The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes has come to revolutionize the series with the gifts their predecessors gave them. Not only does it fill in the imperative requirements for a good horror game, it spreads the implicit message that it's only in reach of the bravest to conquer fear, in authentic tests of pressure and choices. In a scenario completely obscure, where you can see nothing but feel everything, the decisions must be made and the course of history changed... forever. House of Ashes is, without a doubt, the best game of the series so far.

Princess Peach Showtime isn't Peach's solo debut, nor will it be the game she'll be remembered for in the future, but it feels like the ultimate start to a new and promising career for this cherished character from the Super Mario universe. For older players who have grown up with Nintendo and Super Mario, the novelty of Princess Peach Showtime wears off quickly, feeling repetitive and lacking in challenge. All in all, it's still not Yoshi's Crafted World or Luigi's Mansion, but judging by this release, the character and this new world have the potential for more and better.

Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville is a shooter for all ages, from the most seasoned in titles like Battlefield, Call of Duty, or Overwatch, to the newcomers who see their great opportunity to take on a shooter like their parents or older siblings. This Complete Edition brings new content to the game which makes it highly rewarding having it's place in the market taken back to where it belongs. Although the port is not 100% up to par in the visual field, it guarantees infinite hours of gameplay filled with pure joy and competition. It becomes more than clear: plants and zombies are lifelong enemies.

It's impossible not to be impressed by The Ascent's graphics and presentation: Veles has a remarkable vividness, while it manages to be simultaneously crushing and suffocating. The RPG side of the game falters for being superfluous, which unfortunately removes some potential from the game's action elements. Still, it offers a good two dozen hours of fun, especially if in co-op mode.

Sonic Colors Ultimate is a worthy remaster of one of the blue hedgehog's best games in the last decade. It improves the impressive visual spectacle of the original, but adds little features that significantly enhance the experience. It was difficult to make a bad game out of Sonic Colors, but Sega has the merit of bringing this title to the newer generations in a competent manner, giving the fans of the series a good game starring the blue speedster - something very rare in the last few years, unfortunately.

Hot Wheels Unleashed appeared without warning, in a fast, abrasive way, much like the miniature cars that lend it its name. The game is one of this year’s surprise hits, e one of the best arcade racing experiences in recent memory. It easily earns its place has the best Hot Wheels game ever, with slick, balanced driving and a phenomenal variety of miniatures.

With Outriders, People Can Fly managed to craft an extremely fun game, with mechanics that subvert the idea of a cover shooter, while maintaining a loot system that is delightfully mesmerizing. The frantic and aggressive combat system is so addictive that it helps to cover up the game’s weaknesses, such as the history or repeatability, since we are too busy dispatching endless hordes of enemies.

One Piece Odyssey has some pacing issues, and doesn't do anything tremendously innovative in the JRPG genre, but it will be indispensable for any fan of One Piece and gaming in general. It allows players to visit four previous arcs of the anime, relive iconic battles, and even reunite with some long-lost characters, all while keeping each character's personality traits very much alive. There are several hours of exploration and nostalgia waiting for Luffy and company.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is a testament to the perseverance of its creators in the face of extreme adversity. The technical problems are undeniable, but the unique atmosphere, tense combat and deep immersion it offers are unrivalled. It's a game that demands patience and understanding, both of its mechanics and its development context, but rewards the player with one of the most distinctive and memorable experiences of recent years. With the promised updates and fixes, including the full implementation of the A-Life 2.0 system, it has the potential to become something transcendental. For now, it remains like a diamond in the rough - hard around the edges, but brilliant at its core. For those willing to accept its imperfections and fully immerse themselves in its hostile and fascinating world, Heart of Chornobyl offers something that few modern games can.

Call of Duty: Vanguard is a brave and accomplished charge from Activision into World War II. The intelligent way the campaign was assembled escaping from documented events but honoring the different archetypes of the piece combatants, made us sorry that we are not standing in front of a game with a heavier single player component. The core of CoD really is the multiplayer experience which seems faster and with various experiences but with the same good old feel, albeit with an MP40 in hand.

