Well Played

• PS5
• 8.5 / 10
• Australie

Hands down, 1st Chapter is the Japanese RPG that I will recommend to anyone this year. It has all the anime eccentricities of the genre that would make you embarrassed to play it in front of your mum, but I’d still recommend it to mine. Come to this Trails in the Sky remake with an open mind, and it will respect your time. Any nerves you might have regarding its dense turn-based systems are remedied by letting you literally hack and slash through much of it. Falcom have brought their learnings from the years of Ys and Trails, and condensed the strengths of both RPG series into a revitalised entry point into its grand tech-fantasy saga.

• PS5
• 8.5 / 10
• Australie

A lot of folks will try to tell you that the appeal of 2004’s Katamari Damacy was its stark originality, and that continuing to iterate on the same formula dilutes that creative juice more every time. And they’re probably right. But like Sisyphus pushing the proverbial sticky ball up the mountain, it’s about the joy in the process. That joy is still in abundance for players, and if the delightful absurdity that permeates every corner of this game is any indication I’d say it’s there for the creators as well.

• PC
• 8 / 10
• Australie

he original PowerWash Simulator was my go-to chill out game for the longest time, and I’ve no doubt PowerWash Simulator 2 will fill that some role for quite a while. But this go around I’m also much more drawn to playing it like, well, a video game. There’s just enough new depth here to tease out a bit of strategy and self-imposed challenge, and I’ve enjoyed rising to it – especially when there’s a scissor lift handy.

• PS5
• 9 / 10
• Australie

Proving there's almost nothing that can't be painted with the roguelite brush, Ball x Pit manages a dangerously intoxicating blend of arcade brick-breaking, ball-based alchemy and town planning that I haven't been able to put down.

• PS5
• 7.5 / 10
• Australie

Progress is hard fought in Final Fantasy Tactics, arguably the hardest of this isometric strategy sub-franchise. At the same time, it wastes none of the player’s attention, rewarding us with an incredibly un-Final Fantasy setting and characters. Its story is the biggest winner from this pseudo-remaster, with the professional voice cast offering their dramatic best. The themes hit so much harder this time around. Its main players are far more sincere and tragic for the emotion well voiced through the often overwhelming, but nevertheless compelling, writing.

• PC
• 6.5 / 10
• Australie

There are a lot of words here, particularly for a game that I have played twice already. I do very much love Gears of War, even if I consider it one of the weaker parts of the series – it is elevated by its station as the origin of the narrative. But with two generations of visual improvements under its belt, it is left feeling a little like a home that has been over-renovated – some of these walls really need to come down, load-bearing or not. The experience on offer is unreplicatable, but modern sensibilities and sanity checks on things that don’t really pass the sniff check in 2025 would have done a lot to change this from ‘yet another remaster’ and instead cemented it as the truly definitive way to start your Gears story.

• PS5
• 6 / 10
• Australie

For as much as Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater pays lip service to its original creator Hideo Kojima, it feels more imprisoned by his legacy than inspired by it. With every cutscene recreated beat-for-beat and nary a piece of set dressing out of place, it’s a work without the teeth of its namesake invertebrate, but equally as spineless. I wouldn’t even suggest it’s the case that Kojima himself is solely equipped to reinterpret the original art, but for as long as we tether the creative impulses and intentions of these things to purely commercial ends it will always leave them with nothing to say. For now, the only new perspective this game offers is tied to the right analogue stick I am afraid that the Ape Escape minigame still rules, though.

• PC
• 5.5 / 10
• Australie

The breadth and length of the game is impressive; the sheer quantity is there. For a decently priced game there’s a lot of bike to ride, customise, and maps to cover in its 4–6 hour play time. There is a level of polish that is absolutely due to how developers Messhof small-scoped it, I just wish Wheel World had a bit more focus on integrating the wheel and the world.

• PS5
• 10 / 10
• Australie

• XSX/S
• 7 / 10
• Australie

TRON: Catalyst is a solid game for TRON fans to experience. Despite the back-and-forth, the game features a detailed story that is satisfying to uncover as you explore the Grid and factions. The looping glitch is a great addition to the story, and the abilities you unlock throughout the game make the fast combat and gameplay more interesting. And of course, the Light Cycle is fun to use. Ultimately, TRON: Catalyst gives you more insight into the Grid life and what it’s like to be a program.

