Croixleur Sigma can be entertaining when you're gunning for a high score or if you're in the mood for some relentless action, but there just isn't enough reason to keep coming back once you've sampled each mode and discovered a few favourite weapons. It's an arcade hack and slasher with a colourful, inviting exterior, but much like a bag of Haribo, it's best enjoyed in short bursts – stay too long and you'll soon get sick.

It’s hard to complain about an additional two hours of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard – especially when it’s free. There’s some fun lore for fans to soak up here, and some pretty tense scenarios, too. While it never really has anything to rival the main game’s best bits, it’s worth the bandwidth for Redfield’s masterfully manicured mane alone.

In its systems and its storytelling, Romancing SaGa 2 is still a unique RPG -- one that genre enthusiasts may want to experience for its unorthodox methods alone. For all of its strange intricacies, though, this is a flawed fantasy adventure, hindered by potentially significant balancing issues and a horrible looking user interface. As a curiosity, Romancing SaGa 2 is worth looking into, but a lot more could have been done to bring the overall package up to speed.

Melbits World is a nice attempt at creating a fun, simple puzzle game suited to PlayLink's smartphone functionality. Its visual style is very easy on the eye, while the basic, communication-based gameplay means it's bound to be a good family game. The PlayLink initiative may not have been as popular as Sony may have hoped, but Melbot Studios' title shows that there's plenty left to explore when it comes to smartphone controlled gaming.

Our only criticism is that the gameplay hasn’t quite made the transition to pancake play perfectly; looking at objects made sense on PSVR, but is odd in a more traditional medium. You get used to it quickly, though, and from there the rewarding loop hooks you in.

Do well and everyone is happy and they might leave tips. You can spend your hard-earned coin on new cooking equipment, décor for your bistro, furniture, that kind of thing. As you progress, you learn new recipes, and you can add new flourishes to old ones. Eventually you get more chefs you can lead to help you out. And if you're really struggling there's options to lower the difficulty significantly, which makes the game quite chilled out if that's more your thing.

Roguelites are all about repetition, and Full Metal Schoolgirl has that “one more go” factor that makes the genre so darn compelling. Its tongue in cheek premise resonates in these wild times, and its gameplay – with a bit of tinkering – blends character action with third-person shooting in a fresh and interesting way. You just need to be prepared for a bit of frustration and a pinch of jank: this isn’t a straight-A student by any stretch, but its robotic heart’s in the right place.

Get Even had a good base of neat ideas, but the execution of the overall product is so poor that many areas feel unfinished. Combat is quite simply a disaster, the graphics look like they’ve been taken from a 2008 PS3 game, and the soundtrack crushes your enjoyment far too often. The plot may well grab your attention, but the act of actually playing Get Even is nothing but a chore.

Pac-Man World Re-Pac is a fun look Pac in time to an era where 3D platformers were far more prominent than they are today. While it doesn’t quite outclass some of its contemporaries like Crash Bandicoot Warped and Super Mario 64, Pac-Man World isn’t one to miss if you’re looking for another solid 3D platforming adventure. Depending on how you view the new difficulty balances (or if you just really love Ms. Pac-Man) this is undoubtedly the best way to experience the PS1 classic.

Despite its slow start, Stranger in Sword City matures into a compelling dungeon crawling RPG that's defined by its gritty atmosphere.

God Eater 3's another frenetic action RPG where the enjoyable rhythm and flow of combat is enough to outweigh most of the negatives. Whether you're up for a lengthy session or you're just stopping by to farm some materials, the game's easy to sink your teeth into, and there's plenty to chew on should you find yourself hooked thanks to the in-depth character progression. While more could and probably should have been done to bring God Eater's visuals and cumbersome menus up to speed, there's still plenty of skilful hack and slashing on offer here.

Fans should know that they won't have to scour the seven seas to find the treasures that One Piece: Unlimited World Red has buried beneath its somewhat rough exterior.

DriveClub’s balanced physics and impressive presentation make for an all-around excellent racer, even if there’s still a lot of room for Evolution Studios to expand and improve upon. However, the overly aggressive AI and archaic progression system may deter non-racing fans, while the ongoing online issues remain infuriating.

Milestone has clearly spent an age under the bonnet, and Sébastien Loeb Rally Evo has a content quota that's befitting of all of that attention. Unfortunately, the Italian outfit's indecision with regards to the racer's handling model means that it's not always at its best when out on the track. If you can look past this shortcoming, however, then you'll find a real celebration of the sport here – and the man who helped put it on the map for a whole generation.