As it was 14 years ago, Crysis remains a technical marvel – although at times PlayStation 4 can't handle the titanic task of 'running Crysis'.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is above all a nostalgic journey through the challenges of the 8-bit era, offering players the chance to put their speedrunning skills, acquired through a lot of trial and error, to the test online or locally. For the more casual players, or even new players, although it's a way of getting to know 13 NES classics, it could be short-lived given the limited and repetitive range of challenges on offer. Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition seems to me to be an excellent idea that will quickly become a title only appreciated by the niche of speedrunners and more competitive party gamers.

Minute of Island sis a game focused on transmitting strong and realistic emoticons. It allows you to feel what in reality you already experience in real life like the pain of losing someone dear, the sadness of wasted years, the urgency of fixing something instead of preventing it and the anxiety of wanting something to happen, and it failing to do so. It is really easy to play with Mo, through a controller, than to play yourself in real life. It’s almost comforting to play through Minute of Islans because of that. Having this said, we believe that the game is very well made and achieves the purposed it was designed for, in a society in which we are all prisoners of a virus and the will to regain normality is always looking around the corner.

Evil West fulfills its purpose with dignity and offers us a world full of hideous creatures, the kind that any fan of games like God of War or Devil May Cry will love. Although Flying Wild Hog has left room for improvement in the future of the game, it already has the formula for success: a good narrative and well-structured gameplay. Despite its simplicity, the producer's good taste is reflected in the artistic direction, design and gameplay structure that offers a pure and challenging combat system, as well as cinematics that make us follow another story about saving the world, in 2022.

Mario Strikers: Battle League is a fun game, with the fluidity and magical animations you'd expect from the plumber-turned-sportsman, and a remarkable depth despite its apparent simplicity. The Next Level Games project makes a strong commitment to the online world, where the main game mode lives, but on the other hand, it is too scarce in single-player content, an exchange that we didn't ask for. If we had to choose, we'd probably stick with the couch co-op, anyways.

The slight graphical improvements and the addition of a few modes, weapons and characters provide a plausible excuse to pick up Team Ninja's vigorous games, neglecting the multiplayer of the past. The base of the problems is not found in the texture and resolution update, but in the origin of this trilogy, with the negative points of the Sigma versions making themselves felt in some moments. However, there are several moments in which we experience memorable challenges and a frenzy of blows that make us stick to the screen, just like what happened 10 years ago, reanimating a series that seemed forgotten, in the hands of a new generation of players.

Sunday Gold is raw gold. Guided by a delightful art direction, Sunday Gold competently fuses the elements of RPG combat with a point-and-click adventure. While somewhat short and shallow in some aspects, it's quite fun and interesting enough to leave me yearning for more action with Frank, Sally and Gavin.

Nintendo Switch Sports is about the friend that smacks his hand on the corner of the table as he prepares a Serve in Tennis. It's mom and dad running to catch the shuttlecock in Badminton (nobody told them that the character runs automatically). It's the younger brother flailing the controller in the air because his safety strap isn't properly attached. In this regard, Nintendo Switch Sports honors that unique spirit that Wii Sports gave us way back in 2006. It will surely be a great addition to any group dinner.

Ubisoft delivered what it promised. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is another beautiful canonical piece for the stunning Avatar universe. With a new storyline and characters on a yet unseen continent, the open world game offers a unique experience in terms of exploration and combat, giving the player the exciting experience of becoming a true Na'vi.

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin will continue splitting opinions. If anything, all this division is a testament to the passion that this series has cultivated since 1987. Ate the end of the day, we have a mechanically sane, yet narratively inconsistent game, with meme culture contributing to the heavy criticism for a plot that is, in truth, very confusing.

With Devolver Digital's seal of quality, Wizard With a Gun cleverly combines the gunplay of Twin-Stick Shooters with the mechanics of survival games. The result is a fun isometric adventure with a double-edged sword in its simplicity - although addictive, it ends up being too easy, which shortens its duration and limits the challenge. Even so, it has enough creative possibilities for a few brave forays to save the world, five minutes at a time.

