Whatever your management style, Football Manager 2022 Xbox Edition has your back. It’s one of the most adaptive and slickly designed simulations out there, full stop. Kick around in its shallows or dive down deep, and they both feel as satisfying as the other.

Path of Giants is a relaxing puzzler that sticks to its ethos by providing a good selection of slightly challenging levels, creating an environment that’s easy on the eyes, and having a chilled vibe courtesy of the soundtrack.

Farming Simulator as a franchise just gets better with every new release and that’s the case with Farming Simulator 22. The purists and experts might argue that this hasn’t gone far enough, adding in just a few new features, but with cross-play multiplayer, the brilliant seasonal farming, and supply chains coming to console, there is certainly enough to keep those winter evenings flying by.

We can’t be the only ones who have a hankering for an old-school graphic adventure, one that takes the genre as seriously as Sierra Online did thirty years ago. Detective Di: The Silk Rose Murders does that and more, delivering one of the most sensual and adult examples of recent years. Pssht, Sherlock has nothing on Magistrate Di Renjie.

6Souls is not ‘different’, then. If we were feeling unfair, we would say that it’s a perfect median of all the 2D pixel-art platformers that came before it. But while 6Souls may not be different, it is often better. It takes things simply but confidently, and delivers a generous adventure that isn’t just competent - it’s ruddy good fun.

The overwhelming majority of Chorus is hugely enjoyable. It’s a vast game, one that is fast and furious with a story that keeps pulling you along.

There are people who will be suckered into Doodle Escape: Room Escape Game, like a moth to a 79p flame. We get it: they can barely feel the money leaving their bank account. But we worry about them: we worry about their wellbeing, should they play it, because it achieves a level of frustration that causes physical pain. It’s gaming tinnitus.

Games have moved on massively since the early 2000s and while BloodRayne 2: ReVamped is almost like a time capsule, it feels like a rushed port, with no real attempt made to tailor the game to the console market or controller even.

Epic Chef has the ingredients for a show stopping experience, but it requires a little more finesse. The repetitive, uneven nature of gameplay takes some of the shine off what is otherwise a charming little adventure.

Some may find Exo One to be a bit too strange, or just not interesting enough. The narrative might be too disparate and oblique to keep interest, and the gameplay may feel too similar throughout. But if you do begin to love Exo One, you’ll start to understand the draw; the great experience of travelling through wonderful magical alien worlds.

Zombo Buster Rising isn’t bad-bad. It’s not broken, it doesn’t stick around too long, and it’s not going to empty your wallet at a reasonable £4.19. But it hunts around within it’s tower-defence-meets-shooter gameplay for something resembling fun and can’t find it.

The Gardener and the Wild Vines is a charming little adventure that, despite the unassuming presentation, is hard not to like. Give this one a go, it may well grow on you.

890B is a very short experience, with an average playtime of an hour, but that alone isn’t the issue. The problem is, you’ll spend a large chunk of it mindlessly visiting the same parts of the facility and engaging in boring conversation.

Two Hundred Ways is a marked improvement over the original. Many of the new features work well and provide some variation, but there are still some - much like the game itself - which boil down to trial and error.

There’s a lot to recommend Nowhere Girl. In its looks and writing, there’s a craftsmanship that takes it beyond your average visual novel. The setup, too, is bonkers: an unlikely romance between ghost and software developer. But it’s the middle act, before things get equally bonkers at the end, that doesn’t quite coalesce.

You know those cheap and cheerful games that play better than many Triple-A offerings? A Short Hike is one of those games. It’s an experience that will put a smile on your face and even though it’s not particularly lengthy, it's one that comes across as the perfect length for the asking price.

Just Dance 2022 doesn’t change up the tried and tested formula of Just Dance too much but what it has added in terms of improved visuals has made for a more entertaining and immersive experience.

Wasteland 3: Cult of the Holy Detonation is a lot of fun to play through, if brutally hard at lower levels. The story is intriguing, and with the multitude of different characters to meet and interact with, and different factions to play off against each other, the DLC does more than enough to keep you playing.

American Hero is a strange game to review because it's very much like watching a museum piece play out. I do, however, think it's important that this game has been shown the light of day, even if the subject matter and themes don't hold up at all in today's world.

Immortal Legacy: The Jade Cipher Console Edition does have a strange kind of draw that will keep you playing, but it’s hard to say why. The combat is basic and rudimentary at best, the puzzles aren’t terribly puzzling, and the characters that you meet are more two dimensional than your average cardboard policeman. But even with all that said, you’ll feel compelled to finish the story.

