Once jumping into arcade mode, I realised I should really have focused on its ladders because they have more of an actual story — or at least, an ending — and showcase the brutality that Invincible is known for. There, and in its other modes, you’ll see heads explode thanks to some truly graphic overkills, or entire bodies atomised in others...It’s here, though, that you’ll begin to notice the repetition — it’s either one or the other, heads or entire bodies. That same feeling of sameishness reverberates through VS‘ roster, which features 18 characters but only three or four real archetypes. It’s admittedly difficult to build a bunch of diverse styles around so many Viltrumites.

The true joy of Tides of Tomorrow comes from its cast of recurring characters -- survivors, pirates, and those of faith who make the world around them feel fully fleshed out.

My best piece of advice here is to take advantage of Living the Dream‘s publicly available demo; create a couple Miis, set them loose upon one another, and get the flavour of what’s going on. From there, it’ll be up to you if you want to go whole hog.

I was really impressed with what Capcom has achieved with an all-new title, building a unique and vibrant world, even on the barren surface of the moon.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with Forza Horizon 6 — it’s the high level of quality that we’ve come to expect from Playground Games releases — but I’m a little burnt out by it all. [Hands-On Impressions]

No matter which of People of Note‘s three pillars interests you the most, they’re all extremely well-crafted. You can see Final Fantasy‘s heavy influence in the way People of Note‘s RPG core looks and operates. Cadence, Fret, and the rest of her band are not only interesting in their backgrounds, but unique in the ways that they sound and play. And if the idea of puzzles on top of all this dissuade you, they shouldn’t — each of these pillars can be dialled up or down to present a challenge that you can set for yourself. Priced at $24.99 USD, this is an easy commendation for those who love old school RPGs, music, or puzzles. Give it a go for yourself.

While Marathon hasn’t grabbed me yet, I’m going to keep plugging away at it before bolting a score on to this review and calling it a day. There’s a lot here, most of it good, and as long as Sony backs Marathon through this teething phase I think we could have a gem on our hands – with some aggressive polishing, of course.

I’m not trying to yuck anyone’s yum here and realise that there are many Fatal Frame fans who will be as pumped for this remake as I was Resident Evil 2. To those people, I truly hope that you have a blast. To many others, most of whom have just experienced truly desperate and bleak survival horror through Grace Ashcroft in Resident Evil Requiem, I say simply that this ain’t it. You’ll end up far more frustrated than entertained.

At the end of the day, Monster Hunter Stories 3 is a game that wants you to spend a LOT of time playing it – but it respects that time also. Much like the mainline Monster Hunter series, Stories wants you to spend time thinking about and preparing your loadout before each big fight, fighting and crafting and hatching your way to the right configuration. Battles themselves also take strategy and forethought, making sure you memorise a monster’s patterns and weaknesses to come out victorious. But, once you’ve proved you can do that? It’s all about making life easy for you, rewarding that time you invested. With so many different systems at play, it’s almost a relief to be able to Quick Finish a battle, or easily search for a gene I want my favourite beast to have; I’m keento see what’s in store next, and Stories 3 is excited to show it to me.

By carefully honouring its past and deliberately weaving together the best of survival and action horror, Resident Evil Requiem finally reconciles the series’ genre identity. This is the most captivated I’ve felt playing a new Resident Evil story since booting up Resident Evil 4 on GameCube all those years ago. It understands why it got action right all those years ago and finally how that best integrates with Resident Evil’s more traditional horror roots – or at least the remakes and reimaginings of them. Leon remains an important ingredient as the poster boy for the franchise, but the real key is partnering him with someone without his courage who’s still determined to survive. Resident Evil is no longer choosing between survival or action. With Requiem, it’s finally mastered survival-action horror.

This is perhaps the Star Trek game most faithful to its source material, as just like Star Trek: Voyager, it’s a flawed gem that I can heartily recommend experiencing, just not without caveats. Both its greatest strength and biggest weakness is that it really feels like the kind of PC game that could’ve come out during the later years of the show’s run.

Mario Tennis Fever is also a letdown as one of the first Switch 2 exclusives. There’s little that feels truly current-gen, and some of the visuals are surprisingly basic and rough.

