Includes PushSquare
Last reviewed: Mina the Hollower · 5 days ago
A referential and joyful deep dive into the world of Batman, the latest LEGO effort from TT Games is elite brick gaming. Legacy of the Dark Knight just wants to be an enjoyable time, and it refuses to falter from that commitment. This new LEGO Batman will be some of the best fun you have all year.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is an excellent action RPG that offers an even more hardcore take on the increasingly popular Soulslike formula. It's fast, frenetic, and hits like a truck, with one of the most mesmeric combat systems we've ever had the pleasure to master. It might scare off more casual players, but those looking for a challenge, well - you can stop looking.
New World: Aeternum is a high-quality MMO experience, and the transition to PS5 has been smooth. With a focus on action combat, gorgeous visuals, and a free-form, classless levelling system, even castaways on a deserted, haunted island would be hard-pressed to do and see everything it offers.
Survivor Instinct's biggest saving grace is the entertaining set-pieces, which usually involve escaping from a Titan strangely determined to kill you. While this can deliver a visually impressive spectacle, it's frustrating how little room for error there often is. These moments are meant to be fast-paced, sure; you're running for your life after all. However, a split-second delay or mistimed jump is often enough to kill you, and that annoyingly restarts the entire segment.
The horror element is extremely well done throughout the game, and paves the way for an interesting story as you progress through the game, but things can verge on tedious as the gameplay style does feel very back and forth throughout. Fortunately, with each run lasting just a few hours, it doesn't overstay its welcome, and so comes recommended if you like this era of horror games.
NHL 25 isn't great. While there are welcome changes this time, almost all of them are cosmetic, or menu-oriented. Ultimately, that's what this iteration amounts to: a hyper-fixation on presentational components. Where are the new game modes? Improvements to the controls? Sure the game looks great, but wouldn't it be awesome if it played great as well?
Sonic X Shadow Generations is a great two-for-one deal, but for us, the antihero's half of the package steals the show. While the remaster of the 13-year-old platformer is perfectly fine, Shadow's brand new campaign outshines it with much improved gameplay and level design. The older game definitely shows its age in some regards, but bundling together one of the most beloved Sonic titles with one of the best 3D entries in recent memory makes for a compelling double feature.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.