Replaced is a decent mood piece, with punchy combat, an underwhelming story and platforming, and striking visuals.

While it’s not the most polished game from a graphical standpoint, Tides of Tomorrow is nonetheless a compelling post-apocalyptic adventure with a smart asynchronous multiplayer twist.

While you have to give credit where credit’s due to developer Big Bad Wolf for not compromising in the complexity of its puzzles, it also means that Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss won’t be for everyone. It’s a challenging, flawed investigative puzzler that will drive all but the most patient to the brink of madness.

Pragmata is lusciously produced single-player action game, though not up to Capcom’s heights.

Crimson Desert's rich and detailed open world is a remarkable achievement, and the crunchy combat is fun, but poorly explained game mechanics, performance issues, and a muddled, rather dull story tarnish what could have otherwise been a rather special RPG experience.

Legacy of Kain: Ascendance is an adequate chunk of side-scrolling action, with some perfectly standard platforming thrown in, but it’s bogged down in dull lore.

A decent clutch of games, presented well enough, but with some duds in the mix, the Marvel MaXimum Collection is livened up by a couple of gems.

A welcome return for the cult classic SNES beat 'em up series, Rushing Beat X: Return of Brawl Brothers harks back to its past, while offering a few new ideas of its own. Fans can revel in the callbacks and story, while everyone else can enjoy a solid, more than serviceable brawler experience.

The arcade style of the races is crisp and difficult, and if you find yourself bored by the plot, feel free to skip through it.

While Train Sim World 6 makes sense as a complex and detailed simulation, Thomas & Friends: Wonders of Sodor is a game aimed at a different audience. That it makes too few compromises for that audience and fails to give you something as simple as a skip button for dialogue is inexcusable. Wonders of Sodor? Wonders of sod all, more like.

A handsome remake that loses some of the original’s power.

Toxic Commando is a perfectly serviceable co-op shooter with flashes of real spectacle.

As a pure stealth experience, Styx: Blades of Greed is something of a treat. Despite being a bit rough around the edges, and slightly lacking in technical finesse, developer Cyanide's latest dose of sneaky goblin action is well worth a punt.

While the new additions to High on Life 2 make for a more enjoyable shooter experience than its predecessor, there’s a lack of technical finesse that holds it back. Overall, however, this is a leaner, meaner, and just all-round better game than the first one.

The mechanics of Reanimal are slightly plodding and airless, with not much by way of creativity or challenge, but the spectacles are often impressive.

New content there may be, but there's little in Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties that's genuinely fresh, and the combat mechanics are beginning to feel slightly old hat. But this is a Yakuza game, and is therefore inherently good fun, balancing substory silliness and levity with a gritty crime narrative. It's also a good, solid remake that's well worth playing.

Code Vein 2 definitely feels like a sideways step in many respects. However, much like the original, it’s still a hell of a lot of fun.

If stylish art can raise a game, as though it were a toast, then MIO is proof that no idea – no genre – is ever quite done with us, so long as we have good cause to look again. As we read, on finding the rusty shell of an old contraption: “It’s not dead yet, except if you decide it to be.

A rarity, Thank Goodness You’re Here! lovingly mocks the North of England, and it has several good laughs, but it does underwhelm in its play.

Another nice batch of games to revel in with family and friends, The Jackbox Party Pack 11 is an essential survival kit for awkward gatherings. Laughter and merriment shall inevitably ensue.

A messy and rather poor campaign, Multiplayer and Zombies modes that fail to offer anything new, and a general dearth of innovation means this year's COD instalment is a bit of a damp squib. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 still has plenty to offer, but, quite honestly, we've seen it all countless times before.

An enjoyable and addictive survivors-like bullet-heaven auto-shooter, Let Them Come: Onslaught will eat up a good few hours, but with only two characters and four levels, you will be desperate for more.

