Playing UNBEATABLE makes you feel like you’re watching pirated episodes of your favourite show. Its janky narrative structure and limited content make it feel appropriately criminal to grow attached. However, while frustrating at times, these jagged edges are part of the charm. UNBEATABLE feels like an unapologetic guilty pleasure.

Skate Story is an allegorical love letter to skateboarding that expertly captures the essence of skating’s humbling mechanical vocabulary like few other games do. Thoughtful and inventive in unexpected ways, Sam Eng’s boundlessly creative dive into an absurdist underworld is as nourishing as it is refreshing.

Playing Kirby Air Riders is like learning a new language – it takes a lot of compromise, and it’s not for everyone. It’s those who master the basics who will soon find many new ways to approach each game mode, providing depth and replayability. If you meet Kirby Air Riders on its own terms, you will be rewarded with a gauntlet that’s bursting with thrills, depth, and charm.

Demonschool is the renaissance of classic Shin Megami Tensei design principles in a tight-knit retro package. Charming side content and colorful students will captivate players into its pre-established world, filled with stylish horror and strategic action-oriented battles. Whilst its fast-paced plot may leave some struggling to keep up, its simplified UI and protagonist Fayes' energetic disposition help guide you through every new development. Its streamlined approach to strategy makes it inviting to anyone who is looking for a short yet clever tactical RPG.

Dispatch is everything it needs to be and more. The vocal performances are emotive and captivating. What’s more, the title boasts a compelling story and excellent presentation; it does its damnedest to make your choices actually matter when tailoring your story. Dispatch is busy with heart, charm, and narrative weight.

Jurassic World Evolution 3 feels like the sequel fans have been waiting for. It’s ambitious, dramatic, and far more rewarding to master. The dinosaurs are expressive, the systems deeper, and the parks finally feel alive. It still struggles with micromanagement fatigue and the occasional bug, but the creative freedom makes it easy to forgive. Frontier hasn’t reinvented the park sim, but it’s refined the formula beautifully.

The Outer Worlds 2 boasts better-crafted, more deliberate storytelling alongside a wide scope for meaningful player choice. While there are undoubtedly problems with polish, and the combat system still needs some work, The Outer Worlds 2’s writing and commitment to world-building are enough all on their own. The depth of customisability will draw you back in, asking you how you might save the day next time around.

Ninja Gaiden 4 is a return to form after the misstep of its third entry, comfortably sitting alongside Ninja Gaiden 2 as a fast-paced action romp that makes you feel like a master ninja. However, some weak level gimmicks and an unremarkable central storyline hold it back from dethroning the earlier games in the franchise.

Pokémon Legends Z-A manages to be simultaneously promising, fun and disappointing. Pokémon series is the highest-grossing video game franchise on earth, and as a major release from this series, Pokémon Legends Z-A feels leagues below what it could be. However, if you are able to cut Game Freak some (perhaps unearned) slack, then you’ll find plenty to enjoy on the mean streets of Pokémon Legends Z-A. It’s not a monumental leap forward, but there is genuine innovation here. Amid Pokémon’s reputation for stagnancy, this is very much worth celebrating.

Digimon Story Time Stranger is a spirited, if occasionally ropey, JRPG adventure with buckets of heart and a sinewy monster taming system. Fans of the franchise will feel right at home amongst its luscious environments and intense set-piece battles. However, those wary of simplistic, earnest anime melodrama may find the narrative grating.

Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles offers the definitive incarnation of an iconic title. Built upon a skeleton of robust, deeply engaging strategic combat, the sinews of Final Fantasy Tactics’ main storyline continue to flex with impressive strength and resolve. Brought to life with stellar voice acting and an array of welcome quality-of-life improvements, Creative Business Unit III has achieved something highly impressive. Though the title’s commitment to old-school pacing and gameplay loops may leave some out in the cold, those looking for the definitive Final Fantasy Tactics experience will find it here.

