Prophecies of Ash is a good first step in the right direction for Anno 117: Pax Romana. The volcanic eruption cycle adds a much-needed challenge to the game and prevents the playthrough from becoming monotonous, while it can be switched off by those who would rather not worry about natural disasters burning half of their cities to the ground.

Set in a world shaped by old folklore, this narrative-driven adventure leans into exploration and discovery. Its time-shifting structure encourages you to piece together events from different moments, creating a sense of curiosity that builds as you go. While it has a few rough edges, its atmosphere and unique approach make it stand out in a genre that rarely explores this kind of setting.

Scar-Lead Salvation is a third-person roguelike shooter where you play as Willow, an amnesiac soldier trapped in a looping military facility filled with repetitive rooms, basic enemies, and a sarcastic AI guiding you through it all. While it has ideas like weapon upgrades, bullet hell dodging, and roguelike progression, the execution feels shallow, overly repetitive, and undercooked, making the experience wear thin quickly. The salvation of me reaching the end of this game definitely led to some scars.

MOTORSLICE is a fast-paced action adventure set inside a massive, mysterious structure where movement and momentum are central to everything you do. You explore a shifting mechanical world filled with hostile machines, using a mix of traversal skills and chainsaw-based combat to push forward. As you climb deeper into its strange environments, it blends platforming, combat, and discovery into a constantly evolving journey that leaves a strong overall impression.

A sloppy port sullies what is otherwise a solid survival horror experience.

The kind of cosmic horror that makes you ponder your place in the universe.

The Shore: Enhanced Edition delivers a visually striking and atmospheric take on Lovecraftian horror, supported by strong music design and an intriguing premise. Its early focus on exploration and mystery builds a solid foundation, but a shift toward action and simplified mechanics weakens the overall experience. While it’s easy to appreciate the ambition and artistry behind it, the uneven storytelling and gameplay make it more of a curiosity than a must-play.

Adorable Adventures is a relaxed exploration game that focuses on guiding you through nature using scent-based tracking and simple discovery mechanics. It blends light puzzles, environmental interaction, and optional activities into a steady flow that encourages curiosity over challenge. Overall, it delivers a calm, low-pressure experience built around exploration, collection, and small moments of progression.

The Shadow Update builds on what already works and expands it in ways that feel thoughtful and consistent. The new characters introduce fresh playstyles, the ball types open up a huge range of combinations, and the added passives and building give you more control over how everything comes together. It’s the kind of update that makes you wonder how the game felt before it existed. With one more free update on the way later this year, it’s clear the game isn’t slowing down, and if this pace continues, it’s only going to get harder to put down.

Tamadotchi Life: Living the Dream might not be the bold reinvention some fans hoped for, but it doesn’t need to be to recapture the series’ charm. Even with its missing legacy features and a few creative tools that don’t quite hit the mark, it remains a wonderfully daft, personality‑driven sim that thrives on the unexpected. Perhaps what’s most important, though, is that even after spending a serious amount of time with Living the Dream, it remained funny. It’s the kind of game you dip into for ten minutes and suddenly find yourself grinning at a Mii having a meltdown or, well, trying to stop a Mii from making an ill-timed proposal to someone that’s just not that into them. If you’re willing to embrace its quirks and forgive its limitations, Living the Dream is a welcome, delightfully weird return to one of Nintendo’s most eccentric worlds, and an even better introduction to those yet to familiarise themselves with the Tamadotchi universe.

Despite its many foibles, I still found it hard to put Starfield down. It’s a Bethesda game like no other, in that it’s actually best experienced by sticking to the main path rather than picking a direction and seeing what trouble you get into. The fragmentation of its narrative and structure over dozens of small maps robs it of the same spirit of manifest destiny that Fallout and, to a lesser extent, The Elder Scrolls. You’re not drawn to towers in the distance, to dragons on the horizon; it’s more a case of I wonder what Earth is like now, or if that ship in the distance will open fire on me, and is there anything worth stealing in its hull? It’s this fractious nature and the sheer drudgery of space travel that make it a tough sell to even fans of other Bethesda RPGs. But if you’re a sucker for secret sects and a cosmological mystery, chances are Starfield will be a trip into the bleak emptiness of space you’ll want to take.

