Asfalia: Panic at the Mansion is a charming, family-friendly adventure that feels like a step forward for the series. It isn’t perfect due to bugs, pacing stumbles, and light replay incentives that hold it back, but its imaginative world, approachable gameplay, and heartfelt themes make it a strong recommendation for parents seeking a wholesome, funny, and engaging game to enjoy with their kids. It’s proof that even in the face of darkness, a little courage and a spark of light can carry an adventure a long way.

With Cronos: The New Dawn, Bloober Team has cemented itself as a premier developer of survival horror games. Any lingering doubts after the release of 2024’s Silent Hill 2 have been laid to rest. It’s a tense, well written, beautiful horror game that I absolutely adored. The interesting story is engaging from start to finish, and the gameplay is a perfect blend of action horror and exploration that manages to not fall back on tropes of the genre like jump scares.

The Order of the Snake Scale drops players into the eerie mining town of Happy Rock, where a routine investigation quickly spirals into a surreal mystery. As detective Seth Vidius, you navigate puzzles, explore the town, and confront occasional enemies while uncovering cult secrets and corporate oppression. With its retro-inspired visuals, unique camera system, and Lovecraftian atmosphere, it’s a compact, but memorable psychological horror adventure.

FC 26 boosts its rosters, presentation, and a number of things already solid in FC 25. The standout is a new Authentic Gameplay mode, which soccer enthusiasts will love to explore and maximize its simulation aspects.

Alien: Rogue Incursion – Part One: Evolved Edition is fun while it lasts. Over the course of its 5-7 hour campaign, The Xenomorphs are clearly the stars of the show in this lovingly crafted horror shooter that makes Colonial Marines look like utter garbage. Though I have a feeling it may be better experienced in VR, this new 2D version is still a great way to play one of the best Alien games since Isolation.

Gabby’s Dollhouse: Ready to Party doesn’t try to reinvent the kids genre, but it doesn’t need to. It’s a low-stress, high-charm experience that delivers exactly what it promises: a safe, joyful and engaging digital playground for young fans of Gabby and her feline friends. For families looking to introduce their little ones to gaming in a positive and age-appropriate way, this title is a solid pick.

You can't go much better with an entry point into the long running Trails series, but Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter also stands on its own as a standout RPG experience.

I’m pretty franchise agnostic with karting… I’m not fussed about who the characters are as long as it’s fun and I can certainly say that Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is a lot of fun… even when I wasn’t winning I was still enjoying the experience. The moments you pick up a power that can either help you take out the opponent in front or possibly blast past everyone ahead of you really add a lot of fun to the game. The ability to adjust many of the different aspects of the game (including the racing speed) means you can adapt it to the sort of mood you are in, or the skill level you want. The only drawback I would say is the price which does seem a bit steep… but there is a lot of fun to be had here either in solo play or in multiplayer and who doesn’t like a bit of split screen racing. Either grab a copy now and get racing or wait for a sale and then grab a copy… but if you like karting games… this is pretty close to a must have!

I don’t have any criticisms for Final Fantasy Tactics – The Invalice Chronicles except the title. Sure, there are games with better stories, or pixel art, or strategic depth; or games with deeper and richer worlds to explore. But the longer I played Tactics the more I kept asking myself how they had managed to fit so much game into a small package. The balance of story, the intricate levelling system, the quaint pixel art and music, with the new addition of rich voice acting – all of it brought Final Fantasy Tactics to life for me in a way that I was not expecting (and I had high expectations). I reckon this Tactics remaster is one of the few games I’ll come back to each year just to refill my cup and remind myself how good this kind of gaming can be.

Rise of the Golden Idol is a superb follow-up that, although it doesn’t evolve the gameplay in any major way, it is still more Golden Idol, and that is no bad thing. Although it presents a more visually impressive tableau, the more granular modern tale doesn’t quite reach the same heady heights as the original. Regardless, Colour Gray Games has once again created a thrilling and deeply cerebral experience that fans of a good mystery (and feeling clever) will love.

If you loved Bananza, this DLC is a no‑brainer. It’s a banana‑blast of nostalgia and new thrills that keeps the jungle party going—and proves that Donkey Kong still knows how to surprise us.

A good, if flawed, F1-themed arcade racer that's mired by a host of smaller issues.

