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Life is Strange: Double Exposure is a very easy game to recommend. If you have enjoyed previous games in the series, this is doing enough of the same to scratch that same lowkey mystery vibes itch. The ability to shift between timelines can become a touch overwhelming at times, but there's several things in place across the UI, accessibility options, and narrative flow to keep the gameplay smooth. What's more, I think this game might have redeemed Max Caulfield for me too, so take that how you will.
One thing they never tell you about parenthood is that you should prepare to play a lot of Monster Truck video games. If that's you, you should do yourself a favour and skip straight to Hot Wheels Monster Truck: Stunt Mayhem. It's easily the best Monster Truck themed game out there right now. Most importantly, it'll keep your youngster busy whilst you wash the pots, order a food shop, and get the hoovering done – what's not to like?
Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred is a bit of a disappointment. After the story finishes, it feels like little has changed, though the structural systems of the game have had some upheaval. You hit max level far quicker now and, once you do, the fun of looting will evaporate for all but the most hardcore and dedicated loot hunters. Meanwhile, there's spam to buy loot in the chat constantly, the party finder invariably puts me in parties where my lower level character is useless and dies to a sneeze from a passing asthmatic, and the big co-op endgame dungeon doesn't really seem to understand what Diablo is. Why doesn't it seem to understand? Because this is an MMO, not Diablo.
It took me a little while to fully warm to Tormenture, but as the game started to show its hand, I was hooked and played much of it in a single sitting. Tormenture is a clever and novel approach to horror that makes excellent use of the limitations of the period setting to unsettle and immerse you in a unique experience.
Vendetta Forever is a new contender for my favourite VR game. Its high speed, intense, but relatively short levels are always somewhere between very cool, very over the top, and quite funny. It's a game that's in love with old school action movies and did it darnedest to let you shoot your way through countless classic set pieces.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms 8 Remake presents the series at its very peak. Despite turning back the clock more than 20 years, the end product feels like an evolution of ROTK's grand strategy format thanks to smart gameplay upgrades and its beautiful presentation.
Neva is almost brilliant. This is a finely crafted game let down by too much empty time-wasting, untapped potential in its puzzling, and a rather onerous desire to make people cry.
Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire needed a lot more time and work to get it into a proper release state. If this was an early access title, some of the issues would be forgivable, but it isn't.
Sonic X Shadow Generations is a great time. The remaster is exactly as you'd expect and the new game on top of it is better, more polished, varied, and refined. It's almost converted me to a 3D Sonic guy, which is shocking, and, because it's about Shadow instead of Sonic, you don't have to put up with anywhere near as many obnoxious voice performances. Shadow himself is just a bit broody and says things like "the ultimate power" in an almost-Keanu Reeves voice which really makes me laugh – especially with the Keanu voice pack coming in December for some top tier silliness.
I really wanted to write about the positives of featuring more cultures in this genre, and about how cool it is to have a famous actor play the protagonist, but sadly the gameplay gets in the way of anything interesting. Unknown 9: Awakening is just a bunch of gaming tropes loosely tied together with boring and uninspired NPCs lazily lurching from set piece to set piece, as the poorly designed game creaks and groans under the weight of expectation.
It seems odd giving a remake of game a higher score than it's sequel but the Arizona Sunshine Remake takes all of the good elements from it's sequel and thankfully, very few of of the bad elements. Great fun in co-op mode, but playing alone makes it more tense, scary and certainly more of a challenging.
I love the idea of Hunt: Showdown 1896, but in practise it's mostly abandoned by people either sprinting all the time or camping all the time. It's hard to "get good" in this game because, one; it doesn't tell you how to, so you have to watch youtube videos and read reddit threads to figure things as basic as what UI elements mean in the menus, and two; because everyone else is already good and you die before you can get anything done or learn anything. I've made some progress, but doing so was a frustrating and gruelling experience that wasn't entirely down to my own incompetence. If you're a glutton for punishment this could be the extraction shooter for you, but it's hard to recommend to anyone that isn't already embedded in it.
In the pantheon of Mario Party games, Super Mario Party Jamboree is the best new game in a long, long time. After getting back to basics with Superstars, Jamboree sticks with the more traditional Mario Party formula in all the right ways, while still finding space to mix things up a little with new items, a blend of motion and button control minigames, Pro Rules, and some larger online modes and experiments. This is practically essential for Mario Party fans.
Ys X: Nordics maintains a lot of the qualities that this series has come to be known for. Some of those qualities aren't necessarily a positive, like the familiarly linear dungeon encounters and the less-than-impressive visuals of the game, but a lot of it works great. Combat is the best it's ever been, naval gameplay is a fresh and welcome addition, and Ys X: Nordics introduces refreshing character moments with Adol and Karja that I'm desperate to see more of in the next entry.
Silent Hill 2 is a fantastic remake of a true classic, Bloober Team putting their own spin on the iconic horror game. That being said, enough of rough edges remain that could put some players off – ironically the same rough edges that make it so successful for me. These echoes of some of the less positive aspects of the original game, as well as some performance issues on console, are the only negatives in a game that more than does service to the legacy of Silent Hill.
Until Dawn remains a fantastic horror game with great acting and plenty of jump scares to get you out of your seat. While not essential for anyone that enjoyed the original game, this remake brings it to a new audience and is a solid update to what was already a great game.
As a modern successor and sequel to the classic PS2 era Budokai Tenkaichi trilogy, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is a great time for Dragon Ball fans. You'll have to ease yourself into the controls, but once it clicks it's a lot of fun to explore the full roster and smash anime characters together.
Ravenswatch is an excellent roguelike, one that's filled with clever gameplay design, lovely art, and just a really cool core concept. Now that it's fully out in the wild, I'm happy to wholeheartedly recommend it to basically anyone who's even tangentially interested, and while I do sort of hope they keep releasing new characters, it already feels more than complete.
There's a lot of soulslikes out there, but Enotria: The Last Song makes a decent grab for your attention with day-glow brighter than bright visuals and the fresh and engaging setting of Italian mythology. Unfortunately, too many text-boxes and confusing gameplay systems, along with a healthy dose of jankiness, takes the shine off this otherwise colourful soulslike.
Metaphor ReFantazio is sublime. Persona fans will have an absolute blast playing this, and hunting out the subtle (and not-so-subtle) nods to its franchise cousin. A couple of minor annoyances make it feel a little rough around the edges hold it back from an otherwise perfect score.