Dragon's Dogma 2 doesn't always feel like a modern, polished open-world game, but it has all the weight of one. If, like me, you're okay with some bugs, some goofs, and some randomly punishing difficulty in service of a big, impressive adventure, I think it's worth the pain. Destiny calls you toward the dragon, but the real victories are the goblins we toss along the way.

Probably the best Dragon Quest, but if innovation and surprise are what you want, you'll need to look somewhere else.

Perhaps it's surprising how much I ended up enjoying DiRT 4. After all, Forza Horizon 3 was the last "accessible" spin-off of a racing game I truly loved (Forza Motorsport 6), and I never gelled with that game at all. Perhaps I'm drawn to the closed—as opposed to open—world of this new game, or maybe I like "DiRT 4" because less of the hardcore sim got lost in translation. Either way, if you like your racing to be as sideways as possible, you'll want to try DiRT 4.

I really like Returnal, but if you check the Ars Slack logs, you'll find that I complained quite a bit along the way. I needed a full 10 hours for its combat and universe to click in a crucial, "I want to beat this game" way, and I'm still left wondering how many good ideas and systems were left out of this game just to get its sky-high aspirations out the door. Maybe some of my positive bias comes from dreams of a sequel, which might build upon Housemarque's first stab at the genre. But I won't blame anyone for having less patience with Returnal's uneven ambition (or its $70 price point, which, from what I've seen, does not favorably compare to last year's $60 Last of Us Part 2 or Ghost of Tsushima, also published by Sony). But this is the stuff that keeps Sony fanboys drooling: ambitious new IP that succeeds more than it fails while turning the familiar into something fresh. Returnal clearly heralds a new era for Housemarque, in terms of turning the focused arcade-blasting likes of Super Stardust HD into quest-worthy 3D action. Keep it coming, Sony and Housemarque. [Ars Technica Approved]

It's not perfect, and, on top of the problems we have with the reward structure, the perverse incentives against clean driving, and the prize crates, the load times can be lengthy. (It's also massive, clocking in at 67GB on the Xbox One.) And yes, Forza might be a little artificial at times—some bleed in from the Horizon games perhaps—and its engine might be biased toward flair and fun. But games are meant to be enjoyed, and this one is most certainly enjoyable.

Until Tekken, Street Fighter, and the rest of the fighting-game crowd makes a current-gen splash, fighting freaks should waste no time buying this.

Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey offers a lot to do but very little to say. That’s a shame, since many of history’s greatest tales have leveraged an immense scale to weave equally impactful tales. That’s not quite the case here.

After 20 hours or so, I'm excited to continue inhabiting the fascinating world of Night City and to discover more of its secrets as I meet its fascinating characters. But I'll be moving on prepared to turn a blind eye to some pretty big holes in that facade. [20 Hour Impressions]

It crushes the car-action competition. Rocket League draws inspiration from over a decade of games like Twisted Metal, Vigilante 8, and Mario Kart's battle modes, and it spit-shines the pure driving and maneuvering parts to make its core gameplay loop feel like no driving game ever made before it.

Generations is a last, wonderful gasp of life for this aging Monster Hunter engine. If you’ve been on the fence, now is the perfect time to hop aboard.

Not a perfect JRPG, but a really good introduction to Dragon Quest.

When inXile describes Wasteland 3 as a deep game with "80 to 100 hours" of gameplay before completion, they're not kidding. Although we fall on the "play through slowly and experience everything" side of RPG gaming, we'd guess we were no more than 25 percent through the game at 40+ hours in. Despite some faults, the strength of the tactical combat kept us engaged and interested, and the tough ethical choices along the way kept us guessing and motivated. The scenery is compelling, the soundscape and voice acting are incredibly lush, and the humorous touches scattered throughout landed more often than not. We think tactical RPG fans will be very pleased with Wasteland 3, warts and all—and if you're not a tactical RPG fan yet, this just might be the game that converts you.

