Crysis Remastered is a strange one. It took me a while to actually start enjoying my journey but the further I got the more I wanted to find out where they were taking the story. They have done a good job on remastering and luckily, I didn’t come across any visual issues. But you can’t overlook that this is still a game from 2007 and the AI is handled poorly with so much randomness that occurs whilst playing.

Excellent atmosphere and horror tricks and an initially intriguing tale can’t make up for the lacklustre pay off and slow, tedious plodding back and forth around the hotel. Fans of titles such as Gone Home will likely get the most enjoyment out of it, but it also falls far short of that high bar unfortunately.

Exp Parasite lives up to part of its promise; it certainly is hardcore, if not wholly unique. Even though it’s tough, it’s fair at the same time, only punishing us for our own mistakes and even then there’s still far more leniency than other titles out there. Aside from some average presentation there’s a lot of fun to be had here, proving you’re up to the challenge.

NBA 2K21 is in the end another basketball simulation game. Nothing here will catch you by surprise and leave you in awe. The biggest thing this game suffers from is the painstaking grind for VC so you can be on par with everyone else, which is not very welcoming to newcomers. It’s an enjoyable game but without any new updates or features it will end up lost in your backlog.

Leisure Suit Larry – Wet Dreams Don’t Dry does nothing innovative with the genre or delivers any spectacular story but did we expect it to? Aside from the obvious keyboard and mouse roots and thus not as fun controls at times, the voice acting and art style make up for it. Fans of the franchise will enjoy this crazy trip back in the world with Larry.

All the creative elements of Active Neurons 2 seem to work together in harmony; the music, visuals and sound effects all blend together seamlessly making the puzzle solving a truly relaxing and enjoyable experience overall. Despite a couple of minor frustrations, overall the positive outweighs the negative, especially considering the number of puzzles for the low cost.

There’s a lot to love about GORSD. It’s ugly-beautiful, rewarding and doesn’t put up with any of your crap. But it’s also unintuitive, and pushes the skill ceiling way up as a result. Some might enter a state of zen and master it, making it an indie esporter of the future, but mostly you will be hoping for good results, and that stops it short of being truly joyful.

Marvel’s Avengers is a well accomplished game and a must have for Marvel fans. All the characters are fleshed out in their personality and fighting styles and the campaign is a ride any fans of comic book movies will enjoy. I didn’t fully enjoy the combat in this game but I can get past that in order to enjoy the rest of the experience. I am sure they have left plenty of room to expand the game further with extra characters and missions to extended the longevity of the game.

The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters is a great horror experience. With hand crafted visuals and a passion for the development this title should give the player a couple hours of gruesome entertainment filled with blood, sweat and tears. It’s great to see a 2D side scrolling title like this. It works well and I hope to see more.

There’s no extra modes, no MP, no leader boards. As a standalone arcade game it’s passable for quick bursts, but the appeal soon wore off and after just an hour or so I’d more than had my fill. As usual, there’s a fairly easy 1000g to find if you’ve the desire to grind the stages, but I can’t see this being a title that’ll stick in your playlist once that last achievement pops.

Publisher Nacon and developer KT Racing have built a very solid Rally title with WRC 9, even though there aren’t many improvements over the last edition. It’s definitely a worthy investment for Rally fans, especially if you skipped last year’s WRC 8, though I’m not sure it’s worth upgrading straight away if you’re still plugging away at that title. At least not until a good sale comes along. While it does have some multiplayer modes, at the time of this writing I was unable to find any open lobbies. But to be fair most people probably prefer the career mode, because you really aren’t racing head to head anyway.

Golf Zero manages to be an entertaining spin on golfing, adding in extra platforming elements while removing every other aspect if videogame golf to worry about. It offers a good little challenge, especially adding in the extra objectives, though they are only really there for completionists. Aside from the horrendous audio, I had some fun with Golf Zero, and – cheevo hunter or not – it’s worth a look in my book.

Bounty Battle appeals to the indie game lover with its expansive roster, but any half-interested fighting game player would tell you to stay away. A lack of modes and, more importantly, much fun in the gameplay department mean even the allure of the character list isn’t enough to save this title.

Johnny Rocket is a complete misfire, spiralling noisily around your screen for 45 minutes. It’s broken, rushed and mercifully short, when it could have been a contender.

Party Hard 2 is a brilliant sequel. Pinokl Games have improved things significantly, from the graphics and play style, to the objectives that can be completed as an alternative to killing everyone. The pace is much faster and offering multiple ways to finish a stage makes it far more enjoyable. But hey, you can still go crazy and kill everyone, just don’t forget to DANCE!

