Fae Farm gets off to a slow start, but you’ll see the game’s true value from Chapter Three onwards, when the crafting, romance, questing, and other optional content becomes so vast that you’ll never be able to keep up with it all. For fans of farming sims willing to get over the first hurdle, the actual gameplay is highly enjoyable, and the style and setting are utterly adorable. Just don’t expect a standout narrative, but do expect a few minor bugs.

When it finds itself, Samba de Amigo proves that it deserves to be revived more often than it is. But it loses this streak too quickly. Samba has far more potential than a few fun dances to keep the family busy over the holidays, I just hope it doesn't take Sega a bunch of DLC packs and another 10-year hiatus to realise that.

There are parts of this game that are highly relatable. You can scroll through social media and see what are essentially Tweets (or Posts, thanks Elon), mostly about the impending meteor impact, that capture Twitter (sure, X) culture with hilarious accuracy. The third act also shines, with tensions between characters finally bubbling over and leading to huge blowouts that feel very true to the nature of teenage friendships. Fang’s relationship to their parents and brother Naser also feel very complex, more than any other relationship they have with the other characters. But none of this is enough to carry the weight of the game’s slow first acts or make up for the game’s unrealised thematic potential, and that’s a shame. What could’ve been a meaningful meditation on the importance of community turned out half-baked. The seeds of something great were there, but it never quite had the payoff it deserved.

All being said, I never believed I would live to see the day a worthy successor of Jet Set Radio materialized into existence, and yet, here we are. For better or worse, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk embodies the vibes and fun of the early 2000s era in video games and succeeds in delivering a great experience, whether you’re a fan of that era or not.

Starfield is all about the stories it tells, and it tells them well. The central narrative and the characters inhabiting it are some of the best that Bethesda has ever produced, but they’re unfortunately let down by the banality that so often surrounds them. I came into Starfield wanting to explore the stars, and I got a brilliant sci-fi story instead. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed.

It’s disappointing to see a project that had potential come up short, but if like me you were anticipating the launch of Untamed Tactics, it turned out to be far from what we were hoping for. The game’s biggest selling point could have been a dynamic Parley System with witty banter and opportunities for hidden characters and plotlines, but like the rest of the title it falls disappointingly flat.

What I find most remarkable about Sea of Stars is that, despite not caring all that much about its characters, the gameplay was good enough that I was invested throughout. Managing the meters of each battle, and exploring the colorful landscapes and dungeons that connect them, is so entertaining that my quibbles about other aspects couldn't bring the experience down. The story isn't especially compelling, but it perfectly serves the purpose it needs to: getting you from the fun of A to the fun of B without any real hiccups in between. Howard Hawks once said that a movie needs "three good scenes and no bad ones" to be great. That's what Sea of Stars has going for it. Nothing that'll bother you too much, and plenty of good.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a masterpiece. Games like this don’t come along often, experiences that capture the zeitgeist so profoundly as to provoke scurrilous rumours that Larian Studios would come under legal action for making a game considered too good. From narrative to level design, combat to quests, character creation to romance, everything is fine-tuned to provide a gripping experience that provokes wonder and joy.

Fires of Rubicon is the series at its peak as FromSoftware fires on all cylinders. The mech gunplay evolves far beyond mindless action to tell a story of the oppressed stripping bare the power of those they serve to better a dying world. It’s a story that will always be relevant, but now more than ever, its lesson of standing up to those in power who are tearing apart the world for personal gain is paramount.

Fort Solis is all presentation and no substance. It feels like it blew its budget on getting this cast to build up some hype before launch, and then forgot it needs substance to make it worthwhile. With an appalling story, bumpy technical issues, frustrating UI, and a pace so glacial I literally fell asleep at one point, Fort Solis is a waste of everyone’s time. And not even the deliciously grizzled voice of Roger Clark can help that.

The Everwar between Lucium and Rasharn reminds me of what it feels like to play Immortals of Aveum, a game that feels perpetually at war with itself. Its jokey tone is at odds with its high stakes and the world it wants you to care about. Its movement-focused arena design is at odds with the precision it would require to make it start to sing. Its magical flavor is at odds with how bland its combat is. Its name may suggest something that will last forever, but I doubt I'll remember much about it by the end of next week.

I enjoyed my time with Blasphemous 2. I’ve unlocked both endings, scoured and pillaged the entire map, and completed every quest I could find, and, where I found the first game severely wanting in the fun factor, the sequel delivered in spades. Despite this, it’s held back by simplistic quests and bosses so unfair as to taint the whole experience. At certain points, thematic suffering bleeds through the cracks in the fourth wall and becomes part of the gameplay.

The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood shows us what women can be when they are free to be who they are, liberated from arbitrary restrictions on their lives. It is a feminist, progressive, intersectional game, one that celebrates women in every form. It made me feel connected to the world around me, and that’s a huge accomplishment.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is the asynchronous horror game fully realised. It weaves the horror of one of the slasher genre’s most guttural and unsettling movies with the thrill of Dead by Daylight’s action beautifully and stands a chance at finally offering a true competitor in the genre.

At the end of the day, taking inspiration from other well-known games is not enough for Atlas Fallen to stand on its own feet, and while the game is aesthetically pleasing and the combat has enormous potential, the experience as a whole is immediately forgettable as soon as you close it.