Despite some mistakes, Layers of Fear is a horror game that will remain in the memory of players as one of the most appreciated of this year. Bloober Team delivered exactly what the franchise needed. With some changes in the narrative and the introduction of new details, Layers of Fear solidifies the story, not only with new plot points and mechanics, but also with new animations, collectibles and puzzles . Combining the three games into a single title is an ingenious strategy, with the studio coming out on top of this challenge.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet takes two steps forward and one step back, much to blame for its performance on Nintendo Switch. Still, the new formula is solid and could very well serve as the basis for the next games in the franchise, with plenty of room to grow. With a whole new generation of Pokémons to meet and novel mechanics to master, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet will please new and old fans, casual or competitive alike.

Rainbow Six Extraction aims to breach the co-op shooter genre without much fanfarre. Supported by the excellent gunplay of Rainbow Six Siege and its range of characters, it has some interesting mechanics, but they are not enough to make it stand out above its peers. Although somewhat repetitive, it is a solid game that guarantees a good amount of hours of fun among friends.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet takes two steps forward and one step back, much to blame for its performance on Nintendo Switch. Still, the new formula is solid and could very well serve as the basis for the next games in the franchise, with plenty of room to grow. With a whole new generation of Pokémons to meet and novel mechanics to master, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet will please new and old fans, casual or competitive alike.

Circus Eletrique may not win a standing ovation with its juggling show, but it manages to respectably keep the various elements that it brings to tent flying in the air. The art direction of the game is phenomenal and the combat is quite deep and fun. The management may not please everyone, especially as the narrative unfolds, but it is nonetheless a very fun and accomplished experience.

The exclusive Microsoft - The Medium is yet another significant milestone in the catalogue of psychological horror games from Bloober Team, which is increasingly becoming one of the best studios in this area. Without hiding where it comes from, it's an experience horror fans won't want to miss, no matter how short. The duality approach is interesting and has enormous potential. I hope that the Bloober Team will get to work on it again and develop it more in-depth.

RiMS Racing is a truly unique simulator. And, for that reason, it may rub a casual player the wrong way. In fact, even the most passionate tarmac lover may have some difficulties, due to the steep learning curve, the need to manage individual components in Career Mode, etc. But, beyond that aspect, there is a truly pleasant experience, that RaceWard can improve if it develops the AI, as well as the Online modes and Career Mode. Outsite of the MotoGP titles, this seems to be the motocycling simulation with the biggest potential in the market.

Sonic Frontiers has finally figured out how to evolve the franchise in the 3D era, with gameplay mechanics that break away from the usual on-rails hyper-velocity of past editions, ironically giving a sense of speed like very few video games have managed. It's fun, deep and full of little surprises. You can shout to the heavens: Sonic is back! But don't shout too far, or the game won't render.

As far as LEGO's forays into the world of video games are concerned, LEGO Horizon Adventures is a clear positive evolution of the gameplay model and the collaboration between two universes dear to popular culture. PlayStation enriches one of its main brands and introduces it to new audiences, while LEGO evolves the formula of its video games, while studying a few more possible Horizon sets. I wish it was longer, without quickly becoming repetitive for the most demanding players, but it's well worth the hours of cooperative fun. All in all, it's certainly a remarkable representation of the world of Horizon in the plastic format we all love so much.

MotoGP 21 ends up disappointing on different verticals, even though it attempts to replicate everything that made it's predecessor the best game in the saga. The lack of novelty features is overwhelming, the career mode is a replica true to it's name, having only the new brake system and the arrival of the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve escaping the copying process. It is still a good game, but not on it's own merit. But for everything that MotoGP 20 was.

Atomic Heart stands out for its remarkable art direction and unique theme, in a retro-futuristic world dominated by the Soviet Union. It suffers from repetitive fetch quests, which intensely slow down the game's pace, becoming a barrier to the enjoyment of this virtual world. The story has to be approached with a touch of irony and sarcasm, but that doesn't always excuse some dubious voice-acting. Mundfish's debut has a few rough edges, but a lot of promise for the future.

