It is difficult to grade Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector. There are moments where you feel you have control of how you want to play the game and what you want to do, but so too are there moments where you feel you are just following along on a predetermined story, where the choices don’t matter, and the free agency you have as the Sleeper is just an illusion.

I went into Death Strand Directors Cut, ready to embrace the weird and enjoy the experience. The story, visuals and world are all quite good and up to a great standard. But before too long the monotonous nature of its core gameplay had me feeling I was doing a job that I had little interest in.

A great core gameplay loop, great enemy design and art, and a more run-based approach sets this game apart as one of the greats in the roguelike genre. The Stress and relationship system might not be for everyone, but it reinforces the strong focus on the choices you make in a run.

The controls irk, it is full of breadcrumb busywork and almost everything is done better in Breath of the Wild. But for all its faults, it still offers some satisfying environmental traversal, unique gadgets and complex puzzles.

An adventure that doesn’t stand out in anyway. Embracelet isn’t buggy, broken or busted, but it is decidedly average.

While discussion is sure to be dominated by the sexualisation of lead character Eve, looking past that, Stellar Blade provides a solid action experience for fans of the Souls-like genre.

The Switch version of Doom Eternal is ultimately a complex beast to recommend. If you’re someone wanting to take on some demons on the go? The lack of an adaptable UI makes it tough to recommend based on the amount of text which is unreadable when in handheld mode. For those players who primarily play Docked, especially if the Switch is one’s primary system? It makes for a far better prospect.

A visually stunning but too faithful recreation of a cult classic held back by its dedication to the source material.

As a Roguelike, Jupiter Hell stumbles with the randomness that shakes up each run instead, allowing the player a lot of control over how they want to build their character. Despite this, there is fun to be had with the tactical shooter.

If you have an itch for a fixed-camera horror and the patience for punitive controls, this is your game. If not, the Tormented Souls experience will feel less like a nostalgic embrace and more like a frustrating relic.

Unfortunately, while there are moments when Party Animals shines and is a fun competitive mini-game experience, these moments were brought down by some confusing design choices that hampered my enjoyment while playing.

A little light on content and a touch on the pricey side, Samurai Showdown on the Series could have perhaps been packaged better. But there is no denying the joy offered by its blood soaked and engaging one on one battles.

FixFox isn’t a game for teens or adults who act like teens (you know who you are). There isn’t enough challenge or engaging gameplay to be had. For the pre-teens out there though, FixFox is adorably cute, enjoyable and fun with a story that they can follow! The developers knew the audience that would enjoy this and delivered well.

The Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Road ultimately left me disappointed. It has certainly paved the way for more dynamic gameplay and interesting battle mechanics, but the shallow storyline and lamentable writing was hard for me to look past.

For all its quirks, I do hope that Screamer finds a regular and loyal fanbase. The story may be naff, and some tracks are better than others, but there remains an enjoyable core at the centre of it all. The potential for online play, particularly in all-out team races, is highly promising, but it’s a promise that can only be fulfilled if Screamer can entice enough an audience to purchase and persevere. It’s an excellent, flawed, unique, undercooked racer that just may yet manage to become a simply great one.

If you missed Spider-Man 2 on PS5, the PC version will be a great way to experience it, just not yet. I just wish Sony would learn from their mistakes and stop these sorts of releases from happening, but sadly their PC port rollercoaster just keeps on rolling.

It isn’t terrible but there is no denying that the NBA 2K franchise is on a downward trend. The focus on everything but the Basketball is this game’s biggest sin, one that almost ruins the entire experience.

While not difficult, The survivalists hooked me in with its take on the survival genre and the creative use of the local monkey population to help me survive.

While Hunt: Showdown gives players a high caliber atmosphere to play in, the steep learning curve and difficulty for new players to survive encounters with veterans may give it problems in gathering a larger player base.

Dead Take is an ambitious commentary on the state of a dark and often desperate industry. While its stellar performances are let down by some less imaginative horror troupes, it remains an intriguing take on the world of entertainment.

