We eagerly awaited the return of Endless Ocean. Unfortunately, Luminous has largely disappointed expectations. The gameplay and level design are so ephemeral that relaxing while exploring the seabed is too boring and lacks any appeal.

AFK Journey can currently be considered the state of the art of idle RPG with gacha elements, although this doesn't mean much for those who don't digest this type of semi-automatic games. It is a refinement of AFK Arena in many aspects, from aesthetics to gameplay, although in others, such as in terms of narrative and character charisma, much more could have been done.

Phantom Fury is not bad, but it's a forgettable experience. It would be an iper boomer shooter, but fall short of its ambitions.

Sand Land is just a good game, as some would say: an enjoyable but in many ways dated experience, that brings Akira Toriyama's style to the screen with stunning cel shading that, however, is not supported by animations up to the mark, while the desert maps that characterize the main setting prove to be very uninteresting to explore. The vehicles work well in the game, however, as does the combat, and in the end ILCA takes home a decent result that Sand Land fans will appreciate.

Another Crab's Treasure is a soulslike action and platform game that manages to come up with some original ideas and knows how to entertain. It is a pity that it drags a bit in the ending, stretching the last section too long, but overall it is an adventure that we recommend, both for its good combat system and for its story, which in a mostly cheerful and comic way tells about the evil of pollution and capitalism.

Stellar Blade has exceeded our expectations, once again demonstrating how the Korean development ecosystem is not lacking in talented teams. It's certainly not a flawless game, and it suffers somewhat from direct comparison with its main inspirations, never really reaching their heights. However, it is a fast-paced action game, extremely solid and technically impeccable. It's a very promising first attempt in this field for Shift Up, which bodes well for the team's future projects.

Tales of Kenzera: Zau adheres perfectly to the promises made by the team, proposing itself as a more contained metroidvania experience than that offered by other members of the genre. Tales of Kenzera: Zau is therefore an excellent debut in video game development for Abubakar Salim and Surgent Studios, and a valuable addition in the rich catalog of EA Originals. We are sure that Salim’s father would have been proud to have inspired - albeit due to incredibly dramatic circumstances - such a well done work.

TopSpin 2K25 is a world class experience, but Hangar 13 will have to work hard to improve on the depth and variety of game modes and get as many top 10 finishes as possible.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is an honest tribute to the genre as it was in the nineties. The severe lack of modern quality of life features might discourage new players but the gameplay is rock solid and feels Suikoden every step of the way. Which is enough said.

Harold Halibut is a touchy narrative adventure with a strong personality, due to stop motion technique.

We Are Football 2024 is a good step in the right direction. It aims to be a more manageable and user-friendly version of Football Manager, but it needs more realism in the simulation and a better match engine.

Ereban: Shadow Legacy is a very traditional and very derivative stealth game that definitely delivers an enjoyable experience for fans of this subgenre.

Headquarters: World War 2 is a compelling turn strategy game that evolves the XCOM formula.

Broken Roads is an old-school role-playing game that draws heavily from revered classics like Wasteland, Fallout (especially in terms of settings), and Planescape: Torment. With its well-established and ever-relevant mechanics, it manages to engage veteran players, primarily due to its intriguing plot and multiple-choice dialogues, which allow for extensive replayability. It’s a shame that certain aspects are neglected, although this can be partially justified by the available resources: with five years of development, more could have been achieved.

Death Noodle Delivery is the Cyberpunk version of Paperboy with a compelling story to tell and an ending that makes you think about the nature of video games themself.

Children of the Sun is no rough diamond. Maybe a harsh diamond. Actually, it's not even a diamond. It's a lump of coal that no one wants, but some people fall in love with. Somehow, the vengeful journey of the young girl who has lost everything because of broken promises, in its darkness, in its boundless cruelty, manages to capture you. This trajectory of death makes one feel like the conductor of a macabre ballad. A small work not for everyone, but worth trying.