The sheer scope and content in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor make it easily one of the biggest Star Wars games ever. This sequel largely uses the increased scale and depth to enhance its dramatic storyline and the core gameplay for Cal's adventures. Although this sequel's ambition shows some signs of buckling under its weight, it still manages to strike at the core of why a Star Wars adventure can be so satisfying and fun to immerse yourself in.

Despite the gripes I’ve mentioned above, I’ve still found it startlingly easy to fall deep into Starfield’s (just-short-of-literal) galaxy of pure content. That fractal quest design pattern makes it very compelling to stretch out a play session for “just one more jump” until you look up and suddenly it’s three hours past when you planned to sleep...I’m not sure if that loop will be strong enough to push me up to and past the 150-hour mark. One thing is clear, though; if we have to wait another eight years for a Fallout 4-scale single-player adventure from Bethesda Game Studios, Starfield has enough raw content to keep a certain type of space-fiction-obsessed player plugging away for a good chunk of that wait.: ["a few dozen hours" impressions]

Rocksteady's previous Arkham games found a solid balance of established and original tales that made you feel the Batman fantasy while still being fun to play. With so much focus shifted to new characters and the Batmobile in the twilight of Rocksteady's run on the franchise, it feels like the developer didn't have enough time to mix them all together quite as thoroughly.

Miles Morales may not be exceptionally original, but it’s a well-told, exceedingly human superhero story built on a strong, proven foundation of open-world mechanics. What better way to show off a new console?

If you seek exhilarating third-person action, buy this before year's end. If you own a PC GPU that supports DirectX 12 ray tracing, buy this immediately. [Ars Technica Approved]

This surprisingly deep Zelda-like adventure is charming, evocative, fun, bursting with secrets, and comes complete with some of the best visuals and music of any "works-on-any-computer" adventure game over the past few years. [Ars Technica Approved]

PES 2017 asks you how you want to interpret the beautiful game. There's no higher praise for a sports game.

If you're an F1 fan then it's probably a no-brainer. It has the latest tracks, includes all the latest rules, and the current line up of teams and drivers. If you're not an F1 fan but still like racing games it's still probably worth your time, thanks to an engaging career mode and enough granularity in the settings to make you work for that win.

I don't mean to say Witcher 3 is unplayable or ruined by the effort spent getting it into Switch-compatible shape. However, completely new players should be warned that CDPR's cinematic vision for the game is compromised just enough to take this port out of my running for a clear-cut recommendation. If you've already played Witcher 3 and want an excuse to burn through it anew on the go, complete with convenient "fast forward to the expansions" shortcuts, then yes, this port is a great reason to return to Nilfgaard. If you don't have any other consoles or a decent gaming PC, then "Switcher 3" is absolutely playable.

By now, the Yakuza series knows what butters its fans’ bread, and their spread of choice is theatrics. That means exaggerated comedy, tragedy, and more often, some uncommon blend of the two. The combat, while offbeat and satisfying in its own ways, is definitely a supporting role.

Until then, I have Destiny 2: a game that knows exactly what it is and isn't. D2 is bigger and better than its predecessor, and it keeps me coming back with mixed expectations of better loot—and clearer expectations of a good shooting time with friends. The former is fine, but the latter is what makes me recommend Destiny 2 right now for anybody eager for the next great chat-and-shoot gaming franchise.

Even a remake of perhaps the weakest Yakuza game in the series is hands-down a fantastic trip worth taking. Only skip it if you haven’t finished Yakuza 0 and Kiwami yet.

By the end, Ratchet and Clank (2016) isn't just a better-playing copy of a now-classic action game; it packs in enough surprises to keep a decade-plus fan like myself surprised. For that matter, "better-playing" doesn't do this remake justice. This is the best blend of shooting, hopping, and humor the series has struck yet. Whether that's enough to overcome origin story fatigue—or general Ratchet and Clank fatigue—is an open question.

You don’t need to play the previous games to enjoy this side story of turn-based tactics in a fantastical WWII. You will need a lot of patience for character archetypes and massive difficulty spikes.

