Sifu is possibly the best beat ‘em up we’ve played in a long time. It’s a refreshing take on the genre, and in the words of Cobra Kai’s Johnny Lawrence, it will make you feel like a “badass” when the fight is going your way. At the same time, it can be quite ruthless. Either way, you’ll probably be thinking about your next run when you aren't even playing it, which is a sign of just how great it is.

WWE 2K23 builds on last year's already impressive effort to deliver arguably the best wrestling game Xbox fans have ever seen. The gameplay feels smoother and more entertaining than ever, nearly all of the game modes have received welcome improvements, WarGames is a fantastic addition to the array of match types, and this is ultimately the most enjoyment we've had with the series in well over a decade. It's still a little rough around the edges in some places, but you'll most likely be having too much fun to care.

Resident Evil 4 Remake is a resounding success, taking the 2005 survival horror classic and revamping, reworking and retooling it into a most modern and thrilling action extravaganza. You can feel the care and attention to detail in every aspect of how Capcom has handled this remake. Combat has been improved and expanded without destroying the all-important feel of how Leon does battle, iconic boss fights and locations look and feel better than ever and carefully considered additions to areas allow for more exploration between confrontations without ruining the tight and taut flow of the adventure. It all looks and sounds incredible, performs perfectly and makes for a glorious return to the top for an all-time action great. Welcome back, stranger.

Tales of Symphonia is a wonderful experience if you’re a fan of classic Japanese-made RPGs and has aged surprisingly well for a game that's now two decades old. Its real-time 3D combat is still just as enjoyable and the way the story and characters evolve throughout the journey remains just as compelling. Returning players are likely to feel the most let down here, as this really doesn’t feel like the proper remastered experience it could have been. In saying this, the fun battles & RPG elements shine through, which might be enough for some players to overlook the shortcomings of this remaster.

Project Zero: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is a reasonably decent time if you can come to terms with its plodding traversal, clunky gameplay mechanics and repetitive exploration. There's an enjoyable mystery to uncover at the heart of this one, it's got some genuine scares along the way, snapping ghouls is as fun as ever and the whole thing has a deeply unsettling vibe that still feels unique to the franchise. However, as far as remasters go, beyond a bit of a visual revamp, it feels like additional work could have been done to make this remastered version of the game feel like a more modern and polished survival horror experience.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is a solid soulslike experience that serves up top-notch combat in a hugely atmospheric setting which incorporates real-life historical events, Chinese mythology and dark fantasy elements. There's a clever battle system at the heart of proceedings here with deflections, ripostes and screen-shaking fatal attacks the order of the day, whilst an innovative morale rank and recruitment system makes for action that's flexible enough to cater for newcomers to the genre. The narrative isn't particularly cohesive, and a handful of the missions on offer are a little too short for their own good, but overall this is Team Ninja's finest soulslike experience to date and a must-play for action fans.

So, yeah, where do we even start with summing this one up? To be honest, a recommendation depends on your own interest with the world of Atomic Heart, we must admit. The game's premise remains intriguing throughout, and its main missions provide some great combat scenarios to get stuck into, especially when it comes to using powers and the skill tree system to create different characters builds. Yet, the game's overworld is largely skippable which is a huge bummer, and its main storyline does little to enhance the incredibly interesting world Mundfish has created. Atomic Heart is well worth a play for the immersive FPS fanatics out there, but it's wise to temper your expectations when names like BioShock and DOOM are being thrown around in comparison. Atomic Heart is a solid alternate-history shooter, but it takes a bit more than building an intriguing world to become a true great in the genre.

Like A Dragon: Ishin finally arrives in the west via a slick remaster that polishes up the visuals whilst also adding some fresh new combat mechanics to boot. This is another super solid entry in the long-running Yakuza franchise, it's perhaps a little more action-focused than usual, a little more on the serious and grounded side in terms of its story, but it also remembers to pack in plenty of the sort of madcap Yakuza substories and side activities that we all know and love. There's an excellent combat system to get stuck into here alongside an epic main campaign storyline that benefits greatly from the game's fascinating historical setting. This one comes highly recommended.

If you’re hungry for a new hunter-style experience that isn't Capcom's premier franchise, Wild Hearts is probably as good as it’s going to get right now. It's perhaps an easier entry point with fewer things to overwhelm newcomers and has plenty of fun moments for sure. For veteran hunters, it does bring some new ideas to the table – especially with the building mechanics, but it might not necessarily meet your expectations in other areas of gameplay, and can be rough around the edges at times. If Wild Hearts does have a future beyond this (and there's DLC on the way, we should mention) it would be nice to see it form its own proper identity.

