
The new standard in open-world racing is here, and it’s a gundamn masterpiece.


The new standard in open-world racing is here, and it’s a gundamn masterpiece.

Samson may come stocked with an impressively detailed sandbox, but it’s totally impossible to recommend in its current state.

Tedious characters and difficulty spikes notwithstanding, Screamer is a unique and confidently assembled racer that feels like the result of locking Blur in a room for 12 months with nothing but a Crunchyroll subscription.

Terminator 2D: No Fate is a wonderfully realised tribute to one of the single greatest movies ever made, punctuated with pitch-perfect music, exquisite pixel art, and brilliant Easter eggs.

Fusing a solid foundation of satisfyingly grounded skate tricks with a bizarre, abstract world, Skate Story wobbles a little under its weirdness but there’s no doubt it’s one of the most distinctive skateboarding games of the decade.

Project Motor Racing feels like an early access game that hasn’t actually been identified as such, and is simply not a better racer than its 2017 ancestor Project CARS 2.

Overflowing with ambition but ultimately plain and with no style to call its own, Wreckreation feels like a supermarket brand homage to a series of better arcade racers.

If you’re after a deep multiplayer experience you may want to circle back to iRacing, but if you want some quality, single-player stock car racing against extremely solid AI, NASCAR 25 delivers.

Formula Legends is an absolutely excellent idea for a loving, off-brand homage to the sport of F1 executed with a pile of charm (and an even bigger pile of imaginative content), but its laggy handling takes some warming to and its AI racers frustrate.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: The Order of Giants can be whipped through in a single afternoon but features several puzzles that are even better than those in The Great Circle itself.

Mafia: The Old Country is a conventional but effective return to the linear and tightly story-driven format of the original Mafia and Mafia II, and it boasts a wonderful eye and ear for detail.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 proves yet again the series’ over-the-top skateboarding formula is totally timeless, even if some of the changes to THPS4 miss the mark and the soundtrack has been fumbled.

MindsEye’s flashy graphics and cinematics can’t hide its serious lack of substance and major performance problems.

F1 25 is a far broader and better package than last year’s installment, and it’s comfortably the strongest the series has been since the fan favourite F1 2020.

JDM: Japanese Drift Master is an ambitious and sincere ode to Japanese drift culture, but right now it feels like an unfinished project that’s shipped without the early access caveat.