An earnest but empty love letter to Quake and Duke Nukem 3D that never gets around to doing anything to call its own.

Despite the promise of its setting and philosophically informed morality system, Broken Roads fails to set itself apart from or come remotely close to matching the many post-apocalyptic games it’s inspired by.

For all the ways in which aims to take SimCity into the future, it remains tethered firmly to its past. Due to the peculiarities of its simulation, Origin's temperamental connection, and ultimately its own mechanical shallowness, Cities of Tomorrow is unlikely to make converts of those already driven out of town.

It’s been a shame to watch all of Perils of Man’s promise go to waste. It got its hooks in me, made me eager to jump down the rabbit hole, but it just led to disappointment.

Absolutely bursting with breathtaking vistas, No Man's Sky works best as a stellar walking sim. Sadly the half-baked survival elements only detract from the experience.

Hellboy Web of Wyrd’s sharp art direction, warm voice performances, and goofy if basic combat struggle to shine through in a roguelike that is otherwise too messy in too many ways.

For the most part the execution is too simplistic, and the frustrations are too frequent.

All Firefall’s opening does is shove your face right up against grubby textures, shoddy animations, and invisible walls. Your first two hours with it will see you retreading ground completing repetitive fetch quests for characterless NPCs in a world that does nothing to excite the eye...You have to wade through that swill of a beginning to understand Firefall’s potential.

Despite having 50 years of legacy to work from, this manga mash-up feels like a rush job. The combat offers basic fun, but as a complete package Jump Force proves to be a flop.

Godfall's tried and trusted combat feels pleasant from moment-to-moment, but doesn't do enough to distract from an otherwise hollow experience.

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.

A compact, confident, bite-sized roguelite with a bit too much emphasis on the ‘lite’.

Beautiful and mechanically robust throughout, but weighed down by repetitive missions, a flabby structure, and a lot of the people you meet in Fort Tarsis. Even the strongest beats become tiresome if repeated or drowned in white noise, and that’s Anthem in a nutshell.

Koei does an unrivalled job representing the complex history and characters of the period, but the lack of variety in the experience combined with a steep price tag makes it hard to endorse without reservation.

Skull and Bones promises the pirate adventure of our dreams and falls far short thanks to a sparse storyline, lack of personality, and gameplay that oscillates between frustrating and boring.

Modern Warfare 3 is an uninspiring trip down memory lane, hacking together old ideas in an attempt to create something new. With a campaign that even the most die-hard fans would struggle to enjoy, and a multiplayer mode that offers nothing fresh, it’s best to steer clear of this full-price travesty.

A muddled game that trips over itself by implementing mechanics from various genres, but never fully expands on their potential.

I have no doubt that some folk will dismiss Sacred 3 because it bears no resemblance to the previous core games in the series. But that’s not why it should be avoided by most. It’s simply not fun to play.

Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood is peak mediocrity and lacks any real meat to make it stand out from the rest of the pack.

Beautiful scenery, strong characters, and inventive mechanics give Crucible a solid foundation - one undermined by poor communication between players and from Relentless Studios.

With its awful characters, inconsistent voice acting and combat hampered by problematic enemies, what little there is to enjoy is whittled away. It’s something to be tasted when absolutely starved for RPGs and could provide enough sword and sorcery shenanigans to tide one over until something more appetizing comes along, but it’s unlikely to prove fulfilling.

The recipe for a good adventure game is there, but the measurements are all wrong. Rector is too flawed, the puzzles are too easy, the metaphysical elements get too ridiculous are not well explained - everything is just off.

Competent, with enough fun weapons and silly spectacle to make it inoffensive entertainment. While a half-decade of development hell could’ve ended with worse results, it’s tough to muster much excitement for what’s here.

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.

A cheeky take on Dungeons & Dragons lore isn't enough to carry the lacklustre combat, sluggish controls, and dodgy enemy hitboxes.

Fallout 76 isn’t to be compared with other Fallouts - it’s a spin-off that wants to be something new. Unfortunately, the multiplayer sandbox it tries to be is stagnant and intensely frustrating to play.

Considering you’ve likely played the previous three games and have now spent around eight hours keeping homicidal animatronics at bay, there’s nothing about this fourth game that begs for you to return. Instead spend the cash on a bag of snacks and some drinks, and watch someone else shriek loudly into a microphone for you.

This hack-and-slash wears its simplicity like a lovely Scandinavian jumper, but is scarcely substantial enough for its handful of hours and drenched by awful aesthetic choices.

Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown is a frustrating mess of conflicting, grindy systems made worse by a dull open world and unexceptional racing.

