South of Midnight doesn't reinvent anything, but it does a competent job of everything it attempts. With all that’s going on in gaming right now, that's worth something. South of Midnight respects your time, delivers an emotional narrative, trusts that you know how to play it, and is bursting with texture and taste. This is a future classic for someone, and it might just be you.

If you love Croc, and love the idea of playing a polished version of the original game in 2025, that last part doesn’t really matter. All that matters is the remaster is faithful to the original and improves upon it. If you want to play the best version of Croc you’re ever going to play, this remaster is exactly what you’re looking for. If you never played the original and you’re on the hunt for a new platformer, you should absolutely take Croc for a spin.

Bleach: Rebirth of Souls has some uneven presentation and can get overly repetitive towards the end of its campaign, but its more thoughtful combat mechanics and commitment to doing the series’ story justice make it a strong first entry in what I hope is a new series. Whether you’re a seasoned Bankai user or a newcomer to the Soul Society like me, Rebirth of Souls is sure to show you why Bleach earned its place in The Big Three.

Your House is a short game, clocking in at about three hours to beat it all in one go, and with five clearly separated chapters if you want to play in small bursts, but because of that, you notice the time to take walking back and forth in tunnels, not being able to take the turns you want to take but having to guess or remember the entire layout and each room's name. This, combined with puzzles that seem to solve themselves and the strained narrative, drag down any enjoyment the individual problem solving might have granted. Your House is a good facsimile of an escape room, but the flaws only become more apparent in the digital realm.

I suspect that most fans of the Soulslike genre will have a great time with The First Berserker: Khazan - especially if their primary focus is on the gameplay. It has some thoughtful approaches to easing frustration while maintaining that rewarding, Soulsian challenge. The First Berserker: Khazan may not be on the level of a Bloodborne or a Sekiro, but in the midst of combat, it can feel shockingly close.

As someone who spent countless childhood holidays roaming these same Cumbrian hills before returning to a static caravan or family tent, Atomfall perfectly captures the British countryside. Combine that with a brilliant quest system and the tension of survival combat, and you’ve got a recipe for success.

Kaiserpunk is awesomely ambitious, and I respect the game a lot for what it’s attempting to do. Fans of both the series it draws from will find aspects of Kaiserpunk they’ll enjoy. However, I just feel like I’d rather play either Anno or Hearts Of Iron - both games that are available on Steam often for the price of less than a pint. I hope that work on Kaiserpunk continues and the developers flesh out some of the systems, rework the UI, and work on both key aspects of the game (city building and regional management) to add more detail. There’s a lot of potential here, but Kaiserpunk’s just not quite ready for war.

InZoi is undeniably impressive both in its visuals and gameplay, with more than enough to get stuck into even in this early access version. Players will spend endless hours customising characters, buildings, and furniture, and that’s before they even start living their digital lives. Life sim fans are certain to lap it up with gusto, providing they can overcome the graphical barrier. The real test of whether InZoi will reign as the life sim king will come with time, as long as regular updates happen and Krafton delivers on the promise of all it has in development. [Early Access Score = 80]

Despite some repetition and bloat that makes Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ final stretch drag more than the rest of the game excites, its brave approach to exploration in a gorgeous world, heartfelt personal stories, and satisfying tweaks to the formula still make it stand as one of my favourite entries yet.

Atelier Yumia is lush. It’s vibrant. It’s a feast for the eyes. I expect that some will compare it to Xenoblade Chronicles’ own spectacular designs, and while I’m not quite sure I would go that far, I ultimately came away far more impressed than I had anticipated by the diverse biomes on display. Suffice it to say, this makes everything in the previous paragraph that much more engaging.

Wanderstop balances the discomfort brought on by seeing a game strike so true at the heart of burnout with being an absolute pleasure to play, full of delightful secrets and a healthy helping of whimsy. I’m awed at how well it’s all balanced and how, despite some occasionally schlocky dialogue, it so effectively gets its point across.

While their restoration itself leaves a lot to be desired, The Gate Rune And Dunan Unification Wars is still the easiest way to access the first two games in the Suikoden franchise, and despite my many quibbles, the quality of the original titles bears out. That is more than enough to justify this collection’s existence, even if it does feel like a bit of a squandered opportunity.

Urban Myth Dissolution Center is a fantastic game for those who appreciate short story collections that encompass all things weird and creepy. I played it on my Steam Deck, curled up in bed with it much like I would with one of my folklore books. Just don’t forget to check under your bed before you get into it.

Split Fiction is Hazelight at the pinnacle of couch co-op. It tells a story all about the power of human imagination while throwing us into levels that keep you guessing right until the very end. There is still nothing like Split Fiction in the modern gaming landscape.

