Ultimately, Bus Simulator 21 does a good job - it gets the blend of driving simulator and management simulator pretty much spot on, even if both of those individual parts have room for improvement.

With a solid and dependable blaster-led Star Wars adventure as its basis, there's more to Tales from the Galaxy's Edge than initially meets the eye, with the most fun to be had in the side tales picked up in Seezelslak's bar. This has had a big glow up since its original Meta Quest release, but left me wanting something more consistently inventive and truly built for PSVR 2 and higher powered systems. Hopefully we'll get to see that in future.

Raiden V tries to add something new the shoot ’em up genre which is admirable, but unfortunately most of the ideas don’t live up to expectations. The Cheer system may have worked better if you could let spectators view your game, and the running commentary is like trying to listen to couple arguing at back of a bus when you’re at the front and have someone playing loud techno music on their phone right next to you. For a shoot ’em up there is a lot of content and the main mechanics have clearly been honed to perfection over the last twenty five years, making this a good, solid entry to the series.

Needless to say, this isn’t cheap spinoff rushed out of the door – Activision has plans for Battlecast in the future and so far it’s managed to create a solid, if imperfect, foundation for them to build on.

Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Heart of the Wolf has a lot of promise, starting out very strong but it's ultimately let down by what feels like a very rushed last couple of chapters. The characters, the setting, the atmosphere and the writing are all on point which is what makes this feel like a sadly missed opportunity to make an all time great. Here’s hoping they flesh out the next one.

I've had an absolute blast with Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, and I know there's plenty more for me to see thanks to their sheer size. With changes that lean mostly toward quality of life improvements, this is a firm reminder that Pokémon games can be extraordinary and one of the most enjoyable remakes I've played in a long time.

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R is the Jojo game that the world needs right now. While the online offerings are slim, this is still a love-letter to the original series and is packed head-to-toe with references, callbacks, and unforgettable moments. It's easy to grab a friend and appreciate the additions to the roster and changes to gameplay offline. It's even easier, if you're a Jojo fan, to boot the game up and smile ear-to-ear seeing how much attention to detail has been put into the game. If you're a Jojo fan, you need this video game.

Cursed Castilla is one of the best modern retro games that I’ve played, successfully capturing the look and feel of its influences but also improving on the controls and level design. It feels just like the way I remember the arcade originals. Add in the extra challenges from trophies and you have a great retro title with bags of replayability.

Evil West is an old-school banger, a reminder of the quick and sharp fun that action games can deliver. It has some flaws here and there, but the meat of the game is fast-paced and endlessly entertaining combat. Smacking vampires into clouds of red mist with a giant lightning gauntlet is something that every video game needs.

The first episode comes across as being too eager to show you everything all at once, instead of taking things slower and allowing you to absorb what just happened. The script is good but has moments that don’t seem that logical, but in spite of this The End Of Peace is a decent start to the series.

Putting the weirdness of the character skins to one side, is Muse Dash worth playing? If you can pick it for a couple of quid, sure. The mechanics are intriguing, the music is alright and there’s a fair amount or replayability, given the huge collection of songs available too. If you really want to collect all of the skins, there are a fair few to choose from, but too many of them will get you odd looks on your commute to work.

Whether you’re new to inFamous or not, First Light is definitely worth looking into. The only reason you won’t enjoy this is if you didn’t get on with Second Son at all, and although there are some improvements, there’s not enough difference here to convince those who dislike inFamous.

Mario Strikers Battle League is a worthy entry in an excellent series that takes the best aspects of the previous games and hones them to multiplayer perfection.

A fun and challenging combination of old school first person shooter design and rogue-lite mechanics. It does require a great deal of patience and it’s easy to get frustrated when it feels as if the game is punishing you with the available drops, but when you get a good set of weapons and scrolls, you can breeze through the early levels with ease before the pyramids ramp up the difficulty. If you are prepared to make it through the cycle of looting and upgrade and have the patience to put up with the potential for horrible drops, then Immortal Redneck comes highly recommended.

After such a long wait, it’s a shame to see that Broken Age’s second act, while continually beautiful and charming and with much more challenging puzzles, doesn’t quite manage to live up to the promise from the end of the first.

Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain is a pleasant little diversion for your grey matter, but it’s one that doesn’t do enough to justify its asking price.

ZoE2 is worth the price of admission alone just for being a fantastic standalone action mech game (and that's not including the extras included within like the special missions), though ZoE1 is a decent introduction to the series if you really want to invest yourself into the series and the backstory.

For what it is Gravity Crash is an exceptionally well-realised game in almost every way but whether or not it finds a home amongst modern gamers will be its sternest test. I only hope that it passes that test as it is definitely a title and a style of game-play which deserves attention.

Crisol: Theater of Idols is a unique take on survival horror that has swiftly became one of my favourite games in a long while. It takes classics like Resident Evil 4 and Bioshock and fuses them into a brand new nightmare. The twisting narrative, the mix of gameplay mechanics, and the sheer visceral thrill of the game once it gets its claws into you all combine to make this perhaps my happiest gaming surprise in years. If this glowing review wasn’t enough to convince you, it’s even priced incredibly competitively and puts many far more expensive titles to shame. Crisol truly deserves to become more than just a cult classic and will be in the conversation for horror game of the year, even with some obvious competition on the horizon.

Sakura Wars may be a crisp, fully 3D modern release, but every inch of the story, characters, and sound feels like it's straight out of the 90s. This soft-reboot may not revolutionise gaming as the original game did, but it still manages to deliver an expertly crafted love letter to those old-school stories and characters that will put a smile on anyone's face. The combat scenes may lack the same depth and intrigue as the story beats of the game, but they're a minor part of an otherwise unforgettable anime adventure.

Dandara is a beautiful game with a fresh movement mechanic, but it doesn’t come together as well as I had hoped. Leaping across platforms is satisfying when it works, but aggravating when it doesn’t, and even when the leaping does what you want it to do, you’ll find annoying backtracking or bizarre navigation puzzles to overcome. There are some great moments in Dandara, but the headaches you have to deal with to get to them aren’t always worth it.

Hopefully in the future Neversoft will produce a 'best-of' title, with our favourite spots from the last 9 years rather than continuing down this open world path, but we've still got our copy of THPS 2x handy so we can always break out Skate Street and Skater Heaven for a bit of retro goodness. For everyone else, Proving Ground is great fun.

Without a single player campaign and only a small selection of effectively interchangeable game modes, Rainbow Six Siege is a game with a fairly limited scope. However, there’s still a solid and very enjoyable tactical shooter at its core, especially when played with friends, and it’s one which will only grow over time as Ubisoft add more maps and content.

Sneaky Bears is simply great fun while it lasts, so it’s a shame it can be completed so quickly, as I would have loved to spend more time with Buddy and Frank. It’s also a bit expensive (£15.99) given the content, but that’s the case with most PSVR games. All in all, it’s one of the best wave-based shooters on PSVR and definitely worth a look, especially if you have younger players in the family.

Back in 2009, Ghostbusters: The Video Game was a solid shooter elevated by the involvement of the original Ghostbusting team, but a decade later it's a little tired. If you have any fondness for the franchise then it provides a wonderful hit of nostalgia, and it's still a genuine pleasure to see the whole Ghostbusting team back together, but those looking for great gameplay should probably look elsewhere.

Heavy Metal is an impressive DLC update. It might be hard to justify if you’ve already stripped the game clean of everything to do, but if you’re a new player or still have some stories to conquer, then dropping ten new mechs and eight new devastating weapons to your arsenal is just what the doctor ordered.

Cuisine Royale is a surprisingly fun battle royale. It won't compete with the likes of Fortnite for player numbers, but if you fancy something different with its own irreverent sense of humour, then I'd recommended giving it a go.

Worm Jazz is one of the best puzzlers I’ve played in a long while. It’s intelligent, smooth, stars a hat-wearing worm and features a chilled jazz soundtrack. Nice.

Submerged is a wonderful, melancholic exploration game, that builds a more defined and evocative world than many AAA games do.

Soundfall is a whole heap of rhythm-action, loot-driven, Discord-smashing fun. It’s also one of the indie highlights of 2022.

GigaBash is a love letter to Kaiju cinema, assuming that a love letter can involve throwing buildings at each other. Raucous, entertaining, and brilliantly designed, GigaBash deserves to stomp its way into players' hearts around the globe.

