Overall, it’s the touches of mischief which make Romeo is a Dead Man stand out in a ‘good enough’ landscape dominated by Live Service and competitive games. Stuffed with one-off moments and boisterous action honed over nearly 20 years of carnage, it’s a game that never sits still, never settles for boring but functional and dies with a live hand grenade slipping from its fingertips.

I find it difficult to ask more from Nioh 3. It’s a game that proudly announces its goals at the outset, and trusts the player to discover how well it’s going to nail every one them over the course of its 45+ hour runtime. It is the confident result of shaking up Nioh’s near decade-old formula that’s only outshone by Team Ninja’s steady hand in crafting it.

Hopefully Game Freak will continue using the Legends series as a playground (maybe a return to pixel graphics, just a suggestion), but, for now, Lumiose City has been a treat to revisit.

As it is right now, with the quality and quantity of content in the launch package of Battlefield 6, it is incredibly easy to recommend the game to anyone who enjoys multiplayer shooters. It’s an especially exciting proposition for those of us who just cannot keep up with Call of Duty’s rollerskates-based movement and its instantaneous time-to-kill. There’s finally a compelling middle ground between the indecipherability of tactical shooters and the yearly slop of CoD, and it’s one you won’t have to convince yourself to play simply because it’s there, you’ll do it with a big grin on your face because of how fun it is.

While there are no less than five other versions of Metal Gear Solid 3, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is now the definitive place to play a bonafide classic in a way that feels both accessibly modern, but still authentic to the original experience.

Ultimately, playing through Death Stranding 2 was an emotional and utterly enjoyable experience, full of thrills and impossible to put down during its bigger moments. My only negative feeling towards it is also unfortunately a big one, that I wish Kojima Productions went further in evolving this sequel from the original. When the story goes to such an extent to explore new grounds, it's kind of a shame the gameplay feels the need to play it safe.

I cannot help but to love Elden Ring Nightreign. It's a strange beast, kitbashed from parts of Elden Ring that feel clunky in places (god, the vaulting system can be frustrating at times). It has bugs, and it has blemishes. It's not a traditional Soulslike experience and as such will surely turn away fresh faces and diehard veterans alike. But it's also a celebration of you, the massive community of Soulslike players, and, specifically Elden Ring players. It's a game and a story about you, and all the weirdos you've met along the way. If this is a send off to Elden Ring and The Lands Between, it's a perfect one.

Overall, RoadCraft offers a unique enough twist on the established Spintires formula, if a streamlined one, to be worth giving a go. Some series veterans will end up longing for the elements it’s stripped out, especially when the new stuff that’s been drafted in is being more frustrating than fun. But, that central loop of frustration giving way to jubilation as you overcome the environment is still there and regularly just as satisfying.

Doom The Dark Ages will get your blood pressure up. It will test your reflexes, your problem-solving skills, your aim, and your ability to solve problems on the fly. It’ll probably test your patience a little, too, when the chugging, uninspired, padded-out sections in the middle start to wear a bit thin. But when it does manage to get your adrenaline pumping, you’ll be champing at the bit and thumbing shells into your shotgun so fast that the princes of hell themselves shaking in their boots.

The original Oblivion’s a great game, and this remaster’s a good re-packaging of it. It’s an excuse to fire up an Elder Scrolls title that doesn’t feel a million miles from contemporary yet again, but I’m still not sure we needed one.

They say art is all about eliciting an emotional reaction; if you can do that, all the effort expended in creating it was worth it. I think Clair Obscur does that with aplomb. If you have ever loved role-playing games, ever, you owe it to yourself to play this. It has the capacity to touch you.

Promise Mascot Agency’s a good time. Uniquely charming enough that it doesn’t fall into the trap of being as dry as Michi’s ideal Saturday night, but with enough rough edges that it’d need to work on itself a bit before it could run for mayor of whichever cursed town all of the truly great games inhabit.

Khazan is the perfect example of a game that's more than its individual components. The game does re-use a lot, but the gooey core of the game is so engaging, so fun, that you don't really care. It's moorish, devilishly so, and while the game doesn't nail everything, it has got enough guts behind it to warrant a sturdy recommendation to almost everyone. That is, unless you struggle with the challenge these sorts of games champion. In that case, Khazan won't welcome you to the Dungeon Fighter universe with an open hand, but rather smack you away with a closed fist.