WRATH: Aeon of Ruin VR - Brutal Edition drops you into a dying world where constant movement and quick decisions are the only way to survive. You push through large, secret-filled levels using a mix of ranged weapons, close combat, and fast traversal tools that keep every fight in motion. It’s a gritty, old-school inspired VR shooter that thrives on speed, pressure, and learning to stay one step ahead of everything coming at you.

The Day I Became a Bird is a short, cozy narrative adventure that tells a simple but heartfelt story about childhood feelings and imagination. You move through small, relaxed interactions and light puzzles that focus more on atmosphere than challenge. While it doesn’t offer much depth or replay value, its charm, visuals, and tone leave a gentle, lasting impression.

ChainStaff is a fast-paced action platformer built around a single, highly flexible weapon that blends combat and movement into one system. You explore alien-infested environments while making choices that affect your abilities, progression, and how the story unfolds. It’s a game focused on experimentation, replayability, and learning how to master its unique traversal and combat flow.

Aphelion is a beautifully created game by Dontnod and while it's gameplay has its issues, the narrative is pure sci-fi perfection.

Tides of Tomorrow set out to overhaul the choice-based games genre with it's Story-Link feature and, while promising, it is a relatively shallow mechanic. Still, the original wrinkle it adds on top of a solid, albeit flawed single-player choice-based game is a welcome addition to the genre.

Saros, while not without some notable flaws, is still an engaging, intricately crafted, and intriguing roguelike action game that sets a new bar for Housemarque as an upgrade to Returnal in many ways.

Capcom digs into their past to pave the way for their future, taking the tight gameplay experiences of their PS2 era games with a fresh new hook.

A fantastic 3D puzzle game with relaxing music and beautiful touches of life in many scenes.

Devil Jam is a fun chaotic few hours enjoyed with cold a beer in hand after a long day's work, just don't expect it to be anything more than that.

Under Par: Golf Architect captures the charm of Sid Meier’s SimGolf with satisfying course design, but inconsistent simulation systems and technical issues hold it back. It’s a promising experience that gets a lot right, just not consistently enough yet.

Dragonkin makes a mild attempt to walk among giants. With moments of great potential and elements of great design but poor implementation and lacklustre performances, this game only manages to be 'okay'

Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel is not only brutally challenging but also very satisfying that is made for people who enjoy this genre and it plays remarkably well on the Steam Deck with responsive controls and only occasional performance hiccups. It’s not without frustrations as the difficulty spikes, reliance on RNG and late‑game grind can make the experience uneven once the early novelty wears off. But if you enjoy survivor‑style games and want something with a darker, more atmospheric twist, this is absolutely worth your time, so expect a mix of triumphant runs and the occasional boss that ends your hopes before you can blink.

Ereban: Shadow Legacy is a tightly designed stealth experience that focuses on clever movement, shadow mechanics, and thoughtful level design. Its systems are simple to understand but surprisingly flexible, encouraging you to experiment with different routes, abilities, and playstyles across its compact chapters. While it has a few minor rough edges, the game’s creativity and clear passion from the developers make it an impressive and memorable debut.

Ascendance is a nostalgia-filled title that is not even worthy of borrowing the titular name of the franchise, let alone be the title that the fans waited decades for: it’s an unredeemable abomination.

RACCOIN: Coin Pusher Roguelike is messy but addictive, capturing that "just one more go" feeling as you chase the winning run.

Though the devs aimed for quantity and size rather than quality and coherence, exploring the hidden corners of Pywel to engage in different side-quests and activities is a thirst that will keep any fan of fantasy action games entertained for tens if not hundreds of hours.

The long awaited reunion of Max and Chloe brings some of the series best scenes, but they forgot to build a compelling game around them.