Newcomers may find it overwhelming, or slightly slow going in the early stages, but the campaign offers a great introduction to the genre, and the building blocks of Age of Empires. Don’t be surprised if you sit down to play a quick game, and then suddenly look at the clock to find that 3 hours have passed, your tea has gone cold, and the army that you’ve been meticulously building has been wiped by a garrison of archers you completely missed.

Arise is a beautiful, devastating and uplifting game that suffers from some technical issues on Switch, but not enough to spoil the experience.

Like any swordsman learning their craft, Ishin! starts unsteady and builds in confidence. Some ideas struggle to earn their place in the overstuffed mix, but with a propulsive tale, told by some of our favourite gaming characters, it’s easy to get swept up in Like A Dragon: Ishin!’s samurai cool.

For those who wished that God of War Ragnarok offered a bit more challenge or that Bayonetta had a bit more weight to its combat, this slick sci-fi slasher is the perfect tonic, offering both the perfect entry point into the Souls-like genre and a refreshing refinement of the well-worn character action formula. It may lack the naval gazing intelligence of the excellent Nier Automata, but when you’re having this much fun, it’s hard to care.

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.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a completely inoffensive, if somewhat bland adventure that will mildly entertain for the duration of its runtime, but won’t live long in the memory.

Gears of War mostly nails its strategy debut with an accomplished, but no-frills alternative to XCOM.

Three Hopes is one of the best musou spin-offs released to date, combining its tried-and-tested gameplay with a level of story depth that was missing in the Fire Emblem Warriors. Its sheer scope may be a bit much for players simply looking for a hack-and-slash action game, though.

The 70-odd holes have been meticulously designed, the shooting mechanic is wonderfully executed, and it nails that ‘one more go’ urge that only the best rogue-likes manage to accomplish.

Fire Emblem Engage is a great strategy game, but we don’t think it’s a great modern Fire Emblem game. Whether the reverence for the social elements of Three Houses came as a surprise to the team or not, the dearth of those moments in Engage makes it feel like it’s missing half of its core at times.

Bayonetta Origins sometimes feels like an idea half explored. In combat, two sets of fists are better than one, but adventuring never ignites in the same way. There’s a level of invention and style we’ve come to expect from the studio, but this isn’t quite Pure Platinum.

Valhalla’s sober detailed research is undermined a little by some slightly tipsy execution. But this is a hearty, bawdy Viking feast of a game which spins a fine tale and offers plenty to get your teeth into.

Sonic X Shadows Generations delivers a sturdy one-two punch of fan service, providing a solid remaster of a 2011 favourite and coupling it with a new game starring a fan favourite. The usual 3D Sonic platforming issues remain and the Shadow Generations open-world hub may annoy those who disliked Sonic Frontiers but overall it's a brilliant package.

These new additions don't always land as perfectly as it feels they were intended, but there's no denying this is the freshest the series has felt for some time.

More of a side-step than an evolution from Nioh 2, Wo Long is inventive and an adventure worth taking even if it’s technically suspect on PS5, but won’t live massively long in the memory once you’ve slain your final boss.

Avowed is a solid action RPG with an entertaining script, satisfying combat and impressively detailed environments. The inability to clean up side quests after the main story is beaten can be frustrating, but take your time with it and enjoy everything it has to offer, and you'll find plenty of memorable moments.

Epic Mickey Rebrushed takes one of the Wii's most visually unique platformers and fixes the camera and control issues it deperately struggled with before. The result is a far better way to play the game, finally allowing players to focus more on the wonderful art direction and storyline.

The Origami King contains some of the series’ standout moments – almost all of them related to its enjoyable script and wonderful, varied environments – but it also frustrates with some disappointing new features and all-too-familiar missteps.

Judgment is plenty entertaining, but it is just a muted Yakuza game in disguise. And after so many games of smashing faces into concrete, we hoped for a little more than that.

Once you get going and start experimenting, you'll realise just how astonishingly complex, and wonderfully inventive, Autonauts really is.

In the last few years, there has been a lot of pent up demand for a single-player centric game like this and hopefully, Respawn will be allowed to explore some of its better ideas in a future release.

Whether you've played the Wii version or not, this remaster offers enough content to keep both newcomers and veterans busy for a while. As a Kirby game it's fairly typical and doesn't do anything particularly revolutionary, but what it does offer is strong, entertaining platforming.

WWE 2K26 offers another net gain over its predecessor, ensuring the series continues to evolve in a positive direction. While its new reversal system will initially divide players and the spectre of microtransactions continues to loom over MyFaction, the overall package introduces more quality-of-life features to ensure each of its numerous modes is better than it was last time.

Not quite Yoshi’s Island beater, but closer than he’s come in a long time.

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.

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.

Metal: Hellsinger is an incredibly well-realised concept, packed to bursting with excellent music, unique weapons and a gameplay loop that’s instantly addictive.

Sackboy doesn’t have the tight movement tech of Crash Bandicoot 4 or the butter-melting charms of a game like Astro’s Playroom, but it’s well worth a look if you’re in the market for an innovative platformer that makes the most of the PS5’s exclusive features.