It’s closer to puddle deep when it could be a lake or ocean given its cool premise. Or, to put it in a more Atomfall way, it’s a pasty that doesn’t quite deliver a filling that matches how tasty the pastry looks.

There are problems with Assassin’s Creed Shadows, for sure. But it’s so fun to play, it’s telling a gripping story, and there is so much sense of progress and reward for every little thing you do that it actually feels like an open world game that’s taking its cues from a modern roguelike, or something. Every action has meaning, and the breadcrumbs that tempt you to clean up all the icons on the map are moreish. This may be one of the biggest Assassin’s Creed games ever made, but it also feels like the most well put-together.

Split Fiction, just like Hazelight's projects before it, will not only have you belly-laughing throughout the experience, reminiscing about games, movies and literature the game regularly reminds you of, but it’ll also tug at your heartstrings and have you wiping tears from your eyes. The game's biggest victory is that it reminds you that endeavours as wonderful as Split Fiction (and those that it pays homage to) were created by the passion, devotion, and authentic experiences of humans such as Zoe and Mio, and the team over at Hazelight — not idea-extracting machines trained solely for profit off the human ingenuity that's so rawly at the beating heart of Split Fiction.

I am already 50 hours in, and I can’t wait to double - triple, quadruple! - that number in the coming weeks and months. This one’s a classic, as far as I'm concerned.

RGG’s also embraced visual customisation in a more in-depth manner than it ever has before here – not just with your ship, but with putting together custom outfits for Majima that’re mix-and-matchable, rather than rigidly set. You’ll spend most of your time in your getup of choice, ticking off suitably piratey sub-stories and goals in order to recruit new crewmates, as well as hunting down bounty targets pulled from IW’s array of different enemy categories to beef up your bank balance in refreshingly ungrindy chunks.

That’s what Avowed is: strong storytelling, great combat, lovely visuals, and utterly charming. It’s not going to light everyone’s hair on fire, but that’s fine - because I know for a certain subset of people - refined people of taste, if you ask me - Avowed will enjoy cult classic status. It doesn’t necessarily push the envelope, but nor does it need to. It’s exactly what it needs to be.

But even if you feel a touch frustrated at the busywork, I would urge players to at least finish the first map of the game. If you get to this point and still find yourself keen to play, I'm happy to say that the game truly blossoms in its second half. The best quests, narrative moments, the funniest moments, and best side characters can be found here. There's one Polish guy who I guarantee will steal the hearts of thousands. Please hang in there. There is gold buried in this game, and it's not even that hard to prospect out.

In the end, it all works - it’s just very different. The subtle whiff of compromise in order to launch the game far and wide is there - but compromise is just fine if the end result works. It does. I’m happy. As someone who has somewhere in the region of a thousand hours logged across Civ 4, 5, and 6, I’m ready to add hundreds more to that tally in the seventh entry. Some of that will come in years as the game grows and expands, as is Civilization tradition. But the point is, the foundations here are firm. The legend of one desperate extra turn, over and over again, forever, is secure.

Between musings of transhumanism, capitalism, power, and technology are human stories about real people. No space wizards, no ship shootouts, no heroes. Just the everyday reality of folks trying to survive. It’s incredibly grounded, and something I wish we would see more of in sci-fi. Citizen Sleeper’s world belongs to its junkyard scavengers, grubby engineers, repair technicians, cargo haulers, and everyone else on this ramshackle asteroid belt. I don’t want the glitz and gloss of Starfield, Star Wars Outlaws, or Cyberpunk 2077. I want grounded, punchy stories about nobodies, and that’s what Citizen Sleeper 2 is. What a fantastic start to 2025.

This is not only a great Dynasty Warriors game, but also a nice chance for historically-curious folks to hop on board. If you do decide to pick up Dynasty Warriors: Origins as your first title in the franchise, you'll be introduced to one of the most enjoyable action series and historical stories out there. If you're already a Dynasty Warriors fan, you know what you're getting into. Roll up those sleeves buddy, China won't save itself.

Every now and then, a game comes along that just full-on surprises you. I love the Indiana Jones movies (at least, the first three) and so always had an interest in this game. I ultimately sort of expected a fun bit of inconsequential blockbuster, though. The sort of thing you play over the Christmas season and promptly forget about. The best thing I can say about Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is that I know I’m going to be thinking about this for a long time yet.