Horizon Chase 2 is blisteringly fast and honestly pretty fun. Its progression may feel borderline automated and its audio mixing lacks energy to an honestly bizarre level, but in a sea of very few fish it remains a solid and entertaining enough choice for what it is.

Breakout Beyond updates the classic formula to make it interesting where Atari's prior attempts at modernisation stumbled. But it's let down by the lack of leaderboards in its main mode, and a potential slog to unlock the hidden modes which offer more challenge.

This is a game that tries a lot but can never commit. Still, it's a fun enough jaunt through a world otherwise lost to a mobile game, with some nostalgic call-backs to other games in the series

There’s every chance more recent Sherlock converts might find themselves severely underwhelmed by The Awakened, which doesn’t really stand up against The Sinking City or Chapter One, but I nevertheless enjoyed traipsing around period locations for a few hours a night across the span of a week, the sort of popcorn gaming that isn’t appreciated enough in amongst larger, more bombastic titles that demand endless hours across their poorly paced open-worlds.

An excellent game, but a rough port, Wild Hearts S is held back by poor performance and sloppy visuals. Play it for the gameplay experience but not the aesthetics.

The Falconeer: Warrior Edition, fails to inspire. It’s a game that says its piece in the first hour but then meanders on for another dozen hours without saying anything more.

Emio - The Smiling man is a dark and gruesomely gripping mystery that’s held back from reaching greatness by its lack of improvement on the series’ existing flaws.

Yes, Your Grace: Snowfall is an ambitious sequel with new gameplay and a familiar cosy-danger vibe. Presently, management systems are somewhat unbalanced and difficult to fully enjoy.

Jackbox Party Pack 10 has its flaws, but the creative depravity it offers makes up for the weaker games in the pack. A solid entry in their 10 year catalogue.

Pac-Man World 2: Re-Pac takes its original counterpart and brings it into the modern day, but platforming has evolved a lot since then, and its inconsistent difficulty, tedious boss-fights and lack of refinement mean this one is really for fans of the original.

Caverns Of Mars: Recharged is a solid enough throwback, but it lacks the spark of inspiration from its source material to truly push the experience forward.

I have no doubt that after another month or so, this game will be in a much better place but as it is, I cannot in good conscience recommend this to anyone who doesn’t have an absolute beast of a PC. The experience is just too compromised on anything less than the latest and greatest gear.

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun aims to be the kind of FPS throwback to get your adrenaline pumping, and almost hits the mark, if not for the overly expansive levels which don’t quite land the old-school feel that the rest of the game nails.

Disney Illusion Island is a fantastic opportunity to introduce younger players to the Metroidvania genre, but it’s too light-on for content for players already versed in the genre.

While DBZ:K is a great way to relive the original series with enjoyable combat and dead-on aesthetics, it’s saddled with an open world two generations behind that detracts from the promise it shows.

Metal Eden delivers on its promise of fast-paced combat and fluid movement, but its generic world and shallow narrative hold it back. A fun, albeit short, experience that leaves you wanting more than it’s able to deliver.

Go in expecting the classic with a couple of added extras, and your time with Sonic will be action-packed and enjoyable.

Sakura Wars’ characters and delightfully camp stylings make for a mostly entertaining anime revue, but its dull mech sections and occasional forays into creepiness diminish an otherwise slick presentation.

I feel torn about House of Ashes. I’ve been overly negative here, but it isn’t by any means a bad game, it just didn’t gel with me in the way that Little Hope, for example, did.

Lawn Mowing Simulator does no more or less than its title. You will mow lawns on lawn mowers. Although there is a career mode, there’s little urging you to progress, making this a perfect mind-clearing title for those times when you just feel like cruising and bruising the buffalo.

Infliction is nightmarishly scary, but it lacks innovation and relies on some tired and problematic tropes in order to deliver. While it excels in its puzzle design and general atmospheric spookiness, an unsympathetic protagonist and audio problems lead to an overall lacklustre experience.

