The Outer Worlds looks too much like Fallout New Vegas without being able to stand out. The few innovative mechanics it incorporates don't work very well and the exploration is disappointing, with ridiculously small, uninteresting areas. Still, at the end of the day, the gameplay is rather pleasant, the story and characters that grow a little more as you go along and the replayability can make the difference, as long as the "Elder Scrolls" formula doesn't turn you off.

Nintendo does not take any risks with a Splatoon 3 that is far too close to its predecessor on many points, a predecessor that a sequel that was already lacking in notable novelties compared to the original WiiU title. This is all the more frustrating as the gameplay is still very pleasant to play and the charm of this very special formula remains intact. As far as content is concerned, if we put aside the new weapons, it's mainly the solid single player campaign full of good ideas that manages to raise the bar of this lackluster episode.

Two Point Campus is an accessible management game that will delight casual players for its humor, its clear and pleasant ergonomics and especially for the successful feeling of making a university evolve. Regular players, on the other hand, will quickly exhaust the game mechanics and get bored because of the lack of challenge.

Age of Mythology was a banger for its time, and even today it remains a good game for RTS fans, especially those who appreciate a slightly slower gameplay system than Warcraft/Starcraft. Only Retold offers little more than graphical improvements and a slightly reworked campaign. The new game mode to be added post-launch may change this opinion, but today, it's hard to see a compelling reason to buy this version.

Command & Conquer Remastered Collection is a great makeover of 2 cult games by fans, for fans. You can feel the love of the developers, old and new, as they offer all the vintage experience to modern gamers, with serious comfort gains and many options to adapt it to different player profiles. All this without compromising the vintage gameplay or its difficulty, and with better music than ever before. On the other hand, however, it might discourage many players with its outdated graphics, its peculiar old TV movie humor, its pixelated cinematics and its punishing gameplay.

Below Zero is not a bad game, but it is a downgrade of the original Subnautica in every way. The scenario is less natural, the map is much less memorable and the land exploration, the great novelty of this episode, is simply badly implemented. An honest trip for those who are nostalgic for 4546B, but a useless expense for those who don't know the series, who will use their agent much better by acquiring the first episode.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order could have been a good, short, but intense action game, lasting about ten hours, but instead, it swallows the player in unnecessary back and forths, artificial obstacles, puzzles and chests hunts, which burden the rhythm and fun. We come out all the more frustrated by a predictable story that goes nowhere, as well as by its combat system very close to Sekiro's, but which is far from reaching its level of refinement and control, especially on the bosses.

On paper, Mordhau could look like any medieval brawler as we have seen for years. But in reality, it knows how to stand out with a combat system that is halfway between the arcade game and the realistic one, and a rather advanced personalization. We only regret the low number of cards and game modes, hoping that it will be completed in the near future via a few updates. However, everything is counterbalanced by a chubby humour that hits the target and will give you (at least) a few dozen hours of fun, with or without friends.

Solidly grounded, Borderlands 4 is a satisfying looter shooter, with a quest for the ultimate equipment that will undoubtedly appeal to many players. But the transition to an open world hasn't been entirely smooth, and despite all the nice new features in this installment, it's hard to get overly invested in the planet Kairos: generic activities, erratic difficulty, and an overall pace that's choppy due to too many dialogue sequences somewhat spoil the fun. Is this enough to prevent you from fully enjoying a 100% co-op game with very decent content? Not sure.

Although it takes up many of the mechanics of the 3rd episode, Trails of Cold Steel IV is unfortunately unable to rise to its level. The lengths in the narration and the direction break the rhythm and we fail to find the epic nature from the previous title. Despite the fan service and the diversity are not enough to erase the lack of novelty and risk-taking. Nevertheless, the very effective conclusion and the clever gameplay will surely seduce J-RPG addicts. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel has been able to offer us a great saga through these 4 episodes that deserve more attention.

Ni No Kuni 2 offers a nice addictive adventure with varied and original features. However, its simplicity and its little scenario make it a nice title without being a monumental slap in the genre. Without a doubt, the porting to the Switch is successful and offers a portable version that is pleasant to take everywhere.

If Sifu is not a perfect copy, it remains a very good game. Demanding but never unfair, don't be fooled by the low number of levels because you'll have to start them several times to master the game perfectly, extending considerably its life span. Sifu remains a difficult game, a kind of beat them up die & retry, even succeed and retry. If you are looking for a game that will resist you, requiring you to master its mechanics, then your expectations will be fulfilled.

The Metro games preserve all their qualities on Switch: efficient FPS with a gripping atmosphere, extremely interesting lore with its share of action, survival and stealth. They also come with their flaws such as the aging graphics, a sometimes limited AI and confusing controls. On TV, the console struggles to display graphics that are far from current standards. They lack definition, finesse and detail. In portable mode, the darkness in the tunnels of the Moscow metro makes it difficult to see on the small screen. If you only have the Switch and you don't know the Metro license, go for it. If you have a PC, PS4 or Xbox One and you don't know the Metro license, choose these platforms instead.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is a lazy game, devoid of ambitions. It copies and superficially applies the Souls' recipe, in a way unworthy of the studio to which we owe Nioh. It is a generation or two behind graphically, and its poor gameplay, unbalanced on many levels, doesn't make you want to dwell on it. There are some interesting ideas in the package, but they were so under-exploited that they might as well not exist.

