Although technically once again inferior compared to the next-gen-console-versions, PES 2016 is one of, if not THE best football game we’ve played in the last six or seven years, mainly due to its completely overhauled tackling system and smoother animations.

Legend of Keepers is a well-made management sim with a lot of humour. It also looks quite nice and offers a lot of replayability. However, too many things it confronts the player with rely on luck.

Thanks to some important patches and updates, the game delivers some exciting multiplayer action with a decent amount of depth, outstanding graphics and addictive role playing elements. Still, there remains much to do for the developers: the game needs more maps, more demigods, more tournament options and more community features, to mention only a few.

The PS5 and Xbox Series versions are quite impressive.

Rematch is the perfect solution, especially this summer, for anyone who's long since grown tired of EA's football series and needs a breath of fresh air.

I am almost completely satisfied with the new and revised functions of the strategy card - and spend most of the game here.

The LWS 25 does a lot right and expands a proven game concept with useful innovations. Fans get their money's worth.

The sequel of Edna and Harvey: The Breakout again is a cool mix out of crazy puzzles and dialogues, black humor and a pretty good sense of humor and sarcasm. Harvey's New Eyes is even a bit better than the good Edna-adventure before. With Harvey's New Eyes Daedalic proves that they can increase the quality of their even very good games before due to the funny conversations, the bizarre characters and even their deaths.

Eerily beautiful, but after some time the horror feeling of the predecessor goes missing. […] The setting in the pampa of Arizona is fitting and the atmosphere works very well, but overall I prefer the previous game.

This year's FIFA Manager 11 comes with a few new features regarding the transfer market and the players' abilities. FIFA Manager 10's big news - the online mode - has also been overhauled to run smoother. Though the game has been improved mainly in detail, the overall experience makes it the best manager experience in the last few years. A must-have for football fans.

Ubisoft once again fails to tell an engaging story, instead mixing a somewhat confused, even boring plot with bland characters. While Watch Dogs 2 is near-perfect PC port with lots of PC-specific options both for graphics as well as controls, the underlying game wastes a lot of potential. The beautiful rendition of San Francisco is a great background for some neat hacking tricks and fun missions, yet, aside from the shift in tone, Watch Dogs 2 isn’t the anticipated step forward for the series.

Killing Floor 2 is a pleasant surprise. Tripwire manages to get the fundamentals so, so right. Fighting zeds is a pleasure thanks to guns that are satisfying to use. If there is anything wrong with Killing Floor 2's dumb, yet addicting co-op fun, it's that there simply isn't enough variation, both in terms enemy types as well as game modes.

Quotation forthcoming.

Challenging and clever, Reus asks that you make the most of its rather small toolset. Gratuitous repetition and the absence of a fast forward button take some of the fun out of its demanding formula after a dozen hours or so. While there aren’t enough possibilities here to influence and care for the people of your planet as would befit a true god game, Reus certainly is an impressive effort and puts indie developer Abbey Games on the map.

Let Them Trade blends the cozy charm of board games with city-building strategy in a relaxed, visually rich experience. Inspired by classics like Catan and Anno, players create cities, manage production chains, and guide trade across a handcrafted, hex-tile world. With a lighthearted campaign, peaceful pacing, and a satisfying resource economy, the game offers an ideal entry point for newcomers and a chill break for veteran strategy fans. Despite minor weaknesses—such as lackluster combat and no multiplayer—it excels as a compact, feel-good builder that values calm over complexity.

It's really trying to be as brilliant and engaging as Sands of Time - but it does not succeed. Forgotten Sands is just a good, solid action-adventure with lots of fun moments, especially when it comes to acrobatics. But the combat feels blunt and the story is downright uninspired. Still, if you like the series, you should definitely give a try.

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 Xbox Series 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.

Rebel Galaxy scratches the Freelancer itch that went untreated for over a decade.

