Shenmue III is a game lost in time, but that’s probably the greatest compliment you can pay this long-awaited sequel. Newcomers will be utterly bemused by its slice of life-style idiosyncrasies, but for franchise fans this is the faithful follow-up that they’ve been waiting almost two decades for. This is a weird and wonderful game; it defies contemporary convention in favour of its own decades-old direction. The industry may have moved on, but even 18 years later, Ryo Hazuki still somehow feels relevant.

Unfair difficulty spikes swap out the title’s pervading sense of fear for outright frustration at times, while technical issues undo the developer’s outstanding art direction. Thankfully, legendary director Shinji Mikami doesn’t disappoint in the gameplay department, forcing you to get creative with your plentiful combat options due to an unending absence of resources.

Mechanically, Synapse is incredible, but the breadth of content is another story. This feels like a proof of concept for a full experience, once the amount of content can match the level of gameplay.

Mighty Goose is a chaotic side-scrolling shooter in which you play as a cybernetically enhanced goose. This particularly aggressive bird is an intergalactic bounty hunter, and the game's loose plot takes you to a number of sci-fi locales as Goose brings justice to the baddies. It's all suitably dumb right from the word go, and the game can be an absolute blast once you're in the zone.

FAR: Lone Sails is a lovely title. Remarkable environments and a strong art direction anchor a brief but compelling title. While the puzzles and amount of resources never really hit a point to make anything truly challenging, the resource management loop is more satisfying here than it usually is in more survival-focused titles. If you don’t mind that the game isn’t terribly challenging, it’s well worth playing. The laser focused design paints a bleak, but still hopeful world, and the wordless narrative has a powerful conclusion that brought us right up to the brink of tears.

NHL 21 is absolutely a step forward. We won’t be able to see if this improvement is a one-time thing until next year, but as it stands, this final release of the generation is also its best in that span. With a long-overdue update to the Be a Pro mode, alongside the pretty fun HUT Rush and the changes to Franchise, the series took a bigger step forward than it normally does. Sure, there’s a give and take quality to many of the alterations, but the overall product is a net positive. It won’t be scooping up an endless stream of awards any time soon, but this series has been in far worse shape in the past.

Ultimately, although there’s a distinct feeling of déjà vu when playing Aeterna Noctis thanks to its unmistakable similarities to Hollow Knight, it thankfully manages to nail the most important elements in a Metroidvania: exploration and combat.

The maps are huge, and have points of interest to discover littered throughout. Really the only obstacle for enjoyment is your own patience and just how much time you’re willing to spend doing all the less-than-thrilling activities.

Redacted has all the addictive core elements of an enjoyable roguelike: a good variety of weapons, abilities, and synergies with a well-polished presentation. The racing rivals and random events keep runs feeling fresh, although its comparatively short runtime and relatively lacklustre melee combat prevent it from being one of the greatest.

Ubisoft Montpellier clearly knows its target audience well, and has crafted an uncomplicated, varied adventure that does not outstay its welcome, supplemented by generous alternative modes that meet or exceed the level of quality found in the main story.

LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens is quite possibly the best LEGO game yet – but it still has a smattering of old issues. Its compelling story cinematics, laugh out loud humour and perfectly balanced mix of conundrums and combat make it an absolute blast to play. However, it still suffers from the occasional AI hiccup and could do with the character abilities being refreshed.

Patapon 2 Remastered makes it easy to fall in love with those adorable eyeball creatures all over again. It follows in the footsteps of the first game's PS4 revival, and in doing so it repeats all the highs and lows. You'll struggle to find a gameplay experience as unique as this, and it remains an addictive time sink, but somewhat obtuse design and hectic battles can easily throw you off. It has its flaws, but it's an eccentric and charming game that will eventually have you dancing to its rhythm.

Overall, this is a fast-paced, colourful, and nostalgic experience. It’s challenging while staying on the right side of frustrating, with a lot of fun to be had. Though you might not get much out of the story, you’ll still have fun clearing levels and beating time trials.

Draugen is an exploration of mental illness, but it doesn't have the chops to pull it off. The game's twists are clearly telegraphed ahead of time, its narrative becomes less interesting the more you play, and gameplay fails to pick up the pieces. Exploring the gorgeous Norwegian countryside is a pleasure, but it's just about the only thing the title has going for it in terms of interaction. Edward can analyse and pick up certain objects, select dialogue options which have no effect on the story, and hold the R1 button to learn of where he should be heading next. That is quite literally all there is to it.