• PS5
• 8 / 10
• Australie

The Alters is an ambitious survive-‘em-up that takes what 11 bit Studios knows and reaches for the stars. It’s largely a successful expansion of the studio’s previously conceived ideas and mechanics, with an enjoyable narrative shaped by your choices and an overall sense of desperation punctuated with quirky humour and oddball characters. Getting to know your Alters and the other characters and corporations at the heart of this disastrous space mission is a profound and engaging experience that is easily recommended to anyone who enjoys a little bit of stressful resource management. Some frustrations in the pace and navigation and lack of polish in the dialogue only slightly mar what is otherwise a stellar journey into the unknown, and while it probably won’t sit with me as long as TWOM, my time with Jan Dolski’s multitudes did make me ponder the nature of choice and consequence. Also, if you’re listening, I’m sorry Jan Technician. You were my first Alter and I did you wrong, hopefully I did enough to earn your forgiveness.

• PS5
• 8 / 10
• Australie

Taken as intended, Elden Ring Nightreign is a thrilling slice of contemporary multiplayer action. It’s not entirely bereft of fresh juice, and gives me immense hope for The Duskbloods as a more fully realised push into genre experiment. But it’s also the first time I’ve witnessed FromSoftware craft something so blatantly uninterested in its own artistic merits or potential. A studio that has reached such heights through its unyielding commitment to weaving together narrative and systems, theme and formalism, now bent to breaking point for the sake of another of these games on the market. Gameplay is king here, artists made toymakers in its court.

• SWITCH
• 7 / 10
• Australie

Despite the game’s issues, many of which I haven’t the space to detail, I could not help but keep playing. Although it feels like Guardians of Azuma would have benefited from a bit more development time, there was enough satisfaction and enjoyment in the steady cadence of explore-build-socialise-rinse-repeat that I simply didn’t want it to end. In good news for anyone sharing these sentiments, to a certain extent it doesn’t end; you can continue to explore, expand your villages, and develop your relationships in the post-game. The main gameplay components fit together like jigsaw pieces, and, if you can look past the issues, on the whole it’s a bit of an unpolished gem – multifaceted, perhaps a little scratched up, but ultimately with some value under those surface imperfections.

• PS5
• 8 / 10
• Australie

This world that MoonHood has crafted captures the way those darkly comic stop-motion pieces invite us to a curious and frankly frightening place beyond reckoning, and ask us to simply accept what we’re seeing with little context or history. It’s art that has negative space, and it’s in that negative space that the imagination plays. We’re invited to observe strange rituals and customs, to break bread with the grotesque and the macabre, and to live by the light out of respect for the dark.

• PC
• 9.5 / 10
• Australie

DOOM: The Dark Ages feels almost entirely made from my dreams. A slightly more grounded shooting experience, with an emphasis on well executed timing and shooting massive demons with your even more massive guns – it’s a hit. My only real point of concern is the stark truth that the game is banking heavily on people engaging with it from a completionist perspective, given the lack of any co-op or multiplayer option. It almost feels like DOOM: The Dark Ages has slid a little too far into the past, emerging as a 16 hour story experience and nothing more. I know when I finished my initial playthrough, I marvelled at how I had managed to scrape by with 90-100% completion on most chapters – so there are still some secrets left for me to explore, but man, what if I had achieved 100%? It would feel like a punch in the gut. I know there is some DLC coming, described as a ‘campaign’ DLC which is neat – but man, if ever there was a DOOM for co-op, it was this one.

• PC
• 6.5 / 10
• Australie

Racing after an armed robber, crashing through road signs and dodging civilians, only to jump out of your patrol car, take cover behind your vehicle and engage in a firefight with the crazed assailant is as fun in The Precinct as it sounds. Unfortunately, once they’re in cuffs, the monotony of processing the soon-to-be prisoner drags the experience down. Combined with a shallow story told in an uneven way, the repetitive gameplay loop tarnishes the badge and gives the boys in blue a bad wrap.

• PS5
• 8 / 10
• Australie

Revenge of the Savage Planet already looked to end on a pitch-perfect note, rewarding the time and effort I’d put into erecting an entire outpost – inclusive of my own customised living quarters and several small zoos – with utter abandonment. But then it managed an even greater late-game twist. One that’s inward-looking, AI-critical and ends on a credits song about shitting and pissing on company time. It’s exactly as dumb and brilliant as that sounds.

• PC
• 9.5 / 10
• Australie

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is the kind of game that, if you can go in as blind as possible, you’ll be truly rewarded. Every moment feels meticulously designed, more so than just the intricate combat systems. Every cut scene has meaning, building blocks that form complex character relationships without the need to state the obvious. The world building of Clair Obscur is second to none, the journey never failing to capture the imagination as the hours tick by. And once the mysterious threads begin to take shape, it feels fresh and rewarding, the little moments holding greater significance across the journey once the origins are laid bare. It’s a journey I will long remember, and one that the rest of the industry should learn from; do not be afraid to take chances.