House of Ashes adds little to the Dark Pictures formula, and doesn't seem to progress the anthology's overarching plot. That said, it's still a great adventure with some jaw dropping visuals and action-packed set pieces. A solid addition to the franchise.

Shards of Darkness could have been a big step forward for the series, giving you a more rounded set of gameplay possibilities, alongside the better looking environments and other areas. Alas it’s not as big an improvement as I’d hoped and is let down by bugs and inconsistencies. It’s a stealth game with one foot stuck in the past, and that remains both a blessing and a curse.

There's much to love about Sparklite, and it's clearly been a passion project for the small development team, but my overall experience was a frustrating one. It's hamstrung by its half-formed and unnecessarily repetitive roguelite structure that undermines the positives of the aesthetic and challenging boss fights. A good roguelite gets better and more complex with repetition, but Sparklite just increasingly overstays its welcome.

The game can be incredibly frustrating but this pays off with a huge sense of achievement when you finally nail a level.

Evil Dead fans will love the amount of fan service on offer here, from the painstaking recreation of movie locations to Bruce Campbell’s goofy one-liners. However, when it comes to raw entertainment value, there’s an imbalance between the forces of good and evil. Playing as the survivors can be fun with friends but lacks the fun or variety of being an evildoer.

For Persona 5, the love and polish is there in equal amounts, but the somber jazzy style of the original game just doesn’t translate as successfully to a loud and groovy rhythm game experience.

Trek to Yomi is a game that really does evoke the style of Kurosawa films, with a good story and good characters. However, it is let down by a combat system that can feel clunky and unresponsive against enemies that are a little too straightforward to defeat. If you enjoy sidescrollers and samurai then it may be worth spending the few hours it takes to play through it.

Headmaster is a title that is perfect for showcasing the PSVR headset. The gameplay is accessible for everyone, with an activity that the majority of people that would be familiar with, and has a dry sense of humour throughout. If you’re looking for a simple game to play with the PSVR then Headmaster is for you.

A fantastic game, held back by some frustrating design decisions. For every moment spent whooping in delight as you vanquish a foe, you'll spend two more grimacing as you have to mow someone's lawn, or try and pry yourself free from a lamppost. When it's good it's almost unbeatable, but the filler in-between is exactly that.

If you’re approaching Tricky Towers with only single player in mind, there are probably far better ways to spend your time. However, take it online – or ideally get some mates round – and you’ve suddenly got a fun, competitive little title that’ll easily keep you amused for a few hours.

Remember Me manages to do something quite special – and rare – in big releases from major publishers: it innovates in a really meaningful way. The incredibly intuitive combo system takes a game that might be as frantically, impenetrably nuanced and complex as God of War or Devil May Cry and makes it as accessible as Batman: Arkham City.

If you like shooting zombies with friends, then Zombie Army 4: Dead War is the game for you. There's a few new twists and several layers of progression now thrown into the mix, as you battle undead Nazis once again, but this is classic undead sniping action through and through.

Earth Defense Force 2 is a great Vita title, and whether you want something to play for a couple of minutes on a toilet or in-between classes, this is a must have. If you’re looking for a new game that you and your friends can have some fun together in, this is also definitely worth checking out. It’s dumb, silly fun, and even though the lack of a story can kill your motivation to progress sometimes, at the end of the day it’s still way too much fun to just drop into Tokyo and blast away dozens of giant mutant ants from space.

It’s a slightly more active, engaging iteration on the traditional Final Fantasy experience and one that works well, even away from its native platform. If you’ve been avoiding the series for a good few years then Type-0 is a great place to pick up the thread once again.

UNBEATABLE is a good rhythm action adventure game, with it highlights being its visual style and the arcade mode. The story is fine, but can feel all over the place at times with a script that isn’t the best, but the music through the game is good and there are a couple of standout tracks. It has been a while since a decent rhythm game came out, so it is worth giving UNBEATABLE a shot.

This game is clearly supposed to be played with friends and in those circumstances, it can be hugely enjoyable.

Lost Dimension is a well thought out tactical RPG, but it’s the traitor system which is the star of the game. It constantly makes you second guess your choices as you progress, but it comes at the cost of a compelling story.

