Reanimal exploits our love of theories and in doing so creates a game that’s bloated and narratively confusing. While it’s undeniably pretty and the boss designs are cool, two-player co-op is fiddly and unforgiving, detracting from any real tension the game tries to build.

With excellent maps, slick and expressive movement, and the superb new Overload mode, Black Ops 7’s core multiplayer experience is brilliant. Zombies fans have plenty to sink their teeth into, even if a lot of its modes return from past games. BO7’s campaign, however, is its biggest disappointment, and its Endgame experiment mostly falls flat.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 fails to recapture the original’s magic, instead magnifying the worst parts of Troika’s classic, with janky combat and occasionally woeful performance issues. Long-time VTM fans may enjoy haunting Seattle’s snowy streets, getting to know its well-written cast, and testing each clan’s unique playstyle, but it’s a far cry from what it could have been.

Hell is Us starts strong, but quickly falls into a tedious loop of collection and delivery, with an uninspiring combat system and a story that loses its initial promise. The superb place-setting and unnerving tone can’t save this action RPG from stumbling across the finish line.

Gears of War's simple shooting and world design are as strong now as they were in 2007, but Reloaded's more technologically advanced visuals sap away the earlier versions’ grimy cartoon charm.

Echoes of the End makes a strong first impression with inventive puzzles and focused combat, but its uncompromising appetite for challenge and precision is painfully difficult to overcome, and undercuts the power of its protagonist in the process.

Both its greatest strength and biggest weakness, the precision that Broken Arrow demands often chokes its more abstract qualities. It's a stark spectacle with nasty, legitimately cynical overtones, but its unwillingness to compromise aesthetically and tonally almost makes it mechanically inflexible, to the point that the player often doesn't feel included in the strategy making whatsoever.

The premise of Siren's Rest is strong enough to plumb the depths of Still Wakes the Deep’s enduring mysteries, but as a compact story DLC, it’s just too shallow. The principal goal of tracking down collectibles siphons the tension from its claustrophobic environments, and The Chinese Room's overreliance on scripted sequences creates missed opportunities for emergent horror.

The Alters spreads itself thinly, approaching heady subject matter with little imagination and shallow dialogue. Coupled with irritating resource management, cumbersome traversal, and an ever-ticking clock that harms its narrative pacing, 11 Bit's ambitious survival game is only for those who love deadlines and suffering.

Stellar Blade often looks great, and it features solid combat design that remains exciting throughout. It’s let down, though, by a dull plot and a bland cast of characters who fail to make its story consistently compelling over the course of its runtime.

Elden Ring Nightreign shoots for the stars with a clean retrofit of familiar assets into a roguelike format, but it’s dragged back down to earth with repetitive encounters, overtuned bosses, and lacklustre meta-progression. Random chance and an urgent pace rewards blind haste over careful buildcraft, but I'm confident its biggest issues can still be fixed.

The Onimusha 2 remaster does exactly what it says on the tin. Sharp visuals breathe new life and color into a cult classic that merits a life beyond the PS2. However, Capcom’s dedication to the original experience means that decades-old problems remain unaddressed, and its capitulation to analog movement undercuts the authenticity it sets out to achieve.

Deliver At All Costs has tons of potential, but it doesn’t know what to do with it. A solid storyline is neglected in favor of chaotic quests, but the missions aren’t varied enough to stave off repetition for long. It's a game of competing ideas and intentions that would have been better explored across two entirely separate and fully realized projects.

With its weapon-building systems and deliberate, targeted combat, Blades of Fire has a lot of fresh-feeling ideas. Its control scheme is strange and will force you to press each button with care. Its granular forging system makes you consider every weapon in your arsenal. But however differently it approaches them, the game only offers the same thrills as other action games of its ilk. Blades of Fire feels unique, but just can’t get weird enough.

While its predecessor's floaty, unsatisfying combat remains, and its enemy variety is lacking, Revenge of the Savage Planet's freedom of movement and exploration make this short-but-sweet, eccentric Metroidvania well worth a go.

