IGN

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

Whether you want to experience a TV-inspired story of young wrestling talent rising to glory, chop your way to the top at your leisure, take a guided tour of the most humbling moments in the career of one of the greatest to ever do it, or some other more nerdy diversion, WWE 2K23 is worth pinning down. It’s at least incrementally better in almost every way from last year’s entry in that combat feels more rewarding, flexible, and consequential. Where it overachieves, like in MyGM, it starts to finally restore the feeling that we could be on the ramp watching a new golden age of pro wrestling games make its glorious entrance.

• SWITCH
• 9 / 10
• États-Unis

You know you’ve just played something special when you’re left with a bittersweet feeling while the credits roll. As I closed the book on Bayonetta Origins, I kept thinking about how it was an absolute joy through and through. From its impressive, fantastical story moments full of childlike charm to its clever platforming puzzles and satisfying battles, this is a superb action-adventure where every piece comes together to create a wondrous playable storybook. Its wild dual-character concept doesn’t really evolve much once you get the hang of it, and maybe its conclusion could have done more to leave a lasting impact. But it’s a journey I’ll cherish all the same, and one that’s been brought to life through a beautiful art style, stellar voice performances, and an outstanding soundtrack. Bayonetta Origins puts a neat little bow on an iconic franchise, and I’m glad we got to see that there was so much more to our beloved witch.

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

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty’s combat plays very differently from Team Ninja’s own Nioh games – more in the mold of Sekiro than Dark Souls – and yet it manages to excel and falter in just about the same areas. When it comes to the clashing of melee weapons, Wo Long is among the best in the genre, full stop. Its action is fast and thrilling, the options for taking down its ferocious enemies are many and immensely rewarding to master, and its deflection-heavy combat is one of the most satisfying since Sekiro. All of those strengths outweigh an overbearing loot system, poor storytelling, and even a disappointing lack of variety in enemies. If not for that, Wo Long might’ve been one of Team Ninja’s greatest achievements – as it is, it’s simply a great one.

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

Scars Above shows a lot of potential in its third-person shooting, fun elemental reactions, and a good number of creatures to experiment with. The thrill of setting out to discover a new alien world is short-lived, however, due to the weapons and gadgets in your arsenal quickly growing so powerful that nothing poses a threat. And while there are a few excellent environments to explore, everything within them – the characters, story, and universe – feel weak and underdeveloped, giving you few reasons to stop and smell the alien roses once you’ve blasted your way through.

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

Destiny 2: Lightfall is a disappointing expansion with a campaign that falls flat on its face, an underwhelming new destination, and only a few new standout activities to take on. That said, Strand and the new Tormentor enemy are fantastic new additions to the sandbox, some of the endgame activities and added difficulty make for a sweaty, memorable time, and per usual, the raid is a complete blast (even if it isn’t their best). No doubt Lightfall’s shortcomings are made more painful by immediately following The Witch Queen and its strong post-launch updates, which felt like Destiny 2 had finally overcome its storytelling woes and charted out a promising future for itself. After playing Lightfall, perhaps too fittingly given its name, that future doesn’t look quite as bright.

• SWITCH
• 7 / 10
• États-Unis

Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe takes a fun but straightforward Wii platformer, freshens it up visually, and adds a new mini adventure to pad out its otherwise relatively short campaign. Kirby’s journey across Planet Popstar starts as a slow, overly easy drudge. But once the difficulty picks up and the stages become more creative, this platformer shines through to its over-the-top conclusion – even if that conclusion comes far too soon. The Magolor Epilogue is also a welcome addition that stands on its own as another brief but worthwhile story. Return to Dream Land certainly isn’t Kirby’s best or most creative outing, but if you haven’t already played it on Wii, the Deluxe version is the ideal way to see what a traditional Kirby game is all about.

• SWITCH
• PC
• PS4
• PS5
• 7 / 10
• États-Unis

Once again, I am smitten by Octopath Traveler and its style – but five years after the original, it doesn't hit quite as hard. So little has changed about its battles, and this sequel sticks a little too closely to the original systems without expanding on them too much. Especially now that the 2D/3D art style is an established look, the still lovely visuals just don’t stand out as much anymore. That said, the combat system is still quite fun, and figuring out the best course of action to exploit weak points, knock an enemy unconscious, and then unload on them with as much power as you can remains satisfying. I did also find myself more invested in the stories this time around, and the way it comes together in the end is more interesting and cohesive than the first. If you liked Octopath Traveler (or even any of the Bravely Default games) Octopath Traveler 2 is another good ol' fashioned 80-hour JRPG - it just feels like one I’ve played before.

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

As someone who enjoys the tactical action of Blood Bowl, I can easily recommend you go pick up Blood Bowl 2 Legendary Edition and have a gorey good time with it. As for Blood Bowl 3, though, I struggle to come up with a reason it needs to exist other than that someone has bills to pay, I guess. There's less reason to recommend it over its predecessor than an especially weak year of Madden or NBA 2K. It's a sloppy, muddy, buggy rehash of a better game. Sure, the strong core mechanics can still lead to some tense, exhilarating matches, but you could have all of that with a much sharper presentation in the version that came out during the Obama Administration.

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

While its half-baked gunplay should probably have remained holstered, Like a Dragon: Ishin!’s stylish sword fighting and over-the-top Trooper card attacks successfully pair the Yakuza series’ brand of hysterical action with the historical fiction of its 19th century Japan setting. Unfortunately, its step back in time also presents a slight step down in quality for its substories and side activities, which have each been eclipsed in entertainment value by the other Yakuza and Judgment games in the years since Ishin’s original Japanese release, and the blander areas of its low-tech environment can’t quite compete with the flashy charms of Kamurocho when it comes to exploration. Even so, its high stakes story had me hooked throughout, and it was fascinating to get an insight into a period of Japanese history I knew very little about previously, albeit through a heavily fictionalized lens. No matter which way you slice it, Like a Dragon: Ishin! is an enjoyable and interesting spin-off from the Yakuza series, but not an essential one.

