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.