We get more game variety and freedom than ever in this franchise, London looks insanely good and the themes of the game are more relevant in 2020 than ever.

When looking at the game objectively and trying to forget you're playing a Project-Cars-game, this is a fun arcade-style racer with a little more depth than normal arcade racers. But as a fan expecting a follow-up in the same style as former Project-Cars-games, this is a bit of a mindf.ck.

Standard golf and the RPG mode make this new Mario Golf well worth the effort. The Rush aspects are a nice, if not superfluous, addition. Not being able to play with four players on one system is ridiculous and destroys all party potential.

The Gunk is a game that you will probably soon forget. The journey of discovery is linear and the things you discover are never really exciting. The facial animations and cliché gameplay make the game feel like a PlayStation 2 remaster, the low difficulty takes all the tension away and the story has little to do with it. It is a nice entry-level game for people who have less gaming experience.

Vampyr is a moody, dark game, centering around a very charismatic vampire. Through him, using an ingenious cause and effect system, the player can exert a great deal of influence on a gloomy part of London in the early 20th century, which should have all matter of emotional effects on them. Too bad the combat is far from perfect and technically it’s no masterpiece, but the emotional resonance and originality of Vampyr make it quite unforgettable in its great ambition.

Besides the hugely improved Build Mode and Create-A-Sim and the fact that the game runs very smoothly this time around, this is the weakest base-game in the Sims-series. But luckily not by a great distance. Burrowing deeper than the first, somewhat disappointing hours, players will find that a lot of the missing features (basements, toddlers, pools and a ‘open world’ village) are compensated by lots of animations, objects, collectibles and other fun stuff that only Sims-lovers can truly appreciate.

Spongebob Squarepants: The Cosmic Shake is a colorful, creative and funny platformer that will keep any yellow sponge lover entertained for hours. Despite the one-sided side missions and weapons arsenal, exploring the seven absurd and recognizable dimensions is fun for both young and old.

Immortals of Aveum is a great shooter with nice and fast gameplay, nice world building and a fairly interesting story. It doesn't do much wrong, but just lacks soul to become your new favorite FPS, unless you were really waiting for a Call of Duty with magic and dragons.

The Devil in Me does not reach the level of its predecessor House of Ashes, nor that of Little Hope. The plot lacks twists and some time-honored The Dark Pictures problems are still present. However, if you fancy a quick horror snack, you will be served (once again) at your beck and call.

Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon is a decent entry in the franchise but after playing through five or six of these games it starts getting a bit too repetitive to hold our interest.

While Final Fantasy Explorers has more than a couple great ideas, they are too plenty to be fleshed out, which makes the game a fresh experience, but can't keep your attention for more than a few dozen hours. That's not a bad thing of course, but it's not a great thing either. Final Fantasy Explorers manages to just rise above mediocrity, but not by much.

The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan is a thrilling story, has some nice characters and the player can influence both on an impressive level, giving the game lots of replay value. Replaying may be not as interesting as you would like though, due to a great amount of walk and search gameplay, but the multiplayer modes do a good job of balancing that out. The Dark Pictures Anthology is off to a good start and hopefully has a bright future.

Trek To Yomi's sound, music and visuals have been developed with love and respect for Japan's rich history, but the gameplay is as captivating as flower arranging.

Age of Empires: Definitive Edition is a beautiful history lesson about a genre-defining game, which would've been a whole lot better if the AI had reached is definitive form as well. The new aesthetic makes it easy to ignore the obsolete, underlying technology for a few campaigns, but it would really be a feat to stay entertained for all 10 of them.

Battleborn drops some stitches in the campaign which can make it a tedious experience. The multiplayer has two modes with a lot of (unused) potential, which can turn out to become great if players start embracing it.

The Isle of Armor doesn't succeed in every way, but it has enough good atmosphere and nice surprises that make it worthwhile to jump back into Sword and Shield. With suncream, of course.

Mirror’s Edge Catalyst drops the ball here and there but the City of Glass and the parcours-gameplay are good enough to leave a lasting impression.

Star Fox Zero is a passable reboot/remake of the original but the controls are simply horrible.

Quotation forthcoming.

A refreshing and challenging concept that’s bound to keep you entertained for a bit. [Aug 2015, p.084]

Knack 2 is enjoyable enough, but mostly because there aren't a whole lot of 3D platform games like this, especially not ones that are playable in co-op. Knack 2 is slightly better than its predecessor with okay gameplay, but the rest is barely interesting and and very much focused on children.

Mad Max manages to translate the vibe of the movies perfectly, but, unfortunately, that makes for a monotonous game. A bit like last year’s Shadow of Mordor.

With The Lost Lords Telltale takes the Game of Thrones series one step closer to a perfect score. The separate storylines, but also the overarching plot manage to realize their huge potential much more. In addition, the feeling that your choices really mean something and the rapid changes of perspective also contribute to the suspense. And when plot and suspense are put together so well, it’s not that hard to forgive the developer for the lack of technical progression.

I won’t give another Telltale game two pages in our magazine again, until they’ve cleaned up their shit and made some actual technical improvements. The world keeps turning, please try to keep up. [feb. 2016 / page 061]

This port of a fifteen year old game adds little, or more like nothing, to the original game, even while there was still enough room to really improve the original.

Is Erica the beginning of a new era of FMV games? We can only hope! Erica is an atmospheric movie/game-hybrid with minimal interaction, arriving at exactly the right time: during a hot summer when almost every exertion is too much. In a future attempt however, I would like to have more of that triple A-feeling, with an even better storyline and beautiful cinematography. And to make the game feel a bit less like a movie, meaningful choices you can easily replay wouldn't be a bad thing either.

I expected little more than a Deep Blue Sea, but it turned into The Meg pretty quickly, ultimately resulting in a Jaws: The Revenge that ate my savegame. Don't be temped by the prospect of being a sea predator; deep in your heart you know it's not going to be as much fun as you hope it will be.

You know those lists with pros and cons that help you make important decisions? In the case of Blade & Soul the beautiful graphics and exciting PvP, and the fact that the game is free to play, would be on the plus side. The negative side is mostly filled by the somewhat uninspired quests and dungeons. Fortunately Blade & Soul has an advantage which helps fill the list in favor of a beautiful score: The unique combat.