Code Vein II is exactly what you'd expect – yet another Soulslike derivative with a fresh(ish) coat of anime-style paint. While the combat system's flexibility and improved exploration are a huge step forward, the lack of multiplayer and derivative story beats feels like a step back. The result is just okay, though fans of the original will still appreciate it nonetheless.

Sniper Elite 5 is undeniably a better game than its predecessors. Every level is packed modestly with things to do, and the kills are endlessly enjoyable. But some antiquated design choices, a done-to-death setting, and a ho-hum story keep it from reaching its full potential. It’s a shame too, because at its core Sniper Elite 5 is one of the best Sniper experiences you can play right now, it’s just everything else that’s letting it down.

It's clear that Ghost Games has taken a touch of Paradise and applied it to Heat, resulting in a thrilling and beautiful racing game that's bursting with things to do. Though their ambition was bold, they strayed too far from comfort in putting Heat together. When measured up against its own franchise, Heat does a lot to move the series in the right direction and it's a clear, marked improvement over Payback.

South Park: The Fractured But Whole is a good fit on Switch, though some noticeable technical issues highlight the sacrifices made in order to get it on the hybrid system. That said, what’s here is a great South Park adventure — one fans of the show should certainly check out if they haven’t already.

Replaced is spectacular in so many respects. It’s an audiovisual triumph, with best-in-class pixel art, animation, and cinematography, while its America, hardly a land of the free, feels real, dangerous, and all too familiar against today’s landscape, is a hotbed of fascinating history and complex characters. Disappointingly, combat and exploration don’t quite live up to what the game achieves in story and presentation.

Dissidia Final Fantasy NT does its best to appeal to a more competitive audience, but in the process, has forgotten what drew fans to it in the first place.

Samba de Amigo is a hoot with friends, sure to generate laughs and memorable moments. Just don’t expect an engrossing single-player rhythm game experience.

Destroy All Humans! makes an earnest effort to improve on every aspect of the original, but it’s hard to avoid the issues stemming from the era in which it came from. Despite it’s numerous improvements, Destroy All Humans is still plagued with banal repetition and tedium especially as the adventure draws to an end.

Black Myth: Wukong is a game stuck between wanting to be a Souls-like and a casual action game. It's a mostly enjoyable time hindered by some frustrating elements, but the love and appreciation for the source material is what shines through the most.

I wouldn't exactly go so far as to call it 'awesome', it's more of an okay adventure set within an engrossing world that continues to go from strength to strength. As someone who values a game's plot, I was able to forgive some of Captain Spirit's inadequacies while I expect others might not be as magnanimous. I can say that the episode itself and its uplifting cliffhanger have left me wanting more of the indomitable Chris and his Captain Spirit.

Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne: HD Remaster is an oddly self-aware remaster that does its best to make itself approachable for everyone by remedying most of its flaws. The new difficulty, new skill inheritance options and fully voiced dialogue all help to make the game feel modern and approachable for new audiences. It’s just a shame that, for a HD remaster, it’s not as visually impressive as it could be.

Days Gone is a fine addition to the evergrowing list of first-party Sony exclusives. Does it have the shine and polish comparable to Naughty Dog's best works? No, but it delivers a dense and beautiful open world that proves that there's perhaps a little bit of elbow room left for zombies in gaming, even if we're not calling them that this time around.

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes feels tailor made for the relatively small cross-section of people who are both hardcore fans of Musou and Fire Emblem. That isn't to say you won't enjoy this if you liked Three Houses, there's a lot that Three Hopes has to offer on a first playthrough, just be ready for the repetition to set in if you want to see it all through to the end.

Super Mario Party has successfully stripped back a lot of the bloat that the last few iterations had introduced to return it back to the simple, fun and classic game that it was intended to be. At the same time, the game cleverly uses a number of key Nintendo Switch features making it a must own for Nintendo Switch owners that are longing for a game to play with friends and family.

Mario And Sonic At The Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 is a fun collection of games that absolutely anybody can enjoy. The story mode is delightful, although a little bit tedious and repetitive, but doesn't detract from what is otherwise, a nice package.

