BLACKTAIL is a well-made, highly polished title that is easy to recommend. Make sure you have the time to properly level up and explore. This beautiful, haunting world is one I hope to come back to time and time again.

Ultimately, CRISIS CORE REUNION is a great game. It lands the story beats, and the combat feels good. Fans of the original experience on the PSP will find themselves right at home here and new players will have a good time, especially if they like Final Fantasy VII as a whole.

To wrap things up Wavetale is a heart-warming story of discovery and reconciliation. Traversal of the islands requires players to overcome some rather creative platforming challenges and never gets repetitive. Although it takes a while to get going, the story is well written and the adaptive music and environmental design of Strandville bring the place to life. This title has a lot going for it and although it is not the longest experience, it is well worth several hours of your time.

The Witcher 3 is nearly a masterpiece. If the combat and movement were better it would be for me. As is this is one of the best experiences in gaming, and everyone should play this version of it.

High On Life is absolutely fantastic, and you should play it.

The third expansion for Back for Blood is more of the best parts of the game. It’s short, packs a huge punch, and is a lot of fun to go through alone or with friends.

In conclusion, NORCO is a bit of a mixed bag. Whilst it looks and sounds stunning it is let down by a story that pushes itself so far out there that it has no way of coming back. Although already critically acclaimed this could be one of those games that is far more beloved of reviewers than the people who actually play it. Only time will tell. At least its availability on Game Pass means that it can be picked up and easily dropped if it turns out not to be your cup of tea.

Hello Neighbor 2 is a game that features advanced game design, so it’s no wonder things turned out like this—it’s a difficult game to make especially for a small team. But if anything, I think it is a step in the right direction for the game’s inevitable sequel. There’s no doubt in my mind simply because it’s a better game than the first. If the team can figure out how to keep its solid level design and integrate challenges that tie in both the AI and the puzzles within the level, I think there’s a homerun to be had here. But until then, keeping tabs on your neighbours for a short while isn’t the worst thing you can do with your time.

The storytelling is amateurish, and the overall plot makes no sense. It does have some nice store-bought musical tracks, even though they don’t match each other well in style or tone. Even at $7 avoid this one at all costs, unless you want to get really drunk and play something bad for kicks.

The Callisto Protocol is a gorgeous mess. I cannot recommend it at the full launch price. The combat is miserable, and the story is simply not interesting. If you are a massive fan of survival horror it lets you down by not being scary either, instead relying on jump scares the entire time. It is highly competent technically though, and I hope the team at Striking Distance gets more time for their next title, which very well could be a sequel to this one.

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.

Intrepid Izzy takes aim at both those nostalgic for games of 30 years ago and a younger crowd. It’s not that long and no part of it is truly terrible. If you’re in the mood for a light and easy action platformer then this one might be up your alley.

Inertial Drift: Twilight Rivals Edition is a new version of this interesting drift-based arcade racer from 2020, adding brand new graphical enhancements on current-gen consoles to bring features such as 4K and 120fps and a fun DLC that adds new tracks, cars, and a fantastic set of Eurobeat tracks. It’s more of a quantitative update than a transformative one, and the extra cars and tracks don’t help solve the game’s relatively repetitive gameplay, yet this is undoubtedly a superior way to enjoy this quirky and adrenaline-filled arcade racer that I can certainly recommend to fans of the genre.

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.

WRC Generations upgrades the general feel of Nacon’s yearly rally experience, tweaking the physics, handling, and smartly recreating the new challenges of the hybrid cars that are racing in the real-life series this season. The lower than usual price point is certainly very inviting, but it’s caused by the fact the game contains very little new content, with even the UIs, the career and practice tracks being virtually unchanged. There’s still a bit of “jank”, and the game is far from the best-looking racers out there, but WRC Generations offers a compelling middle ground between arcade and simulation rally, with a robust enough online and ranking system to push virtual drivers towards perfection for months to come. And now we wait for Codemasters’ first WRC game…

Without a doubt, this is the best Dark Anthology game so far and a true climax to season one. Not only fans of the series but fans of the genre will love playing this. The acting, visual detail, sound design and writing could not be bettered here. Series mechanics have not only been improved but also extended delivering an extra level of depth to a fantastic experience. In short developer, Supermassive Games has delivered a horror classic that will keep players on the edge of their seats for hours.