While the puzzles in Keeper never properly challenge, you’re won over by the easy pace and the sheer oddity of the visuals and story.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 goes light on RPG mechanics and its action is somewhat lacking. And, yet, being at the heart of Seattle's political machinations, embodying a powerful vampire and engaging in brutal, bloody combat, is a lot more fun than the sum of its parts would suggest.

Alien: Rogue Incursion isn’t top-class, but it roots you in your surroundings, and, even without a clamp-on headset, you feel enveloped.

A solid detective yarn with decent puzzles and a procession of absorbing mysteries to unravel, Agatha Christie: Death on the Nile is an intricate and enjoyable, albeit slightly shabbily presented, adventure with a slightly unusual 1970s style.

Silent Hill f is a strange concoction. It should be played, if you are a fan, but it suffers a lack of first-rate scares.

A hotchpotch of ideas and themes, Karma: The Dark World is a horror experience that doesn't quite manage to come together in a satisfying, coherent fashion. As such, it emerges as a frustrating, confounding thing, albeit one that displays brief flashes of potential. There's the kernel of something great here, but the execution ultimately falls short. On Xbox Series X|S, it's also hamstrung by frame rate issues.

If you want to pass an afternoon with a friend and a couple of laughs, LEGO Voyagers will do fine.

Heading Out does the visual novel stuff perfectly well, but it fails to nail the breezy sense of freedom that should come with cruising the open roads of America. Flighty vehicle handling makes the driving part of the game an annoyance rather than something to revel in and enjoy.

For those that relish this style of survival horror, there is fun to be had in Cronos: The New Dawn, but only for a time.

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater will likely be seen less as the definitive way to play than as simply another way to play. Its reverence for the original makes this one feel oddly anticlimactic.

The Toaplan Arcade Collection is an absolute must for arcade gaming buffs and action game purists alike, and it offers a great opportunity for newcomers to check out some two-player classics. However, it is a bit disappointing that the collection comes with no supplementary materials. Plus, there's no getting around the fact that some of these arcade games just aren't very good!

Yes, there are better co-op shooters out there, and many of those provide similar levels of relentless violence, but Killing Floor 3 deftly manages to conjure some pretty unique, gory thrills of its own.

There are just enough flourishes, mechanical and artistic, to turn your head, but whether Wuchang: Fallen Feathers will keep your gaze is another matter.

Monument Valley 3 is a very pleasant and enjoyable perspective-shifting puzzler, that despite being a bit short and simplistic, is nonetheless a nice way to spend a couple of hours.

RoboCop: Rogue City had its fair share of technical issues, but somehow, Unfinished Business has even more. Its characters look hideous, the frame rate frequently hangs, and there are other niggly little bugs that will drive you mad. And, yet, once you start blowing away goons with RoboCop's Auto-9, none of that matters and all is right with the world.

I wish I could report that Zockrates Laboratories served up a playground of emergent sparks, but with such a promising trick I couldn’t help but hunger for more.

Strange Scaffold has made another lethal, high-calibre riff on an established genre.

Sloclap has delivered nice, crunchy mechanics like it did with Absolver and Sifu, making Rematch an immediate, accessible, and above all enjoyable arcade-style football game. It’s Rocket League without the rocket cars. But whether you'll be playing it this time next year, I'm not entirely convinced.

Bithell Games assumes your passion for Tron, but what is here stands on its own, though it doesn't truly succeed on its own.

Its inevitable sections where you're beating a frantic escape are frustrating tests of trial and error, and, while developer The Chinese Room conjures some memorable sights and dreamlike weirdness, anyone expecting something on a par with the main story in Still Wakes the Deep will come away bitterly disappointed. Sadly, Still Wakes the Deep: Siren's Rest ends up feeling like an inconsequential two hours or so, failing to really add anything to Caz McLeary and co.'s surreal and superb journey. And those answers you’re looking for? Frustratingly, they never come. But, then, maybe that’s the point.