Botany Manor is a solid puzzle game that lasts just long enough and is able to tell an interesting and more exciting story than we would have expected. It manages to do this gently and without ever overdoing it, with just a few lines to read here and there that are enough to tell us everything we need, both in terms of play and narrative, without wasting our time or boring us. If you like the genre we absolutely recommend it, just don't expect a particularly high level of challenge.

Geneforge 2 - Infestation is a role-playing game in which the role concept is developed in every possible way.

TerraTech World is a solid and intelligent game, creative and compelling in its own small way. However, this is not enough to mitigate the negative effect of some questionable choices.

Despite some flaws, Pepper Grinder is far from being an unsatisfactory video game. In an industry where quality has now become synonymous with quantity, the game developed by Ahr Ech and published by Devolver Digital goes against the grain. Nothing too complex, but complexity is certainly not required to propose a fun, old-fashioned adventure that looks more to the past than forward, while still being able to amaze with the "little" it has to offer.

MLB The Show 24 is an amazing baseball showcase. It plays well, it's full of content and it's beautiful to look at. It doesn't have any major improvements and the old generation of consoles limit its technological capabilities, but it's the place baseball fans have to go.

Horizon Forbidden West comes to PC with one of the best conversions in recent years: an extremely polished and careful work, which does not miss anything on the front of adjustments and support for the various upscaling technologies. All these elements combine to offer an extraordinary visual experience, substantially superior to its PS5 counterpart in terms of resolution at the same frame rate: a show of strength that cannot go unnoticed and will make you fall in love with PC gaming all over again.

South Park: Snow Day! doesn't live up to the franchise's past triumphs in the gaming sphere because it's repetitive, unoriginal and fun only with friends who are fans of the series.

Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile aims to become the best shooter available on iOS and Android and delivers an already rock-solid setup both in terms of gameplay, game modes and content.

Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection includes two games that are still able to entertain. The developer has not particularly improved the graphics and online games suffer from various problems. However, if you are a fan of the brand, you will discover and rediscover a pair of shooters that are still fun even in single-player.

An amazing porting for one of the most compelling RPG ever.

Bears in Space is an old school shooter game that makes you lough, challenges you and gets you involved in an absurd world that's absolutely worth exploring.

Perhaps we had set our expectations too high for Dragon's Dogma 2. We were hoping it would be an RPG capable of erasing all the uncertainties of the original and fully leveraging its huge potential. Instead, some of the most obtuse elements of the progenitor have remained in this sort of sequel/remake, proving to be concepts genuinely desired by the team and not included due to a lack of resources. No, this is not a perfect game, yet even with its shortcomings, it retains all the charm of its predecessor, representing once again a truly unique experience in the genre and evolving its most peculiar aspects. All things considered, Itsuno did what he wanted to do; who knows if this time it will reach the desired peaks with a potential expansion.

Rise of the Ronin is the result of Team Ninja's desire to evolve its pure action-based formula through an open-world structure: at its core, the great strengths remain the same as always, but the paradigm shift has not brought the hoped-for benefits. The combat system is indeed a deep, layered, and accessible amalgamation that delivers excellent sensations, in some ways akin to a fighting game, yet the framework in which it is placed never really manages to serve its purpose. The world-building is classic, the activities are very simplistic, the graphic section and technical execution are absolutely not up to date, while the historical setting is extremely interesting but ends up limiting the scenery and aesthetic design.

Princess Peach: Showtime!, even considering the target audience and disregarding the very low difficulty, is a collection of tasty appetizers, lacking a proper continuation of the meal.

Alone in the Dark is undoubtedly an ambitious and researched reinterpretation, a tribute to the original game (and everything that came after) that delivers a new, compelling story, excellent acting performances, an interesting art direction, and nice puzzles but also a pretty sloppy combat design and outdated graphics.

