Return to Monkey Island is great. It takes the adventure game to new heights of hilarity with a clever narrative, fantastic stylized graphics, wonderful music, and a huge amount of heart.

Two Point Campus is an improvement over Two Point Hospital. For some people creating a hospital where patients are treated for a wide variety of strange diseases will be more enticing, but Two Point Studios has done a very good job at blending the humour of the previous game with the atmosphere of a university campus. The result is a great simulation game that builds and improves on the strength of the previous title. And by doing so it has nestled itself at the top of the genre.

The First Berserker: Khazan wears its inspiration on its sleeve and lives up to those past titles. It’s a gorgeous, brutal action-focused Soulslike that brings the DFO universe into an incredibly dark place. At least at launch, this is one of the hardest games I have played recently. I blasted through Elden Ring and its DLC with far less of an issue than I did here. It’s Sekiro levels of ‘git gud’ and god damn if it isn’t fun doing so.

With gorgeous visuals and strong life sim mechanics, Little Goody Two Shoes is a phenomenal adventure game with the perfect creepy backdrop of a disturbed fairy tale. Do yourself a favour and pick this one up, you won’t regret it.

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivors is easily one of the best bullet heaven titles out there – which is no small feat, considering the amount of competition there is nowadays. Excellent visuals, lovely gameplay, with the unique mining mechanics that add a lot of depth to the runs. There’s a ton of content to grind towards, with even 300 unique achievements at launch, making this title a strong candidate to stay installed on your SSD for quite some time. A bit of a shame perhaps that it lacks any sort of co-op, since that’s a huge part of the original Deep Rock Galactic experience. Even so, this is one of the finest bullet heaven games out there right now, and with it launching on Game Pass, you have no excuses not to dig into the deep dungeons of Deep Rock Galactic: Survivors.

Pentiment is not going to be popular. I do think however that it will become a cult classic… It’s a unique, dazzling work of art that will stand the test of time for as long as we remember it.

TEVI is a fantastic 2D Metroidvania. One that is fun to play for just about all levels of gaming ability, but it’s also a replayable one and has plenty of content you can run through, backgrounded by beautiful visuals and fun music. An easy recommendation for the action platformer fan and then some.

Ultimately, The Talos Principle: Reawakened is a fantastic remaster of an already great game.

Hardspace: Shipbreaker is a damned good game.

Scars Above is a good-looking cinematic third person action game with engaging combat, a cool if not particularly original plot narrated via some rather average characters in excellent and exciting locations. As an “AA” release, it cuts some corners compared to the behemoths of the genre to make ends meet, but the end credits roll on a satisfying note before the game’s formula and ideas could become boring or repetitive. Mad Head Games’ first foray into the cinematic third person games doesn’t try to reinvent the formula, yet offers an engaging, memorable and atmospheric adventure that I can wholeheartedly recommend to any fan of the genre who’s able to appreciate the game’s relatively limited scope.

The gameplay and visual variety will have to improve a little bit as the game’s seasons progress, with perhaps some more ambition to be expected in future content updates. Still, the game’s core is already very strong, offering that classic arena shooting experience that even recent titles in Activision’s long lasting franchise seem to have abandoned, in favour of a more chaotic experience – for better or worse that may be. Ubisoft have a great multiplayer first person shooter in their hands: now it’s up to them to make it a mainstay for enthusiasts via a convincing post-launch support. For one, I’ll be here to play for the foreseeable future.

Creatures of Ava is an excellent title, and it’s on Game Pass at launch. If you want a game that lets you explore a gorgeous alien planet, get your inner photographer on, and know when to mix in its version of combat then I think it is well worth a download.

I enjoyed playing Civilization VII. It hits the right notes for me and it’s a good opening salvo for a game I expect will continue to grow with its player base through time. Yes, the age change can be a bit jarring and yes, the crisis mechanic didn’t always hit right for me in my first couple of games…The core elements of the game are there, they work and it’s fun to play. The incentives and dynamism that the new approach to Civilization switching with the legacy paths will keep the game fresh both across games and within them. Abandoning games after about 80 turns was a big issue for me in the last few titles. I’ve not had the notion to do that yet.

