The game leans heavily into its whimsical style, too. Colourful graphics and cute creatures make the world a fun place to explore, and unlockable cosmetics mean you can dress up your doggies as well. The whole thing is just happy, eager to please, and family friendly — like an actual dog, really.

Habroxia 2 knows it’s not reinventing the wheel, but it settles for a fulfilling campaign that will hold your attention from beginning through New Game Plus. With a rewarding upgrade system and sturdy presentation, this is gaming comfort food for those who grew up in the arcade era, and it comes recommended if you’re looking for an old-school shooter to blast through in a few sittings.

Arzette is a tough game to criticise, because in many respects it has accomplished its mission. The commitment to the bit is admirable, and anyone who gets a kick out of those old CD-i titles will have a good time with this. However, if you're not in on the joke, this is harder to recommend; old fashioned design and uninteresting combat might be part of the brief, but they don't make for an exciting time in 2024. If you're willing to accept this game's warts-and-all approach, though, there's lots to like.

With stunning presentation, and a clever core mechanic, Teslagrad does a lot to impress. Unfortunately, its occasionally unwieldy controls, inconsistent difficulty, and needlessly challenging boss fights mar the experience. However, if you can look past these infidelities, you’ll find an incredibly unique and often satisfying puzzle platformer.

MLB The Show 21 swings-and-misses in a few areas, with the well-intentioned Ballplayer system diminishing Road to the Show. Despite being stingier, though, Diamond Dynasty is still the best card collecting mode available, and the series’ tried and trusted gameplay has been further enhanced with the addition of Pinpoint Pitching and new fielding animations. Sony San Diego hasn’t quite hit a home run this year, but this is a strong lead-off double for baseball on PS5.

Multiplayer is undoubtedly the game's main draw. Supporting up to four players, you've got free-for-all, 2v2 team battles, while Mayhem Mode – which is sadly not available online – introduces minigames, including classics like The Floor is Lava and boss fights. Our personal favourite is Rampage, which sees players racing to destroy as many buildings as possible for points, though there’s plenty of other options. This all adds some necessary variety and if you can assemble three other players, GigaBash is a great time that comes recommended.

Unsurprisingly, there's humour throughout, made evident by one Trophy tasking you to beat up the Easter Bunny to avenge Brodie. The route to a Platinum via 21 Trophy targets also seems like plain sailing, but once you realise that 0.0% of players have been able to 'Clear hard mode in one run without a Game Over', you'll recognise that you mightn't see the sailboat everyone keeps talking about. Perhaps if you wished that Double Dragon IV followed in the first two arcade games' presentation style, then Jay and Silent Bob: Mall Brawl's 8-bit throwback approach is not for you. Regardless, for those of us who crave more in the same vein of Technōs NES bickety bam beat-'em-ups, then playing Mall Brawl may just be your retro Wolvie berserk style. What else are we gonna do? Snootchie Bootchies!

Luckily, the more time you spend in Portia the more the world will reward you. The game is effortlessly simple, but it excels in almost everything it aims to achieve. It’s one of the most relaxing indie life-simulation games out there, and yet it still offers enough adventure and addictive crafting opportunities to keep you hooked. A totally new spin on the post-apocalyptic experience, My Time At Portia is vibrant, relaxing, and brimming with charm.

With a lovely cast and setting, Wayward Strand is sure to land into your heart even if it does lack gameplay essentials such as more frequent save points or, at the very least, a skip button.

By trimming the fat, Telltale has delivered a much stronger episode in its fledgling Batman series. The story's beginning to take a shape of its own now, and more interesting personalities are beginning to come to the fore. While it still feels like the developer's laying foundations, this episode begins with a twist and goes out like a rocket – and that's how we'd like it to continue, thank you very much.

Maquette is a fascinating puzzle game with a unique central mechanic. This leads to some super clever puzzles that will really test your grey matter. However, we can't help but feel that the concept's potential isn't quite fulfilled. Similarly, the story is pretty unique among games, but the execution just isn't quite there. Overall, it's an enjoyable experience that puzzle lovers should sample — just don't expect it to change the world.

Furmins is a great physics puzzler overall, with a sharp aesthetic, splendid music, and a stiff, compelling challenge.

Game of Thrones: Episode 1 - Iron from Ice is certainly not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but it hits nowhere near as hard as it maybe should have.

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 is a much tighter, more focused platform fighter than the first entry in the series, with more gratifying combat and some truly imaginative move sets. Although its campaign is repetitive and there are frequent crashes to contend with, this sequel still manages to land a solid knockout blow here.

Seasons After Fall isn’t a perfect game to play, but rather a delightful game to look at. While it definitely could’ve used some more substance in its last couple hours, the games ethereal OST and lavish art style means that it is definitely worth checking out.

