Road 96’s story is very interactive and all of our choices have consequences that can be very small or completely change what’s going to happen. Because of that, the replayability is immense. However, the texture quality is bad and gameplay-wise, Road 96 is nothing more than a walking simulator. So you better be in for the story!

The three Crysis games still look great on modern PCs and are a lot fun, which raises the question if we really needed these remasters in the first place. The first Crysis Remastered is somewhat of a mixed bag, in some regards better, in others subpar to the amazing PC original. Crysis 2 however looks noticably crisper with some nice visual touches like raytraced reflections, sharper textures and improved lighting. The third remaster received less attention in comparison, up to a point where one might ask if a simple patch would have sufficed. Which brings us to the consoles, because this is where the three remasters really shine: No matter on which plattform you play, the console versions are greatly improved with smoother framerates and sharper image quality that outshines the original Xbox 360 and PS3 releases in every possible way.

The great story compensates for most of Observation’s shortcomings. The mysterious happenings, the very detailed graphics, the atmospheric sound and more all make it worthwhile and will leave you with an ending that doesn’t answer every question, but will still satisfy most players.

It's loud, fast and utterly insane: Anger Foot comes close to being a speedrunners dream, if you can stomach the flat jokes and constant background music.

Once again the player embodies an evil Overlord and threatens a colorful fantasy world with its destruction. Compared to the prequel, Overlord 2 has been improved in many small details, but none of those big enough to haul the game up to a new level. Still, the mixture of genres like action-adventure, strategy, action and rpg paired with the black humor captures the players attention from the beginning to the end.

A Musical Story isn’t a conventional rhythm game. This adventure focuses on the story, if your goal is to achieve high scores, you have to look elsewhere. Albeit on the short side, this is an enjoyable road trip with vibrant visuals and groovy music.

F.E.A.R. 2 is almost exactly as we wanted it to be: scary and entertaining. Thank you Monolith for sticking close to the prequel and not trying to freshen up the series with fancy new ideas!

Untitled Goose Game is both for people who like creative and weird ideas and people who are into stealth. Sadly, the whole spectacle is over way too quickly. But in the two hours it takes to play through Untitled Goose Game, you’ll have a blast. Awaken your inner goose.

The F1 Manager 2023 is better than the last years prequel, but some more management options are still missing. The game has lots of potential, although for example we still can’t create our own team. Overall the game from Frontier Developments makes a step forward in the right direction.

The Settlers 7 is a daring approach on innovation in a rather old-school strategy series – and it works. The nice graphics and the superb soundtrack border a rapid and entertaining gameplay mechanic that will keep you playing for hours. And although these mechanics work best in multiplayer mode, the developers present a singleplayer campaign with a sweeping story and interesting, demanding missions. If you can look past some graphic glitches and Ubisofts horrible online DRM, you get the best Settlers game in years!

From my perspective roguelike is a rather frustrating genre. I find it annoying to lose my progress all the time and don’t get much from the randomness of the procedural generated worlds in most of these games. However, because of my fondness for space shooters, I gave Everspace a chance – and to my surprise, it convinced me.

The bold new direction has paid off and Civ 7 brings a lot of dynamic and flexibility to the tried and tested game concept. However, traditionalists may be put off. Civ 7 also lacks the final touches for release.

Going back to New York and finishing the story arc that we started in the first game brought me great joy. But the expansion suffers from balancing problems and questionable long term motivation, even with the new season system.

Lego Harry Potter is the next big franchise to be set up with the cute and funny Lego-style, which developer Traveller's Tales had in their previous games. If you don't mind the problems with the fixed camera-angles and the low difficulty of the game, you get a comic, comprehensive game that is absolutely suitable for kids and which offers co-op gameplay.

Rise and Fall takes the already feature packed main game and adds a lot of substantial new elements to it. Loyality, Gouvernours and Ages provide new layers of strategic depth. Sadly the old problems with the AI still remain.