As with its predecessor, Railway Empire 2 is a clear recommendation for railroad and business simulation fans. Thanks to its beginner-friendliness, even newcomers will find their way around, and veterans can get even more out of it thanks to the new options. In any case, you should plan for a lot of time.

Action, tower defense, tactics, rogue-lite and co-op in one package: Endless Dungeon is a stylish successor, but in the long run it lacks surprises and variety. Content updates could have a big impact here.

One can only wonder just what GSC Gameworld was thinking: Clear Sky brings nothing revolutionarily new to the original play, but adds a fair portion of game disrupting bugs and lifts the difficulty to a new level of hardness, brutally so. To sum it all up, the developers maim the few novel features with dubious design decisions, such as the annoying search for artefacts.

An overall well done tactical cyberpunk-RTS, that is bringing back the spirit of the 1993 released Syndicate by Bullfrog. The atmosphere is great, reminding us to Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. You’ve got the opportunity to play various styles with your 4 agents, each of them equipped with special skills, weapons and augmentations. The world is filled with missions and gear to collect. The difficulty can be very hard sometimes, there is no way to pause the game or save during a mission. Some minor bugs have to be noticed, especially with lacking AI and pathfinding.

Apart from a few technical inconsistencies, puzzles that are a bit too simple and a fairly compact game world, Life is Strange: Double Exposure is a successful sequel with a twist-filled plot, interesting characters, fantastic music and a terrific German dubbing.

All in all, the developers at Blackbird Interactive have succeeded in delivering a worthy successor that offers everything fans expect from a Homeworld. The campaign is wonderfully atmospheric and offers exactly the right Homeworld mood with its impressive set-pieces and fantastic music. The tactical challenge of the three-dimensional space and the possibilities offered by the variety of units set the title apart from other representatives of the genre. The biggest question mark remains regarding the long-term motivation of the war games, which will only become apparent with the planned content updates from the developers.

Being the best entry in the city-building strategy game series, Tropico 5 excites with a humorous campaign and a relaxed atmosphere, while the endless mode keeps motivated. Experienced players will miss a little depth and challenge, but its forgiving gameplay is especially attractive for newcomers.

While The Whispered World, the successful predecessor to Silence, was a classic 2D-point-and-click-adventure, the developers now are heading into a more modern way of adventure-storytelling. This ends up in a most beautiful designed world with 3D-modelled characters. Using a brilliant way of camera-zooms and –angles, the presentation is a great cinematic-experience. The gameplay itself is focused on an emotional story and filled with more casual puzzles and dialogues than before. We’ve missed some more challenging riddles and more story-depth concerning the side-characters. Depending on how many in-game tips you’re using, Silence took you just about 5 up to 7 hours to complete.

Under the Waves is one of the biggest positive surprises of the year. The developers of the indie game have crated one of the most beautiful gaming worlds in the last months. Water effects and the life under the sea looks stunning. But the adventure offers more than just beautiful graphics. The Story about our main character Stan and his sad past is so good and heartbraking at the same time. For people who are in love with slow paced adventures, Under the Waves is the perfect game between the blockbusters Baldur’s Gate 3 and Starfield.

Nice roster and fun gameplay versus a lot of grinding, free-to-play weaknesses and sometimes uninspired characters: MultiVersus is currently unable to dethrone Smash Bros.

The roleplaying game convinces with motivating quests, an entertaining magic system, a huge game world and only a few bugs. The balancing, however, makes for deductions in the rating.

Nobody Wants To Die offers a wonderfully dark crime story in an excellent cyberpunk world that makes us question our own perceptions. Despite slightly repetitive gameplay, the game is convincing across the board and captivates us until the bitter end.

LEGO Bricktales feels like a short vacation to your childhood if you grew up with games like LEGO Island. The cubicle worlds look stunning, and the gameplay offers a nice and balanced mix between exploration and building. However, the game is a bit too short and too easy and would benefit from a full sandbox mode.

New fodder for hungry Monster Hunters: Wild Hearts isn't in the same league as the original, but it offers fresh hunting fun and cool monsters... erm, kemonos.