While we would have liked to see the Gex Trilogy scale up the resolution and bring the gameplay more up to date, it's nice to be able to play Gex, Gex: Enter the Gecko, and Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko on modern platforms, with some neat refinements for good measure.

If Blades of Fire manages to strike a chord, it won't be for its narrative, nor its world, but its violence.

Where The Precinct succeeds is out in Averno, coaxing us into fine police work. Fallen Tree has found its niche.

It's easy to see why Blue Prince took eight years to make. It's an intricate and layered puzzle game that rewards discovery, albeit at a pace that can make it quite frustrating. Still, if you stick with it, the journey, and the secrets you reveal along the way, make it all quite worthwhile.

Promise Mascot Agency does a lot of things, and does most of them rather well. The result is an unusual genre mish-mash that takes a little while to get going, but once it does, is quite hard to put down.

The last two-and-a-half decades have not been kind to Star Wars Episode I: Jedi Power Battles, and Aspyr hasn’t done quite enough to tackle the bugs and other issues that plagued the game upon its 2000 release. This remains a fairly torrid experience, then, and one of the Star Wars series' lesser video game outings. Maybe leave this one in the Sarlacc pit where it belongs.

Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered resurrects an unquestionably nutty experience, warts and all, but this is the most rudimentary of remaster jobs. It is, in essence, the very same game you might have already played thirteen years ago, but if you missed Shadows of the Damned the first time around then Hella Remastered is worth delving into, especially if you enjoy unending cacophonous mayhem, silly one-liners like “I just love killing fucking demons” and “I'm a Mexican, not a Mexican't” (lifted from 2003’s ‘Once Upon a Time in Mexico), as well as slightly ropey shooter mechanics. It may not have dated all that gracefully, but we'll be damned if it isn't still fun, despite its fair share of frustrations and shortcomings – an unlikely sequel that irons out the wrinkles would be very welcome indeed.

Despite some glaring roster omissions and little in the way of meaningful evolution over the boxing sims of old, Undisputed enters the ring as a lean and mean contender that's fighting fit. Just don't go expecting any seismic shifts when it comes to the boxing formula.

A sensational-looking game that looks just like the anime, Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO marks a robust return for the dormant Budokai Tenkaichi series, even if the nuts and bolts of the game's fighting mechanics can wear quite thin pretty quickly.

While FC IQ has elevated the on-pitch experience somewhat, off the pitch FC 25 hasn't really changed at al since last yearl. It's all a bit stagnant, in truth. If EA Sports FC 25 were a football stadium, it'd be Old Trafford - a once majestic beast that’s now in need of some serious work.

There is enough pleasant fun here to divert you, and there are flutters of real invention. You just wish that it ran a little further.

Despite a robust handling model, some fairly impressive visuals, and a few nice ideas, Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown fails to deliver on its open-world racing remit, with a dearth of things to do, broken online servers, and a tacked-on story that does little to draw you in. This one's stalled at the starting line.

A neat anime-style metroidvania with some well-realised ideas, Yars Rising is a smart homage to an '80s Atari arcade classic, and a perfectly fine way to while away a good few hours.

A choose-your-own horror without any fright, The Casting of Frank Stone has an intriguing plot that doesn’t end up delivering.

A solid, precision-based time trial racer, Phantom Spark won't satisfy those WipEout and F-Zero cravings, but it will keep you occupied for a fair few hours, if you manage to dial in to its 'just-one-more-go' wavelength.

Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is not, nor was it, a good video game, but this loving remaster makes you think of what may still come.

Nobody Wants to Die is a fantastic, wonderfully cinematic sci-fi noir that's over all too soon. Its procedural detective work can be too procedural, but there's the kernel of something really great here.

A bright and vibrant world filled with dull combat and a plodding story.

At a basic level, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants is a perfectly serviceable brawler and a decent enough port of the 2017 arcade game, with a couple of additional levels to play through. However, one-note gameplay and a lack of unlockable extras make this a throwaway, short-lived affair.

