It's an expensive toy that has specific flooring and space requirements. But if you have the right place for it, I can't recommend Rift Rally enough. It's the first full-fledged AR experience that doesn't feel like an experimental tech-demo, and it inspires so many more possibilities for the future. Velan Studios understands the appeal and nostalgia of Hot Wheels, and has filled this game with so much variety and so many great ideas. I haven't been this impressed by a game in a long time, and it fills my jaded gamer heart with hope.

Meet Your Maker is a killer concept, but it feels empty despite building up a miserable world I so desperately want to know more about. For as boundless as the content may be, shallow progression makes it all feel disposable and vapid. It might be great in a year’s time, but right now it’s little more than a cool idea.

Everspace 2 doesn’t have a great story and its systems aren’t particularly deep, but the things it does well more than make up for its shortcomings. Once you get into the rhythm of traveling from map to map and clearing all of the objectives, it’s alarmingly easy to lose track of time. Rockfish has stuffed so many stunning locations into this game. Whether you’re skimming the surface of a desert planet, circling a half-destroyed moon with its core exposed, or navigating through tight corridors to deliver ramen in a floating metropolis, there’s always something new to see. I’m so glad there’s finally an approachable space sim out there, and I can’t wait to dive into the Ancient Rift endgame loot farm. This is a game I’m going to be playing for a long time.

Despite its bugs, Deceive Inc. is fun enough that I immediately started asking my friends to play with me. Nobody has taken the bait yet so I haven’t tried the multiplayer mode, but solo mode is fun enough that it’s tiding me over. Here’s hoping that the game fixes its many bugs quickly, because there’s plenty else to love about this game as long as they build on the base they’ve started with.

The Last Worker tries to be a lot of things. It’s a satirical puzzle adventure at heart, but a large part of it is spent stealthily avoiding sentries, it’s got an endless runner minigame starring SKEW that overstays its welcome, and there’s a lot more first-person shooting than I expected. While the story and stealth are both great, the rest of the puzzles are frustrating exercises in tedium, and that’s the feeling that lingers after playing. When the most compelling gameplay is the tedious day job that the game is trying to satirise and not the exciting revolution empowering you through the bowels of the Jüngle warehouse, you know there’s a problem.

GrimGrimoire OnceMore is an engaging experience. The battle system is its strongest feature, and is extremely satisfying to play around with. Developing your own personal strategies and comparing them with other players is one of those joyous moments you won’t forget in a hurry. Despite the mediocre storyline and all the repetition you’re forced to endure, the game is well worth checking out if you’re a fan of quirky and unique RTS games.

Crime Boss is a game at war with itself. All three modes offer something, but none of them does their specific thing that well. Meanwhile, the characters and writing that surround these missions feel painfully stuck in 2011. And customisation is either limited or random in a way that makes it feel like you never quite have control of your loadout.

Dredge is a nice, enjoyable fishing game with a low-fat horror coating. The mechanics, upgradability, and weird fish variety are enough to make for a lightweight and engaging time. But if your primary interest is in the narrative or atmosphere, you may find yourselves disappointed.

You can dig deeper and appreciate mechanics and ratings all you like, but for the first time in years I can boot this baby up with my friends and feel like a kid again. John Cena is all over this thing too, subverting his once polarising fan reputation to cement himself as the wrestling icon he is and always will be. The Champ is Here.

Like a good book that you simply can’t put down, Storyteller will charm you with its whimsical and inventive gameplay, so much so you’ll finish it in one sitting. But therein also lies its biggest flaw. While Storyteller has a superb foundation and core idea, the puzzle mechanics aren’t challenging, and the gameplay is too short and lacks variety, so you’ll breeze through it in no time at all.

Delete After Reading is short but sweet and plays around with some interesting ideas in terms of how interactive an interactive fiction experience can be. While the puzzles aren’t anything groundbreaking, the way they’re presented keeps things feeling very fresh. Overall, the game is a fun time, the perfect way to introduce a kiddo to adventure games or waste away an afternoon trying something new.

I had the time of my life throughout my 20 hour Hardcore playthrough and immediately started up a New Game+ run on Professional mode to see how well I could put all the lessons I learned throughout the game to the test. It has exceeded my high expectations across the board, and it represents Capcom’s best-ever work on the series. Normally I'd still find time to nitpick some minor annoyance or under baked section, but I just don't think games get much better than this.

This is not the penultimate chapter in Destiny's decade-long story anyone wanted, but even without everything weighing on its shoulders, Lightfall still disappoints.

Switchback VR is a steady rail shooter that offers decent variety and an interesting tour through some old levels, but never tries to earn The Dark Pictures name. The choices don’t matter, the Curator is just a creepy Where’s Wally?, and the stakes or even setup for rescuing characters was lost on me. However, it’s reliably spooky, action-packed, and has the best designed villain in the series. It’s a rail shooter obsessed with its own past, so it makes sense that it’s two steps forward and one step back.

Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo is a masterclass in puzzle-solving, utilising Japanese folk tales to root around to unravel a murder-filled mystery — what more could you want? The captivating narrative, challenging gameplay, and stylish presentation make this one of my favourite games this year.

Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is a disappointing remaster that fails to hide its age under the pretty mask of shiny new character models. While the concept and story are intriguing, they’re impossible to enjoy when you have to wade through the awkward, clunky gameplay at such a snail’s pace. This one was better left on the Wii.

Little Witch Nobeta is not for me, but then I’m not certain who it is for. It is a catastrophic fumbling of the bag with a narrative that makes no sense, combat that feels far too basic, puzzles that don’t even warrant a mention, and a distinctly unappealing target demographic. The only magic I want from Nobeta is a disappearing act.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is, at best, a serviceable Souls-like. If you enjoy Nioh and Sekiro, it’s a fun bit of filler, but it’s derivative and bloated, serving as a highlight reel of previous Souls-likes while missing the point of what made its inspirations, and even predecessors, unique to begin with.

Patch Quest is a novel dungeon crawling rogue-lite that has unique ideas which set it apart from some of the most noteworthy in the genre. However, it quickly becomes repetitive, with a huge, sprawling dungeon full of discoveries to be made that leave little impact on the world back home, turning it into an adventure that soon becomes aimless and disjointed.

Rytmos is a meditative music-making experience with a specific goal in mind – sharing the music of the world, with the world. With well-designed puzzles and diverse influences, it’s worth the play if you’re keen on a relaxing, musical experience.

Despite its flaws, Scars Above's engaging combat and expansive toolkit keep it interesting for its entire 10-hour campaign. Though its world is gray and the story leading you through its levels is a let down, the moment-to-moment gameplay makes the journey worth taking. This space adventure isn't the final frontier of third-person action games, but it manages to offer roughly the same thrills as a pretty good SyFy Original movie. It isn't the cutting edge, but it's sharp in its own right.

For everything Digimon World: Next Order offers, there is something better. If you want monster-taming, Pokemon and Monster Rancher are right there. If you want specifically Digimon, Cyber Sleuth and Survive are more than enough to have your fill. If you want anything other than wonky pacing, shallow combat, and frequently cringeworthy writing, Next Order probably isn’t for you.

The adorable art style and quirky concept of Void Terrarium 2 reeled me in, but the moreish gameplay kept me hooked. Repetitive failure can sour an experience, even if that’s part and parcel of roguelites, but Void Terrarium 2 alleviates the frustration a little by offering a blend of genres and regularly evolving gameplay mechanics. After all, there’s nothing like taking a break to redecorate your terrarium and destress after 20 failed runs.

The most unique thing that Clive ‘N’ Wrench has going for it is its focus on speed and its wider pool of moves, which doesn’t feel like a defining feature. How much that bothers you is going to depend on what you go into Clive ‘N’ Wrench expecting. If you’re hoping that it’s going to revolutionise or build upon the collect-a-thon platforming genre, you’re going to be disappointed. If you’re just looking for a simple, nostalgic adventure that calls back to the platforming days of old, then you’ll Clive ‘N’ Wrench might be worth grabbing a backpack for, but its dated design makes it a tough recommendation for anyone other than the genre diehards.

Return to Dream Land Deluxe is a reminder that no matter what dimension he’s put in, Kirby is one of Nintendo’s most consistently brilliant series.

Loretta’s story is one of a woman trapped in her circumstances, desperate to escape. It’s also a story about fate, where as hard as you may try to guide Loretta away from the bad thing, events keep unfolding that force you to take more and more dramatic actions and suffer her decline with her. The game was harrowing, but your actions can’t change the narrative that much – she is doomed from the first bad decision she makes. All you can do is stop her from going too far, or let her freefall.

Atomic Heart is the result of 15 years of thoughtful world-building and storytelling, but fails to live up to any of it. Individual parts work well, and would fair far better if the padding was stripped away, but those who enjoy combat for its own sake will be happy with the amount on offer. I’ve never encountered a world that was simultaneously so intriguing and so off-putting. Every system implemented to pad out the playtime is the antithesis of fun, yet I’m still drawn to the more bespoke parts of Facility 3826. Atomic Heart is three times too big and beats erratically, but its more confident components prevent it from flatlining.

Like a Dragon: Ishin is a near-perfect package for fans of the series. It weaves an intriguing tale founded in historical events that has you hooked from the very start and eager to learn more at the very end. There’s a wealth of lighthearted substories, minigames, and slice-of-life gameplay, which offer a nice change of pace from the dark storyline. The weapon-based combat is a much-needed reinvigoration for the series that offers fast-paced, bloody carnage in style. The only real letdown was the few graphical issues I experienced, which hopefully a patch will soon resolve.