Red Dead Redemption 2 is an amazing achievement in terms of production values, but it is also a fundamentally flawed video game that leverages its seemingly infinite resources in such a self-indulgent way that it undermines both its storytelling and your patience for seeing it through to the end.

This is a simulation, and very much not a game, but it’s also the most graphically impressive console experience ever seen and one of the best adverts for Xbox Game Pass so far.

Giving everyone the ability to create video games is a wonderful thing and Dreams is far easier to use, and adapt to your own requirements, than you might imagine. Although the one thing that it teaches above all is that no matter how easy the physical act of video game creation becomes, making a game that is enjoyable to play is something else entirely. That shouldn’t put anyone off though, but instead inspire you with the knowledge that, thanks to Dreams, all that is stopping you from becoming a world-renowned video game creator is hard graft and a vivid imagination.

It’s not ugly by any means but it does all feel a bit generic, especially considering how iconic Fortnite’s map has become. It’s well designed though, which is the important thing, and ultimately has more in common with Call Of Duty: Black Ops 4’s Blackout. [Early Verdict]

An interactive movie where the gameplay is as basic and two-dimensional as the story and acting.

Whether Nintendo intendeds to reuse it for the inevitable Mario Kart 9 is impossible to say, but perhaps there might be some hint as to their future plans once the Booster Pass finally ends. Knowing Nintendo, they’ll more likely keep their secrets to the last moment but it really doesn’t matter because combined with all this DLC it’s difficult to imagine how anything could better Mario Kart 8.

Compared to other extraction shooters, Arc Raiders is very accessible and welcoming, but compared to Fortnite or Call Of Duty, this asks a lot more of players than many will be willing to give. Some will become frustrated at the complex maps and aggressive enemies (there’s a lot more PvE than there is PvP, in the average match), while others will appreciate that this is genuinely something different from the norm, which is what most people claim to want...There’s no way of knowing whether Arc Raiders will be popular on consoles or whether its popularity will last, even if it is, but the initial signs are very positive. This isn’t something you just throw on of the evening, while playing on autopilot, but if you’re looking for something more than that, then Arc Raiders delivers. [Review in Progress]

There is still a long way for me to go, and lots of areas Black Ops 6 can drop the ball from here. That’s even before we get to multiplayer and Zombies. All of that will come in our full review. However, often you get a ‘vibe’ for a good Call Of Duty game early on. A feeling that this could be one of the more important entries in the franchise. Right now, I’m starting to get the tingling. [Campaign Review]

Wave 6 is an excellent set of courses in what has been an excellent season pass, for an excellent parent game. Some might talk of Mario Kart 64 or Mario Kart Wii but for us Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is clearly the best entry in the franchise and by virtue of being so it’s also one of the best video games ever made. Almost a decade later and it’s not only as much fun as ever but it’s almost impossible to imagine how Nintendo might improve it.

So far Shadowlands does not disappoint, with the question of which of the four covenants to soul-bind to being a particularly tricky one, as you get to grips with the endgame content of world quests and dailies. Shadowlands is reminiscent of aspects from earlier expansions, such as Wrath Of The Lich King (even including the grind), but it has a style all of its own and a good sense of momentum that, so far at least, makes it great fun to play. [Review-in-Progress]

Although it’s undoubtedly fun, the biggest question for Helldivers 2 is its longevity and variety. We haven’t played enough to judge that yet but then longevity is always difficult to discuss with a live service game, whose future plans are always in a state of flux. However, especially with its sensible price tag, this is definitely the best of the month’s online-only shooters, even if much of the appeal comes from shooting the wrong targets. [Review in Progress]

Given it’s a free joke download, we’re not going to give The Murder Of Sonic The Hedgehog a score but we still recommend you try it out for yourself, be you a casual or diehard Sonic fan. Hopefully next year other publishers produce more April Fool’s gags of this quality and not just the usual tedious fake news.

It’s unfair to criticise any game for being something it’s not, so instead we’ll say that this is another excellent implementation of VR technology by Hello Games and despite all the years that have passed No Man’s Sky has never been better, resulting in another must-have title for PlayStation VR2.