Mario Golf: Super Rush is another Nintendo title that promotes fun, specially when enjoyed with friends. This is not a game to be played for many hours daily, nor can you expect an experience like Odyssey. Instead, Nintendo churns out a sport in simple practice with all that's charming about the Mario universe, creative mechanics that extend it’s entertainment element.

All in all, Immortals of Aveum is an interesting proposition, with an intense and fun combat system, even if it doesn't revolutionize the FPS genre. The world is interesting enough, the light show mesmerizing, but the plot leaves a lot to be desired, with characters and clichés we've seen hundreds of times in other games and films.

The introduction of a roguelike element in Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap results in a somewhat contradictory fusion. Setting up a defence with traps and tearing apart entire columns of Orcs remains highly entertaining, especially with friends, with constant pressure forcing you to adjust your strategy, wave by wave, map by map. However, progression through the levels is inconsistent and outside of combat it's simply uninteresting. Even so, Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap offers many good moments of gameplay, if its slow progression doesn't bore you.

The Smurfs: Mission Vileaf is a surprisingly solid platform game, with fun and varied mechanics, which always avoid being repetitive. Brainy, Chef, Smurfette and Hefty's adventure are sure to captivate a lot of kids, and please the adults that grew up watching the little blue beings. The true Gargamel of this title is its bad optimization for PS4 and the clear temporal (perhaps financial) limitations.

Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 – The Official Video Game gives you interesting, perhaps memorable, moments, but the lack of cohesion, the short duration of each event and the shallow gameplay make the game look more like an arcade compilation than an accurate portrayal of the Olympic Games. The fun is undeniable, but the ephemerality of this title is its biggest downfall.

The weak AI and the poor adherence from other players to Aliens: Fireteam Elite impede that the whole central idea from the game, a co-op shooter from the Aliens franchise, becomes real with its true potential. Even so, and for now, there’s a satisfactory gameplay that stands on the central mechanics of the game, which are enough to keep us interested. Until when we still don’t know.

Born in truly independent fashion, Out of Line gained its space and collected accolades throughout its development cycle. The result of this project (which was started by college students) is a great puzzle-platform experience, with a distinct art style and a story open to interpretation. The short campaign doesn’t stop the emotional attachment with protagonist San and the fellow adventurers we find along the way. The Portuguese studio made something out of very little, intelligently using the game mechanics it introduces throughout the campaign

Miasma Chronicles is another solid release from Bearded Ladies, who are quite comfortable with their fusion of turn-based tactics with a narrative element. The studio has already become an expert at playing defense, and has a case for venturing further on offense. Miasma Chronicles is a good starting step for newcomers and an interesting offering for veterans, even if it doesn't innovate, but it doesn't try either.

Rune Factory 5 is an ambitious hybrid between farming simulator and action RPG, converging in an experience that is both therapeutic and frenetic. Its execution wasn’t able to fully take advantage of the hardware of a home console, but its qualities overcome any and all technical problems that appear throughout the hundreds of ultra-detailed and enticing content that it makes available to us.

An exciting new game engine and a wider range of tactical options are not enough to hide an ineffective and, in most cases, dysfunctional interface, as well as numerous features that have disappeared since the last edition. The fans waited two years for this game, but Sports Interactive is telling us that we'll need to wait a bit more until it grows on us. We're then left waiting, and wanting.

Spelunker HD does everything a remaster should do, improving the gameplay and challenge of the 1983 original. But its biggest downfall is being a remaster for Spelunker, a platformer with very archaic mechanics, made for a specific type of audience. There is magic between the hours of suffering, but there are several titles in this genre that provide this type of challenge in a more competent manner.

Battlefield 2042 is the result of an attempted offensive on multiple fronts. All-out War is the major victim of this strategy with several questionable design issues that detract from the experience. Hazard Zone is a solid mode that plays it safe, without risking the formula established by other games, while Portal shines by bringing back the best moments of the old Battlefield games. Made with longevity in mind, Dice has an uphill battle with Battlefield 2042.