Making games is hard, regardless, and the fact that the team was able to put together a package like this that's so earnest, so passionate in its revisit of a world enshrined in PC gaming's history, is more than impressive. It's an admirable feat that I hope isn't lost on the general gaming crowd who don't know too much about the games outside of their time playing them. I would recommend Stalker 2 to fans of the Stalker series, obviously, and as anyone with a love of open world FPS games and distinct sci-fi. The good thing is it's available on Game Pass, so you can pay less than full price and try it out.

Life is Strange: Double Exposure is not the perfect follow-up to Max's original story, and truly nothing could have been. But, as is mirrored by Max's own character arc, the intention here is clearly to look forward rather than backward, to a future that is bound to be messy and experimental, but meant to be approached with curiosity about what's to come rather than regret over what's been and gone. As ever with Life is Strange, the vibes of this game are perfectly suited to the story it sets out to tell — even if the details get muddled sometimes.

Black Ops 6 isn't just a strong new entry in a massive franchise that feels like going to Burger King and getting exactly what you ordered. It's the most confident Call of Duty has been in years, with both Raven and Treyarch taking a few well-calculated chances where they could afford to do so, and trimming the fat off the core 'Twitch FPS' experience that regular customers come for year after year. As a direct result, the whole package becomes a really easy recommend to anyone with even a passing interest in military-themed competitive shooters. Respawn issues and small glitches are a thing, but there's a rock-solid offering of varied FPS thrills here that are just well-executed all the way through. As the kids say: we're so back.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is full of heart and soul. It’s also got some great ideas. Conversely, many of those ideas feel like they struggle to get out of first gear - and those that do find it harder still to make it to third. Sometimes the cleverest ideas are undermined by other systems or decisions. Simultaneously feeling polished to within an inch of its life in places and utterly half-baked in others, it’s as baffling as it is engaging; as frustrating as it is fascinating.

If you’re looking to delve into a supernatural story laden with satisfying, tactile puzzles, then Fear the Spotlight is a grand way to spend two to three hours of your time this autumn. Though, if you were hoping for something that would keep you on your toes and have you losing sleep, you might be better off waiting for the other titles that publisher, Blumhouse Games, has up its sleeve.

All told, this feels like a solid offering from Sega and Sonic Team. Generations remains a perfect history lesson for younger fans, while Shadow’s new narrative provides a tantalizing introduction to the character before he hits the Hollywood big time just before Christmas. It’s one of Sonic’s better recent outings made just that little bit better - and you can’t really complain about that.

Speaking as someone who has played Until Dawn on PS4 many, many times and counts it as one of their favourite games — while I won't go so far as to say that I like this new version more than the original, I certainly don't like it less either. Both versions have their minor pros and cons when compared with one another, but in the end, it's all Until Dawn: a game that is simply too good and too important to be locked away and left behind as a relic of a bygone console generation.

Shattered Space was a chance for Bethesda to do some stuff that’d make quibbling about where you can spend five hours building a little house surrounded by mineral extractors a lot less important than it was in the base game. It was a golden opportunity to take the great ideas Bethesda’d had when devising a faction that’d grabbed players’ attention, and bring them to life with a bunch of either the classic Bethesda magic, or a new mojo that the studio could carry on into the great games it may well add to an already storied legacy in the future. Instead, anyone returning to Starfield after all the time they’ve spent with what remains a very marmite base game will likely be left feeling much the same way they did about all those hours when they get done playing what could have been a home run return to star form.

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is a lot of fun, and as meaningful a send-up to the source material as one could hope for. I spent time in training mode, popping supers and comparing them to old anime episodes, and smiled to myself when it matched up perfectly. But in stepping away from what did happen in Dragon Ball to what could have happened, this game manages to make the original narrative all the sweeter. Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is a festival in Goku's honour, and a must buy for age-old lovers of Akira Toriyama's work.

Every individual strand weaves together to form something utterly exceptional in Metaphor. It may well be Atlus’ masterpiece; well-presented, well-realised, and totally unashamed to be a big, silly, fantastical piece of role-playing genius. Don’t be put off by the fact it isn’t wearing the Persona moniker; chances are, if you love anything about the Persona games, you’re going to find it in Metaphor - but better. As a foundation for a new IP, I don’t think the developer could have done better.

The cliche with EA Sports games is that they’re always an iterative step. But, outside of the mid-console generation graphical similarity, there’s a lot that EA Sports FC 25 does which isn’t iterative. The big changes brought about by FC IQ, Cranium and Rush make for an interesting gameplay refresh which gives new impetus to both competitive online modes and long-underserved offline careers.

