IGN

• PS4
• PS5
• XONE
• XSX/S
• PC
• 7 / 10
• États-Unis

Evil West is a refreshing blast from the past that nails the most important parts of its old-school, vampire-hunting action. The combat is smooth and its weapon options are ludicrously entertaining, but low enemy variety and overly similar level layouts can grow somewhat monotonous after a while. This is far from being the most complex or innovative action game I’ve played, but every so often you just want to have some fun smashing in monster skulls.

• PC
• PS4
• PS5
• XONE
• XSX/S
• 5 / 10
• États-Unis

The Devil in Me’s twisted murder castle setting provides the literal foundations for what could have been an exciting horror adventure, but pacing problems and an insipid group of potential victims makes for a slaycation that’s low in stakes and lacking in any substantial thrills or hand-wringing decisions to make. Efforts to bring gameplay variety to each playable character haven’t really shaken things up to any notable degree, and the quicktime event-based survival sequences adhere to a stress-inducing formula that’s starting to feel a bit too familiar. Ominous animatronics and a hulking aggressor mean the concluding chapter of The Dark Pictures Anthology is still capable of inducing the occasional jump scare, but for the most part The Devil in Me’s tour through a maniac’s mansion is disappointingly lacking in any real menace or surprise.

• PS5
• XSX/S
• PC
• 8 / 10
• États-Unis

Goat Simulator 3 is the evolution in idiocy I’d hoped for from this iconically weird series. It almost certainly won’t wow you with its level of polish or a deep, meaningful narrative, but sometimes it’s a good idea to turn your brain off and buck your hooves into an old lady’s face while she fires a rocket launcher at you. With a larger map, more ridiculous references and hilarious jokes, and multiplayer that only enhances the ludicrous good times, I can easily recommend this to anyone with a taste for its silly sense of humor and a few hours to kill.

• PC
• XONE
• XSX/S
• SWITCH
• PS4
• PS5
• 9 / 10
• États-Unis

Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration offers a novel way to delve into the past that’s filled with fun and surprises, much like walking into the Atari section at Sears in 1982 must have felt like – I wouldn’t know, I missed out! That’s why it’s such a blast to have this window into the past. I can’t wait to see what gets the Atari 50 treatment next (SEGA would be my top choice). It’s not just the updated control schemes and gorgeous graphical recreations that make these games accessible, it’s the stories behind them. After hearing multiple people rave about Yars’ Revenge or Star Raiders in the documentary segments, you just want to check them out yourself. Just read the manual first! It’s provided, along with many other glittering artifacts that reveal the magic of the early arcade and console era. With Atari 50, you didn’t have to be there.

• PC
• XONE
• XSX/S
• 10 / 10
• États-Unis

As an engrossing 15 to 20-hour adventure game, a chronicle of a small town and its people in turbulent times, a reverent celebration of the finer details of Late Medieval history, and a clever detective story in which straight answers are hard to come by – Pentiment is a clear champion. My gripes about it are all relatively minor, and I look forward to playing it at least once or twice more to explore roads not taken. It never suffers for its simplicity, lacking in combat or traditional puzzles, because of how effectively it tangled me up in the complexities of its gorgeously-realized world and made me want to learn all I could about its people and its past. There isn't much more to say about Pentiment, other than I can hardly recommend it highly enough.

• PC
• XONE
• XSX/S
• 7 / 10
• États-Unis

Somerville follows its own unique path within the puzzle-adventure genre. That path isn’t always a smooth one, with camera annoyances and physics wonkiness occasionally serving as a pebble in your shoe while solving its series of pleasantly challenging puzzles, and the story is more strange for the sake of being strange than it is thought-provoking. But thanks to its strong visual storytelling techniques and the way the opening minutes inspire an irresistible desire to find out what happened to this man and whether or not he’ll ever find his family, Somerville is nevertheless a very good tour through an exceptionally bleak scenario – all of which is successfully conveyed without a single line of dialogue.

• PC
• MAC
• XONE
• XSX/S
• 8 / 10
• États-Unis

With its dead-simple graphics and basic map and enemy design, Vampire Survivors seems like it has no business sticking with me as much as it does. And yet, I felt compelled to put over a hundred hours into experimenting with its many weapon and ability upgrade combinations, starting round after round trying to reach the end and unlock all of its characters, evolve all of its weapons, and unlock all of its secrets. The bewitching spell of its appeal can be broken by the duller stretches between when you find a great build or unlock a challenging new mode, but it probably won’t be long until you find a new way to challenge yourself to survive just a few seconds longer.

• PC
• 8 / 10
• États-Unis

Among Us VR is a great ground-up reworking of a classic social game that feels right at home in virtual reality, remaining faithful to Innersloth’s hit while feeling fresh in a new perspective and with a few sneaky new tricks in play. This still feels like the same game many of us fell in love with years ago, yet thanks to new elements like proximity voice chat and mini-games made to work with motion controls, Among Us VR revitalizes action across The Skeld. Additional maps and cosmetics can’t come quickly enough, but if they’re up to the standard that Schell Games has set with the one that’s currently available they’ll be worth a bit of a wait. This is easily one of the best VR adaptations of an existing game yet.

• PS5
• PS4
• 10 / 10
• États-Unis

An enthralling spectacle to behold and an even more exciting one to take the reins of, God of War Ragnarok melds action and adventure together to create a new, unforgettable Norse saga. Impeccable writing, pitch-perfect performances, knockout action – it’s a complete work of art from top to bottom. Reflecting its core themes, it's everything a sequel should be: respectful of its legendary lineage, but not afraid to take it to exciting new places. God of War Ragnarok is an almighty achievement and creates a new high that makes many of its peers look positively mortal by comparison.

