Not a mere reboot or refresh, Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons delivers a fiendishly familiar beat ‘em up that will have you hooked on its charming retro styles and clever modern trappings.
Diablo IV is a must-play for fans of the series and newcomers alike. It invites you to lose yourself in a world of darkness and embark on a thrilling journey filled with relentless battles, captivating storytelling, and a hauntingly beautiful audio-visual symphony. Just ignore the extraneous limb reaching for your wallet.
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun successfully captures the dark and expansive lore of the Warhammer universe, immersing the player in a grim and pixelated future that will appeal to both fans of the franchise and FPS enthusiasts.
Outer Terror is a daring and defiant ode to the beauty of retro horror, delivering an arcade experience that is familiar but unique enough to keep you digging further.
LEGO 2K Drive rips up the tarmac with its confident self-identity and gorgeous worlds, delivering one of the most outright enjoyable arcade racers in modern history.
Hogwarts Legacy is the most definitively accurate and exciting wizarding world adventure people could hope to experience, short of getting a real-life invitation to Hogwarts. With hours of content and a wealth of wizarding wonderment, you'd be hard pressed not to enjoy yourself to an impressive capacity.
Lone Ruin nails the brief on what makes an appreciable roguelike – combining a slick and sexy aesthetic with a core gameplay loop that can be rapidly picked up, but is deep enough to beg for mastery.
Darktide is a game that has atmosphere seeping out of every orifice. Its design brings a crushingly depressing and oppressive aesthetic to life in new and exciting ways, transporting the player to the grimy underbelly of Tertium. The most shocking realisation is that you don't want to leave.
Evil West might wear old-school clothes, but under the hood it's a modern stunner. Gorgeous and gutsy, the tale of Jesse Rentier paints a dark world where the best way to illuminate your path is by way of a shocking Tesla-powered knuckle duster. It deftly navigates some of the pitfalls that are to be expected when forging a new IP and drops a winning hand that is more aces than eights.
Gungrave G.O.R.E is a thorough examination of what games offered us before they transformed into 40-hour cinematic masterpieces. While its appeal may not be broad enough to interest everyone, it establishes itself as a love letter to a time when your gaming experience was absolutely about bombastic style, personal fantasy and massive high scores.
While it may be far from perfect, Sonic Frontiers is a colossal step in the right direction for the future of the neon blue needlemouse. Its issues are more stumbles than falls, with the action and exploration creating a memorable experience for everyone's favourite Hedgehog.
Warhammer 40,000: Shootas, Blood & Teef is a title that revels in the simple joy of carnage for carnage sake – with a story exactly as shallow as it needs to be, it breathes refreshing life into a dark, dystopian future that we'd rather visit than live in.
With a narrative that offers more hits than misses, New Tales From The Borderlands is a modern, gorgeous glimpse into what the nobodies of the Borderlands universe get up to on their shittiest days.
While the needle wobbles between fun and frustrating, Camped Out! is still a memorable multiplayer title that easily captures an undiscovered need to be the very best at camping anywhere you can, be it an abandoned mine or a spooky beach.
With a revitalised gameplay experience and tighter combat, the actual moment-to-moment gameplay of Overwatch has never been better. Let’s hope the monetisation strategy relaxes a little.
Beacon Pines is a title that I will find myself recommending to people with as little context as possible – a gorgeous and charming example of unique storytelling that simply must be experienced blindly to fully appreciate its cute and quirky tale of curious conspiracy.
Moo Lander checks every box for a unique, fun indie title. Creativity in spades, with mechanics that are simple to learn but fiendish to master – it’s udderly charming, with just the right sting of difficulty when it matters.
It’s the most fun you’ll have from a comfortable vantage point of shuffling cards and pouring wine.
With a little more polish and player-driven feedback, The Cleaner could well emulate a proper first-person John Wick experience. However currently, it feels a little more like a frustration emulator designed to inspire rage quits.
Whether you are a returning Shadow Warrior fan or a new one, Shadow Warrior 3 is bound to delight all high-octane shooter fans. Its minor shortcomings are rapidly overcome through the simple act of being gloriously fun.