In setting up an explosive finale, the player's predictable busywork and inconsequential story as Javier fall into predictable, repeated tropes. Barring the final moments (some of which flip conventions on their head in a genuinely interesting turn), Telltale cannot decide how to make their protagonist compelling enough without servicing the narrative needs of others. Hopefully, the final episode carries forward with its momentum and salvages a worthy capper to the story of A New Frontier.

A meandering plot, a formulaic, by-the-numbers gameplay flow and contextually redundant choices undo the good work and story built up to this stage, leaving players asking how could so much go so wrong, so quickly.

An intriguing and exciting concept that is completely removed due to its monotonous and repetitive execution. Fans of the narrative genre will appreciate the game and its new approach, but quickly realize where it falls short. As a result, we go from a revolutionary concept for the genre to an average title overall that can only be improved upon with future titles.

After a high-stakes opening salvo, Batman: The Enemy Within episode 2 feels more like a retaliating sling of an arrow. With the exception of an intriguing interpretation of this episode’s focal antagonist, Telltale Games misfires on many facets of narrative and gameplay design.

Rally Arcade Classics succeeds in one important area: it brings back the approachable feel of classic arcade rally games. It’s fun in short bursts, and fans of rally racers will find plenty to enjoy in its car roster and gameplay. At the same time, the grind-heavy structure, lack of polish, and absence of true online racing hold it back from being a must-play. In the end, the value will depend on what you’re looking for. If you want a simple, content-rich throwback you can chip away at for hours, it’s worth a look. If you’re after a polished arcade racer with modern production values and multiplayer, you may want to wait for a sale, or stick with the classics it’s inspired by.

Even though the game is fun in its own way, at launch there just isn’t enough about The Texas Chain Saw Massacre to make it anything but mid. Hopefully given time, it will get new content but all we can do is wait and see.

Assassin’s Creed Rogue Remastered has some noticeable graphical improvements, but not enough to overshadow the gameplay flaws of the original. At $30, the game is only really worth it for hardcore fans.

You can almost hear BioWare repeatedly mashing the “Series Reset” button during a play-through of Mass Effect: Andromeda, but the game’s deviation from what we’ve come to expect from the franchise is largely characterized by a downgrade in quality almost across the entire board. Mass Effect: Andromeda attempts to redefine the potential for the franchise as it moves forward into the current generation, but the establishment of this new fiction makes for a disappointingly inconsistent experience.

There’s not enough here beyond simple questions and answers to hold your attention for long, and that makes the game’s tedious pace drag on even worse. Get yourself some Trivial Pursuit and the drink of your choice for a far more enjoyable evening than this.

Despite the core gameplay being a remarkably basic RPG, Nintendo more than makes up for this by creating a world that makes fun of RPG tropes while giving you full ownership of every single character in the game. This allows for randomly generated funny moments and a feeling of ownership not found in many other titles. If you’re looking for a serious RPG, it’s not here; but, if you’re looking for a fun time filled with memes and light-hearted fun, you’re not going to do much better than Miitopia.

In Sound Mind is frustrating at first but will draw you in with dark themes, bright colors, engaging environments and some pretty awesome gameplay mechanics. It’s not the scariest game that will release this Halloween season, but it’s certainly a competitor.

Peach Beach Splash is a lovely addition to the Senran Kagura franchise. The game acts as a wonderfully fun third-person shooter, with immense levels of customization available right out of the box. Unfortunately, it does at times feel held back by its over-the-top, lewd, anime roots.

While this is a rather niche title given the anime graphical style and Soulsborne type of gameplay, Code Vein sticks a decent landing. But with some performance upgrades and further refinements to the combat via patches, this could be a much heavier hitter.

Despite a pleasing aesthetic and overtures at greatness, Yonder’s clunky menuing, excessive fetch questing, and empty story deprive it of the greatness it reaches for. There’s a lovely game buried within Yonder The Cloud Catcher Chronicles that I want to enjoy, but it’s far too shrouded in Murk to properly get at for now.

