Investigations are multi-staged, and some of the reveals are interesting if not particularly surprising. The inclusion of newer-generation Pokémon since the original title makes Ryme City feel even more alive and part of the Pokémon world, and the city is full of small details to really drive home the idea of people and Pokémon living together.

Disintegration seems like it would have been my jam, but it proved to be the complete opposite. There’s a lot of squandered potential in both this title and the franchise itself, and I hope that V1 Interactive is able to salvage this release in the weeks to come. Some much needed focus will greatly improve the package.

2K17 is average at best, worth skipping if you’re a casual wrestling fan. Fans of the sport will find more to enjoy, but I’d have to wager it’ll be through a profound sense of disappointment.

Harmless fun from a mobile game that wants to be a console one instead.

Wolfenstein Youngblood is largely forgettable. It’s not bad, per se, merely competent. I’m happy to set this one aside and wait for the next proper Wolfenstein sequel, far removed from half-baked RPG mechanics and Nazis who conveniently design door switch and secret mechanism to be completed by two people instead of just one.

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.

Described by its developers as a title in the “brainpunk” genre, I've come to think of Scarlet Nexus as a mixture of the likes of Bayonetta, Code Vein and Persona, at some times deliciously chaotic and at others frustratingly so.

If Modern Warfare 3 fumbled its campaign directly after Modern Warfare 2, Black Ops 7 completely drops the ball following Black Ops 6. This tactic of rushing out direct sequels isn’t working for Call of Duty. Now all that’s left to ponder is where the franchise goes next after wearing out and devaluing its flagship Modern Warfare and Black Ops series this generation, like Marge Simpson’s tattered Chanel suit.

With the current generation and the likes of Forza Horizon 3, F1 2016 and DiRT Rally, WRC 6 sadly falls behind by failing to innovate.

Roller Champions is a mixed bag that is in definite need of some balancing. Under the right circumstances it’s an absolute blast… but take one little bit of that equation away and you’ll be left frustrated.

While this offers fans a literally alternate perspective into a universe that many really love (myself included) and is a fantastic as a tool to show off the PSVR2, it lacks depth as an actual game. Challenge and balance are overloaded with tedious climbing sequences and not enough of the fun stuff.

First presented as a PS Vita game in 2015, Ultra Despair Girls sure looks it.

Even if you put aside the sidelining of permadeath and the absence of any sense of a progression system, the underlying Watch Dogs concept has not evolved in any meaningful way. The hacking functions are relatively the same as previous editions in the series, and once you have spent a few hours in this world there isn’t much left to surprise you. There’s some fun to be had in Watch Dogs Legion, but it becomes so repetitive that by the end of the game everything feels like a chore — one I was desperately wanting to be over hours before its credits rolled.

The game isn’t without its issues, the load times are borderline ridiculous at times and there’s no tutorial so you’ll spend most of the first act scratching your head in confusion. All non-crime solving elements are mind-numbingly boring, but the game overall fills a niche in the gaming world that we don’t see done nearly enough in most games. When you’re bored doing laps on a circuit or shooting foes on the battlefield, take some time out and pick up The Devil’s Daughter. As a crime-solver, it does alright.

Dying Light 2 faces two big issues at present: technical glitches that can be fixed with a patch, and design choices that will be harder to deal with. When the former are corrected, Techland's latest will be far more enjoyable; that said, the number of times it goes out of its way to break up the fun it's capable of producing could remain its legacy.

Battlefield 1 is a brilliant fast-paced military shooter that I spent a lot of time playing, especially over the recent Christmas holidays. The additional content in “They Shall Not Pass” is fun to play, but it does leave you a bit sour when you look deeper into it and see so many assets which have been reused. On top of that this content also splits the community, and pressuring players to purchase the DLC or be left behind. There are much better ways to handle delivering extra content to players, unfortunately this isn’t one of them.

Ultimately, Metal Eden is a close to a great game, but falls flat. It’s short, repetitive, and gets in its own way when it comes to a core combat loop.

Biomutant has a lot on offer, and while RPG fans will find a number of systems they'll be enthusiastic for, I'd wager they'll find equal parts unappealing or overdone.

While Super Princess Peach on the DS was criticised for reducing a female lead to being very literally controlled by her emotions, Princess Peach Showtime only works to allow her to embody so many different roles because there isn’t really a defined character underneath it all. For all its faults, 2023’s Super Mario Brothers Movie at least gave us a Peach who was driven, confident and capable – if Nintendo needs tips on how to build a Princess who could helm a game on her own, they should just ask Anya Taylor-Joy for tips. For now, I don’t see Showtime making it to Broadway – but I might still check out the matinee if there’s nothing else going on.

There’s great humour, knowledge and deference to the source material, and more than 250 little plastic people to unlock if you’re that into it – yet at the same time, it’s wrapped in a playstyle that’s really starting to crack and fray at the edges.

Gameplay isn’t bad, nor buggy, but it is very formulaic.

Bioware have all the pieces of the puzzle, but right now Anthem isn’t living up to its potential. It’s bad, but not so bad it can’t be fixed.

The combination of a simple gameplay loop with great music has been proven to work in the past; two Australian titles immediately spring to mind in The Artful Escape and Video World. Both titles feature engaging storylines, compelling characters and enough actual gameplay to bolster their music; We Are OFK sadly falls short — or at least doesn’t consistently deliver — on some of those points. That’s a real shame too, because the music found within is superb.

Perfect if anime is what you’re into… but otherwise, it’s not worth your time.

Cross-play doesn’t work because of it — getting paired with Steam players using keyboard and a mouse mean you’ll get crushed. Pairing with Xbox-only players, I found long gaps in matches. I’m happy to go with my gut and chalk it all up to the problem of price. It’s a shame, because First Strike really was on to something here.

World Series has a lot of good ideas that were implemented quite poorly. If you were thinking about this one to scratch a casual racing or nostalgic itch, you’re best to hold off – at the very least, until these niggling performance issues are corrected.

There’s some quick fun to be had here, but if you want meaningful cricket on consoles, stick with Ashes Cricket.

Headmaster is a solid experience for testing out the PS VR’s functionality but at its core, the mechanic isn’t sustainable.