Should Jon Shafer’s At the Gates be judged for what it is now, or what it has the potential to become? The experience is hamstrung by glitches, oversights, and unfinished systems, but playing a 4X game from the perspective of the barbarians remains a fantastic concept and some of that Civilization “one more turn” allure is still intact. Forgiving types may want to give At the Gates a try now, but most others should probably leave the game out in the cold until a few updates are released.

Murderous Pursuits is an entertaining, inventive, and accessible online multiplayer experience hobbled by its technical issues, stingy amount of content, and lack of polish. The game’s developers are promising to brush up and expand the game over the coming months, but will it ever reach its full potential? Only time will tell. There’s fun to be had at this murder party, but you’re probably best showing up fashionably late.

I still enjoyed this new package. Secret of Mana was always about charm and personality over polish. Yes, the game remains a bit of a mess, but that special spark at its core burns brighter than ever. If you loved the original game, or are just in the mood for something light and quirky, this remake strikes true.

While at the shorter end of the scale for Metrovania games, the $9.99 price fits this indie title perfectly. Exile’s End might not be the best sidescroller on the Playstation 4, but it undoubtedly has a difficult charm that should feel right at home for players that grew up in the NES/Amiga era.

Alone in the Dark is the best entry in the franchise in over two decades, although there wasn’t much competition for that title. So-so combat, technical issues, and a frustrating lack of consistency sometimes cast a shadow over the game, and yet, there’s still something enticing here. The game’s intricately-designed Derceto Manor hub, thick Lovecraftian atmosphere, and surprisingly-varied level design ought to be enough to light a spark of enthusiasm in some hardcore survival horror fans’ dark hearts.

It has some good elements, but they are often covered by the average, meaning little gets the chance to stand out. Were it a little tighter, a little faster and not requiring you to do so much busy work, I could see this being a more enjoyable experience.

Operation Babel feels too similar to its predecessor with a weaker cameo-focused story & reused assets but exceeds it in every other aspect of gameplay. The new subclass system provides extra control on party depth.

Pace yourself in the Blackout Club and it can be a fantastic game for a long time. From its various enemies and threats to its sinister suburban setting, the game feels great to play with friends, just as long as you don't spend too much time with it at once.

Empire of Sin is a sincere love letter to a fascinating moment in American history and delivers all the style, swagger, and Tommy-Gun-inflicted violence you’d expect. Unfortunately, somewhat shallow sim elements, pushover AI, and a serious lack of polish means this probably won’t be your next great strategy obsession. That said, if you love gangster stuff, Empire of Sin might still be an offer you can’t refuse.

Trailblazers isn’t a bad game, it just doesn’t do anything to make me ever want to go back to it. The multiplayer portion of the game does not have enough players to get into matches consistently (or ever, in my case) leaving the lackluster single player content. There’s also the local multiplayer but, just like the single-player content, you and your friends will get bored relatively quickly. To top everything off, the price of the game is far too high for what you are getting, making it difficult to convince anyone you know to pick it up.

Call of Cthulhu is horror comfort food. The equivalent of a dog-eared horror paperback found on some dusty used bookstore shelf. The game isn’t particularly daring or terrifying, but it is a well-written and crafted bit of low-stress spookiness. A handful of ill-conceived sequences drag Call of Cthulhu down a notch, but, thankfully, they aren’t enough to fully sink the game.

Daymare 1998 is meant to be a blast from the past but all it really does is destroy your old memories of those 90s horror games you played so long ago.

Go Vacation is an incredibly basic game, in addition to being a seven year old port. But somehow, despite my initial inklings that this was a shovelware game, I actually found myself really enjoying it.

Hyper Scape is a polished and pretty battle royale, but it is also bland and generic from start to finish. In a market already saturated by free to play shooters to try, Hyper Scape should be an afterthought. It doesn't have the confidence or the personality of its competitors, and it's come onto the scene far too late. There's a lot to like about Hyper Scape, but you probably won't find yourself playing it for long.

God of Rock has to be one of the worst attempts at combining rhythm games with other genres. While the game has a solid foundation, it really doesn't have much else as it fails as both a rhythm game and its fighting game aspects feel more like an overcomplication of something that already works well in other versus rhythm games.