Luigi's Mansion 2 HD is exactly as it sounds. It's the second game in the series with a very fresh coat of paint. Unfortunately, while the visual upgrade is a decent effort, it ultimately still harbours the same design quirks that made the original game so controversial. While it falls flat in the face of the games that came before and after it, it's a great grab if you're looking to experience some more Luigi's Mansion.

Greedfall is the kind of game where you really need to be into the story to be able to look past its faults and still enjoy it. That can be an issue because while the plot is generally well written and does a good job of tying its side stories into the main thread, the overall subject matter is going to be uncomfortable for some. Its design and gameplay elements are competent but nothing amazing, nor does it really do anything that stands it apart from others in its genre. There's also a fair amount of technical issues to deal with throughout. If the story does grab you, however, it's easy to invest quite a bit of time in the game. If nothing else, Greedfall does tackle the kind of story that few games are willing to discuss.

Mixing the best parts of Left 4 Dead and adventure epics like Indiana Jones and Uncharted, Strange Brigade is better than it has any right to be. Enjoyable solo or with mates, the puzzles and the open level design gives the game replayability, but the pacing and the derivative art direction stop it from being immensely compelling.

The Invincible brings Stanislaw Lem’s work to life in a faithful adaptation that plays out as if it were ripped directly from retro-futurism art of the 1950s. Starward Industries have gone to great lengths to craft an experience that is visually appealing and makes great strides to maintain Lem’s philosophical concepts while being grounded in hard science fiction. But where the game excels in some areas, it loses its way in others, falling victim to pacing issues and hollow choices, resulting in hurried endings that may leave you feeling lost in space.

Disintegration could have been a lot worse than an “alright” campaign and a decent multiplayer mode. Given V1 Interactive tried something novel and tried to blend genres and it could have been a directionless mess. What we got, however, was a neat idea with a lot of potential to be something greater, with an execution good enough to prove the concept works. The multiplayer is much better than the campaign, if only because it’s not bogged down with the same design choices as a single-player mode. In saying that, it’s still worth checking out for what could very well end up being the first emergence of a great new genre.

I’ll admit that it’s been quite some time between drinks for me with platform fighting games like this, but Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 is a fairly good mix of nostalgia, new ideas and inoffensive fun. While it may not reach the sky-high standard of something like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate it gives 90s kids like me another way to beat up our friends while reminiscing about the good old days of racing home to watch your favourite cartoons and arguing about which of them could take the others.

It's hard to deny that Maneater has colossal potential – though the lack of mission variety and some simplistic combat does lend it to feeling repetitious as time goes on. Putting these flaws aside, however, Maneater deserves kudos for an undeniably unique premise and laying a solid foundation for a franchise that developer Tripwire should almost certainly pursue.

NBA 2K24 is the most NBA 2K game you could imagine, rocking moderate improvements to gameplay without really providing offering anything exciting enough to entice lapsed fans back onto the court.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 is a solid beat-em-up that tops its predecessors, bringing all the colourful known and unknown facets of the Marvel universe together with gusto. But despite it’s strong art direction, potent replayability and often enjoyable combat, it still comes off as feeling rather basic.

Like so many other modern Pokémon games, Pokémon Legends: Z-A paints a promising picture of what the future of Pokémon could look like. It's an enjoyable return an underappreciated region in Pokémon that fans are sure to appreciate.

A great campaign and excellent gameplay can’t keep Marvel’s Avengers from feeling like lost potential. Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix seem to have big plans for the game, but right now the multiplayer-focused Avengers Initiative mode feels nothing more than a monotonous, boring old grind.

Were it structured like a Dark Pictures game of old, Directive 8020, through its derivative but fun riff on 'The Thing', would be seen as something of a return to form. Sadly, their attempt to evolve the product has resulted in a poorly paced gameplay experience that, by the end of its run, is little more than a sadly stagnant monster closet.

Although it maintains the spirit of the original Super Meat Boy, Super Meat Boy 3D, as a reimagining, doesn’t quite evolve on its ideas enough to strike a chord. Rather, it reframes them, and it’s these new perspectives and angles on Meat Boy’s frenetic platforming that prove to be the biggest bother of all. It’s still fun enough for the most part; however, I struggle to look beyond the compounded frustration and needless death—in a game about dying, no less.