More a novelty than your next roguelike obsession, but it has enough creativity and left-field ideas to be well worth experiencing—especially if you're still pining for the lost potential of Spore.

But as I should've guessed from developer Traveller's Tales' modern Lego run, Legacy of the Dark Knight is just too darn delightful to sustain a stormy mood. It took all of five minutes for the brick-based brawler to put a smile on my face, and it didn't go away for two hours of play. [2-Hour Hands-On Impressions]

On the surface, Bond might seem a natural fit for IO: all glitz and gadgets that make it feel like barely a skip away from the world of Hitman. But what I saw had me feeling that the studio has not leaned into its strengths, trading the absurd clockwork worlds of Agent 47 for a more tightly choreographed, linear, and "cinematic" game that IO has never been all that good at. The last time it tried was Hitman: Absolution. We know how that worked out. [3-Hour Hands-On Impressions]

I haven't been too blown away by what I've seen of it so far, but if Masters of Albion could help revive the god game genre, at least a little? That'd be fine by me. [Early Access Impressions]

Titanium Court is a brilliantly singular roguelite with a surplus of style, but you're going to need to love match-three to want to stick around.

There are moments of fun, especially towards the end, but too often I just wanted to ram a garlic-flavoured stake through Vampire Crawlers repetitive, grindy heart.

A slick, accomplished shooter that’s more than just an eye-grabbing art style.

Pragmata's confidence in its punchy shootouts and old-school cool pays off, and the two leads roved their way into my heart despite a predictable plot.

While the learning curve might be steep at first, Xenonauts 2 offers incredibly rewarding tactical action for those willing to ascend it.

It's such a disappointment that I'm worried this will kill any chance of us getting a meatier Legacy of Kain game—but at the same time, given how Ascendance sets up Elaleth's further adventures, it might be better if Kain and his pals go back into their coffins.

Despite occasional stalls, this combination of tactics and talking has plush-leather depths worth sinking into.

Some of Blizzard's best work in years wrestles with bugs and design issues, but still comes out on top.

Marathon is a brilliant distillation of what makes extraction shooters great, and a glimpse at where they could go next.

Prizing immersion and effort above all, this is a demanding, but very rewarding, RPG.

An immaculately presented arcade racer with a thousand good ideas, but the twin-stick drifting wasn’t one of them.

By turns sentimental and ridiculous, Death Stranding 2 nonetheless offers best marriage of mechanics and meaning in Hideo Kojima's storied career.

Vast and obtuse in a way that is going to frustrate some and exhilarate others, Crimson Desert is a fascinating journey, even when the destination isn't all that.

Monster Hunter Stories 3 delivers deep build crafting and battle systems, but they're wasted on a war story that's barely there.

If you like RPGs, you owe it to yourself to play Esoteric Ebb.

A high-concept, fascinating strategy RPG that can start to buckle under its own ambitions.

Scott Pilgrim EX is a palatable fresh helping of retro beatdown goodness, but it's too brief and easygoing to deliver more fun than its inspirations or its best contemporaries.

A casual timewaster for people who are into the Witcher enough to get the references, but not married to the idea every Witcher game has to be a big RPG.

Resident Evil Requiem sets itself out with a hard task: wrapping all the best elements of previous Resident Evil games into one. Miraculously it succeeds, with very few moments which left me wanting more.

Nine years in the making, Cyanide has expanded Styx's scope in all the right ways without sacrificing its steadfast focus on stealth.

Squanch's FPS sequel has more creativity in its left shoe than most entire games, but High on Life 2 falls short of excellence.

Reanimal doesn't meaningfully develop Tarsier's approach to gameplay in the Little Nightmares games, but it's a grim sight to behold, and a worthwhile horror adventure.

A sprawling, ridiculous, and endlessly surprising roguelike that will drag you body and soul into its chaotic world.

Nioh 3 is everything I wanted from a sequel to Nioh 2, and yet, somehow so much more. One of the best soulslikes yet.