If we divided a videogame by stages, we could say that Tour de France 2022 is the leader in almost every sector, but seriously slows down in the graphics sector. The tactical depth will please most fans of the sport, the variety of game modes is impressive and gameplay is responsive, with a refined AI. It stumbles when it comes to visuals, which stops from being a true feat within such a niche genre.

Pecaminosa – A Pixel Noir Game is a bizarre RPG noir adventure, with elements taken straight from the classic 40’s and 50’s detective movies, but also with a pinch of demons, skeletons, zombies and other occult creatures thrown in. All this in a pixel-art style accompanied by a wonderful jazz soundtrack. A drastic shift in tone, repetitive boss battles and frustrating backtracking keep the game from being a masterpiece, but it's a promising starting point for the Portuguese developer, Cereal Games.

AEW: Fight Forever successfully fulfills the founding principle it set for itself: providing an experience that brings back simple, frenetic, fun gameplay that gives wrestling games back the arcade vibe that has been lost over time. At its best moments, AEW is all of that, but it still fails to be much more. The scarcity of game modes, a roster with gaps, the somewhat persistent bugs, and a Road to Elite far from the quality of the predecessors it draws inspiration from are damaging to the experience and don't give us many reasons to come back. Nevertheless, with promises of constant development and regular updates from the studio, we have reason to believe that there is room to fix these shortcomings and offer a more complete wrestling experience. It just isn't it at the moment.

If the original games were part of your childhood, then Oddworld: Soulstorm deserves your visit, especially if you have a PlayStation 5, as it is one of the PS Plus offers. The journey is long and hard, loaded with moments of frustration caused by forces that exceed our expertise. But if you are willing to overcome these countless barriers you will find a title filled with good puzzles and excellent cutscenes, led by a strangely relatable protagonist.

The Winters Family saga has come to an end with Shadows of Rose, a DLC that is a sort of epilogue to Resident Evil Village. The new content is brilliant and gives to Village a full gameplay experience. It's a perfect third person game for all fans of the franchise and also for all those that are waiting for Resident Evil 4 remake.

Biomutant conquers a prominent place in the ever-expanding universe of open world games. While it doesn't innovate in the mechanics it employs, it implements them intelligently, giving us plenty of reasons to explore a vibrant and gaudy world filled with adorable creatures.

Slitterhead demonstrates admirable creative courage, and functions less as a final product and more as a creative manifesto - a glimpse of future possibilities. However, the forced cyclicality raises questions about how such a promising concept - a time loop of supernatural horror - can be simultaneously so expansive in its ambitions and so claustrophobic in its execution. For an independent studio on its first flight, there is something courageously poetic about creating a game about a formless entity that seeks to define itself through others. Perhaps, in the end, that's Slitterhead's real victory: not so much what it achieves technically, but what it tries to suggest.

Detective Pikachu Returns arrives on Nintendo Switch with the promise of concluding the narrative than was born in 2016. The story is indeed told to the end, but at the cost of one of the great qualities that defined its predecessor: puzzles as a visual representation of reasoning. Gameplay has become an automated, unnecessarily simplified process, capable of insulting even the youngest players. If you're expecting Detective Pikachu Returns to be a step forward in this line of Pokémon spinoffs, through a narrative evolution and a deepening of the detective mechanics, you'll be disappointed. It's just another Pokémon game that validates the feeling Nintendo has left us with: the comfort of the franchise's success and popularity allows it to produce titles without soul or effort.

Gotham Knights is no Arkham, not by a long shot. Competent enough, it takes us into a fantastic recreation of Gotham City, unfortunately marred by activities that become recurring after a while. The combat starts off interesting, but becomes a repetitive waltz, stuck in a shallow crafting and loot system. Helped by a solid storyline, Gotham Knights is fun in short doses and can be an enjoyable experience in multiplayer.