Only near the end does the game crank up the difficulty substantially, mainly by rehashing old content with a few more enemies and fewer health items thrown in. At that point, though, you'll have upgraded Kirby's health and power, too. By the time I was refighting a bunch of old bosses, now with higher health bars, I felt like I was just going through the motions...But Kirby games have never been about mechanical challenge. Players come to these titles for a lighthearted romp where Kirby's ever-changing abilities provide a fun and dynamic diversion. Kirby and the Forgotten Land is more of the same, providing a smooth platforming experience that goes down so easy, you'll barely even notice you swallowed it.

If you're on board with his insane premise, this is best version of Death Stranding to get.

Buy it if you're still on the Brood War bandwagon. Try the free, old-school version if you're just curious how deep your nostalgia is for the game.

Pyre is a brilliant reinvention of the term “fantasy sports,” with story, visuals, and gameplay to die for. Go buy it.

FIFA 17 is a typically slick offering from EA, but if you want the best football game PES 17 is the way to go.

The best sign that Doom was doing something right came at the end of many of the game's firefights. Only when the driving music faded away and the "checkpoint reached" message appeared would I realize my entire body had been clenched up with the nonstop, adrenaline-soaked tension of it all for the last few minutes. I'll be damned if it didn't take me right back to playing Doom on that old 486 in my parents' living room decades ago. [Single-Player review]

Put off by DiRT Rally because it was too hard? This is the game for you. (Fans of DiRT Rally will also have fun.)

It's hard to believe that throwing two disparate, popular franchises into a completely new genre works as well as it does. Believe it, though: Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle is a fun and engaging introduction to the tactical RPG genre that can please neophytes and veterans alike.

I will long remember Statik as an example of immaculate, interactive art. It's as valuable for its mechanics as its sheer experience. Statik is a must-buy game for any PSVR rig, right next to Resident Evil 7.

Those who aren't huge fans of the genre may find Project CARS 2 a little too uncompromising, even if it is much more accessible than the first time around. If you just want to pick a fast car from the get-go and dive right in, you may find the learning curve too steep. But it looks good—especially in VR on the PC—and there are some cars and tracks that you simply won't find in any other current racing title. What's more, it's a significant step forward from the first Project CARS game. All told, CARS 2 should be catnip for the racing enthusiast.

Worth buying, even if you have last year's game. It's really good. [Ars Technica Approved]

Buy it if you're an Xbox One owner who could use a deep dive into classic, super-hard games.

Anyone who skipped Sun and Moon has no excuse not to buy their Ultra successors. Returning players should know they're in for a slow start but should consider buying the new games anyway.

I'm a big fan of HZD, and on my most powerful PC, I can currently play a tolerable-if-blurry 4K version at a nearly locked 60fps (or a native 1440p version at around 68fps on a variable refresh rate monitor). And it's a great action game at 60fps and above, especially when you juggle hero Aloy's selection of weapons and traps to fake like a real robo-safari hunter. There's no modern action game quite like it.

Deep tools and a strong community make Planet Coaster a thoroughly engrossing experience.

Destiny is fun again. Really fun. The end game is back, and there's a ton of stuff to do, with good reasons to do it. We can confidently say that Destiny 2 is now in a great spot, and it’s probably the best the franchise has ever been. If you can stomach dumping more money into the series and are in the mood for some grinding, it's a no-brainer purchase.

If you own an Xbox One, you'll have a fine enough time thanks to smooth, 60-frames-per-second multiplayer combat. But the game's best performance—with higher settings and resolutions, still easily locked at 60fps—can only be yours if you have a moderately powerful Windows 10 PC.

Currently, there's still a lot of Halo 5 to love—and just about as much to raise our eyebrows at—but the multiplayer is the winner here. Even Warzone's card-collecting gimmick hasn't stopped us from loving the series' biggest battles yet, while our experiences in Arena have ranged from solid, standard Spartan blasting to some of the most eye-bulging fun we've had dueling on Xbox Live in years.

Even as a short-and-sweet game, it's hard to say goodbye to Gorogoa's story so soon.