Lightyear Frontier is a solid game already in Early Access, but still poor in content. A dozen hours or so are enough to get to the 'finale', but the problem is that the gameplay loop repeats itself too linearly, with no surprises or variations on the theme. It remains an enjoyable game for a few hours and absolutely succeeds in its intention of not being stressful, but those who are experts in the genre will find it too limited and may want to wait for a few more updates before approaching it. [Early Access Review Score = 65]

Outcast: A New Beginning is a game filled with ups and downs: on one hand, the freedom of movement granted by the jetpack and the speed at which you traverse Adelpha is exhilarating and somewhat refreshing, especially compared to many open-world games where even climbing over walls requires dedicated animations to consume time and inflate playtime; on the other hand, the inevitable burden of repetitiveness in some of the activities offered somewhat hampers the experience.

Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story is a trip inside one of the greatest developers ever.

Expeditions offer a unique experience, in an already inimitable series.

Contra: Operation Galuga is a classic two-dimensional shooter that fully respects the gameplay cornerstones of Konami's saga. Fun, even in multiplayer, thanks to the excellent level design and the variety provided by the enemies. It is not entirely convincing due to its short longevity and some problems with the control system.

The Outlast Trials reinvents the saga's formula for cooperative multiplayer. During the first few games one can enjoy the level design and cooperation. Soon, however, repetitiveness and limited gameplay take over. Moreover, in single player it is too difficult to complete any mission.

Warframe on iOS is a great experience albeit with a few shortcomings. It's great to farm when you have time to spare but is best to start your Tenno journey on console or PC.

Manic Mechanics is a nice co-op couch party game that, while replicating the formula already seen in Overcooked and other similar games, retains its own identity, thanks in part to some design finesse and an interesting learning curve.

Unicorn Overlord is a visually gorgeous strategy RPG with a compelling narrative and one of the best combat systems in recent history.

Foamstars is fun and stylish, but it has a lot to prove in order to survive in a very competitive market. It's the lack of content and the premium economic model (with very expensive microtransactions) the biggest drawbacks we see in the foreseeable future. Today it's just fun.

Trails of Cold Steel III is a quintessential JRPG through and through but we advice to take your time and play through the entire Legend of Heroes series if you really want it to pay off in the end.

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is an adventure with a deep and multifaceted plot. It's reminiscent of God of War, but takes a step forward in terms of narrative coherence compared to Santa Monica's title.

Atelier Resleriana: Forgotten Alchemy and the Polar Night Liberator is the typical gacha-style adaptation of a well-established RPG series, which brings with it the inevitable distortion of the classic structure. Those expecting a real JRPG will be shocked, but those who know what it is could find a good alternative, always within the perverse money- and time-grabbing mechanism.

Helldivers 2 is a wonder of game design, irony and fun with friends that is worth its price and has a bright future ahead of it.

Invincible: Guarding the Globe once again shows how a idle gameplay ties in with a free-to-play structure and gacha elements to result in a progression that proceeds as the game wants and not as the player wants, with all that that entails.

One of the most fun racing games around, but not at its full potential.

The Thaumaturge is presented as an RPG, but you should not expect great possibilities for character interpretation or a plot that at any moment can be heavily influenced by our choices. If this is not a problem, however, what remains is an excellent game with an interesting plot, which transports us to one of the best cities seen in a video game.

WWE 2K24 pays homage to forty years of WrestleMania with a Showcase mode that nostalgics will not fail to appreciate, features an extraordinarily large roster with over two hundred wrestlers and reiterates the relevance of My Rise with two new, exciting stories that they further enrich an already rather large structure including free performances, Universe, My Faction, My GM, the online sector and the Creation Suite. The experience proves to be very pleasant, even if it still carries some unresolved problems with the interactions, the balance and the technical quality of an increasingly impressive production, but which perhaps should pay more attention to the details.

Sons of the Forest is exactly what a survival video game enthusiast would want to find along their way. A year on, the title developed by Endnight Games now offers much deeper gameplay, which becomes even more intriguing once you leave the surface of the island, the true protagonist of an experience with deeply unsettling tones that will hardly leave you indifferent.

Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster show how remaster an old game showing respect to the players.

Regency Solitaire 2 is a great way to relax and spend some time in 800's England. With appropriate period music, simple but effective graphics and engaging gameplay, this is one that will keep you glued to the screen for quite a while.