Through both visual and auditory queues, Zoink Games had their work cut out for them by making a wordless, interactive story play out as a 3D platformer using atmospheric presence to tell a tale. But with very, very few exceptions, they pull this off with near-perfect artistic grace.

For me, Rogue Incursion is everything I’ve been waiting for in an Alien game. It’s a tense, scary, atmospheric game with a strong story. It balances combat with survival horror, and it’s got its own new storyline that’s nestled deep within the Alien universe. I’ve seen the game described as a “cinematic experience,” and I have to agree. All the pieces work perfectly, making it feel like you’re playing through a brand new Alien movie.

No Straight Roads is a big and colorful musical experience with heavy JRPG influences that lets you fight the man, give power to the people of Vinyl City and bring joy, all with the sweet power of rock and roll.

Ancestors is a beautiful game that pits you against all odds in the simulated perspectives of our forebears. Go about through millions of years of evolution, but don’t expect your hand to be held throughout. It’s about exploration, survival, and learning. Curiosity and patience have to be your biggest drivers to get by. Aside from questionable AI choices and oftentimes monotonous tasking, it’s an interesting experience.

Even though the game itself looks stunning and sounds beautiful, the movement mechanics are eye-twitchingly slow and there is a game crashing checkpoint bug. While not as disturbing as people claim, the story of Martha is Dead is a punch in the gut for sure.

Pokemon Unite busts out the gate as a very solid, very easy to pick up and play MOBA game. Even as someone who does not like MOBAs, I found myself getting really into the rounds and figuring out the tools quickly. Cute visuals, fun unlockables and a fun variety of play styles keep matches fresh and a quick chat feature helps avoid the toxicity that normally sticks to MOBAs like glue.

Though interactions with noble aristocrats throughout the manor retain their charm, these moments are undercut by poor technical performance, disappointing pacing and an unfocused series of story beats. “Hide and Seek” flirts with squandering the series’ potential.

Right now, in setting up a grander story, Guardians of the Galaxy can coast on its style. With a shocking revelation setting up a world of possibilities going forward, there’s plenty of promise here. Whether or not the story goes places will make or break this series, but “Tangled Up In Blue” sets up a dynamic cast that will be fun to follow on their journey.

Mario Golf: Super Rush is a solid hit for the Mario Golf franchise. It’s probably as fluid as it has ever been. It plays very well and is really easy to pick up, even for people who have never touched a golfing video game. Unfortunately, it falls short in terms of content, which only really allows it to be enjoyed in bursts.

Vampyr sports an interesting cast and a compelling morality tale with unexpected twists and turns, but it's horribly weighed down by performance issues, dull combat at best and a city that's a chore to traverse.

Mr. Shifty is a competent and mostly enjoyable top-down brawler with an instinctive, visceral combat system. The teleportation mechanic is a standout addition to the game that makes players feel more like a superhero than a thief. But that feeling is short-lived, as the game fails to meaningfully introduce enough new elements to keep the gameplay from feeling formulaic and repetitive. With essentially no replayability, Mr. Shifty is a mildly entertaining title that did not fully capitalize on its potential.

While it does have some surprisingly great acting and emulates giant robot combat quite well, I would wait just a bit. Neither of those features is impressive enough to make up for Archangel VR’s boring gunfights and somewhat tedious characters.

Ripe for narrative potential, Wolfenstein: Youngblood is a brilliant concept overwrought with unnecessarily padded questing, turning a winning linear FPS formula into an ARPG grind fest.

The Walking Dead A New Frontier has a story worth telling at the heart of it, and Telltale eventually gets there, but the narrative stumbles at almost every turn. Repetitive gameplay, technical glitches, and the constant overshadowing of one character by another significantly blunt the set-up of the season’s cutting finale. The journey must continue in the inevitable fourth season, but I hope Telltale devises a better game plan for when that time comes.