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Star Wars: Galactic Racer not only brings the best features of my favourite arcade racing game, Burnout 3, into the modern era, but also blends them with elements from my second favourite – Motorstorm. What’s more, the whole thing is wrapped up in a roguelike campaign with serious stakes, enough to stir up real excitement and ensure great replayability. Though easy to learn, the game’s driving mechanics prove to have considerable depth. The only downsides are the lack of split-screen and the poor layout of some tracks, but even so, the breakneck driving pace is incredibly fun.

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Gears of War: E-Day successfully fulfils its mission of returning to the roots of the series, whilst offering noticeable improvements over all previous instalments and reminding us once again of the horror of the Locusts. Unfortunately, it also suffers from issues with pacing and enemy AI, while pushing Marcus into the background in favour of a new character. Nevertheless, this dynamic, emotional and extremely brutal shooter should appeal to fans of the series – and many others as well.

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Transport Fever 3 is a wonderful new addition to the series. With more vehicles, improved graphics, more user-friendly interface, and a modding scene that’s already impressive, I’ve had an absolute blast playing TF3 – and those measly 74 hours I’ve managed to squeeze in over the weekends and late at night are just the beginning. It’s just a shame that, although the game looks lovely, it runs a touch poorly. I really wanted to give it a 9/10, but I simply couldn’t with such severe frame rate drops on high-end hardware.

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We had to wait seven years for the release of Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, but it was well worth it. The story campaign is everything I expected as a fan of the series – its minor flaws in no way detract from the fact that this is a bigger, better and more visually stunning game than its predecessor. It doesn’t break anything that worked before; instead, it takes the already high quality of the previous instalments and raises it even further – I’m absolutely delighted.

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Townfall is a title that should particularly appeal to die-hard fans of the series, especially those who weren't keen on the changes Bloober Team made in the Silent Hill 2 remake or the genre mashups in Silent Hill f, and would prefer a more classic approach. Screen Burn Interactive has successfully captured the horror of the early entries, enhancing it with their own unique narrative and modern visuals.

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In Control Resonant, two styles of game design collide: one formulaic, the other – imaginative, surprising with sequences and vistas we’d never have expected in a game like this. These two concepts somehow blend together so naturally, complementing one another, and over time the latter seems to completely dominate the former. The new Control may not have the most enticing opening, but it’s worth persevering through it, because later on it takes us on a wild ride that we’ll remember for a long time.

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Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is one of the best entries in the series and a must-play for fans of JRPGs and tactical games. It draws inspiration not only from Three Houses, but also from earlier instalments in the series, featuring excellent map design, satisfying gameplay and a tremendous amount of content. However, due to its sheer scale, its storyline suffers, offering a disjointed narrative with too many subplots and loose ends. Despite this, it is currently one of my contenders for GOTY.

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Insomniac Games’ new game is a solid title that kept me entertained, though it wasn’t quite the blockbuster experience one might expect from one of this autumn’s biggest releases. The enjoyable combat system and strong narrative provide 20 hours of fun. But the constant hand-holding, lack of any meaningful variety, and a difficulty level tailored so as not to frustrate anyone… make this enjoyable experience never rise above that level. All in all, Marvel’s Wolverine is a good game. Nothing more, nothing less.

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Onimusha: Way of the Sword marks a successful return for the legendary series, one that wisely steers clear of the current trend of turning action games into ‘soulslikes’. The game shines with its brilliant, gory combat system, exemplary Sekiro-esque parrying, charismatic characters (the superbly animated Musashi!) and fantastic bosses. The game retains the series’ atmosphere and beautiful visuals, and the optimisation for the PS5 is flawless. The overly passive common enemies are a slight disappointment, and unfortunately there aren’t enough interesting puzzles; even so, it remains a highly satisfying power fantasy and a wonderful tribute to the series’ entire legacy.