The management aspects are shallow, and made entirely redundant by how easy it is to reach Scrooge McDuck levels of wealth. And there’s a serious dearth of good reasons for veteran Cities players to return. They’ve seen it all before.

In The Fall, NFusion have taken a scalpel to to Human Revolution’s template, collected together a pile of game meat - the essential giblets of a Deus Ex game - stitched it together and presented you with a serving. It’s recognisably Deus Ex but it’s not very appetising.

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum fails to live up to both the Tolkien name and its own potential. From exhausting, repetitive gameplay to a poorly constructed narrative, this is a piece of Middle-earth you should never explore.

It’s a universe filled with boring people living on boring space stations, and playing in this universe is, unsurprisingly, really bloody boring. There’s not one thing that X Rebirth does that Albion Prelude or, indeed, any of the X games doesn’t do better beyond a few visual treats. Even when the bugs are fixed, the bizarre design choices will persist, as frustrating and counter-intuitive as they were at launch.

It is the final exam of Unity of Command, and a perfect capstone to one of the finest entry-level PC wargames since Panzer General 2.

Minecraft is beloved because it’s a celebration of creativity. CastleMiner Z is the antithesis of Minecraft: it’s a depressing, cynical cash-grab almost wholly designed to hijack gamers’ excitement for Mojang. For 69p, its survival horror elements are a nonsense novelty. But at the price demanded on PC, we should be throwing it out to the creepers.

Ultimately, there just isn’t anything that Interstellaria does remotely well, beyond the cracking soundtrack.

Its two campaigns offer deliciously bonkers fan service for the rats and a meaty strategic challenge for the lizards, deftly served with CA’s usual care for the source material. A generous free update that profoundly improves the Skaven is the icing on the cake.

Some ideas don’t fully land, but there’s more than enough here to provide hours of fun in what’s fast becoming an excitingly crowded and appropriately violent realisation of the Warhammer world.

Is Malus Darkblade done justice? As a character, yes. But while his campaign is decent, Snikch’s is one of the weaker we've seen in these Lord packs, lacking some of CA's usual focus in mechanics and theme.

Sayonara Wild Hearts is a shot of pure positivity to the heart, delivered with excellence, fun, and finesse through a staggeringly bold and bop-worthy soundtrack.

Total War fans after a bold twist on the High Elf or Greenskin campaigns will find this less creative than other Lord packs, but Warhammer fans excited to recreate this storied grudge match will find it no less essential.

Competent and challenging but not especially deep, this Cold War tactical romp also tends to get a bit dry and repetitive at times.

Though not the most iconic rivalry, The Twisted and the Twilight offers the Wood Elves a crucial new lease of life, alongside some fun legendary heroes.

Mythos is a fresh layer of paint for Troy, but also feels like the first step towards an exciting evolution for the Total War series.

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.

No matter where it falls on your moral compass, Palworld has given the static formula of Pokémon a clear shake-up, both mechanically and ethically. On a technical level, I can’t say it’s good. However, its sheer playability is carried by just how bizarre it is from moment to moment. It’s certainly not bad going for a game that many people dismissed as vaporware at best, or forecast to go the same way as Fntastic’s The Day Before at worst. Anyway, my Pengullet’s feeling down because of the bad working conditions, so if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to chuck him into a hot spring. [Early Access Review]

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.

For the time being, though, it’s a beautiful and mechanically impressive city builder that still has plenty of room to grow. [Early Access Review]

Bland visuals and a lack of motivation combine with frustrating mechanics to make Ark of Charon little more than a temporary distraction. [Early Access Review]

33 Immortals is so much of what I love about gaming mushed into a tight package, one I can make a tiny dent in while I wait for my partner to return home from work before inevitably recruiting them to join the fight. Should I ever try 33 Immortals on Steam Deck, it could very well consume me. And I’d welcome it with open arms. [Early Access Review]

Slay the Spire 2 is more about refinement than evolution. By honing in on the elements that made the first game so addictive, Mega Crit has elevated the deck-building experience to consistently deliver more of those unforgettable “I can’t believe I just did that!” moments. Don’t let this game being in early access deter you from playing it; even in its current state, potentially years out from its full launch, this is an all-time classic that you won’t want to miss out on. [Early Access Score = 100]

With Masters of Albion, Molyneux and 22cans have achieved what they set out to do. Is it going to be a game for everyone? No, but that's the nature of god games, and strategy games more broadly. Is it a game you should spend some time with, however? Yes, yes you should, if only for the rush of dopamine and the creative new insults you'll learn along the way. [Early Access Review]