Fans have been waiting a long, long time for Kingdom Hearts III and the wait was worth it. Smoother movement and combat, better graphics and large worlds for players to explore feel great, while the story finally ties up many many loose threads that the various prequels, sidequels, alsoquels and the like have added to this spiderweb.
Mutant Year Zero is full of fun and tense moments. If you enjoy being challenged at almost every turn, this tactics game is something to cut your teeth on. If not you might find the game too frustrating as you hit the load game button once again.
Darksiders 3 has heart, but a lot of the organs around it are failing, detracting from the experience. So much has been stripped away from the other Darksiders games, making it far too easy to stare at the flaws.
Fallout 76 added survival and multiplayer elements to the game at the cost of pretty much everything that drew players to Fallout in the first place. No NPCs or dialogue trees leaves the game feeling empty and sterile, with exploration eventually feeling pointless as your tiny inventory and stash hit maximum weight.
Battlefield V is a level playing field, with no gadgets in boxes to buy to be better, no map packs to fracture the player base. Great gunplay, fun maps and enough guns for everyone to find a favourite will keep players coming back for more, especially if they have a squad that can take advantage of all the new features.
Diablo III on the Switch creates a whole new way to play the game that makes it work in tiny sessions all the way up to marathon runs. Great for newcomers and old salts, you will find yourself competing in the next season before you know it.
In a market full of fighting games that deliver nuanced single-player and multiplayer modes, having a solid fighter just isn't enough to rely on. While the fighting is fun, fast and full of varied technical layers, SoulCalibur VI doesn't offer enough beyond the core vs aspect to set it apart as something special.
Clever, beautiful and more intricate and expansive than I expected a card game to be, you will scratch your noggin for some devilish puzzles, while following on a story of one of the biggest threats the Northern Kingdoms ever faced: the armies of Nilfgaard.
Odyssey takes what Origins started and sharpens it to a fine edge. This is bigger, better, bolder and still has time to be intimate and grounded in the middle of a massive war and tale of intrigue.
Guacamelee 2 gets lost trying to be too edgy, too funny and referential, falling into the pitfalls it tries to mock. Fun combat and smooth platforming lose their energy when you don't unlock any more abilities and end up doing exactly what you did in the first game.
Strange Brigade's humour and witty writing have a lot of charm, but some camera issues bland boss fights and inconsistent gunplay take away from the experience, leaving it as something fun to do with friends while turning into a slow grind alone.
While War of Thorns left a bad taste for many, the expansion proper has been a delight. Some quests have questionable writing and the tropes from previous expansions rear their heads in places, but the dungeon and levelling experience is great. Depending on where the story goes, this expansion could end up near the top.
Sword Legacy Omen has some solid ideas, mechanics and graphics, but gets let down by its levelling system and an inability to undo earlier skill decisions. Some characters end up feeling like permanent fixtures, while others slowly lose their usefulness as you fight enemies with instakill abilities and far too much health. A game with a strong start that loses its way.
Welcome to the gun show, population you! Saving the last of humanity is somehow your responsibility in this fast, frantic bullet-dodging FPS where if you have the parts, you can build the best gun.
Despite going to Mars and robots and aliens and lasers, Lost on Mars is so pedestrian and does nothing new with the setting besides a few platforming puzzles. Saving the world feels rather dull in a desert on Mars.
Come for the VHS horror, stay for the twitchy line of sight strafing shooting as you take on armed forces in an experiment gone horribly, horribly wrong. GARAGE: Bad Trip is a B-movie, right to the dialogue and tongue-in-cheek humour.
What happens when you give players rules and powers that let them shape the world around them? Puzzles no longer need a key to solve as everything becomes a tool. Semblance is smart and satisfying and will squish its way into your heart.
Octopath Traveler is a slice of old-school JRPG with enough modern sensibilities to make anyone from an old veteran to someone just starting their journey feel comfortable, which mirrors how the game follows the story of people ranging from a young, naive merchant to an old knight who lost his reason to be. Get those walking shoes on, we have a long road ahead.
This is the perfect collection for the fans of Street Fighter. Own a piece of history, challenge leaderboards and find other fans to fight against.
Mooncrash is the AAA roguelike you never knew you wanted. It takes several of the best things about Prey and breathes new life into them. It might not be more of the story of M.Yu, but there is still enough mystery to keep the horror themes alive as you try to crack the perfect run through the moon base.