Ultimately, those who are familiar with the original Silent Hill 2 will constantly be surprised by this remake, and those who aren’t as familiar are geared up for a great (albeit heart-wrenching) time. All of the pivotal moments remain, but veterans will find that they’re in different orders or brand-new rooms now. There’s new dialogue to look out for, and plenty of new notes, memos, and Easter eggs to discover, especially in New Game Plus. These changes may seem odd at first to existing fans, but all-in-all, they allow the story to flow much more smoothly, or add to it altogether. Think of the remake as a continuation — or a new rendition — of the never-ending, looping purgatory that many theorize James is trapped in.

Those that have seen the secret ending for Kingdom Hearts 3 know that Kingdom Hearts 4 could very well be series director Tetsuya Nomura's attempt at making his vision of Versus 13 made real, but I'm so glad that we have Reynatis as another interpretation of that vision, and to be honest, I hope even more developers make their own interpretations of Versus 13. Reynatis is a reality based on fantasy, and though it's far from perfect, that's enough for me.

Overall, the release version of Golden Lap, even with those couple of areas where it could be better, is still very much the game I enjoyed in a short burst earlier in the year. It knows exactly what it wants to deliver, and does so in the wonderfully characterful manner that’s come to define Funselektor’s games and help them stand out from the racing crowd. Without giving you an actual whiff of the petrol fumes, properly deafening you with engine roar from behind the wheel or offering you a mouthful of podium bubbly, it manages to capture the spirit of what it depicts, and with a few tweaks, its pull could be even more irresistible.

Really, Echoes of Wisdom feels like the perfect sign-off for the Switch with new hardware reportedly on the horizon. It’s a colourful, accessible epic that pushes its console to the limit, with all of the mechanical depth and invention, artistic design, whimsy, and spirit of adventure that you expect from a first-party Nintendo adventure.

It’s a good step from a developer in Pixel Perfect Dude that’s gradually branching out from a background that mainly looks to be mobile-centric. With a bit of further refinement, it could turn into a very good addition to a mini-genre that’s proven through the likes of Art of Rally - though that is a very different game vibe-wise to #Drive Rally - that it has space for smaller studios offering quirky takes that help equal things up in our current sea of uber-realistic racing. However, if it’s going to hit those heights and build on what is a fun core as it races on down the early access trail, there’s some work to be done and maybe some lessons to be learned. [Early Access Review]

Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster stands is a prime example of how to do remasters right. It doesn't cut or alter hastily. What Capcom has added, and what it has improved, only enhances the original experience. For Dead Rising fans, this is like a re-opening of your favourite childhood fast food spot, a brand-new un-torn version of your favourite t-shirt, or returning to a beloved holiday destination and finding all the places you've missed are still there and with a fresh coat of paint.

Hollowbody is a testament to the work of Hamley, and is phenomenal within its own right, but the dedication to various cult classic horror and sci-fi games only adds to how enamored I was with the game; this is how you make a game heavily inspired by other media while making a whole new experience entirely, in a nutshell. But don’t get me wrong, Hollowbody is so much more than its inspirations, made up of multiple moving parts that provide fans of the survival horror genre with something new and refreshing.

Overall, there’s still plenty of fun to be had in NBA 2K25, and I’d still argue it does enough to maintain the series’ place as a market leader - especially now PC’s finally on the next-gen version. However, there are just enough hangups that I don’t think it’s a slam dunk in terms of being a positive step forward, even if you definitely can’t label it just a retread of last year’s game.

Astro Bot only cares about fun, and I genuinely can't think of a single moment it made me wish something had been handled differently, tweaked to be easier, or expanded upon. It's just perfect.

Space Marine 2 is a triumph of a game. It's a must buy for Warhammer fans, and absolutely recommended for good game enjoyers. I hope you consider yourself a part of that illustrious group. Space Marine 2 is one of the best Warhammer games ever released, and one of the most dangerous gateway drugs to plastic crack I've ever seen.