Ultimately, F1 23 remains a great racing game, more accessible than ever for newcomers, more authentic than ever, more customizeable, and most notably featuring the comeback of the excellent Braking Point story mode. It is by all means an iterative upgrade with not many standout features, but the unified F1 World experience and various smart changes make F1 23 a worthy addition to F1 fans’ libraries.

In short, FIFA 23 makes a lot of great additions to the core gameplay, making the actual football feel smoother, more realistic and tactically more diverse, with the new AcceleRATE system in particular ensuring that fast players no longer dominate the online sphere. Tons of behind the scenes changes like a new physics system, a revamped AI, and the long-awaited cross-play make this year’s installment of EA Sports’ eternal franchise the most fresh experience it’s been in years. On the flipside, aside from adding women teams and tweaking a few game modes, content-wise the game has very little new to offer compared to FIFA 22, to a point that casual players may barely even notice most of this year’s changes. A transition game of sorts before next year’s name change, making a lot of important changes under the game’s hood, without really reinventing or adding any standout feature. Whether these changes are essential enough for a buy or not largely depend on the way you play FIFA.

A fantastic game. Visual novels normally aren’t my thing, but I quickly found myself engrossed in the mystery. It has one of the best scripts I can remember in a game, and truly stellar voice acting.

Midnight Fight Express kicks serious ass. It is short, sweet, and packs one hell of a punch. The combat never gets old, and with it coming to Game Pass at launch I highly recommend it to anyone that likes action movies.

Monster Train 2 is excellent. It takes everything I loved about the first game and makes it just a little better. The looks, music, and strategy will have me playing this one for years to come.

The developers at Megagon Industries have done a great job on building on their first game by adding a bunch of excellent new ideas, a fun multiplayer suite and what feels like a great, fresh take on skiing with the tight, responsive controls they’re known for. It’s addictive, thrilling stuff and I can’t wait to hit the slopes as soon as I’ve finished writing this. It’s available on Xbox Game Pass and Steam, and I hope you try it out.

Atelier Yumia’s first bout is a fun, open world crafting game that offers more than just clearing icons on a map—its verticality while offering player creativity through movement and housing tools make for a good time. It’s everything its developer has been building towards, and I’ve come away quite impressed with what they’ve got to offer.

I walked away from Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo a happy camper. It’s a charming adventure title that boasts colourful visuals and family-friendly dialogue while broaching topics of frustration and other matters that might hit close to home. A variety of challenges will keep new players in the genre busy and older ones entertained through the game’s mix of comedy and tragedy. Quite literally, a good time for all ages.

Jusant then – a beautiful, relaxing adventure that players can tackle at their own pace. Exploring every nook and cranny of this world, and charting your own path is something that should be savoured, and you should absolutely add it to your download queue via Xbox Game Pass.

Redfall is fantastic in most ways. A few baffling design decisions around its co-op implementation and some frustrating technical issues hold it back. It is fun as hell solo, and ridiculously so in co-op. With a little post-launch support it is going to become something special. This may end up being Arkane’s worst-reviewed title ever, but it is going to be their most successful. Alone or with friends Redfall is a game any fan of the genre should play.

Neon White features incredible gameplay and some of the best “one more try” levels in recent memory. It’s so fun to play that it can’t be brought down by its poor story. It is worth a purchase or Game Pass download, especially if you’ve got some friends to compete with on the leaderboards.

Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven is an excellent, pricy expansion. I spent over twenty hours, having an absolute blast, learning the secrets of the mountain. If you have an endgame save, then Woolhaven is absolutely worth the cost for fans of the title.

Tales of Kenzera: Zau is a triumphant debut for Surgent Studios. At $20, and available on day one for PlayStation+ subscribers, any fan of the action-platformer genre would do well to check it out. Zau’s journey through loss will stick with me for a long time, and the excellent gameplay already has me itching to play through it all again.

Hilarious banter, ridiculous fights, a great mission structure, and satisfying progression show that Fatshark is only getting better. Being available day one on Game Pass for PC means no one, either alone or with friends should pass on giving this one a go.

I’m stunned. It is an incredible first effort from the team at Omega Force. Mixing Monster Hunting with Green Lantern crafting works beautifully. I hope this series is around for a very long time, because this game is excellent.