Death Stranding 2 On the Beach is a brilliant game which I largely do not care for. I think it’s inoculated me from the impulse to ever play a new open-world action game again, and I weirdly appreciate it for that. But also Chvrches ordered me to bring them a kangaroo at one point, and that was entirely delightful.

For all the hype that’s been extended to Horizon: Zero Dawn, it hasn’t managed to fully deliver. That’s a bit fitting — while we didn’t have access to its day one patch, confirmed by Eschler to enhance the PS4 Pro experience, I really didn’t notice an increased framerate or up-then-downrezzed textures on my 1080p television. Truly, there’s a lot of promise and potential in Guerrilla’s latest work, but ideas and intentions haven’t come together in a way that’s jaw-dropping.

The Last of Us Part 1 is a PS3 game that looks like a PS5 one that’s also been jacked up to Sony’s premium, $125 AUD current-gen console title price point. That’s unacceptable.

[Horizon Forbidden West] is a game of contrasts. A game about robot dinosaurs where you spend far too much time fighting robot meerkats and boars instead for some reason. One with brilliant voice acting that you begin to hate because some characters won't shut up. Where the side quests are great, but they're so simple as to feel pointless. Where the combat features a complex balance between elemental strengths and weaknesses but you can ignore all that via a rain of explosive spearheads.

People come to the franchise for combat and, despite its flaws, that's precisely what Devil May Cry 5 excels at. I personally still prefer Ninja Theory's take on proceedings and hope we'll see a continuation of that world next; I definitely appreciate new ideas and takes on this well established franchise.

Hitman 3 is a fun game — and I enjoyed plotting my way through it — but my hopes of refinement and iteration weren’t met. At its core, the gameplay is still the same as it’s always been. The series hasn’t managed to keep up with the times with the only attempt to shift the gameplay formula up somewhat, Hitman: Absolution, being very poorly received.

The bundled games are undeniably great, their enhancements solid -- but nonetheless, these are old titles pulled off the shelf and given a fresh coat of varnish, and at an additional cost to those who've already purchased them at that.

I don’t enjoy this style of Doom compared to that of the previous two games -- it's just not the Doom I've grown to love. That said, The Dark Ages is in no way a bad game. Fans of classic Doom will really enjoy similarities in the larger areas, the high volume of slower projectiles to dodge, and the constant need to push forward.

I’d never played a Yakuza game before this one, much to the dismay of certain friends. While it’s definitely a daunting franchise to enter into, Yakuza 0 is simultaneously the best and worst starting point for newcomers like myself.

Resident Evil Village is an enjoyable horror experience that embraces the franchise’s first-person approach and refines a few of its mechanics along the way. It’s ultimately held back by a sloppy storyline, two-dimensional characters and bizarre design choices.

In (very) short: like the initial entry in Assassin's Creed, the franchise it unashamedly copies, Ghost of Tsushima is good but not great. I finished it to complete it, not because I was invested in the mixed bag that was presented.

Splatoon 3 adds nothing of significance to the series, which is quite disappointing considering that it, as a whole, was bursting with originality when it first launched.

The game itself remains unchanged and while an excellent game in it’s day, COD: MWR often shows its true age with animations looking just a little clunky by today’s standards and a few small missteps that were present in the original which could have, and should have been amended in this new and improved version.

The season ends with a cliffhanger of sorts – of course – which sets it up for Season Two; still, I’m still left wondering what exactly is happening. Perhaps played all at once, Hitman‘s story would make sense, but this episodic system has done nothing for it.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 isn’t a bad game by any means, but it’s one that only die-hard JRPG fans will love.

For most players, nostalgia won’t be enough to save it; the games are good enough, but not great. These three titles would have been better suited as straight up re-releases on the upcoming PlayStation Classic rather than as a set of remastered games.

Mortal Kombat 11 is a great fighter tarnished by Warner Bros.’ willingness to test the limits of customer satisfaction using nickle-and-dime tactics. It’s truly an embarrassment for the franchise and one I hope is truly corrected soon. Come for the fighting, be dismayed about all the cosmetic stuff.

Priced at $80 AUD, you know what you're getting into with Super Mario Party Jamboree. If you need to freshen up your party game experience, this one should be a good fit.

While some parts of its narrative had me emotionally invested in the relationship between boy and beast, constantly fighting against the game’s broken mechanics left me unimpressed. My frustrations with Trico often ignoring my commands made interacting with the world more difficult and time-consuming than I wanted it to be. There are moments in The Last Guardian with potential, but ultimately, it’s more flawed than the authentic experience I was hoping for.

The basketball gameplay in NBA 2K19 is brilliant, and it has been for the last decade that I’ve been reviewing this series. But the way VC is used in the game needs to be re-evaluated, as it has become ridiculous and is blatantly pay-to-win. This greedy freemium model within an already fully priced game needs to disappear.

Mega Man 11 certainly isn’t for everyone. It constantly teeters on the edge of being too hard to be fun which poses the risk of new players giving up on it too quickly.

Shadow of War is Shadow of Mordor 2.0. If you liked the first, you’ll like the second – though hopefully you’ll be provided with a day one patch to smooth off rough edges. Though that’s highly unlikely.

The biggest single-player draw card is Adventure, the game’s story mode, and one we’ve specifically been told not to spoil.

When things are working, Ready or Not can be a lot of fun. The problem, is, Ready or Not rarely works, either as expected, as intended, or as I’d like it to. Some may enjoy its edginess, and others may find a completely different experience engaging in multiplayer. I’m frankly too concerned about toxicity from what I’ve heard in single-player to dabble in this exercise with randoms on mics.

Due to its niche nature, Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown won’t be for everyone. You’d really need to love this style of game to get the full benefit of it.

Eventually, and with a lot of googling, I found my groove and started to enjoy what Resurrected has to offer. Just make sure you go in prepared for the clunkiness.

With a new open world focused on exploration, a revised combat structure and a greater emphasis on plot, The Origami King firmly establishes Paper Mario foremost as an action-adventure game, drastically slowed down by the pacing of turn-based combat.

A Way Out mightn’t be all I wanted it to be, but it is competent and different. That’s enough to recommend you try it — Hazelight’s latest might not be perfect, but it represents a genre and new mechanics I’d be keen to try again.