The Settlers: New Allies tries to reinvent the series, simplifying its city-builders core mechanics to make room for newcomers more familiar with the RTS genre. Unfortunately, the final shape is a game that struggles to find its identity and that isn't really convincing neither as an RTS nor as a city-builder.

The new chapter in the Blood Bowl saga fails to achieve the leap forward that fans were hoping for, amid unexplained absences and an excessive focus on the multiplayer modes.

Wo Long has an addictive combat system, but also has trouble in finding the right balance: the new RPG from Team Ninja leans too much in the player's favor, while reducing the sense of challenge.

As a TPS with soulsike elements and a sci-fi setting, Scars Above fails to be a worthy heir to Returnal due to several limitations that make the game very different to shine, especially from a technical point of view.

One of the most predictable Kirby games in years, but it still a pack of fun for younger gamers.

Thanks to its unique mechanics (the Karakuri, the more or less permanent constructions fielded by the player), Wild Hearts manages to build truly lethal fights, in which the strategic use of resources and the study of the area really makes the difference. It manages to make exploration an active process, which passes through the customization of the environment and allows the player to really play a hunter at work, immersed in a world with fantastic traits. Action and RPG, in this case, are really interlaced. It's just a pity for the raw state in which it arrived at this debut, some stumbling blocks on a technical level (but the more serious ones have been solved) and a forgettable narrative part: elements that, in the middle of the action, can also lose weight, but that a high-end (price) game should still find a way to take care of it properly.

A very convincing return for one of Relic's more iconic series that keeps the best features of the previous games while also bringing fresh new ideas that change the way players can play and enjoy Company of Heroes. Will it be the best strategy game of 2023? Only time will tell.

A musical love letter addressed to fans of the Final Fantasy series, and one of the best rhythm games around.

Atomic Heart turned out to be a pleasant surprise, a charismatic first-person shooter with gameplay ideas applied almost to perfection. Leaving aside the uninteresting open world stages, the development team managed to create a world with a remarkable aesthetic quality despite the presence of several bugs. In any case, Atomic Heart represents a good first work for Mundfish and, above all, remains a fun and brutal FPS in its Soviet madness.

Octopath Traveler II is a small but noticeable gem, just like its predecessor, too bad that it indulges in past flaws without really improving them.

As a remake, Like a Dragon: Ishin! is nothing special, but fortunately the game, despite its spin-off nature and a few wrinkles here and there, has little to envy the other chapters in the series.

A must-buy for any PlayStation VR2 early adopter, the new spin-off in the Horizon saga offers a linear yet unique experience focused on climbing, fighting big Machines, and exploring a gorgeous world.

An interesting deck-building card game with not much content and boring maps to explore. Basic gameplay is nice and the four heroes are different enough to let players experiment a bit.

Wanted: Dead will make several admirers of old-time action-shooters happy, but it seems like a wasted opportunity and many gamers will find it frustrating and unrefined.

Overall, a nice roguelike game for both single player and multiplayer experiences. It has some rough edges and does not shine under any specific aspect, yet it competent gameplay and lenghty adventure could keep you entertained for a long time.

A beautiful transposition of the Wizarding World, Hogwarts Legacy is both a tribute to the Harry Potter universe and a litmus test largely passed by Avalanche Studios with their first, big and delicate project.

A nice platform game set in the wacky world of Spongebob Squarepants. Level are quite large and require a bit of backtracking in order to unlock everything.

Hi-Fi Rush is an energetic and frantic game, with lots of character and characters. Some of its bosses encounters are amongst the best I've played in a long time. The weakest part is its rhythm-based system, but the game is smart enough to let the players enjoy it even when they're not beating everything up following its tempo.

There have been quite a few boomer shooters in these last few years and to be honest, Dread Templar is not the best of them, falling just a tiny bit short of the likes of Dusk, Amid Evil or Prodeus, but it's still funny and entertaining, especially if you're looking for a classic FPS experience.

Dead Space remains one of the best survival horror games ever, and the 15 years that have passed are hardly felt at all in terms of structure, gameplay, combat-system and setting. If all remakes were like this...

Season: a Letter to the Future is strange. When everything works perfectly and you find yourself in front of one of the stupendous landscapes that make it up, which tell long stories without the need for many words, it is a work of art that leaves you speechless. The freedom given to the player to define the shape of Estelle's adventure and literally bring the season's sunset diary to life is a breath of fresh air, but not strong enough to take flight and the story ends up stopping after a few bars, interrupting a speech suddenly, giving the impression of having left something unfinished.

Very nice idea for a puzzle game. Graphics and sound are clearly limited, yet gameplay is king here and the experience is really addictive.

Forspoken is neither black nor white, it's a mottled gray of spectacular combat and magical parkour to be experienced within a dated open world.

If on the narrative side the differences compared to Three Houses may not please many, the many innovations made to the combat-system make Fire Emblem Engage a tactical JRPG of absolute thickness.

High on Life is a game that keeps its promises. Underneath a skin made up of over the top humor there is a biting irony towards a genre (old school FPS’s) which has far too many tropes to make fun of (and here not even one is left behind). The sometimes chaotic level design, combined with not exactly exciting boss fights, risks overshadowing the merits of the Squanch Games game, but a good sum of game mechanics manages to keep everything afloat, waiting for the next joke and the resulting laugh.

Blizzard renews World of Warcraft with a good expansion from several points of view; however who knows what qualitative peaks it could have reached with a pinch of extra creative courage.

A faithful recreation of the original game that came out in 1994. The original was considered the best in his genre for decades. This remake is "only" among the best today and it's an extremely good 4X game.

A fun and lighthearted spin-off, recommended for all Dragon Quest fans.