One novel inclusion that helps repalyability is a challenge mode, where you go against a timer to craft as many accurate beverages as you can. As the descriptions get progressively more obtuse, things get harder and we found ourselves really rather enjoying the action.

The online multiplayer space is so competitive that it's tough to judge whether Crash Team Rumble will be able to carve out its own niche and warrant support beyond what Toys for Bob has already committed to. However, those who give the game a chance will find a really fun fight for Wumpa Fruit with varied classes and characters. Addictive just enough to look past the lack of local play and potentially long load times, Crash Team Rumble is worth trying — even if you wish Crash would just stick to what he's known best for: platforming.

Fortunately, the controls are tight and slashing baddies feels great in that old school button-mashing kind of way. The level design is largely enjoyable as well, offering hidden paths, secrets, and a good amount of variety in both visuals and gameplay. Meanwhile, the boss battles are consistently intense and require some serious precision later on — a dangerous mix if you're already struggling with Ganryu 2's stiff challenge, but rewarding to overcome all the same.

Rather than overhauling the experience, PES 2019: Pro Evolution Soccer continues to refine its gameplay loop with intricate features that fans will come to appreciate in the long term. With no major additions in terms of modes or licences, however, this 2019 edition feels a little light in terms of real talking points. What Pro Evolution Soccer is known for returns, but it’s not stocking many new bells or whistles.

Squirrel with a Gun is a chaotic time that is always looking to place your rodent in the most insane positions to make them look like an action movie star. It is quite janky at times and can wear on you fast, so we don’t necessarily recommend trying to knock all of its content out at once, but for a side game that you can go to when you need a break from everything else, Squirrel with a Gun is worthy of your time.

Evil West is one of those really enjoyable 7/10s. It's never going to win any awards and it's probably not going to stick long in the memory, but give it a few years and someone, somewhere, will swear to you that it's actually an underappreciated classic. It's a chunky action game that knows how to have fun, both in and out of combat.

The star of the Manifold Garden show is far and away its presentation, and witnessing it in motion is worth the asking price alone. It's just a shame the puzzles themselves can't quite hit those same levels of spectacularity.

The return of zombies was an exciting part of the previous release, but the continuation of that and the lack of any standout maps makes Ascendance a less interesting prospect than its predecessor. That doesn't mean that it's bad, though, and fans will lap up the fresh environments.

Like SingStar Dance before it, Everybody Dance is a huge amount of fun with a friend, and even more with 20. It's still not the complete article, and we'd expect Just Dance 3 to snatch the lead when released in December, but for now this is some of the most fun you'll have with Move.

The game's at its best when you're being forced to adapt, but it has a bad habit of introducing scenarios that feel like they require trial and error. For example, some enemy spawns are near impossible to see coming on a first run, and while you're never truly out of options, taking a few bad hits can cripple your chances -- especially in later levels.

In the end, we were pleasantly surprised with Zombieland, even if it doesn't really lean on any form of movie-based nostalgia. Its simple yet effective structure meant that we were happy to sink yet another half hour into it, which was only aided by the enjoyable gun controls. It’s certainly not out to win any awards, and it doesn’t push the medium any further, but if you’re looking for a straight-to-the-point zombie shooter, you can’t really go wrong.

The LEGO NINJAGO Movie Video Game is another good entry in the LEGO series of games. The increased focus on combat pays off with a fleshed out system that makes each character feel unique, while the free-running provides enough safety nets to keep you from getting frustrated. Despite a couple of technical hiccups and a poorly thought out ending, LEGO NINJAGO has so much going for it that the overall experience isn't dampened.

Pillars of Eternity II is a 9/10 RPG tragically trapped inside a 7/10 game. The quality of the writing and the world-building is second to none, and the tried and tested combat mechanics are meticulously tuned, but the outrageous loading times and other technical issues are too upsetting to ignore. It's like sitting in a fine Italian restaurant, sipping a glass of wine and nibbling on breadsticks, enjoying your date, and then the waiter comes over and drops a dead dog on the table. Wrong table, mate. I ordered the carbonara. Now get that dead dog out of my sight.

Lively presentation belies comatose gameplay, but its simplicity serves as a solid palette cleanser between longer gaming rallies.