Those who have always wanted to know more about how Dead by Daylight’s cast of characters came to be trapped in a never-ending nightmare by The Entity will be wholly pleased to finally have some answers, especially if the DBD-stylised achievements and endless Easter eggs didn’t already have you foaming at the mouth. If you’re a fan of Dead by Daylight or The Dark Pictures Anthology, The Casting of Frank Stone is an absolutely must-play for you. Even then, those unfamiliar with the series’ will still find something to appreciate during this entertaining, albeit fleeting, experience

There’s a good game under all the rubble and perplexing business decisions (such as not giving it out in PS Plus Extra), but why should you put up with all these frustrations when the game doesn’t a have distinct identity and there are better alternatives available for free right now?

Ubisoft’s USP is location. Sense of place. Beautiful recreations and restorations of ancient cities, buildings, temples, vibes. The Star Wars galaxy absolutely evokes the same sense of wonder, and has been recreated with just as much love and care here. Mos Eisley is no less real in the public consciousness than Rome in the time of the Caesars. At once familiar, but widely open to interpretation. And probably just as dangerous. Star Wars Outlaws won’t win any GOTY awards. But it’ll definitely win a lot of hearts.

It’s another year, another pretty mixed bag, even if it does feel like things might be trending in a slightly more positive direction. Here’s the thing though, like those Seahawks, things’ll only keep running in place unless Madden can offer some more meaningful change going forwards. Here’s hoping having the series’ cheeky sibling back on the block, with its marching bands and moral quandaries about exploitation, can help spur that shift.

Overall, if you’re looking for more Dredge, or a reason to delve back into the game for the first time since The Pale Reach, The Iron Rig more than likely has at least a weekend worth of fun to offer you. Even if it feels in places like it could have been a bit more than just another fish added to the catch of a good and spooky net.

You’re bound to make mistakes with such an emotionally-driven narrative at play, but with some hope from beyond the grave in Closer the Distance, you can help Yesterby move on. And if you had as wonderful a time as I did and are wondering how you can do things differently, there’s nothing stopping you from going back in time and trying to pick up the pieces all over again.

I can’t really talk about the climax of the game’s narrative without wandering into spoiler territory as before, but it’ll sum it up thusly - Thalassa’s story is something that only gets better as it goes.

I found myself enraptured by this game. Hooked on its combat-cum-strategy and constantly awed by the sights I saw, entertained by the steady flow of upgrades and the structure of the mission layouts. It broadened my horizons a little bit, if a game can do that. That can't be a bad thing, can it?

While the start of Shadow of the Erdtree can come off as a regression, really, the DLC as a whole is FromSoftware flexing all of its creative muscles - including some it hasn’t used in a while and others it might be building up for the future. The depth of storytelling in the Lands of Shadow, as well as the new weapons, spells and items (all of which add to the lore themselves, of course), only better your experience of the Lands Between, and make for a worthy upgrade to what is already an unforgettable adventure.

In the end, Still Wakes the Deep is worth the six or seven hours it takes to blast through the story. It’s not scary as such, but it’s tense as hell, and there’s a poignance here that shines brightly through the veneer of soot, and gloop, and toxic masculinity What this game is really about, just like that bronze monument in Eyemouth, is the widows and bairns left behind.

Part of what I love so much about this game, and series, is that it marches to the beat of its own drum – eschewing the RPG trends of the moment (no romances for you) and doubling down on what makes it great. A tight, infinitely satisfying combat system, fun and unpredictable demon negotiation, and a metal-as-hell world. Everything it sets out to do, it does well. Even if it does feel like you’re playing a glorified, modernised PS2 game. It’s intentional, and it rules.

Like real world F1 at the moment, F1 24’s a bit of a mixed bag, but it feels like, if it can be built on going forwards, it could be the starting point for something you won’t feel quite as much like you can skip out on and not miss much.

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is a richly-deserved, lovingly-crafted redo of a classic. It takes one of Mario’s finest spin-offs and does just enough to refresh it while retaining everything that made it beloved in the first place. I only hope this leads to more Paper Mario games in this vein.

Though Hellblade 2 has the power to force your jaw open and give you goosebumps, too often the whole project ends up feeling like a very expensive tech demo – an absolute tour de force of technical achievement bogged down in its own sense of gravitas and mystery. Keeping you off the stick for so many of its most impactful moments, and not giving you enough to play with when you do have control, hobbles the potential of this visual and aural masterpiece enough to make the whole experience feel like it was constantly trying to find a foothold on that dread Icelandic scree, and never really getting to its feet until you come staggering over the finish line.