As an avid fan of the Overcooked series I am more than happy to see some additional representatives of the Couch coop genre – especially if they are as well-made as Moving Out.

Of course, it cannot keep up with modern open-world genre representatives of the caliber of a GTA or Watch Dogs in terms of scope and gaming activities. But it doesn't even want that. Mafia wants to tell a story, a story about family, friendship, morals and tragedy, and the game does this very well.

An insane amount of co-op fun, but the level design is lacking. The loot-centric Shadow Warrior 2 is well worth the buy, but doesn’t quite soar as high as this year’s Doom.

Sadly Apotheon’s gameplay can’t deliver what the wonderful art design promises. Although the mixture of RPG-, Metroidvania- and classic platformer elements are solid and definitely enjoyable, the controls are clunky, the exploration is hardly rewarding and the combat system – while tactical by nature – often dwindles down to button-mashing.

There are only a few new features, but the game still feels good - but if you're not exactly looking for the new Live Career or FUT, you can certainly wait a bit longer before buying.

I actually expected standard lap strategy and, to my great surprise, got a strategy role-playing game with top-notch tactical depth. And that makes up for any existing quirks quite easily.

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands takes the proven Borderlands formula and puts it in a crazy fantasy world and it works just as great. The gameplay loop is insanely fun just like you would expect from a Borderlands game.

While Baldur's Gate is still a great game, the Enhanced Edition doesn't do it justice. Neither the new content nor the few minor changes to graphics and interface aren't enough to justify paying another 20 bucks for a game that is, in essence, 14 years old.

Since the first "official" announcement at Gamescom 2016 I was curious about Lost Ember. The premise with the animals and the fallen civilization as well as the appealing look quickly made sure that I was excited about the title. In the end Lost Ember is a lot of what I had hoped for. Calm, emotional, visually stunning and ... simply beautiful! It's a lot of fun to glide over the wonderful landscapes and put the game world and its secrets to the acid test. The only pity is that it really doesn't have much to offer. The story is really good, but apart from that Lost Ember offers quite little. Unfortunately, the found objects are hardly motivating. Nonetheless, Lost Ember manages to create a lot of significant moments, that I will surely remember for a long time.

Cards on the table: Metroid is a series that I haven't had too close ties to for a long time. I am rather indifferent. That's why I didn't care about the open surroundings and the focus on hand-to-hand combat instead of firearms - but I understand if some fans of the predecessor would have wished for something else. On the other hand, I find it unhappy how lax and low-tension the fights are. For example, I raked the flying ox on the opposite side with an ice ax until it was dead. In such banal arguments, the joy of victory is limited. There are certainly people who have a better sense of direction than I do, because in some places I was quite at a loss as to where to go next. Here is my tip: If in doubt, go to the breach area. By the way, an all-round good innovation is the teleporting of memory points. That saves Indra a long walk or two.

In theory, Stellaris looks like it has been tailor-made for me. What other game allows me to create an empire of mushroom-people, conquer the neighboring lizard-civilization and change their DNA in order to make them my personal slave-race? Only in Stellaris. Sadly though, there are a lot of technical issues that drag the game down. Constant stuttering and frame-drops as soon as there are a couple more things happening on the screen. Even on PCs with the most current hardware – no improvement. Because of that, the endgame becomes nigh unplayable. Which is so much more frustrating, when Stellaris does so many things right, in order to make every phase of the game as interesting as possible. The console-port on the other hand, has been done very well. Most of the complex menus and UIs were skillfully adapted for handling it via gamepad.

A relaxed chaos full of cute little animals that you shouldn't miss, as long as you can overlook minor bugs.

A great remaster of an ingenious classic that captures the charm of the original very well and, thanks to variable difficulty settings, shouldn't overwhelm or bore anyone too much.

You enjoy slower RPGs like the Gothic series, love exploration and have a taste for gorgeous pixel art? Boy, are you in for a treat.