There really is very little of interest The Teal Mask. Throughout the four hours of gameplay - which left me sleepy - I felt like I was playing an uninteresting filler, or some kind of visual novel with no content. The bulk of the DLC is dialog where you spend your time pressing "A". All of the story and characters introduced are nothing more than an excuse to sell Pokémon and cosmetic items to players, sneakily masking a completely insignificant story and additional adventure. Despite its flaws, and as I said at the beginning, here's hoping that part 2, The Indigo Disk, will be better and deliver an interesting Pokémon experience.

Minecraft Legends is a solid attempt to adapt the world of Minecraft into a new genre. In the process, it clings too tightly to simplicity and leaves behind the creativity that defined it so well. The result is a game that manages to be enjoyable, but often ends up becoming repetitive and shallow, as it seems to have been made with multiplayer modes in mind.

Martha Is Dead proves that an independent studio has the ability to develop a video game with the same graphics as a AAA with an excellent detail line. This is an intense journey while Giulia navigates through the topic of mental health, putting everything in perspective during an extremely heavy psychological drama. Martha Is Dead is not a game for those looking for a horror experience focused on jump scares, massacres or horror/spiritual activities; nor is it for those who want to see a finite outcome. Martha Is Dead requires an open mind, a strong stomach and a mighty power of reflection.

Blanc immerses us in a beautiful and exciting journey through a black and white hand-drawn world. This interactive narrative, without life or mana bars, without battles or complex mechanics, whose adversity is based on the circumstances dictated by a natural disaster and paths that always seem to have no exit, proves to be relaxing and fresh. Each puzzle solved is an achievement that opens the way for the little Wolf and the young Deer, deepening the unlikely relationship between these two and finally shortening the distance until the potential reunion with their respective families.

Hood: Outlaws and Legends brings together good ideas in a very interesting setting, it is fun if we have a team of three friends, but it does not disguise the notorious lack of content and a schematic doomed to fail into a routine of fights, which goes against the intention the of game’s design. The game would benefit from a story mode and a richer progression system with better visual feedback. It is certain that there is newer content on the horizon, which will promote other synergies and greater unpredictability. However the game runs the risk of not deserving the attention it boasts nowadays.

Gods Will Fall tries to formulate a dungeon crawler based on the principles of Roguelikes and Soulslike. Although the idea is good, both narrative and gameplay, some fundamental elements of the genre don't quite hit the mark, leaving Clever Beans a few notches lower than what it could be. Many of the problems can be resolved with some patches and by adding new content, which would certainly improve the experience. We'll be waiting, but for now, you can't help getting the feeling of an opportunity missed.

Imagine a future where Volvo found a way to make car crashes absolutely harmless to humans and, consequently, built gigantic arenas where 16 cars were pitted against each other, looking for the most aggressive and skillful driver. Destruction AllStars is the latest trend on PS5, not because of the representation of this fantasy, but rather because it's accessible and fun. I don't know how long it will last without increasing the cooperative options or if it will be able to survive outside Plus offers. What I do know is that it needs a lot more to become entrenched in the habits of Sony players. When that happens, yes, they'll be able to dream of living and prospering from cosmetic microtransactions.

Saints Row could be something special. It really could, but Volition still doesn't know how to treat this franchise, placing it somewhere between Grand Theft Auto and Just Cause, never managing to leave its own fingerprints on the open worlds it creates. The Saints Row reboot is so similar to the original franchise in tone, gameplay and content that it leaves you wondering why it was even necessary to hit the reset button. There is fun to be had, but it's hidden behind bugs, repetitive missions and a detached story that doesn't know whether it wants to be a caricature of other plots or a candid tale about a group of friends involved in the criminal world.

Dedicated to fans of the original World, Next Order takes the original game and builds upon it with an impressive array of content. The sluggish and basic grinding, mediocre combat, and an "open world" with no fast means of travel hurts the experience overall. Still, it grabs the Digimon fan's heart, keeping us stuck in the Digital World despite its flaws, something that gains new strength by settling better on handheld consoles.