I found that the best way to approach them was to cheese my way to victory. This left me with the feeling that I was exploiting the AI rather than using skill to overcome adversity. Think long and hard if this is the game for you, but for this reviewer, it isn’t something I will likely never pick up again.

While My Hero: All’s Justice does a great job of putting the player in the climactic battle against Tomura Shigaraki, All for One and the remaining members of The League of Villains, having to trudge through the disappointing Team-Up Missions to access the Archive Battles and the one dimensional combat that reduces controls to spamming a single button makes this game hard to recommend to all but the most die hard MHA fans.

I just wished the package included some historical details if only to help bring some context for those who weren’t there for the original releases.

I really don’t know if the time Cris Tales has taken from my life was fully worth it. There were definite ups throughout my adventure, but the frustrations mitigated my excitement somewhat.

While Dex may have a few flaws overall, it is a solid game that is filled with freedom to play how you want as you uncover the secrets of Harbour Prime.

Blades of Fire should be applauded for the new and exciting systems it brings to the Soulslike genre but sadly, the rest of the game is a little below par. A noble attempt, but one that just misses the mark.

Minecraft Legends has potential, I don’t know if it will have the same level of longevity as the original Minecraft has had, and while it is very simple to command your mobs to go to a certain place and have them attack whatever is in the area, kids may struggle to adapt to the controlling of the mobs in more nuanced ways that will help get the most out of combat.

A niche product for a niche audience, Clea 2 feels honest in its design, especially in a genre which can occasionally feel engineered to entice and then exploit influential streamers in service of a sales explosion. Lasting around five to six hours, Clea 2 teeters on the edge of outstaying its welcome, a minor issue in the face of a marketplace awash with bloated titles.

This is a game that has a pile of problems, thankfully, the core combat loop is so satisfying that those problems take a backseat to all the brutal fun you are having.

Crypto's return is a fun one, but hardly essential. Some dated humour and repetitive missions hold the game back from greatness but there is still certainly fun to be had in this B-grade Sci/Fi comedy adventure.

With challenging controls and a confusing narrative, Little Nightmares III will be best enjoyed by those familiar with the previous entries over newer players to the franchise.

Some interesting ideas combined with a relatively short run time makes Chronos good for one or two playthroughs that will genuinely make you appreciate its successor even more.

If I were to describe how the game feels to me, it would be “death by a thousand paper cuts”. Each of the things wrong with the game is a very minor annoyance in what is a good game, but it’s enough to make the player come away feeling disappointed and like it wasn’t worth their time. It’s hard to think about the future when you are regretting your past.

Sonic Frontiers is a solid core experience stretched far too thin, proving that sometimes more is less.

Haunted House takes a classic, and brings it into the modern age, by introducing stealthy elements to a Roguelite. It almost pulls it off too, if not for its repetitive room design and a few too many bugs which pull players out of the game a little too quickly.

Stuck in the past, Saints Row 3 still offers a lot of fun, you just have to look past some pretty dated humour to find it.

While No Straight Roads‘ floaty combat occasionally frustrates, its strong sense of self is commendable. Terrific art direction and musical composition add flourish to a game that otherwise may have been too easy to miss out on.

The Gex Trilogy bundles up a trio of middling to good platformers together and places them on modern platforms, with the perk of playing them with modern features like rewind, screen ratio adjustments and more. For fans of the games in their day, there’s some nostalgic fun to be found here, but if you’re new to the IP and are considering picking them up, well, in the immortal (and well-worn) words of Gex himself – Fuhgeddaboutit

Mario Golf: Super Rush offers enjoyable mechanics for multiplayer matches but does nothing but disappoint those who want to go it alone.

While it loses some of its sheen, this port of everyone’s favourite banana republic nation-building sim has everything you will find on the other platforms, giving you the ability to control everything in your island nation no matter where you are.