Marvel Rivals is a successful free-to-play action game that gets the most out of the strong license. If the live service is right, it could become a new force in the hero shooter genre alongside Overwatch and others.

The developers at Lavapotion deliver a first-class indie game that manages to capture the spirit of the great Heroes of Might & Magic better than any other competitor has ever been able to. If game depth and scope are more important to you than graphical opulence, Songs of Conquest is a well-made strategy game that will keep you enthralled for many hours. And who knows, maybe this is also the start of a great series. After all, the first Heroes of Might & Magic also impressed primarily with its gameplay values.

Forget about the chatty characters, those are fine. But a lifeless open desert in which you'll spend most of your time driving through green crystal formations? That is something no Metroid fan has asked for, ever. But when Metroid Prime 4 stays close to its roots, it is still a great action-adventure game, with tons of atmosphere, style and exploration, despite the somewhat linear level design.

The story of Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit is interesting and exciting. It’s a classic point&click adventure in a modern look and a modern setting. Funny characters and beautiful locations round off a great adventure game.

The first episode of Daedalics The Pillars of the Earth is beautifully designed, has a great presentation but slightly too little gameplay. However it gives you a thrilling and interesting story to enjoy.

Short but sweet Yakuza action: Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name is more than just a glorified expansion, but it does have its weaknesses in terms of playability and mission design.

Quotation forthcoming.

Sonic is the hero of my childhood! I grew up with 2D platformers and my Mega Drive with games is now well protected in a glass cabinet in the living room. Accordingly, I approached Sonic Origins with hope. Sega would have had the chance to interest younger players and offer old fans a little added value. But they missed it cleanly. For new players, 40 euros for four old games will be too much. At the same time, the collection offers almost nothing new for fans. Sure, the scans of the old manuals and developer sketches are nice, but they are nothing more than some fluff on top. The versions of the games work good on PS 5 and still play fantastically, but they are only warmed up and nothing here is original from the Mega Drive. This is simply unworthy of these classics of gaming history.

A successful remaster that brings Days Gone to modern hardware with a higher resolution and better performance, but without making any particular graphical leaps. The gripping story remains a great experience anyway.

A little overpriced, but very nice new edition of a real shooter classic! Retro fans will get their money's worth, even if the limited storage system may deter some newcomers.

Sniper Elite 4 is the best in the series, even if familiar flaws are still there, namely dumb AI, trashy story and low fidelity graphics. Yet all this is easily forgotten when on the prowl in one of the gigantic levels, looking for targets, using stealth to kill them and watching through the x-ray camera, as their balls explode in gory detail.

Take a handful of XCOM, spice it with a pinch of classic roleplaying game and ad an unusual scenario – finished is lovingly crafted insider tip for tactics fans.

A rather simple soulslike with a lot of heart, humor and a few technical difficulties.

A fun sequel with more content, more variety and better puzzles than in the first game. Featuring a great art style, memorable characters and good jokes (at least for the most part), this second chapter of the Deponia series should not be missed by any fan of point-and-click adventure games.

There are two sides to That Dragon, Cancer. There is the tragedy of small Joel Green, who was killed by one of the most insidious sicknesses on the planet. I feel for him and his parents. But then there is also the game that was born from this tragedy. And it is simply and quite literally too much of a pain to play.

Even though it is lacking fresh ideas and the exploration elements are a bit underwhelming, this is a successful and thoroughly fun reboot for the Strider franchise, thanks to its super fast combat, responsive controls and neat visual design.

If you're into open worlds and extreme sports, Riders Republic is great. At least for about twenty hours. The world is gigantic and because of the intuitive controls the different sports are all fun to play. But Riders Republic falls into the same trap as its predecessor Steep, when it promises endless fun, but after a while there is no content anymore, if you are not willing to grind and play the same events over and over again. Besides there are technical issues with the Mass Races. It is always a gamble, if the race works or you get kicked out of the session.