If you enjoyed Sekiro's parry-heavy combat and Nioh’s mission-based structure, The First Berserker Khazan will likely work for you. Even with few new ideas of its own and often unexciting levels, its build variety and brutal boss fights more than make this soulslike worth the effort.

While Amerzone - The Explorer's Legacy is a loving tribute to its source material, its gameplay remains trapped in the past. The world is more realized than ever before and, at points, almost feels real, but the addition of a few new puzzles doesn't quite inject the excitement that I'd hoped. Amerzone is a must-play for fans of Benoît Sokal, but is unlikely to wow the new generation of point-and-click adventurers.

The problems inherent to stealth games hold back Commandos Origins, but it's still a high-stakes, high-intensity RTS where even the smallest action can feel meaningful. Meticulous, difficult, and demanding, it will test your patience as much as your tactical insight, but when you finally get it right, Commandos Origins is rewarding.

With clever iterations on soulslike conventions and a sharp implementation of videogame fundamentals, AI Limit has frequent thrills. But its derivative art direction, tired level design, and uninspiring narrative make it hard to recommend over its obvious inspirations. FromSoftware’s oeuvre draws on literature and visual art to feel unique and daring; AI Limits’ influences are limited to other videogames, and it’s all the lesser for it.

South of Midnight is a monotonous action-adventure game plagued by boring, repetitive fights and boss battles, with a story that loses momentum when it needs it most. Thankfully, its strong characterization, setting, and soundtrack do a lot of the heavy lifting. If you’re able to survive the grind, you might walk away feeling satisfied, but you’d be forgiven for calling it quits before the credits roll.

While its open world is stunning, its combat is robust, and its dual-protagonist design is somewhat novel, Assassin’s Creed Shadows proves too repetitive and dramatically flat to wholeheartedly recommend taking its trip back in time.

Beneath Avowed’s mycelium-covered surface lurks a good RPG stifled by a lack of real stakes. The Living Lands feel anything but alive, and while the combat strikes the right balance between fun and challenge, it doesn't offer anything new. If you’re looking for a comfort-food fantasy RPG, then Avowed’s got you covered, but you need to set your expectations accordingly.

Firaxis combats the inherent bloat of the 4X genre with partial success. All of the big new ideas in Civilization 7 work well and it's tighter and more engaging than any of its predecessors. Nevertheless, your sense of connection still begins to wane by the midgame.

Booned by a timelessly pretty art style and fulfilling adventure structure, Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter is a beautiful, sprawling hack-and-slash soulslike let down by its overly forgiving combat.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is an exceptional-looking game with initially exciting combat, but it’s let down by uneven storytelling that makes it duller than it should be.

A unique premise, great sense of style, and a number of novel design concepts aren’t quite enough to compensate for Slitterhead’s repetitive mission structure and lifeless combat.

With a campaign that takes a swing, the return of secret-packed, round-based Zombies, and multiplayer that makes some genuine improvements over years gone by, Black Ops 6 is a solid package that will please longtime fans and entice more than a few newcomers.

The Silent Hill 2 remake is a solid, respectful reimagining of a horror classic. The sound design is perhaps even more spectacular here, but modern graphics clean up some of the grit and grime, while overextended exploration and frequent cutscenes take away from the original's claustrophobia and fear.

EA Sports FC 25 continues to hand in the same homework it's done for the past few years now, albeit with a new paragraph on Rush. It's a solid game that will likely enjoy plenty of additions throughout the year, but I'd like to see more ambition in the future.

Shadows of Doubt is an intricate simulation of a grim corporate world that handles player freedom on a level you rarely see. The fascination wears thin as you delve deeper into the seedy underworld, but the initial intrigue alone is worth the price of entry.

A charming comic book aesthetic and a tight, satisfying gameplay loop make Wild Bastards a worthwhile FPS roguelike, provided you can bear its gratingly chatty cast and often underwhelming upgrades.

Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2’s properly vicious combat and impressive presentation are let down by a bland story and uninteresting mission design.

As a Dead by Daylight fan, The Casting of Frank Stone had me squealing with joy at its easter eggs, hints, and lore. This combined with its mysterious plot and engaging dual-timeline structure kept me invested even through the most hands-off sequences. Still, I was left wanting more interactivity, and the game’s conclusion is likely to go over non-DBD players’ heads.