Fallout 4's core gameplay loop is still enough to hold everything together, even if the surrounding adventure is really showing its age, almost a decade after its initial release. A smooth 60fps performance mode is exactly what a lot of returning players will have wanted, and there's still fun to be had in roaming post-apocalyptic Boston — especially with the timeless V.A.T.S. system at the ready. But there's no looking past the fact that open world games have come a long way since Fallout 4 — a title that arguably felt outdated even back in 2015.

XDefiant is a solid shooter that will likely scratch that arcade-y itch with its snappy gunplay, iconic map design, and fan-favourite game modes. It’s the perfect multiplayer shooter to chuck on at the weekend, and we suspect it’ll be home to several late-night sessions for old-school Call of Duty fans. It’s not quite the breath of fresh air for the genre that The Finals is, but more like a blast from the past. Is it a CoD killer? No, but if Ubisoft can work its magic and go hell-for-leather with its multi-franchise post-launch content, then XDefiant could flourish into a regular staple of the shooter genre.

This is a game clearly made for long-standing fans, and made by a passionate team that strived to recreate the gameplay experience of the original on modern hardware. In that sense, Amplitude is a total success.

If you absolutely love simulators and really appreciate realism and the little details in games, then this will really grip you. But at the same time, many will find the game far too frustrating and unforgiving, both because of the intense focus on realism that doesn't always result in fun gameplay experiences, and the number of bugs and severe loading times. There's a compelling game here, but it needs a polished edge only a series of patches or a sequel can deliver. We can't wait for either.

Games like Train Sim World will always benefit from a greater array of content: more trains, more routes, and more services. That said, learning how each of the trains in this title work and mastering the three main disciplines will take you hours at a time, and while it’s very much an acquired taste, we derived a mixture of satisfaction and relaxation from our new role as a railway operator.

Going Under is a roguelite that ditches some of the genre's usual depth in favour of a compelling satirical tale. It won't last you too long, but there's enough here to hold your interest as you delve into some truly unique dungeons. Though it isn't the best dungeon crawler, it's certainly one of the most unusual, and we love it for that.

The Outer Worlds 2 succeeds in being a bigger and better sequel, buoyed by an even greater emphasis on player choice and freedom. Its RPG mechanics are largely fantastic, and there are key improvements to both combat and exploration. However, despite Obsidian's clever writing, there's a underlying dreariness to the property that it just can't seem to escape. These dull characters and their one-note factions are difficult to truly care for.

Shadows: Awakening is a deep action RPG which brings a literal new dimension to the tried and tested Diablo format. It's a great choice for those looking for a meaty fantasy time-sink, and while it does stumble occasionally, it delivers many hours of engaging hack-'n'-slash gaming.

GRID is a very solid racing game that harkens back to the 2008 original in some important ways. The action-packed racing itself is great and often unpredictable, and the handling strikes that balance between arcade and sim wonderfully. However, presentation isn't really up to scratch, and it leaves the game feeling a little cheap. We can't shake the feeling that the pursuit of that GRID personality has only led to a game that's, perhaps ironically, struggling for an identity. When all is said and done, though, there's still plenty to enjoy here, and it's certainly one of PS4's better casual racing games where it counts.

The Nioh Collection crams two great games and six story expansions into one complete, content-stuffed package. Despite its extensiveness, the lack of exclusive content or noteworthy new features make it a hard sell in its entirety. It gives Ninja Theory a good excuse to try and grab some more attention for some legitimately great games, but calling these remasters is perhaps a bit of an embellishment.

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard - Banned Footage Vol. 2 is arguably an even better piece of DLC than its already excellent predecessor, but our excitement for the additions is tempered by frustration that they should have been included with the main game. We liked the core campaign as it was, but with these packs bolted on it could have scored higher. Still, what you have here is some truly inventive content that repurposes the game's main mechanics in a variety of interesting and exciting ways.

Samurai Beatdown is a simple to pick up slice of rhythm action on PlayStation Mobile, though it only truly comes to life on the hardest difficulty setting. It can be technically completed in a single hour-long session, but there's more than a chance that you'll be fine-tuning those final difficulty runs for a little while; it's unlikely you'll perfect it immediately unless you actually have the skills of a samurai.

Fun for at least a few hours, Automatron is a solid start to Fallout 4's stream of DLC. While it isn't quite substantial enough to satisfy those waiting for a proper expansion, there's still a surprising amount of depth to be found here thanks to the newly implemented robot crafting system. If you've been looking for an excuse to revisit the Commonwealth, there's no reason to ignore the call of the Mechanist.