Hell Pie is a entertaining retro-style 3D-platformer with a big amount of humour and an even bigger amount of bodily fluids. The gameplay makes a lot of fun and is satisfying, the levels are very atmospheric, and the game is full of references. For a platformer the level designs and challenges could be a bit more glittering. But people who enjoyed Conker’s Bad Fur Day, will definitely love Hell Pie.

When a game stays in our memory for so long, even after the credits have rolled, it has done a lot right. Banishers captivates us with crisp gameplay, great stories and difficult decisions.

Tomodachi Life 2 stays true to its unique formula while meaningfully expanding upon it. Greater freedom, new options, and its signature quirky humor combine to create a charming life simulation—one of a very special kind.

While it's not as memorable as it could have been, we had a good time playing A Way Out. Clever co-op mechanics and a novel presentation are diminished by an underwhelming plot and rather shallow gameplay.

Remnant: From The Ashes is a challenging third person shooter with light RPG elements and co-op. Though it lacks in high quality presentation and storytelling, it is still a lot of fun to play.

Despite being a Metroidvania in a market overflowing with games like it, Unbound manages to surprise in many different ways. It has a very interesting portal mechanic, plus an awesome soundtrack. Paired with challenging gameplay, this makes Unbound: Worlds Apart a short and neat experience.

Strong, straight-forward retro-shooter with its own interesting flourishes.

A quirky little platformer that offers a few hours of metroidvania goodness, thanks to its satisfying grapple mechanics and a pleasant art style. However, with only a handful of weapons, a short supply of upgrades and not enough stuff to accomplish aside from the main story, Kunai leaves a lot to be desired.

A fantastic concept that is hindered by unbalanced randomization and monotonous combat.

While the first two Modern Warfares proved to be the extraordinary work of a single, incredibly talented team, the third instalment in the series stands as a manifesto to what three great teams, working together as one passionate unit, can achieve. It's an improvement over its predecessor in pretty much every aspect and a return to former strength after the stagnation that was MW 2. Sledgehammer and Infinity Ward deliver a natural conclusion to an astounding trilogy - and the best Call of duty since the first Modern Warfare.

Roadcraft is a good mix of SnowRunner and Expeditions: A MudRunner Game. The new building mechanics adds variety and new challenges. A smart evolution for fans and newbies.

Hot Wheels Unleashed could have been such a great game, but wasted his potential. Basically, it’s a fun arcade racer with an interesting setting which it barely uses in interesting ways. Also, the multiplayer is broken. Nevertheless, despite its flaws, Hot Wheels Unleashed is a fun racing game. Just don’t expect anything extraordinary.

With Tropico 6, Limbic Entertainment created a worthy successor to their franchise. As expected, the game is drenched with black comedy and – with a little help of the Unreal 4 Engine – even manages to shine in the graphics-department. Though there are some gripes to have with the game: Whilst the mechanic of stealing various Wonders of the World does pose a nice addition, features like customizing palaces, election campaign speeches, transport logistics and the military component feel lacking. Nonetheless, with its 15 story-missions, Tropico 6 will probably keep you entertained for many days.

Grid Autosport is a very good racing-game, that should please most fans of the first Grid. Although it is far away from a simulation, it has an extremely authentic race-feeling. The only thing annoying is, that you have to play some races for multiple times, so the career-mode feels a little bit drawn-out.

Solar Ash almost puts you in a trance-like state as you fluently move through gorgeous and varied worlds full of space magic. When it comes to side missions, dialogues and upgrades, though, the game slams the brakes a little too hard.

I had a lot of fun while playing Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare. The main reason for that is definitely the great humor of the franchise. Seeing the brawls between the plants and the undead is just always funny. I also really like the class-selection and sticker-/booster-pack-system. Though not every aspect of Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare was completely thought through. Team Fortress 2 – in direct comparison – has many similar strengths as Garden Warfare but comes with an enormous plus: Team Fortress 2 is free, Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare is not. But I still think that Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare will connect to its fan-base and with the slew of free updates coming to the game, long-term-motivation should be secured.