Necromunda: Underhive Wars needs a lot of work, and is littered with bugs, save issues, and an abundance of little annoyances that break immersion. But when you press past, you will find a competent game with some interesting mechanics, a rich progression and loot based endgame, hours and hours of potential tactical goodness, and a genuine effort to make a stand out, highly rewarding strategy game.

If you’ve ever thought that the door handle out of your room was a bit complicated and needed less gameplay, then A Hero and a Garden is £4.99 and might be your bag of seeds. For anyone else, this idle-clicker-meets-visual-novel is best buried in the garden and forgotten about.

I came into Spellbreak hesitant for yet another entry into the Battle Royale genre and yet I’m sitting here writing this a convert; it looks and sounds great, and the core gameplay is unique enough among its peers that it is easy to recommend if you fancy something that doesn’t rely on traditional gunplay. Of course, the usual FTP monetisation is present, but it’s a small (optional) price to play for what is an incredibly fun game.

OkunoKA Madness is not for the casual platforming gamer. A certain level of skill is needed to remotely get close to beating this game. Once through the levels, the game relies on ranks and time trials for replay-ability so I hope you enjoy what is given. OkunoKA Madness is guaranteed to drive you mad at least a few times as you will die a lot. Overall the game is a relatively short experience, skill depending, and could have tighter controls for the genre that it is.

All in then, Vicarious Visions and Beenox have absolutely knocked this remake out of the park. Not only is it a great source of nostalgia for older players who have fond memories of the originals, but the core gameplay is just as fun as ever and will no doubt find a new legion of fans today. The updated visuals are excellent, again playing homage to past titles while adding extra little touches and details. Online is fun, if a challenge, and the custom skater and park options are deep and full of potential, though it would have been nice to be able to set custom challenges too.

I’ve used the term fun a lot in this review, simply because that is the most accurate work for Hotshot Racing. I had an absolute blast playing it, and appreciated its retro arcade feel and looks. Those looking for more in depth racing might come away wanting, but then that is pretty much the opposite of what Hotshot Racing sets out to do – this is pure, simple, captivating gameplay, and a title you can’t miss out on, especially as it’s in GamePass!

Tin & Kuna may look adorable, but they’re stress balls, and not in the relaxing sense. A joy for the eyes and ears, then, but expect pain in every other part of your body, as you fall off the same platform over and over and over.

Ary And The Secret of Seasons makes for a tough recommendation. There’s a pleasant premise, a decent sense of adventure and a surprising sense of humour nestled underneath the exterior if you search for it. The bamboozling problem for Ary though is that searching for a good time is buried beneath a gloomy fog of presentational flaws that do a service of drawing you out of its pleasant and colourful world, that undercut all the lovely ideas Ary has going for it. There are just too many flaws here to heartily approve Ary to anybody but the most patient and dedicated of players.

Even The Ocean has some good ideas within, from the polarising energy mechanic to the OK platforming. But it all feels like it’s trying too hard to wrangle a heavy tale out and as such end up bogged down under characters that waffle on for too long, and boring interludes between levels that add very little to the experience.

Pathfinder: Kingmaker is a very detailed and immersive RPG and there is much to get involved within the game and enjoy. Fans of the old Baldurs Gate-style games will find a lot of comfort in this game as there is a lot of familiarities and it has been brought to a decent modern standard. Causal players might find the game like wading through treacle in its pacing, but with the great story line and bags of content, there is a lot of enjoyment to be had if you can commit the time to it.

Cooking Simulator has delivered on all ends. When I play a simulator game I look to see if the game lives up to its name and this one has exceeded my expectations. If this were an actual restaurant it gets five stars from me on its Yelp review. Now it’s time for me to put my virtual skills to the test and try them out in the real world. Totally won’t end badly, right?

Wasteland 3 is overall a great tactical game to play. Add some realism to the game and put yourself in the game, then go off and make your own decisions as you see fit. Aside from the loading times you’re sure to have a great time like I did.

No Strange Roads presents something of an oddity – like a contradictory A-side and B-side. On the A-side you have a superb visual feast to experience, characterised by superb characters and bosses, coupled together with a solid soundtrack and a compelling yet simple premise that makes you want to ascend to the top of the music mountain. Unfortunately NSR’s B-side aggravates with unfair check-pointing, a tepid tutorial, a harsh opening level and a half-baked gameplay experience. Whether you can resist the ailments of the B-side depends on your tolerance for its shortcomings, but No Straight Roads still delivers a satisfying stage rush if you can avoid its pitfalls.