Party Hard offers a frustrating yet fun and addictive experience. Not being one to let a game beat me, I've thrown people into fires, stabbed a bus full of people (beginning to feel like a real serial killer here...), killed harmless animals, and burnt down rooms with people in them, all in the name of peace and quiet.

With its striking art direction, haunting soundtrack and focus on exploration, Sable is a great journey about understanding yourself. Frequent stuttering and some bugs bring the experience down though.

You can't help but smile as you play. Its adorable nature, strange characters, and quirky dialogues make you fall in love with the game even though the camera controls are a bit off. If you're looking for a title which is guaranteed to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, then be sure to give this one a go.

And it really doesn't need microtransactions. No, it's not pay to win, you don't have to even think about touching them. But that EA even included them turns me off a little. There are very real things to fix with this franchise, and asking people for more money inside the game isn't how you do it.

Iron Harvest offers a strong, story-driven campaign split into three interwoven parts. However, its core RTS mechanics leave something to be desired, and some common RTS features are lacking or missing.

Title aside, dodgeball and local multiplayer fans should have a great time with Stikbold. The $10 price tag is perfect for the game's level of content, too. Here's hoping the game sells well enough for us to get a sequel with online play and more arenas.

Weird West's astounding world-building and intriguing singleplayer campaign are worth the cost of entry on their own, but the game's lackluster technical performance and polish are huge negatives that prevent it from achieving greatness.

The gameplay itself is engaging and invigorating, perfectly capturing the tone of previous entries in the series. The current package is significantly lacking, but regarding gameplay, Hitman is shaping up to be one of the best games to date. Sadly numerous performance issues hinder the game's potential, but never affect gameplay in a significant way.

A decent conclusion to We Happy Few that brings interesting changes to the game's formula.

If you're in the mood for a challenging and dark adventure, you could do worse than 2Dark. The pulpy subject matter and tone are different from the average horror game. The unique perspective and art style actually serve the material quite well, too. Despite the rough edges, horror fans should give 2Dark a chance.

Space Hulk: Tactics falls over a little when it comes to its campaign and progression system, but over all it earns a recommendation from us for fans of the genre. For more detail, read on.

Ubisoft should be rewarded for its ambition, but ultimately ambition has translated into an overly busy experience that's got a little too much going on.

Bridge Constructor Portal will not blow you away, but it's a fun puzzle title that makes good use of portals and puts a new twist on a classic formula. For Portal fans, it's an excellent opportunity to revisit the classic world of Portal with a slightly different approach.

Deadbeat Heroes is a good first effort from the small team at Deadbeat Productions. The combat is fast, fluid, and easy to learn – even if it lacks the depth of a good combo system. Enemies are well-varied, as are the environments. The game's aesthetic won't impress anybody, though, and the music is atrocious and repetitive.

Far Cry 6 is like Far Cry 5, 4, and 3. Despite an incredible performance from Giancarlo Esposito of Breaking Bad fame, there's very little new or fresh about this latest sandbox shooter.

Gravel is a lot of fun, offering an enjoyable arcade-racing experience with oodles of sideways flare. It's well presented and has plenty of appeal for fans of single-player games that just want something they can pick up and play without much of a learning curve...The lack of HDR is disappointing, but at least the Xbox One X has been considered, though personally I'd trade 4K support for 60 FPS every day.

Planetbase proved an addictive little time waster for around five to 10 hours before I realized that there wasn't really much more to it than what I'd experienced in the first few hours...The game could have done with more dynamism and perhaps more customization, there are only three vanity buildings available, and the "upgrades" you get amount to color swaps and larger models, which gives it an unfortunate sense of grind.

Though it often showcases excellent characters that go through well-written development, The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series Collection is held back by some narrative flaws and dull quick-time events. The world is filled with secrets to find and places to explore, and the presentation of it through art, music and great cinematography is a positive. Despite this, the issues with the story and gameplay prevent it from truly achieving its maximum potential.

Tell Me Why respectfully deals with sensitive topics and tells a meaningful story about grief and trauma. The performance and dialogue can be janky at times, but that shouldn't deter you from this experience.

Control's story has a great premise, but its characters leave a lot to be desired.

The ease of being able to pick up and play Heart&Slash should be a huge deciding factor if you're thinking about purchasing it. It is brilliant for filling in time between mainstream title releases, if not a game worth picking up just for the hell of it.

Overall, A Walk in the Park is a good expansion which offers more gameplay hours but that's all it does. You'll gawk at the visuals but its existence doesn't add anything extraordinary to the game unless you care deeply about the character. The audiologs are the best part by far because they give Warren a layer of complexity which was lacking in the original.

Empire of the Ants is a visual masterpiece based on the 1991 sci-fi book by Bernard Werber, but its streamlined RTS gameplay may be too limited for hardcore fans of the genre. The game is approachable for newbies or those who do not want to hassle with elaborate strategic maneuvers, and it offers additional gameplay via the hub, world exploration, and a surprising amount of platforming.

The Ascent is a solid evolution of the twin-stick formula, offering some of the most detailed and impressive visuals the gen has to offer so far. However, The Ascent needs a couple of polish passes as of writing, due to bugs and other glitches. Additionally, the game suffers from a lack of testing, with balance problems and structural issues that weaken the latter half of the game.

If you're someone who doesn't need a huge community to play with — and if you can come to grips with the intricacies of realistic riding — Steep will feed your lust for extreme winter sports just fine.

Code Vein is a great game, but needs more polish.

Despite my list of complaints, I've had a lot of fun with Darktide so far, and I'm looking forward to playing it for dozens (if not hundreds) of hours more as new features are added, issues are patched, and an increased player pool with the arrival of the Xbox Series X|S console versions.

Layers of Fear (2023) makes full use of Unreal Engine 5 to elevate its visuals, lighting, and environments to all-new heights, reimagines the original Layers of Fear, and features brand-new DLC content to tie the entire story together. Layers of Fear 2 still struggles to compare, however, and scares often fail to land.