I had a good time with The Maw. It is a first-class independent product with great production values and two adorable main characters. Of course, the level design and the overall challenge of the game are aiming primarily at casual players. But even if the game turns out to be simplistic at times, it still shines being a neat action adventure that is greatly suited for kids.

Yes, Your Grace tells an interesting tale with some intriguing twists and turns, but beneath its grim story lies a monotonous gameplay loop that combines elements of traditional adventures, RPG-style choices and management games. It's fine for one playthrough, but with the story unfolding in a surprisingly linear fashion, there is not much reason to give it another go.

Job Job makes what is an otherwise passable collection special, for it is one of the best games in the history of Jackbox Party Pack. If you are already a fan of the series and like to play it at parties, this one can’t be missed.

An economic simulation for railroad fans that does little wrong and has developed sensibly compared to its predecessor.

For the most part, Aliens: Dark Descent is a really pleasant surprise. It combines real-time tactics, solid mission design and a good amount of suspense with some interesting mechanics that fit really well with the movie. If you are a die-hard fan of James Camerons Aliens (1986), you will find a lot to love here. The story however is mostly uninspired, it has its share of bugs and some encounters can lead to some serious frustration, especially with the limited save system, which might be off-putting for newcomers. But even with all these drawbacks, there is no denying that Dark Descent is still one of the best Aliens games ever made. Just keep your expectations in check.

If you prefer to travel solo and enjoy an immersive world, you'll have a lot of fun here.

An almost overwhelmingly deep experience for newcomers, but the profound and vast number of features keep the game interesting for a long time. Different modes take care of variety, while almost every aspect of “real” football management is part of this excellent game.

Quotation forthcoming.

Wario Ware is probably the TikTok of video games. With Move It! Nintendo has finally managed to conjure up a movement game with a party factor par excellence. Only a few problems with the controls caused small moments of frustration. But we can happily overlook that.

I really wanted to like The Medium. It tells a grown-up tale fitting for the genre and features strong location design and sound design. But In the end I have to say that I was bored for at least half of my nine hour long playthrough due to the repetitive gameplay and shallow presentation.

Once again, fans of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion can celebrate. They can look forward to rediscovering many well-known characters and locations like the Black Forest. On the downside, the main storyline is boring and our relationships to the new companions do not matter at all. Overall, the new expansion is worth playing for fans of Oblivion as well as for newcomers.

The reboot of Lords of the Fallen doesn't reinvent the genre, but it is a well-executed soulslike.

When it comes to presenting an accurate and impressively detailed version of Tokyo, Ghostwire makes a great first impression. Despite literally being a ghost town, the city feels alive and captures neon-soaked pop-culture as well as ancient mythology and folklore. The two main characters deliver a convincing performance, too, and their story is entertaining, despite being quite short. Everything else, though – the combat system, the progression and the quest design – is the bare minimum of what’s acceptable from a big budget open world game. The combat, while fun to a degree, is especially thin with just three laughable spells and enemies without any special tactics or weakpoints. The unlockable upgrades are boring and unoriginal and the side quests, while having interesting setups, are mostly short and lack satisfying payoffs. Still, there is fun to be had in exploring ghost-infested Tokyo – it’s just not a creative, unique sort of fun, but rather a pretty mindless and extremely familiar one.

South of Midnight tells a interesting, dark story and scores with a unique stop motion style. The soundtrack matches the fun gameplay in some pretty magic worlds as well. Only a few technical issues tarnish the positive picture a little.

This game may tell a pretty banal story, it may tackle you with some moronic puzzles and the decepticon bots may sound as evil as Winnie The Pooh on amphetamines, but the bombastic, continuous action of this third person shooter lets you beg for a break.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is a good role-playing game that perhaps searches for its style a little more than it has already found it. Anyone who has the necessary patience and can powergame in third instead of sixth gear will spend many happy hours here.