Little Bug is deeply unique, especially regarding its main gameplay mechanic and some of the clever storytelling devices. It's a game where the difficulty can prove to be very taxing, but it just about keeps to the right side of enjoyment, rather than spilling over too much into frustration.

The first half of The Plane Effect is of seriously high quality, so much so that you’d be looking at a 5/5 rating. But as progression is made and the latter half begins to unfold, problems arise; whether that be bugs that stop the game, or the frustration of the platforming or underwater sections.

Milli & Greg is a precision platformer with a large amount of style, a bargain price and way too many levels. In many ways, it’s like Greg the cat himself: this is flabby and lacks any new tricks, but it’s also cute as a button and has some claws in terms of difficulty. Stroke if you dare.

All this adds up to an enjoyable sim builder title. But that is all Surviving the Aftermath is, as it doesn’t provide anything new to the genre, nor to the post-apocalyptic setting it chooses to adopt. There is this constant feeling that something new is just around the corner as its progression and upgrade system speed is spot on, but unfortunately nothing new comes and you are left with a sense of familiarity throughout.

Tamarin on Xbox is a game that does not know what it wants to be, one capable of completely blindsiding player expectations. It’s simply a weird game, perhaps one of the weirdest in the platformer genre. Still, the real disappointment is just how boring and bare the third person shooting action is, with no real sense of rewarding level design or progression.

Iron Harvest is an absolute delight to play. If you’re a bit of an RTS noob you’ll never feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount to do or how to control your diverse army. The story will help keep you engrossed over the lengthy play time, as Iron Harvest Complete Edition provides access to characters you’ll actually care about, all as you hope to lead them to triumph.

If you like cutesy mixed with mild gore, then A Pretty Odd Bunny is certainly one to try out, but keep in mind that you will have to contend with a few bugs as you play.

If you’re an old-school point-and-click fan then you will adore VirtuaVerse. It has a good story, a great setting, and a solid challenge to its play. Some may struggle with parts, especially as screens are full of so much detail, but the writing and world-building are top notch.

It amounts to a game that is hard to score. On the one hand, we have a stellar songlist. Everyone is catered for, and we’d make no hesitation in crowning Let's Sing 2022 as the best of any Let’s Sing. It’s beautifully presented and fully featured, with capability for microphone and smartphones alike, as well as room for up to eight players. On the other hand, barely a whisker has moved out of place since the last Let’s Sing.

There’s a shelf-life on your enjoyment with Retro Highway. Your time with it will be measured in minutes rather than hours, as its lack of variety between tracks means that motivation isn’t going to stick around for the long haul. But while you’re in the driving seat, it’s a short, bite-sized version of the classics it emulates, and that might be enough for a test drive.

Senna Forever doesn’t mix up the original Horizon Chase Turbo formula too much, but then, it didn’t need to. This really is a great celebration of one of the most iconic of all motorsport drivers, put together lovingly by a Brazilian team who obviously adore the great man.

Alchemic Cutie on Xbox is an interesting but tough sell. It no doubt has its charms and strengths, and yet its distinguishing ideas lack real substance in execution; the experience as a whole can feel pointless for a genre that is known to champion a pointless slice of life loop in the first place.

Work has gone in to the Anniversary Edition to ensure it fits within Skyrim and the lore surrounding it as a whole; so much so, that if this is your first-time playing Skyrim, you won’t recognise what is base game and what is from the Creation Club content.

Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town is a solid and enjoyable remake of a Harvest Moon classic. Yet while you get to enjoy a classic experience intact, it also feels incredibly dated given the other options available on Xbox today.

The Legend of Icaro is just about okay - no more than that - and it doesn’t take long for that okay hook to let you go. That okay is about the sum of it in terms of the combat and music, but the traversal lets it down.

Tandem: A Tale of Shadows offers up something refreshingly different and is bursting with charm, however the premature ending will leave you wanting more.

Smoots Golf wiggles their hips, takes aim, and promptly trips over their golfing shoes and into the water. It feels like Smoots Golf was made by people who don’t like or understand golf, as it lacks the basic features that a golfer needs to play eighteen holes.

It’s colourful, imaginative and will make your children feel like platforming superstars. Marsupilami: Hoobadventure, completely out of nowhere, is the best Xbox kids game of the year.

Cheap and obviously running budget limitations, Death Park 2 does a good job of providing a solid scare-fuelled horror adventure at a low cost.

It’s hard to recommend Ghoulboy. The gameplay isn’t awful, but the amount of bugs I’ve encountered have made it hard to enjoy.

What do we have with Inspector Waffles? An absolutely brilliant point-and-click adventure. The story, characters and overall dialogue are all brilliantly written, and the puzzles encourage exploration and experimentation.

