Includes PushSquare
Last reviewed: Palworld · today
there's no denying that Age of Mythology’s gameplay can feel simplistic, which is ironic, considering how influential the series has been. Having played a bunch back in the day, the missed campaigns are appreciated, but we can’t see ourselves regularly returning to the well.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard isn't quite BioWare back to its absolute best, but it is the most cohesive and emotionally engaging RPG that the studio has delivered since Mass Effect 3. Its shift to crunchy action combat is an improvement over Inquisition's middle-of-the-road approach, and although the game feels a little light on meaningful player choice, the storytelling pulls no punches when it actually matters. This is a gorgeous and gripping adventure, backed by a cast of endearing heroes and deliciously devious villains.
While unlikely to convert any new adherents, Vessel of Hatred provides plenty of reasons to return to the dark world of Sanctuary. The Spiritborn class is the biggest draw here, but exploring Nahantu and delving into a dark new storyline make Vessel of Hatred worth the entry price.
Unknown 9: Awakening is a good debut from a first-time development team. This narrative-driven action-adventure has some rough edges but the beautiful locations, intriguing narrative, and well-written characters make it hard to put down. The gameplay doesn't evolve much but the entertaining stealth mechanics add a lot of variety to the skirmishes you find yourself in. Overall, this is a compelling new IP with lots of potential for future adventures.
There’s actually the glimmer of a good idea here. If the shooting sequences were better executed and the car handling better honed, you could end up with an interesting alternative take on the arcade racer that serves its license well. But while there’s some reasonable presentation on display, the package doesn’t deliver on its ambition at all.
These gameplay moments and the parts where every aspect of the experience comes together to work in harmony aren't quite common enough. We wish some mechanics stuck around for longer, but it does keep the experience fresh and consistently exciting, making Neva another hit from the small Barcelona-based studio.
Undisputed doesn't pull its punches, and it's a tidy first attempt. While the game lacks the polish of a true champion, there's the meat of something special here. Career mode has all the elements of a great, but it's a bit dry in its current guise and could use a little more spectacle and variety. Meanwhile, the actual core boxing feels fantastic, but repetitive commentary and a lack of in-ring drama let it down. This is a release that's not quite ready to contend for a belt yet, but it's not a million miles off.
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is an impressively robust celebration of all things Dragon Ball. It's just about as bombastic as arena fighters get, and while the game could do a much better job of teaching players the ropes, there's a technical depth to combat that makes the learning curve feel incredibly rewarding. Boasting a colossal character roster and some of the best anime-based visuals in gaming, Sparking! Zero is an absolute blast.
Throne and Liberty is an ongoing game, so the story could become more fleshed out, the mechanics you use to interact with the world could become more nuanced, and the technical issues could be fixed. But as it all stands now, it's just an okay way to dip your toe into a relatively console-friendly MMORPG that doesn't demand endless amounts of your time for you to enjoy - although there are better games to play with your precious hours. If you're looking for something deeper than that, though, you won't find it here.
EA Sports FC 25 is the best playing version of the annual soccer sim in quite some time, with more intelligent artificial intelligence and weather physics adding a layer of density and dynamism to the experience – albeit largely offline. To us, Ultimate Team feels like it's getting a bit stale, but we like the addition of Rush across the entire release, which offers something a little different for when you fancy a change of pace. And while the commentary and menus are below par, the overall quality of the presentation continues to be underappreciated.
Unfortunately, the slow, cumbersome movement undoes the otherwise likeable presentation. We’re glad this era of licensed games is slowly making a comeback, we just wished this was more fun to play.
With four difficulty levels to overcome, lots of equipment to change up your play style, and five levels to master, Kill Knight is pretty fleshed out for what it is. On top of that, the controls feel very responsive, and it's all presented with a harsh, grainy aesthetic and appropriately punchy music
Metaphor: ReFantazio is one of the most memorable RPGs we've played in years. In pursuing a new property, complete with a fantasy setting, Atlus has allowed its creativity to blossom, resulting in a brilliantly rich experience - both in terms of narrative and audiovisual design. While Metaphor takes obvious gameplay and structural cues from the developer's previous projects, it combines and refines those elements to make an epic, kingdom-hopping adventure that feels unique and deeply fulfilling.
By daring to downscale some of the fluff, NBA 2K25 brings its focus back to basketball in a positive way. Improvements to the series' dribbling system and ProPLAY make this the best feeling hoops sim Visual Concepts has made, while the sheer density of different modes and features means you could play nothing else all year – and still never get bored. But the borderline insulting emphasis on microtransactions remain a thorn in this series' side, and something you simply have to accept if you want to enjoy everything else on offer here.
Until Dawn drags a contemporary classic into a new generation, and its interactive teen slasher silliness more than holds up today. With vastly enhanced graphics and minor gameplay upgrades, this is still a highly recommended game. The problem is it costs three times as much as its nine-year-old predecessor, and doesn't have an upgrade path. For all of its grisly glamour, that makes this remake a tough sell – especially when it runs at half the frame rate of its predecessor when played using PS5 backwards compatibility.
Bloober Team has faithfully and respectfully recreated one of the survival horror genre's all-time greats, modernising Silent Hill 2 in all the right ways.
Across the board, the emulation is excellent, and the package has been enhanced by beautiful 3D renders of the original Famicom cartridges, as well as artwork and high-resolution scans of each game’s manual. This is a well-done and loving bundle, then, but the games themselves are ancient and demand a very specific mindset if you plan to extract any actual entertainment value from them.