An ambitious brawler that suffers from something of an identity crisis, Jump Force will nevertheless delight anime fans – especially those of a vintage who knows the more obscure characters included here. A bit more finesse on the controls, making them less complex and more responsive, would have elevated the whole experience greatly, as would a more coherent and polished story mode, but it's a solid enough experience with more than enough spectacle and strategy to satisfy. If you're looking for a dedicated fighter that will both test your skills and prove more accessible though, Bandai Namco's own Tekken or SoulCalibur are far better examples of the genre.
Miyazaki also describes his latest work as “a quiet game for VR”, and again it's an appropriate view. There are none of the scares or action you'd find in a Souls game. Instead it's a game about sedate exploration and creeping chills. Not all of the experiments or ideas pay off, but the ones that do make for an absorbing ghost story with just the right amount of weirdness for fans of the creator. Despite being marred by clunky controls this is one of the best games available for PSVR owners.
F those with patience to invest in the world it presents, 11-11 is a captivating chronicle of the First World War, exploring the essential humanity fought for and lost on either side. Poignant, beautiful, and frequently heart-breaking, this is a game with rare weight and importance.
With its gleefully mischievous cast and a few new mechanical tricks, Lego DC Super-Villains is a refreshing twist on the trusted Lego game formula. It's a shame that long-running glitches that have plagued the series for years still rear their ugly head, but subtle improvements across the board make them tolerable, in large part because there's so much else to like. A love letter to fans of the comics and the earlier Lego DC games alike, this makes it clear it's good to be bad.
Sure to appeal to Yakuza fans as much as Fist of the North Star aficionados, Lost Paradise provides an absorbing trek around a captivating post-apocalyptic universe. Appropriately enough, Sega doesn't pull any punches in adapting Buronson and Hara's gratuitous and violent world – definitely don't play this around kids, though.
An improvement on the original, and with far more variety on offer, but State of Decay 2 suffers from repetitive combat and poor player communication throughout. Fans of survival sims will likely appreciate the greater attention to detail and increased demands when it comes to sustaining your communities, but for more casual players the constant need to find dozens of items or resources just to keep everything ticking over will just annoy, the longer you go on.
With Rare having spent the majority of the last decade more closely associated with the Kinect Sports franchise than the whimsical and inventive likes of its earlier years, Sea of Thieves feels like a return to form. It's packed with the studio's trademark charm and humour, while providing endless opportunities for adventure.
Fe definitely owes a conceptual debt to the likes of Ori and the Blind Forest, and in places feels as twee as earlier EA indie effort Unravel, but this is more than original enough to stand on its own merits. The mind-warping use of colour and its near-spectral environments sometimes work against Fe's best interests, but persist and you'll uncover a truly special world.
Still one of the finest games ever coded, and now fit to be seen on the very best TVs. This is how remasters should be done, bringing the original content up to modern standards, without diluting what made it great in the first place. Bluepoint has effectively improved on perfection.
Although Last Recode feels slightly dated, it still holds up in 2017. A touch more attention to detail on elements of the remastering would have helped on the visual front, and the overall pacing may frustrate anyone not accustomed to JRPGs of the era. But the sheer volume of content makes it worth fresh eyes – especially given it was never released in Europe to begin with. Adding in a whole new game and a tonne of bonus content makes it a worthwhile purchase for fans of the genre.
A far deeper game than its B-movie stylings would imply at a glance, Wolfenstein II also delights with its fast-paced, creative first-person warfare. Its tongue-in-cheek social commentary is heavy-handed, but there are few other games where mowing down the bad guys feels so cathartic or warranted. The New Colossus also pulls off the rare trick of being a sequel that more than lives up to the standard set by its predecessor, making this a real treat for returning players. Not to be missed.
While its cutesy aesthetic won't work for all, Portal Knights is a game that capitalises brilliantly on both its RPG and sandbox elements, elevating the merits of both. With seasonal events planned to keep players' attentions and an endless canvas to explore once you've completed the Story mode, this is a worthy challenger to Minecraft's throne.
1-2-Switch packs in an impressive amount of content, and is legitimately one of the best party games you'll come across. If it'd been included with the console, it would doubtlessly win over a lot of people. I'm just not sure anything here is compelling enough to entice people to pay an extra £40 for it – especially when Zelda is going to be sat right next to it on shelves.
It could have been the game to refresh the JRPG genre, but menu-heavy gameplay drags down promising ideas
Puzzles are remixed, new areas added, and a link to a mobile app provides intriguing new features. Superb music and delightful visual design round out an unmissable package.
A brilliant example of the RPG genre let down by indistinct graphics
In Bravely Default, developer Square Enix has recaptured what made its earlier Final Fantasy games so wonderfully absorbing, while addressing many of the flaws inherent in the genre.
Just when he thought he had kicked the habit, Matt Kamen finds himself captured by the new improved Pokémon adventures