Twelve Minutes starts off strong and pulls you in with an intriguing premise and interesting gameplay loop but is let down by a poorly executed shock twist, finicky controls, and occasionally obtuse puzzle design.

Even as a simple party game, it's difficult to recommend Frantics. There's just nothing that really stands out as a high point. It's flawed in almost every way that really matters and doesn't offer the levels of entertainment one would hope to get from a game like this.

Crackdown 3 offers occasional glimpses of fun, but it's far too bogged down by outdated mechanics, bugs, and disappointing multiplayer to be worth anywhere near the full asking price.

There is a moderately intriguing narrative in Thalassa: Edge of the Abyss as you solve mysteries within a well-preserved shipwreck, but flimsy clues, tedious wandering, and technical blemishes mean playing it can be like fighting to keep your head above water.

Skull and Bones may have survived the turbulent seas of its long voyage to release, but the end result is a game that's barely kept afloat by its solid sailing mechanics, while the uninspiring content, underwhelming presentation, and poor multiplayer design punch far too many holes in the hull.

While some walking sims have evolved, Open Roads is stuck in the past. Its two good characters cannot offset the bland interactivity and mystery that is as flat as the game's 2D conversations.

Although still impressive and unmatched in its scale, the 2024 sequel to Microsoft Flight Simulator can't be carried by its novelty alone. The added career mode seems competent on paper, and being able to step outside your aircraft adds immersion. But the entire experience is hamstrung by very disappointing visuals and data streaming issues, as well as plentiful bugs and design shortcomings.

The Dark Pictures: The Devil in Me has a promising start but ends up being a lackluster final game in the first season of this horror Anthology. Although the formula can still work, as demonstrated by The Quarry, with bland gameplay and uninteresting characters this sub-series clearly needs a facelift.

Atomic Heart’s captivating Soviet robo-topia crumbles under the weight of a poorly delivered story, clunky action, unnecessary open-world traversal, and a glut of technical issues.

Though ambitious and offering a powerful suite of creation tools for meticulous brick builders, LEGO Worlds is let down by its awkward controls, repetitive quests, an overlong trek to collect Gold Bricks, and a ton of technical issues.

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics isn't a swing and miss, because there wasn't a swing. This is a quirky and strangely-charming world, but the game has dulled it to a bog-standard strategy game, leaving behind the technical prowess that made the show interesting, and playing it safe in a way The Dark Crystal creator, Jim Henson, never would.

Mothergunship has some interesting ideas and unique gameplay mechanics, but it doesn't deliver as enjoyable of an experience as it may seem on paper. The gunplay is lackluster, weapon crafting isn't as extensive as you might hope, and the roguelike design elements mostly work against the game.

The Path of Motus is ambitious in what it seeks to communicate about the relationship we often share with games, and includes several notable spins on traditional gaming components of the puzzle platforming genre. But its arguments need to be embedded within a more rigorous gameplay structure if they're to truly land.

AER: Memories of Old teases its potential with some amusing bits - namely the rich atmosphere and the bliss that comes with soaring through the skies as a bird. Still, it feels a bit like Zelda-meets-Myst - with much less detail or interaction. Tough to recommend, unless you find great value in a characteristically passive, serene adventure game.

Severe performance problems and a misguided implementation of Souls mechanics in Darksiders 3 tarnish an otherwise perfunctory, but at least occasionally enjoyable return to one of last generation's better action series.

Shining Resonance Refrain is a decidedly adequate game. It has dozens of hours of content, but those hours include passable battles, an average story, tired MMO elements, and a mediocre dating sim to boot. It's not going to twist the arm of someone who’s sworn off JRPGs like Persona 5 would, but it could do just enough to satisfy die-hard fans of the genre.

Age of Empires: Definitive Edition is a very faithful remake that captures every single quality of the original title. That means you're getting a wonderful new presentation alongside all of the blemishes of the past.

Shadow Bug is a unique platformer with some interesting ideas, but one that doesn’t always stick the landing.

Airborne Kingdom has a couple of interesting ideas and occasionally draws you in with engaging resource and city building mechanics, but it lacks depth and replay value. With dull quests and a lack of challenge, it might just drift by most players unnoticed, like a balloon in the sky.

Session: Skate Sim is undoubtedly a love letter to skateboarding enthusiasts that embraces the realistic aspects of the sport, but it might not appeal to everyone with its convoluted control scheme, and it still needs more polishing.

Invector: Rhythm Galaxy squanders the rare advantage of an officially licensed soundtrack with some strange design choices and unbalanced difficulty that may repel newcomers, while being far too similar to its predecessor to attract returning fans.

Blanc is a game with heart, and it'll definitely bring you and a player two together. I can't recommend it over some other recent co-op outings, but it's still an experience worth having if you can ignore a couple of issues.

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is a novel attempt at offering something new to the video game space. But while it has a strong cast and a well-realized setting, the uneven songs, lack of meaningful player choice and a dull narrative bring down the curtain too soon.

Iron Harvest has a unique setting with some original ideas, and borrows heavily from another RTS series. But rather than improve on those elements, it oversimplifies them, and lacks the content to justify its full asking price.

Destruction AllStars has the foundations of a decently entertaining demolition derby, but that's about it. The game is short on content, doesn't feature much depth or serves as a showcase for the PS5, and its only saving grace is that it's free for PS Plus at launch. When, or perhaps if, the game returns to its regular pricing, it will be much tougher to recommend.

Payday 3 introduces a few changes to its decade-old arcade heist formula, and yet still feels very much like a product of a bygone era. Returning fans will find many missing features and lack of content to grumble about, while newcomers were turned away with unplayable servers during launch week, and it's hard to tell if either group will be back.

ELEX 2 has a distinctive approach to RPG game design and an engaging story, but while it finally bucks the trend of having technical issues at launch, there's still much work to be done on the quality of combat and presentation.

The twist at the core of Minit, that you play it sixty seconds at a time, is initially intriguing and engaging, but ends up clashing with the puzzle and exploration-heavy gameplay in a way that left me feeling agitated rather than charmed by this nostalgia-driven indie title.