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The Blood of Dawnwalker from Rebel Wolves is a grim RPG which, at its best, rivals The Witcher 3 story-wise. The game charms with an excellent prologue, a grounded, down-to-earth atmosphere, mature choices in shades of grey, and memorable characters. Unfortunately, after a brilliant start, the experience suffers due to repetitive, Ubisoft-style open-world activities that you have to plough through to uncover the narrative treasures. It is an ambitious and successful, albeit uneven, title – a must-play for fans of atmospheric games who are willing to overlook some of the rough edges typical of a debut title.

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Star Wars: Zero Company is a linear, story-driven experience of about 40 hours, with solid mechanics that result in satisfying gameplay, but it is marred by annoying technical issues as well as an inconsistent pace and difficulty level. If you’re looking for a turn-based Mass Effect 2 and you love Star Wars, then Zero Company is probably for you, but it’s not really the sort of game you’ll be playing for years on end like XCOM 2.

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Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy is a good example of an AA game, offering over a dozen hours of immersive gameplay in beautiful presentation (that music!). At times, it feels like watching an interactive film that occasionally lets you take the reins, and some of the mechanics seem a bit shoehorned in, but this is balanced out by engaging puzzles. I’m not likely to miss Sophia and her adventures, but ‘raiding’ ancient ruins was a lot of fun.

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In the new The Sinking City, developers at Frogwares have swapped the detective-occultist gameplay for a survival horror experience. It’s a truly successful step into the genre: the combat is satisfying, and the environmental puzzles are highly inventive and engaging. Fans of the genre should keep The Sinking City 2 in mind. Those who enjoyed the first game may feel a slight disappointment, and although I initially had mixed feelings too, I ended up having a lot of fun with the game. Frogwares took a risk by ditching the detective elements, but it’s worked out very well.

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I’d hoped for more from Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls. Arc System Works created a gorgeous and well-crafted fighter, but there are too many aspects here that leave me with mixed feelings; the mediocre storyline and slow matchmaking are things I can get over, but issues with the combat system are something I simply cannot overlook. Tokon offers a dozen or so hours of solid entertainment, but it’s really best suited to casual games with friends – it won’t take the fighting game scene by storm.

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Beast of Reincarnation provides a very engaging, organic exploration with remarkable freedom of movement. It is also full of systems that aren’t always well designed and tedious cutscenes that take ages to tell a relatively simple story. It’s a decent game that comes very close to being really good, but the latter half drags it down by neglecting its greatest strengths. Ultimately, I still think the game is worth a go for fans of the genre.

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The greatest strengths of Halo: Campaign Evolved come from the quality of the original itself, as Combat Evolved remains, even after 25 years, a superb shooter. Long-time fans of the series will enjoy the remake if nostalgia is enough to win them over, but they may quickly spot some flaws – from graphics that are beautiful but hard to read to a poor remaster of the iconic soundtrack. New players would be better off trying the original or the Anniversary Edition.

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ZERO PARADES is a game that needlessly sabotages itself by offering a knock-off of Disco Elysium writing style instead of developing its own voice. It’s a shame, because in terms of plot structure and gameplay, the new ZA/UM game surpasses its predecessor in places, so if only they’d focused on doing things their own way, we could have ended up with something truly remarkable.

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This is perhaps the best Assassin’s Creed game I’ve ever played. Black Flag, whilst a game with a vast, open world, still holds onto what the series once stood for. It holds onto its character. Because of this, I didn’t even mind the flaws all that much – the ones I’d subconsciously linked to that old, well-worn and much-loved Assassin’s Creed series. With Black Flag Resynced, Ubisoft has brought out the very best in the game, reminding us once again why this series became so popular.

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Despite my pre-release trepidation, the new Star Fox lived up to my expectations. It's a competent reboot of a cult classic from years past.

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Alkimia has delivered a game that captures the strengths of its predecessor, led by a brilliantly constructed world and the brutal harshness of life in the Mining Valley. Defying contemporary trends, Gothic Remake doesn’t hold the player’s hand and rewards them with a great sense of satisfaction as they make progress. It’s just a shame that we’ve ended up with a game plagued by so many bugs.

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