Fast-paced, frenetic, and full of fur, Gori: Cuddly Carnage is one of the best hack-and-slash games around. Its highly-saturated, no-nonsense approach to fun is a fantastic execution for the genre.

Star Wars: Outlaws captures the visual feel of the source material but misses the mark with nearly everything else. An uninteresting open world and tedious stealth sections bog down what could have been the start of something special.

Earth Defense Force 6’s quality of life improvements make for the strongest gameplay in the series to date, but an annoying intro and the same glitches as usual leave it as a diamond in the rough.

Sins of a Solar Empire 2's frantic, always real-time pace is both a thrill and a significant hurdle. Its banal space-opera vibes and even worse AI art are a huge detriment. But under the hood, Sins 2 still has generic 4X joys to spare.

The Operator borrows a bunch of strong puzzle concepts and uses them to good and imaginative effect, but it throws in a few dud sections and its well-paced thriller story is sadly lacking in depth.

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is a sublime semi-open world that champions quality over quantity, but unrefined combat puts a damper on A44's original gunpowder fantasy.

While Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus plays it too safe with its gameplay, its engrossing setting and large cast of charming characters help it stand apart in the ever-crowded Metroidvania genre.

Skald: Against the Black Priory captures the spirit of your favorite old-school RPGs while serving up deep side quests and memorable lore, but its combat and progression systems eventually run into trouble and its overarching narrative never quite takes off.

F1 24's new additions and changes, including its barebones Career Mode and overly forgiving Dynamic Handling system, often do more harm than good, making this a solid but skippable entry for anyone other than the most diehard fans.

Capes mostly overcomes its cliches, lack of customization, and limited scope thanks to its strategic gameplay that will test the mettle of even the most hardened of turn-based tactics veterans.

While the throwback graphics and simplistic combat won't appeal to many, the authentic and original story and endlessly fascinating world make Dread Delusion feel like a long-lost cult classic.

Solo Leveling Arise is authentic to its anime and webtoon inspirations, but it's too grindy, frustrating, and repetitive to come close to rivaling the best gacha games.

Whether or not you’re a fan of Suikoden II, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is just about worth your time. Unfortunately, almost every high point in Nowa's adventure is met with a painful low, making for a disjointed experience bursting with forgettable minigames and characters.

Horizon Forbidden West is utterly gorgeous and builds on the original's intense combat, but a lack of ambition and a flat narrative hold it back as a sequel. It provides more of the first game but bigger, with a few new inclusions struggling against the tidal wave of familiarity.

Simple and beautiful to look at, Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles is a pleasant distraction but lacks the depth in its combat and economy to stay interesting for very long.

Millennia is a fresh take on the 4X genre that offers a reactive approach to building your nation throughout history, but a few key issues keep it from greatness.

South Park Snow Day makes for chaotic, mindless fun when played with friends thanks to its roguelike-inspired upgrades and sense of humor, but it's a frustrating dud when going it alone.

For better and for worse, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a faithful reimagining of Hideaki Itsuno’s flawed yet ambitious action-RPG. Those who rise to the challenge of meeting it on its own terms are suitably rewarded, but a deluge of trash mobs, restrictive fast travel, and endemic hardware issues will be a dealbreaker for many.

Alone in the Dark is a weak survival horror pastiche largely devoid of original moments. The occasional dash of character in its 1920s Deep South setting can't make up for repetitive puzzles and the feeling we've seen all of this before.

WWE 2K24 is a fitting tribute to the legacy of the wrestlers that came before, the talented Superstars that now thrill millions worldwide, and the future of sports entertainment in videogames, even if there is still room for improvement in the presentation and some of its game modes.

Poppy Playtime: Chapter 3 is an enjoyable and emotional horror puzzle game that draws to a powerful conclusion, even if bugs, difficulty spikes, and its oddly paced narrative keep it back from greatness.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is simultaneously overblown and undercooked in some areas, but it nails the fundamentals of combat, platforming, and exploration, making for a strong Metroidvania adventure and an exciting new entry in a legendary game series.