Wanted: Dead is an incredibly disappointing action effort that presents some decent ideas but fails to execute any of them properly. The idea of fusing hack and slash combat with shooter mechanics has lots of potential here, and the cyberpunk setting is initially intriguing. However, in practice it's all very clunky and janky and frustrating and beset by performance issues. There's a bunch of odd side activities thrown in to try to lighten the mood between battles, but it's just not enough in the end. With a very weak narrative, poor voice-acting, rubbish action and drab level design, this is one game that's best avoided.

Age of Empires 2 might be showing its age a little, even with the Definitive makeover, but it is still – and always will be – a timeless classic in the history book of video games, and remains as addictive as ever. It’s amazing to see Microsoft giving Xbox users some much-needed RTS love and going the extra mile with full controller support, despite the fact a few extra things are missing. This release does seem to be just the start of Microsoft’s plans – with Age of Empires IV up next for Xbox. Here’s to the return of the king!

It felt like Hogwarts Legacy was always going to struggle to live up to the hype, but somehow Avalanche Software has managed to deliver an absolutely fantastic open world adventure that will surely go down as comfortably the best game based on the Harry Potter franchise so far. If you've been following its progress for a while and were keeping your fingers crossed for good reviews, we're pleased to report that it's definitely been worth the wait.

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake is a lazy, generic platformer. It's five hours of content that feels like it was made by people who watched some footage of a bad 90s platformer and decided that was how they wanted to proceed. This writer's kids love SpongeBob, they were done with this game in about ten minutes.

There's an infectious, easy-going joy to this whole adventure and it's backed up by addictive melee gameplay that strikes a masterful balance between having enough depth to challenge rhythm game aficionados whilst also making sure there's enough flexibility that, even if you're not particularly great at sticking to the beat, you'll still have a great time. It doesn't take itself too seriously, in short, and it's all the better for it.

It's the best version of an already fantastic game, a game that's aged superbly well for the most part, and one that arrives on Xbox Game Pass with high resolution visuals, a quick save function, gallery mode and the ability to select your difficulty from the get-go. If you've yet to sample the deep delights of Persona 4, we really can't recommend it enough - it's perhaps our favourite entry in the franchise, doing so much that Persona 5 does but without that game's sometimes unnecessary bloat. This is a richly crafted and utterly absorbing RPG, and a game that cemented this series as one of the truly great JRPG franchises.

In terms of this new port, well, you've got all the expected upgrades, high resolution graphics locked at 60fps, a quick save system that can be utilised at any point during the action, and the ability to choose your difficulty right from the get-go. All told, it makes for the slickest version of this classic that we've played so far and, if you've yet to play it, we can't recommend it enough really.

Monster Hunter Rise is another amazing mainline release in Capcom’s ever-expanding action-RPG series. It brings enough new ideas and mechanics to keep the hunt feeling fresh, and is even better with friends. The setback here is for original players, with no cross-progression features to carry over existing save files from the likes of Switch and Steam. As mentioned, there's also limited cross-play, meaning you can’t team up with your friends on rival platforms. Still, what’s here is a great game, and if you have ever wondered what all the fuss is about, Rise is a great entry point into the Monster Hunter franchise.

High On Life combines sloppy shooter action with Justin Roiland and all of his pals being incredibly annoying. You're either going to love it or hate it, really, so it's lucky this one's hitting Game Pass so you can check it out and decide for yourselves. Personally, this reviewer hated the humour, there's something very off and deeply troubling at the heart of where this game is coming from, it feels as though it's looking down, sneering and hateful. But that's the comedy style it's going for so we guess we need to relax, bro. Some people are going to eat this stuff up, regardless of what we think, so it's a shame that it ties this sneering attitude to bland gameplay, tired puzzles, dumb AI and a world that just isn't fun to explore or inhabit in any way. Dude. That is harsh.

Revisiting The Witcher 3 after all the drama with CP2077 takes us back to a time when CD Projekt Red was an unstoppable force. Although we've experienced some minor technical issues with the quality mode on Xbox Series X|S prior to release, overall this free update for Witcher 3 is a fantastic package that makes what was already an excellent experience (with two wonderful expansions) an even better one. If you haven’t played The Witcher 3 already and love action RPGs, now is the perfect time to check it out. It's without a doubt one of the greatest games of all time, and if you’ve already fallen in love with it before, you’ll still have a blast reuniting with the White Wolf in this latest update. Note: This review of The Witcher 3: Next Gen is still "in-progress" as we've suffered a few minor technical issues as part of our review build. As mentioned above, a patch is expected to address these issues in the coming days (potentially before the update's public release), so we'll hopefully be able to return to this review later in the week and provide a final score.

