With Concrete Genie, Pixelopus gives us a visually impressive body of work. It offers the player the opportunity to become a true artist, letting their imagination run free in a magnificent world. Ash becomes very endearing in a very short space of time, and sometimes even manages to move us — we come to have compassion for this little artist who seeks to make friends and be free. Thanks to the presence of the Geniuses, we never really feel alone in this chaos — these little beings are a real success. The only things we were disappointed with were the length of the game and its replay value.

By returning to the fundamentals of the series, the developers of Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince made the right choice. Frozenbyte delivers a particularly attractive game with a neat atmosphere and inspired artistic direction. Even though the story ends a little too abruptly and we would have liked more challenge in the fights, we cannot deny being pleased with the game. Environments, gameplay and puzzles know how to stay fresh in order to hold our interest and desire to go further. The possibility of having up to four players and riddles that adapt accordingly are also to be welcomed.

You just can't be lenient with Ghost Recon Breakpoint - the feeling of failure is too strong on all levels. The "Realistic Division" formula is too imperfect, making it a bitter pill to swallow for fans of tactical shooters, and bland for fans of loot-shooters. Each of the ideas and mechanics cannot even deliver half of what is expected from a game of this kind the scenario falls flat, the staging is a disaster, and the progression is limited.

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair has reinvented the franchise where it was needed. We are not witnessing a revolution of the platform genre, but the beginning of its transformation. Even though this title has some flaws, it also tries to introduce new things. It explores many mechanics, and seems almost irreproachable in pure gameplay terms, controller in hand. We were charmed by this title, although it can be frustrating at times. Speedrunners and collectibles fans will be served, while the others will have a cute little game to get their teeth into.

WARSAW has potential and good ideas. Unfortunately, it is not well balanced, and the many constraints often force the player into frustrating stalemates — sometimes simply through bad luck. The history lesson is understood, but accessibility and fun just aren't present. As it stands now, only the most hardened and persistent veterans of the genre will have the chance to progress and have fun in the long run. Providing more reasonable difficulty modes or a progression curve — rather than sending players crashing into a cliff — would have accomplished a lot, and that's a shame.

Crying Suns is a striking and fascinating game in many ways, which offers an epic journey through the stars that will satisfy a while the fans of space tactics and science fiction with its rich and dark story. It's a pretty good game, but it lacks the elements that would make it a good rogue-like, the ships and their gameplay are too similar, the crew choices are unnecessarily restricted, the events are repetitive and predictable, the game blocks us to the last chapter of the story, etc. It will be necessary for the developers to review all this so that it can reach its full potential.

Code Vein has been able to surprise by trying to compete with From Software titles but still knows how to find its own identity. Its narration allows for an accessible and complete understanding of the story, and its rich, original gameplay brings freshness to the genre. In addition, the personalization gives the player the impression of being in a shōnen, with a sense of power. The dark atmosphere of the title is clearly successful, and the world is fascinating. Unfortunately, it suffers from its linearity and technical limitations. Code Vein is a good title on which we had an enjoyable time. However, we just hope that the follow-up content will be more effective, and that the developers will be able to push essential patches to correct its defects.

Some will say that the pleasure is short-lived, but Untitled Goose Game is a real laugh from start to finish. It offers fun infiltration gameplay, a very neat art style, and excellent animation — all against the backdrop of Debussy's Preludes, which adapt to the action on the screen. In short, the experience is simply divine. Few independent developers who have risked making a 3D game can boast of having achieved such an outstanding result. You will certainly not regret the few hours it takes to complete Untitled Goose Game.

The Surge 2 takes the premise and mechanics set by its predecessor and takes them even further with some welcome new ideas. The beautifully choreographed battles are a real success once mastered, provided the visibility problems sometimes caused by the camera — as well as the repetitiveness of the actions — are ignored. The system of crafting and customization through the dismemberment of enemies, and allowing players to create their own style of play, is still as successful as ever. Nothing new then, but rather more content and options — it's certainly demanding, but just as pleasing when we take up the challenge with an undeniable sense of power.

The arrival of this remastered version of Ni No Kuni: The Revenge of the Celestial Witch on PC, PS4 and Switch is good news. It's a joy to (re)explore the landscapes of 'The Other World', and to admire the artistic direction of Studio Ghibli. We sometimes forgot we were in front of a game, and not in front of an anime, yet the gameplay from Level-5 is as deep as it sounds. The possibility of having your pets fight offers multiple combinations. Whether you are a fan of JRPGs or Ghibli in general, you have no excuse not to dive into an adventure to help Oliver save his mother!

With its fantastic artistic direction, The Sojourn is a game to be recommended to fans of the genre. Even if the accompanying story and the texts of the scrolls remain rather vague, we nevertheless enjoyed following the epic tale that is told. The challenges are many and varied, with techniques that combine perfectly, and some present a real challenge. We would have liked to have been able to run, but peace of mind is a must in this game.

This cute remake of the excellent Link's Awakening does exactly what we expected of it, namely it allows us to relive the Game Boy adventure many of us experienced more than a quarter of a century ago. Be careful though, this is strictly a remake. The only innovation — the Chamber Dungeon customization tool — is not really worthwhile. With its diorama-style artistic direction, it is nevertheless a very good pretext for new generations to discover this classic — even despite the many framerate drops, which are difficult to justify.

A solid FPS with hack-and-slash mechanics that are just as strong, Borderlands 3 is a devilishly effective game, one ideally enjoyed with friends. Its four distinct character classes and consistent content are both arguments for this third canonical episode being a highly recommendable title. However, the experience is ruined by the many bugs, glitches and other wild issues that currently plague the game, although an inevitable first patch should ease all that. Finally, the overabundance of 'fart jokes' makes the game's endless conversations even more painful, even if a few quest threads make up for it.