Cyanide & Happiness - Freakpocalypse (Episode 1) marks a steady start for the trilogy that leaves room for improvement. You’ll almost immediately know if this weird but sometimes wonderful adventure is one which suits your tastes or not.

The Prince of Landis is far more successful as a story than it is a game. It’s a take on the ‘80s-kids-find-something-supernatural’ template, but pushes it in a lonely, unsettling direction that also manages to feel original.

Battlefield 2042 is far from perfect, but it isn’t bad. It’s fun to fight and it’s great to be able to drive vehicles across huge maps. Hell, it’s even enjoyable to crash a jet into some unsuspecting soldier on the ground. There are bugs, but patches are planned so hope should be held. In the meantime, Battlefield Portal is almost worth the price of admission itself.

So, Call of Duty: Vanguard. The campaign is great, the multiplayer is fun and Zombies will appeal to previous fans. As an overall package Vanguard is capable of providing hours of fun - all pushed along with brilliant visuals. This is a great trip back to World War II.

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy- Definitive Edition on Xbox is an overpriced and poorly produced release which does absolutely no favours to the classic games it attempts to celebrate. The experience here is far from definitive, and aside from the sheer laziness in the graphical remastering and performance, it introduces a whole slew of performance issues.

We shrug a little at this release. We can’t form a good argument for why Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep: A Wonderlands One-Shot Adventure exists, outside of reminding players that Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is coming. It feels like a glorified billboard. But sure, we’ll go along with it.

It’s the goofing that makes Pile Up! Box by Box such a winner: when you’ve got a couple of friends or family around who fancy a platforming adventure, crafted out of cardboard, where you can stack each other on your heads, then this is the business.

Venus: Improbable Dream is not the first visual novel that you’d recommend to a newbie. It doesn’t meet the reader halfway by giving them things to do, like choices or branching endings. It doesn’t even get out of first gear. But we suspect that Venus: Improbable Dream will work as a deep cut, a visual novel for lovers of the genre, who want a wholesome, heartwarming tale with characters they can believe in.

If you’re after a zen, chillout game of Carmageddon then maybe Zombie Hill Racing will work for you. For us, it was a bit of an uphill slog.

Mr. Driller DrillLand on Xbox is an enormous release, one which revamps a true classic that is worth playing even today. The core Mr. Driller gameplay is at its very best here, and is situated in an experience which offers a ton of gameplay variety and extra content. To top it off, the presentation alone will win you over with its charm and fabulous soundtrack.

In the end, our sweeping generalisation of 79p games was correct. Monster Blocks: Get 9 Puzzle doesn’t come with achievements, and it’s colourful but with no substance, like a Smartie with the chocolate sucked out.

If you can find four friends, all willing to purchase Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition, who would rather not pop round to play it in person, then we encourage you to sink your fangs in. For anyone else, it’s one to avoid, or one to buy as the board game instead.

Crazy Gravity on Xbox has a neat feature in flipping gravity around, but even with this, it doesn’t necessarily rewrite the 2D platformer book. It is fun for the hour or so it will take you to complete the levels, and whilst some are more interesting than others, you won’t be rushing back to play them again.

Okinawa Rush on Xbox is a welcome retro style romp, one which features an enthralling fighting system set within a challenging action platformer adventure. Some of its many ideas may occasionally clash with each other, but the experience as a whole is far greater than the sum of its various moving parts.

Sherlock Holmes Chapter One is powered by a brilliant story and the chance to take in some superb cases. The ability to get accusations wrong and to choose whether to save or condemn is a solid touch that allows the game to deliver a great dynamic. There are a ton of hours included here too, with a huge main story and loads of side quests to take in.

The Last Stand: Aftermath is a fantastic roguelike zombie shooter. It’ll make you think, in detail, about every decision, if only as planning is such a key part of the experience. Aesthetically it’s a little rough around the edges, the music is sub par and it’s not scary, but everything else is such a joy that you’ll genuinely forget about the bits that don’t work.

Despite some grand promises of strategic and challenging gameplay, Immortus Temporus instead offers an inconsistent experience which isn’t all that puzzling after all.

Unpacking is a very original title, and one that is a lot more than virtually unpacking boxes. The ebbs and flows of the story will make you want to see it through to the end, even when the lines between unpacking items and Unpacking (the game) start to blur.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a better-looking or more visually original roguelike than Tunche. It would be all too easy to find one that’s more enjoyable, though.

We were a little caught out by how smurfing playable The Smurfs - Mission Vileaf is. So, get out the blue make-up and white gloves and play this one cooperatively. You won’t smurfing regret it.

