Every corner has been rounded off and every surface has been polished here, and that's much to the developer's credit. Excellent stuff.

NBA 2K22 is an excellent next-gen addition to the franchise on Xbox Series X, delivering revamped gameplay that feels better than ever before on the court, smoother transitions between modes and all manner of graphical bells and whistles to boot. My Career's new City area has been well implemented and could well be a huge timesink for those who are into that mode and, although there's no other major changes to speak of, what's here is undoubtedly still the slickest basketball ticket in town right now.

Dying Light 2 is a pretty disappointing sequel to one of our all-time favourite zombie games. The parkour and combat here feels slightly off-point, light, floaty and unsatisfying. The first game's signature tense melee encounters feel diluted in a setting that gives you far too much space to catch your breath and night-time sorties lack the straight-up fear factor that made them so appealing first time around. With a lacklustre campaign that offers little to enjoy in the way of drama, some serious performance issues - which we hope will be patched day one - and an enormous world stuffed full of basic busywork padding, this is one zombie apocalypse we're finding quite hard to recommend.

Skylanders Superchargers could have been a contender, but the enforced arena vehicle sections mean that it only sputters along in the middle of the pack.

RoboCop: Rogue City is a very average shooter that becomes more than the sum of its parts through an exacting attention to detail displayed by its developers. There's some excellent world-building here, lovingly crafted recreations of places, people, cars and weapons that'll immediately excite fans and, although it's hardly electrifying, the shooter action undeniably gives you RoboCop in all his slow-moving, smart-assed glory. If you've got a love for the movie, you'll likely have a good time roleplaying here, and it's great to see Peter Weller reprise his role. However, if you've got no stake in the franchise, you may be left wondering what any of the fuss is about as this one deals in wholesale nostalgia.

Tales of Kenzera: ZAU is a solid debut for Surgent Studios and a genuinely heartfelt and moving piece of art to boot. We love its focus on narrative aspects, and the obvious time and effort that's been put into its characters and dialogue. For anyone who's had to go through the pain of losing a family member there's a genuinely emotional and uplifting adventure to undertake here, regardless of some slight clunkiness along the way.

Star Wars Outlaws has been a thoroughly welcome surprise. We expected a great big open world dullard of a thing, but instead we've got clever stealth systems, excellent level design, fun combat and a wise refining of the usual collectathon and busywork mechanics. Kay Vess and Nix make a highly competent stealth/death squad, the whole thing looks and sounds great and you even get to take off from planets, fly into space and blow stuff up. What it lacks in new mechanics or originality in gameplay, it makes up for with vibes. It's got it where it counts, kid.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is a slick and satisfying spiritual successor that gives Suikoden fans a great big dreamy treat whilst updating, modernising and streamlining its most retro aspects into a brand-new and exciting adventure for newcomers. With a timely tale to tell, excellent battle systems, an amazing cast of characters and plenty of experimentation and puzzling in its dungeons, this is a big win for Game Pass, and a fine farewell for one of the industry's true greats. Now, isn't that a lovely thing.

Persona 5 Tactica is another very solid and self-assured spin-off for Atlus' stellar RPG franchise. Placing the Phantom Thieves in tactical turn-based battles works a treat here, with addictive and challenging strategy complimented by a slick sense of style, strong writing and a campaign narrative that will keep fans happy. Whether you're here for Persona specifically or you're just wanting a solid slice of tactical action to dig into, this one has got you well and truly covered.

If you’re hungry for a new hunter-style experience that isn't Capcom's premier franchise, Wild Hearts is probably as good as it’s going to get right now. It's perhaps an easier entry point with fewer things to overwhelm newcomers and has plenty of fun moments for sure. For veteran hunters, it does bring some new ideas to the table – especially with the building mechanics, but it might not necessarily meet your expectations in other areas of gameplay, and can be rough around the edges at times. If Wild Hearts does have a future beyond this (and there's DLC on the way, we should mention) it would be nice to see it form its own proper identity.

Q.U.B.E: Director's Cut is an excellent physics based puzzler that offers enough variety and challenge to its puzzles to satisfy even the most lateral of thinkers.

