In recent years, the old-school FPS genre has been undergoing a kind of rebirth; and if the results are games like Prodeus, we should be glad it has. Solid gunplay, excellent soundtrack, and graphics that might be old-school, but never feel dated: this is an excellent debut for Bounding Box Games. Granted, it’s not flawless and the checkpoint system especially raises some eyebrows, but Produes is definitely a game worth checking out if you’re into old-school FPSs. And even if you’re not, honestly.

Victoria 3 is a complex grand strategy game, however Paradox Development Studio went above and beyond to make it accessible to anyone with enough patience to learn the basics of how it works.

A fantasy FPS not very original in terms of storytelling and themes but still fun, fairly challenging and technically appreciable. The combat system based on the use of three different types of magic and a fair variety of customizations make for a solid and well-balanced experience.

Madden 17 is a football game that speaks to everyone, pleases most and delights the hardcore fans. It doesn't shine for its technical prowess or for the presence of new ideas, but everything works just great, and the new Play the Moment feature lays the foundation for a bright future for the series.

Mix the madness of a blind date, the unknown of returning home and the slipper on your mother's teeth, and you get Thirsty Suitors, a video game that overturns the rules and follows its own vision, defining with awareness and maturity an enveloping and engaging game design. It is above all strong in game design that mixes with real life events and a number of events that follow one another, nevertheless outlining an extremely scholastic exploration. Worth a try if you are in a mid-life crisis (now in your thirties), if you have lots or lots of exes ready to take revenge and if, in a certain sense, you have finished Alan Wake 2 or any other work published in the last six months. In that case, you would understand why someone left you.

The Suicide of Rachel Foster is a fascinating interactive thriller that manages to treat extremely delicate issues such as suicide, depression, and love with extraordinary tact. The writing is always on point, even if near the end of the adventure the events appear perhaps a bit rushed. In any case, the game developed by One-O-One Games manages to leave its mark by making us, the players, think about the consequences of our actions in other people’s lives.

We cannot deny that Far Cry 5 is another "more of the same" entry, warts and all, but the religious fanatic setting is spot-on, and Montana is simply wonderful (and Joseph Seed is one of the best villains the series has ever had). The open-world approach to the game works as usual, and the more you look at it as a big, sumptuous playground, the better. The Arcade mode has a lot, plenty of potential that will show its best in the upcoming weeks and months, when the community starts toying with the powerful editor. Even as it is now, Far Cry 5 is an excellent chapter in the series.

Windjammers 2 is the triumph of Dotemu's playability and dedication: the arcade spirit of the past lives again in a sequel that is philologically irreproachable and has a great personality. A very good result, that could be further improved with a greater emphasis on the single player aspect.

Tom Clancy's The Division: Survival does exactly what it promises, throwing players into a struggle to stay alive. The rules are well designed, and the (small) compromises only serve to connect the DLC to the rest of the game. Well done.

I was skeptical about a Switch release of NieR Automata, a game Square Enix was unable to get run smoothly on PC. But somehow Virtuos achieved a miracle, making possible to be 2B even on the Nintendo hybrid. I was expecting a Waterloo-like disaster. The outcome instead is Austerlitz.

Escape from Tarkov is a solid extraction shooter born in 2017. Despite its technical limitations and uneven balance, version 1.0 confirms it as a unique, intense, and persistently engaging hardcore tactical FPS. It's not for everyone, but that's precisely what makes it special.

The developers of Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon define it as a love letter to open world RPGs as if the game were just a tribute to the cornerstones of the genre such as Skyrim or Oblivion, when in reality we are faced with a production with great personality, spectacular from an artistic point of view and with a plot intricate enough to glue us to the monitor for a long time. The gameplay does not aim to revolutionize the genre, but offers everything you could want from a modern RPG, reinterpreting the story of King Arthur in a dark key and full of exciting combat.

Inkuinati is a rediscovery of who we were in the Middle Ages, of our long lost attitude about games event in serious context. A great strategic game full of jokes and farts diegetically inserted in the game experience.

Final Fantasy VII Remake is a successful return to the past; it's not without problems, but fans of the series will be happy to revisit an epic story and meet old friends again.