There are golden moments here, without a doubt. But Die by the Blade is burdened by issues that I fear will stand out for many casual players interested to try it out. But as the only modern fighting game to really approach this sub-genre of 3D one-strike action perhaps it'll find its audience. I'd recommend this to genre diehards and those who don't mind a lower budget title. For the average player, I'd give this a miss for now.

Ultimately, the more you give to Indika, the more you get out of it; whether it’s pondering the philosophical questions it asks you or soaking in the environment… just don’t anticipate any concrete answers. Indika wants you to come to those conclusions yourself, much like its troubled protagonist.

Ultimately, the game's story is a fun one that does touch on some heavier themes, too. But it's the collective action at Spino that helps it feel special. Sand Land feels like a game that you can't believe wasn't originally released on the PS2. It's the fact that you can so strongly feel Toriyama within the game that that results in it feeling like a wonderful, imperfect send-off for one of the most influential artists ever. It won't knock your socks off, and I doubt it will be part of the game of the year conversations further down the road. But I don't care. I'm just happy to step into an old, but new, Toriyama world once last time.

If you can stomach that pesky cake-carrying elephant, Stellar Blade is well worth your time. It's not perfect - there's room for improvement, sure - but having experienced Shift Up's first venture into a triple-A console release I'm along for the ride from here on out.

It is a genuine pleasure from start to finish, as dark and uncomfortable as it may be. But for every moment that might make you grimace, there is satisfaction to be found in seeking THE GIRL’s revenge, and destroying THE CULT is definitely a damned good way to spend 5-6 hours of your time.

Peach’s foray onto the stage is is full of whimsy and many moments of sheer joy, just as 2023's Super Mario Wonder is, but the difference is that this is Peach’s game – and hers alone. Despite the Sour Bunch trying to sully the Sparkle Theater’s reputation, Princess Peach is here - as a Cowgirl, Ninja, Detective, and so forth - to put a stop to that. And she puts on a wonderful, replayable, empowering performance while doing so.

Much of what you can experience in Rise of the Ronin has been done better elsewhere. Team Ninja picked the wrong edges to smooth off. Rather than go down the Elden Ring road of allowing freedom of exploration and discovery to balance out the challenge of combat, Rise of the Ronin instead takes a step backwards to the era of rigid open-world games that put players on treadmills, and train them to expect rewards when the bell rings. It's a disappointing change of stance from Team Ninja, and one that could leave them open to an unfortunately mortal blow.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is wickedly clever, tightly designed, self-aware in all the right ways, and refreshingly unconcerned with whatever the latest trends are. The only game Dragon’s Dogma 2 is really interested in iterating on and answering to is the original Dragon’s Dogma. For fans of that game there’s delightful bonuses, references, and punch-the-air moments, too. But even for newcomers, what should be plain is that Dragon’s Dogma 2 does its own thing - and its own thing is magnificent.

Standing on its own, Unicorn Overlord is an excellent expansion of Vanillaware’s now-trademark visual style and its newer RTS mechanics, offering both gripping strategy and an atmospheric pulp fantasy world that you're going to want to sink hours and hours into.

But if you’re hoping to scare yourself senseless and expose yourself to plenty of shocking scenarios as a reagent for the Murkoff Corporation, with or without friends, The Outlast Trials is undoubtedly worth its retail cost of £24.99 / $29.99 (via Steam) at launch, but if you’re expecting a game that you’ll replay well into 2024 and beyond, I’d temper your expectations.

If there’s one thing Expeditions and its terrifying muddy siblings will teach you, it’s that eventually overcoming the perils of picturesque, but unyielding nature through sheer relentlessness will never stop feeling rewarding.

Flaws be damned, scores be damned, though. In my heart, this will inevitably end up as one of my favorite games of 2024 - its vibes are simply irresistible.

It’s an extremely funny, well-made, and once-traditional co-op game stuck in a live service cage that makes it sadder and more tiring as time goes on. Will the most demanding content in the game convince players to stick around and actually engage with the ‘numbers go up’ systems? I don’t think so, but I’m not writing it off just yet.

The problem is that, as many of us know, gacha games are inherently exploitative, and even though I'm confident in resisting spending any money on them, I still feel a bit strange about the pull I'm experiencing towards such a game thanks to a seperate, supposedly stand-alone RPG. Should you play Relink for a taste of Granblue Fantasy's world? I think so! But go in knowing that it won't give you everything you might want, and take it as it is.