In conclusion, Teslagrad is a very polished puzzler, which ramps up the difficulty almost mercilessly until the very end.

We’re hopeful that Formula Retro Racing’s myriad issues can be fixed further down the line, because otherwise this is a fantastic modernised version of vintage arcade racers. For only £9.99 / $11.99, anyone who remembers the good old days of Virtua Racing will be in for a treat, and even those who don’t may still appreciate its minimalist art style and high-speed action.

Stick it To The Man is a total blast to play. The puzzles may not be all that challenging, but the beautiful visuals, catchy soundtrack, and wonderful humour make it stick out above other adventure games.

In many ways, Immortals of Aveum feels like an old school FPS. It may be modern in how it lays on dozens of systems, skill tree options and character abilities, but fast-paced combat in a bright & colourful alien world is definitely the order of the day here. The game's story is a huge miss admittedly, and a more cohesive narrative would have surely bumped our score up a notch, but as it stands Immortals of Aveum is still a slick first-person shooter that's definitely worth a playthrough. Its $70 price point is questionable, but we still recommend playing this one, especially when it eventually drops onto Xbox Game Pass via EA Play.

Time will tell if these issues get fixed but for the moment, Rebel Galaxy is several light years from where it truly wants to be.

It probably isn't a game that you'll blast through in a single sitting and it certainly won't be for everybody, but Not A Hero is definitely a good deal of fun.

Combat feels clunky, and the graphically impressive game ends up looking bad in motion. At least Nordic Games didn't technically call this a definitive edition, as it's really anything but.

There are a lot of things to admire in Sherlock Holmes Chapter One, and when it works, it all comes together in a fantastic new way. Unfortunately, there are far too many instances of clues that perhaps made sense to the team that made it, but not the player. Just when you start finding your stride, a roadblock appears as you struggle to figure out your next steps. The jump to an open-world setting ultimately feels unnecessary and adds to the confusion. Sherlock Holmes Chapter One is not a bad game at all, but the experimental gameplay feels like a missed opportunity that a sequel could perhaps refine.

It's a really chill addition to Xbox Game Pass that you'll likely end up enjoying a lot if you're into this sort of thing, while others will inevitably think it's boring and too repetitive. It does what it says on the tin though, executing on its concept very effectively, while the addition of online co-op with cross-play between Xbox and PC is a great touch.

There are a few moments that visually provide a nice atmosphere, but it really needed more of them to help spice things up.

Despite its flawed interface, Unepic is a very enjoyable title with a ton of content.

If you can make peace with a few missing options and don't mind the paid DLC aspect you'll still have a great time here, and if you're coming to these games fresh you're in for an almighty treat, it's just a shame that SEGA has chosen to sully the endeavour with unnecessary greed and a few glaring functional omissions that could so easily have been included. So there you have it, Sonic Origins has got it where it counts but a little more TLC would have seen our score bumped up by a few points. Maybe next time, SEGA.

All in all, Hitman is a very promising start to the reboot series.

Despite these flaws, Demon Turf is still an incredible platformer - one of the best in years. It's easy to learn but hard to master and is filled with content ranging from easy challenges to devilishly challenging gauntlets. With such a fine-tuned platforming experience, it's easy to overlook the boring combat and performance hiccups. While the latter will most likely be ironed out, the combat is here to stay, but if you can get past that hurdle, Demon Turf is a joyous throwback to the platformers of old.

This is a strong return for the Battlefront moniker, but there's much room for improvement.

Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster pretty much does what it says on the tin, but we were hoping for a little bit more from the game's 'Deluxe' moniker. The new visuals and performance improvements are nice, and the game's fresh control schemes and autosave options make this the best way to play Dead Rising in the modern era. However, the game's ever-controversial timer feels even more restrictive in 2024, and we feel like other dated elements such as the constant load screens could have also been brushed up for this new re-release. If you're looking for an excuse to replay the original Dead Rising, this is it, but if you were hoping for a big modernisation of this Xbox 360 era zombie-slayer, Deluxe Remaster falls short of delivering on that.

Despite its many shortcomings, GRID Autosport is a decent game. There’s plenty of fun to be had in single player mode generally, even though multiplayer is pretty much a bust.