Rise of Industry is fundamentally sound, but it goes from boom to bust too quickly. Poor tutorials make the game hard to get into, and once you do get the hang of things, you’ll find the magic is short-lived due to a lack of depth and polish. There is fun to be had with Rise of Industry, but budding tycoons concerned about value may want to invest elsewhere.

Destruction AllStars certainly has its charm. It exudes personality, thanks to a varied cast of characters that - despite having zero story - seem to have something about them that makes you want to learn more about them, such as their name. You’re here for the cars, and they are fun. The smashing, or destruction, of other cars, is a genuinely fun experience that's made all the better by each character having their own ability to mix things up. The game modes do keep things ticking over, though It needs to be said that the game needs to add more in the future to keep things fresh. This isn't a bad start for Destruction AllStars, but it's also one that needs to focus on the strengths and drop the weaknesses - particularly the abysmal on-foot gameplay - to make this game the online draw it could be.

Dream Cycle is doing a lot. And it does a lot of it well. But the parts that fall flat, bouncing off the strangeness of the game's own design, make it hard to recommend.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is no classic, that's for sure. The game's side content is mediocre at best, and its technical optimization is among the worst seen recently. That said, the setting's atmosphere is intact, the combat is fun, and the main story is well-crafted. I recommend it to fans, but only at a lower price than the launch one.

Dangerous Driving is, at best, a rough early prototype of a proper Burnout successor. The basic mechanics and sense of speed are there, but they’re badly undermined by bland track design, infuriating AI, a lack of features, and a host of other issues. Those feeling nostalgic for Burnout would be best served taking the classics out for another spin, rather than taking a chance on this lemon.

American Fugitive is a fun romp through a colourful, top-down GTA-inspired open-world crime-fest. While the game has some issues, such as repetitive missions, as well as stability problems on the Switch, it doesn't stop it from being an all-around fun and engaging title when you're actually playing. The freedom to explore a world of a decent size where there's actually a fair bit of content to go through, including side-elements like finding stashes, doing stunt-jumps and time trials. Is this the next GTA? No, nor was it going to be. Is it a fun, engaging and altogether decent title at a very reasonable price? Most definitely.

Terminator: Resistance Enhanced is not a good game. It is a perfectly average title from a decade or two ago that is somehow being released now. Despite its relatively shiny graphics, there is nothing interesting beneath the chrome.

Disintegration is a somewhat fractured experience. The game’s quirky combination of shooter and strategy mechanics works, and multiplayer is a lot of frantic fun, but its single-player campaign suffers from some oversights, technical issues, and monotonous design. If Disintegration is a hit, I suspect it will be for its multiplayer, so while I’m being a bit conservative with my score now, the game will hopefully hover to new heights as PvP content is added. Whether you want to jump on your Gravcycle now is up to you.

Conan Unconquered isn't the most polished RTS to be released this year, but it is filled with unique ideas, challenging enemies and fun emergent moments.

Bleeding Edge is an interesting combination of features taken from Overwatch, MOBAs and character action games, featuring a solid character roster, a good map selection and two modes that feel varied enough. The limited amount of content and the lack of a ranked mode, however, make it difficult to recommend the game as a stand-alone purchase as of now. As an Xbox Game Pass game, though, Bleeding Edge works much better, as players can keep playing while waiting for new content to drop without having to purchase the game right away.

The Starfield Shattered Space expansion leaves a lot to be desired. While it introduces a more focused and engaging story compared to the base game, the average map and quest design, along with the lack of new features, turn the adventure in Va'Ruun'kai into a bit of a slog rather quickly. Although the tighter focus is welcome, the Starfield experience as a whole needs something more substantial to reach its full potential.

The Station fails to captivate despite its interesting ideas and puzzles. The setting is nice, but the script and narrative couldn't quite deliver on the core concept.

The Good Life comes with excellent narrative elements, but the entire experience is damaged by some weird design choices that result in mediocre gameplay. While this is hardly surprising for a game directed by SWERY, some of the ideas featured in The Good Life, like the cat and dog transformation mechanics, deserved a much better execution, as they feel shallow and not particularly interesting. With such flawed gameplay, only die-hard fans of the Japanese director will truly love The Good Life.

FlatOut 4 is a frequently irritating game that's held down by incredible amounts of grind, it has some saving graces with a variety of game modes and track types, but they don't do enough to balance out against the negatives like AI, physics and more.

