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Battlefield 6 review After the muddled innovations and watered-down warfare of Battlefield 2042, Battlefield 6 was pitched as a return to what made the series great. And it is that…mostly. Gone are the ponderous 128-player maps that stretched 2042's action too thin, and the pseudo-futuristic setting with gimmicky hero shooter-like abilities. Back are the rollicking 64-player slugfests, the more grounded quartet of soldier classes, the lowercase modern warfare setting, and even the...

Little Nightmares 3 review There's a moment around Little Nightmares 3's midpoint when, following a tepid first half so safe it often feels like a tribute act, new series developer Supermassive finally seems to hit its stride. Slowly the hum of a mysterious subterranean void gives way to rain-lashed walkways as our diminutive protagonists brave the exterior of some vast, heaving machine. Then the reveal of the grand Carnevale, its sprawl of big top tents and twinkling lights, its parade...

Consume Me review "Just think of it like a video game", Consume Me's increasingly put-upon protagonist Jenny tells herself early on as she prepares to take the dieting plunge. The final year of school is approaching, adult life is looming, and if that wasn't enough, the words of her overbearing mother - how will she ever get a boyfriend if she doesn't lose some weight? - are lodged in her brain. It'd be enough to overwhelm anyone, let alone a teenager still trying to find her place in...

I spent 30 brilliant days with this powerful pre-built mini gaming PC: Wired2Fire HAL 9000 review Small form factor gaming PCs are getting ever more popular, but the often fiddly assembly process is one that you don't need to undertake yourself. This is where the Wired2Fire HAL 9000 Mini PC I've been testing recently comes in. It's a well-specced mini PC with full-size desktop parts, including an AMD Ryzen 7 9700X processor, RTX 5070 Ti graphics card, 32GB of DDR5-6000 RAM and a 2TB...

Agatha Christie: Death on the Nile review To be Hercule Poirot is to know you're probably going to win. Agatha Christie's best-known child is sharp, methodical, and insufferable, even more so now because Microids decided to make him hot. Some might argue that it doesn't matter what Poirot looks like, but those people are wrong; I know a few of the older Blazing Griffin games stuck with Poirot's shiny egg-shaped head, but none can hold a candle to the bowtied visage of David Suchet. I...

Dying Light: The Beast review First, in 2011, we got Dead Island, Techland's opinion-dividing, melee-focused zombie adventure, taking place on the sun-soaked island of Banoi. Three years later, Kyle Crane made his debut in Dying Light, literally dropping into the city of Harran as all hell broke loose. Now, after rescuing that city and its remaining sentient inhabitants from despicable forces (or not, if you instigated one particular ending from the expansion Dying Light: The...

Ghost of Yōtei review I still can't figure out how to think about Ghost of Yōtei. And, honestly, its predecessor, Ghost of Tsushima, even four years on. I enjoy these games - I enjoy these kinds of games, even. I'm a sucker, if you'll forgive the pun, for the Sucker Punch style of open world. A kind of Diet Assassin's Creed: even lighter; even shallower; even simpler to grasp and follow around, sword in hand, air in head. Sometimes with video games and their often unfathomable...

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds review A fun arcade karting experience is often too chaotic for its own good, but a tight handling model with a high skill ceiling offers surprising depth. Read more Final Verdict 9 / 10 Score Breakdown Gameplay: 9.5 / 10 – Responsive, fun, and addictive. Graphics: 9 / 10 – Crisp visuals and strong art direction. Audio: 8.5 / 10 – Atmospheric soundtrack, quality sound design. Performance: 8 / 10 – Runs well, occasional hiccups. Highlights...

Hades 2 review In Hades, we meet Sisyphus, the once founder and king of Ephyra, now relegated to the underworld and tasked with pushing a boulder up a hill for eternity because he dared incur the wrath of Zeus. He's an unlikely ally; a cheerful chap seemingly content with his perpetual lot, keen to dish out advice, boons, and the odd joke. Sisyphus is a suitable parallel for Zagreus, in the first game: his task may be endless, but he can find the fun in it - no matter how many times the...

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles review The story of Ramza Beoulve is presented to you as a historical accord - an account of a tale recorded by one historian and told to you by another. It's subjective, an interpretation of loose facts collected by an archivist with a notable bias: to celebrate the achievements of your protagonist, a man whose influences and inspirations have been concealed by the church. As such, different readings of this story can proffer different...

