Metal: Hellsinger is an incredibly well-realised concept, packed to bursting with excellent music, unique weapons and a gameplay loop that’s instantly addictive.
$70 is a steep mountain to climb. But, if you want to play the very best version of one of the greatest games that has ever been made, then The Last Of Us Part 1 is a triumph.
It’s a below average open world game that’s stuffed to bursting with bugs, and the best thing we can say about it is that making our Tobias Fünke-inspired character crouch over and do the wanker gesture while he walked down the street made us laugh. Probably not quite worth the price of admission.
This is an excellent PC port with Steam Deck support that elevates to it to a must-own for anyone with Valve’s portable. While Sony may never make a PlayStation Vita 2, if its support of the Steam Deck continues as more and more PlayStation exclusives migrate to PC, it’ll soon feel like the next-generation Sony handheld many of us have always wanted.
Good characters, strong performances and well-engineered dual timeline storytelling are let down by pacing that’s utterly arhythmic and gameplay that’s fighting you at every step.
Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak is an excellent expansion that will please those Hunters desperate for something new.
A year from now we’re unlikely to be able to recount an incredible puzzle or ingenious solution, but Silt’s lasting impression of incredible art and perfectly pitched atmosphere will be giving us nightmares for some time.
It feels like TT knows that this is very likely its last chance to do this series justice, and it's not only done that, it's created what is the very best Lego game, and frankly, one of the best Star Wars games that has ever been made.
At times it feels like the game’s incredible art direction, music and visual style deserve a game that’s better mechanically, but when it all comes together, Ghostwire Tokyo is one of the more memorable recent games in the triple-A space, if you can ignore its gameplay stumbles.
There is no one that we would recommend Babylon’s Fall to. It’s visually dated, consistently dull and features the most average PlatinumGames combat we can remember. On paper, the concept of a game like this bathed in the studio’s signature style is an appealing one, but sadly there’s nothing about the Platinum shine that’s evident in Babylon’s Fall.
If you can suffer through the clunky menus, endless dull dialogue and 100 visits to the cafe, then there’s an excellent racing game somewhere hidden in Gran Turismo 7.
Elden Ring is a fantastic game that can still deliver the unmatched thrill of defeating a tough boss after an hours-long battle. Those who worship at the church of Souls-like will find a game that’s basically everything they ever wanted.
Horizon Forbidden West is an incredible game set in a world that we wanted to return to many hours after the credits rolled.
Dying Light 2: Stay Human feels like it lost its direction somewhere along the way. It begins as an interesting zombie game wherein the threat feels tangible, your character feels weak, and the world feels primed for a dynamic story. However, the further you get into the game, a lot of its early ideas feel sidelined for a generic zombie plot, uninspiring combat, and the absence of any kind of danger.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus feels like the result of Game Freak learning lessons for 25 years, refining the formula, and finally taking the franchise in a new, incredible, exciting direction. With its emphasis on extremely rewarding exploration, addictive catching mechanics, a fine roster of Pokémon and a genuine sense of scale that's unlike anything in the series, Pokémon Legends: Arceus is quite simply one of the greatest Pokémon games ever made.
Both Uncharted 4 and Uncharted Lost Legacy are still fantastic games that deserve a second playthrough on PlayStation 5. Naughty Dog’s first outing on the PlayStation 5 is an incredibly strong one, and only makes even more excited for what it has coming next, and what they’ll be able to do with this technology.
We can’t recommend Rainbow Six Extraction if you’re planning on playing alone, especially on PlayStation platforms where you’re expected to pay £40 for the privilege, but if your regular gaming group is bored of the game you play every night, and they all have Game Pass, Extraction will provide laughs.
Even if you’ve played God Of War on the PS4, it’s more than worth going back for another trip up the mountain.
While some of the slower elements of the original games have been fixed, and The Grand Underground makes up for the comparatively weak Pokédex, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl's new art style and a few other stumbles make this pair of games a somewhat disappointing retread of Generation 4. They're also very clearly in the shadow of Pokemon Legends: Arceus, the upcoming open-world-like Pokemon game that has fans hoping it can take the series in exciting new directions beyond 20-year-old mechanics. If the remit of these remakes was to remain faithful to the original Gen 4 pair, we wish they'd also stuck to the pixel-art aesthetic. Aside from The Grand Underground – and the connectivity with the current games in the series – there's very little reason to play Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl over your original DS copies.
Portal and Hazard Zone save 2042 from being a real low point in the series, which has swapped iconic, high octane moments for needless scale, without filling in any of that space.