Kingdom Under Fire II is one of the most internally divisive games I've ever played. Some parts are genuinely fantastic while others are mind-numbingly horrible. The third-person character combat is up there as one of, if not the best I've ever encountered in an MMO. On top of that is a fun and engaging strategy element, one where you can seamlessly move between commanding your troops and yourself, to fighting on the front lines with them. However, the MMO part in-between the fighting and strategy is interminably boring, showing a dated sensibility and more time-wasting than could ever be reasonably expected. I genuinely thought I was going to hate it, going by the start, but I now genuinely, almost begrudgingly, like it and against all odds I will be playing more.

Urban Empire aims to offer an interesting mix of political intrigue with city-building creativity and management. However, it doesn't give anywhere near enough information or allow enough freedom to make it as compelling as the idea could have been.

Everything Torchlight III does, it does worse than one of its contemporaries. Primarily Diablo. While what is here looks good and plays fine, it's repetitive and lacks the magic of games it shares a genre with. But all of that could've been forgiven if it had at least allowed me to suffer through it with a friend in local multiplayer, but it couldn't even do that. If you get the urge to play Torchlight III, just play Diablo III instead.

Perish is a game that can accomplish its objectives but requires a lot more polishing. The game offers a great way for up to four players to enjoy a shooter experience in which you can face off against several hellish creatures cooperatively. While those are definite pluses, the aforementioned issues can take players away from the experience.

My concern with Predator: Hunting Grounds is a simple one. If Illfonic doesn't fix the issues with getting in a game and a few bugs like AI enemies glitching into the floor, as well as develop some content to actually liven it up, it'll become another Evolve. If the issues are fixed and a bit of content is made, I could genuinely see this having a decent following. I know I'd come back to it.

ClaDun Returns: This is Sengoku! Is a wonderful return to the Classic Dungeon series and an experience that rogue lite fans shouldn’t miss out on. With the PlayStation Vita version having some performance issues and lacking in online multiplayer, I would recommend the Playstation 4 version unless you’re sold on the portable experience. Either way, this rogue lite should be appreciated by fans of random adventures and Sengoku history buffs alike.

One of the best games based on the Cartoon Network show, thanks to the faithful representation of the series' charming world and characters. While quite derivative, with features lifted from The Legend of Zelda series in particular, the game developed by Climax Studios can be a fun experience, granted the player manages to overcome some frustration due to balancing and design issues.

Slitterhead is an experience that's fantastic in still shots or in story trailers but the actual gameplay becomes a muddled mess when the player is forced into repetitive chase and combat sequences.

With its engaging story, charming cast of characters, and solid RPG mechanics, Mato Anomalies is a game that all role-playing game fans will enjoy, especially fans of the Persona series, by which the game is greatly influenced. Lack of innovation, dull turn-based combat and a wonky English localization impact the experience, but not enough to make it unworthy of a look from fans of the genre.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Storm Ground is a solid turn-based strategy game that has some fun in its small corner of Games Workshop’s fantasy universe, but it isn’t unique or exciting enough to overcome ill-fitting roguelike mechanics that turn progression into a grind. The game will still appeal to some hardcore fans, and may become a better experience with updates, but for now, this latest Warhammer adaptation is routed by a few bad strategic choices.

There are so many things I can complain about with Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker, but ultimately, I can't help but admire the effort. It's not a cinematic experience like the Ultimate Ninja Storm games, and it won't take you through the story of Naruto or even Boruto, but when the multiplayer games work in your favour, it feels good, and unique. It's just a shame it doesn't feel good for long.

If you're a fan of constant raising stakes with no reprieve, then this is certainly the sort of thing that will appeal to you. Even if not, it will still appeal, but in smaller doses. Either way, Tharsis is a compelling, but polarizing, game.

While not our final score for Godfall, we're reserving the opportunity to adjust the tally for Godfall based on the endgame content. If it somehow redeems the lackluster loot that players will carve through during the campaign, that number might change. Otherwise, go into this one looking for some quality swordplay and subpar swords. [Provisional Score = 70]

Tales of the Shire is a frustrating missed opportunity. Decent cooking mechanics aside, nearly everything else you’d hope to see from a cozy hobbit life sim is either missing or half-heartedly executed. Meanwhile, those familiar with developer Weta Workshop for their contributions to the groundbreaking Lord of the Rings films will likely be surprised by how technically inept the game is. Even the smallest person can change the course of the future, but in this case, our furry-footed friends simply fall short.

