Knockout City punches above its weight as a complex and uniquely fun competitive brawler.

The narrative is strong and dark, but the game beneath it struggles to keep up.

Fun, cartoonish pirating, which makes you feel cheeky rather than evil.

A compelling cyberpunk story told in an imaginative way, and one that will really test your moral compass.

Biomutant's stunning world barely survives the painful narration, broken progression, and dearth of stuff to do.

Playing Mass Effect Legendary Edition is a constant see-saw of noticing an improvement, then wishing it went further. You can sprint outside combat, but only for like three seconds. There's a dedicated melee button, yet no way to separate the sprint and take cover actions to separate keys. You can skip the elevator rides, which are the only way to hear banter that could be filling the stretches where you jog from place to place. The graphics are better, but there's no FOV slider. [Mass Effect 1 score = 77]

Riding and maintaining your bike is great—the boring world, dull missions, and overly serious tone, not so much.

An accessible online heist game with some fun systems that wrestle with clumsy combat and an ugly presentation.

Below Zero is a mostly brilliant sequel to the best survival game of all time.

If you can overlook the minor niggles, Resident Evil comes highly recommended. [Nov 1997, p.215]

All three of me agree, there's nothing quite like it. Quantum League is worth your time.

Wobbly and unstable in all the right ways, and some of the wrong ones too.

A grimly beautiful collection of killer horror set-pieces, with some of the most memorably grotesque enemies in Resi history.

An extremely intelligent sci-fi interrogation sim that’s unpredictable for all the right reasons.

The result is a competent remaster and the best way to play this classic Total War, but it still can't compete with its modern heirs.

The RTS layer is limited and repetitive, but the platforming levels are well-designed and challenging.

Nier Replicant is a fabulous remaster of a lauded but messy cult classic, improving it without giving up on its essential strangeness.

Oddworld: Soulstorm's charm, characters, and sincere narrative are imprisoned within buggy, erratic software.

Crash 4 is the kind of retro throwback that actually earns its spot as a successor to the original trilogy. There’s the occasional bandicoot stumble, but it's a responsive, precise platformer that looks as good as it plays.

Trials of Fire's list of features may read like a videogame word salad, but the resulting combination makes for a fine RPG feast.

Buried by an unsatisfying combat loop and bad campaign, Outriders is a forgettable loot game that ends right as it's getting started.

Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth is a brief but fun foray into a well-worn genre. The mode-swapping and elemental attacks are enjoyable, but the game is over just when it starts to reach a proper crescendo, with 100 percent of the map revealed (and presumably all the gear and spells) in under six hours. Not quite a full symphony, but a fun little ensemble.

A little abstract in nature, but Genesis Noir is an all-around stunning audio-visual adventure.

Shelter 3's environment may be pretty, but it's not enough to forgive a game that ultimately feels unfinished.

A superbly stylish and surprisingly challenging management game, Evil Genius 2 is let down only by its tendency to bloviate.

Narita Boy's digital twist on a classic fantasy tale is engrossing if a bit disorientating.

Spacebase Startopia is a missed opportunity to meaningfully build on a classic, but it's still an entertaining management sim.

The setting of Onomichi proves that the long-running series still has some tricks, making Yakuza 6 a worthy finale for its main protagonist.