Promenade is the typical project that brings together different suggestions from well-known examples but which turns out to be something much more than the simple sum of the parts. A truly precious 2D platformer for its ability to amaze and entertain.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake is both an excellent opportunity for new players and entirely superfluous for those who already know the original.

Balatro is a poker-inspired roguelite that we cannot but recommend to lovers of the genre. Dense with content and challenges to complete, it has a dynamic gameplay, more strategic than you might think for a game also based on luck, and an aesthetically pleasing, if somewhat repetitive. Occasionally bad luck gets the better of you and you have to accept that, but it will make you want to play one more game.

Trails of Cold Steel IV is an epic finale to remember but the huge cast and anime tropes take their tolls on the narrative.

NBA Infinite arrives and surprises with the general quality of the simulation. What's rather strange is that it corresponds very precisely to the already present NBA 2K, offering an almost perfectly overlapping experience, rather than an alternative. There wasn't much need for another officially licensed sim with micro transactions, but some might prefer this one to the other.

Dicefolk is a roguelite that gives us power over randomness. We roll the dice, analyse the available moves and choose what our team will do as well as the opposing team. By playing on both sides of the fence, we can create more elaborate and fun strategies to field. Dicefolk is suitable for those who want to be challenged but also those who prefer not to play dozens of hours without gaining a single victory.

Solium Infernum is a unique, complex, 4X that deliver a great experience for the genre lovers.

After over twenty years since the last time it feels like playing a classic episode of Final Fantasy loaded with all the magic of the '90s, that ancient spell that enchanted millions of fans and seemed to have long faded. In the immense and excellently characterized gaming world, a party of state-of-the-art characters moves, ready to fight through a tactical combat system that approaches perfection, but above all to confront a landslide of extra content, including dozens of challenges, missions, and minigames with a unique flavor in which to lose oneself for over a hundred hours of top-notch quality. However, this makes it even more difficult to digest what happens on the staging front: a higher degree of fidelity to the original material would undoubtedly have crowned one of the best remakes ever made, perhaps one of the greatest titles ever produced by the studio.

Slave Zero X is a hack'n'slash featuring complex fighting mechanics that would have benefited from more time in the oven, especially for people not willing to learn dozens of special moves right off the gate. Despite its exquisite 2.5D graphics and good music and voice acting, gameplay mechanics are let down by its varying difficulty and an overall fatigue that sets in even before the 8/10 hours of the main campaign are over.

The journey is everything and our car is the absolute protagonist in Pacific Drive. The idea turned out to be very good, but the gameplay deserves more variety than collecting materials.

BEAST - Bio Exo Arena Suit Team is a solid and fun competitive shooter, which combines hero shooters and Titanfall, given the possibility of summoning a giant robot during matches.

We know that early access is a great way to guarantee good progress to the development of video games that require accurate balance of mechanics and the broadest possible feedback from the public. This technique has done wonders for the likes of Hades, and turned out to be an absolute wonder for Inkulinati too: Yaza Games has greatly expanded the space of possibility available to players, enriching the game content and reviewing in a meticulous way some elements potentially capable of breaking the delicate balance of the game. Too bad for the permanence of some rather unfair situations and for an excessively long tutorial, which runs the risk of alienating players.

Qomp 2 is a successful and intelligent puzzle game, much like the first one, but lacking the same conceptual freshness.

While it is not the AAAA production Ubisoft envisioned, as well as ultimately a project with in many ways untapped potential, Skull and Bones can rely on a number of tremendously solid aspects: the rendering of navigation and the sea, with its wonderful charm and the myriad discoveries that can be made; the combat system, surprisingly multifaceted and engaging; and the progression, very solid and well balanced, with so much still to be said. Sure, there are several things the developers could have done differently, the plot is glaringly inconsistent, and the long traversals are tough to deal with, but the chest we unearthed after so much waiting did not prove empty, quite the contrary.

Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance is one of the best Terminator experience to date. One of the few games to offer a faithful experience to the series.