It takes elements from other Milestone games such as the improved visuals and track deformation, adds a few unique features of its own and provides a perfectly acceptable dirt racing game experience. But, in a world where acceptable isn’t quite good enough, I wish more developers dipped their toes into the bike racing arena to really push Milestone to another level. MEAS2FWCTOVG is solid but uninspiring.

If you like a challenge and your games with a large portion of character, then this is definitely worth a punt.

Cars 3: Driven to Win is a fun and eclectic racer, and one that boasts plenty of content that’ll keep fans of the films happy for many hours, especially younger gamers who may well overlook some of the flaws. It’s a shame then that the game’s poor performance, lack of polish and often unfair difficulty level make it that much harder to recommend to anyone else.

Cuisineer is a game with a strong core idea, but doesn't invest enough in its systems to keep it interesting. The excellent combat and good restaurant running soon become repetitive as a result. If the basics are enough to keep you coming back then Cuisineer might work for you, but for me this dish has turned stale.

Tales Of Zestiria is a highly enjoyable JRPG, with likeable characters, fun combat and an engaging plot, that’s only mildly let down by a few technical hiccups and a lack of grandeur to the locations. For Tales fans, Zestiria is certainly amongst the best entry’s in the franchise and one which deserves to finally enjoy success in the West.

Its commitment to manic, arcade shooting is one of its biggest strengths, but this unfortunately highlights the game’s weaker elements, namely the platforming. The narrative is ultimately the stand out feature here, as the nuanced character writing highlights the surprisingly profound overarching narrative in a way that keeps players engaged.

Robocop: Rogue City certainly looks the part, but beware of this gleaming, shiny, polished graphical exterior; it hides mechanical insides that are rust-riddled and broken. Dead or alive, this game definitely shouldn’t be coming with you.

The Blackout Club is a strong addition to the co-op horror genre. Enemies and gameplay are really well handled, and playing with friends is a brilliant experience. If the story was a little more in-depth and better paced, this might be considered unmissable. As it is, The Blackout Club is a worthwhile game if not an essential one.

Team Sonic Racing is a technically sound karting game, but really only sells its central mechanic well enough in multiplayer to convince you that it needs to be there. It’s not helped by only featuring the mostly bland Sonic family of characters and locations, leaving it feeling like an overall downgrade from the fantastic Sonic & All-Star Racing games.

Just Dance 2015 is a polished and enjoyable product, and whilst it’s potentially still behind the Dance Central series in a few key areas, including the way it monitors player actions, it makes up for this with its trademark styling, a strong collection of songs and intuitive online features.

Not a bad game, it’s just not a great one. The singleplayer game brings nothing new to the franchise, and in some ways even feels like a step backwards from Guardian Of Light. As a multiplayer game it takes on a different and welcome dimension, though for every great moment, you can expect equal frustration.

Titans of Tide is another strong SpongeBob platformer from Purple Lamp and has plenty of fan service for those even slightly familiar with the cartoon. The Plankton Challenges are really fun, so it’s a shame that they are locked behind either busywork or microtransactions. As a total package it doesn’t quite reach the heights of Cosmic Shake or Battle for Bikini Bottom but it’s still a solid game.

Namco Museum is only really worth purchasing if you either have an unhealthy obsession with at least three of Namco’s arcade classics, or want an immensely fun party game and don’t care too much about the price or extras. It’s great to see that they won’t be forgotten, but aside from Sky Kid there were no games that I hadn’t already played that I liked. Namco Museum is certainly well put together and presented, but the selection of games just aren’t completely enticing.

Spintires: MudRunner is utterly unique, and as a driving simulator of a niche field it is basically unparalleled. However, the difficulty level and lack of pace are likely going to make it a very niche game, while the camera is an extra challenge in itself. Still, there’s grit, determination, freedom and reward to be found here for those ready to wade in.

Shadows: Awakening ultimately fails to be the action RPG that fans of the genre need. It has some interesting ideas and decent writing, but the story shifts to the backburner after a while and the side missions and combat aren’t enough to maintain interest through the grind it turns into. It’s not bad, it’s just not particularly inspiring either. If you need a new diablo-like and a lack of polish or a glut of grind doesn’t bother you, there are definitely worse options out there.

