Stray is a wonderfully crafted game. It not only manages to successfully immerse you in the role of an adorable cat, where exploration is key, but it also tells an engaging science-fiction story along the way.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty sets itself apart from Nioh, Team Ninja’s other soulslike series, with plenty of inventive mechanics that thrust you into the midst of a war. But by spreading the action out over various disparate battlefields in second century China, with plenty of chatty characters to meet along the way, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty loses a little bit of its magic in the process.
The Dead Space remake successfully revives a beloved survival horror franchise with gloriously gory aplomb. Nothing that made the original so good has been compromised, even with all the new additions. Bring on Dead Space 2!
The Devil in Me is the most assured entry yet in The Dark Pictures Anthology, even if it doesn't produce quite enough scares during its seven hour runtime.
Sonic Frontiers is a fascinating move into open world for the Sonic franchise. It's frequently flawed, and doesn't always match the heights of Sonic's best games. But the fact that it occasionally does reach those highs, while offering a totally new experience, is pretty impressive, and leaves Sonic Team with a strong foundation to improve upon.
FIFA 23 is the best FIFA game that you can play right now. But unless you’re an Ultimate Team diehard, FIFA 23 might not do enough to convince you to upgrade from the mechanically similar FIFA 22.
Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series is a great collection for fans of 2D platformers, whether you’ve played these games before or not. Klonoa 2 is the standout title here, but both games are well worth playing, and should hopefully create a new generation of Klonoa fans. They certainly did with me, anyway - where’s Klonoa 3, Bandai Namco?
Kao the Kangaroo is a well-crafted game that pulls inspiration from several other platforming greats, but a lack of polish and an abundance of bugs end up dragging it down.
The House of the Dead: Remake is a lovingly crafted remake of an arcade classic that unfortunately fails on a fundamental level with its subpar control scheme. Without true lightgun support, it’s a difficult recommendation.
Elden Ring offers up a gorgeous open world that is enticing and exciting to explore, along with excellent combat variety, amazing bosses to fight, and intricate dungeons to tackle. It might feel a little familiar, but this could well be FromSoftware’s best game to date.
The Gunk is a difficult game to label, but an easy one to enjoy. Whether you’re sucking up a load of the titular gunk to help bring an alien world back to life, or listening to an engaging back and forth between the game’s main characters, there’s plenty to like here, even if it doesn’t quite live up to its early potential.
A Short Hike is a wonderfully chill little game that can easily be finished in the space of an afternoon, combining clever traversal mechanics with a lo-fi visual style and a very relatable protagonist. If you’ve got a couple of hours to kill over a weekend, or after a stressful day of work, A Short Hike is an easy recommendation.
The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes is a fun enough way to pass a few hours, and is a lot more enjoyable when you get a few friends involved. But as a cinematic story, it's far too forgettable, with writing that's never better than 'fine' with performances to match.
FIFA 22 offers a slower, more deliberate game of football on the pitch, and that's a good thing. But with minimal investment in new modes or updates to existing ones, this is a good upgrade, rather than an essential one.
We may have been waiting a decade and a half for a sequel, but Double Fine’s efforts haven’t been in vain - Psychonauts 2 is an energetic, imaginative, and excellent 3D platformer, with brains and heart to spare.
Hades is an excellent action game that allows players to find progression even in death. Roguelikes are normally known for their high level of difficulty, but in Hades, the greatest challenge you’ll face is trying to put it down.
Biomutant is a scrappy and charming open world RPG, but despite its many systems and gameplay mechanics, there isn't enough depth and direction to make this game truly great.
Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood fails to satisfy as a stealth game or a brawler, and is let down by poor AI and shoddy presentation. At its best, it’s playable, but commits the cardinal sin of just being boring.
Immortals Fenyx Rising is a strange beast, then. Much of it feels very familiar, and you won’t find many things here that haven’t been done before. Yet, it manages to pull together so many different aspects with such proficiency and love for the source material that it’s impossible not to simply enjoy soaking it all up, in an adventure worthy of the Greek heroes of old.
The Falconeer offers up an incredibly well-crafted world with a deep mythology that's begging to be explored further. Gliding over the open sea on the back of a falcon is pure fantasy, but while the game’s dogfights can occasionally be thrilling, they can soon grow rather repetitive. Samey missions and a lack of options in combat ultimately mean that The Falconeer doesn’t quite stick the landing.