Still, ignoring my frustrations with Final Fantasy 16‘s bosses, there’s no doubting the quality that’s on show here. With one month to go until launch, Final Fantasy 16 feels like a Chocobo worth betting on — and from this preview’s slice of magic, I suspect 16 won’t be the final fantasy life has in store for me. [Impressions]

Tears of the Kingdom plays it safe, which is a shame for the follow-up to the least safe Zelda in decades. Still, it’s hard to complain too much about getting more of one of the all-time greats, and there are enough tweaks to make it feel worth playing all over again.

Quick and dirty, Showgunners is a turn-based strategy for people with short attention spans and a need for instant gratification. Shrinking the experience down robs you of the majesty of something like XCOM’s strategic brilliance, but you won’t regret the time you spend here.

Redfall squanders the potential of its core premise and the world that has been built around it with uninspiring shootouts and a fairly formulaic structure. Interesting characters and a pulsing soundtrack help matters, but when a shooting game isn’t fun to play there’s a limit to what else you can do.

The best action adventure released in 2023 so far, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has a confidence to its world and the play that it totally manages to back up by how fun it is. A must-play, perhaps the best action game of the generation so far.

Devoid of any substantial content, Gun Jam is a painfully underbaked offering that squanders the potential of its promising combat.

While suitably freshened up for modern consoles, the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters still find themselves victim to some easily avoidable pitfalls.

Stray Blade is bewitching to behold for about fifteen minutes. The technical issues might be ironed out later but there’s just not enough substance for Soulslike and Metroidvania mavens to sink their teeth into.

Sharp strategy with a fresh coat of paint, Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp is a loving rendition of a beloved strategy series that has barely aged a day. These tiny battles will fit into your day without a problem but nonetheless feel epic.

Dead Island 2’s devotion to truly gross zombie gore is commendable, but its bland, stereotypical characters, and tired, genre-rehashing plot make it more difficult to appreciate its inventive combat than it should be.

Minecraft Legends is a highly accessible strategy game that won’t challenge fans of the genre. For those who have never quite gelled with it before though, this is a great intro. Online co-op is a fun diversion but it’s the game’s PvP that will offer you the variety needed to keep you coming back for more.

Wartales walks far enough off the beaten path to be interesting, but it isn’t quite bold or elegant enough to be essential.

Gruesomely moreish Meet Your Maker wants players to think outside of the boxes they’re building – with luck, post-launch content will encourage them to expand on their imaginations.

Sherlock Holmes The Awakened succeeds through refining and bettering the normal Sherlock Holmes formula. A return to pure exploration over combat is great to see and the game is more tightly woven than before. Our only real quibble comes from those visits to the other world but for the most part, this is pure sleuthing.

A subpar shooter that is diminished by the money spent on licensed music and stunt-cast voice acting, Crime Boss could be the year’s biggest “if only,” as you can see good ideas let down by poor writing, woeful shooting and a game that feels like all of its cash was spent on Chuck Norris one-liners instead of making the game stand on its own without those issues. A disappointment.

A bite-sized strategy adventure, Terra Nil offers up the refreshing possibility to right past wrongs instead of exerting dominance in another way.

Deceive Inc. is a fantastic multiplayer game hamstrung with confusing progression and some minor annoyances that people who vibe with this spy-’em-up won’t mind a bit.

A beautifully decorated vessel that runs well for the first few hours, before revealing itself to be a bit of an old clunker, the experience of playing Dredge doesn’t line up with the promise of its enchantingly strange presentation.

Resident Evil 4 is as good a remake as you could hope for, one that clearly understands what made the original great, makes considered alterations where it deems necessary, improves the parts of the game that didn’t work so well, and of course, makes the whole experience easier on the eye. It may not be as necessary a tune-up as Resident Evil 2, but it’s nonetheless a fantastic excuse to revisit one of the best games ever made.

WWE 2K23 doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel, but it proves that Visual Concepts has learned from past mistakes. Meaningful improvements in several different areas build on the foundation laid by the previous game, and make WWE 2k23 a stellar addition to the roster.

Ferocious combat clashes with a debilitating sense of familiarity, as Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty struggles to find its own identity amongst Team Ninja’s previous action RPGs, as well as other Soulslikes.

As well as being one of few ‘new’ games to play on the PSVR2, The Light Brigade is worth celebrating for bringing a convincing and consistently engaging roguelike experience to virtual reality. With its gripping physics-based combat, sticky progression systems and comfy controls, it’s easy to lose hours to this delightful surprise of a game. Funktronic Labs seems to have learned from all of the best flatscreen roguelikes on the market, only to apply its studies in a new dimension, breaking new ground in the process.

Wearing the guise of an easy-to-play party game, King Of The Castle thrives when its true depth is revealed and you’re three pop-ups deep into a dilemma about trying to coexist with giant man-eating spiders. Easy to pick up but challenging to win, Tributary Games’ debut is a charming success that’s easy to recommend for an evening of multiplayer hijinks.

Scrappy, fun and with a meaningless sci-fi story, Scars Above is equal parts B-movie horror and sci-fi shooter. Adopting several parts of the Soulslike experience with heaps of its own ideas, Scars Above is low on polish but high on moxy, and could find cult status come sale season.

Bug-infested and content-light, Blood Bowl 3 feels like an open beta you have to open your wallet for. Unplayable as a single-player game and merely frustrating in multiplayer, it’s hard to recommend this even to die-hard fans.

Clive ‘N’ Wrench‘s few redeeming features are overshadowed by a litany of problems. It’s hard to enjoy a creative platter of worlds when you’re also forced to contend with a mass of technical issues, a bland cast, and an uninspired formula. While the game intentionally invites comparisons to the likes of Banjo-Kazooie, the result isn’t the nostalgia trip it wants to be – it’s a rough miss.

Kirby’s Return To Dream Land Deluxe is an utterly charming platformer that serves as a wonderful gateway to the Kirby series’ 2D side. Though it struggles with laughably weak bosses, every second of the story mode is a visual treat; while a wealth of side activities and optional collectibles give Kirby’s latest adventure some welcome depth.

Quite simply, Company of Heroes 3 is probably the best RTS of the last decade. A wealth of single-player content and a solid foundation for long-term multiplayer action have combined to make this a cinematic WW2 masterpiece that’s essential for strategy games.