There's something admittedly unique about Romeo is a Dead Man, but that quirkiness doesn't make up for its middle of the road design. In fact, it's not long before quirky is just there for the sake of quirkiness, not serving anything larger.

While the main story does feel a bit shorter compared to the other Kiwami games, the sheer volume of “stuff to do” in the world more than balances that out. By the time you’ve cleared the main story, bested the Coliseum, completed every bizarre sub-story, completed the photo rally, fought every beatdown target, unlocked every costume item AND forged a deep, emotional connection with every child in your care? You’ll wonder why Kiryu ever left the life behind.

At the end of the day, Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined doesn’t bring forward everything that’s been in previous versions of the title – but that’s not what it’s set out to do. This is a new 7 for a new generation, or even just long-time fans who want to re-experience this story with a bit more velocity than the previous versions allow, without trying to replace the still-excellent 3DS release. Seeing the team this willing to flip the script on the traditional formula leaves me very excited for the future of the franchise; if other remakes (or the distant future release of Dragon Quest 12) can take lessons from Reimagined’s mechanics or art style, I’ll be a very happy gamer indeed.

While fun from moment to moment, Code Vein 2 has a cookie-cutter plot, matching dialogue, and combat that isn't polished to the level it needs to be.

Simply put, this is $10 USD well spent.

Metroid Prime 4 Beyond is a familiar return for the series and a soft reboot that introduces a new story and revisits the best parts of the original game that dazzled us two decades ago.

Overall, Project Motor Racing just doesn’t quite reach what’s promised. A strong and visually impressive catalogue of cars and tracks is countered by poor default setups and samey handling. There’s definitely some good here – the career mode offering is robust and the competitive leaderboards are a nice addition – but they’re ultimately overshadowed by, well, everything else.

While Air Riders might not be my personal cup of tea, it feels like a faithful and loving reward for all the folks who loved the original Kirby Air Ride. Without the benefit of nostalgia, though, you may find it harder to get up to speed.

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.

Issues aside, Europa Universalis 5 has been an utterly incredible introduction to a whole new gaming world for me. It’s wonderfully welcoming yet entrancingly absorbing, and I can’t recommend it enough to anyone interested in getting into the grand strategy genre.

What needs to be made clear is that Wreckreation has been built by a team of only 10 people with a few small titles under its belt — a far cry from when Criterion was building Burnout Paradise in its heyday. I made similar comments when I reviewed Danger Zone 2 back in 2018, praising the efforts of such a small team for creating something fun. When put into this context, what Three Fields Entertainment has set out to achieve is massive — I can’t imagine how much hard work has been put into Wreckreation. That said, some cut corners, bugs, janky mechanics, and limited content shows that a project of this size may have been too ambitious for such a small team.

The Outer Worlds 2 is more of everything I liked before in The Outer Worlds, but dialled up to 110% - just like a new and improved offering from Auntie’s Choice!

Persona 3 Reload is the best kind of remake: it honours the core of what makes the game great, but isn’t afraid to modernise the experience at the same time. It’s nostalgia done well, because it plays onscreen the way the original felt in my memory (without having to squint at a 4-inch PSP screen). It’s honestly a joy to see a game I loved brought to a whole new audience, while still giving me a deluxe version of something I already know I’ll enjoy. While it may not include every ingredient that every version of Persona 3 has ever had, it’s a confident and complete version all its own – and I can’t wait to keep climbing that tower.

Ultimately, Ninja Gaiden 4 is fun, but not memorable -- something that extends into its general narrative. You're not there for witty banter though, nor for its plot twists and turns -- but instead to decapitate enemies as a bad-ass ninja. In that sense, Ninja Gaiden 4 does exactly what it says on the tin.

That fun sense of progression, coupled with 10-15 minute gameplay runs (that usually end up with you saying, “just one more!”) are enough to make me recommend Ball x Pit to just about anyone. With a $14.99 USD price tag to boot — and access via Xbox Game Pass if you’re not super-angry with Microsoft right now — this one’s not only a no-brainer, but one of the best games of 2025.

Rather than sticking to its guns, Battlefield 6 diverges from the formula. We could have had a steaming hot meal of scrumptious all-out warfare, but instead we’ve been served a lukewarm plate of I-Can’t-Believe-It’s-Not-CoD.