Metal Max Xeno is one of the most average RPG's I've played in a long while. It's almost a comfort food in a strange way: warm and familiar but without any spice.

A decent game that simply tries too much. Mixing role playing and strategy aspects, though never the best at either, there's a lot to do. The other major issue is simply how ugly it looks outside of the drawn art.

Curse of Osiris offers little as far as content is concerned. The brief campaign is forgettable and treated more like hold-over content than a proper full expansion. The only real redeeming feature about Curse of Osiris are the Raid Lairs.

There might have been plenty of co-op shooters since Left 4 Dead, but few managed to wrangle the same fun, fear and frantic combat as Earthfall did.

Alfred Hitchcock - Vertigo is an interesting narrative-driven adventure game, or more like an interactive story, which incorporates several themes from Hitchcock's work. While not linked to the film of the same name, Vertigo is similar in many ways and - like Vertigo - features a compelling and well-told story with (mostly) interesting and well-developed characters. However, this story is countered by distracting facial animation, issues with balancing the generally good audio, and other technical problems. Alfred Hitchcock - Vertigo isn't a bad interactive story, I'd even recommend the story, it misses the mark on too much for me to not offer some caution.

A well-designed sandbox that’s at its most entertaining when you ignore what’s supposed to be the core of the game. The story is a dud, and the game's Ultimate Team-inspired upgrade system is an attempt to force a square peg into a round hole, but there’s no denying tearing down desert roads at 180 mph in a souped-up 1965 Mustang is a blast. Need for Speed Payback is a fun joyride, but it doesn’t quite hold up over the long haul.

WWE 2K Battlegrounds is clearly a rush job, but the game’s simple, fundamentally sound action can be a real breath of fresh air at times. Unfortunately, that air is tainted by overbearing microtransactions that feel particularly crass given the game’s cartoony, kid-friendly aesthetic. Battlegrounds could have been a contender if 2K had truly believed in the game, but once again, the publisher only seems to be interested in wrestling open fans’ wallets.

Drag x Drive delivers some moments of frenetic multiplayer fun, but an inflexible and physically-demanding control scheme, lack of personality, and dearth of content severely limits the game's long-term appeal. Drag x Drive could have been a solid addition to a larger Wii-Sports-style collection designed to show off the Switch 2's mouse functionality, but on its own, the game is far from a slam-dunk purchase.

Dolmen innovates the Soulslike genre with how it handles Energy and ranged combat but lacks a clear vision of what makes these games enjoyable beyond just some interesting mechanics.

Fort Solis is technically great from a graphical and audio perspective. The issue is that the narrative and gameplay do not match up, being poor by any standards. It's challenging to get into Fort Solis, from poor pacing and storytelling to gameplay that is boring at the best of times - primarily thanks to some of the slowest movement speeds in gaming today. When you are in, you'll be glad to get back out as soon as possible.

KING Art's take on the series was supposed to introduce it to a new generation of fans, but as things stand, it would be better for those interested in it to get the older Black Mirror games, as the reboot is marred by a variety of issues that prevent from being a memorable experience. There is a decent adventure game hidden somewhere beneath the mediocre writing, bland characters, and technical issues, but it would be better to look elsewhere to get a better experience.

The Dwarves is a role-playing game that fails to reach its full potential. Its interesting battle concepts are marred by a mediocre execution, very limited RPG mechanics, and just too many technical issues on PlayStation 4. Despite this, the game still managed to be somewhat enjoyable thanks to the gripping yet not too original story, and charming characters. Due to gameplay and technical shortcomings, however, only die hard high fantasy fans may find some enjoyment in The Dwarves. Everyone else would do better in looking elsewhere.

Tennis World Tour 2 is an undeniable improvement on the original release and it's also arguably a great tennis game for those who can get into it. Aesthetically, it looks good from afar, with fluid animations and speed that honestly gives the feel of a tennis match and features a wide number of game modes, giving you a lot to play through. The problem, however, is that the core game mechanics are inaccessible and unapproachable, offering no settings to reduce the reliance of awfully specific precision-based button pressing which can ruin the core career mode. A mixed bag, this will appeal for fans of tennis, but the opaque nature of the gameplay makes it too hard to recommend.