We say the game wasn’t designed with VR in mind but we’re not sure that’s true. Capcom already did an excellent job with the VR mode for Resident Evil 7, so we imagine they had support for Village in mind all along. If they didn’t then the sequence near the start, where you stumble through the snow in the dark, is, entirely by accident, one of the best VR experiences we’ve ever had. [Review in Progress]

The 60fps option improves the gameplay to a small degree but, almost a decade later, it’s not the graphics or the story that impresses the most in GTA 5, but the open world design. It’s the one element that is beyond criticism and while it is beginning to seem a little old-fashioned compared to newer titles like Zelda: Breath Of The Wild and Elden Ring it’s still lightyears ahead of any of its would-be rivals.

For devout fans, the writing in collectable log entries might be more appealing than the main branching narrative. Some connect back to familiar characters like Anderson Dawes, while one particular voice note suggests cameo appearances from the TV series might be weaved in throughout future episodes. It’s fan service but it makes sense in the context of Drummer’s journey at this stage, heightening the atmosphere rather than pandering to replicate it.

We’re not giving this bonus episode a score because it’s only an hour long, and it will mean nothing to anyone that hasn’t played all the other episodes. But we strongly recommend both series to anyone that enjoys slow-burning interactive storytelling. We just warn you that, emotionally speaking, it’s going to be a rough ride – for you and the characters.

Even after just a few hours of gameplay it’s obvious that this is an important contender in the battle royale genre. Whether interest will quickly fizzle out, as happened with Blackout, remains to be seen but the early signs suggest Warzone will rage on for some time to come. [First Impressions Review]

Temtem already does several fundamental things better than its inspiration and clearly has the potential to be the very best, like no one ever was. [Early Access review]

The most baffling Nintendo release of recent years, with a quasi-remake of one of the GameCube’s worst games, that seems specifically designed to irritate and confuse would-be players.

Insanely repetitive, horribly shallow, and pointlessly easy – this is the absolute least interesting thing to do with Zelda on the Switch 2 and bad even by the low standards of the Dynasty Warrior franchise.

It’s a shame this is a greatest hits compilation and not a sequel but seeing the full madness of the series in one game is a wonderful journey of imagination and surreal humour.

An inspired piece of Final Fantasy 7 fan service, and a very good remaster, but as a standalone game the story and gameplay has very little value.

Zelda may have inspired one of the best Dynasty Warriors games to date but the end result is still well below average by any other standard.

An ambitious release that focuses on new animations and gameplay innovations but the execution needs refining, whilst matches feel too heavily skewed in favour of defence. [Provisional Score = 70]

It’s unclear how much Nintendo is going to market Labo as an educational toy but it certainly has great value as such. It not only stimulates artistic urges but making full use of each of the Toy-Con garages feels like the most entertaining science lesson ever. The potential seems limitless and while Labo may not be a video game – and in that sense will provide little relief to Switch owners looking for something new to play – it could well be the next big thing. For big kids as well as little ones.

After the career high of Silent Hill 2, Bloober Team return to their usual routine, with a Frankenstein’s monster of other people’s ideas – all of which are expressed better elsewhere.

A worse game than the already flawed original, whose poorly crafted action is as ineffective as its clichéd attempts at horror.

The Heist is by no means essential but it marks a decent start to what could be another intriguing Spider-Man story. However, it’s already clear that these post-launch adventures will only extend, not enhance, your overall experience with the original game.

It always sounded like a bad idea, but although Zelda has inspired one of the best Dynasty Warriors games to date the end result is still well below average by any other standard.

A mild disappointment compared to the first Modern Warfare reboot, that relies too much on nostalgia and old ideas, but the core action and multiplayer modes are as irresistible as ever. [Review in Progress; Provisional score = 70]

The future of MultiVersus remains to be seen, but if it is aspiring to become a go-to fighting game for both offline and online gatherings, nothing spoils the party more than the free-to-play shell it’s encased in. This model might make it more accessible to players in the short term, but when it’s weighing down the overall experience like this, it’s hard not to see history repeating itself sooner or later – even if you can butcher Shaggy with a machete. [Review in Progress]

A horrible disappointment that not only fails to capture the magic of its predecessors but seems oblivious to what made them popular in the first place.

The problem with the latest Kingdom Hearts is not a lack of new ideas but that almost all of them are awful, and that's before you even consider the script.

Rarely has such a big budget game been based on such a thin gameplay premise, with this bafflingly dull first person action adventure that begins to run out of steam by the end of the tutorial level.