While there is a lot of potential in House Flipper 2, it hits too many stumbling blocks that prevent it from achieving greatness. If you don’t bother with sandbox mode, at least in its current state, and opt to rush through the restrictive story mode quests, house flipping itself is good fun. So perhaps House Flipper 2 should just stick to its name and what it does best.

Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader’s adventure across the dangerous Koronus Expanse is full of fun sci-fi lore and companions, but it’s buried beneath wonky balancing, tedious spaceship battles, and quest-breaking bugs. Perhaps after numerous patches, Rogue Trader will one day become a strong addition to the CRPG genre.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora gives you the strength and stamina of the Na’vi, but not the consistency and depth of their homeworld. Unless you’re an avid fan who wants every morsel of storytelling, Ubisoft's latest open world doesn’t always justify the trip.

Steamworld Build delivers an entertaining blend of city building and dungeon crawling, but the two pillars don’t completely gel and myriad annoyances taint the experience.

As a sendoff to these beloved characters, Persona 5 Tactica tells a decent story and has novel tactical RPG ideas; even if said mechanics destroy all semblance of challenge.

An intriguing story of exploring new frontiers and an easy gateway into retro sci-fi literature, The Invincible is a powerful, engrossing cosmic drama that’s held back by a lack of variety and innovation, rough edges around its core mechanics, and a supporting cast that can’t quite match the energy of its stars.

Robocop: Rogue City captures the essence of the ’80s classic with over-the-top gunplay and a surprisingly engaging storyline influenced by player choice. It’s ambitious in parts, but repetition in its side missions and some jankiness hold it back.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice serves up a strong story and world but is marred by repetition and occasionally confusing level design, which holds it back from achieving its full potential as an instant VR classic.

Song of Nunu offers a rich narrative with plenty of heart and does an excellent job of synthesizing its characters in an authentic way. However, bland gameplay and performance issues work as a foil to Tango’s excellent storytelling, marring the overall experience.

Intricate, intuitive, and ambitious, Cities Skylines 2 successfully integrates all the major improvements that players might have wanted. Something personal is lost in its larger scale, while performance problems spoil the beauty, but this could one day become the superior city building game.

With some strong new ideas and often solid core design, Lords of the Fallen is an enjoyably grimdark soulslike. That said, Hexworks’ debut release borrows a lot from Dark Souls, and while this makes for a good baseline, it could do more to escape the shadow of better games.

Forza Motorsport is an adequate racing game, one that delivers on the track but doesn’t come with enough bells and whistles to be considered a true great in the genre. There are better options in almost all racing sub-genres on PC, but when you’re in the cockpit, the driving itself is ferocious and raw, with plenty to enjoy.

The Lamplighters League attempts to deviate from tradition, promoting creativity over power, but ultimately falls short. However, its simplicity puts it into the more approachable realms of turn-based tactical games and is a great choice for anyone looking to try the genre for the first time.

While at first glance Lies of P is ‘Bloodborne at home,’ Round8 Studio’s clockwork adventure writes its own unique story, filled to bursting with expansive Steampunk-style environments and defined by impressive, well-balanced combat. In some cases, though, it gets a little too clever for its own good, tying itself up in the strings that it fights so hard to break free from.

Starfield is a true behemoth of an RPG, and in many ways it’s the logical endpoint of Bethesda Game Studios’ well-worn formula. However, its massive scope pushes this formula to the absolute limit and the cracks begin to show, from feature creep to the stop-start nature of its exploration. Dedicated Bethesda fans are sure to get their fill, but this interstellar adventure never leaves the atmosphere.

Blasphemous 2 is a well-constructed but ultimately conventional Metroidvania, and while it still delivers on holy grotesquerie and striking visuals, the end result is a sequel that feels markedly smaller in scope.

Where life finds a way, Exoprimal has lost its purpose. Defined by boring combat and a lack of innovation, I’m left feeling like that Brachiosaurus in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – hopeless and yearning for more.

AEW’s first foray into videogames has much room for improvement across its odd-looking character models, slim game mode offerings, and poor AI balancing. That said, in the right crowd, you might enjoy it for its schlock and solid controls.