Alisa is a PS1 era horror game made today with no compromises in its period correctness, for better or worse.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong, a remake of a classic for Game Boy Advance, is a well designed hybrid between a platform and a puzzle game. The multiplayer is a great addition, and the music really stands out. Anyway, it's clearly an handheld game: the levels and the adventure are short, and the level design too schematic. It's twenty years old, after all.

Quotation forthcoming.

Tomb Raider I-III Remastered is the collection you always wanted to see: maximum adherence and respect for the original work, the exact same gameplay from 28 years ago but a graphic design that enriches the experience with good taste, without overdoing it.

After finishing it, we thought that Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is the kind of experience that only a studio like DON'T NOD can afford to make and that should be rewarded even just for the courage shown to propose such an adventure in a completely new setting, although not exactly original. A rarity these days. It is not without problems, between having to retrace one's steps too often and the lack of some useful information in the inventory, but on balance these are venial defects for an experience that has proven to be truly engaging in many ways and which grows in the end, always proposing borderline situations that test the player from different points of view.

Ultros is a metroidvania that takes some conventions of the genre just to make them instrumental to the realization of something else, for example with the inclusion of gardening mechanics, admirably integrated with every aspect of the game, from the development of the abilities of our protagonist to exploration. Our hope is that the public will be receptive to a product of absolute excellence in every respect, son of an artistic ludic and philosophical vision that deserves to be spread and appreciated for its courage and originality, as well as for its all-encompassing sensual charge.

Jujutsu Kaisen: Curse Clash is a mediocre game that in no way does justice to Gege Akutami's original work.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is a bizarre mix of sensations. The latest effort from Rocksteady Studios is a fantastic game on a narrative level, full of brilliantly written characters, completely off-the-wall situations and truly epic scenes, which moreover can count on a solid, frantic and fun gameplay even in the most messy and confusing moments, especially in co-op. It is a pity that the open world doesn't support these elements with more conviction.

Granblue Fantasy: Relink is a must have for fans of the franchise who really desire to upgrade their favorite characters after clearing a short but fun campaign.

Persona 3 Reload fails to fully capitalize on the potential of the original game, leaving too many of its less successful structural elements unchanged, and daring little in terms of reworking dialogues and events. That said, it rests on foundations so strong that it remains largely enjoyable for anyone today, and the work done by Atlus on mechanics and technical aspects has nevertheless managed to significantly modernize the game. That is enough to dive back into its world, because the story of Persona 3 deserves to be relived many times over, especially in such a carefully crafted and polished package.

Stargate: Timekeepers is a well-crafted stealth strategy game that is slightly affected by the expectations accompanying it for full enjoyment. If you fall into its potential audience (fans of the Stargate SG-1 series), you will find yourself more engaged in the intriguing situations meticulously designed by the developers, challenging your skills.

Oblivion Override is a great 2D roguelite action title which will greatly reward anyone who decides to spend hours untangling its complex mechanics.

Asgard's Wrath 2 is greater than the expectations one might have had for this sequel. A content-rich, well-structured game but one that rests on an action RPG formula that has lost its freshness.

Lil' Guardsman is a Papers, Please who never takes itself too seriously. Not for this it is a mediocre video game, indeed: in its fantasy setting Lil' Guardsman can say a lot, thanks to its high-quality writing, allowing the gamer to have a lot of fun with the crazy stories of those who desperately try to enter the castle of Sprawl. Too bad for a space of possibility perhaps too large provided to the player from the first moments of the adventure: a more marked sense of progression would have perhaps guaranteed a more fulfilling experience.

Honolulu is beautiful, Yokohama feels like home, Dondake Island is irresistible, and Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth is really a step away from being the best game of the Ryu Ga Gotoku Team. However, not all elements are organically integrated into the adventure, the plot initially struggles to find its place and the right pace, and although the combat system has improved, it is still not deep and manageable enough to support the entire duration of the adventure which, in the meantime, with Infinite Wealth, has significantly extended.

