Richard Walker
Despite competition from PGA Tour 2K23, EA Sports PGA Tour manages to set itself apart with polished presentation, tight mechanics, and impressive visuals. While a shortage of customisation options is disappointing, there's no arguing with the overall quality that EA's return to video game golf has to offer.
An improvement over WWE 2K22, which was itself a superb wrestling game, WWE 2K23 has one of the best 2K Showcases to date, and fluid gameplay that's easy to pick up and play, but tricky to master. The champ is here.
Three-and-a-bit years on, The Outer Worlds still holds up as a fine example of RPG excellence, with choices that actually carry proper weight. On Xbox Series X|S, the Spacer’s Choice Edition looks great, although you can’t help but be left with a nagging feeling that it could be slightly more polished.
A remake full of changes and adjustments that stays true to the spirit of the original, Resident Evil 4 can't be seen as anything but a complete success. Some may malign what's missing, but the areas that have been added or expanded more than make up for what's been taken out. This is brilliant stuff.
A slow-paced, languid horror remaster, Project Zero: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is not only a chance for western players to finally play a Japan-only entry in the series, but it's also a haunted house experience that delivers on creepiness.
A perfectly decent chunk of linear extra-terrestrial shooting, with a sprinkling of mild Soulslike elements, nice puzzles, and plenty of exploration, Scars Above is a double-A budget game that's worth a look.
Controversy aside, Atomic Heart is a robust first-person affair, albeit one that revels in glorified Soviet iconography and Wolfenstein-esque alternate history weirdness. The difference is, there's no ambiguity in shooting Nazis – here, however, you can’t help but have a sense of unease while playing.
While having to hunt monsters driven from their habitat by human intervention and a lack of food engenders a sense of Shadow of the Colossus-level guilt, there's no avoiding the sheer depth and consistent enjoyment that Wild Hearts has to offer.
If you've been wondering what all the fuss surrounding the Yakuza series' foray into Japanese history is about, then wonder no more. Like a Dragon: Ishin! is a superlative localisation of a compelling samurai story, that is every bit as good as the series' other best outings. Brilliant.
On paper, Wanted: Dead has everything you could possibly want from an action game, but it’s mired in poor execution, ropey presentation, and more than a few unusual design choices. Wanted? We’re not so sure.
If you're expecting a Martian mission like Total Recall, then recalibrate those expectations. Deliver Us Mars is a rather slow affair with little variation in its puzzles and a languidly delivered narrative. In spite of its issues, however, this is a journey just about worth sticking with.
It’s good to see you again, Mr. Bond. After more than 25 years, GoldenEye 007 has still got the same magic that made it such a seismic event upon its release in 1997. This Xbox version might be missing online multiplayer and cheat codes, but don’t let that put you off. It’s still utterly wonderful.
Tango Gameworks’ rhythm-based actioner is not only one of the most enjoyable games in years, it’s also one of the most stunningly beautiful, with fantastic music and beat-matching combat to boot. Hi-Fi Rush is, indeed, as its name suggests, a rush.
As far as vertical shmups hauled out of the arcades and ported to home consoles are concerned, Raiden IV x MIKADO remix is just about as good as it gets. Nonetheless, this is really one for the die-hard fans of bullet hell.
A deep and colossal monster melee, Monster Hunter Rise is both enormously fun and uniquely rewarding. Snap it up.
Breathing new life into a decade-and-a-half-old PSP game, Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- Reunion is a cracking remake of a JRPG that was already a pretty ruddy good in the first place. It definitely deserves a fair shake.
Fighting game nerds will no doubt be all over this in a heartbeat, but everyone else might wonder what all the fuss is about. Nonetheless, it's nice to have The Rumble Fish 2 out of the arcades and ported to modern consoles, even if it might be one to file away as 'strange forgotten curio' that should have perhaps stayed in the arcade.
An unflinchingly violent and gruesome survival horror that ratchets up the tension from the get-go and doesn't let up, The Callisto Protocol is superlative stuff, and a must for anyone with even a passing fancy for Dead Space and its ilk.
A startling return to form for EA's flagship racing franchise, Need for Speed Unbound offers an enjoyable open-world, with challenging yet gratifying racing, and an infectious sense of gritty urban style.
Gungrave G.O.R.E looks like an uncomplicated and enjoyable arcade-style romp, but it's actually an unrepentantly dull and dated chore that will make you want to cry.