Marvel's Midnight Suns takes the delightfully deep turn-based tactics of Firaxis' sublime XCOM franchise and adds a slick card battling system to fantastic effect. This is a highly satisfying slice of strategy action, a love letter to all things Marvel that's absolutely dripping in personality, and an adventure that we can see ourselves blasting through multiple times in the months ahead. With a generous main campaign, unlockable NG+ mode and tons of collectibles and customisation to boot, this one's arrived right at the tail end of 2022 and jumped straight to the upper echelons of our list of the very best games of the year.

The Callisto Protocol really is a game of two halves. Striking Distance Studios has served up a slice of sci-fi/horror that gets off to a reasonably strong start, introducing a jaw-dropping world and punchy new combat system that impresses until it becomes strained by busy enemy encounters, a handful of miserable boss confrontations and a narrative that goes absolutely nowhere. As much as this one dazzles from a graphical perspective, overall it's a shadow of the game that it most closely seeks to emulate. With little in the way of replayability and a final act we genuinely never want to sit through again, we'll be returning to the USG Ishimura for our action horror kicks long before we set down on Callisto again.

Insurgency: Sandstorm is a unique Xbox shooter, and an absolute blast to play when you really get to grips with its core mechanics. While the shooting on offer here perhaps most resembles something like Rainbow Six: Siege or PUBG on console, Sandstorm carves out its own niche by offering authentic gunplay across a wide array of game modes, including plenty of co-op action for those who prefer some PvE gameplay. Its unforgiving shooting mechanics won't be for everyone, but Insurgency: Sandstorm rewards those who really learn how to play it, resulting in one of the most satisfying first-person shooters on Xbox today.

Gungrave G.O.R.E feels like a perfect title to release on Xbox Game Pass, the kind of thing most people really will want to try before they buy. It's absolutely not for everyone, it's old-fashioned, obnoxiously loud and highly repetitive, but if you fall under its spell, if you get into the murder rhythm of it all, you may well find yourself thoroughly addicted. It's a shame there's not better feedback when you take damage, and we wish there was an option to hold in the trigger for continuous fire, but beyond these shortcomings this one absolutely nails what it sets out to do. This is a loud, silly and gratuitously violent slice of old-school arcade action.

Evil West is a thoroughly old-fashioned shooter that manages to entertain in short bursts but can't overcome how lacklustre and unoriginal its level design and narrative feels. If you've got a pal to play through this one with in co-op you could probably stick another star on the final score, otherwise we'd steer clear unless you absolutely must indulge in some seriously last-gen cowboy vs. vampire action.

Somerville is a super-stylish slice of sci-fi that nails its aesthetic and provides a solid narrative that comes to a pleasingly surreal and fantastical end. However, all of this good stuff is bogged down by dull gameplay, performance issues and the addition of a third dimension that, while certainly very cool to look at, leads to awkwardness as you attempt to solve puzzles and interact with environments. If you can make peace with the gameplay, you'll still find a story worth experiencing here, it's just a shame there wasn't as much creativity in those puzzles as there is in every other aspect of what Jumpship has served up.

Sonic Frontiers is a triumph for the series. Sure, it might be a little prickly around the edges, but overall this is a great experience from start to finish. Director Morio Kishimoto and Sonic Team should be proud of what they’ve accomplished. It’s proof that even after 30 years, the Sonic series can still be taken in new and exciting directions, and SEGA can now build on this new game's foundation. Sonic Frontiers provides one of the most enjoyable 3D Sonic experiences of all time, and we're excited for what the future holds for the blue blur.

Pentiment is one of the most unique and clever games we've played in a very long time. It may be the fabulous art style that first draws you to this one, and it really is quite the looker, but it's actually the very obvious care that's been poured into the narrative and the exacting detail in every aspect of the world-building here that ends up selling the whole thing so well. With a story that really goes some places, tons of history to learn about, lots of fantastic characters to meet and plenty of fun and surprises along the way, this is one medieval murder mystery you should absolutely check out as soon as it hits Xbox Game Pass.

Vampire Survivors might not seem like all that much to get excited about at a glance, but what it does, it does incredibly well, making it an absolute must-play game, especially for fans of similar titles. It’s ideal for short and longer sessions, is incredibly accessible with simple controls, and there’s plenty of depth once you get familar with each character - with skill combos and weapon evolution that allows you to enhance your character's power in all sorts of exciting ways. Vampire Survivors just might be the indie game of the year and is easily one of the best games you can play on Xbox and Game Pass in 2022 and beyond.