Players are challenged to use their strategic muscles both in building their plane and crew and when taking them into action, with build choices having a significant impact on gameplay. Challenge Mode provides an alternative to the campaign and a chance to experiment with different builds while completing wave objectives. Altogether, it's well worth the plane ticket.

Minecraft Dungeons is a superb dungeon crawler with something for players of all ages. Although somewhat basic in terms of weapons, armour and abilities, there is just enough variety to keep some of the more hardcore dungeon-crawling fans satiated. Surprisingly, the game does offer up a pretty intense challenge, just not so much at first. The enemies are varied in their attacks, and the boss fights are a highlight that will have you gripped until you finally land that killing blow. As long as you're not expecting too much in terms of plot, customisation and stat building, Minecraft Dungeons offers a fantastic gameplay experience that can be enjoyed either on your own or with friends.

Whilst there’s nothing here in this DLC that will wow you, the quest line will keep you busy for a couple of hours at least and being able to build and customise your own robots to your heart's content is a nice addition.

An incredible get for Game Pass and a superb game in its own right (issues aside), Outriders is comfortably one of the best games of the year so far, and it's only going to get better as the post-launch polish puts paid to the technical problems that currently hold it back from true greatness.

No one said survival would be easy, but since it's still a game, it should ultimately be more fun than it is.

The limited but excellent soundtrack and local competitive modes make the overall package well worth playing if you're a fan of this type of game. Just don't expect anything groundbreaking -- pun intended, again.

In a sea of ID@Xbox games, Typoman: Revised stands on its own thanks to its solid gameplay and unique use of words and puzzles. The platforming simply feels good and the usage of letters, words and antonyms add another layer to it.

It’s a miracle that we’re even playing Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl right now, yet GSC Game World has crafted a world so packed with detail and excitement that you’ll yearn to explore its mysteries from the moment you step foot in The Zone. While bugs are as rampant as its mutants, Stalker 2 outshines its adversities in every way, forcing you to face its darkest moments with courage and resilience — something its developer knows all too well. If you’re looking for a challenging survival shooter to lose hundreds of hours of your life to, this is it.

If shoot 'em ups are your thing, you're probably going to like this game, but to love it, you're going to have to enjoy the variety of other genres thrown into the mix. The schmup gameplay itself has solid mechanics, but sometimes the side content can be made a tedious thanks to a menu system that wasn't optimized for consoles and some functions that require more waiting than playing.

The game should be given credit for its incredible performance with a lot of enemies onscreen, and the different graphical settings that let players relive the past are a nice touch. But on the content side, Hyper Sentinel is thin, with only 12 levels and three game modes that don't do enough differently to hold the attention of anyone except hardcore fans.

Grid Legends is one of the cheesiest games I've ever played, thanks to its Drive to Glory story mode. Putting that to one side, there is a good racing game here with an excellent AI system (that can go a bit awry), some beautiful and well-designed tracks, and cars that feel great to drive. However, Grid Legends is dragged down a bit by the easily-forgettable story mode, and the game is just far too easy even on the highest difficulty. Still, there is a competent racer here that offers plenty of thrilling moments and enough cars and modes to keep fans of the genre happy.

"New World Order" is a slower episode that promises a lot of worthwhile story moments soon, but fails to provide many of its own. Character interactions are the best that they've been so far, but everything else is missing the drama that it needs to deliver a worthwhile standalone episode.

The new Painted World looks gorgeous at times and exploration feels rewarding as you discover more shortcuts and pathways. The multiplayer arena seems unusual at first, but it is an interesting take on the game's PvP.

In some hugely important ways, like music, visuals, and its ability to not just engage players as gamers but teach them as students, Mulaka is worth playing for most everyone, rather ironically. It's not a game designed with mass appeal, and yet because it's ultimately so authentic, so intimate, and so beautifully personal, it's easy to appreciate. For most players, Mulaka will be a familiar gameplay experience structured around something wholly new and enriching in every other way.

Human Fall Flat is a physics-based puzzler with a pleasant sense of humor, a cute main character, nice puzzles, and clean, inviting environs, but all of these positives bite the dust when the basic mechanic of the game makes you gnash your teeth with frustration. Controlling Bob is like trying to get ooze to stand at attention. He flips and flops around until you'll jump off a ledge just to end the pain. The items he handles flip and flop around in the much the same way. Once you get the hang of the basic controls then you can get the job done, but it isn't fun and isn't that the whole point? It isn't Bob that falls flat here so much as the game itself.