Hotel Barcelona is a blood-soaked, 2.5D slasher action game where you play as Justine, a federal marshal unwillingly sharing a mind with the murderous Dr. Carnival, navigating a hotel full of America’s most dangerous killers. The game mixes intense combat, roguelite mechanics, and branching exploration with quirky NPCs, phantoms from past runs, and risk-reward systems, but many of these ideas feel more like flashes of promise than fully realized features. Its punk-inspired aesthetic, grim humor, and aggressive style give it a distinct personality, yet the short runtime and underused mechanics make the overall experience feel lighter than it should be.

All in all, it’s a let down, but not a failure. It’s gorgeously rendered, and a direct evolution from the first game, but it’s left some of the grit and grime behind. If you are the type to love a city-builder, then you’ll likely love it more than the first, just know that there are some technical difficulties when your build number gets too high (you can drop your graphics settings to offset this). But if you were hoping for some hard choices and tough scenarios, the first game (plus DLCs) is the better choice.

Here’s the Skinny Microids adaptation of Death of the Nile: is a stone-cold groove. Microids has taken the nifty mechanics laid in their previous Poirot joint, Murder on the Orient Express, and refined them til they’re super fine. More than just putting Poirot in some funky threads, the developers have taken the basic plot of Agatha Christie’s classic crime novella and made it their own by expanding on the text by fleshing out minor and tinkering with minor plot points in clever ways, as well as creating a whole far out b plot that takes the already rad tale to some far out places. Ya dig.

It’s as stylish and as violent as the original while exploring more lesser-explored Lovecraftian tropes to tell a more intimate story about guilt, loss, and ultimately accepting your fate, as grim as it may be.

Silent Hill f plunges players into a chilling vision of 1960s Japan where beauty and horror intertwine in unsettling ways. Its slow-burn storytelling and haunting imagery build a sense of dread that lingers long after each encounter. More than just another entry, it feels like a bold reimagining of what Silent Hill can be.

Developer Sucker Punch has produced a fantastic realization of Ezo/Hokkaido, a region of feudal Japan that we don’t get to see a lot of in games, let alone explore in such detail. Along with fun combat, quests, and progression systems, Yōtei will keep a lot of gamers busy, not even taking into account the free co-op multiplayer modes coming in 2026. A must-play for fans of open-world action-adventure games, and a worthy, albeit safe sequel to Ghost of Tsushima.

A dumb fun Retro RPG with smart mechanics and a sense of humour as salty as South Park.

Ultimately, Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island is an errand-laden bore despite its well-meaning and laid back gameplay experience. The island isn’t fun to explore, the characters interact with you in the same ways, and there’s generally not much to enjoy here. While there are some nice backstories and secrets to uncover, the fact Alex is nothing more than a quest monkey sours the game’s exploration appeal. The map design is tougher to navigate than you’d expect from an island paradise, and the repetitive banal objectives will make you roll your eyes. There’s a lovely good-natured temperament about Mythwrecked, but too often it encourages boredom because of how samey it all is-and that really is a shame.

A surprisingly touching cyberpunk thriller that will stick with you long after the credits roll.

Call of the Sea is a first-person puzzle adventure set in 1934, where you play as Norah, a woman searching for her missing husband on a mysterious South Pacific island. The game blends environmental exploration with approachable puzzles, using journals, symbols, and artifacts to gradually unravel the island’s secrets. Its story mixes love, mystery, and Lovecraftian undertones, offering a short, but atmospheric experience that emphasizes mood and discovery over challenge.

An excellent entry into both its own franchise and the tactical RPG genre as a whole, with a solid story and a great soundtrack.

Midnight Murder Club is an original, fun party game with a compelling concept and price, marred by duds of gamemodes and quality of life issues that take away from the experience, but do not ruin it.

An addictive, top down rogue-like survival thriller that will have you looking around every corner for each new threat, desperate to find that next tank of oxygen or ammo, to survive another day!

Star Wars Outlaws on Nintendo Switch 2 is more than just a great open‑world game, it’s one of the most ambitious Star Wars titles ever to land on a Nintendo system. It’s a labour of love from Massive, built on an understanding that the heart of Star Wars isn’t just in blasters or lightsabers, but in lovable characters, high‑stakes adventures, and worlds that feel worth exploring.

Weltenbauer should be commended for creating such an immersive and exciting experience, one that respects the profession it simulates while delivering tense, rewarding gameplay. With additional DLC planned for later this year — promising new missions, vehicles, and gear — there’s plenty to look forward to for those ready to don their virtual firefighting gear and answer the call.

A wealth of content and responsive controls cant compensate for the generic tracks and lack of excitement in this light weight sim.