GGRecon's Reviews
It's hard to talk about Khaos Reigns without having that price tag in mind. For £39/$39 it's simply too lean, relying on the promise of an eclectic mix of characters to come and some long-awaited roster additions to add value to a very short and mostly forgettable story add-on.
EA FC 25 is definitely a game of two halves. Its core is still excellent and endlessly enjoyable, and several new additions have given fresh life to the game. However, it remains held back by age-old issues that have plagued the series year-on-year.
There's only so far pure nostalgia can take you, and it is not enough to carry Funko Fusion to a respectable score. What could have been the most imaginative game out there ends up as a drab and soulless mess which relies on repetitive puzzles and monotonous battles against the same eight enemy types over and over again.
Crusader Kings 3 Roads to Power is the best expansion the game has had so far, purely because of its focus on new gameplay systems that let you approach how you play the game a little differently than before. The new Byzantine content is a breath of fresh air for the best aspects of CK's gameplay, while the Adventurer playstyle could do with a little more to make it fun beyond your first go.
Ara: History Untold brings fresh ideas for a long-running genre, and more than stands on its own because of them.
Even if you’ve already played the game to 100% on PS5, you’ll likely get something out of witnessing God of War Ragnarok again in all its glory on a PC.
Final Fantasy XVI feels absolutely at home on PC. With excellent optimisation that’s bolstered by impressive Frame Generation technology, it’s a relatively smooth sailing experience if you have the hardware to handle it.
Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is far and away the best possible way you can experience Dead Rising. As a huge fan of the series, I'm thrilled to have a remaster/remake hybrid that's so true to the original.
A Plucky Squire might entertain a younger audience, but it offers little to engage those of a more mature disposition, which is disappointing coming from a publisher such as Devolver. While the character and world design offers an intriguing playspace, the puzzle and combat mechanics are so simple that I was left unimpressed by the end of my ten-hour playthrough.
While Madden 25 feels like a great improvement on last year's game, it still feels like much of its core is standing in place. While that leads to a feeling of "Maybe next year" that the series has fostered before, it's definitely a better game than last year's effort.
Emio - The Smiling man is a chilling detective story that leans a little too heavily into repetitive mechanics, but will reward those who stick with it.
If, like me, you’ve been waiting for Nintendo to deliver a new 3D Mario game for the best part of a decade, look no further - Team ASOBI has done it themselves. For those who own a PlayStation, consider Astro Bot an essential purchase.
The Miles Edgeworth Collection is a stellar product. It features some of the series' best writing, varied gameplay, and unique set pieces. Not only is this the best way to play these games, it’s one of the only ways to play the fantastic sequel. While the guesswork puzzle-solving can be frustrating at times, all too often, I'm too entirely captivated by Miles and the gang to be that bothered.
Space Marine 2 is pure, unfiltered video game. It's arcadey and straightforward as hell; nothing is overwrought, and there is no misconception of trying to be more than what it should be. You play a level, you kill a tonne of things in various contexts, and then you do it all again and again until the credits roll. That's all it needed to be, and it does it with the style and grace of a chainsaw bisecting a pig carcass. Here is the new gold standard for a third-person action game in the 40K universe.
It's a game that I'm sure will enthral pre-existing Star Wars fans as its world and characters feel authentic, but beyond that, it offers not much more than a playable albeit sometimes frustrating experience.
Black Myth: Wukong infuses the cultural heritage of China, its rich mythology, and one of its most important pieces of literature with an action RPG structure that's as deep as it is grand in scale. However, this same scope leads to some inconsistency across the board that is a detriment to the overall quality.
F1 Manager continues to offer more of what I'd hoped for when the franchise debuted, and it's just getting better and better each year. Additional drivers to nurture, subtle improvements to race day, and the long-awaited team creation option make this a much deeper simulator in major and minor ways.
Once Human might be the first crafting game I find myself coming back to regularly thanks to solid combat fundamentals, a perfectly-tuned crafting loop, and a level of polish that’s often all too rare in the genre.
Splintered Fate is a great Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles roguelike that possibly sticks a little too closely to the template set by one of the genre's finest. And yet, as I played through run after run with a co-op partner, I didn't care one bit.
Put simply, Dungeons of Hinterberg is sensational. It distils its three gameplay pillars of thoughtful dungeon puzzle solving, snappy combat, and meaningful relationship building into a frightfully fun loop that I hardly ever wanted to put down throughout its runtime. Much of the game is themed around what it means to take a break from the rat race, and in exploring its characters and connecting with its therapeutic routine, I almost feel as though it has offered me a similar mental refresh upon completing it.