Should you get Payday 2 on Switch? Well if you want an interesting multiplayer shooter and don’t have access to it on other platforms, sure. Otherwise? Probably not. Maybe wait to see how things are after an update or two.

Medieval Kingdom Wars is a very ambitious game, one that certainly has the potential to be far better if Reverie sticks to their promise and keep up with updates and fixes. At the moment it's a little better than adequate, it can even be good at times. It just has a few too many flaws and can hit too many boring patches, preventing it from reaching that higher level.

Windbound wants to offer a deep story backed up by rewarding exploration, crafting and survival in a beautiful open world. However, it only really lands the beautiful open world part of this, with it getting close to the line with the rewarding exploration and crafting aspects. The problem is that for all it wants to offer, Windbound is just too shallow and repetitive and offers no real replay value.

The Dead Island 2 Haus DLC is nothing more than a quick romp that can be moderately fun if played in the middle of the campaign for a little 2 hours or so diversion, but it simply doesn't offer enough for returning players, as it only exacerbates how the game tends to become a little repetitive a dozen hours in.

Brawlout isn’t terrible, but it’s a struggle to recommend to anyone. If you play Smash Bros. by yourself a lot, maybe this has the kind of content you’ll enjoy, but with no reason for casual players to get involved, and an inferior competitive game compared to Smash, Brawlout isn’t a game I’d put on my wishlist.

Flint: Treasure of Oblivion is a game that undoubtedly required way more time in the oven. While its engaging story, captivating presentation, and the charismatic pirate captain James Flint pull players into the adventure early on, the experience is marred by a horrendous interface, clunky controls, poor tutorials, and the subpar execution of several mechanics. As a result, the game is hard to recommend except to the most dedicated tactical role-playing game enthusiasts willing to overlook its many glaring flaws.

Endless Ocean Luminous offers some agreeable laid-back moments, but a lack of depth and complexity, even compared to the 15-year-old Wii entries in the series, waters down the game’s appeal. Endless Ocean Luminous was always destined to be a niche product, but even the diehards may find the game’s narrow focus on procedural generation and unexceptional online play over almost anything else a bit fishy.

Despite the backlash from fans decrying that Metal Gear Survive isn't a true Metal Gear game, what's available in this $40 package is a hundred-plus hours of one of the most polished survival games to ever make it onto consoles.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has a sprinkling of that classic Rocksteady charm, delivering polished visuals, fluid traversal and combat, and some snappy repartee, but the whole experience is bogged down by dreary, repetitive mission design, empty live service elements, and a feel-bad story that’s mean-spirited to the point of feeling oddly resentful. Perhaps most damning, not even the thing promised in the game’s title – fighting and dispatching the Justice League – ends up being particularly fun or memorable. Those who really want to see what becomes of the Arkhamverse may not be able to resist picking this up, but I suggest waiting for a steep discount before subjecting yourself to this tedious team-up.

With the current flood of action role-playing games inspired by the Souls series, Stray Blade wasn't setting out to light the world on fire, but the game did have the potential to be much better than it turned out to be. While the experience isn't entirely unplayable when everything clicks together, the clunky execution of most of its gameplay mechanics makes it difficult to recommend the game to anyone but those who live and breathe ARPGs and need to play each and every one of them.

It can be difficult to square the decade-plus Skull and Bones development cycle with its lack of features in some areas, but this isn’t the wreck many expected it to be. The game’s naval combat is simple yet engaging, its world is striking, ship customization is satisfying, and there are plenty of varied things to do, even if most of them don’t involve getting off your ship. Skull and Bones can be repetitive and it doesn’t exactly capture that devil-may-care pirate lifestyle, but keep expectations in check and there’s fun to be had sailing these pleasantly predictable seas.

I do hope they bring Mario Party to Switch soon, but until then, this honestly isn’t a very good replacement. Not worth it unless it’s a gift for a younger gamer, or you happen to get together with friends and 3DS consoles often.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered is certainly prettier than the GameCube release, but with a definitive lack of local co-op and some bafflingly poor online multiplayer choices, that’s about all this remastered classic has going for it.

