IGN

• PC
• 8 / 10
• États-Unis

The Lake House DLC is another spectacular and spooky slice of Alan Wake II action. It introduces some fantastic new supporting characters to the Remedy Connected Universe, as well as a terrifying new enemy type to overcome and some wonderfully eerie environments to explore. The challenge of its puzzles may be light, but its combat is still chillingly dark even despite the fact it’s not hugely different from that of the main game, and scouring for the many notes, videos, and audio recordings littered throughout its fear-inducing facility made for a genuinely gripping investigation. Funny, frightening, and full of surprises, The Lake House DLC is a tightly paced slice of psychological horror that serves as an absorbing addendum to Alan Wake II.

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

Setting a Metroidvania-style platforming adventure against a backdrop of building-razing beasts is certainly an intriguing idea, but unlike its towering cast of kaiju cameos, Kong: Survivor Instinct itself simply doesn’t measure up. Its story and characters are underwritten, its ravaged urban playground is eye-catching but not particularly surprising to explore, and its combat fails to evolve enough to keep the fights interesting over the course of the journey. The occasional room-rocking escape sequences do literally shake things up, but they’re few and far between and only distract from the otherwise uncomplicated platforming for short bursts at a time. Kong and his kind may hail from an alternate world hidden deep inside the Earth’s core, but the actual gameplay of Kong: Survivor Instinct is strictly one-dimensional.

• PC
• 8 / 10
• États-Unis

Batman: Arkham Shadow does an admirable job of adapting almost everything I love about the Arkham series to work in a full-fledged VR game, and it’s impressive looking for a game that’s exclusive to the standalone Meta Quest 3 headset. There are a few hitches and aggravating bugs that mean some parts don’t work quite as well as others, but its vigorous brawling, exploration, tricky puzzle solving, and stealth are all in full effect as you sneak and punch your way through Blackgate prison in a twisting undercover pursuit of a mysterious cult leader where just about everybody’s a suspect. It’s certainly smaller in scale than any full game since Arkham Asylum, but it’s far larger and more built-out than you might expect after Batman: Arkham VR, and a return to an enclosed prison setting makes it feel dense and intricate.

• PC
• 5 / 10
• États-Unis

Unknown 9: Awakening is the kind of routine action-adventure game that probably wouldn't blow me away even if it was executed well – and the fact that it isn’t just makes the whole thing fall completely flat. Everything from the formulaic story to the shallow and dull combat and stealth are well below the standard set by genre peers, and the consistently disheveled performance and bugs don’t do Awakening any favors. There’s at least some fun to be had in its interesting reality-bending powers, especially the mind-controlling abilities that let you briefly play as your foes and sabotage the enemy in clever ways, but these bright spots run their course quickly, leaving us with a wholly underwhelming adventure.

• PC
• 5 / 10
• États-Unis

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed certainly looks the part, coming admirably close to emulating the scrawled, asymmetrical look of the acclaimed 2023 animated film it functions as a sequel to. It also sounds the part thanks to some genuinely impressive voice acting (although shelling out for some of the ’90s hip hop that gave the movie its own aural edge clearly wasn’t within the budget). However, despite a visible effort to make Mutants Unleashed a lengthy and credible follow-up story to the film, its simple button bashing action quickly becomes boring thanks to its slim selection of enemies and its constantly reused levels. Trying to do too much with too little means it all just becomes rather… vanilla, and that’s a shell of a loaded word to use around the green machine, who rock the town without being seen.

• SWITCH
• 9 / 10
• États-Unis

Super Mario Party Jamboree is an amazing followup to Mario Party Superstars and easily one of the best games in the series. Not only does it faithfully return to the classic formula established in the Nintendo 64 entries, it confidently improves upon it with a fantastic set of boards that introduce unique and memorable mechanics. It’s also the most flexible Mario Party has ever been, with tons of ways to customize your game, including its brilliant new optional Pro Rules that reduce luck-based elements to a minimum and crank up the strategy for those who want it. The wonderful maps are supported by a great lineup of new and returning minigames and character-specific challenges that steal the show, even if I wish there were just a few more minigames in the rotation. The side offerings may not have much staying power, but when partying with friends and family locally or online, Super Mario Party Jamboree boldly completes the series’ redemption arc as its newest superstar.