A mind-boggling grand strategy game that tries to do way too many things, but ends up doing some of them extremely well.

A brilliant climbing adventure that siphons the rage out of navigation puzzlers like Death Stranding and Baby Steps, resulting in something prickly, but warmly approachable.

Weak characters kill loftier ambitions, but a brisk pace keeps the combat lively.

An inventive puzzler with rapid-fire gags that'll make you groan as much as guffaw.

Intentionally and unintentionally thorny, but still one of the most compelling mystery adventures since Disco Elysium.

Inkle builds a weirdo computer for the ages, then let you use it to solve a beautifully-written mystery. Outstanding.

A delightful visual novel and a great deckbuilder combined. What more could you want?

Some clever and grisly medical examination systems, but not enough base management and side activities to remain engaging for long.

Heaps of fun and plenty chaotic, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is the closest we've ever gotten to Mario Kart on PC… for better and worse.

This 3D take on the Vampire Survivors’ formula is brilliant dumb fun that’ll have you bonking monsters for hours. Eww.

One button used to its fullest potential and heaps of visual experimentation pay off in droves to make Rhythm Doctor one of the coolest and most distinctive rhythm games I've ever played.

Hell is Us' rich world and gorgeous design prop up its uninventive structure and simple combat.

Speedy, stylish, and effortlessly flexible, Tokyo Xtreme Racer captures the raw spirit of street racing.

Charm and a solid formula go a long way to smoothing over this roguelike deckbuilder's ungroomed edges.

The deckbuilder and the soulslike accommodate each other well, even if Death Howl is initially too busy killing you to show its best hand.

A stylish lunicidal skater with peerless vibes and devilishly sleek flip tricks.

Perhaps the beat-'em-up genre's best ever roster of playable characters, let down by an inconsistent campaign that wears out too fast.

Scary monsters, beautiful locations, and a story that's sadly lost in space.

Singularly unforgiving, dizzyingly complex, and like no other FPS out there: the extraction shooter's extraction shooter.

Black Ops 7 is Call of Duty at its most obnoxious and least enjoyable.

Devilishly moreish and hard to put down, only failed by performance snags and the absence of key quality-of-life features.

Dispatch is full of heart and jokes, and it's one of the best superhero TV shows around.

There are some good ideas in Rue Valley's depressioncore time loop, but the execution makes it feel more like a chore than a charm.

A stylish metroidvania with crunchy combat and a delightfully melancholy mood, but some will find it too safe and frictionless.

Polished city-building that goes the extra mile to create character and meaning to your block-dropping feats.

Arc Raiders is a genuinely enjoyable extraction shooter thanks to interesting weapons, beautiful maps, and unpredictable, action-packed PvPvE encounters.

This enthralling mystery quickly had me in its ghostly grip and refused to let go.

Hyperbeat is brief and a little twee at times, but its lively musical flights are one-of-a-kind.

A new bar for complexity in the historical grand strategy genre that sometimes buckles under the weight of its ambition.

SI’s gap year was well spent on a fantastic match engine update, but progress is still too slow between games.

A delightfully monotonous chore sim that tweaks the original powerwashing formula just enough.

An RPG with a great sense of fun and whimsy, as well as surprising depth to its character building.

An engrossing survival city builder with intricate production and farming systems.

Bloody good combat carries Ninja Gaiden 4 through its more granular and extraneous "modern" additions.

Keeper is a gorgeous little package of tightly designed puzzles and cerebral platforming that showcases what makes Double Fine's games so uniquely special.

A gripping story full of intrigue and murder that struggles to find its footing as an RPG sequel.

Battlefield 6 is more about refinements than surprises, but a well-made Battlefield is automatically one of the best shooters of the year.

A roller coaster ride of ball-bouncing action that loves to break its own rules.

The combo of roguelikes and gambling should probably be more addictive than this.

