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Dragon Age: The Veilguard isn't quite BioWare back to its absolute best, but it is the most cohesive and emotionally engaging RPG that the studio has delivered since Mass Effect 3. Its shift to crunchy action combat is an improvement over Inquisition's middle-of-the-road approach, and although the game feels a little light on meaningful player choice, the storytelling pulls no punches when it actually matters. This is a gorgeous and gripping adventure, backed by a cast of endearing heroes and deliciously devious villains.
If it seems like we're dogging on this latest outing for the series, it's only because we know just how unique and entertaining it can be. Double Exposure isn't a bad game, it's just not the series at its best. It loses some of that inviting atmosphere with Caledon paling in comparison to Haven Springs or Arcadia Bay, and its narrative suffers from an overreliance on the supernatural. But we'd be lying if we said it wasn't great to see Max Caulfield return and we still think it's worth checking out if you're a fan of the series.
Throw in the crisp texture work — blended with less impressive ones — and rock-solid performance with modern resolutions and frame rate, and you’ve got a winner.
The whole aesthetic of the missions and the menus is retro PS3 at its best, but unfortunately the game's performance tanks when too many bugs are on screen, which is most of the time. Still, clambering over their corpses as the bodies pile up and making a final dash toward the extraction is a blast, and if you're a fan of Helldivers, this is a solid evolution of the genre and well worth your time.
The tactical aspect of the game is also finicky. You can give your four squadmates orders, but only within a short radius of yourself, limiting their potential. Your choice is a map that doesn’t pause the action and is therefore useless in a fight, or a quick menu that takes up most of the screen and isn’t very quick, also making it a burden in fights. The first-person view is neat, and the ability to take control of your squadmate's mechs is novel, but these features aren't enough to shake the feeling your time would be better spent playing XCOM.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms 8 Remake is a great way to test the waters of Koei Tecmo's long-running historical simulation series. It can be initially overwhelming and a little unwieldy at times, but the remake offers a return to a seminal entry in the series and one of the deepest and most intricate strategy games available on PS5 and PS4 to date.
Squirrel with a Gun is a chaotic time that is always looking to place your rodent in the most insane positions to make them look like an action movie star. It is quite janky at times and can wear on you fast, so we don’t necessarily recommend trying to knock all of its content out at once, but for a side game that you can go to when you need a break from everything else, Squirrel with a Gun is worthy of your time.
The Lake House is a brilliant serving of Remedy horror goodness, acting as a cocktail of two franchise identities, to deliver something that is narratively intriguing and visually distinct. It's a tight-knit experience packed with expanding lore and clever scares, and a keen reminder of Remedy's pedigree. It's an interesting link in the wider world of Remedy games too that leaves us sad to see this chapter end, but ever curious to how it will all continue.
Despite this, the game does a fantastic job of immersing you in this terrifying and deadly world, especially with the live mic feature that captures your audio as you play, which can alert the creatures. There's a fantastic set of features and foundation here that we'd love to see built upon in a sequel, as the A Quiet Place franchise is a great fit with games.
Vendetta Forever ends up having a highly replayable gameplay loop with slick combat and incredible variety. This is one of the best titles to hit PSVR2 this year without question.
Survivor Instinct's biggest saving grace is the entertaining set-pieces, which usually involve escaping from a Titan strangely determined to kill you. While this can deliver a visually impressive spectacle, it's frustrating how little room for error there often is. These moments are meant to be fast-paced, sure; you're running for your life after all. However, a split-second delay or mistimed jump is often enough to kill you, and that annoyingly restarts the entire segment.
NHL 25 isn't great. While there are welcome changes this time, almost all of them are cosmetic, or menu-oriented. Ultimately, that's what this iteration amounts to: a hyper-fixation on presentational components. Where are the new game modes? Improvements to the controls? Sure the game looks great, but wouldn't it be awesome if it played great as well?
New World: Aeternum is a high-quality MMO experience, and the transition to PS5 has been smooth. With a focus on action combat, gorgeous visuals, and a free-form, classless levelling system, even castaways on a deserted, haunted island would be hard-pressed to do and see everything it offers.
The horror element is extremely well done throughout the game, and paves the way for an interesting story as you progress through the game, but things can verge on tedious as the gameplay style does feel very back and forth throughout. Fortunately, with each run lasting just a few hours, it doesn't overstay its welcome, and so comes recommended if you like this era of horror games.
Sonic X Shadow Generations is a great two-for-one deal, but for us, the antihero's half of the package steals the show. While the remaster of the 13-year-old platformer is perfectly fine, Shadow's brand new campaign outshines it with much improved gameplay and level design. The older game definitely shows its age in some regards, but bundling together one of the most beloved Sonic titles with one of the best 3D entries in recent memory makes for a compelling double feature.
While unlikely to convert any new adherents, Vessel of Hatred provides plenty of reasons to return to the dark world of Sanctuary. The Spiritborn class is the biggest draw here, but exploring Nahantu and delving into a dark new storyline make Vessel of Hatred worth the entry price.
Unknown 9: Awakening is a good debut from a first-time development team. This narrative-driven action-adventure has some rough edges but the beautiful locations, intriguing narrative, and well-written characters make it hard to put down. The gameplay doesn't evolve much but the entertaining stealth mechanics add a lot of variety to the skirmishes you find yourself in. Overall, this is a compelling new IP with lots of potential for future adventures.
For those keen to revisit this PSVR classic, the remake is still a fun zombie shooter, with solid gunplay, brilliant graphics, and a decent wee package of content. It's also launching at a reduced £25/$30, making it fairly inexpensive. However, if you're new to the series and want to dive straight into the series at its best, we'd recommend its superior sequel over this.
These gameplay moments and the parts where every aspect of the experience comes together to work in harmony aren't quite common enough. We wish some mechanics stuck around for longer, but it does keep the experience fresh and consistently exciting, making Neva another hit from the small Barcelona-based studio.
There’s actually the glimmer of a good idea here. If the shooting sequences were better executed and the car handling better honed, you could end up with an interesting alternative take on the arcade racer that serves its license well. But while there’s some reasonable presentation on display, the package doesn’t deliver on its ambition at all.