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

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead does a commendable job of taking the uniquely silent scary movie series and spinning it into an interactive adventure, even if its methods for sustaining stress seem a bit too clearly contrived at times. I greatly appreciated the many handcrafted human touches that made its evacuated spaces so evocative, and the safety net of its consistent auto-save meant that my numerous instant deaths never became a source of frustration. However, although it may maintain a regularly tense atmosphere every shuffled step of the way, the absence of any significant story surprises or enough substantial changes to its simplistic stealth-based gameplay means that A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead doesn’t quite have enough twists and turns to make for an unmissable journey.

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

There’s a certain familiarity in Metaphor: ReFantazio, but Atlus takes the principles of its already excellent RPGs and refines them in a way that effortlessly ushers you through its brutal, and sometimes beautiful, new fantasy world. The Archetype system and all the new wrinkles it added to the turn-based battles build upon a strong foundation, and the social elements are streamlined to better deliver the most important aspects of the stories they tell. The sense of adventure you get from traveling across the kingdom and the powerful sense of purpose you have to do so drive its memorable journey, distinguishing itself from those that came before it. When I finally closed the book on Metaphor after 80 hours, I felt a unique warmth in its message, because it’s driven by the ideals of a just society smartly contextualized in a unique metanarrative. Metaphor: ReFantazio is poetic, and at times, idealistic, but it also understands its complexities and that change requires action, and that even far-fetched fantasy stories can serve as inspiration to make our world a better place.

• PS5
• 7 / 10
• États-Unis

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is a final flash from the past, sometimes to a fault, as demonstrated by its archaic menus and remedial training tools. Its Episode Battles have the kind of reaction-heavy difficulty that doesn’t really exist in most games these days, more than once crossing the line between challenging and frustrating. But the feeling of traveling back to a simpler time when games didn’t have to be balanced or competitive to be fun is a good one, especially when that action stays so true to that of the show it’s recreating. Reliving a story that was foundational to my youth, looking and sounding as great as I remember it, with the opportunity to alter it in sometimes dramatic new ways is clever, and the addition of tools to attempt to create our own stories could elevate the experiment even further if a community can figure out how to make the most of them.

• PS5
• 8 / 10
• États-Unis

Silent Hill 2 is a welcome modernisation of a survival horror masterpiece. It smoothly polishes down the rough edges of the original game’s combat while taking a piece of heavy grit sandpaper to scuff up every rust and mold-covered surface of its nightmarish environments, successfully making them appear far more abrasive and menacing to explore. Previously primitive boss battles have been transformed into substantially more intense encounters, and its intimidating audio design kept me acutely aware that every fog-cloaked street I walked down could quickly hurry me towards my own dead end. It does feel a little padded out in parts, and I do wish that Bloober Team had streamlined some of its more convoluted puzzle sections to prevent the story’s momentum from sagging on occasion. Still, intermittent pacing problems aside, Silent Hill 2 is a great way to visit – or revisit – one of the most dread-inducing destinations in the history of survival horror.

• PC
• XSX/S
• 8 / 10
• États-Unis

Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred is an awesome expansion that adds an excellent new area to explore, a gloriously modular character class that I can’t stop playing, an impressive debut raid activity, and lots more. But while just about everything it adds is awesome, it definitely doesn’t do enough where the somewhat flaccid campaign and story is concerned, and numerous bugs can occasionally drag it down. Thankfully, the changes to the meta, a greatly improved progression system, the resurrection of rune words, and NPC companions are all major wins for Diablo 4, even when it seems we’ll be waiting a bit to see where this interlude expansion leads.