If you've played Baseball Riot, or frankly any one of the hundreds of similar games on the smartphone market, you've already played Tennis in the Face. The bland design means that it doesn't stand out from the crowd, but the stages are competently built.

This would be a perfect fit as an indie title, but when it sits on store shelves at full price, you should expect more. You should demand more. As a yearly title, MotoGP 17 seems to have settled for being just alright in every aspect. It should have been better.

MotoGP 18 is a clear step forward from its predecessor with the previously used proprietary engine already looking dated. However, it still feels like a transitional title as Milestone brings the UE4 engine to the franchise for the first time. The latest installment reinforces the studio's strengths with the physics, handling, and racing remaining top notch but it also highlights Milestones continuing struggles with the visual presentation.

It feels like Big Bad Wolf was in need of some shortcuts to get things to where they need to be for the finale, and there's enough reason to get through this episode and see the series through to its finale, but that still doesn't make Burning Bridges anything better than the low point of an otherwise strong and commendable adventure game.

In virtually every way, the series has improved in important ways since V2 – from a more intuitive control scheme to better level and mission design, more varied environments, and improved gunplay across the board. All of this makes it hard to argue that anyone new to the series should try V2 Remastered. It offers too many 2012 issues in a prettier 2019 package. However, if you're already a fan, these poorly aged issues are more forgiving, making Sniper Elite V2 Remastered worth aiming for.

Team Sonic Racing is Sumo's third race around the track with SEGA's flagship characters. It's not their best effort of the trio but because of the intriguing teamplay focus, it stands up as a worthy game for fans of the genre and families alike. The roster leaves a lot to be desired and the game needs a few changes under the hood to really play how it should, but it makes for a fun co-op or competitive game best played locally with loved ones.

Should you play Atomfall? Absolutely, yes! It's a gorgeous romp across the British countryside that's easy to pick up and extremely difficult to put down. Filled with richly detailed environments, simplified systems that will appeal to players new to the survival genre, and accessible combat, Atomfall is a superb adventure that proves survival games don't all need to be complex and brutal experiences.

If "Rise of Iron" is Bungie's last injection of content into Destiny, it is underwhelming and will need serious support to sustain the player base for the rest of this year and next. That being said, if you want more Destiny (but not much more), "Rise of Iron" is for you.

There's a lot going on in Atomic Heart, so it's perhaps unsurprising that consistency and cohesion aren't the game's strong suits. It does, however, excel in spectacle, presenting a fascinating world and packing it with an assortment of incredible mechanical creations.

Get Even uses some light brushstrokes of cliches but ultimately paints a picture much more unconventional than it may at first seem. In both story and gameplay, your expectations will be subverted several times over. Not all of its risks pay off, but when they do they ensure the game is a refreshing addition to the medium. Part shooter, part exploration and investigation while always compelling, Get Even is the strange mashup of Saw and Eternal Sunshine we never knew we wanted. If you play games for story and can forgive some forgettable shootouts and visuals, Get Even may someday be a fond memory of yours.

After the disappointing and short installment that was Episode 3, Guardians of the Galaxy and Telltale fans can breathe a sigh of relief because Telltale has redeemed themselves. Episode 4 is much more fulfilling than its prior episode in both length and content, with weighty decisions to be made and lives to possibly be changed forever. We also get more glimpses at the Guardians' past, and these sequences are done well and will evoke emotion. The gameplay also hits a high note in this episode with several escape and combat scenes set to more classic songs from Peter Quill's mix tape. Telltale still struggles outside of their signature quick time event sequences, so the parts when you need to walk around and interact with things are as awkward as ever. But, finally, we're getting somewhere in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series' fourth episode.

It feels like a love letter to a time of games gone by in the best way possible, and it's hard not to be drawn to the way the game looks. A few issues with the camera and some of the controls stop the game being perfect, but it isn't far off.

A New Frontier seemed like a gamble, but less so after a great premiere. Now this third episode has even managed to overcome Telltale's usual middle episode slump and provide some of the best, most affecting character moments the series has produced across three seasons. It now becomes a bit nerve-racking to see whether they can close out the season so highly, because if they do, this may become Telltale's crowning achievement.