Baby Steps review Baby Steps walks a fine line between frustration and accomplishment to provide a walking simulator and climbing experience quite unlike anything else. Read more Final Verdict 9 / 10 Score Breakdown Gameplay: 9.5 / 10 – Responsive, fun, and addictive. Graphics: 9 / 10 – Crisp visuals and strong art direction. Audio: 8.5 / 10 – Atmospheric soundtrack, quality sound design. Performance: 8 / 10 – Runs well, occasional hiccups. Highlights Huge world...

Borderlands 4 review While I broadly believe that looter-shooters are the worst thing to happen to virtual gunfighting since Daikatana, Borderlands is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. There is something about Gearbox's cartoon caper that slips through my armour like a Jakobs throwing knife. I even liked Borderlands 3, heaven help me. Read more Final Verdict 9 / 10 Score Breakdown Gameplay: 9.5 / 10 – Responsive, fun, and addictive. Graphics: 9 / 10 – Crisp visuals and...

Skate Early Access review After an absolute age, EA's wheelie classic is back with great handling and a whole world of slightly jarring niceness. Read more Final Verdict 9 / 10 Score Breakdown Gameplay: 9.5 / 10 – Responsive, fun, and addictive. Graphics: 9 / 10 – Crisp visuals and strong art direction. Audio: 8.5 / 10 – Atmospheric soundtrack, quality sound design. Performance: 8 / 10 – Runs well, occasional hiccups. Highlights Huge world with endless exploration...

Silent Hill f review If you take nothing else from me today, just take these three words: stick with it. Read more Final Verdict 9 / 10 Score Breakdown Gameplay: 9.5 / 10 – Responsive, fun, and addictive. Graphics: 9 / 10 – Crisp visuals and strong art direction. Audio: 8.5 / 10 – Atmospheric soundtrack, quality sound design. Performance: 8 / 10 – Runs well, occasional hiccups. Highlights Huge world with endless exploration. Top-tier combat system. High...

Nothing Headphone (1) review: Unlike anything else I've ever seen The Nothing Headphone (1) sees the trendy smartphone brand take a first stab at the extremely competitive wireless noise-cancelling headphone market. With their £244/$299 price tag, they sit right in the middle of a sector that's long been dominated by Sony, Bose and others. We've also seen some other excellent options including the Cambridge Audio Melomania P100 attempt to break the trend, with varying levels of success...

Lego Voyagers review It's nice to have a friend. More than one if you're lucky. My memories of childhood friends are predictably tied to the era: Sunny D, Apple Fruitang, MTV, bikes, and VHS tapes are all there, hanging around the back of my mind. Surprisingly, though, it's stupidly long walks that I remember most fondly, although rather hazily. Like most kids before they had jobs (a paper round came some years later), we didn't have much money, and what we did have we wanted to spend...

Hollow Knight: Silksong review Metroidvanias are the games where I'm allowed to get stuck in several places at once. Head upwards and there's a boss that I can't beat. Try going down the stairs instead and there's an environment that kills me just for stepping into it. Left and right are dead ends that I don't have the tools to navigate yet. Stuck on all four points of the compass! That's a Metroidvania. Read more Final Verdict 9 / 10 Score Breakdown Gameplay: 9.5 / 10 –...

Cronos: The New Dawn review Cronos: The New Dawn invites you into a rich and authentic representation of 1980s-era communist Poland in the wake of a terrifying cataclysm - The Change - that has completely wiped out humanity. This strange disease has rendered mankind into grotesque beings, set on merging into aggressive clumps of biomass and in the process becoming all-powerful. It's our protagonist's job - the Traveler, ND-3576 - to travel back in time and 'awaken' lost souls who refuse...

Hell is Us review - nightmarish adventure treads a fine line between cryptic and tedious Strange synths rumble and whir in an electronic hum. Wind chimes tinkle. An unearthly screech in the distance and the bass escalates in intensity. Rain tickles the DualSense. What exactly is out there? Read more Final Verdict 9 / 10 Score Breakdown Gameplay: 9.5 / 10 – Responsive, fun, and addictive. Graphics: 9 / 10 – Crisp visuals and strong art direction. Audio: 8.5 / 10 – Atmospheric...

Honor Magic V5 review: thinner, faster, stronger - but expensive Last year Honor's Magic V3 foldable phone impressed, offering mature software, a thin and robust design and more powerful hardware. This year, thanks to the unlucky reputation of the number four in China, we've gone up two to the Magic V5. Read more Final Verdict 9 / 10 Score Breakdown Gameplay: 9.5 / 10 – Responsive, fun, and addictive. Graphics: 9 / 10 – Crisp visuals and strong art direction. Audio: 8.5 / 10...