Tekken 8 is an exaggerated game, at times shamelessly and proudly flashy, that has evolved significantly in nearly every aspect, but still has some steps to take in terms of tutorials and content to offer a truly flawless package. Overall, however, it remains an exceptional Tekken, capable of capturing more than ever that spirit which makes this series practically immortal today, and even of walking without stumbling along that thin philosophical line that seeks to please both newcomers and veterans of the series. Of course, the changes to the system are massive, and transformations of this kind can never please everyone, yet we are sincerely convinced that this is currently the most fun fighting game around, not to mention that it will almost certainly be properly supported in the coming years, given the history of its developers.

Capcom completes the conversion of the Ace Attorney saga with a compilation that does justice to the three games that make it up. The remastering work is good, but some more extras would have been appreciated. A must-buy for Phoenix Wright adventure lovers, provided they already have the first trilogy that boasts even higher narrative levels and are not allergic to visual novels.

War Hospital has a great concept and good mechanics to implement it but is plagued by poor QA, bugs and frame drops.

Another Code: Recollection is a remake of the two episodes of the saga released on Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii. The progression of the two adventures has been slimmed down compared to the originals and the puzzles have been recreated from scratch, losing much of their originality. Ashley's adventures are entertaining, but the time and the flattening of the gameplay mortify the experience.

The last chapter in temporal order of the Great Climate Catastrophe trilogy of Demagog Studio so far is an intense adventure with a powerful message. The Cub, with its post-apocalyptic parkour, is the perfect way to start this 2024: don’t miss it.

Tamagotchi Adventure Kingdom is an enjoyable, relaxing adventure that is beautiful to look at. The universe created by Bandai Namco literally shines through the game, with its locations and characters, prompting us to complete the various quests and collect the necessary materials without the backtracking weighing too heavily.

Vertigo 2 is an excellent FPS in virtual reality. The quality of the game, especially visible in terms of level design and gunplay, is reconfirmed on PlayStation VR 2. Unfortunately, several bugs and glitches make the experience less enjoyable.

Devil May Cry: Peak of Combat stands as a viable transposition of the Capcom series to iOS and Android, in the form of a visually nice but not gorgeous action RPG that focuses precisely on combat and leaves very little room for any other mechanics, from exploration to puzzles.

Same masterpiece, but with much more content and a new addictive mode. It's not great as a remaster, but it excels as a deluxe edition.

Puzzle & Dragons Story is unable to completely abandon some distortions inherent in its gameplay, such as the excessive tendency towards grinding, however the distribution through Apple Arcade at least alleviates this aspect by eliminating the specter of microtransactions. For the rest, it remains the usual perfect mechanism between puzzle and role-playing progression, peppered with many creatures that are easy to become attached to.

Ubisoft Montpellier may not have created the most original game around, true, but the team's latest creation does not just copy: The Lost Crown makes the best use of what has made some of the greatest metroidvanias of the genre great, and manages to stand out from the crowd with its quality. A great game that any action lover should try.

Black Clover M is a great, pleasant surprise: a strategy RPG game endowed with incredible graphics and a solid gameplay, but also a fair amount of depth and gacha mechanics that are not overly invasive, especially during the first few hours of a campaign that promises a lot of content.

Universe for Sale is a visual novel with a traditional narrative approach, but not devoid of original ideas. Simply excellent from a visual point of view, Universe for Sale proves to be a valid and engaging work, able to excite and convince those who are carried away by its galactical mystery. We point out that on Steam the prologue is available for free: to try it can be a great way to take a look at what the team of Tmesis Studio has managed to achieve.

Cookie Cutter is a video game made of contrasts. On the one hand we have Cherry, a completely crazy, foul-mouthed, vulgar, violent protagonist, perfectly aware of being a stick of dynamite thrown towards the brutal destruction of all his enemies. On the other hand, there is a virtual world that sometimes can't match the novelty of his protagonist. Net of this we have a very entertaining combat system, with excellent battles against bosses and a good average quality of the design of enemies.

Embark Studios debuts with a competitive shooter like we haven't seen in a while. The Finals is fun, colorful and surprising.

Against the Storm is one of those titles capable of setting a standard, demonstrating how well-implemented design ideas can make a difference.