Master Detective Archives: Rain Code’s twists and turns aren’t quite as wild as Danganronpa’s, but they make more sense, and are, ultimately, more satisfying. And don’t get me wrong, Rain Code goes to some very dark and surprising places. Kodaka has built the world of Rain Code brick-by-brick in a very careful way, and it’s hard not to admire the craft. And a lot of crafting has be done! The game is at least 30 hours long and those who aim to clean up ever sidequest and collectible could spend closer to 40 hours. Expect to spend a lot of time combing through these archives, mystery fans.

Jagged Alliance 3 marks a long-awaited triumphant return for the franchise, with the last undeniably great release being Jagged Alliance 2 over twenty years ago. Creating an exceptional balance on both a strategic and tactical level, bringing back character attributes and progression, an entire inventory system, perks and more, forcing you to balance your broader economy and ensuring you can't just sit back - Haemimont Games have successfully created a game that will challenge, that I have found compelling and fun, and one that has kept me hooked into a "just one more day" loop and a few very late nights at that.

The game is still subtle enough with other parts of itself to at least warrant a thorough playthrough. After all, the player has to discover the origins of this mysterious world and the entities inside it, and the only way to find out is through multiple playthroughs. Overall, this experience is decent, and I'm thoroughly satisfied with what I've got.

Like the promotion it’s based on, AEW: Fight Forever can be a bit rough around the edges, but the game is also a welcome breath of fresh air. Fun, approachable in-ring action and an endearingly-quirky career mode largely make up for scruffy visuals and some missing content. AEW: Fight Forever won’t be for everyone, but if you’re looking for an alternative, feel free to push your chips All In.

Trepang2 offers a lot of choices in terms of customization, gameplay, and mechanics for players. While the enemy AI isn't that clever and the difficulty surrounds changing damage values more than making enemies smarter, it more than makes up for it with its memorable set pieces, gun variety, and incredibly chilling horror moments.

Nothing short of a technical marvel, Clive Rosfield and Torgal are among some of the best character action duos and their 70-hour epic adventure across Valisthea will forever be remembered in Final Fantasy XVI

Aliens: Dark Descent is an excellent real-time tactics game mixed with survival horror and arguably the best Aliens game around. Excellent tactical action in a world ever-succumbing to the Xenomorph threat, you will find resources scarce, leading to difficult decisions, ones made all the more difficult when time is also a factor. Add on an engaging enough story and an excellent atmosphere, and you have a game that I can't help but recommend to anybody and everybody.

They say an artist's work is never truly done, but with Layers of Fear, Bloober Team and Anshar Studios have completed the Master Opus started back in 2016. With superb UE5 powered visuals, improved writing and some new gameplay mechanics, these journeys into the darkest recesses of the human mind have never been so immersive, although some issues prevent Layers of Fear from being an absolute masterpiece.

Convergence: A League of Legends Story is a genuinely great platformer, with tight combat and platforming, enhanced by various skills and abilities - including the ability to rewind time Prince of Persia style. While the story can be a little opaque for those - like me - who have no clue about League of Legends, it does manage to draw you in and even get you watching Arcane on Netflix (just me?) thanks to some compelling characters and, most of all, a very interesting setting in Zaun, a steampunk dystopia with the worst architectural design ever. Enhanced by excellent visuals and voice acting, Convergence is a game I recommend to everybody, even if you don't know the LoLs.

Amnesia: The Bunker has become one of the best horror games in an ever-changing landscape on par with titles like Resident Evil 7 and The Dark Descent. This game not only is a return to form for Frictional Games but it also paves the way forward thanks to its systems that encourage creative solutions to problems and an ever-changing nature that will keep players on the edge of their seats as they face off against the supernatural threat that's roaming the halls of the bomb shelter.

Panic Porcupine is very much as you could expect as a homage to Sonic the Hedgehog, though it certainly stands alone with a much higher level of difficulty torn straight out of the guts of Super Meat Boy. While more than passable, it has a few core issues in a game like this, one being input lag. Still, despite the problems I found, I can genuinely imagine this being an enjoyable title for fans of the genre.

Age of Wonders 4 offers a rare and refreshing level of flexibility for a 4X game, allowing you to customize your leader, people, and realm to an impressive degree. This can be a bit bewildering at first, and the level of complexity threatens to overwhelm the game’s limited tactical battles, but it all comes together as a satisfying package after a bit of trial and error. Age of Wonders 4 may not be the perfect potion for all turn-based strategy fans, but it should enchant a good portion of them.

