Where other life sims can sometimes struggle to make interesting use of the characters that occupy their towns, developer Gameloft bursts onto the scene shirtless and flexing its muscles like Maui with Disney Dreamlight Valley. Even in its unfinished early access state, this is an irresistible blend of city planning from the likes of Animal Crossing with quests and a progression system more commonly seen in RPGs. All of that is wrapped inside a Disney theme with an all-star cast of adored characters that make it ridiculously hard to put down. Some tedious quests, copious bugs, and an incomplete final act mean it certainly warrants the early access label at the moment, but it’s already all too easy to lose dozens of hours in this magical simulation.

Disney Dreamlight Valley’s cozy concept...

Since its re-emergence in the anime scene in 2012, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has had an upsurge in popularity thanks to its exuberant characters, vibrant worldbuilding, and infinitely memeable moments. In 2013, developer CyberConnect 2 and Bandai Namco released a fighting game based on the long-running manga series to little fanfare. Almost a decade later, a remastered and upgraded version called JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R looks to make a splash in a fighting game genre that’s become more exciting and crowded in recent years. All Star Battle R comes equipped with some bold new characters, smart updates to the combat system, and a disappointing replacement for the original’s story mode...

A good sports management game shouldn’t just accurately represent the sport on the cover; it also needs to show some personality. It needs to be a storyteller. In any sports organisation – as time, championships, seasons, and people come and go – their story grows and changes, building a folklore and a history that makes them unique and loved by their fans. It’s what gives them an identity. F1 Manager 2022, despite being a first attempt at the genre by Frontier Developments, is definitely a storyteller; one that will help you shape the future and history of any current Formula 1 team into one of your own making...

When the Digital Eclipse team at Konami boasted that they’d put a lot of care into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cowabunga Collection I wrote it off as the standard marketing line we see around any repackaging of beloved games. However, this may be the first instance where we really have gotten a truly excellent collection of these 13 games, many of which hold up well and are exceptionally difficult and expensive to get hold of in their physical forms. Not only does Cowabunga collect some fan favorites, but tucked away in the Turtles’ lair are 2,000+ items for fans to explore, including (previously) rare pieces of concept art, soundtracks with newly revealed track names added, nostalgic magazine advertisements we ‘90s kids were bombarded with, and a ton more...

Picture a game that looks left at all of the fans clamoring for a new Power Stone game, looks right at the ones who want a new War of the Monsters, and then shrugs its shoulders and says “Why not both?” That game is GigaBash. It’s a 3D arena fighter with a collection of 10 monsters and mechas inspired by classic kaijus and a focus on simple controls, environmental destructibility, and the power fantasy of being a giant monster slamming other giant monsters through skyscrapers. It’s not much more than meets the eye, but its claws are certainly sharp enough to scratch any kaiju-sized party fighter itches.

GigaBash’s biggest strength is how it balances its immediately intuitive controls with just the right amount of depth underneath that approachable surface...

Two Point Campus continues in the already impressive footsteps of Two Point Hospital before it, dressing up an engaging business management sim in goofy irreverence. To be honest, its dorky, oddball sense of humor misses me more often than it hits. But that all fades into the background for the most part when I’m having a blast laying out my new library, planning out dorms, and throwing sweet parties in the student union.

Most of the time you’ll be juggling your budget, student happiness, and the space requirements of running a university...

When I started Cult of the Lamb, I wasn’t expecting to be shoveling so much poop. This is a true wolf of a base-management game in the sheepish clothing of an action-roguelite, but it balances that unexpected mix of genres with grace. Its adorable art style and surprising amount of side activities fill its relatively linear structure up with personality – and while its combat sections aren’t deep enough to keep me coming back after the credits rolled, this is a dark ritual I’m very glad to have completed.

Cult of the Lamb puts you in the fluffy hooves of a cult leader newly resurrected by an imprisoned deity called The One Who Waits...

You ever see someone with massive, toned arms but embarrassingly scrawny legs? Digimon Survive is a little bit like that person: it overwhelmingly succeeds at being an entertaining visual novel, but completely skips leg day when it comes to its tedious tactics combat. Apart from some serious pacing problems, meeting Digimon Survive’s memorable characters and exploring the grim world they are in make the story at its center very enjoyable. But while this visual novel digivolves in the areas of storytelling and characterization, the slow and mind-numbingly simplistic turn-based combat system crammed into it comes close to spoiling that otherwise enjoyable tale entirely.

The glacial opening hours of Digimon Survive feature a group of quirky high school students who are sucked into a paralle...

Much of the joy from any good battle royale is derived from the feeling of making big plays, and hoo boy! If there’s one thing that Rumbleverse is good at, it’s setting you up for opportunities for big plays. The latest from Iron Galaxy Studios (the developers of Divekick and seasons 2 and 3 of Killer Instinct) Rumbleverse is a free-to-play, melee-driven battle royale with a very Fortnite’y, but nonetheless charming cartoony artstyle, infused with all of the pomp and grandeur of professional wrestling. One moment you’ll be Irish-Whipping an opponent into a wall for a brutal wall combo, the next you’ll be chokeslamming bodies off of skyscrapers, and occasionally giant-swinging them into the ocean...

Sony has been slowly building up its catalog of PC ports of first-party PS4 games, and now with Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, we have the biggest to date. This game needs no introduction. The PlayStation 5 remaster improved on the 2018 original significantly with new facial models, improved resolution and performance, DualSense controls, and graphics that show off some of the best ray tracing on consoles thus far.

Porting Insomniac’s incredible game and bespoke engine to PC was by no means an easy feat of engineering, but the task was put in the very capable hands of Nixxes, a new member of Sony Studios. Here’s what’s on offer in the new PC version:

Higher frames per second, meaning you can exceed the 120fps ceiling of the PS5’s 120fps mode...