Steve Boxer

“A clever and hugely enjoyable online team game, even at this early stage in its career -although it feels more like a rival to Rocket League than EA Sports FC.”

“Everything you could want from a theme park simulator, with a near endless collection of modes and options, and an endearingly cheerful tone and sense of humour.”

“A fun and unusual take on the third person stealth game, that suffers from some humourless writing but benefits from a surfeit of peculiar magic powers.”

“A clever and unusual indie detective story, but the emphasis on clunky stealth and samey cases quickly saps your enthusiasm for the pixelated noir setting.”

“The best Mana game in a long while but how it managed to leave out the one feature that should have come as standard is a complete mystery.”

“An inventive action platformer that manages to be both cute and gory in equal measure and where it seems absolutely impossible that it could be the work of primarily just two people.”

“A highly original indie action puzzler, with some wonderfully minimal visuals and a uniquely beguiling atmosphere.”

“A clever and well-structured interpretation of the classic TV series as a co-op brawler, that would be a fun diversion even without the licence.”

“Arc System Works aren't exactly pushing themselves out of their comfort zone, but this is another polished and highly enjoyable 2D fighter that is not nearly as insular as you'd think.”

“A charming, whimsical and very soothing life simulator that makes good use all of all its many influences and still feels refreshingly unique in itself.”

“It's not the world's most radical sequel but Train Sim World 4 is a sizeable update for the virtual train set, with plenty to please new fans and old.”

“The slickest, smoothest and most technologically advanced not-FIFA game ever made, that makes an encouragingly positive start to a new era of football video games.”

“Impressively well produced and extremely playable, but there are few changes from last year and the microtransactions are still obnoxious.”

“A significant improvement on the original and undoubtedly the best 2D Soulslike game so far, with a macabre and imaginative style all of its own.”

“Classic co-op party-gaming fare that's unpretentious and very quick to pick up. It may be just a little too similar to Overcooked. but given how rare local co-op games are this is a welcome riff on a familiar theme.”

“Not the high-end remake that some fans would have been hoping for but even as a, at times, too faithful remaster this is a fascinating second look at one of gaming's great unsung heroes.”

“Slick, high-tech, and impeccably well designed; this is the best golf game of the modern era and the new standard for others to aspire to.”

“A prequel to Road 96, that adds skating mini-games but removes the procedural generation of the original – but it's still engagingly written, and has a lot to say.”

“An entertaining and fiercely satirical evocation of a future corporate dystopia, that manages to be both genuinely funny and surprisingly varied in its gameplay.”

“A short but sweet VR romp that replicates the Peaky Blinders universe perfectly, even as it runs up against some of the intrinsic limitations of VR gaming on the Meta Quest 2.”