Aside from some minor flaws in the community system, Battleforge is a highly addictive and very innovative RTS that promises lots of fun.

Like revisiting a long-lost friend: Total War: Rome Remastered immediately sucks in strategy-fans with a newly polished map, the fantastic soundtrack and a couple of quality-of-life-changes. Just the AI is a little wonky from time to time and the newer games of the series deliver a more complex campaign.

The first hours in Victor Vran are really motivating and great. Killing lots of monsters, getting cool loot, equipping your hero and solving challenges keep you going for hours. Later in the game it get’s quite obvious that game has quite a few design kinks, which take the fun down a notch or two. But still: one of the best Action-RPGs since Diablo 3.

The basics work great: Dying Light offers fluid movement with lots of parkour elements and a great upgrade mechanic. There’s also a lot to do on its sprawling open-world city map. Unfortunately, most of it you will do over and over again, starting with bashing zombie heads in time and time again. Anyone who can stomach the repetitiveness and manage not to cringe at the dialogue is set to have a great time in Harran.

The Night of the Rabbit is an adventure that creates a wonderful magic world around it’s held Jeremia Haselnuss and brings nice characters to virtual life. But as wonderful as Daedalic Entertainment built the fantasy world with lots of details around the little boy Jeremias who wants to become a magician, they present the dialogues in a boring way and they sometimes even confuse story itself. The game also lacks hints for the puzzles which often only allow the one solution that even is the most digressive. The player doesn’t get sufficient feedback while trying to solve the puzzles, whatever there are from hints or out of dialogues with other characters. Because of this the game sometimes gets really frustrating and forces you into trial and error. Players expecting a game with the usual quality of Daedalic adventures such as the Deponia-series will be disappointed.

Endling doesn’t leave us with a positive feeling, but weakness. The story is depressing and at the same time full of hope. If you like short indie games with a serious ark and beautiful animations, Endling is for you.

Although the combination of walking simulator and stealth game doesn’t work, I had positive feelings about Get Even as the credits rolled.

In the first release of the episodic Hitman-game you got access to the prologue and the first story mission. The sandbox-design of the levels is great and offers tons of variations how to fulfill your contracts – just like in Blood Money. In addition you can play the live events (escalation, contracts, illusive targets). Though there are just two locations available within the first release, it can be very repetitive after some time. Gameplay is well done, but technical issues like glitches, minor bugs and performance drops can be frustrating.

Visions of Mana scores with its strong presentation, quick start and charming setting. On top of that, it masters the balancing act between complexity and clarity of the game world, which invites you to explore but doesn't overwhelm you.

Ghost of a Tale is an ambitious and charming indie adventure which does not reach its full potential. The main character Tilo is one of the cutest animated video game characters we have seen in a long time and the fantasy setting looks absolutely stunning. Unfortunately, the game can make you feel pretty helpless at times, since hints are rare and finding your way through castle Dieruin takes a lot of patience.

These might be the best games in the Assassin’s Creed series of games, and they play as good on Switch as on any other platform. Some gameplay mechanics haven’t aged well, but overall, there’s a lot of fun to be had.

For me, Chernobylite has one problem above all: it wants too much at once. Shooting, crafting, developing skills, managing the base and team - because of all the Gampelay features, the makers have somehow lost track of everything. In the end, the genre mix seems a bit half-cooked. It's a shame.

The setting is a good fit for turn-based tactics and the bite-sized approach really works in its favor. Just don't expect a game that will last you for weeks, and once it's finished, you have seen pretty much everything it has to offer. However, if you are looking for an accessible tactics game that is fun to play and doesn't overstay its welcome, Showgunners is an easy recommendation.

In Sound Mind is a solid horror game brought down by massive problems. It never runs smoothly and the controls are imprecise. The worst part during our time with the game was when we had to circumvent a game-breaking bug by triggering another bug on purpose.

That the most striking "innovation" in the second part of the indie game at the end is the multitude of bugs I've encountered is just annoying.