Absolum is ultimately a beat 'em up with a bit more depth and progression than we've seen before in this style of game that has been so resistant to change since it was born in the arcades. Absolum lacks the extensive variance of a true roguelike, but delivers enough intricacy to push the genre into a more interesting space than it's ever occupied.

Little Nightmares 3 adds a welcome online cooperative mode and some freshly bizarre environments, but the series' formula is becoming a little staid.

Phenomenal on-the-pitch gameplay is marred by an awkward UI and lots of faff.

A Sisyphean challenge after which you'll never take pressing W to walk for granted again.

Despite some stumbles in its opening hours, Hades 2 blooms with flexible combat and unforgettable characters.

This is an extraordinary remaster of an essential RPG, and as unmissable today as ever.

Silent Hill f is an excellent next step for this accomplished horror series. Proving that the horrors of Silent Hill aren't and shouldn't be restricted to the iconic American mountain town.

A more gritty survival horror experience than Stay Human, but Techland's new first-person parkour game still stumbles a bit.

Even a terrible UI and choppy performance didn't spoil several dozen hours of numbers-go-up bliss.

Vampire Survivors is no longer the king of the genre.

A great cozy yet creepy puzzle adventure packed with dozens of little mysteries to solve.

Silksong can be ruthless, but it's hard to pry yourself away from its haunted little world that never seems to end.

Caput Mortem is a little insubstantial, but reasonably priced for its short runtime and full of so many surprises and great moments, I can't help but love it.

The scariest part of Cronos: The New Dawn is probably the frustrating combat, and while it boasts a selection of surprisingly cool puzzles, they're not enough to save the experience.

Short, sweet, and utterly charming, Herdling's evocative beauty more than makes up for its superficial gameplay.

Smooth action blends seamlessly into smooth traversal, making this the better modern 2D Prince of Persia.

A gorgeous remake of a true classic that could, and maybe should, have tried to do a tiny bit more.

A short but spectacular surfing game, Sword of the Sea's atmosphere and movement propel it where its simple and repetitive puzzles can't.

A decent but cliched mob story and bland, frustrating gameplay make this the weakest Mafia yet.

Wildgate is a fresh combination of a ship battler and an FPS that is a better concept than it is a game.

A fun revival that opts for solid fundamentals over innovation.

Story aside, this would be one of Destiny 2's more forgettable campaigns. But thanks to its wide-ranging overhauls, it's become memorable for all the wrong reasons.

Great cooking and foraging systems, but not a lot else to keep you busy.

Killing Floor 3 is fun, quick to pick up, and builds on what worked for its predecessors. And while there'll always be a place for gory multiplayer shooters, they are a dime a dozen, and this one doesn't do a lot to stand out from the rest.

Abiotic Factor is an unforgettable interdimensional odyssey with you and your closest friends.

Wuchang brings some fun ideas to soulslike boss fights, but the rest of it is a pale imitation of much better games.

The Drifter is a gorgeous and moody point 'n' click adventure with impeccable art, but its pulp leanings undermine its best qualities.

A good Metroidvania trapped in the shadow of too many better ones.

Beautiful and stacked with excellent performances, but Eriksholm's stealth feels too much like being led around by the nose to reach greatness.

Overwhelming monetization and exceptionally dull third-person hero shooting sour a game that could've been a mech fan's dream.

Mycopunk shows a ton of promise, but that doesn't mean it's infallible. The progression can become a bit of a slog, and it can take a while to level up or collect enough resources to upgrade your kit. There's also definitely a cap as to how many missions you can do in a row before it all just blends into a violent blur. The variety in mission types only keeps things fresh for so long. There are also some glitches, many of which the devs are aware of, but that doesn't make them any less annoying. I've been lasered by an Abomination through a wall more than once now—you're never safe, even when you think you are. But none of this ruins the fun, it's just something to bear in mind: The fungal growths of Early Access. [Early Access Provisional Score = 79]