I came out of Eliza with the sense that I'd been on a journey of juggling grief, hope, and joy through the existential dread that is living a modern, tech-filled life. And for that reason, I recommend this visual novel as a must-play experience. [Ars Technica Approved]

DX:MD packs in more Deus Ex, mostly polished, with tons of plot that we don't want to spoil, a bazillion side quests and optional plot to sink your teeth into, a likable story, missions so good that I have described them to friends as "boss levels," and a free side game with a tolerable microtransaction system. I'm still shocked. August is usually the triple-A dumping ground of the game-industry calendar, but August hasn't seen a game this good in years.

Frostpunk might not be the open-ended city builder to revitalize that genre, but its linear focus on specific undertakings could be nearly perfect with a few tweaks. As it is, I’ll likely keep on coming back to the last city on Earth, convinced that this time I’ve got the perfect build order to keep its residents happy and fed. Tough choices be damned.

I'm in love with my biggest gaming surprise so far in 2020. SoR4 is easy to share with friends and easy to get hooked on. Its levels are choreographed with tons of enemy types from across the series so that you don't land in the usual "ugh, same enemies again" fatigue that even the Genesis originals suffer from. And, heck, Lizardcube and Guard Crush were kind enough to bring back the cheesy two-player "battle" mode—and it's actually kind of legit, since it neatly implements the special attacks' new risk-and-reward proposition. If you're on board with the scant length and the game's urging that you replay it a few times for maximum value, I heartily encourage you to spend 10 satisfying hours with this beat-'em-up rebirth. [Ars Technica Approved]

If you're looking for more Uncharted, then Lost Legacy will definitely provide it. If you're looking for more from the Uncharted series, though, you'll be pretty underwhelmed.

In my 25 years of professionally reviewing video games, I have never felt more confident recommending everyone check out a video game than with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge. [Ars Technica Approved]

Play RE7 first. If you want more of the same, lower your general expectations and revel in RE Village's improved gunplay. If not, skip.

Probably the best JRPG this year, and definitely one of the best in a good long while. If you think you can stomach the early difficulty, try it.

Buy it if you can handle the constant anxiety behind some of the best speculative sci-fi in games right now.

It’s testament to Taro’s talent for storytelling that the game inspires replay as much through its narrative hooks as its baser promise of trophies and a 100% competition record. And it’s testament to Platinum’s talent for action game design that the game’s systems remain crisp and engaging with each reinvestment. Indeed, this is bold, exciting game design from two of Japan’s most noteworthy creative powerhouses.

Anyone who skipped Sun and Moon has no excuse not to buy their Ultra successors. Returning players should know they're in for a slow start but should consider buying the new games anyway.

If you can survive the rough edges, it’s a great chance to finally see what all the fuss is about or relive an adventure classic.

Thimbleweed Park is an unabashed adventure game throwback with all the good and bad that brings. When it parlays that love of a bygone era into interesting challenges, it borders on great. When it simply emulates the past, it's a real slog.

A well-presented story told in a fresh way. Buy it if you have any interest in new storytelling forms.

As of press time, Xbox One X is woefully behind compared to PS4 and PS4 Pro on performance. While we lack discrete pixel-counting gear, we can confirm that both PlayStation consoles do better at locking to a 60fps refresh, and XB1X noticeably stutters in the act of play. RE3 is one of the more action-oriented entries in the series, so frame rates count.

For people who haven’t played it in a while, the Super Mario RPG remake is a fun opportunity to revisit a game you remember fondly. For those who are new to RPGs, this game is a great and low-stress introduction to the form, much like the original game was for kids in the '90s. The worst thing I can say about it is that it’s a little short, and for people who know the original, you might come away wishing that there was just more Mario RPG to play. Though that may just be me continuing to pine for the true sequel this game never got.

The series' best stuff returns at a fair price. Buy if single-player puzzle games are your jam.

A competent, carefully crafted but ultimately safe iteration in a long, storied franchise that, frankly, has much better entries. Yet it's also one of the most distinct Call of Duty games, an obvious bid at turning the series into a one-stop-shop multiplayer extravaganza—the only game Call of Duty fans will ever need. Until next year, at least.