The Riftbreaker does enough in a new and interesting way to be worth your time. With four biomes to go at, and a survival mode to try out (although you’ll probably want to stay away from the ultra hard difficulty!), there’s a lot of content to go at. The campaign is a decent length too. All in all, if you want something a bit different to the norm, The Riftbreaker might just be it.

Play it once without the cheats, then flick a few on and go on a tour of Gynoug’s hellish spaces.

Even though it doesn’t really excel at any one thing, it’s hard to fault Amazing Breaker, mostly as it does exactly what it has set out to do. If you’re after some quick arcade fun though, then Amazing Breaker could well be your ice breaker.

The word ‘masterpiece’ gets rolled out too often, and - thanks to some bugs and navigation issues - Treasures of the Aegean doesn’t quite earn that laurel. But we have no qualms with calling it a series of masterclasses. It has mastered the slick platformer, bringing a Mirror’s Edge flow to the pages of a Tintin comic. It has mastered the Metroidvania, by getting rid of all the obstructions and opting instead for a fifteen-minute time loop.

As an absolutely mindless time killer, Lord of the Click II cannot be criticised. Yet for near everything else, it can. There's no requirement of skill, no need to worry about tactics or strategy and certainly nothing that will cause concern to anyone who is familiar with a controller. It really is a waste of time. But then, perhaps that's the point…

In conclusion, play Forza Horizon 5. There has never been a better looking game, and it plays like an absolute dream. It’s full of cars, full of challenge, full of glorious visuals and played out across a world like no other.

If you’re after a chance to put the robots back in their place and stop their rise against humanity, then Danger Scavenger should be considered.

Its one redeeming feature is its career, which swaps out the party mode for the tale of Merek, on a quest to become the best labourer in town. It’s through the gentle tug of this story that Merek’s Market might get some customers. But it wasn’t for us: we would have dropped out of the queue long before the end.

AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES has been an interesting game to play through. Whilst the visual look may not immediately be appealing, give the narrative a chance and you’ll become invested. Just don’t expect the theory you form throughout your play time to hold up...

ENCODYA provides an enjoyably sweet story set in a fantastical future, providing access to a world that is great for exploring. There are problems with the difficulty, and it would have been great to have seen more help with interactable objects and ensuring exiting a level was a bit easier, but there are a good ten hours of gameplay to be had here and the price reflects that.

Can Solitaire be moulded into a high-production-value game? The Solitaire Conspiracy doesn’t come up with a conclusive answer. The story and presentation are undoubtedly a winner, but there is some collateral damage: it loses some of the original’s challenge and strategy. It ends up being a high pair rather than a royal flush.

Moonglow Bay is not without its flaws. It’s too undercooked, with bugs and knotty boss moments. But its story of fighting back from grief and depression swells the heart, and we could happily spend a half-hour every day in its world. We can feel our blood pressure sink as we play it.

It’s been a pleasure to play Pumpkin Jack on Xbox Series X|S. It looks and sounds brilliant, comes with decent combat opportunities and will have you dipping in and out for a while, all as the exploration and hunting of skulls becomes all consuming.

Despite the slow nature of the first half of House of Ashes, when it gets into its stride it is a homage to classic science-fiction action horror titles that will leave you on the edge of your seat. The scares may not be as obtrusive as the previous titles in the anthology, but this may then appeal to those that aren’t necessarily horror fanatics.

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy could’ve easily ended up being a lacklustre attempt at recreating what makes this group of oddballs so endearing to the Marvel community, but that’s not the case. The acting is top drawer, with a script in place that can make you laugh one minute and bring a tear to your eye the next.

My Singing Monsters Playground is charming as pie. Even if you’ve never been in its universe before, it will win the family over. The party game collection, too, is fun with absolutely nothing in the way of complexity. With a few extra modes and some unlocks, it would really sing. As it stands, it hums along nicely without much in the way of additional frills, and that may be enough for your little monsters.

Light Fairytale Episode 2 is a no-brainer pickup for anyone who has played and completed the prequel, as they look to pick up where things left off. Still, the short playtime means they won’t get to experience too much story development, nor will they get to fully dive into the new gameplay systems.

Riders Republic on Xbox takes the basic framework of Steep and adds a whole load more to it to create a very fun arcade sports title. The skiing and snowboarding events feel like the SSX games in their heyday, the rocketsuit and wingsuit events are exhilarating, and the bike events ensure you are constantly one wrong move from total disaster.

Tangle Tower is a fun and polished little game. A great weekend afternoon adventure. The care that’s gone into the visuals and audio make up for the simplistic gameplay, the puzzles are engaging, and the cast is excellently characterised. If only it had allowed itself to be weird and live up to the expectation it set itself - then it would be an absolute gem.