Warcraft III: Reforged isn't the game that was promised, but is still a valuable reconstruction of one of the most influential titles in the history of video games. This release is, sadly, riddled with bugs as well as marred by the terrible decisions of Blizzard, particularly that of the false advertising that persists now even after launch. However, despite this, there's little doubting that Warcraft III: Reforged has a compelling story that, even eighteen years on, remains one of the most engaging in the genre. The gameplay holds strong to this day and with the tweaks and upgrades, this is an undeniable diamond in the rough.

Rogue Trooper Redux won’t be for everyone, but old fans wishing to revisit a favorite and new players interested in the tale of a classic franchise will still have fun here. Some aged mechanics and a handful of minor bugs in animations and camera control can hamper the experience, but for the most part, Rogue Trooper Redux is a fascinating game to revisit.

Hellpoint is certainly cut from the all-too-familiar Souls cloth when it comes to character progression and combat, but it's the sense of exploration that makes this one Soulslike that shouldn't be missed.

Necropolis is an interesting dungeon crawler that sadly fails to live up to its full potential due to a severe lack of content and sense of progression. The game isn't exactly bad, as there are some interesting ideas, but it features so little incentive to play again that most will end up abandoning it after a few runs.

Super Lucky's Tale is a simple yet engaging platform game that players of all ages can enjoy thanks to its pick-up-and-play experience. The game, however, may be too simple for some, and the easy and short experience may be a turn off for others, especially for those who have experienced other excellent platform games this year such as A Hat in Time and Super Mario Odyssey.

X4: Foundations is a far superior game to the last outing and is already on the right path to success, thanks to Egosofts diligent work in fixing issue s and enhancing the game. However, in its current state, it's still lacking core elements that help to make the game what it could be. Thanks to a broken in-game economy and an almost non-existent story, it can force you down paths and become boring, quickly. However, improvements to the war system has nullified this to an extent. It's a game on the rise and one to keep an eye on, likely worth buying in the near future.

Summer in Mara can be endearing and sometimes evokes the spirit of better games like Harvest Moon, Stardew Valley, and Wind Waker, but poor UI, confusing mechanics, and repetitive quest design harshes the game’s mellow vibe. Perhaps Summer in Mara can be improved with updates, but for now, I’d only book myself on this island cruise at a discount.

Warlander offers a very interesting spin on the Dark Souls formula, featuring a deep stamina-based combat system featuring limb cutting mechanics, interesting setting and progression mechanics inspired by roguelike games. Sadly, the general lack of polish and low amount of content damage the experience in the end, making Warlander a game that can be recommended only to the most die-hard fans of the Souls series.

Expedition Zero is an interesting game with some good ideas and exceptional atmosphere use. Still, the positives are let down by several bugs, issues around areas of the game feeling unfinished and other frustrations. There's certainly a chance you'll have some good moments with the game, but I can only imagine these moments will be outweighed by other less fun and more annoying moments.

Lacking some polish in the audio and with a highly derivative story, it's hard for Skylar and Plux to stand out from the crowd. Its visuals are nice, however, and gameplay is solid and enjoyable enough. Children will love the vivid colors and silly characters, but not enough is done to appeal to the mainstream gaming crowd.

Necromunda: Underhive Wars is a great strategy game, with pacing that leaves the entire experience marred. The slow crawl of progress is enough to drive you insane, but despite all of that, it's still a darn good time. If you have a lot of time free and enjoy Warhammer, this is a solid choice, but I'm praying we get an update with a game speed increase option - or a mod, for the PC version.

Supermassive Games has aimed for something truly ambitious in the horror sector with The Inpatient. While there are some fine ideas in play, this brief psychological experience could've used a little bit more time in therapy.

South Park: Snow Day! is a roguelike shooter experience that is short and extremely mediocre to the point of being bad. While it isn't incredibly broken, it still fails to provide a meaningful experience, especially compared to the games that came before it. The shift from 2D to 3D isn't important at all. Rather, it's the incredibly repetitive and boring approach it takes alongside its formulaic plotline that makes it feel like one of the worst episodes in the series.

Long heralded as the pinnacle of graphical performance, the Remastering of Crysis leaves much to be desired with a style of combat and fidelity that can’t quite match its contemporaries on PlayStation and Xbox.