Need for Speed Heat is the best the series has been in a while. It’s not perfect by any stretch, but it has a charm that reminds me of the Underground days of old. Now that’s a NfS game I can get down with.

Outriders Worldslayer brings a fresh campaign and endgame to People Can Fly's game, but likely won't move the needle for those not already gripped by this third person looter shooter. The chaotic front-foot combat is fun, the boss battles challenging, and some of the weapons and abilities gloriously excessive, but many of the underlying flaws remain.

Matterfall is a great shooter and will give you many hours of entertainment if you like chasing high scores and challenging gameplay. However, it does feel like a slight let down after Nex Machina and is the least essential of all the Housemarque games on PlayStation 4. That said, the least essential Housemarque game is still better than most games you will find on the console, so it’s still recommended.

Basically, Assassin’s Creed 3 Remastered is better looking, but that’s about it. It’s the same game for better or worse, complete with all the bugs and awkwardness that were disliked the first time around, but also with the stuff that people enjoyed. The bugs are too numerous for me to really recommend it, but they were there last time round as well. If you could ignore them then, you can probably ignore them now and enjoy the game’s positives, but it’s still a shame that Ubisoft couldn’t have rounded off more of the rough edges in this remaster.

The dialogue and voice acting is also well done, though can get repetitive. What lets the game down is the camera, which is a big problem as it can hinder progress and leave you frustrated.

Greedfall has an ambitious story, but it's not backed up by the clearly repeated environments, simple combat and dull abilities that take ages to unlock. Seasoned RPG players might well be able able to look past those flaws in favour of the interesting, well written stories about political manoeuvres and oppression that make up the bulk of the quests in this pretty dark, deep world.

The Saboteur feels a little rushed and incomplete but has an unexplainably fun side to it. Frustrating and boring at times, it does give way to some great moments and conversation pieces.

It has been a long wait for Chasm and I am happy to report that it provides a great classic Metroidvania experience.

The Outer Worlds is an excellent game, but the Spacer's Choice Edition remaster doesn't live up to it. Sure, it can look nicer with more prevalent reflections and changes to the lighting, but it can also be really rather dark, and performance on PS5 is far from perfect. You're better off sticking with the original release via backward compatibility.

Adorable Adventures is a fine, cosy, laid-back experience. There's a good amount to do, from hunting scents to taking photos, and it entertains through the few hours that it lasts. It never really changes gear, though. Still, if you want a short and cosy experience, Adorable Adventures is worth considering.

Nintendo Switch Sports is a fun reminder of the Wii Sports craze, bringing back some classic sports and adding some new ones that make use of the Joy-Con and motion controls in more advanced ways. It's all just a bit shallow, though, and difficult to wholeheartedly recommend unless you expect to play online a lot or constantly break it out for local head-to-head battles. [Review in Progress]

NBA Live 18 is a good basketball game. It’s not something that will blow you away, but good enough if you’re looking for an alternative. The One is a solid create a player mode that is easy to get into, with levelling up the player far from being a chore, but NBA Live 18 lacks depth in the other modes and the AI could do with improving. EA has work to do if it wants NBA Live to reach the reputation it once had, but that goal seems to be in reach.

There's stacks of fun to be had here, but you'll need focus and determination to dig the best bits out - we like it, but know what you're getting into before handing over the £50.

A wonderfully unique and well presented title, the presentation is wonderful, the action fast paced and the experience is an addictive one.

There are several issues marring The Adventure Pals that prevent it receiving my whole-hearted recommendation. Yet, despite these problems, I very much enjoyed my time in its zany embrace. Its quirky characters, breezy story and colourful game world proved to be enchanting, while its solid platforming and combat mechanics, in conjunction with local co-op play, kept me on my couch till the end of the story.

Grandia HD Collection is a wonderful entry point into a criminally under-discussed JRPG series. Both games are absolute classics, featuring wonderful characters, inventive gameplay and really astounding writing. Die-hard fans might take issue with the updated nature of the sprites in Grandia 1. Every player out there, meanwhile, is likely to be turned off by the constant performance issues of Grandia 2. This isn't a perfect release, but the pros still far outweigh the cons when it comes to having an accessible way to play these old-school gems.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is an astonishing achievement, with exquisite visuals and a remarkable balance between pacifism and action. This is an enthralling alien world that plays host to a unique FPS.

