Don’t judge a book by its cover: Vampire Survivors has a simple gameplay loop, but strong enough to keep you coming back, and wanting more. Thirty minutes is the perfect length to make you think “maybe I can squeeze in another run”, and before you’ve realized it the game has burned through the hours as if they were matchsticks.

Speaking purely in terms of content, NHL 23 feels more like a (modest) update to NHL 22 than a new chapter in the EA Games series. The changes made to the gameplay and game modes are very limited, and do not significantly affect the overall experience. On the other hand, positive steps forward in graphic/sound, which continues along the lines of last season showing further improvements. Skates on your feet and stick in hand, even with some issues in artificial intelligence, the games are quite fun, but the few innovations make it difficult to justify the purchase for those who already have NHL 22 in their collection. Or rather, they make it justifiable only for those players who focus on those modes that require extensive use of online (Ultimate Team and World of Chel above all).

Slightly better than Innocence in terms of storytelling, gameplay and world building, A Plague Tale: Requiem still needs some tuning on the technical side.

Winter's family nightmare comes to an end in this first and last DLC for Resident Evil Village, that delivers a new, short but intriguing story for Rose, the third person view option and a bunch of Mercenaries mode contents. Unmissable if you want to bite another chunk of meat from Capcom's latest horror.

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.

Bayonetta 3 undoubtedly ranks among the best action games out there, and is one of the most ambitious projects out of the PlatinumGames forges. Such a weight makes the technical realization creak, in turn constrained by the limits of the Switch, however the end result is a party for all fans of these games and the charismatic Cereza.

After a year off, 2K Sports is back on the golf course with a title that deserves a wide promotion. There is still room for improvement regarding the game modes, while the gameplay is perfect for both the most demanding players and those who want to hit a few balls without having to worry about spending too much time between bunker, rough, and water hazards.

The Last Hero of Nostalgaia is the Dark-Soulest of all Soulslikes. The idea of using lore as a game mechanic is interesting, but in the end maybe too easily applied on the experience. Overall Nostalgaia is a Dark Souls child with no regrets about it, but with some over-simplification and some battle-related issues.

Batora: Lost Haven is both a hack n' slash and a twin stick shooter, depending on the enemies we have to face, and very often it is both genres mixed together. The main component of the game is the fighting system forcing you to frantically switch combat modes, but there is also an exciting story to follow, with charismatic partners and some moral choices that affect both plot development and character growth. A great isometric action RPG, with awesome boss battles and multiple endings to increase its longevity.

Chaos, bullet hell and brutality. These are my three tags to describe Warhammer 40,000: Shootas, Blood & Teef. A horizontal scrolling twin stick shooter with a gameplay reminding old arcades like Green Beret and Contra, filled with devastating weapons, avalanches of enemies armed to the teeth and die-hard bosses. The game only requires skill in aiming and shooting while dodging storms of bullets, and although it may not seem that much these days, in this case it's absolutely fine, you simply have to turn off your brain and have a blast crazily dismembering enemy orcs.

Gotham Knights is a strange beast: it's the classic example of a result greater than the sum of its parts. Taken individually, the elements that make up the latest effort by WB Games Montréal are full of many small critical issues, yet a video game is the product of the meeting and fusion of these individual parts. Yes, that's right, there are a lot of problems, almost all related to open world management and bland RPG components, but overall the game works and is capable of delivering one of the best Batman and companions stories outside the world of comics.

The Valiant is a decent enough game. It most likely won’t amaze you, especially if you’ve played other small-scale RTS games before, but its campaign is the right amount . And if you’ve liked Dawn of War 2 in the past, you’ll feel right at home.

A cool puzzle-platformer where cloning and killing ourselves is mandatory to reach our goals, with nice looking pixel art graphics and a great atmosphere.

Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is not only one of the best exclusives for Nintendo Switch, it is a game capable of evolving significantly compared to the previous chapter, reaching an absolute playful level. A hilarious, light-hearted, creative but also pixelated work, with an artisanal and constantly growing level design for the duration of the adventure, exactly like a combat system that is pure joy, tactically deep and at the same time hyper-dynamic , comic and totally available to the player's creativity. The exploratory phase also exponentially improves, very pleasant and full of secrets and secondary activities, immersed in colorful worlds, cared for with love, perhaps not very "galactic" but adorable and embellished with an exceptional soundtrack by the author (indeed, by authors). Sparks of Hope is proof that love for one's work always makes a difference beyond commercial ambitions (Kingdom Battle has sold 10 million copies and expectations go in that direction anyway); the result is a game that takes a lot, a lot, a lot of effort to put down to do something else.