For the handful of shortcomings it has, Knights In Tight Spaces is still a worthy successor to Fights In Tight Spaces, and the first deckbuilder to really catch my attention in 2025. Hopefully, this franchise will do what all the best action movies do, and continue to spawn sequel after sequel; after all, everyone loves a good fight scene.

Once you’ve gotten the hang of running a museum, there’s so much to keep you coming back to in Two Point Museum. Even after playing for a few weeks now, I still have more fish to breed, ghosts to accommodate, Places of Interest to explore, and cavemen to stop from messing up my donation stands. My work is far from over. Now that I’m old enough to appreciate this Interactive Display on how to curate a museum that’ll keep them coming back for more, I don’t foresee myself hanging up my name badge anytime soon.

For older fans wanting a hit of nostalgia, plenty of these games don’t hold up to revisits almost 25 years later. With none of the usual gubbins we’ve come to expect from retro anthologies, all you’re getting out of Early Days Collection is having your rose-tinted glasses stamped on. Lacking in games, lacking in upgrades, and lacking in content, this feels more like a slightly heftier update for Nintendo Switch Online than a full ode to Yu-Gi-Oh!’s golden era.

A lot of people will enjoy this kind of streamlining, but when everything is this streamlined, the overall effect is a slightly more mindless Monster Hunter. But when something incredible is happening every seven seconds, what’s a little mindlessness anyway?

I’ve been playing Piczle Cross: Rune Factory for nine days at this point, and I’ve racked up 34 and a half hours already. I don’t feel like I’ve made a significant dent in the game’s massive roster of puzzles, and I’m already dreading the day I reach 100 percent completion and have to find something else to fill the void. This game is a wonderful obsession that I’ve cultivated entirely on a whim, and I’d recommend it to anyone.

There are moments when Tape 1 stumbles. Performance issues crop up from time to time. I noticed pop-ins pretty consistently when the story switched from third-person to first-person. And the frame rate chugged for me in a climactic moment towards the end of the chapter. But the game's bigger problem is that Lost Records continues Don't Nod's penchant for corny dialogue. Some of that stems from the game incorporating dated '90s slang like "parental units" and "geez-o," which works well enough as period language. But one big late-game moment, where a character attempts to make a serious point by reciting lyrics to a punk song, falls especially flat. But the game's utter sincerity is a major point in its favor, and these kinds of missteps are a side effect. If I have to put up with some deeply goofy choices in order to get a character as heartbreakingly earnest as Swann Holloway, I'll accept the trade-off.

Pirate Yakuza goes all in on making Majima the most charming, endearing, and downright loveable rogue he’s ever been, taking everything 'Majima' and ramping it up to a million.

The Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered collection is the easiest way to play these games, even if only one is worth playing. I’m still not sure retrofitting Chronicles and Angel of Darkness into what feels like a tight, connected quadrilogy makes sense, but Aspyr has made experiencing The Last Revelation on modern hardware so much more intuitive, while also preserving the very dominoes that led to Core Design losing the keys to the kingdom. This is Tomb Raider’s legacy, warts and all.

Overall, I left Afterlove EP feeling more confused and frustrated than I was moved. It has a lot of interesting things to say about moving on from loss, the vicious hold that grief can have on us, and how art and love are intertwined, and its character writing is excellent, but the whole experience felt too unfocused and directionless to say anything concrete.

Avowed is a valiant attempt at fantasy you can play your way, but while it delivers well enough with combat, the narrative just isn’t there. Too ambitious in what it wants to do, it falls way short. It’s a very mediocre version of the masterpiece it tries to be, but it’s also a solid version of Just Another Video Game. The story goes nowhere and all ends the same way, but maybe the journey is just about worth it.

This is so much more than a VR spin-off like so many early virtual reality games, including Rocksteady’s own Batman: Arkham VR. It deserves to sit in the canon alongside Origins, Asylum, City, and Knight.

Daybreak 2 sits in a weird space in which it’s a must-play for fans of the series, as it sets up events that will be built upon in future games, but it’s also really difficult to recommend. If you’re determined to go in regardless, keep your expectations in check, brace yourself for a seemingly endless amount of filler, and you should have a decent enough time.

In an age where games are fighting harder than ever just to succeed, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 should not be one to pass you by, as a return to form for the RPG genre. It’s not just a game about history - it’s a game that feels like it’s making history.

Civilization 7 has completely surprised me. I was ready to hate the new civilization and age system, I was ready to grumble at the sneaking live-service features. Instead, I’ve fallen into a deep obsession with Civilization again. The game fills with me a warm fuzzy feeling that makes me feel like a child rushing home to play Civ 4 on a dusty old beat-up CRT with a packet of biscuits and no responsibilities.