For golf fans, The Golf Club 2019 featuring PGA Tour should be an essential purchase. It’s the refinement of all of HB Studios previous work, and while the series may have started out as an indie underdog it now feels like a AAA sports franchise.

Ratcheteer DX is not a bad game, but it does have issues that stop it from being great. The story and the world that we see is well put together, but navigating that world can be a chore at times. It is a game that has moments of brilliance through its puzzling, yet I can’t look past some of the game’s more frustrating elements.

Kingdoms of Amalur Re-Reckoning is a good solid remaster, just don't expect much to have changed compared to the original. The world is as magical fantasy as you could get, and it really does draw you in, but some technical issues and a number of repetitive quests can dull the otherwise colourful experience.

Resonance of Fate is definitely for hardcore RPG fans only, but at the same time the map and combat systems make it substantially different from anything you’ll have likely played before.

A simply beautiful experience, and a perfect example of the kinds of games which Sony have tried to foster on their platforms over the last few years.

There’s a huge amount of content available to players, and you can spend hours battling and levelling up in the attractive world of the Super Saiyans, even if repetition does eventually begin to set in.

On the pitch, FIFA 21 is an incremental improvement over FIFA 20, but doesn't address some of the biggest issues with defending and the high-scoring matches this leads to. With Volta still missing a certain spark and Ultimate Team not really changing much, it's the Football Manager-inspired Career mode that takes the biggest step forward. It's still a good football game, but it feels like the real focus is on next-gen.

Jotun just falls short of receiving that higher recommendation. It’s enjoyable yet clearly inconsistent, despite its great use of setting and some terrific boss fights.

Whilst an enjoyable and undoubtedly beautiful game, Planet Alpha never quite makes the leap into classic territory.

Toxic Commando never really manages to be more than the sum of its parts. It's enjoyable, and the big horde set pieces remain a gaming highlight, especially at its peaks in the finale, but like a 90s family holiday, there's also just a lot of time spent looking at a map to plan your route, and then driving to the next sightseeing stop while the kids in the back pretend to shoot stuff out the window.

Directive 8020 is by far the best Dark Pictures game, embracing more stealth gameplay, making the branching story feel seamless, and setting a new bar for the genre.

Gato Roboto is far from purrfect. The boss fights are a delight, challenging me every step of the way and rewarding me for patience and determination. Everything else, though, is just a bit too safe and unoriginal. From familiar environments to basic upgrades and uninventive gameplay, Gato Roboto is an okay, standard Metroid-style game. In a world where so many titles fall into that genre, though, you can easily find something similar to play that has a bit more originality to it.

It’s very faithful to the movie and manages to embellish enough so as to not be a simple retelling, yet doesn’t quite cover enough ground to be anything other than a companion to the films. It’s probably the best Hobbit game you’re going to get – just don’t expect a massive deviation from the LEGO formula.

Stranger of Paradise is one of “those” games - a scuffed diamond that's a joy to play, yet has unmissable imperfections. However, while annoying, a poor story and bland visuals don't diminish its punchy RPG action, nor its rewarding web of character customisation options. Needless to say, we’re pretty eager to see how Stranger is received by the Final Fantasy fandom.

Romeo is a Dead Man is exactly what you're expecting it to be if you're familiar with Suda51, which means you are expecting the unexpected. It's as weird as possible from the very beginning and features a collection of influences that combine into a unique and surreal journey. Actually fighting stuff is the least interesting part of the game, which is good because I find the combat a bit weak, but if you can see through that – and maybe start of the lower difficulty so it's less of a burden – this is a rollercoaster of the peculiar that you'll want to stick with to the end.

Looking for a deep and meaningful single player story? Then step away. Looking for an intense online shooter with more guns than Texas? Come on in, the water's fine.

It's fun, cohesive and meaningful yet suffers from a lapse in replayability and all-round polish.

Whether you’ve been a fan of Psycho-Pass for years, or you hadn’t even heard of the series until you saw this review, Mandatory Happiness is well worth checking out. Though you can play it as a newcomer, it’s a far more rewarding experience if you’ve watched the anime.