Glitchhikers is a beautiful walk through weird spaces, interrupted by frictionless, uninteresting conversations.
Chinatown Detective Agency is a stylish cyberpunk detective game with a wonderful cast, and it has a cool real-world aspect to puzzle solving. But it does feel a bit like doing homework sometimes.
More of that Assassin's Creed Valhalla Viking stomping you like, but with new magic, monsters, and a very nicely made world to play around in.
A horror puzzle game whose horror isn't too horrifying and puzzles aren't too puzzling, but it delivers a creepy, thoughtful and interesting experience all the same.
Strange Horticulture is part ideal life sim and part puzzle adventure, where running an arcane plant shop is quiet, meticulous, delightful, dark, and beguiling.
God Of War is a fantastic action-adventure epic with beauty, bleakness and heart. Believe the hype: it really is very good.
A dark fairy-tale to-do list that takes full advantage of its premise and has a lot of fun with it. You'll fall in love with Wytchwood's no-nonsense crone.
The systems for uncovering clues and solving crimes are fabulous, making Sherlock Holmes Chapter One Frogwares' best game. But the crimes you investigate are sometimes very, very stupid.
This compact little puzzle-story-game has care in every line. It tells a lovely story without words, leaves you room for interpretation, and invites you to be playful. It's absolutely lovely.
House Of Ashes gets closer to being a silly 00s survival horror than previous Dark Picture Anthology games, but it's still trying to be too serious for its own good, especially with the paper-thin political theming.
Despite bugs and queue times, Amazon Games' new MMORPG is good piratey fun (especially the Faction system), but the early game is very grindy and you will cut down a lot of trees.
I love the weird beauty of Sable and its coming-of-age adventure story, but there are a lot of small irritants that pile up and - perhaps worst of all - your bike just isn't fun to drive.
Tails Of Iron is a fun 2D Soulslike that will really tickle anyone who loves Redwall. The combat and world are both detailed and good, so it's a shame about all the padding in the middle.
Exploring and taking photos to solve puzzles in Toem is somehow nostalgic and modern all at the same time, and it's sweet, wholesome fun.
There are many cute details in this co-op kiwis-running-a-post-office puzzle game, but ultimately its puzzles become frustrating too often to be properly fun.
This dating sim meets dungeon crawler has wonderful characters and great writing that delivers some really thrilling romances, but it's let down by the dungeoning side feeling a bit undercooked.
This political road trip is rendered an exciting and entertaining time by its cast and the deliberately piecemeal nature of its storytelling, rather than the story itself.
Twelve Minutes' time loop puzzle is layered and weird, but its short time limit doesn't find the sweet spot between tense and frustrating.
Deck Nine's new standalone effort Life Is Strange: True Colors has the most interesting power and likeable cast I can remember in a Life Is Strange game. I just wish it did more with its own story.
It is playful. It's fun. It's climbing inside a giant wedding cake, riding flying letters, taking part in a giant cooking show with eggs that are excited to be boiled kind of fun.