• PS5
• 7 / 10
• États-Unis

Sonic Frontiers is a delightfully weird and experimental evolution of the Sonic games so many of us grew up with. Its series of open-world islands are filled with so much variety and pieces of Sonic history, from classic platforming stages to silly minigames, that they’re enjoyable to explore even when awful graphical pop-in is a constant hedgehog spine in your side. Some of the new stuff Frontiers tries out, like the smart toggling between 2D and 3D perspectives out in the open world or the Cyber Space levels, are fantastic ways to pack as much Sonic goodness as possible into one package, while others – especially combat – are uninteresting experiments gone wrong. Still, I largely enjoyed my time running around in Frontiers, making it feel like a very promising first attempt at what could be a bright new era for Sonic and friends.

• PC
• IOS
• ANDROID
• 8 / 10
• États-Unis

Marvel Snap upends the collectible card game genre with some truly fresh ideas, impressive strategic depth, wonderfully slick presentation, and a fantastic use of the Marvel licence. Not everything it attempts is an outright win, however. Its high variance gameplay can be frustrating, but is mitigated by the short games and ability to retreat mid-match, while the collection system represents a bold move away from the norm of buying into a collection, but ultimately feels slow and unsatisfying beyond a certain point. Even so, Marvel Snap deserves a place in the pocket of card game players and Marvel fans alike.

• PC
• 6 / 10
• États-Unis

The Valiant is a serviceable, squad-based RTS that serves up some usually well-balanced sword-clanging action for its heroes and their small bands of merry men, though it wears a bit thin once it’s evident how repetitive and backtrack-heavy the battles can get. There’s a sturdy story to drive it forward, though it too is let down at the last moment by an ill-considered final battle that renders all your decision-making throughout the campaign worthless. And while The Valiant does have multiplayer, don’t count on being able to find any opponents to clash with online.

• PC
• PS4
• PS5
• XONE
• XSX/S
• 8 / 10
• États-Unis

When you get into the guts of it, WRC Generations is by no means a drastic shake-up on its quality predecessors, even if there have been some small but welcome improvements to the career mode and customisation tools that have spiked my enthusiasm. It does, however, deserve credit for both the very respectable range of relevant rally cars it features, as well as its absolute mountain of rally locations. With almost every country to host the WRC over the last decade represented, WRC Generations may be KT Racing’s last WRC game, but there’s nothing least about it. The kitchen sink philosophy has resulted in a fantastic and uncommonly generous package for gravel groupies, asphalt addicts, and mud-slinging maniacs alike.

• PC
• PS4
• PS5
• XONE
• XSX/S
• 6 / 10
• États-Unis

Call of Duty’s shooting is once again in a prestige class of its own, which means Modern Warfare 2’s campaign always manages to operate on a minimum quality bar that delivers a satisfying punch. But beyond each thunderous pull of the trigger is an underwhelming story and level designs that are too concerned with replicating the successes of previous campaigns rather than embracing its own good ideas for more than a single mission apiece. In the areas it does innovate it almost always stumbles, although there does remain some enjoyment to be taken in its momentary flashes of inspiration. Overall, though, this is sadly a lackluster follow-up to Modern Warfare 2019’s refined take on a Call of Duty campaign, and an experience that’s already fading in my memory.

• PC
• PS4
• PS5
• XONE
• XSX/S
• 7 / 10
• États-Unis

The Divine Force isn’t necessarily a standout in this long-running series, but it is a much more successful effort to bring Star Ocean into the modern age than its predecessor. The revamped battle mechanics do wonders for its previously limited combat system, offering more freedom and flexibility than ever before. The main cast of characters is also charming, even if the world they are exploring and the animations that accompany them are far less captivating. I wish its interface issues were less obnoxious, but even so, The Divine Force at least proves that Square Enix’s sci-fi JRPG certainly deserved another shot.

• PS4
• PS5
• XONE
• XSX/S
• 6 / 10
• États-Unis

It’s a shame that Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord lets you auto-resolve its glorious action/real-time strategy combat but forces you to endure dozens of hours of laborious and repetitive activities on its dry, flavorless overworld map. If I could skip over the bugs, shallow grinds, and frustrating non-combat activities around building up your faction and quickly return to battle it'd be easier to recommend. When it comes to simulating a medieval warfare at the ground level between hundreds of soldiers down to every swing of a sword and clash of shields, this is the only game in town.

• PC
• 8 / 10
• États-Unis

Victoria 3 is the kind of game that sucks me in and doesn't let me go, whether I'm trying to turn Hawaii into an anarcho-communist utopia or make Afghanistan the centerpiece of the global economy by monopolizing the opium trade. The scope and depth of its simulation is remarkable. I would need to double the length of this review just to explain the enormity of it in full. And that's only outdone by the fact that it actually runs well. I wish there was a fair bit less overall jank and weird AI behavior taking me out of the illusion, and the warfare system feels very work-in-progress. But that hasn't stopped me from playing it until the sun comes up more than a couple times in the last few weeks. It's a great first step, with an even more promising tomorrow.

• PC
• PS4
• PS5
• XONE
• XSX/S
• SWITCH
• 7 / 10
• États-Unis

New Tales from the Borderlands successfully recaptures a lot of Telltale’s original magic with a fresh, funny, and affable new set of main characters, but unfortunately it also introduces new problems – both in the story and in some half-hearted game mechanics – that gum up the works. You don’t need to have played the first Tales in order to enjoy this one, but if you’re going to choose one or the other, stick with the original and circle back to this pseudo-sequel with tempered expectations if the first one grabs you as much as it grabbed me.