The world is more gorgeous than ever, and it’s a joy just to be able to make a return. Hades 2 stands as a worthy sequel and companion to the original, both of which stand together as brother and sister.

Silent Hill f is a visually striking evolution of Konami’s beloved horror series, packed with cryptic lore that’s a treat to unpack. While the pace of combat struggles to feel sleek amidst the atmospheric story, macabre enemy designs, and a spine-chilling soundtrack more than make up for what it lacks.

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is unequivocally the best way to play Metal Gear Solid 3 if you’re all about modern comforts and higher frame rates. But under all the modernising gloss, it’s the same silly, daft game full of world-saving babble, over-the-top performances, surprise-stuffing, and a confounding script that’s very much a product of its time, for better or for worse.

If you’ve been looking for a SWAT simulator for console—and judging by the game’s popularity on the PlayStation Store, a lot of people have—Ready or Not really is as good as they come. It could do with some more polished controls across the board, but VOID Interactive has done a great job bringing the game to a lot more players, even if PC gamers must suffer some very minor consequences.

Death Stranding 2 manages the rare trick of being both desperately monotonous but profoundly engaging, banking towards one of these two poles depending on how much you’re willing to put in. It’s a game that demands that you meet it half-way and shed expectations, your pace dictated by your stomach for patience and perseverance. But if you do, it’s a wonderfully strange and roaring spectacle.

Elden Ring Nightreign is a multiplayer game for people who prefer single player games. It’s a celebration of the power of silent connection, of fleeting virtual bonds, of giddy celebratory gesturing between strangers, and of collective, gruelling perseverance. It's a fresh take on the steep challenge of the Souls formula that burrows into you, begging to be repeated. It delivers a frenzied high that’s quite unlike anything FromSoftware has produced so far.

DOOM The Dark Ages is an unrelenting barrage of visceral hyperviolence that comes at you thick and fast, leaving you overstimulated and exhausted but thrilled and gratified.

Though imperfect and moored to indelible design traditions and gameplay rituals, Assassin's Creed Shadows fizzes with style, intention, and detail, curating the best parts of the series into a confident and deeply enjoyable journey through feudal Japan.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is one of the best and most welcome surprises of the year.

You already know if you'll like GSC's newest entry in the series. If you like Call of Pripyat, you'll like this. If you didn't, Heart of Chornobyl rarely hides any true improvements to the formula. It's exactly what fans expect, albeit with a fancy, oftentimes gorgeous, new lick of paint and some modern sensibilities, but it's Stalker through and through - for better and for worse.

Batman: Arkham Shadow is a stunning virtual reality game, and a damn-good workout. Yes, you feel like Batman, but the game is more than just a simulator for Dark Knight roleplayers. It’s proof that any game concept can be adapted to a VR platform with enough care and skill, and it’s proof that VR has the sauce many claim it doesn’t. If you have a Quest 3, you need to play Batman. If you like Batman, you need a Quest 3.

Micro-transactions aside, NBA 2K25 is one of the best sports games to date. With its variety of game modes and stunning realism, it offers more than its predecessors. This game is a true delight for basketball fans, and if you're willing to overlook a couple of flaws, you're almost guaranteed to get hooked.

FC 25 is the first genuinely good FC game in years. A complete tactical overhaul underpins the game’s quality, with sweeping and much-needed changes to Career Mode backing it up, unfortunately, somewhat at the expense of Clubs and Ultimate Team.

Frostpunk 2 is a worthy sequel that ramps up the grit and immersion, but sheds some of the original's magic in the pursuit of innovation.

Endlessly creative and playful, The Plucky Squire's effortless hop between intertwined 2D and 3D worlds is an ode to the illustrated delights of storybooks.

DeathSprint 66 taps into a deeply disturbed corner of your imagination and begs you to die over and over again. You can't help but play along - it's that fun.

A faithful remaster of a classic RTS game with many enhancements that improve on an already great game.