At a certain point you have to step back and judge a game for what it is rather than what it isn’t. After all, if you want the female protagonist there’s Portable, and if you want the epilogue there’s FES. But as a stand-alone thing – as a convenient, modern, and attractive way to experience a truly great RPG classic – Persona 3 Reload is a wonderful offering.

The Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy is a little less consistent when compared to the two collections that preceded it, but it's still doing the good work of bringing a gem of a series to new platforms and audiences at a time when these games otherwise risk being left behind. Whether its slightly shaky attempts to position itself as a stand-alone trilogy will prove an effective draw for new players remains to be seen, but of course it's an absolute must-play if you're already a fan of the series — and if you were drawn into the franchise through the last two remastered collections and haven't encountered these three games yet, you're in for a particular treat.

It’s a game about finding out who your mates are, and that they’ll be there for you no matter whether you need a good laugh, a telling off or a helping hand.

If this review appears glowing, frankly that's how I feel about the game. It's without a doubt my favourite fighting game out right now, and I've been fiending to get back online ever since they took the pre-release servers down. The one scratch on the game's spotless form is online infrastructure that doesn't quite live up to other games on the market right now, which makes it hard to recommend to those with seperated friend groups or subpar online connections. If neither of those apply to you, Tekken 8 is absolutely worth picking up at your earliest convenience.

Ultimately, Palworld is good fun. I’m looking forward to seeing how multiplayer works out with my friends. It’s easy to argue that much of Palworld’s best bits feel like they’ve been lifted from somewhere else, somewhere that has not been intentionally disavowed as an inspiration. Palworld definitely has some features worth admiring, and is finally letting keen monster-collectors dabble in the whole ‘what if Pokemon, but dark and violent’ query that many of us have often had, but I’m quite disappointed in how unoriginal it often feels. [Early Access Review]

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a smart game that makes you feel even smarter. It’s a Metroidvania that’s learned from the best, but without sacrificing any element of its own personality – for better and for worse. Beneath the gaudy graphics and cheeseball story, there’s a hardcore platforming heart bruised by punishing combat. Middling boss design aside, this is a game that you can sink an easy 30 hours into. And you’ll come away feeling clever, powerful, and dexterous.

Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising is a bonefide cure-all for your fighting game ailments. A banger release, right at the end of the year.

Like it or not, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora feels like the perfect companion piece to James Cameron’s movies: it’s big but often intimate. Savage but calm. Familiar but charming. Even without playing a single minute of it, you should know whether it’s something you want to play. If you decide to make the jump, I suggest letting go of cheap analogies and using Na’vi instincts first and gamer brain second.

It’s a game I could easily see myself winding down with during the evenings, ticking off my to-do list of tasks while wrapped up cosily. The music, the style, the brief thrill of finding rare components or clearing dungeons; it gives me the same feelings that Harvest Moon once did, but God damn, there’s a lot to be cracking on with at any given moment. With that in mind, I think it’s about time I return to Sandrock.

So, it’s a little on the easy side. But in the 90s, Mario RPG created a new generation of role-playing fans with a mix of whimsy, magic, and familiar characters that back then was incredibly uncommon. This remake retains all of that - all of the stuff that matters. At some point, I have to accept that us old’uns who remember it probably aren’t the primary audience for this remake - and that’s okay, too. It’s an easy recommendation, regardless.

There’s just so much to love about Spirittea, and I’m very glad to be able to say that this adorable rural-life sim has been well worth the wait. As fans of Stardew Valley patiently wait on ConcernedApe’s upcoming game, Haunted Chocolatier, I hope to see plenty give Spirittea a go. It’s certainly one way to bridge the gap while we wait, but you might be pleasantly surprised by just how lovely - and truly addicting - this game and its host of unique spirits and townsfolk are. I mean, I would genuinely live in this adorable town where realities collide, if I could.

The most important thing about EA Sports WRC is that I’m pretty sure I’ll get addicted to the moments its recreation of rallying can provide across its plethora of modes. As with Dirt Rally 2.0, it’s those simple, brief moments when you get into a perfect adrenaline-fuelled flow and feel - just for a second - like you are as good as Colin McRae, that’ll keep me coming back for more, no matter how many trees I hit in between them. I'm pleased and relieved to report that post-acquisition Codemasters still understands what makes a good rally game tick.