Catherine: Full Body is a journey towards maturity that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but at the same time offers a good excuse for a bit of introspection. Neither a remaster nor a remake, this version manages to offer an even richer and more substantial experience than the original.

Total War: Three Kingdoms collects the legacy of the previous chapters related to the Warhammer universe, presenting many noteworthy innovations that show how that formula can also be applied in a historical context. There are also some good new mechanics on the espionage and diplomacy side, too bad that the artificial intelligence hasn’t been retouched accordingly, representing once again the weakest part of the entire offer.

The Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection is a more ambitious undertaking than its source material might suggest. Not every element works equally well—some aesthetic choices remain questionable—but the work invested on the technical and structural fronts demonstrates a clear intent: not merely to preserve these games, but to bring them back into circulation in a form that remains relevant today. In this context, the RE Engine serves not merely as a container, but as a tool that compels a reinterpretation. And even when friction arises, it is precisely within that tension between fidelity and transformation that the collection discovers its true identity.

It’s difficult to improve a game which is already the best in its own genre, but SIE San Diego Studio achieved a good result with a few, but meaningful, changes. MLB The Show 18 offers an even more solid and consistent experience than its predecessor, although the devs cut off a couple of game modes. The new most important core element is the brand new progression system in the Road to the Show career, which offers the chance to live the tough dream of a mid- to late-round draft pick prospect.

Swordship is a great example of contemporary arcade. It does one thing, it does it well, and it's incredibly fulfilling, challenging, and exhilarating. Smugglers of the post-climate change future against corporations, pirates at the service of the least, always ready to take risks and with a great sense of entertainment. Great management of the risk / benefit component, precise controls, audiovisual remarkable, with each game over generating more sense of revenge than frustration. A truly remarkable work in its compactness.

Europa Universalis V is the most mature version of the series: not only does it add features, but it integrates them into a coherent fabric that makes the historical simulation more believable. It's not perfect, but it's a blast.

An aesthetically pleasing, fast-paced, and appropriately challenging FPS with platforming/parkour elements and a strong nod to the Metroid Prime series. The developers at Ruiner have already demonstrated their talent and demonstrate their prowess in creating atmospheric, futuristic adventures with incredibly captivating gameplay ideas.

Despite an imperfect procedural generation algorithm and some technical issues, SW2 is a fun game, thanks to its solid gameplay and a great co-op mode.

Keep Driving answers the question "what if Out Run took a degree in philosophy?" Halfway between a proper video game and an experience, it's impossible not wanting to keep driving.

WarioWare: Move It! is a masterpiece of minimalist gameplay where a level is completed in a couple of seconds. Surprisingly, all of the more than two hundred challenges are quite different from each other and all of admirable quality, with none of them seeming to be added just to make up the numbers. The Story mode is very entertaining already, but the challenges designed specifically for local multiplayer are little strokes of genius. All this with a graphic design that highlights the devilishness of the production. At first it is not so easy to understand what is asked by the various mini-games, but it is all a matter of practice.

Building on a rock-solid foundation, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 manages to sustain the world's oppressive expectations with disarming ease. Solid gunplay combined with gameplay refreshed with new features and many tweaks aimed at optimizing the user experience give us one of the most entertaining CoDs in recent years. And that's just the beginning.

Two Point Hospital is perfect for anyone affected by nostalgia syndrome caused by old Bullfrog games, but it is also suitable for healthy bearers of irony and for all those who are not afraid of getting infected by its amusing frenzy. The port of the control system on Switch is very good, even if the loads are longer and framerate is sometimes unstable – a not so important flaw for the gameplay of Two Point Hospital.

Just when you think you've seen it all and know it all, out of nowhere comes a Catalan studio that puts together a combination of genres so finely crafted that it leaves you speechless. Treasures of the Aegean might look like a metroidvania at first glance, but exploration is not tied to upgrades. All that you need is the ability to run as fast as you can and make your brain work just as quickly, because the sea is about the claim the island of Santorini once again.

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is a valid sequel that shares its predecessor’s compelling setting and some of its characters, while also introducing new mechanics. Stress could perhaps have been better handled, being essentially negligible most of the time and nerve-wracking during the new time-limited contracts, but that’s pretty much the only real criticism I can move at the game.