While Astral Chain's storyline is filled with anime archetypes and familiar plot tropes, it all works well as an overall experience.

Play Control for its lore, its sense of exploration or its combat, but the bottom line this: you simply need to play it.

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.

With a visual handheld-to-console upgrade that puts Pokemon Let’s Go! to shame, Fire Emblem: Three Houses shows how to do a console glow-up right.

I’ll be honest: the single corridor thing keeps up for most of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3. A ridiculous roster makes this one for Marvel fans; each hero and villain gets their moment in the spotlight as the overarching story plays out.

Sea of Solitude is as unique as it is charming, and certainly a title to check out if you’re looking for a break from looter shooters and multiplayer.

If you’ve played Super Mario Maker, you already know this Switch sequel is a must-buy. If you’re a Switch owner, Super Mario Maker 2 needs to be part of your collection. Easy as that.

The Sinking City is a mixed bag; a riveting mystery that’s far less linear than anything Frogwares has ever done. It’s very rough around the edges however, likely to cause as much frustration as it does enjoyment. Fans of Cthulhu or Frogwares’ past titles will definitely want to go for the ride, while others might want to wait for a week or two — at that point, you’ll at least have some guides to walk you through some of its head-scratchers.

Despite missing the mark on a difficulty that feels consistently challenging yet fun at the same time, Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is an utter delight.

Like Ashes Cricket before it, Cricket 19 takes a good thing and touches it up. Its strength is definitely when bat meets ball, which is largely the same as Ashes Cricket, but its focus has been on enhancing everything around that. While there’s still room for improvement, once again it has topped itself to become the best cricket game on the market. The fully licensed Ashes mode is fantastic, the quasi World Cup delivers a faithful alternative to the real deal, and the Career mode will keep you invested long term.

While Layers of Fear was a jaunt into the unknown, Layers of Fear 2 has a strong sense of déjà vu that you carry with you from beginning to end; you’ve the feeling you’ve seen this before, and likely, more expertly done. Despite that misstep, it remains a must-play for horror fans who’re looking for a polished, atmospheric little fright. Emphasis on “little fright”, though — don’t expect too many scares. If you’ve not played the original, I’d recommend it over its sequel.

Despite those occasionals falter — and a somewhat polarising, disappointing ending — I was desperate to complete Observation to get to the bottom of its mystery. I enjoyed it so much that I immediately went out to acquire No Code’s last game, Stories Untold.

Darkwood is a very unique experience that relies on darkness and silence frequently, causing your own imagination to run wild and fill in the horrific gaps. There’s a bit of a learning curve to get comfortable with how the in-game world operates, but once things click, you’ll be enamoured. Survival horror fans definitely need to give this one a go.

Overall, Team Sonic Racing is... fun. I wouldn’t say it’s a top-of-the-line title by any means, but little tweaks to the formula give it an edge over others in the same field.

Combat is by far the biggest selling point of Rage 2, and Avalanche Software should be proud of a title that continually draws comparisons the super-tight Doom reboot in my mind. I live for combat within Rage 2 and get sad when I have to get into whatever shitty vehicle I’m driving to get to the next combat experience. The open world represents boredom and padding to me, but it’s worth the slog for the combat.

Despite dated mechanics, Sniper Elite V2 looks gorgeous – I preferred 60 frames per second over 4K resolution – and is a must for the collection of fans of the franchise. If you don’t count yourself in that camp but are looking for a unique and challenging shooter, I’d suggest heading over to Sniper Elite 4 first.

Perfect pick-up, put-down play.

This sordid state of affairs leads me to believe that Days Gone was either rushed out by Sony to fill a gap in releases and buy time for the likes of The Last of Us Part 2 or that Bend Studio, a veteran of PSP and PS Vita titles, simply cannot develop for a bona fide console.

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.

There’s plenty of fun to be had here for fans of the show. It’s a AUD $20 interactive puzzle game that expands The Grand Tour beyond the confines of an hour of television each week. It isn’t trying to be a fully fledged racing game, and it isn’t priced like one. Just as The Grand Tour show isn’t really about the cars, The Grand Tour Game isn’t really about the gameplay.

This is an unofficial celebration of (nearly) 20 years of Phoenix Wright, and it’s a damn good one at that, even with its failings.

It’s a good game with equal parts brilliance and head-scratching stupidity, though definitely fun to muck around in.

That’s not to say normal levels aren’t good, they’re just rather bland. They’re safe, much like the game itself. Yoshi’s Crafted World is not going to win any awards, but it’s enjoyable nonetheless. Things are easy for far too long before ramping up near the end; I wish that challenge was present throughout more of the levels. If you’re after a cute time rather than a genre-defining one, this’ll work just fine.

Unless you’re an absolute die-hard Power Rangers fan who foams at the mouth when it comes to new content (and has patience to wait for online matches), give this one a very easy miss.

Sekrio: Shadows Die Twice continues FromSoftware’s dominance, showcasing that it’s on another level when it comes creating action games in fantastical worlds. You’re going to die, and you’re go die a lot. But these brilliant gameplay systems that come together to form experiences that we don’t see in other triple-A games is why people get excited for what Hidetaka Miyazaki is doing at FromSoftware. Between Bloodborne, Demon’s Souls, the three Dark Souls games and now with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Miyazkai has all but solidified himself as one of the greatest game directors of this decade.

I only wish that endgame content came in the form of unique missions, not reskinned ones.

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.

Trials Rising is exactly what I wanted from a Trials experience. Anybody who enjoys, or has ever enjoyed, a Trials game owes it to themselves to check this out. Folks out there that just really enjoy challenging themselves should probably give it a look too, just make sure you’ve got a spare controller or three on standby.