Diablo IV is a return to form at a much needed time for Blizzard. It delivers incredibly fun hack and slash action combat, a greatly improved skill system, and a ton of things to do, not to mention the best story told in the franchise yet. It also looks awesome, sounds great, and runs well (except for rare instances of traversal stuttering)...That said, it sticks a little bit too closely to the rulebook, which works against it in a few areas. The open world is not as dynamic as one could have hoped, with events getting repetitive rather quickly. The side content doesn't provide any real narrative juice, and the endgame replayability may not be as deep as needed due to limited randomization and lack of certain features.

Street Fighter 6 is the culmination of the experience CAPCOM introduced to the video gaming world back in 1987. With extremely solid gameplay mechanics, a wealth of excellent single-player content that teaches the basics in an extremely fun way, flawless online experience, amazing character design and attention to accessibility, Street Fighter 6 is in a league of its own, and one of the best fighting games in decades.

Overall, this is a solid remake that should lay the foundations for what modern gaming should bring to the future. While it does have its rough edges, it's still a more than enjoyable experience all around that, while frustrating due to its design, can still offer a few hours of entertainment as an action game with cyber-horror elements.

The Lord of the Rings Gollum is a game that has a lot of technical issues that also ultimately drag its presentation back. However, it still is a charming game in its own way with its setting, writing, and some incredible environment design that can catch your breath at times. This game is a cautious recommendation for players that aren't Lord of the Rings enthusiasts.

Star Trek: Resurgence is possibly one of the more accurate games to have captured the Star Trek world in a more contemplative manner, with the adventure game format being particularly suited to it. With a compelling narrative, interesting characters (new and returning) and a game that plays well, there is a lot to like here, despite a number of technical hiccups on the PC version.

Lego 2K Drive is a nicely-polished ride, offering up unexpectedly-intense kart-racing action and a handful of diverting sandbox stages to explore. Unfortunately, the game is also a bit light on content and its aggressive microtransactions may make parents looking for something light to play with their kids pump the brakes. Lego 2K Drive is still worth considering, particularly once it goes on sale, but it feels like it’s a few bricks short of what it could have been.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom sticks closely to the blueprint established by The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but it’s a richer, more rewarding game in most ways that count, offering a more intricate world, versatile suite of abilities, epic story, and satisfying dungeons. The familiarity of this Hyrule and a handful of frustrating sections keep Tears of the Kingdom from feeling quite as surprising and magical as its predecessor, but make no mistake, the wait has been worth it. While it probably behooves Nintendo to carve out an entirely new Legend next, Link’s latest should fill most fans’ heart meters nicely in the meantime.

Honkai Star Rail highlights the issues that Genshin Impact had despite how many issues have been addressed. The game's barebones RPG mechanics will definitely improve over time, but it still will take a lot to convince any enthusiast to pick this game over other turn-based RPG gacha games.

With Redfall, Arkane strayed a bit too far from its roots and couldn't nail the landing. While the core gameplay is fun, and there are moments of brilliance that harken back to Arkane's glorious portfolio, most of the studio's strengths clearly do not mesh well with the open world genre, as exemplified by the disappointing safe house missions. Additionally, the writing is very uneven, never succeeding in making the player care about any of the characters, and the co-op mode adds little substance.

Omega Strikers is a fun experience with an excellent presentation. While the game doesn't have much else besides its standard versus modes, it's an incredible game that's very easy to get into and tough to master. The game's free-to-play structure could use some work in terms of the kinds of goodies you get for free, but other than that, it still can be a fun time for most players.

Cal Kestis' latest journey, this time to seek out a long-lost Jedi stronghold on Tanalorr, should feel intimately familiar to fans of Jedi: Fallen Order. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor builds upon the successes of the original title but doesn't quite do enough to stand up on its own merits.

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.

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.

Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp is a very respectable retrofit of two of the best old-school tactical strategy games of all time. Some may question who the audience for this package is as it doesn’t offer much new content for experienced commanders, but these are still objectively high-quality games and this remake does little to diminish their charms. If you’re new to the Advance Wars series or just looking for a more convenient way to play some of its best entries again, this remake is likely to capture your heart (and free time).

For being a game that has been in development hell for over ten years, Dead Island 2 turned out alright, thanks to the wacky atmosphere and characters, fun combat, and acceptable quest quality. All of these features, however, become progressively worse as the campaign proceeds, making the game nothing more than an acceptable experience that may not be worthy of its full price tag for those looking for something a bit more involving.

The Settlers: New Allies isn't quite the return to Settlers that fans of the franchise would want. Shallow across all areas, with basic city-building and very basic strategy elements, held together by an average narrative. It's not a bad game, but it's also not good.