For a game that won an amateur game design contest, this lacks in both imagination and implementation.

2001 is hardly the most obvious movie to use as inspiration for a video game and perhaps predictably the end result suffers from slow-pacing and a lack of meaningful interaction.

In Asphalt 9, skill is a distant second to car upgrades, a situation that generates weary acceptance rather than excitement.

Even without the controversies surrounding it, Yakuza Kiwami 3 is a huge disappointment, with no useful changes and a worthless new expansion.

Every year this moribund franchise goes without a complete overhaul the more obvious and unacceptable its half-decade old problems become.

Another big budget game more obsessed with impersonating its favourite films than creating any genuinely new script or gameplay ideas.

Fire Emblem has the potential to make a great partner, but this badly made and painfully simplistic crossover is as disappointingly dumb as all the other Dynasty Warriors games.

There’s a lot of promise on display in Metro Awakening VR, but on PlayStation VR2 at least, it’s not yet in a playable state.

Despite a fantastic soundtrack and interesting characters, the game’s lack of player choice and clunky writing fails to live up to the gravitas of the series.

A tepid sequel to Kirby And The Power Paintbrush, that even with its short running time barely manages to stretch it’s small collection of ideas across a whole game.

A hugely disappointing side venture from the creators of Pokémon, which barely seems to understand the rhythm action genre let alone try and evolve it.

Kirby’s games never seem fair on the enemies but this tiresome and poorly balanced co-op platformer offers little chance of fun for them or you.

If it wasn’t for the change in graphics this would get an unequivocal recommendation and even with that issue, we can’t imagine anyone that already enjoys Mario Kart 8 not thinking this isn’t worth getting as well.

Another classy retro conversion but Rare's platforming sequel feels older than it looks.

Temtem still isn’t finished, which is why there’s no score here, but Crema are making good on their promise of constant improvements and additions; so when it does come out of early access next year The Pokémon Company is going to have their most serious rival for a very long time. [Early Access Review]

The visuals still impress, but for a game obsessed with storytelling at all costs the dopey plot and underwritten characters in no way make up for the lack of gameplay.

Getting killed because of unwieldy controls is nobody’s idea of a good time, and Apex Construct rubs salt into those wounds by removing un-banked experience points every time you die. Although not all bad, its sense of adventure and investigation is marred by eternally clumsy motion and combat.

One of the best looking DS games ever made, but the gameplay just dosen't live up to the visuals.

The least interesting use of the Until Dawn formula so far, with a tedious tale of 17th century witchcraft that fails to either scare or entertain.

A shark RPG sounds like an unlikely idea for a video game and unfortunately the end result is even less entertaining, and far more repetitive, than you might imagine.

Backwards sequel that sabotages or removes all the best features from the last game and wastes one of the best arsenals in gaming.

Instead of high-tech thrills and survival horror chills, this disappointingly mundane thriller struggles to impress with a muddled narrative and unengaging gameplay,

A colourful and creative first person adventure, whose From-style asynchronous multiplayer, branching plot, and faltering stealth sequences are hamstrung by a very low budget.

Despite what you might imagine when you hear that Nintendo’s VR goggles are made out of cardboard this latest Nintendo Labo kit is able to replicate all those sensations and more, in what sounds like it should be a laughing stock but is actually a thoroughly enjoyable and surprisingly engrossing mix of VR, handicraft, and edutainment.

There are some great ideas here, with clever use of the dual screens, but the game in which they find themselves is far less entertaining than it should be.

A shadow of one of the former masters of survival horror, that is better equipped to bore than scare.

It may be a good quality racer but this is also one of the most offensively cynical video games we’ve ever played, and despite being ‘free’ also one of the most expensive.

If you’ve already played The Heist you’ll easily be able to imagine how Turf Wars plays out. In fact, if you’ve played any story DLC from the last few years it follows a very familiar path of artificially extending the running time of the parent game with the bare minimum of new features and enemies. But more of the same is exactly what some people want from Marvel’s Spider-Man and it’ll still be interesting to see how things end with the final DLC next month.

As long as you don’t turn on 3D mode this is almost as good as the original Wii U game, the only problem being the Wii U version wasn’t very good at all.

The third round of Dynasty Warriors vs. Samurai Warriors is almost identical to the first two, with more characters, more options, but even less innovation.

For those that don't remember the original this retro remake will likely prove a little too old school.