Yoshi's Crafted World finally became a game for children. The best way to enjoy it for an adult is by playing with a young child. The recipe works then, with its excess of cute things and some ideas that should please all those who like to pull stuff to reveal hidden things. Still, the gameplay and the general atmosphere of the title tend to make the set very slow, like the soundtrack made of a single piece recycled on the forty levels of the game.

Rather modest in the end, Metal Hellsinger is a nice game with a great concept and music that accompanies it perfectly. You can spend a handful of intense hours playing it without regret, in order to experience its innovative gameplay. However, you have to be interested in the scoring based on the rhythmic aspect to linger on it, since it doesn't have much else to offer afterwards.

Despite all the love we have for the original material, it is unfortunately impossible for us to recommend this remaster of Shin Megami Tensei 3 at full price. If some efforts have been made to make the experience much more accessible, the graphical lifting is almost non-existent. The game still has great qualities, with its unique universe and its very strategic monsters fights, but we can only advise you to wait for the price to go down a notch before trying the experience.

The only big new game for the Nintendo Switch this end of year 2020, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is a little disappointing. As enjoyable as any self-respecting musou, Omega Force's title is technically flawed, limited in content and largely under-exploited story-wise. We may have expected too much, but this new title in the universe of Zelda Breath of the Wild was meant to cover an important part of the story, and it seems botched on many points.

Football Manager on Xbox is an acceptable alternative if we are reluctant to use our PC as a platform to play. However, control lapses, hindering the experience and making it less enjoyable. The hours of browsing through the menus that we loved become a process that we try to avoid as much as possible.

Overall, Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen is a good RPG even if it has its share of technical defects. Its universe is coherent and offers a lot of freedom, thanks to an effective combat system: pawns that are one of the best ideas of the game and a huge lifetime. Capcom has been able to pick the right ideas from the Western RPG recipe even if some of J-RPG's mechanics do not work well, especially in the interface or in secondary quests. The Switch port is good, even if some hitches are felt in handheld mode.

If you are familiar with the series, a detail will definitely jump out at you: Tropico 6 looks like Tropico 5, which was criticized for being too much like Tropico 4. A hard blow for this series which evolves too little, copying most of the game mechanics and even bringing on the issues. Fortunately, the crazy atmosphere under the tropical sun is still here in Tropico 6. It may help you enjoying your winter times, as you seek warmth and papaya.

Blue Reflection Second Light is not a game that will suit everyone, but it remains interesting on several aspects. Whether it is for the diversity of its environments, or the improvements compared to the previous game, which allow our heroines to evolve a little as we want. This second opus brings a bit of freshness with its new fighting system and it's encouraging for the future. And if you are interested, we advise you to test the demo.

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden really could have been a great game that could have made its mark on the narrative RPG genre. With an innovative concept, a poignant story and choices that make the player think and affect, there was enough to satisfy, not to mention some sumptuous landscapes, successful immersion and a well-thought-out combat system that could have been developed further. All these good ideas are ravaged by poor technique, NPCs from another decade, boringly repetitive gameplay and exploration, and uninvolving combat that deserved better. The whole RPG aspect of the game is unfortunately far too superficial and obsolete, and we're simply content to move forward in the story to find out what's good about it.

Hell is Us is another title that would have been better suited to being a movie rather than a game. Rather than focusing on Souls-like action or puzzles to offer solid gameplay, it attempts to combine these two radically different genres, and the result is disappointing. Finding an audience looking for both of these experiences at once is difficult enough, but they have also been treated superficially, even clumsily, because of this ill-advised compromise. It is therefore unlikely that they will satisfy the majority of players. This is all the more unfortunate given that the overall production is of fairly good quality and the atmosphere is sometimes incredible. Hell is Us confronts us with the horrors of war in a way that few games dare to do, but its message risks being lost in the wanderings of the gameplay.

Door Kickers: Action Squad is using its predecessor as a model to divert aesthetic codes and game mechanics. Where the original Door Kickers immersed the player in top-down tactical battles, Action Squad focuses on direct battles for immediate pleasure, all in an 80's American action movie atmosphere. Fun in small doses, Action Squad will be particularly enjoyable with a second person over a beer and snacks.

In one sentence, Rebel Galaxy Outlaw is much-improved over the first game, originally released in 2015. The essence of these two games is ship combat against a backdrop of a space western. Outlaw improves confrontations by offering a third camera axis, and by deepening ship improvements. Although the writing is disappointing, both the ease with which fights are handled and the atmosphere — which reminds us of Borderlands but without the cynicism — mean we had a great time taking down nasty space pirates.

Crimson Desert’s best moments come when you think about the game it could have been, were it not for its overabundance of clunky mechanics and its painfully sluggish controls. Riddled with glitches and systems that don’t work, Pearl Abyss’s first single-player game can rely on its sublime open world, or its core management system borrowed from BDO, to occasionally lift us out of our frustration.

Unfortunately, Avowed isn't that famous new Skyrim made-in-2025, with its vast, intoxicating universe, updated gameplay and narration worthy of the greatest games. The result is rather mediocre and dated, both visually and in terms of gameplay, taking us back a decade, and not for the right reasons.A disappointment considering the game's potential and the solid foundations on which it could have been built, and which is one of those games where you think “with X more months of development, maybe we've got something solid”. In any case, the PC version of Avowed is currently a failure, and fortunately the game is available on Game Pass day1, which we strongly advise you to take advantage of if you want to make up your own mind.