If you need to get lost in over 30 hours of heroic gameplay right now, in a single-player adventure with no online connectivity gimmicks or content locked away as DLC, Sucker Punch has you covered with an instant contender for 2020's game of the year. [Ars Technica Approved]

Tetris 99 is more than a classic game with a bunch of strangers piling on. It's a tantalizing (and surprising) taste of new game design potential, where the cloud is the limit.

Life is Strange makes some odd design choices, but its ability to make your choices feel important to its strong leading protagonists more than makes up for it. Buy it.

I will treasure my time with Kena: Bridge of Spirits and look forward to even bigger projects from Ember Lab to come. [Ars Technica Approved]

Splatoon 3's existence feels like a corporate decision, meant to fill a release calendar, as opposed to being driven by good design ideas. I rarely find myself thinking that about a Nintendo game, but Splatoon 3 is that disappointing.

The PC-conversion team at Nixxes has done it again, and while we know better than to announce a game's PC version as a clear winner out of the gate, our experience with the PC build has us leaning towards calling it the definitive version.

If either Dragon Quest or base-building games appeal to you, try it with an open mind and a willingness to buck convention.

Splatoon 2's basic gameplay has clearly benefited from a full two years of patching and examination of the original title's uneven launch. This is all we've wanted from Nintendo for years: to come up with wild new ideas, then actually adjust and respond to player demands for a better experience.

I can definitely see ways for an expansion pack or sequel to continue the story that Stray started, and its mechanics and puzzle-solving ingenuity both seem ripe for further exploration from a cat's point of view. In the meantime, this is a tremendous first effort from an entirely new game studio, and I'm confident in recommending it to anyone who's happy to trade conventional, been-there-done-that gaming adventures for something a little slower, shorter, sweeter, and more feline. [Ars Technica Approved]

Yakuza 6 sums up its lead character succinctly and emotionally, while shaking up enough to make the return ride feel fresh.

You absolutely want this if you liked the previous games, but newcomers should at least play Virtue's Last Reward first.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 makes up in manic energy what it lacks in elegance. Its mountain of ideas don’t always work, but the core of the game justifies its experiments.

Pistol Whip could be great. Until then, it's mighty good and arguably the year's best new VR action game. After all, 2019 has mostly been the year where people finally bought headsets and discovered 2018's killer games. For the VR faithful starving for something fresh, this is it.

A fun playthrough for longtime fans who have gotten bored of the mainline Pokémon games or a good entry point for fans of open-world RPGs who want to build their first Pokémon team.

There are bound to be some people who see TR-49 as akin to a homework simulator, with painful flashbacks to all-nighters spent desperately researching a last-minute college term paper. For anyone who knows the inherent appeal of diving deep into a previously unknown world, though, TR-49 is an engrossing work of world-building fiction presented in a truly memorable way.

The best kinds of games are the ones that hook you into that "just one more mission!" mental feedback loop, and Duskers hits that for me and hits it HARD.

Perhaps the most important thing about F1 2021 is that Codemasters has not messed with the actual mechanics of driving the cars, beyond tweaks necessary for the 2021-spec cars. With a good force-feedback wheel, the cars are engaging to drive, and you can feel subtleties in cars from different teams—a McLaren handles differently from an Alpine, a Red Bull, or a Mercedes. If you're a fan of the sport, you'll probably enjoy F1 2021.

One of the pleasant side effects of Invisibile, Inc.’s speed and pressure is that it’s easy to predict how long a campaign will take, how long a mission will take, and that you’ll get rewarded even if you fail. This means that, despite the pressure and difficulty, Invisible, Inc. is a surprisingly relaxing game. In the imagination, it’s big. In actuality, it’s small—now that’s a trick.

Despite a few quality-of-life tweaks, the package is otherwise faithful to the originals—almost to a fault—while its compatibility with modern PCs is mostly good enough.

