We're in the midst of an unspeakably good couple of months for game releases, even if you ignore the boring corporate ones that we'll never hear the end of. The downside of such a bounty is there are even more gems getting overlooked than usual, because nobody has the time even when we're aware of them. Like, for example, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk.

It absolutely is the Jet Set Radio tribute it looks like, and it's a delight even if, like me, you never really liked the originals. Inspired by, rather than tracing over the rail grinding, spraypainting, all-dancing classic. It plays a little smoother, it clocks in shorter, and runs a little faster, but it's undeniably dancing to the same beat.

Read more

Alice0 has a habit of introducing me to weird and slightly frightening games featuring brutalist architecture. Well, not a habit exactly, but it's happened three times now, which is enough to make it a thing. Fugue In Void, by Moshe Linke, is technically and literally a walking simulator, in that you are going for a walk and that's all you do in it, but what it simulates you walking through is kind of a surrealist nighmarescape of raw concrete. I know I'm supposed to be making this game sound like something you'd want to play. Honestly, it's very good.

Read more

Around 20-minutes spent with Like A Dragon Gaiden (technically Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name) has helped me fulfil two Yakuza-specific dreams: reunite with Mr. Masochist and fight alongside Mr. Masochist. Having sampled a bit of the colosseum and switched up Kiry- sorry, Joryu's threads, I reckon Gaiden's side hustles are shaping up to be suitably bonkers and remarkably in-depth. Our boy literally has rockets in his shoes, I mean, come on.

Read more

Devs GSC Game World are going through an unimaginably difficult time right now on top of leaks and hacker attacks. That has to be taken into account when we think about the development of the game, and it could be why, after 20-minutes spent exploring a bit of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart Of Chornobyl's irradiated world, I'm unsure what to make of it.

Maybe I played a very early build, but while the world itself looks every bit the eerie post apocalyptic survival wasteland you hope, NPC interactions aren't in as great shape. Chats with friendlies are unclear, and in firefights the enemy AI is shonky - to the extent that I think it'll be more useful as a preview to just tell you exactly what happened to me as I played.

Read more

I will hold my hands up and say that I didn't get on too well with One More Level's first Ghostrunner game. While its one-hit-kill combat was fast, flashy and infinitely more appealing than some of the other neon lambs being led to the cyberpunk slaughter in the back end of 2020, its precise platforming and marksman-grade enemies made it a hard game to love while you were actually playing it. But having sat down for 45 minutes with Ghostrunner 2 at this year's Gamescom, I'm pleased to report that this is a sequel done right, building on everything you know and (probably) love about the first game, while also ushering in new, optional concessions to help make its still wonderfully gory swordplay much more approachable for old two-left-thumbs-McGee over here. Then there's the motorbike, which… phwoar>. Let me tell you about the motorbike.

Read more

I’m not really one for patience in games. I’m definitely the hack and slash ‘em to bits kind of player rather than a slick stealthy player. My approach to games is pretty unruly is what I’m trying to say, but there has been one game that tamed my rampaging ways and that was Cappybara Games’ Below.

Below is a game that’s best played slowly. You’re tasked with reaching the bottom of an island’s subterranean caverns, trying to survive against monsters, traps, starvation, and dehydration. Each layer is shrouded in darkness meaning that you only have the small ring of light from your torch to watch carefully where you step. Charging through these levels is the quickest way of getting sliced and diced, and when you die, you begin back on the beach right next to the boat you arrived on.

Read more

Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon launches tomorrow with the distinction of being a FromSoftware game that isn’t> missing a bunch of PC tech basics, with ultrawide and 120fps support welded on as standard. As I’ve been finding out, it’s also a fine fit for the Steam Deck: performance issues are few, controls translate comfortably, and it won’t hog too much space on a microSD card. Handheld life is good for Fires of Rubicon, even if it likes to keep yours brutish and short.

Read more

I saw Creative Assembly's live service heist 'em up Hyenas at last year's Gamescom and came away unimpressed. I thought it was obnoxious and underwhelming, in all the ways you'd expect from a colourful hero shooter whose hook is stealing Sonic merch.

But this year I got to spend a good 30-minutes in a match against other players and have come away… pleasantly surprised. I like the way it eschews the sometimes slow, methodical pace of other extraction shooters in favour of a faster-paced team deathmatch. While it's way too early to make big judgement calls like, "the entire game will be good", it might have more of a chance at launch survival than I thought.

Read more

Last time, you narrowly ruled that mimics are better than tactically sealing doors. Why would anyone want to lock away a beautiful pearwood chest that surely contains oodles of treasure and absolutely no consequences? This week, I ask you to choose between stress and pressure and panic and mistakes, and simply having a nice time helping a friend without a care in the world. What's better: timed dialogue choices, or a stress-free co-op helper?

Read more

Lexar's NM790 PCIe 4.0 SSD is our 'best cheap PCIe 4.0 SSD for gaming' pick, offering extremely rapid speeds. It maxes out at 7400MB/s reads and 6500MB/s writes, near the boundary of the PCIe 4.0 standard, and random read/write figures are impressive too despite lacking a DRAM cache, using HMB instead. So I thought it worth mentioning that you can now pick up this 2TB high-end drive for £85, following a price drop from £93 at Amazon UK.

Read more