The System Shock remake is the best way to play the PC classic, making it an enjoyable first-person experience for the modern age. However, it still clings to some somewhat outdated mechanics that will frustrate newcomers.

As long as you don’t mind the truly daft AI making things a bit mindless, Redfall is a good-enough co-op action game, but it makes me sad for the vampire-hunting immersive sim Arkane could’ve delivered.

There’s a lot of fun to be had slaying zombies on the streets and beaches of HELL-A, but if that first bite doesn’t infect you, you might find – like the protagonist – that your experience gets stronger as you play.

It isn’t complex enough to satiate veteran RTS players and doesn’t offer mountains of content, but Minecraft Legends delivers the basic loop of attacking and defending territory and finds the odd inventive way to use its iconic IP.

Grim-faced dedication to history has produced a rules-heavy RTS that’s rarely fun or strategically rewarding – a highly accurate depiction of the First World War, in other words, and a success in that respect at least.

In theory, this is a massively entertaining game that introduces some unique twists to the monster-hunting formula. In practice, however, technical issues on PC continue to mar what should have been a slam-dunk hit.

The classic RTS battles carry the third entry in this once-essential series, returning more or less untouched, but alongside a bloated and unfinished campaign mode that feels at odds with the core ideas of Company of Heroes.

Content-rich and competent, if a little uninspired, Potter fans will enjoy Hogwarts Legacy’s faithful recreation of its universe, but it brings little of novelty to the open-world RPG genre.

WoW Dragonflight returns to the Warcraft’s roots as promised, while adding some exciting new features to modernise the iconic MMORPG. It’s endgame content, however, ultimately fails to fill the void.

You may get a laugh or two, but it’s an otherwise poor shooter that thinks large numbers of enemies are difficulty spikes and distractions will make people forget about the soft locks, crashes, and lack of accessibility options.

Frustrating technical issues hold Darktide back from being the definitive Warhammer 40,000 experience on PC.

A lumbering historical murder mystery with little regard for tension or pacing, but one that packs in such dense detail you can’t help but respect it. Pentiment immerses you in 1500s Bavaria and that’s the main event.

The new features simulate an essential aspect of humanity and do help Humankind feel more complete, but seldom have the impact you’d hope for from the 4X game’s first major expansion.

Its colourful cast of characters handles Batman’s absence well, but mismatched features and puzzling progression means it trips as much as it triumphs.

While Overwatch 2 adds a host of heroes and features to Blizzard’s iconic FPS game, its PvP feels more like a simple content update than a full blown sequel.

It’s still the leading football game in town, but EA has made only minor changes in FIFA 23, such as set piece tweaks and a new way of shooting. If you didn’t enjoy 22, chances are you won’t be too impressed with this one either.

The elements are there to create something truly special, but right now Metal: Hellsinger feels more like a Doom Eternal mod than it does a standalone title.

Gorgeous to look at but quite shallow and full of bugs, F1 Manager 2022 needs to improve on the realism and accuracies before it can achieve pole position.

Sometimes repetitive, sometimes eye-rolling, and sometimes just plain busted, Saints Row 2022 is far from perfect, but that doesn't stop it from being a chaotic good time.

Two Point Campus certainly makes the passing grade thanks to its unrelenting sense of humour and occasionally brilliant level concepts, but too much repetitive busywork keeps it from getting top marks.

Built on the foundations of several fantastic games, and those qualities remain – but you already own them. F1 22 simply doesn’t offer enough for a full-price purchase.

Gripping supernatural subterfuge meets perfunctory mechanics. Worth it to explore the World of Darkness, though.

Superbly written characters, the dark allure of its world, and an engrossing main story make up for Weird West’s wonky action.

The main story soon falls into repetition, and its side content is bloated with busywork, but exploring and fighting your way through Tango’s eerie, detailed rendition of Shibuya is where Ghostwire: Tokyo shines.

Bugs, repetitive side content, bad storytelling, and the unfulfilled promise of its choice and consequence system leave Dying Light 2 unable to capitalise on the strength of its excellent parkour and combat mechanics.