It's so annoying that the AI's mistakes are once again getting in the way of a higher score. But MotoGP 25 is still a lot of fun.

Now and then the gameplay is a bit repetitive, but on the whole it hardly bothers.

Would play it again anytime. There’s so much to discover.

Deadlight makes good use of its premise, even though the whole zombie apocalypse thing has been done one too many times. And it's nice to see a game that bears resemblance to classics like Flashback or Another world. Sadly, the good atmosphere and beautiful visuals cannot fully compensate for some frustrating level design, short length and the occasional control issues.

We tried to love Far Cry 5, but because of a bunch of technical as well as gameplay issues we just couldn’t. If you were looking forward to the game and think about buying it, don’t hesitate, though – it’s still quite good! However, it surely isn’t something that will be remembered for long.

Roguebook is, as the name may have already told you, a rouge-like deckbuilding game situated in the World of Faeria. Despite treading old ground, Roguebook does a lot of things right and different. Sadly, there is just too little of it to entertain for more than a few hours. Some technical hiccups also downgrade the experience.

While I was playing Star Trek: Bridge Crew alone, I couldn’t stop cursing the mundane gameplay, the dull waiting time and the technical flaws. But together as a team, the cooperative idea worked immediately and I would have liked to never leave the USS Aegis or the Enterprise again.

Transference has an interesting approach to fill the gap between movie and game. Sadly, the content got lost in the process, even if the story about the Hayes family sounds quite catching. Especially the atmosphere and music make Transference a cool game, though the VR does not work very well on the PC.

Pokémon Legends: Z-A dares to try something new, but its flaws prevent the otherwise good ideas from reaching their full potential.

All things considered, Part Two offers a satisfying conclusion to the Doom saga, with amazing combat, beautiful levels, a new weapon to play with and one epic set piece towards the end. It's also more balanced and manageable than the first DLC. The final boss fight is my only real complaint: What should have been a pulse-pounding battle for the ages, is essentially an overlong dodgefest that just drags on and on without challenge or excitement.

The new features like the spy and the financial takeover are perfectly integrated into the new multiplayer mode. In addition, Related Designs has implemented enormously entertaining scenarios which compensates for the missing campaign mode. A very good add-on.

A fine Metroidvania with only a few small but excusable faults. The great characters, a nice atmosphere and good Dungeon Design compensate the very easy boss fights and a rather flat story by far. Not to mention the wonderful soundtrack and art style.

A lovingly crafted cozy game with plenty of story, but little depth.

The three playable of five planned episodes in this nicely written stealth-adventure offers great storytelling and a believable main character. The stealth-mechanics combine sneaky moments with some optional action-gameplay. The dystopian setting gives you the feeling of playing George Orwell's “1984” alive. Graphics with Unity 5 Engine are good, the voice-acting of the main characters is great. Some lacking aspects in AI-failure and the more linear level-design can make you feel a little bit disappointed. But in the end it’s a quite entertaining and well done iOS-port to PC.

Even if not everything slots together perfectly, Starfield scores points with its dense atmosphere, plenty of action, and excellent design. Thanks to numerous updates, the PS5 version also holds up well.

From the very beginning, The Midnight Walk takes players on an emotional journey through a dark world. Equally dark and heartbreaking, the game tells serious stories with a lot of depth.

Mafia 2 is a great, story-driven action game which offers great cut scenes and a believable game world. Its characters, graphics, music and sound are outstanding, but it lacks good AI and side missions at the same time. After ten to twelve hours of gameplay you finish the game with no possibility to deal with the game furthermore – compared to other open-world-titles like GTA IV. Anyhow, Mafia 2 is a great old-school-action game, with few faults.

Thrilling story and interesting genre mix: Tower of Time does not reinvent the wheel, but comes up with some nice innovations and ideas. Especially the combination of real-time strategy and role-playing elements provides a breath of fresh air.