Especially with the graphical design and the music and sound of the game Daedalic did a good job. The pen&paper-gameplay has been well embedded but the facial animations are rudimental. In general the puzzles are very diversified but lack hints most of the time. Therefore the game is at some points quite challenging, but in a few places even frustrating. Although Chains of Satinav is a very good adventure game with a convincing atmosphere in the world of The Dark Eye.

While Telltale's first foray into Westeros certainly nails the grimdark atmosphere of this fascinating world, poor story, wordy dialogue and unlikeable characters hamper the game. It really is bewildering why Telltale chose to rehash the all too familiar story of House Stark instead of actually building something new and exciting.

Dedicated remaster with successful new modes, races and detail improvements. Technically and in terms of AI behavior, however, the game is unfortunately not yet running as smoothly as it should.

Dungeons 3 drowns in terribly extensive gags and exhausting talk - of course, humor is always a question of taste, but where I found dungeons 2 to a certain extent still quite funny, meets dungeons 3 my nerve any more. Less comedy, more gameplay please.

The game combines the series‘ strategic gameplay with mythological elements and the end result is really good. It’s not quite as complex as other Total War games, but the interesting setting, the different campaigns, the resource management and more make it an adventure you can invest dozens of hours in.

The setting and the world structure in Iron Harvest are profound and perfectly accompanied by the imposing music - absolute goose bumps.

Dead Island 2 is not as ambitious as some of the other zombie slashers out there, but that actually works in its favor: With solid game mechanics, gory combat, good level design and some well-written characters, you are in for a bloody good time. Just don't expect a game that pushes anything forward.

Ironcast starts as a highly promising blend of puzzle game and turn-based tactical mechanics, but is ultimately let down by its monotony, uneven difficulty and sheer lack of content.

Evoland 2 finally gets it right and vastly improves upon the first game. It combines a charming story, tons of retro goodness an lots of variety to a robust, fully fledged game. If you have any love for video game classics, especially from the 16-bit era, Evoland 2 is for you.

I do not want to imagine how good the game would have been with a fixed level layout. Hopefully Chasm and Deadcells - both Metroidvanias with random levels - will get better soon.

The dynamic trading system provides variety and the handling is very comfortable.

Interesting mix of 4X strategy and construction game, which just manages to get an 80 rating with fresh ideas and depth.

A faithful sequel to Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, but sadly a little too conservative in some ways. Barely any new features add to the gameplay, which is naturally as strong as within its predecessors. The story is interesting, cutscenes and dialogues are well written and impressively presented. A minor setback: the Riddler riddles have been removed for this one.

A nice genre-mix that combines elements of both strategy and action. Battlestations: Pacific succeeds in providing gameplay and performance almost free of grave mistakes, but unfortunately free of highlights and memorable experiences as well.

Abandoning the open, yet often empty-feeling world of its predecessor, Armageddon delivers a much more streamlined experience. Though its story fails to excite, the use of the innovative magnet gun and the ensuing chaos of destruction is enough to inspire awe. The engaging combat mechanics compensate for some minor flaws in the level design.

The second addon for famous The Sims 3 brings you new career choices for your virtual family - among them jobs as firefighter, ghosthunter or stylist. Sounds cool but the fun of playing the job routines day by day vanishes too quickly. The Sims 3 Ambitions is solid but nothing more.

It's Descent with all its ups and downs: Fantastic playability, cool weapons and challenging levels, which are diminished by bleak environments and monotonous missions. So yeah, the game can feel a little outdated at times. But if you are a fan of the original two Descent games, that might be exactly what you are looking for. I had a blast.

A lot tennis games try to follow the footsteps of the good, old Virtua Tennis. But most of them fail because of some gameplay issues . TopSpin 2K25 is fun to play and can deliver some great tennis experience. Just a few bugs and mediocre graphics tarnish the image.

The marketing for Emio suggested a much darker game than it actually is. Nevertheless, in addition to the colorful scenery and the slow-moving plot, there are also a few wonderfully spooky moments. It owes this above all to its namesake.