Harold Halibut's handmade world has bags of charm, but its sedentary pace and largely uneventful narrative might not be to everyone's tastes. Great stories stay with you, but, sadly, I'm not sure Harold's will.

Fans of the show will no doubt get something out of this, but on a fundamental level, South Park: Snow Day! emerges as a somewhat shallow and unsatisfying experience, despite its best efforts to provide depth through cards and other light RPG elements. After Stick of Truth and The Fractured But Whole, this feels like a backwards step.

While we'd hoped for better things from Aspyr's remastered Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection, this is nonetheless an adequate way to revisit a couple of shooter greats from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. I mean the mid 2000s. No doubt further patches (there's already been a significant one) will improve things somewhat.

Cutter Slade's long-awaited return has flashes of jetpack-fuelled brilliance, but tiresome missions and a story that fails to engage ensure that playing Outcast: A New Beginning quickly develops into something of a chore.

As remakes go, Alone in the Dark has a hard time measuring up to horror stablemates like Resident Evil. All of the requisite ingredients might be here, but they're poorly realised and implemented, resulting in a game that has its moments, but is hamstrung by shoddy combat, half-baked visuals, and more than its fair share of bugs.

The Outlast Trials is almost entirely devoid of fun as a solo experience. Add friends or other random players, however, and there's ample enjoyment to be had fighting through the unrelenting horror together. As long as you have the stomach for all that blood, guts, mutilation, death, and unsettling imagery, of course.

Skull and Bones is a dull exercise in checklist progression, spiced here and there with some impressive sailing.

Not nearly as irredeemable as you might think, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League actually has a lot of nice ideas and some nice, crunchy shooter mechanics. The endgame might fail to hold your attention, but the story is quite a ride while it lasts.

Fluid platforming and frenetic combat, with some lovely spectacle and a dull story.

While Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection is a lovely bit of games preservation, the lack of behind the scenes material or any other extras make for a fairly perfunctory package. Not quite one big pile of, y'know, but evidently, some expense has been spared here.

A nice tip of the hat to the Naruto series after more than twenty years, Naruto x Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections is an accomplished celebratory package, albeit one that's unfortunately deficient in a few key areas.

A good solid slab of real-time strategy, Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin will please ardent fans of the Games Workshop fantasy universe, while keeping those well-versed in the genre well occupied. If you love goblins and all that other stuff, you'll be loving this.

A disappointing campaign and a Zombies mode lacking in focus makes this a hackneyed Call of Duty entry that those thirsting for more multiplayer action will still enjoy. For anyone who plays for the campaign or loves to blast hordes of undead, however, Modern Warfare 3 is hard to recommend.

An ever-so-slightly shabby single-player first-person shooter, Terminator: Resistance – Complete Edition still does right by the movies, delivering a decent slice of narrative, and robust action, to boot. Come with me if you want to be entertained for about 10-15 hours.

A comforting anthology for diehards, with some disappointing omissions, sweetened by the inclusion of certain curios.

Lords of the Fallen is enough to tide you over until the next Soulslike, and it has some arresting sights, but it lacks a focus of its own.

The truth is, Forza Motorsport feels like it was released to tick a box on the Game Pass release calendar, rather than it striving to retain its place at the pinnacle of video game racing. And if this is the future of Microsoft's first party games, Game Pass might not be the big deal it's been treated as. Forza Motorsport no longer feels like a love letter to racing car fans, but instead feels like a leaflet someone has shoved through my letterbox.

FIFA 24 in all but name, EA Sports FC 24 continues the series' tradition of slick, authentic, iterative football, with more Ultimate Team, more Career mode, more Kick Off immediacy... more of the same.

A little short on polish it might be, but there's no doubting Atlas Fallen's credentials as a decent slice of good (but not great) open-world fantasy action.

An impeccably made multiplayer dino shooter, Exoprimal has all of the right stuff, but, with only a single mode to play over and over again, it can quite get repetitive rather quickly.

