Despite what many would say, Fallout 76 could have worked on paper. What could have been a brilliant coop adventure in the Fallout world however, has turned into a wasteland of poorly executed ideas and flat, dated mechanics. Ironically, despite the a multiplayer focus, the wastelands of Fallout has never felt as barren or lonely as this.

The whole idea of playing as a blind person could be interesting but navigating the house just feels frustrating given that you’ll spend a vast portion of your time looking at a silent black screen. With a weak story and unsuccessful horror elements Perception is probably best left in the dark.

Submersed ultimately makes some key decisions which will frustrate. Enemies are relentless and inventory management feels botched, leading to you require prior knowledge to advance. Stealth is functional but, more often than not, you're tasked with running from foes that are simply quicker and deadlier than you. There's a punishment on offer here that doesn't fit the crime and, whilst the game tries to do well with a small budget, it can't execute on much of it.

On paper, the battle engine should provide an interesting scrap with a varied, albeit small, roster of characters. Unfortunately, the AI feels brutal to fight and the lack of a manual means you're fumbling in the dark until you figure out what works. It's needlessly uninviting with the slim choice of modes and the lack of an online community meaning this game really underwhelms.

I Want To Be Human has a cocky swagger about it which screams of rebellion and teenage angst. Whilst it has a striking visual style the gameplay suffers for this. It is also dogged by poor controls and a reliance on frustratingly difficult platforming sections which means this is a hard game to recommend, even at the low price point.

Freddy Spaghetti 2 is a poor sequel. It's a straightforward platinum and while it's not devoid of quality, it's just so average with it. If you've not played the first game, we'd recommend you play that instead.

There's a bright and cheery look to Roarr! Jurassic Edition but beyond the surface, it's a little flat. Your moveset doesn't provide a lot of depth and there's not much to look forward to beyond score chasing. Co-op with friends certainly does liven the mood but technical issues like inputs dropping brought more frustration. For all the good the presentation does, the action itself feels a little stale.

While we're always happy to see obscure retro games get a new audience, it's hard not to be disappointed when they get a lazy port like this. As retro fans, we did enjoy aspects of this lesser-seen Mega Drive title, the enjoyment was fleeting and tempered by some core gameplay issues and problems with the emulation.

Turret Rampage might have worked better on something like a Nintendo Game and Watch back in the '80s but this level of simplicity, from both the gameplay and presentation, probably doesn't cut it in 2024.

Timber Tennis Versus suffers greatly from a bare-bones approach to the sport. The ultra simplified controls and lack of content left me bored fairly quickly. There's a nice rhythm to the rallies but your lack of any real influence means you're hoping for a power-up to finish the job for you. Whilst there's balls and heroes to work towards, they offer only cosmetic changes to a game that badly needs some variety to its gameplay. It's a weak, short-lived experience.

At a short runtime, Dawn of Fear feels like a shell of something far grander. Every good aspect feels somewhat cut short in a rush that seems to hamstring any chance of expansion. Whilst the passion for the genre is very evident, the lack of execution and style results in something flat, hollow and just not all that interesting.

Hunting Simulator 2 might as well be called Misery Boredom Simulator as we spent ten+ hours playing it and came away wanting shoot ourselves to end it all.

There was enough about I Hate This Place to keep us engaged right to the very end, but the longer we played it, the more it annoyed us. It feels dated, confused and amateurish in everything it tries to do, and it's such a shame because you can tell there was heart and vision behind it. It just needed more time, talent or maybe both.

Subaeria is a novel take on the rogue-lite genre. Trying to make enemies kill each other by outsmarting them can be fun and there is plenty to unlock. However at the moment the technical problems take all the fun out of playing it, sometimes making it literally unplayable. Hopefully these issues can be fixed with a patch as the concept deserves better.

It’s hard to reason why All-Star Fruit Racing is a game that exists, let alone a game that exists on the PlayStation 4. It’s utterly uninspiring in every single way, from the title to the shallow, vacuous characters who lack any kind of personality. There are brief hints of some good ideas within the gameplay, however these do not detract from a myriad of problems that makes the whole experience feel rotten.

One More Dungeon doesn't do anything well enough to justify the tired graphical and gameplay style choices it has. The core gameplay isn't great and the roguelike elements don't give you much of a reason to keep playing.

Adding a story-driven mission structure to the humble auto-shooter is a pretty cool idea and infusing that with some Lovecraftian horror should produce a game that's better than this.

Stranga bring us Red Bow which proves underwhelming. Trophy whores are well served despite that, moreso with the double platinum.

There's a fun shoot 'em up here but it's very short and incredibly basic.

Chess Knights: Viking Lands is a chess-themed puzzle game that has an okay core concept but the lengthy, complex puzzles stop being fun after a while and the controls are abysmal.

It was inevitable that the retro-revival part of the indie scene would turn its attention to the low-poly, 32-Bit era for inspiration. Breakneck City tries to bring back the glory days of playing Die Hard Trilogy Arcade and Virtua Fighter. However, it lacks the feel and polish of both. It has some moments to shine, but these are fleeting and cannot shake the overall ropey feeling that permeates throughout.

A hardly noticeable PS5 facelift does little to elevate one of the least fun tennis games we've ever played.

South Park: Snow Day is a slight effort that feels somewhat underdeveloped. The combat has a chaotic feel to it without any real nuance or precision. The few missions that are here follow a familiar path and it misses some much needed variety. The random card drawing can deliver some variables but not enough for encounters to feel different. South Park's humour is here but it's in much smaller doses and simply can't carry what's a mediocre offering.

Unbox: Newbies Adventure is a cute and somewhat original concept wrapped in technical issues that make it hard to recommend. While it can be occasionally fun; Unwieldy movement, infuriating combat and glaring graphical foibles make it a less than stellar package.

Virtuous Western is a (very) cheap and cheerful puzzle game dressed up as a retro Wild West shooter. It has its moments but you're looking at a thirty minute game here with a pretty trivial level of difficulty and as such you'll be done with this before you know it.

Custom Mech Wars clearly shares some DNA with the EDF games but it fails to deliver on the promise. If you see it a lot cheaper, there's some fun in seeing what sort of mechs you can make but taking them into combat is such a flat, empty experience that in the end you'll wish they took the combat out and just made this a mech-designing sim.

Inside ZOE Begone! there's a good idea but it doesn't really come together as a game and feels like it's a few patches away from being its best self.

Wearing its inspiration on its sleeve, Dolmen is a clear attempt at bringing the Souls-like to a sci-fi setting. However, the experience is hurt thanks to shoddy execution in almost all aspects. Featuring a non-committal narrative, poorly paced difficulty, and a general lack of polish in both single and multiplayer modes. Dolmen is difficult to recommend, especially when considering the competition out there, whether that be from more capable clones or From Software. We can only hope that the rare, good aspects are carried over into more proficient titles which are no doubt coming in the future.