Stray Gods can be inconsistent in its musical numbers at times and presents a selection of irksome technical issues, but these foibles are trivial to overlook when Grace’s journey fires on all cylinders. It is marvelously written with a beating heart lined with poignancy, which at every turn expresses the joy, fear, and unpredictability of human life you can’t help but feel represented by. Much like Grace, I’m a lost, lost girl with little direction in life, but sometimes a game like this comes along and convinces me it’s only a matter of time until I’m found.

It's clear that the devs at Mega Cat love RPGs, and they might love wrestling even more. This could easily have been a cheap cash-in, a generic RPG with a lazy wrestling facade. The truth is the opposite, and I implore fans of old-school RPGs to check it out whether you like wrestling or not. If you're a wrestling fan, then everything gets even better. You'll get all the references, enjoy the niche moves, and enjoy one of the best wrestling games in years.

Remnant: From the Ashes is one of my all-time favorite games, so the sequel had a lot to live up to. Remnant 2 makes many bold changes, and not all of them are successful, but it doesn’t lose the core of what makes Remnant so popular. It’s still a rock-solid shooter with a captivating setting that’s full of challenging boss fights, unique weapons, and plenty of mysteries to discover. If the post-launch support for Remnant 2 is anything like Remnant: From the Ashes, we'll have a lot to look forward to over the next couple of years while Gunfire Games refines the systems and adds new locations and game modes to try. The cliffhanger ending certainly indicates there’s a lot more to come, and I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Venba is a truly wonderful game, and executes what it sets out to do wonderfully. The art is gorgeous, the music is excellent, and the storytelling is somehow both broad in what it manages to elucidate about the South Asian immigrant experience while deep in the family dynamics it portrays. The cooking gameplay does eventually get a little stale towards the end as it attempts to include more recipes with less detail, and quite honestly, it’s more of a visual novel that touches on cooking than an actual cooking game. That said, I still found myself sniffling and wiping tears away by the end. It’s a sincere, full-throated love letter to Tamil culture and first-generation immigrants everywhere, and in that sense it is unique and singular in its ambition. I loved Venba, and have already recommended it to my Indian friends. I can only hope that it reaches far beyond that audience.

Like with the platforming, the map exploration and Metroidvania mechanics can be a bit too simplistic in execution and mostly tell you where everything is and how to get it. Seasoned platformer fans might find things too easy, but if you can accept that lack of challenge and take Illusion Island for the joyful adventure that it is, then you'll find that it's a good, simple time, with satisfying mechanics, a love for Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy, and a gorgeous world to explore.

Fans of The Expanse will enjoy this story. I’m curious about what happens in the next couple of episodes, and that’s exactly the sort of narrative pull that I was looking for. But you might also get frustrated with the game at times - it’s not a flawless experience by any means, and I really wanted more from it.

Pikmin 4 isn’t quite the best game in the series, but it’s certainly the most confident. With this new entry, Nintendo has decided to wipe away much of the past tedium in favour of ensuring moment-to-moment gameplay is more enjoyable than ever. But eradicating its past frustrations also removes much of the challenge and depth from the game’s battles and puzzles. Commanding its multicoloured armies and pilfering this planet of its treasures while gathering a motley crew of comrades kept me enraptured for hours, just don’t come into this expecting the harsh journey back home to be little more than a leisurely stroll.

Full Void is on the short side, but that’s no bad thing. There’s only so much you can do to keep someone invested in a dystopian narrative that does little to explain the world it resides in, and this adventure thankfully provides mystery, suspense, and climax in quick succession. I clocked in at just under two hours and came away satisfied. While the metaphors at work err on the self-indulgent side and the gameplay is relatively shallow, Full Void delivers a memorable experience about how it feels to have your childhood ripped away by forces you can’t control.

Exoprimal is a prehistoric relic of its own making, and a harsh but necessary lesson for a developer who has been sitting atop the pile for far too long. Future seasons could salvage the flashes of excellence on display here, but I doubt players will stick around long enough for that to become a reality. And to think we could have had a new Dino Crisis instead.

Like I said, Oxenfree 2 is all about choice, and I’m choosing to replay it as soon as I have the time.

Crime O’Clock feels like wasted potential. As a hidden object game, it has the foundations of something decent, with its lively scenes and impressive worldbuilding offering up just enough pixel-clicking for fans of the genre to get a few cheap thrills out of it. But instead of leaning any further into its time-bending angle and becoming a truly impressive puzzler, it’s happy to sit and throw a few naff minigames at you, hoping it’s enough to distract from the severe lack of any actual substance.

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code delivers masterful craftsmanship of mysteries that players will delight in unravelling. Though the more hands-on gameplay mechanics aren’t groundbreaking and can feel a bit too easy, the strength of the narrative alone and cleverly created whodunnits make this a must-play for Danganronpa fans and anyone who loves channeling their inner detective.

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective has long deserved a second chance at life, and in this form, it’s easily at its most definitive. Making new friends while saving their lives as a friendly ghost never gets old and only makes you feel deeper and deeper in love with everything the game has to offer as you progress. Embrace death, make friends with dogs, and delight in a brand of chaos you won’t find anywhere else in the medium.