While I believe the story could have been delivered more smoothly, there is no faulting the effort gone into voicing all conversations and making sure that the simple gameplay loop remains engaging for many hours. There’s an amateurish, almost cobbled-together feel about Cloudpunk in general, which luckily connects with its aesthetic, coming together in a nice, shiny, pixelated indie pie.

Mado Monogatari: Fia and the Wondrous Academy has so much personality, and if you’re familiar with the series or this style of game, I think you’ll have a lot of fun. The upbeat, quirky sense of humour is a real selling point for me, and though I found the gameplay loop a little repetitive, I was laughing and smiling all the way through it.

If you’re after a game where the challenge is turned up to 11, then Ghosts ’n Goblins Resurrection is more than ready to take you on. For everyone else? Unless you’re ready for the frustration, then you might want to stay away.

Dead Season is a short zombie romp through a tactical lens. It walks the line between tactical and accessible and doesn’t feel like it nails either side of the coin, so in the end, it comes off feeling a bit toothless.

While there are missteps in the narrative, Miasma Chronicles is a solid enough game that can scratch both the RPG and tactical turn-based combat itch, with some solid ideas that aim to tweak the genre in ways that keep the combat fresh.

SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated seems directly targeted at those with a real nostalgia for the original game. Improved visuals and audio aside, it’s hard to recommend to a new audience when the platforming genre has had some truly outstanding remakes these past few years, let alone new entries.

Aggressively average and ultimately forgettable, Chains of Freedom is neither bad nor good, it just is.

NBA 2K24 is the definitive NBA 2K playing experience, crushed under the weight of excessive monetisation attempts.

Exit the Gungeon is not so much a full sequel, but rather the port of a mobile/tablet arcade title. As such, it is a simpler and more direct spin-off that relies on randomised weaponry and character-specific elevator runs to provide both challenge and variety for players.

If you’ve got a rainy afternoon and not much to do, Kill It With Fire will slot in nicely for a few hours of entertainment, although there may not be a high degree of replayability if the combat system doesn’t suit your tastes.

I wish I could sing the praises of this game, but the flaws were a little too frequent to ignore. The narrative is strong but the delivery of it often flounders, despite the convincing voice acting of some of the cast. Some puzzles fit right into the world and add to the immersion, while some feel like banging your head against a wall as you endure them. The environments are often stunning, but the shine is taken away when travelling through them reveals pop-in and an overuse of invisible walls. It feels like a game that’s almost there, and I wish it had stuck the landing.

The Ascent opens impressively and displays a solid core, which regrettably starts to sour early, especially if you play on your own. Load times, illegible text and repetitive structure mean that the console experience is lacking.

There is a solid game at its base, and players will find plenty of variety and visual punch to satisfy a fun, casual tryst. Ultimately, the game passes, but it does not excel in whatever it was setting out to achieve.

What you see is what you get with Sam’s fourth adventure. There are no surprises here but there is comfort to be found in decimating wave after wave of alien nasties while cracking bad one-liners.

JETT reaches for the stars, and it is tantalising to watch it do so. It’s a shame that the camera cuts away just as it looks like it’s going to get there.

The outer layers of Gotham Knights present quite well and will keep you entertained for hours, but there’s something rotting at the core that holds the game back from ever being anything great.

I wish I could say it wasn’t a foregone conclusion, and I’m ready to be proven wrong, but the demise does feel inevitable. Assuming there aren’t any big changes, I don’t know that this is going to find a lasting audience.

While a little rough around the edge, this anachronistic RPG charms in unexpected ways and offers a better jumping on point for the franchise.

When thinking back on my experience as a whole with VED, I just feel hollow and confused.

AquaNox: Deep Descent is by no means a bad game, nor is it a particularly good one. It is instead exceedingly average, something for people like myself who carry fond memories of vaporizing intergalactic cat people to while away an hour or so at a time over a few weeks. If you don’t happen to fit inside this very particular demographic, then I strongly doubt AquaNox: Deep Descent is the best place to start within the genre.

