Brewmaster: Beer Brewing Simulator is capable of delivering a better experience than you may imagine. It's certainly a niche game, but what it does do, it does with aplomb.

It's good that there is another train sim game on the market, giving players options away from Train Sim World. It’s also nice that the development team here have tried something different with Train Life: A Railway Simulator. This forgoes the realism to instead provide a decent job of mixing simpler train movement with a great management system; the addictive career mode gives this train sim its heart.

It’s Guybrush, LeChuck, Elaine and all the others, cracking wise as they have always done, with a luminous cast of characters, some fantastically abstract item combinations, and the odd three-headed monkey. If Return to Monkey Island is the rebirth of the series, we’ll put in an order for seven or eight.

There’s no debate that Tonguç Bodur knows how to create a game, yet whilst Finding the Soul Orb has some good bones to it in terms of the linear narrative journey and artistic visuals, it isn't one of his best games.

Geometric Feel the Beats draws you in with promise. The pulsing soundtrack, the Tron-like visuals, the quirky colour-matching gimmickry. But it’s an anglerfish, reeling you in with pretty lights and then eating you up. Because it’s a trap: Geometric Feel the Beats is one of the dullest of dull shooters that we’ve ever encountered.

We can appreciate the craft in Robolifter. But even as we were playing its gentle Sokoban block-pushing, we knew that any memory of it would tumble out of an airlock as soon as we stopped playing. It’s too familiar, too challenge-less to create any lasting memories.

A game that is going to be more enjoyable for Cobra Kai fans than unfamiliar players, the licence is used very well here, but it’s still not one that can be fully recommended to everyone. All that said, if you love some Karate Kid action, there is no better game than Cobra Kai 2: Dojos Rising.

Pentiment is a superb game that marks an important step forward for its genre. Quiet, contemplative and intelligent, it is a shining example of what happens when a team is allowed to expand their horizons and take risks.

We found Yum Yum Cookstar to be a bit of a hollow doughnut: it still looks good, but we couldn’t shake the sense that something was missing. Our kids, though, gobbled it up.

Tanuki Sunset is a fun arcade jaunt that nails the aesthetic of the 1980s. However, it’s difficult to fully recommend, and that's due to some graphical issues and a short run time.

Gungrave G.O.R.E is clunky and basic - two words that no hack and slash shooter this side of the Xbox 360 should be associated with.

Despite not realising its full potential, Jack Move is good at what it does and should definitely be considered if you’re after a condensed JRPG.

I absolutely adore The Eternal Cylinder, even more so now it has been optimised for Xbox Series X|S. Many games attempt to be bold, creative and offer an experience unlike any other. This is a game which does just that. You’ll struggle to find escapism better than this.

Babol the Walking Box feels like the original Crash Bandicoot, but worse in every conceivable way. The Crash Bandicoot PS2 jewel case has been stomped on, smashed and then presented as a budget platformer for you to play on your Xbox.

The Devil in Me isn’t the best game in The Dark Pictures Anthology, but it isn’t bad at all. It’ll keep you entertained all the way through, and it's a brilliant laugh to play alongside others - the scares that play out when you have a room full of people are second to none.

We would happily go on another date with ValiDate: Struggling Singles in Your Area. They’re a talkative partner, slightly self-absorbed and clearly dealing with their own issues, but they are also charming, witty and not quite like anyone else we’ve met.

Modern Warfare II is most definitely a Call of Duty game; a good one to boot; things are going in the right direction with this iteration.

Cramming so many games and levels into a box as small and cheap as the Cronostase Electric Collection is undoubtedly an achievement. But we kept sifting through the sheer amount of stuff, on the hunt for something challenging and different. But only one, maybe two of the games had the spark of potential.

WRC Generations takes a decent stab at the rally scene with some great clock-beating racing, a deep career and a beefy challenge system. Away from that though and it all feels as though the series needs a little reset.

Cazzarion: Demon Hunting looks bad, is poorly designed and is no fun to play. It’s about as close to “nil points” as you could imagine, but technically it runs (more like limps, but still) on Xbox Series X so I have to give it at least half a mark.

The story starts slow, but picks up pace, and the combat is fun, so Star Ocean The Divine Force does enough to get a decent mark in my book, without ever threatening to set the world on fire.

Bones of Halloween is as hollow as a carved-out pumpkin. It works (albeit ploddingly), but that’s the best you can say about it. If you want a quickfire 1000 Gamerscore then please, go ahead, but, if you’re at all discerning, then this horde-mode arena shooter should be left out on the step to rot.

For many, it will be the ambition of taking a character from nothing before throwing them into a huge adventure, one full of heart and soul, which will be the key to Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord.

With Opus Castle being free, it may be worth a download to grab the Gamerscore on offer, but you won’t enjoy it and probably won’t return for further chapters.

We can see what Bricky To Me could have been. It’s a proof-of-concept, a pilot episode for what a platformer might be as a roguelike, and it just about does enough to make it seem like a good idea. But there’s no getting round the lack of content and variety in Bricky To Me, which makes it an unconvincing game on its own.

If you've got even the slightest interest in a proper platforming experience, you should be swinging for Grapple Dog, hook and line.

There’s room for improvement in Football Manager 2023 Console, but it’s still a brilliantly addictive experience. Unless you have a gaming PC, this version is a must for any football fan.

If you’ve played your share of Let’s Sing games, then Let’s Sing 2023 represents a slight stumble. The songs - at least to our ears - err on the side of filler, and there’s no changes to the template, not a single one. The playlist is getting a little tired, Ravenscourt: time for some new tracks.