Metroid Prime 4: Beyond feels like a game stuck between two worlds. When it’s emulating previous entries, Beyond is a blast, with excellent boss battles, and some truly gorgeous environments to explore. But this is eventually bogged down by out-of-place additions, awkward storytelling, and overly aggressive hand-holding that spoils the discovery.

Call of Duty Black Ops 7's multiplayer is some of the finest the series has had to offer in years. It's just a shame it's tied to a baffling, turgid, ridiculous campaign that makes a great argument for stopping Call of Duty campaigns all together. 7 games is plenty. The Black Ops series has run its course.

As a sequel, The Outer Worlds 2 doesn't strive to reinvent its past foundation and does little to stand out in the RPG genre. If you're looking for new toys to play with, you'll find plenty of weapons and a much-improved gunplay to boot. Just don't expect to carry many memories of your time in Arcadia with you.

In a franchise that doesn't change much year-to-year, EA Sports FC 26 takes that to the extreme. While it's by default the best football game on the market, and competing at the highest level of Ultimate Team remains enjoyable, we expected a more revolutionary entry. Promoted as the game that would fix years of issues that have plagued players, most of them remain. Cynical changes to Ultimate Team make the mode worse for free-to-play players, and the game's other modes are barely looked at.

Hollow Knight: Silksong is caught in a web of trying to bind two conflicting genres together, with the expectations and norms of each half damaging the other. The beauty of its art design and precise, joyful feel of its movement are inarguable wonders, but the tiring and demotivating nature of its sadistic approach to challenge ripples throughout the entire experience of exploration and combat. It's more of what was good about Hollow Knight, but it failed to avoid some very clear pitfalls in design on its long path to release.

Cronos is a perfectly acceptable survival horror that looks astonishing at times and has an engaging plot (albeit a very confusing one) to ensure players reach the end. That said, there isn't a lot here that hasn't been seen in other survival games before it, and the combination of annoying enemy AI and no real difficulty settings mean some players will have a frustrating time of things.

Drag x Drive is a lovely little multiplayer game let down by a dearth of content. As long as you get get to grips with its control scheme you'll have a great time on the court and will likely get your $20's worth, but Nintendo needs to update this game with new features or modes if it doesn't want to see the community moving on after a couple of months.

Welcome Tour breaks down the Switch 2 console and controllers to an impressive degree, sharing a wealth of behind-the-scenes insights into Nintendo's hardware development research. Its level of depth won't appeal to everyone, however, and while its tech demos and mini-games are fun enough they lack longevity, meaning once you've seen everything on offer here your $10 has pretty much run its course.

Elden Ring Nightreign is an overly clumsy attempt to graft multiplayer antics to one of the best RPGs ever. While its rougelike elements may entertain, a lack of variety and uneven combat system ultimately make for a curious sideshow that doesn't come close to the series that shares its name.

South of Midnight is a gorgeous adventure with wonderful performances, striking visuals and solid platforming gameplay. Its combat, however, is repetitive and reductive in equal measure, letting the overall package down considerably.

Omega 6's strengths lie in the characters and world created by former Nintendo artist Takaya Imamura, while its weaknesses are mainly due to the game built around them. Had it been shaped into a more linear visual novel those strengths could have come more to the fore, but the adventure gameplay and awkward Rock-Paper-Scissors battle mechanic get in the way at times. Its low price still makes it worth a look, however.

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is an amusing, if underwhelming way to kill time before Yakuza 9, but considering the speed at which RGG is releasing new games in the series, you probably don't have to wait that long for the next traditional entry.

With improved presentation and controls, Donkey Kong Returns is the definitive version of a classic platformer. Though it lacks the variety and bold ideas of its sequel, and offers little new content, it's a worthwhile experience for those who missed it the first time around.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins will offer enough for fans, but won't blow the minds of new players or series regulars. The scale of the game's battle and rock solid performance are impressive, but there's little to write home about outside of that.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard feels like BioWare playing it too safe. While it nails what it does best, like the excellent cast and interpersonal relationships, from a gameplay perspective it feels out of date.

Despite some ambitious ideas, beneath the surface Echoes of Wisdom is surprisingly uneven Zelda adventure. Few of its headline mechanics are utilised to their potential which means that, while enjoyable and charming, it ultimately feels less essential than other modern 2D entries.

Funko Fusion is fun to play and its TT Games / Lego series ancestry is clear to see, but its frequent backtracking, its slightly off comedy and the way some franchises get less love than others mean that fun is often experienced with an asterisk. It's worth a play, as long as you don't mind collectathons and replaying levels.

Solar Crown is a perfectly enjoyable open-world racing game with solid handling and plenty to do, but its world map is too large to maintain a consistent level of detail and it loses some personality as a result. This, combined with occasional frame rate issues even in Performance mode give the game an unpolished feel. If you're looking for a new open-world racer we'd still recommend it, as long as you don't expect anything particularly innovative.

As the third game in the Famicom Detective Club series, Emio: The Smiling Man is a faithful entry that fits perfectly alongside the 2021 remakes of the first two titles. It fits in a little too well, however, because its gameplay hasn't changed much from the 1980s originals, meaning its 'choose every option until you move on' dialogue system ends up feeling like a boring box-ticking exercise rather than an intuitive investigative process. The story is great but it's strictly for those who love visual novels, no matter how linear.

Star Wars Outlaws is a pulpy, Uncharted-style adventure that doesn't quite fulfill its potential. Kay and Nix lead a great cast through a well-paced, punchy story, but the game's Reputation system, and syndacite storyline in general feels undercooked.

Concord is an enjoyable shooter, kneecapped by a $40 price tag and a bland cast of characters. When it arrives on PlayStation Plus, which feels almost certain at this point, its worth picking up, but only with the enthusiasm you'd treat any other free-to-play fare.

It will take time, but if the teams at Hardball Games can add some variety to the formula, Outrage: Fight Fest has all the makings of a champion. For now though, despite a strong idea, the experience is pulling its punches.

As a whole, Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail is a stronger start to the next ten years of the game than we expected. But that doesn't make it immune to key criticisms. The game has come a long way, and there's only so much you can expect to change again without a full-blown sequel. Even still, the highs and lows felt too much like a literal rollercoaster over the 2+ weeks of evenings it took to power through its story content.

For retro enthusiasts with access to likeminded friends and family, this Switch challenge collection is a genuine local multiplayer hit. For solo players and those looking to compete with others online, however, it’s a far less impressive package.

As the first entirely new Monkey Ball game in 12 years, fans of the series will at least be happy to have a selection of new stages to play through. Performance issues and a relatively sparse multiplayer offering prevent it from being considered among the best the series has to offer, however.

Hellblade 2 is a mechanically dated game carried along by its incredible presentational flair. For a game shown alongside the debut of Series X, it's not reflective of the story Xbox is trying to tell with its first party. As a result, it's disappointing.

Endless Ocean's procedural generation keeps its exploration engaging enough for a while, but its Story mode is extremely poor. As long as you're willing to forgo plot (and any meaningful interaction with the species you encounter) in favour of exploring random underwater environments, there's still a good deal of fun to be had here.

TMNT Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants is a perfectly servicable beat 'em up that hardly redefines the genre but is solid enough, particularly if you can find some like-minded TMNT fans to play local co-op with you. Given its arcade origins it's extremely brief, so players will need to be pwilling to replay it multiple times to get their money's worth.