While Windbound failed to shake my sails, being too repetitive and pressured, it should appeal to survivalists. Respect must be afforded to the interesting sailing mechanics, which elevates the exploration.

Where it does succeed is in its original intention – to bring this story to a new, modern audience. I finally understand George Orwell’s Animal Farm a bit more, even having still not read it. Despite my frustrations, I still spent yet more hours outside the game thinking about the ramifications and meanings of this Orwellian tale. In that at least, Orwell’s Animal Farm realizes its potential.

Valkyrie Elysium brings the series into the modern era, even though the story is rough, and the levels are a bit bland. I want to see more of this, but hopefully with some of the more major faults fixed.

Ray’s The Dead has a tonne of potential, and I’m thrilled that Ragtag stuck with their work and didn’t allow this game that already centred on the dead to die in real-life too. There are rough edges, many of which can be easily rectified with some patching, but there’s something to Ray’s adventure that will constantly put a smile on your face.

Spitlings is a very cool concept, and the frenzy of each level makes it a fun experience for a group of people. However even though the levels present you with more complex puzzles as you go along, the mechanics of the game are so repetitive that it gets boring very quickly.

Lunar Lander Beyond offers some great mechanical ideas, but it’s the execution and the lack of finesse that left me wanting more. From landers with sluggish controls to pilots and their traits cancelling out the challenges those brought on. It makes for a game that is frustrating as it carries so many neat ideas that are all lost in the final execution.

I like Fairy Tail 2. It’s competent but not great, and there are a few things that irk me; like locking exploration behind specific characters that join much later. If you’re not a fan of the series, the game lacks quite a bit of backstory, and even the stuff that is in the game can be locked behind late game campfire scenes. If you are a fan of Fairy Tail in manga or anime form, this is a fun jaunt through the final arc of the series.

Even though we were hoping for a little more in terms of modern features and sharp controls. Pac-man Museum + very much ticks the box for a nostalgic bundle of goodness, one that can be enjoyed for every age group.

Hampered by a limited selection of wrestlers, customisation options and a career mode that falls on the short side, it is another one of those games that could be great if given more time and development.

Forspoken may be a game of squandered potential, but there remains an argument that it’s still worth playing, not just for the simple joy of zipping through its world, but for the occasional glimpse at the potentially genre-defying tentpole it could have been with clearer vision and better collaboration. Because, in this world of stagnation over innovation, even just the groundwork can be worth savouring.

Shadow Labyrinth isn’t a bad game by any means, it is just one that carries with it a sense of missed opportunity and sometimes that stings a little more.

It is a case of close, but no cigar for King’s Bounty II. It makes a valiant attempt at creating an grand RPG but constantly trips over frustrating design choices.

Kao The Kangaroo’s imperfects are numerous, but while each in isolation isn’t destroying the experience, combined, it makes you appreciate the games shorter duration.

While audio issues stop it from reaching its full potential, The Suicide of Rachel Foster is a dark and intriguing walk-em-up that will keep fans of the genre on their toes. Just be ready to weather some frustrating technical problems to get to the good bits.

The story may be wafer thin, and the rubber banding still brutal at times, but there’s a lot of charm in Chocobo GP, and lots of fun to be had. Square-Enix intends to continue supporting the game into the future with the likes of Cloud and Squall all on track to become available to players post launch, so there’s hope that unlike its predecessor, Chocobo GP isn’t an easily forgotten flash in the pan. Despite plenty of rough edges, this is a race worth being a part of.

Skully is a throwback to the golden age of 3D platforming that has an interesting story, but an inconsistent difficulty level that is at times frustrating to play through. It might scratch that 3D puzzle platforming itch, but ultimately falls short of being a memorable experience.

Alone In The Dark is a survival horror reimagining that doesn’t quite live up to the legacy of its predecessors. Dans of the genre will find some fun here, but stars like Jodie Corner and David Harbour feel almost wasted on this mediocre offering.