My big takeaway from Like A Dragon Gaiden is that I really hope RGG does more side stories in the future or at least takes a similar approach to new mainline games. The chance to slow down and experiment with character growth, different storytelling styles, and a more focused approach to narrative building paid off brilliantly with Joryu’s tight tale.

Your mileage with WarioWare: Move It will inevitably vary. What do you want from this game? If you want the classic microgames experience, it isn’t really here. If you want a killer multiplayer game to play with the family over the holiday season (assuming everyone is able-bodied), it’ll be ideal. I can’t wait to play this more with friends. But I don’t see any reason to boot it on my own again any time soon.

The only thing malfunctioning around here is the economics of game production. And from that struggle, under circumstances that echo those of the original movie’s troubled production, a brilliant piece of work emerges, that somehow nails every part of the brief and finally proves that Robocop can inspire worthy sequels. And if it didn't look a bit ropey sometimes, I doubt it would feel like Robocop: a stop-motion ED-209 falling down some stairs is goofy as hell, after all, but none of the CGI perfect ED-209s in the 2014 remake ever did anything goofy, and it was crap. So. Y'know.

It’s a game I could easily see myself winding down with during the evenings, ticking off my to-do list of tasks while wrapped up cosily. The music, the style, the brief thrill of finding rare components or clearing dungeons; it gives me the same feelings that Harvest Moon once did, but God damn, there’s a lot to be cracking on with at any given moment. With that in mind, I think it’s about time I return to Sandrock.

Jusant is another banger in a year of endless bangers, as notable for everything it isn’t as much as what it is: a meditative, evocative odyssey up a big tower, with plenty of time to reflect and ponder deftly weaved through the experience by master storytellers who want you to feel every pore of the rock as you ascend, and every ache of the heart that its residents left behind.

Modern day horror experiences don’t get much better than this, and I'm pleased we've got more to come in, at least, two sets of DLC.

The Master Books are bursting with interesting tidbits that helped me to contextualise each game and the storyline as a whole better than ever before, but there’s relatively little within the games themselves to make this a real must-have if you still have access to previous collections and releases.

Sitting back and thinking about why I dig Ghostrunner 2 so much, I've landed firmly on the belief that it's because OneMoreLevel's dedication to building a game with the 'rule of cool' in mind has crossed over into my own personal tastes. For those who gain pleasure (guilty or otherwise) from an unashamed love of katanas and cybernetic augmentation, Ghostrunner 2 is pouring the gravy you love straight down your throat.

Lords of the Fallen is a game of uneven quality. At its best, it offers level design, bosses, and combat that’s generally up there among the best Souls-likes. At its – more often – worst, it leans hard on quantity over quality, and a fundamental misunderstanding of what makes those games challenging. My issues with its balance and difficulty can improve with patches, and my misgivings about its design pitfalls are the sort of thing that sequels improve on all the time. It’s left me wanting to play Lords of the Fallen 2.

The fact that I’m willing to part ways with the original game even in the face of early performance woes and the fact that ultimately Cities Skylines 2 has a fair bit less content than the original, with its oodles of expansion packs and DLCs, says a lot. This is an excellent sequel, and an exciting foundation for what I’m sure will be a bright, addition-packed future. For those with weaker machines or a focus on performance, you may very well want to wait. But in this initial release we can see the foundations of a generational classic. It just might take a few more years to reach that full potential – just like its predecessor.

Within the understood parameters of what 2D Mario can be, this has to be the single best entry since Super Mario World - and is the perfect first game to launch a new era of Mario games with his new-found elevation to movie star status.

Spider-Man 2 is exceptional. In your hands, it’s the best a superhero game has ever felt. On your eyes, it’s a pure tour de force of what the PlayStation 5 can do. On your heart, it’s heavy, enticing, exciting. The open world is a tonic, the characters are a riot, the villains are unbelievable in the best way. Suspend your disbelief in a neat little web above your head, dive in with your mask pulled tight over your face, and prepare yourself for the daftest, most earnest action game of 2023. It’s a 20-or-so hour hoot you’re not going to be able to put down until the post-credits scene has rolled.

In its core mission, Sonic Superstars is successful. It recreates the foundation of 2D Sonic – some of the finest platformers ever made – well. Unfortunately, the new elements layered atop that are rather hit-or-miss. I personally don’t think this is anywhere near as good as Mania. But it’s good. In fact, it’s good enough that I expect fan debate about which game is superior to be fairly heated – which is a sure-fire sign that Sega is on the right track.