With an inspired art direction and a rich universe, GreedFall is a quality RPG with rich and engaging content. However, it's not free of defects, especially in its production, animation, and graphics. We also lament a freedom restricted by invisible walls and a lack of varied movement (such as jumping or swimming), as well as battles that could have been more intense. However, all this fails to dampen the pleasure we had in travelling in search of secrets, or in constantly showing diplomacy to satisfy each party.

Daemon X Machina is clearly trying to replicate the formula of Armored Core, but it suffers from an uninteresting plot and weary dialogue. On the other hand, it offers a careful artistic direction and advanced personalization of mechas. Unfortunately, as the missions progress, Daemon X Machina loses its rhythm and the interest of players, due to too many similar objectives and a blatant lack of inventiveness related to the repetition of quests. It's a shame, too, as it's a title with such a beautiful color palette and controls that are so accessible.

Monster Hunter World: Iceborne is a fantastic expansion for the most committed players. Almost all the flaws we found in the base game have been resolved, and the content available is now quite substantial. Even experts should find themselves putting a lot of extra hours into it. However, it is not a revolution — if you didn't like MHW, then Iceborne probably won't change your mind. If "harder, better, faster, stronger" fights were what you wanted, then this expansion is for you.

The Coalition continues to pursue its goal of maturing the Gears of War series. With more lightness in the gameplay, a slightly harder tone, and a deeper expansion of the universe, Gears 5 could well be the best in the series. It's beautiful, it's fluid, and it tries to say something than just 'another war'. There's no doubt that even the most skeptical fans will be won over by this new episode, while new players to the franchise will also find what they are looking for — as long as they like a style of gameplay so particular to the series. If the story is not enough, the game can be played with friends — whether co-op or competitive, there's plenty to do in Gears 5.

Catherine: Full Body is a game you have to experience if you missed the original. Very few games tackle the problems of people in their thirties so fiercely and brazenly, as well as the clichés that separate the two sexes. All this comes with a layer of humour and a touch of eroticism. Otherwise, the new character and story may not be enough to justify the Full Body's high price, especially if you aren't a fan of infernal cube-based puzzles.

For this first episode in The Dark Pictures Anthology, Supermassive Games has fulfilled its mission — to provide us with a game that effectively reproduces horror movie tropes. The quality of the graphics and sound is undeniable, even it sometimes looks more like an interactive film than a game, and it gives little freedom. It achieves its goals by effectively and intelligently managing to frighten us — it's just a shame that the QTEs sometimes make us angry.

Control is by no means a perfect game. We're disappointed that some of the ideas don't go far enough, and it may seem short and repetitive to some. However, it is an emotional game, and a statement of intent by a developer which has lacked creative freedom in the past. Cryptic, captivating, inspiring, beautiful — those are all words that could be used to summarize our experience.

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey has gigantic ambitions. It proposes ten million years of evolution, condensed into a 10 GB game, and that is a feat worth highlighting. If you like stories with endearing characters, a precise goal and someone telling you what to do, Ancestors will leave you disappointed. In that case, it offers only a redundant and sometimes incomprehensible gameplay loop, with a pretty repulsive look to boot. For the more adventurous, Ancestors will awaken your most primal instincts to put you in the shoes of our great ancestors, and bridges genres in a brilliant way to serve its theme.

It's tough not to consider Astral Chain something of a small disappointment, especially when you know Platinum Games' talent for beat 'em ups. We not only highly commend the fight mechanics in this latest title from Takahashi Taura, but also its universe — original and supported by a high-class artistic direction. However, the overall game is pulled down somewhat by a structure of missions that doesn't match the studio's desire to mix the beat 'em up and investigative genres, and further by large approximations and other technical problems — all of which have a significant impact on the enjoyment of the game.

Undoubtedly the best of the four episodes, Faith emanates a lot of emotions while depicting society with a sharp critical eye. Despite imperfections in certain animations and a curious bug at the end, the title is a very refined work, both in terms of graphics and a sublime soundtrack which is full of melancholy. I can't wait to see what happens next.

We were transfixed by this adventure that is Remnant: From the Ashes. Not everything is perfect, but it is still very good. With this highly original title, Gunfire Games hits hard. We recommend strongly that you play with a friend, in order to fully enjoy this exotic adventure where death will often knock at your door.

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.

Metal Wolf Chaos XD is a very curious game. The humour and tone hits the nail on the head with characters and situations that overflow with old-fashionedness, but on the other hand we are dealing with a game that dates back to 2004. The simplicity of the game design means that after only a few hours we feel like we've done everything the game has to offer — and the awful artistic direction doesn't help matters. Only the effective fight mechanics and the unique tone keeps us on our toes.

Seed of Evil adds around ten extra hours to Mutant Year Zero. The gameplay is not improved, nor do the additions have have any impact on the gameplay. We spent a good deal of time cursing at the poor tactical and infiltration mechanics — just as we did in the main game. Despite joy in finding our stylish duck and cynical boar, we can't help but look at this as a lazy DLC that will only appeal to true enthusiasts of the game.

With Youngblood, Machinegames clearly had a card to play by offering co-op alongside their excellent reboot of the Wolfenstein series. Unfortunately, this spin-off stumbles by proposing an adventure stretched to the maximum — the fault of a superficial leveling system that forces players to chain 'fetch' side quests in order to access the scripted content, which is then limited to just five missions. A few good gameplay ideas, a more open level design (thanks Arkane), and a reduced price prevent Wolfenstein: Youngblood from being a shipwreck.