Musicologists differ between opera seria and opera buffa, i.e., between a tragic heroic story and some easy entertainment. A Vampyre Story wanted to be both, but remains too simplistic to really move me with Monas slow emotional development – and thus becomes more of a soap opera. And yes, the open end demands a sequel, soon! Not talking about the scary technology, A Vampyre Story is not the ultimate adventure, but surely a game you will remember. Does the genre offer better games? No doubt about it. Should adventure fans grab a bite? Yes. And don’t forget to save!

Only for story fans: The dark role-playing game scores with its strong setting and a decent plot. However, exploration and combat wear out quickly, and a lot of potential is wasted in detective work.

Just Cause 3 is a delightfully straightforward game. It gives players a whole lot of explosive tools and then just leans back, waiting to see what you are going to blow up next. While light on true innovations apart from the fantastic wingsuit, Just Cause 3 is an infinitely more finely-tuned version of the silly action blockbuster we've all come to expect from the series.

High replay value, enormous depth and massive demands: Total War: Pharaoh is strategy food for advanced players. The game requires a certain amount of training, but it also rewards it with an overall motivating gaming experience.

A lot has changed since Blackguards, much of it for the better. It’s the things that stayed the same that keep this tough as nails tactical RPG from achieving greatness.

Many reissues, such as the Command & Conquer Remastered Collection, come with fun extras. For example, behind-the-scenes videos, making-of anecdotes, a collection of artwork, or a cool glossary with background information. None of these can be found in Dawn of War: Definitive Edition.

If you are a Wipeout fan and not averse to a round of Mario Kart, you belong to the target group of Grip and have a lot of fun with the game. Especially the speed devil races let the adrenaline level rise, while the weapon events provide a lot of pleasure. Unfortunately the joy diminishes with time, because career structure and presentation are rather dull. The PS4 version is technically clean and therefore absolutely recommendable for fans of action racers.

An inferior sequel to 2012’s surprise hit, Hotline Miami 2 nonetheless shares many of its predecessor’s qualities. The soundtrack alone is worth the price of admission and the mosaic story makes for some very weird, albeit fun to interpret scenes.

Solid action for fans of Warhammer, but lacking in atmosphere and finesse. Graphic and textures are a little outdated but not a huge obstacle when it comes to the simple fun the game promises.

Despite smaller flaws such as an unrewarding progress system, PGA Tour 2K21 manages to appeal to beginners as well as experts alike. The gameplay is thoroughly explained, feels good and is motivating through a surprising amount of depth. The older graphics and long loading times are only minor inconveniences.

Déjà-vu: The Game - but it's still fun.

A beautiful adventure game with original characters, good humor, tricky puzzles and a great art style. Even though the story suffers from an abrupt ending and loses its focus after a couple of hours, it's still a must-have for those who crave for a good point-and-click-adventure.

Biped is a cute little surprise for people who prefer to play in coop-mode. It offers an innovative control sheme and stages with a lot of variety. Everything falters the moment you start playing solo, however. Then it becomes a mediocre experience at best.

Chase a notorious and presumed dead masterthief in this new point and click adventure game by the creators of The Book of Unwritten Tales. In the first episode you play as swiss police officer investigating the ravens latest heist. Experience exotic locations such as the famous orient express train or a luxurious cruise ship in the Mediterranean and solve mostly logical, simple riddles.

Far Cry 6 manages to tell a dark and gritty story with an excellent written and performed antagonist. The game also gets rid of unnecessary rpg systems and leans more back to the shooter roots of the series. Overall a better experience than the two predecessors but with lack of something really new.

The new Trackmania tries to merge E-Sport with the fun factor that all parts of the franchise contain. However, that doesn’t work out pretty well. On the other hand, it still has the strength of the predecessors: Easy to learn, but enough depth for pros. In addition, thanks to the free2play model every interested driver can give it a free shot.