Omno is a beautiful puzzle game I enjoyed playing with my daughter that’s fun to explore and not too challenging. There are some mind bending challenges towards the end, but often looking at them from different views will help reveal the solution. It’s really impressive that this game was made by just one person and I look forward to his future projects.
I didn’t expect to like Jupiter Hell as much as I did with a good mix of nostalgia and fun, yet challenging gun-play. Being a roguelike with permadeath, planning your moves was key and I enjoyed exploring the procedurally generated levels, clearing as much as I could before eventually being overwhelmed. The permadeath was an opportunity to learn for the next run and it’s a game I can come back to with alternate modes to change up the gameplay.
Hell Let Loose is an outstanding WWII first person shooter with the most authentic experience I’ve had in a game. The sounds and visuals are incredibly detailed and immersive, and the battlefields have been faithfully designed to reflect key battle locations.
Song of Horror is a decent horror game with enough scares to make me a jump a number of times, and should satisfy most horror game fans. There’s no combat in the game but be aware of permadeath. The option can be turned off, however this added some extra tension to the game making you care about your character(s).
Lawn Mowing Simulator turns the mundane everyday task of mowing lawns into a relaxing, zen-like experience that I can play for hours.
Paw Patrol The Movie: Adventure City Calls is another enjoyable game in the Paw Patrol universe for all ages. There are however some niggling issues such as long load times on Xbox One and missing interaction icons in main missions.
Golf Club: Wasteland is a fantastic golf game with an amazing sound track, but geez did it tilt me at times. It’s easy to chill out and play with a good level of challenging pars for the 35 holes across the game. However the controls are frustratingly inconsistent, especially on console.
Dice Legacy is a fun take on the city-builder genre with dice as your workers, though it did take me several hours to get my head around all the main mechanics and research better build/research orders.
Sheltered 2 is a fantastic survival management game with good crafting and resource expeditions. Combat was of lesser quality but still interesting enough, though it wasn’t my focus if I could avoid it.
Astria Ascending is a beautifully hand-drawn JRPG with tactical and strategic combat, rewarding dungeon exploration and the ascension tree gives you much versatility in how you specialise party members.
Hot Wheels Unleashed is the definitive arcade racing experience that shows off just how cool these Hot Wheels car collections and whacky tracks can be realised for both young gamers and old nostalgic legends alike.
Escape Simulator is a fantastic and challenging puzzle game that really makes you think. It’s one of the more challenging puzzle games and some of the puzzles are so bloody clever once you figure them out.
Forza Horizon 5 doesn’t veer too far from the tried and tested open-world racing formula of the series, only now we get to explore the biggest land expanse in the franchise utilising the power of Xbox Series X/S.
Faraday Protocol is definitely in a league of its own.
Tails of Iron is a fantastic action RPG with great hand-drawn art and challenging souls-like combat.
Battlefield 2042 has moments of brilliance in the base game and Battlefield Portal certainly hits all my nostalgia strings, but I can’t help but feel this needed another six months of refinement, especially with cross-play.
PJ Masks: Heroes of the Night is a great video game adaptation of the TV show allowing you play out some new adventures as these characters. The levels are short but are appropriate for children aged 3-7 who have an interest in the show.
While aimed at younger gamers, Blaze and the Monster Machines: Axle City Racers is great racing fun for the whole family. In single player or split-screen co-op, the familiar voices and vehicles from the TV show can be played in short and simple races to keep the kids’ attention.
How great is it that we have games like My Friend Peppa Pig where kids can be watching the TV show, then jump straight into a game where they can have fun in this non-violent interactive sandbox within Peppa’s world. This is certainly aimed at those kids who are fans of the TV show with easy navigation and fun puzzles.
Chorus’ fluid, fast and action packed combat is so satisfying and the visuals are stunning. As much as I enjoyed the main story, the side quests and random encounters helped me explore more of each of the amazingly detailed systems and find more component upgrades for my ship. I highly recommend this game for space combat shooter fans and PC players can play a demo on Steam or Epic to try it out.