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

Developer Steel City Interactive's approach to boxing in Undisputed is on the right track, but there’s a long road ahead of it. Its emphasis on realism, preparing for fights using RPG-like mechanics, and creating an adrenaline-filled experience in the ring are significant building blocks. Still, the fluidity of its gameplay animations and reactiveness of its commentators don’t come close to living up to the high bar that was set by the Fight Night series back in the late 2000s, and its realistic fighting can be a little dull if you’re in the mood for a KO instead of a TKO. Still, it serves as a decent meal for an otherwise-starved genre, and that’s a lot better than we’ve had in the last decade.

• PS5
• 5 / 10
• États-Unis

This remade version of Until Dawn features a substantial visual upgrade that bring it in line with some of the best-looking horror adventures on the PlayStation 5, and Supermassive’s definitive horror story is just as gory and schlocky as it’s ever been. However, its cinematic flair is slightly undermined by the new over-the-shoulder camera, and it suffers at the hands of a frame rate that’s choppier than even the most caffeinated of axe murderers. Movement is noticeably slower and more sluggish than it used to be, and the handful of new gameplay features – like the pointless totem-turning mini-game – are unwelcome and don’t even come close to justifying this remake’s premium price tag especially when the original is sitting right there next to it in the store. Never mind the eight potential victims to be found inside its cabin in the woods, if you’re still determined to play this half-hearted horror remake you should at least wait until it’s the price that is slashed instead.

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

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Patrick Star Game is obviously geared more towards kids than those of us who grew up loving SpongeBob, but so are things like Astro Bot and Super Mario Wonder, and those games are brilliant. By contrast, the lack of exciting puzzle solutions or meaningful challenges offered across this six-hour adventure is bad enough that it feels like an underestimation of that audience. Propped up by the iconic and playful world of Bikini Bottom, it makes a strong first impression that quickly wears thin. Its physics-heavy sandbox can briefly be a joy to explore if you’re a fan of the TV series, however the slew of monotonous minigames and host of on-loop conversations within it fail to fully capture that show's spirit. Without an engaging goal or overarching story to latch onto, the end result is a repetitive and uninventive adventure that does a disservice to Patrick’s protagonist potential.

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

For the leading football simulator, EA Sports FC 25 continues to lack the fluidity, polish, and excitement it should be expected to deliver. It introduces some interesting new features, particularly the fast-paced and compelling Rush mode, but much of the package beyond that feels overly familiar. While the game shines graphically on the pitch, it struggles with a clunky, touchscreen-inspired UI that bogs down modes like Career. Defensive play still feels loose and unresponsive like in previous years, and despite the addition of FC IQ and new player roles initially impressing, these changes don’t add the depth you’d expect. Even with some engaging new content, EA continues to play it too safe, and even the fun of modes like Rush can’t fully mask the underlying issues holding back the experience.

• PS5
• XSX/S
• 6 / 10
• États-Unis

There’s no denying that the action on the ice looks better than ever in NHL 25, and it’s nice to see Franchise Mode get some welcome changes that help it feel more authentic for those interested in the sim experience. But when I look at this year's entry as a whole it's quite lackluster, with very few meaningful mechanical changes that ultimately just leave it feeling like more of the same as last year. For being the first NHL game available exclusively on current-gen consoles, it’s a shame that NHL 25 is still stuck in the same last-gen rut.

• SWITCH
• 9 / 10
• États-Unis

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is far more than some second-tier spinoff, combining the expertly crafted dungeons and item progression you’d expect from a 2D Zelda with the wild creativity provided by Tears of the Kingdom.

• PC
• 6 / 10
• États-Unis

While Ara: History Untold is a visually captivating historical 4X with an interesting underlying economy, it gets bogged down well before the midway point, mainly because it doesn’t provide enough tools and UI support to manage all of the things it expects you to manage. Your choice of leader, religion, and government almost always simply add uninteresting passive modifiers, which means most playthroughs will feel roughly the same other than the layout of the map itself. I had a pretty decent time with my march through the ages, especially in the first of its three acts. But it did require me to eventually give up on trying to play optimally, passing turns without doing anything until I emerged victorious. A lot of these systems are exciting and clever in their design – they're just not that enjoyable to interact with past a certain point.