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

Atomic Heart is a deeply ambitious, highly imaginative, and consistently impressive atompunk-inspired attempt at picking up where the likes of BioShock left off – something it’s done with a lot of success. It certainly makes missteps, chiefly with an irritating leading man and a self-indulgent habit of using the same tired tropes it tries to make fun of, but this stern, superpowered, and stringently solo shooter has worked its way under my skin despite these flaws. Atomic Heart didn’t always blow me away, but it definitely has the ticker to punch well above its weight.

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

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Koei Tecmo’s Omega Force is using Wild Hearts to flirt hard with Capcom right now. But using a beloved game as the template for a new one isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and Wild Hearts manages to introduce plenty of fun new ideas to the Monster Hunter formula while recapturing it well enough to stand proudly alongside the series that so clearly inspired it. The way it simplifies and streamlines things makes for a slightly shallower package, but its karakuri building adds a fresh new way to interact with the map in its place. And while its lower monster variety is certainly disappointing, I’m still having enough fun that I’m excited to party up with some friends and dive back into both challenging endgame fights and fanciful karakuri decorations alike.

• PS5
• 7 / 10
• États-Unis

Horizon Call of the Mountain’s exciting highs elevate it just enough above its often monotonous climbing mechanics to create a fun first blockbuster-scale entry into the PS VR2 library. Through intuitive design, awesome spectacle, and gripping combat, Horizon’s first step into virtual reality is one packed with exciting encounters that its slower stretches may sometimes detract from, but never threaten to derail completely. It’s an enjoyable, if not essential, chapter of the Horizon story.

• PS5
• XSX/S
• PC
• 4 / 10
• États-Unis

As someone who considers themself an action game buff, Wanted: Dead let me down on just about every front. Its combat may be fun for a few hours, but eventually I realized that it was just a pool of shallow water to splash around in. The fights never evolved in any interesting or meaningful way, the minimal enemy variety never challenged me to change up my tactics, and worst of all I always felt weak, even when I fully maxed out the skill tree. Add on bland visuals, a distinct lack of personality and charm, and frequent crashes, and it all amounts to one of the first big disappointments of 2023.

• SWITCH
• PS4
• 9 / 10
• États-Unis

Theatrhythm Final Bar Line is full of charm and nostalgia alike, with cutesy versions of my favorite Final Fantasy characters and excellent remixes of the iconic songs that accompanied them. The light RPG mechanics, coupled with traditional rhythm mechanics, is easy enough to get into and deep enough to entertain fans of both. It's a little bit of a letdown that there isn't any storyline for your party of heroes to follow or another hook to keep me playing beyond beating my own scores in Endless mode, but its impressive tracklist makes Theatrhythm Final Bar Line an enjoyable way to listen to and play along with the most memorable songs from the Final Fantasy series.

• PC
• 6 / 10
• États-Unis

A rousing mystery brought to life by a great voice cast and nuanced character writing can't really save Deliver Us Mars from its shortcomings. Poor technical performance during cutscenes and backstory that is too often delivered by these barely-differentiated mannequins make it difficult to get sucked into this extraterrestrial world. Even when it’s running smoothly, frustrating climbing and platforming mechanics are just a chore to get through so that you can reach the more clever puzzles and rewarding exploration that break up the annoyances with moments of wonder and satisfaction. But I could never shake the feeling that Deliver Us Mars simply bit off more dehydrated astronaut food than it could chew.

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

In nearly every way, Hogwarts Legacy is the Harry Potter RPG I’ve always wanted to play. Its open-world adventure captures all the excitement and wonder of the Wizarding World with its memorable new characters, challenging and nuanced combat, and a wonderfully executed Hogwarts student fantasy that kept me glued to my controller for dozens of hours. It’s certainly weighed down by technical issues, a lackluster main story, and some poor enemy variety, but even those couldn’t come close to breaking its enchanting spell over me.

• PC
• PS4
• SWITCH
• XONE
• 5 / 10
• États-Unis

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake is a simple, unambitious platformer that pales in comparison to its peers in every way besides all the charm and humor it borrows from the iconic show. Whether it’s the incredibly basic jumping and swinging that becomes irksomely repetitive within minutes, or the humdrum combat that has you mopping up the same handful of enemies hundreds of times without anything to meaningfully differentiate the first battle from the last, Cosmic Shake badly lacks the imagination and creativity for which the show is known. The original cast’s voice performances and silly gags are certainly a highlight, but if you were hoping for something akin to Super Mario Odyssey in a pineapple under the sea, sadly this falls far short.

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

With its stunningly redesigned spaceship, smartly and subtly enhanced story, and spectacularly reimagined action scenes, Motive Studio has managed to successfully breathe new life into the seminal sci-fi horror universe of Dead Space. Despite the fact I’ve returned to the 2008 original several times over the years and found it to hold up fairly well, my latest journey through the darkened hallways of the USG Ishimura still managed to consistently surprise me and pull me into Isaac’s plight far more than ever before, while still satisfying my desire to butcher undead astronauts with an enjoyable arsenal of wildly unsafe mining tools. It’s clear that this superb Dead Space remake has been a labour of love for the team at Motive Studios, who’ve very carefully balanced innovation and renovation with preservation, and to their credit the end result is undoubtedly the definitive way to experience – or re-experience – one of the best survival horror shooters that Capcom never made.