Outside of its great use of the DualSense, RIDE 4 is a frustrating and disappointing experience. The lack of a meaningful tutorial, an aggravatingly difficult and boring campaign mode, the absence of local multiplayer, and the greedy credit system all equate to a game that feels like it was rushed for people hungry to get a next-gen motorcycle experience. RIDE 4 feels like a tech demo of the DualSense and nothing more. For an immersive racing experience on PS5, it is better to switch gears and look forward to Gran Turismo 7.

The always-online multiplayer aspect comes with the usual latency issues: you’ll be chasing someone and land an attack but the other person has already run past you, meaning your attack doesn’t hit. We also ended up shutting doors on ourselves rather than behind us due to this issue — it's incredibly frustrating and can be the difference between a win and a loss. Combined with the occasional visual bugs, precise positioning for interactions, clunky user interface, long lobby wait times, and lack of content, this leaves The Texas Chain Saw Massacre on the floor bleeding out.

Transference is an experience fit for VR, and from that perspective, the game does a phenomenal job of providing tension, scares, and narrative beats. Those looking for value may feel a little short-changed, especially so without the implementation of virtual reality, but the overall package should leave you satisfied if horror and terror is your forte.

Dark Souls III: Ashes of Ariandel misses the mark. It fails to fill a large, fresh environment with tangible reasons to stay there any longer than a few hours, and although the new weapons and gear are some of the best in the game, you'll want to play about with them somewhere other than The Painted World.

A relentlessly entertaining experience with energy to spare, Tesla vs Lovecraft takes a comedic premise and crafts an addictive ride, filled with variety. Despite some sporadic difficulty spikes, this stands shoulder to shoulder with PS4s best arcade shooters.

Assassin’s Creed Rogue Remastered sits in a bit of an odd place. It’s a good game on its own, but after the release of Assassin’s Creed Origins and the major improvements it brought to the series, Shay Patrick Cormac’s trek across the ocean feels outdated only four years after its original release. If you can stomach a return to the franchise’s original formula, then the experience will be worth your while thanks to a compelling plot and excellent naval mechanics. But if you’ve grown tired of that recipe, Assassin’s Creed Rogue Remastered won’t do anything to draw you back in.

The island is so cluttered with trees, rocks, and other objects that it can be difficult to see things on the ground. The game employs a clever visual technique where objects become transparent, allowing for a better view, but this only happens when you get close to said objects. As such, you'll find yourself stop-starting around the entire island when you're looking for specific bits and pieces. It's not a huge issue, but it does make the game feel finicky to play.

Escape Plan's style and intelligent use of Vita's inputs come together to make it one of the more compelling titles in the system's launch line-up.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered is a welcome trip down memory lane. It may have ditched the revolutionary multiplayer offering and Spec Ops mode, but what has been brought into the modern era manages to stand on its own two feet. It still suffers from design choices of old, but this is an intense, enjoyable single player campaign that's more than worth your time.

Portal Knights brings some interesting new wrinkles to the crafting genre that has become so popular recently. The increased focus on combat works well, particularly with the boss battles and having a clearly defined end goal is a great way of keeping you invested. Unfortunately, some of the other additions like the poorly thought out stats system and the reliance on random drops for creating crucial portals keeps the game from ever fully achieving knighthood.

NHL 22 surprises by making its debut on a new console without removing any of its modes, but those who played NHL 21 may find this version a little too familiar. X-Factors on paper should be a game-changer but are mostly underwhelming. The switch to Frostbite does massively improve the fidelity of the rink – even if character models still look downright demonic – but should that really be the biggest change to the game? The ultimate question is: can the price increase be justified on the PS5? And given how little really has changed from last year to this year, the answer has to be a “no”.

The Hong Kong Massacre's inspiration is clear, but unfortunately, it doesn't have the gameplay, the personality, or the energy to stand alongside it. The slow-mo shooting can be fun, but with tough enemies and a janky dodge manoeuvre, you'll more often than not be frustrated by death after death. With a little more polish, it could've been an entertaining romp, but as it stands, redeeming qualities are few and far between.

Relicta tries to strike a balance between narrative and gameplay, but that balance ends up hurting the final experience by making the game a slog to go through and puzzles becoming infuriatingly complex in the second half. The story and excellent voice acting are a nice differentiator and the level of detail in the environments is impressive, but Relicta is a game that is hard to stick with in its second half if you don't have a guide.

EVE: Valkyrie is one of the better PlayStation VR experiences out there at the moment – a true Top Gun. Packing slick design and stunning visuals, as well as thrilling gameplay. For fans of multiplayer space dogfighting, this is the (un)real deal. Virtual hats off to CCP on creating a fantastic space combat experience.