If you weren't expecting anything too new, Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble is as fun as ever.

A cool game for in-between, for Portal fans in particular.

The new Holmes adventure looks better than ever and plays well, too. However, while the six self-contained stories are smartly written, they also lack suspense, drama and an overall feeling of progression. The modest difficulty is making it easy for newcomers to settle in - which is fine, as long as you are not expecting a deep detective experience.

Quotation forthcoming.

It's a decent sequel for everyone who enjoys the unique quirks of Mario & Luigi.

Quotation forthcoming.

Rebel Galaxy Outlaw is like the little, cool brother of Elite Dangerous. It’s not as huge and doesn’t offer the variety in terms of ships or planets compared to it’s older sibling, but at the end of the day, Outlaw is just plain fun.

The best version of Donkey Kong Country Returns: An indestructibly good 2D platformer, but still with a high potential for frustration. Graphically, not much has changed, and the price seems too high.

A solid designed strategy-RPG-mixture in an unused historical setting. You’ll leading a spanish expedition on an Caribbean island. The gameplay is turn-based and reminds to Heroes of Might & Magic. Same for the combat-system. But it’s not that much complex and the technical presentation of the game is just average quality.

Although the time-bending-feature isn’t as game-defining as it seems (at least for now), Chrysalis is a great first look into the world of Life is Strange. Only time – and future episodes – will tell if the story is strong enough to make the game as a whole worthwhile. But for now, thanks to an intriguing mystery plot and clever dialogue fans of adventure games can’t go wrong.

Dying Light 2 is an ambitious sequel that puts a lot of emphasis on story and decisions. Paired with fun parkour mechanics and visceral combat, the game raises huge expectations in its opening chapters. However, it starts to get a little repetitive after a while. There is just not enough weapon variety and meaningful loot, and the story suffers from a lame villain and an overall unsatisfying ending. It's still a good game all things considered, but certainly not the masterpiece we all hoped it would be.

Outstanding visual design, a unique fantasy setting and intense first person combat are reason enough to pick up this exceptional action game. I only wished there was some kind of exploration and puzzle elements to it. And if the short play time of about 5 hours turns you off, think of the fair price - it is a pretty good deal after all.

After starting the game, we soon felt disillusioned. The structure of the missions nevery changes and there isn‘t really a story to the campaign. The are Billions shines the most when playing outside the boundaries of the campaign, especially when playing on high difficulty.

Left 4 Dead top down! Alien Swarm is fast-paced, alien-filled fun that demands cooperative gaming and delivers cleverly directed missions that stay challenging from beginning to the end. The upgrade systems serves as a motivator and the match making is quite good. Physics, sound and lighting convey a spooky atmosphere. Although there is only one campaign at release, Alien Swarm delivers more fun than most full-price games.

A deeply relaxing city-building game with a beautiful medieval atmosphere but limited complexity – ideal for unwinding.

Despite the small problems, Luigi's Mansion 2 HD gives you a good opportunity to catch up on the 3DS classic on the Switch. If you've already played the original, you shouldn't expect any changes from the remaster other than a graphic polish and adjusted controls.

Humankind is one elegant strategy opus that successfully balances mechanics from Endless Legend and Civilization 6, but does not have the same level of quality and polish like the Firaxis original. Some good ideas, a beautiful map and a nice game flow more than make up for its shortcomings, some of which might be ironed out by future updates or expansions. As of now, Humankind is a good game and it will satisfy your 4X cravings, but there is no denying that is has not reached its full potential yet.

Even tough Islets was developed by only one person, it’s definitely a well-rounded and surprisingly extensive Metroidvania. The developer clearly has a lot of love for the genre and implemented varied and challenging boss fights, a well thought level design and interesting skills. Some minor bugs, for example too far away teleport points and rough animations show that this game is made by only one person. But that shouldn’t prevent you from enjoying this very hard, but rewarding game. Definitely not the sweet, carefree island adventure it looks like on first sight.