LEGO Bricktales does only one thing, but it does it well: it allows you to play with LEGOs as you would do in your room, without placing constraints on your imagination. Its main limitation is a somewhat stubborn control system and a camera that is not easy to handle, but the final result repays the effort. The added value is a really appreciable technical compartment, which recreates small dioramas with enormous charm, based on historical LEGO sets that will lead to tears anyone who was young in the 80s/90s. It could mark the beginning of a new era for LEGO games, and that would be great news.

Scorn is the classic case of a brilliant idea, diligently implemented which then lacks much of the content to be savored and enjoyed. The settings are excellent and cause great anguish, and the adventure around the exploration of these carnal and biomechanical tunnels is fantastic, but the shooting phases are faulty, the puzzles are repetitive and in some cases fillers, for a project with little longevity. Having put the nearly eight years of development on the table, it was reasonable to expect something more.

Vertigo's main problem, probably, is its ambition. When you choose such a cumbersome source of inspiration, the risk of ending up crushed by it is real. The Pendulo game wisely chooses not to retrace the path traced by Hitchcock, but to borrow the main theme. Unfortunately, however, it manages to keep the interest high only in the initial stages, then a under-the-bar acting and questionable narrative choices prevail over originality. You could appreciate the attempt, not so much the outcome.

This sequel is not revolutionary as the first chapter: it is simply what who wanted a more up-to-date PvP structure needed. The 5 vs 5 gameplay works and is smoother, but in the new era of the franchise seems like there is less space than before for casual or not competitive players.

Developed by one man only – Jason Smith – Cultic is an excellent old school shooter. The campaign isn’t particularly long, but the second part will come as a free update in the future (hence the ‘Chapter One’), and there’s also a fun survival mode that will let you hone your skills.

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.

Maybe 16 years ago Kamiwaza was a good and engaging action-stealth game but time has not been kind with it and now this remastered version doesn't have a meaning to live in 2022.

Life is Strange: Arcadia Bay Collection arrives on Switch with all the necessary optimizations. A clever operation to propose two excellent titles also to Nintendo users, while not lacking some technical flaw, with a camera that does not always work and very long uploads. For the rest, the adventures of Chloe and Max are still in good hands and shine despite the years.

Moonscars is a soulslike (although ‘lite’ would better describe it) with a very evocative visual style and well-written characters. The gameplay is also good, but it suffers from a certain lack of enemy variety and a poor balance of character options, especially egregious when it comes to special weapons. Still, it’s not a bad game by any means, but the competition is fierce in the 2D metroidvania / soulslike genre and standing out is not an easy feat.

A great game that shows what R-Type could be like, if only it was coded in 1958! Blast the freaking aliens like it there’s no tomorrow, with this stunning shoot ‘em up action in black & white, with great FMV intros in every level.

Valkyrie Elysium's combat system is sufficiently complex and entertaining, which is good, considering that what remains of the game is quite forgettable. A decent game for fans of the tri-Ace saga, but certainly not essential. Also because, if you're hungry for Norse adventures, there's a certain god of war waiting for you at the end of November.

Electronic Arts says goodbye to the FIFA brand with an edition that is not perfect, but still deserves a wide promotion. HyperMotion 2 is excellent, and the gameplay offers slightly slower matches than in the past, with less dribbling and more maneuvering. There is still room for improvement, and some aspects (for example, the goalkeepers) need an adjustment via patch, but overall the game flows in a pleasant and fun way. Good, without major upheavals, the game modes, which traditionally offers a range of variants that can satisfy anyone, starting from those who want to enjoy a quick go to those who want to manage an entire team.

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.

Midnight Fight Express is a brutal beat ‘em up whose only goal, despite a story with a weird plot, is to slaughter enemy after enemy. Really enjoyable in the early levels when each new skill learned improves the way you fight, it becomes repetitive when you try to complete the secondary challeng-es, which require players to retry a lof of times the same game sequences. Those seeking for perfect completion of the game, however, will find a tough challenge, as the unlockable techniques are quite a lot and all beautifully animated. To be played at a very loud volume to get even more exalt-ed.