Road Redemption delivers exactly what it promises – an accurate recreation of decades-old racing games that maybe weren’t all that hot to begin with. If you legitimately love and have continued to play Road Rash all these years, by all means, give Road Redemption a shot. You’ll probably enjoy it. If the 16-bit era was before your time, or you haven’t touched Road Rash since you returned it to Blockbuster Video in 1993, be prepared for a bumpy ride.

Gord is an interesting and, at times, good, albeit flawed, survival city-builder mixed with action RPG and strategy elements. The atmosphere is excellently done, but this is countered by the sanity mechanics taking too much from the rest of the game. Almost every positive has a negative. The character development mechanics bring a fundamentally broken inventory system. The excellent monster development introduces a few that are just outright broken. The (sometimes) interesting campaign brings a near-opaque element of worldbuilding, requiring much side-reading as names are unceremoniously thrown at you. All in all, Gord isn't a bad game, and while I can have a decent time of it, there are too many flaws to recommend it universally; hardcore strategy fans may apply.

It is frustrating to rate Anthem. The game looks great, plays even better and has an intriguing setting to boot. However, the fragmented world design, overabundance of loading screens and severe lack of content considerably drag down the experience, at least for the time being. Still, this is a live service game after all and the folks at BioWare have the chance to right this ship by adding enough content in the upcoming months, though it won't be easy.

With its charming characters and engaging story, Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time could have been so much more. Sadly, the dungeon crawling experience is damaged by bad enemy AI, clunky controls and a terrible performance that make the experience very unpleasant. The game does have some interesting features and mechanics, as well as a well-done presentation, but they're not enough to make the game a must-have for those who aren't fans of the anime.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIV represents a marked improvement on recent outings from the franchise, offering great strategic gameplay and strong characterisation. All of this is done with a strong focus on ease of access, made easier by a clean UI that allows people to pick it up easy. There are downsides, however. With adequate at best, though often poor AI and a collection of bugs, some that are game-breaking, there is still room for improvement and a dire need for patches to fix the bugs and optimisation issues.

Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness can be loads of fun, but also doesn't really offer anything new. Fans of action JRPGs such as the Tales series will find something to enjoy, but it's definitely not a game for everyone.

With One Piece: World Seeker it feels like we are finally getting higher quality licensed anime games, but it still has a way to go to be truly incredible or essential, even for fans of the series. Still, if you want to run and rocket with Luffy and the crew, this is a great place to do so.

Dr. Mario World wants your money, and it really doesn't care if you have fun while it tries to pry your wallet open, and that really is the biggest damnation I can give to a mobile game. Don't bother downloading this, it's not even worth your time as a free curiosity. A massive disappointment, and one of the worst Nintendo licensed games I have ever played.

The reason why the Battle Modes are so disappointing is because it’s so hectic.

Space Hulk: Deathwing is a sadly boring and uninspiring shooter. A repetitive single player that could have been saved by a strong multiplayer is just lost due to technical issues and the sad fact is that the game simply isn't good enough.

With a well written (albeit not exactly original) story and a nicely crafted gameplay experience featuring plenty of content, ReCore is the game to get for those looking for an involving action adventure title. Sadly, the experience is a bit lessened by the generally low challenge level, which makes Corebots mechanics almost superfluous, slightly repetitive combat, disappointing boss battles and a variety of technical issues.

Wanted: Dead feels like a callback to the worst games of the Xbox/PS2 era. The game has a distinct lack of polish when it comes to its enemy design, and, combined with the horrid voice acting and confusing storyline that's only explained through supplementary material, it feels like the ultimate case of wasted potential that could've become something better had the developers put a bit more thought into it.

The value proposition isn't amazing, and would be a tough pill to swallow even if it were £1 per game. Solo, this is absolutely one to be missed, while players with siblings, flatmates, partners or regular gatherings might actually find this to be essential.

Peaky Blinders: Mastermind is an average game at best. It features interesting puzzles and a decent enough art style, but the story feels shallow, offering nothing major to draw you in. It does feel like Peaky Blinders at face value and the puzzles, with the time-travel mechanics allowing you to create the perfect plan, makes you feel like you are part of one of Tommy Shelby's schemes, but this is still mostly superficial. It's short and inoffensive but, at the same time, it doesn't do anything to make it feel more than 'average'.

While Scarlet Curiosity is certainly geared towards fans that already know a little bit about the Touhou lineage, those looking for a fun little diversion until Ys VIII reaches North America won’t be disappointed.