages.

Urban Myth Dissoution Center could have perhaps benefitted from a bit more streamlining here or there, but overall, it is a compelling and charming package that leans heavily into its theme and presents its story - however linear - with pleasing pixel graphics and a wonderfully atmosphere. Moreover, the ending is quite bold, but that's for players to discover and not for me to spoil here. This title may not quite scratch the itch for people looking to flex their skills of deduction and puzzle solving, but it should be a great fit for anyone ok with a more visual novel-style approach and experience.

Get Even is one of the most atmospheric games I have played. The music and sound effects do a remarkable job in setting the tone and the story proceeds nicely as your detective skills and memories build the narrative. It is primarily built around exploration and discovery, but does it in a way that is wonderfully entertaining. The combat elements work well, and the sleuthing and stealth all combine to make the game a fulfilling experience, one that has you sitting on the edge of your seat until you reach the conclusion.

Games that allow parents and their children to play together - particularly those that are fun for both – are difficult to find. And although Phogs has a couple of issues that can make the game frustrating, it is one that has some simple controls that allow gamers of any age to play. The bright colourful cartoon style visuals will also please younger gamers. The puzzles are generally on the easier side, but there are some that do provide for a bit of a challenge, making the game more suitable to those experienced gamers. With the holiday season upon us, there will likely be ample opportunity to game as a family, and PHOGS! fits the bill nicely.

Disney Epic Mickey Rebrushed is set to be a definitive edition for fans and newcomers alike. With its stunning visuals, improved controls, and the timeless charm of the original, Rebrushed is a delightful adventure for Disney and platforming enthusiasts. The playtime of Rebrushed remains similar to the original, offering roughly 15 hours for the main story and an additional 10 hours for completionists seeking every collectible. If you didn't get the chance to play the original, then Rebrushed is well worth your time. And even if you did play the Wii version, then Disney Epic Mickey Rebrushed is the perfect opportunity to head back into the Wasteland and get your artistic side flowing.

If you’re looking for some politically charged, bloody action, then Not A Hero will get your vote.

Chernobylite does a masterful job of drawing you in with its story, characters, and core gameplay loop. It’s well worth checking out, even at full price.

Showgunners has its fair share of new ideas, and it's best when it uses them. Moving around the world to find useful rewards adds an additional, relatively low stress, layer to a solid tactics experience. Meeting new contestants and fans, who are varied, expands the world and those that live in it. Inside combat, a lot will feel familiar to tactics veterans, but fresh elements are at least complex enough to sustain a playthrough. Forgoing procedural generation in contestants, defenders, and levels limits replayability, but it also eliminates pressure. You will never lose your favorite playable contestant for good because of a miscalculation. Their worst fate is a battle restart. Once the season is over, it's hard not to imagine the next as one with a plethora of characters who could be knocked out of competition for good, but the first season is at least good enough to leave you wanting a second.

In a way, it’s a shame that In Sound Mind has the fundamentals of survival horror down so well I can’t help but imagine how much more compelling it would be if it weren’t let down by its heavy-handed writing and dull enemies.

I must say that developer Milestone has done an excellent job with this newest version of MotoGP. The graphics are simply stunning and everything runs smoothly on the Unreal game engine that was added a couple of years ago. There's a wide range of game options that can be customized in order to suit all motorcycle racers requirements for difficulty. The only problem that I see for sports games like MotoGP is that it's kind of a niche sporting category. Americans love NASCAR and Indy and Europeans love Formula One; but how popular is motorcycle racing? I don't know but after playing MotoGP 23 I have to say that I am now a fan of the sport and the game!

Overall, Road Not Taken is a good little title.

The Escapists 2 definitely delivered on its promise: there's lots to do and many different ways to escape. However, sometimes this can feel overwhelming while playing single player, and so the game really shines when playing with friends or taking on the timed escape maps. But even when escape seems impossible, there's still something satisfying about playing as a prisoner and testing what you can get away with.

All in all, Nihilumbra is a short, but fun, puzzle platformer.

Dungeons 3 proves that you do not need earth shattering changes to make a great sequel. The game very much feels like a loving update to its predecessor and the small splashes do more than enough to freshen things up. Easily the most polished and refined Dungeons game to date and Evily as good as the game that started the genre 20 years ago.

The only thing I have to ask is: In a world where there are a few hundred Boomer Shooters released a year and a few dozen 40K games a year how was it nobody hit upon this formula before now? No points to Auroch Digital for making the most obvious possible combination, but full marks for putting together one hell of a shooter.

It’s clear the ‘Saga’ series of Total War has some issues to resolve before titles like Troy can be a success. Their budget and prioritisation in the series is without direction and with something of an identity crisis in a series that already releases annualised big-budget titles. To conclude, Creative Assembly has a lot of work to do in order to refine this class of smaller budget game before it’ll be a successful addition to their roster.

Beatbuddy’s soundtrack is simply fantastic, and the way it changes as you play is unique and interesting to play around with. The levels are long enough that you quickly become accustomed to each song and start humming along as you solve the simple puzzles. The overall length of the game is somewhat lacking, but the time I did spend playing was very enjoyable.

Golem is a cute, point-and-click puzzle game which features a stellar soundtrack, a unique art style, and numerous puzzles. With only a few directional issues, the game provides an interesting take on the puzzle genre. Each level is layered with numerous mysteries, beautiful artwork and a great soundtrack to compliment the visual spectacle of the tower looming overhead.

Do I think Iron Harvest has the makings of legends? Not exactly. But I do think it offers a unique enough flavor for anyone looking to sate their RTS appetite will find a good offering here. You won’t see it headlining any major esports events, but not every game needs to be the next big thing to be worth it. Sometimes just being different and relatively well made makes it worth checking out.

Dead Island 2 is a remarkably solid game, one that doesn't make any attempt to reinvent the wheel, but nevertheless is a more than satisfying mindless casual zombie-killing gorefest. It won't be a game held up in years to come as the go-to model for open-world zombie games but given its decade-long tenure in development hell, it's nothing short of a miracle it ever managed to crawl across the finish line as anything less than a complete mess.

Ironcast certainly is a little bit of fun, initially. But as you grind your way through mundane turn based battles, one mission feels like the next.

It's not a bad game, but imagine the possibilities if we can play with the other races, if the AI would do more than standing around, and if ranged units were more than fluff. You'd have a game that can measure itself with the best 4X games on the market! Until it does, it's the little engine that could, but did not.

Stronghold Kingdoms does deserve the honour of being the world’s first castle building MMO and it does -despite its presentation- do it well. The game’s depth and scope go beyond that of the regular Stronghold games and is guaranteed to keep your mind firmly lodged into medieval times for a long, long time.

The eccentric enemies match the exaggerated abilities of our heroes, and combined with the vibrant anime style visuals, make One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 a fun experience... even if there is distinct lack of talking parrots, plank walking and shivering of timbers.

Because there is so much to explore, so much back tracking to be done across multiple, confined locations, the player will have to travel across many, many rooms before significantly progressing. This experience breaks up, however small, what is otherwise a seamless experience of movement and momentum. And to a larger extent, these faults break up what is likewise a fantastic gameplay experience. If you ever wanted to play Alien: Isolation from the perspective of the creature, this is the game.

Like your standard Soulslike, AI Limit is set in a dying world that is on the cusp of being snuffed out altogether. Though, at least it's somewhat original in how this miserable state of affairs came to pass.

Evoland 2 has a little bit of everything. Whilst it’s not un-proficient at the many genres it tackles, it is unfortunately all ripped from other, better games.