It's not a perfect experience by any stretch. Technical hiccups and pacing issues are glaring enough to leave Grand Theft Auto V's open-world crown unmoved—but just barely. Watch Dogs 2 builds upon a pretty good foundation from the last game with most of the trappings you'll want from a zillions-of-hours open-world quest.

FIFA 16 is as good as FIFA has ever been, but that's exactly the problem. While it offers the same vast array of content, PES 16 has it beat where it matters most: on the pitch. Suffice to say, the series now has a lot of catching up to do.

Shadow stands as near the best version of what it sets out to be. Luddington's finale is a grand one, and well worth it for fans of the series. Even if it can't quite manage to keep all its balls in the air.

The overall effect is a good simulation of what it must feel like to have super-speed and recalls some of Quicksilver's memorable scenes in recent X-men movies. But there are a few clever design choices to prevent your superpower from becoming super-overpowering in a gunfight.

[Tekken 7] blows other PC fighting games away in terms of scalability. If you want to play some solid rounds of time-tested 3D fighting, you can now do so on pretty much any modern computer with even the slightest bit of gaming hardware—or you can just as easily crank it up on a mid-high machine and a 4K screen.

Buy it if you want to remember what beating a game into submission through pure skill feels like.

AC Valhalla gets just enough stuff right in its RPG-ized transition without blatantly copying fare like Dark Souls, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Witcher III, or Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Ubisoft's latest history-trotting murder-for-honor journey strikes a proper balance between "familiar sequel," "RPG homage," and "just fresh enough," while still being quite fun to play. In some respects, particularly its handling of side quests, it's actually better than Ghost of Tsushima, a similar 2020 game that I otherwise prefer. If you've got the time (quite a bit of time, in this game's 30+ hour case) to invest in the bloody, honor-bound journey of some cool Vikings, and the proper hardware for it, don't miss what AC Valhalla has to offer.

By mixing some of the best features of comics, video games, and animation, Florence tells a sweet and memorable tale that isn't belabored with a lot of fluff or busywork. In a gaming world full of immense, sprawling epics, we could use more inventive short stories like this.

If you've ever posted on a comment thread about the good ol' days of offline first-person shooters, this is a must-buy. For anyone else, this mostly polished FPS will likely confirm your Eurojank bias—whichever way that bias goes.

It's the best open-world adventure of the year. [Ars Technica Approved]

A collection like 3D All-Stars would have been a great chance to celebrate Mario's recent history. In-game extras like concept art, developer interviews, or even playable prototype areas could have given fans a new appreciation for games that many players probably feel have already been picked clean. And while the ability to play each game's soundtrack inside the game is nice, the included songs are not hard to find all over the Internet. It might seem petty to ask more from a $60 package than to collect some of the greatest 3D platforming games ever created. At the same time, games this great deserve more respect and attention than the slapdash collection Nintendo has put together here.

This is a frame-perfect game of twitchy reactions, which is hard to recreate online, but if you don't have a couch playmate, you just have to settle on Pyre's brilliantly drawn and wonderfully told interactive story. Not a bad consolation prize.

An expertly crafted, improvisational playspace for stealth mayhem. Buy it.

Try it if you want all the Metal Gear ridiculousness and overwrought drama with none of the stealth-action thrills.

MK11 is a mixed package. The presentation is great, but the animations can get a bit tiring, and the over-the-top violence can get numbing. The gameplay is really solid, but the grind to get the cosmetics and upgrades feels even more tiring and numbing. Hopefully the grindy parts are adjusted, and the long animations aren't a deal breaker, just an annoyance.

Knockout City is a blast for tried-and-true online combat fans, thanks to its mix of instantly intriguing and powerful abilities and rock-paper-dodgeball strategy pivots. It's also an incredibly easy recommendation for kids and families, since it finally cracked the nut of an "online shooter" that offers the fun of a gun game without in any way resembling gunplay. Its cartoony aesthetic has grown on me, too, thanks to an art team that has balanced simple geometry with bold, enticing designs in a very Nintendo-like way. Assuming EA doesn't screw this up in the months to come, expect Knockout City to land on my list of 2021's best games of the year. [Ars Technica Approved]