Gungrave G.O.R.E. is a game with few strengths and many flaws. Thankfully most of these issues are small and the combat may allow one to look past them and still have a good time. That was almost the case for me but the repetitive encounters, the often frustrating level/boss design and the absolutely infuriating platforming, stuck with me more than the stylish combat and awesome attack animations. I’d recommend folks to try the game on game pass to see if the combat clicks, but otherwise I think it’s time for Grave to go back to sleep.

Poor writing and some technical issues are not enough to hold back what is otherwise a blast to play. Solo or co-op if a turn-your-brain-off type of kill-a-thon sounds appealing I think this one is worth it.

Somerville feels like great ambition being stretched a little thin, and fundamentally, the way it feels to actually play makes me wish it spent a little longer in the oven, refining and polishing the best parts.

Syberia: The World Before is a remarkable adventure game that keeps its legacy adventure charm and is a worthy continuation of Ms. Walker’s story. It is a game that all of Microids and B. Sokal can, and should be, proud of.

Keeping the review short because the game itself doesn’t have a lot of meat to it – with a launch price of 39.99USD/39,99 EUR/33.49GBP, having a single board, 4 characters, 32 minigames, no unlocks whatsoever, no special modes and most importantly no online play, it’s extremely difficult to recommend this game right now. For shame, too, because it’s far from an original or exciting game experience, but the Lasagna Race is chaotic enough and most of the minigames are competently made and fun. The game’s creators also seem to respect the source material, with a lot of iconic locations lovingly recreated, the character animations generally on point and with music and sounds fitting for the IP. But no amount of Garfield love can hide the game’s shockingly low amount of content, making this lasagna party end way too soon.

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.

Police Simulator: Patrol Officers has zero redeeming qualities. It takes a serious position, which has had a lot of public issues since its inception in America, and makes a truly awful game out of it. If you love the idea of playing hall monitor and giving people tickets for jaywalking, find something else. There is no fun to be had here in this ugly broken mess of a game.

Ultimately, Sonic Frontiers struggles with creating interesting levels and challenges in its large maps filled to the brim with padding. But if you can look past that, there is fun to be had within its frustrating confines.

An infinitely replayable and ridiculously addictive indie phenomenon with wagons of content that only costs like 5 bucks sounds like almost too good to be true, and to be fair the game does have a few shortcomings. For starters, the initial impression may not be the best, with the first stage being dull-looking and the sprite artwork not being anything special. It’s when the game is at its slowest and least exciting too, but it’s not long before the true “bullet heaven” begins. Some of the endgame challenges and unlocks are a bit convoluted too, and figuring out what to do without a guide can be complicated, but we’re talking about stuff so late in the game that I barely consider this a minus. And as a plus, since I tested the PC version, I mostly played on keyboard but the controller works exceptionally well too as an input method.

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.

What kept me going was the excellent presentation and cool beats alongside the game’s short and sweet narrative campaign. The game supports multiple languages and the typeface for each one is simply gorgeous. I personally kept it in Japanese just because it almost looked like I was reading the game off an eReader. The game has plenty of bespoke panels that fly in and out effortlessly. If you are a fan of manga or manhwa and are curious about Asian stories (and in particular, those about countries under Japanese rule during the late 1800s), I can easily recommend this game. This is one of those few times I’ll take style over substance. I look forward to seeing what else this developer will come up with.

If you like puzzle games with brilliant stories, deviously clever puzzles, an incredible atmosphere, and an emotionally charged soundtrack buy this game. The Entropy Centre came out of nowhere and floored me with its brilliance; the less you know before you go in, the better of an experience it will be.