A terrible port of a game that is very much showing its age, and has no business being repackaged at anything close to full price.

An outdated and uninteresting Soulslike that takes an already flawed original and makes it even less compelling, with unengaging storytelling, bland visuals, and repetitive action.

On the surface It may look as cute as an ewok but the money-grabbing machine beneath is twisted and evil – not to mention incredibly boring.

The laziest HD collection yet, with just two titles from an eight game franchise, neither of which have been recreated with anything like the effort and care they deserve.

The visuals are incredible, but for a game obsessed with storytelling at all costs the dopey plot and underwritten characters in no way make up for the lack of gameplay.

Outdated action platformer that despite all its talk of madness is far too mundane in both design and visuals to justify its mammoth playing time.

A mediocre homage to Contra and a terrible adaption of Terminator 2, which has nothing interesting to say about the concept of adapting movies into 2D video games.

The ingredients are there for a transcendent action strategy but the reality is that Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. is disappointingly mundane and only fitfully entertaining.

The best entry in the series, but very far from being super – as the excitement of discovery is replaced with the drudgery of repetition.

The attempts to mirror the cinema of Akira Kurosawa work on a visual level but the story and gameplay are so empty and repetitive this barely works as a homage, let alone an engaging game in its own right.

It looks like Metal Slug but it certainly doesn’t play like it, which would be fine if only the strategy gameplay had any real depth – or the microtransactions were less obnoxious.

The Drudge are a sadly appropriate named for the enemy in this artless grind of a first person shooter.

It’s obviously intended primarily for parents and children to work through together but while the video game part may only amuse young minds the cardboard construction is fascinating for everyone.

There's plenty of potential and good ideas here but very little fun, in a game that tries to make a pirate's life seem as frustrating and repetitive as possible.

A more grounded approach and a fresh coat of paint fail to address the series’ inherent flaws, as the cheesy charm of fighting giant insects is lost in the process.

One of the least-demanded Nintendo sequels of recent years has relatively high production values but it’s still a dull, repetitive mix of tower defence and overly-simplistic action.

A thoroughly uninteresting roguelike that undermines the most compelling elements of both the genre and the Pokémon universe.

Bustin’ will not make you feel good in this shallow and repetitive asymmetric multiplayer, that is one of the worst of the recent crop of 80s movie homages.

It’s still going to be a long hard struggle to turn Dynasty Warriors into a top quality action game, but this is the first sequel in a long time to feel like it’s actually trying.

FromSoftware’s first VR game is full of interesting ideas but very little entertainment, with frustrating storytelling and tiresome puzzles.

Even committed fans are likely to be disappointed by this lazy and largely unnecessary rehash.

A deeply disappointing co-op shooter that squanders its excellent graphics on a bland and repetitive attempt to make a sci-fi Diablo.

Dumbing down Mario Party sounds impossible, but this strips out every ounce of fun or thought from the concept to create the most vapid Nintendo game ever.

A disappointing sequel that only compounds the failures of the original, while also featuring Double Fine’s least amusing script so far.

There are some fun ideas here, and Arkedo are clearly a very talented team, but this action platformer is neither as amusing nor as fun as it likes to think.

Mixing Pac-Man with Metroid seems like an enjoyably strange idea at first, until you realise just how bland and unimaginative the end result is.

Serious Sam is looking seriously tired, with a new sequel that makes only the most perfunctory attempt to doing anything new for the franchise or shooters in general.

It’s unclear how much Nintendo is going to market Labo as an educational toy but it certainly has great value as such. It not only stimulates artistic urges but making full use of each of the Toy-Con garages feels like the most entertaining science lesson ever. The potential seems limitless and while Labo may not be a video game – and in that sense will provide little relief to Switch owners looking for something new to play – it could well be the next big thing. For big kids as well as little ones.

The cinematic atmosphere is highly impressive throughout, but that's about the only thing that is in this weirdly inconsistent 2D survival horror.

A remake that is loyal to a fault when it comes to honouring the original, with gameplay and design mechanics that were barely acceptable 21 years ago, let alone now.

Another wasted survival horror sequel, that ruins its chance to make proper use of the GamePad and turns fear of the unknown into fear of the same old thing.

Despite the return of Zipper this repeats all the same mistakes of the last game and seems even more old-fashioned and generic as a result.