Sporting various improvements over its predecessor means Railway Empire 2 is a marginally more approachable game, but there remains a barrier of entry that may prove a little too high for some. All aboard, then? Maybe not, but we’d recommend at least giving it a go.

A gleefully colourful and typically humorous LEGO game, LEGO 2K Drive is an enjoyable open world racer that unfortunately offers an uneven challenge and a Story Mode that can be something of a grind. And yet, throwing a LEGO vehicle around Bricklandia is good, clean fun. Swings and roundabouts.

Redfall is perhaps one of Bethesda and Arkane Austin's most ordinary titles. A perfectly competent first-person shooter that does little to raise itself above the competition. The perfect Game Pass game that's not worth the money, but is worth a casual weekend of play.

Made in a warzone, Sherlock Holmes The Awakened is a solid remake that covers all of the bases you'd normally expect from Frogwares' Sherlock series, delivering an absorbing mystery and a procession of nicely executed puzzles. It's a perfect stop-gap before Chapter Two comes along.

A perfectly decent chunk of linear extra-terrestrial shooting, with a sprinkling of mild Soulslike elements, nice puzzles, and plenty of exploration, Scars Above is a double-A budget game that's worth a look.

Controversy aside, Atomic Heart is a robust first-person affair, albeit one that revels in glorified Soviet iconography and Wolfenstein-esque alternate history weirdness. The difference is, there's no ambiguity in shooting Nazis – here, however, you can’t help but have a sense of unease while playing.

On paper, Wanted: Dead has everything you could possibly want from an action game, but it’s mired in poor execution, ropey presentation, and more than a few unusual design choices. Wanted? We’re not so sure.

If you're expecting a Martian mission like Total Recall, then recalibrate those expectations. Deliver Us Mars is a rather slow affair with little variation in its puzzles and a languidly delivered narrative. In spite of its issues, however, this is a journey just about worth sticking with.

Fighting game nerds will no doubt be all over this in a heartbeat, but everyone else might wonder what all the fuss is about. Nonetheless, it's nice to have The Rumble Fish 2 out of the arcades and ported to modern consoles, even if it might be one to file away as 'strange forgotten curio' that should have perhaps stayed in the arcade.

High On Life is easily Squanch Games’ most ambitious project, but aside from the environments and the world-building which match that ambition, the first-person shooter itself is incredibly generic, and not funny enough to make up for it.

The Devil in Me is the most assured entry yet in The Dark Pictures Anthology, even if it doesn't produce quite enough scares during its seven hour runtime.

Sonic Frontiers is a fascinating move into open world for the Sonic franchise. It's frequently flawed, and doesn't always match the heights of Sonic's best games. But the fact that it occasionally does reach those highs, while offering a totally new experience, is pretty impressive, and leaves Sonic Team with a strong foundation to improve upon.

A strange horror experience that isn't all that scary, The Chant is nonetheless an interesting ride while it lasts, despite being marred by a scrappy story and even scrappier combat. It's weird, but not all that wonderful.

As far as horror games that ape the works of H.R. Giger are concerned, Scorn is certainly one of the most interesting examples around, and many of its puzzles are nicely executed. However, crappy combat cramps Scorn’s style, while the unrelenting bleakness of the thing will leave you feeling deflated.

A soothing and enjoyable adventure with a smattering of smart LEGO-building puzzles and a dose of metroidvania exploration, LEGO Bricktales is a polished and fun way to while away a few quiet evenings.

It's slightly upsetting how close Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed is to being a properly good remake. Were it not for the parade of annoying bugs and the occasional crummy mission, this would be easy to recommend. In its current, messy state, however, Black Forest's latest effort falls.

As a new start for the eponymous gang, Saints Row ticks most of the boxes, but falls short in offering up anything fresh. A litany of technical and visual bugs also conspire to spoil the party, making for a solid enough, enjoyable, but ultimately uninspired, return for the series.