Wanted: Dead falls short of the reputation of Ninja Gaiden's developers. Not only it doesn't bring anything new, but it also demeans everything that already exists, adding elements that detract from what is essential in a video game, regardless of genre. The characters are hollow, the story is superficial, and the combat, which should be the strong point, is a complete mess. In the middle of 2023 and with a resume of weight, it was expected a different result from Soleil.

Drag x Drive has Nintendo's innovative ‘feel’, it works beautifully as a use case for the mouse functionality of Nintendo's new console, but despite being very well polished, it relies on a naturally stuck gameplay, a victim of its apparent simplicity, which adds a difficult entry level and makes it limited on a tactical and strategic level. It's hard not to imagine what it would be like with “normal” controls, it certainly deserved more aesthetic diversity and options; but It's a good option to have at home if you like to embrace new experiences with friends and, by the way, it would fit in beautifully as a permanent Nintendo Switch Online offering.

Lord of The Rings: Return to Moria doesn't mess with the formula we already know from survival games. The focus on Tolkien's narrative offers good moments, but still leads to a relatively linear progression, lightly sprinkled with references to the journey of the Fellowship of the Ring. The bugs and the overly basic combat bury too much of the fun that the game can offer, yet fans of the genre and The Lord of the Rings willing to sift through these problems may find some golden nuggets.

After a long voyage on a rough sea, Skull and Bones has reached a safe harbour. It's not the disaster many were expecting, but it doesn't offer an outstanding experience either. There are positive and genuinely enjoyable aspects, such as the combat or the artistic direction, but these are swallowed up by the swamp of live-service elements and the time it demands from players.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare III is the ultimate proof that the franchise's annual release schedule is breaking down. The campaign feels uninteresting and rushed, the multiplayer mode appeals to the nostalgia of the community and isn't fundamentally different from its predecessor, while the zombies mode comes across as a PvE version of DMZ, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. All in all, Modern Warfare III struggles to justify its price and each of these elements would have benefited from a modular release rather than the hastily put together package we have on our hands.

Not much more can be said about Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Earthblood, a good idea that deserved a lot more time and money invested in it. There's a "low-cost feel" in the models, text, dated textures and even how the levels' design is structured in biomes to give an idea of navigation, even though everything is essentially happening in the same place. These feelings were even more contrasting when I reminded myself that I was playing the game on a new generation console. It's worth it for the fantasy it explores, the possibility of shapeshifting from wolf to Werewolf, an enthralling creature that gaming has neglected for far too long.

Redfall is stunningly bad. After past successes, Arkane fails the mission miserably and looks like a real fish out of water with the looter shooter. Between numerous bugs, performance issues, an uninteresting story, flabby and completely brain-dead enemies, Redfall is not even capable of assuming itself as a competent looter shooter and even in a group, the fun is a mirage that only appears occasionally and almost always ironically.

eFootball 1.0.0 version is a substantially better game than the one we got in september. However, it does little more than the bare minimum to actually be considered a game - what we had before was pretty much a tech demo. With an array of missing features and unforgivable absences in its game modes, as well as an improved yet inconsistent gameplay, eFootball is to PES what MK Dons is to Wimbledon FC.

MotoGP 22 keeps Milestone's Series in the lead when it comes to motocycling simulation. It falters for not risking enough, despite introducing the nostalgic Nine Season 2009 mode. Career Mode is as solid as ever and the driving is as solid as it has ever been, although the graphical quality leaves a bit to be desired. On the track, however, it's yet another victory lap.

eFootball 2023 does so much right on the field that it becomes tough to look beyond it. However, the lack of optimization for a closs-platform title, as well as the continued scarcity of offline modes, stop this game from completing its great comeback. The turnaround has begun, but Konami's is still trailing.

The latest game in Supermassive Games' horror series does not live up to the evolutionary line that the studio has drawn over time. After House of Ashes, this new experience was expected to follow the same formula. Unfortunately, The Devil in Me is a step backwards, where the characters don't arouse our interest, even though the scenario are meticulously thought out. This could have been an excellent game but ended up having an extremely negative impact due to narrative and performance problems.