EA Sports UFC 6 (PlayStation, Xbox, £69.99)

Verdict: Bone-crunching brilliance

Star rating: 4/5

What do you get if you cross UFOs and CFCs? Why, UFC, of course – which, to take it out of the realm of acronyms for a moment, stands for Ultimate Fighting Championship.

This is the brutal sport in which fighters of various disciplines are pitted against each other in an eight-sided cage known as the Octagon. (President Trump organised a UFC jamboree - Freedom 250 - on the White House lawn in June, as part of America's 250th anniversary celebrations.)

And, naturally, if a sport exists, then EA has to make a video game out of it – we’re now on the sixth instalment of their UFC series.

It is also the first one I’ve played. I am not a hardened veteran of the Octagon. But, in a way, this helps me to appreciate what might be UFC 6’s best feature – how welcoming it is.

 This is true of everything from the game’s brilliant tutorials to its presentation of UFC’s history and its participants.

The Hall of Legends mode takes three real-life all-timers – Max Holloway, Alex Pereira and Zhang Weili – and allows you to walk their paths to glory. It’s a lovingly curated museum to an entire sport.

Then there’s The Legacy, in which you take on the role of made-up fighter Chris Carter and try to become a UFC heavy-hitter. Much like the story modes in other EA games, it’s cliched and campy – there’s a bitter rival, of course, and numerous setbacks– but that’s what makes it so enjoyable.

UFC 6 does make some missteps – such as a mechanic called ‘Flow State’, which slows time, strengthens your punches and seems totally at odds with the realism of the game elsewhere – but which fighter doesn’t, from time to time?

 As it is, this one is staying on my PlayStation for the foreseeable. I shall, oh yes, conquer the Octagon.

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced (PlayStation, Xbox, PC, £49.99)

Verdict: Pirate gold

Star rating: 5/5

Raise a black flag! The best Assassin’s Creed game is back and remade for modern systems.

But why? Although the original’s 2013 release date feels like an age ago, its tale of high-seas piracy and low-born skullduggery still plays well and looks fine. Could this merely be a cynical grab for more plunder?

Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced answers such questions with aplomb. Turns out, this 13-year-old game could be improved – and significantly.

The most obvious improvement – in that it stands out during the very first seconds of Resynced – is to the graphics.

The game’s Caribbean setting is now as gorgeous as any other in gaming, and moody, too. Thanks to the enhanced weather and water effects, the open sea is especially briny and forbidding.

Other improvements may be more important, however. On dry land, sneaking about and stabbing guards in the back, your character, Edward Kenway, always was a stealthy sort of rogue. But now the game’s mechanics really match his personality: the addition of a crouching posture, in particular, gives him (and you) a quieter approach to practically every combat encounter.

Then there are the new cutscenes. The tied-up stories that previously lacked resolution. The smarter and far less cluttered map. The more sophisticated swordplay. The streamlined way of accessing Edward’s expanded toolkit. The...

You get the point. Resynced could have been so much less.

As it is, its makers have put a lot of effort into making the best Assassin’s Creed game even better.

They’ll still get their plunder – that is the pirate’s way – but, in this case, they might just deserve it.

Moss: The Forgotten Relic (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC, £15.99)

Verdict: VG outside of VR

Star rating: 4/5

The real weirdos among us first played Moss in 2018. Then we played its sequel in 2022. Because, back then, both games were only available for virtual reality headsets. If you wanted to Moss out, you had to do it in VR.

But now both games have been packaged together and released for relatively normal people, who play on everyday consoles. The translation is so successful that, if you didn’t know any better, you might think that Moss: The Forgotten Relic had been a console game all along.

Although it does do something that other console games don’t do. The main hero of The Forgotten Relic, a determined little mouse called Quill, is not technically who you’re playing as.

Instead, you’re the Reader, a ghostly figure with whom Quill has formed a connection through a shard of magical glass. You hover mysteriously above the game’s forested world.

Which used to be a clever way of explaining your disembodied presence in VR. Whereas now it’s just a lovely framing for the game’s puzzles.

As the Reader, you’re manipulating the environment and upending mechanical enemies so that Quill can progress through her own fairy tale. The puzzles become trickier as you go along, of course – but they never lose their basic charm.

The sequel, included in The Forgotten Relic, is more ambitious and even more sophisticated. There are new tools, new baddies and new directions, all of which result in more satisfying puzzles. Moss was always a joy in VR; now it’s a joy for all, in any reality.