Dazzling visuals, multiple storylines and one pretty cool protagonist are sadly not enough to compensate for the entertaining, but ultimately underwhelming, gameplay in Aeon Must Die.

Airborne Kingdom on Xbox is a unique experience for the platform, and one that executes its gameplay ideas comfortably on console. It’s got a great vibe and setting, and the gameplay itself is engaging as you relish in the satisfaction of seeing your sky kingdom come alive. It also helps that the hands-on gameplay has plenty of depth to it, complemented by a fascinating lore.

Bassmaster Fishing 2022 is a very good simulation of the sport, but even keen anglers will want to have some interest in the bass side of life for it to really come to life. Yes it plays well, for the most part it looks good and Bassmaster Royale brings something new to the table, but there are still some better fishing titles out there.

If you’re in the mood for making sense of a mess of a game, with little moments that might - might - make it worth it, then this is The Good Life.

QUByte Classics – The Immortal by PIKO on Xbox is a restoration of a weird and interesting retro game, which by no means is a classic by any stretch of the imagination. It’s not the kind of game you want to go out of your way to experience, as it’s not a must play title from yesteryear.

We’re trying to imagine playing Princess.Loot.Pixel.Again one more time. Would it be so bad to jump into its roguelike loop and give it another go? We can’t muster the energy. There’s no sparkle in its miserable combat, no reward or unlock to tempt us back in. There are just so many better things to be doing with our lives. Nope.Not.Playing.It.Again.

If you’ve 100%’d a Dark Souls game, or you’ve written snarky comments on Reddit threads about why games hand-hold too much nowadays, then pick up In Celebration of Violence. It’s double-concentrate masochism, and you will love it.

If you enjoyed Dadish, go and fill your boots with Dadish 2. It's a worthy way to follow-on, letting you take in another tale of a radish dad and his troublesome kids.

Tony and Clyde is a frustrating, repetitive and, frankly, offensive game. I can't in all good faith recommend it.

If you like a roguelike, this is an easy sell, but as Nuclear Throne eases you in gently, it’s also a damn good entry point if you want to try your luck with the genre for the first time. The graphical style won’t appeal to everyone, but the gameplay is the star here, and even if it is punishingly hard in the latter moments you’ll be having too much fun to care.

Aside from the slightly too high price, there's little to dislike with Dadish. It's not going to wow you, but it will make you smile and it does more than enough to ensure it pulls you through to the very end; not just as you look for the next humour hit, but as you attempt to hone the skills required for level completion.

It’s certainly enjoyable to spend some time in the world of Backbone. It's a place of imagination, noir detective thrills and of animals wandering around in human clothes. Point-and-click fans may get frustrated at the ease of the gameplay and whilst the narrative is good, it does get a bit confusing towards the end, trying too many things. But at the same time, the inventiveness of trying something different just has to be applauded.

Bloodshore is a good back-to-form entry for Wales Interactive. It's a bloodsoaked, campy thrill ride that mixes a brilliant combination of reality TV show with Battle Royale hijinks. The script is cheesy at times, but at other moments well observed - but at all points the story flows at a brilliantly fast rate.

Demon Turf is a stylistic and experimental 3D platformer which dares to try new things, and for the most part it succeeds in its ambitious ideas, especially in its quirky yet satisfying play mechanics. Implementing 2D platformer conventions within a 3D world was never going to be easy, but Demon Turf manages to pull it off with plenty of style and endearing level design.

Skul keeps you coming back for just one more go, and before you know it the clock has struck midnight and the whole evening has disappeared. The hook to keep playing is very strong, and it’s rewarding to see enemies you initially struggled with start to become easier as you get stronger and learn more about them.

Short but powerful, taking place over a couple of hours of running time, Lucid Cycle is extremely enjoyable. The idea of placing you in many different dreams has the feel of a short story anthology about it; this is helped by the fact that each and every one of them feels different in terms of style, location, and moments of gameplay. Fans of narrative adventures and walking sims will have a lovely time here, as it takes the genre into different areas of greatness.

If you like chasing high-score chasing Black Widow: Recharged will help you scratch that itch. It all comes together to ensure that Black Widow: Recharged is a faithful update to the cult classic arcade shooter. However, the simple, repetitive gameplay means only fans of the genre will get the most from it.

Murder Diaries 2 takes a tiny step up from the original game, moves the narrative on by splitting it between two protagonists and asks some good questions on morality. The more abstract-level designs are appreciated, but once again it’s frustrating that old assets push things along.