In the end, the London of Watch Dogs: Legion feels a mile wide but only a few feet deep. What promises to be endless variety in character choice and hack-driven gameplay options quickly boils down to the repetition of the same old gameplay and plot tropes.

If Nintendo gets around to unlocking a true multiplayer mode or opening the game up to battles larger than on 8x6 grids, I could see myself sticking around. For now, I'm glad there's enough good gameplay to occupy me for at least a day without spending a single dime. The entire presentation—slick battle animations, beautiful full-screen character art, polished music, a full suite of appropriately cheery Fire Emblem voice actors, simple tap-to-battle controls—helped me enjoy what I've quested through thus far.

The larger issue, arguably, is the lack of online multiplayer. Unlike Streets of Rage 4, Battletoads is offline-only, so if your ideal playmate can't get to your couch as of late, I'd recommend other superior beat-'em-up options. Should you have a good two- or three-person posse on your couch, and you already pay for Xbox Game Pass, expect a funny, brief, 10-and-older cartoon romp. But Dlala has implemented just enough obnoxious stuff between Battletoads' good bits to stop me, a pretty freakish Battletoads fan, from recommending that anyone buy it outright.

Metal Gear Solid Online is designed well enough that you can eke a little fun out of it, but be prepared to test your patience for the trauma that accompanies trying to find a stable online session.

Steep wants to impart a sense of freedom, but it lacks the courage to offer true openness and underwhelms as a result.

The PlayStation VR version has problems from top to bottom. Don't even bother.

If you're hungry for a new weekend-filling zombie adventure on PS4, Days Gone is an easy rental recommendation. If you're already working your way through a big-game backlog, on the other hand, you should probably spend your days on other fare. [Impressions]

Battlefield: Hardline offers a couple of tweaks and modes worth checking out for the die-hard series fans, but I wouldn't bet on its lasting appeal after the inevitable release of a full Battlefield 5.

PSVR owners should try this partially great FPS adventure, but Farpoint alone shouldn't prompt a PSVR purchase. Skip the Aim Controller.

This is one of the most intriguing "two-screen" games we've ever played, and while its potential to grow stale is worth exploring, that worry is easily eclipsed by the game's accessibility, flexibility, and party-friendly nature.

I'm a sucker for a game that teaches with transparent, easy-to-understand difficulty spikes, and Loot Rascals has plenty of those. I know why I'm dying. I have played enough to know that avoiding certain encounters and taking advantage of useful systems like warping back to home base, will keep me moving. In that sense, it's like someone took the concepts powering Spelunky—another brutally hard, randomly generated, permadeath romp—and completely flipped how and why you play it.

So long as you appreciate how much better VR can be, and that Nintendo has been soundly trounced in the good-VR-design department by the likes of Astro Bot, Tetris Effect, TiltBrush, Vacation Simulator, Superhot VR, Moss, SuperHyperCube, Space Pirate Trainer, and on and on and on... then, sure, give Labo VR a whirl. Just don't say I didn't warn ya.

Its voxel-based, procedurally generated engine is an incredible template for more systems, content, and performance tweaks. Until then, the game's title is true: this isn't yet a sky any man (or woman) should bother claiming.

A must-rent if you own a Switch. A possible buy if shamelessly silly arcade-racing fun sounds up your alley.

Visually stunning but wholly underwhelming, Tokyo 42 fails to capitalise on its inventive premise.

Where LEGO games run out of steam pretty quickly (even unlocking new hidden characters doesn't really change your tactics), Minecraft Dungeons does a wonderful job incentivizing experimentation without making it difficult to figure out. Get new item. Equip new item. See how new item makes you stronger, more explosive, or just plain weirder. Kill mobs. Repeat. [Ars Technica Approved]

The result is a Ghost Recon game that doesn’t really feel like a Ghost Recon game and an online game that doesn’t seem like it has the legs to carry most players through to its finale. Wildlands has all of the beauty and splendour of any big-budget open world—its rendition of Bolivia might be the greatest space that Ubisoft has created since Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood’s artistic replication of Rome—but it’s sparse in variety and slipshod in execution. An abundance of bugs, terrible writing, and repetition do their best to mar what is a solid, occasionally laughter-filled co-op shooter experience.

A bundle of great ideas and characters, shackled by some abysmal mechanics.

Buy it if you have an ideal co-op partner, want a simpler co-op alternative to MMO-like shooters, or just really, really like newer Wolfenstein games. Otherwise, proceed with caution.

This breakout horror game stumbles occasionally, but it still stands tall as a thrilling survival-horror experience. Buy it.

But by the time I got done with Star Fox Zero’s incredibly annoying final boss, roughly five hours after I first started the game, I found myself not all that eager to replay any of its levels a second time (though I did, for the sake of completeness). Instead, what I really felt the urge to do was replay Star Fox 64, which captured all the good parts of Star Fox Zero 20 years ago without any of the chaff that constantly gets in the way.

While the game does eventually die to repetitive cuts, it’s a slow death. The game’s charm, visuals, and novelty hold up for a quite solid few hours of fun, and the premise isn’t completely wasted. But it’s also not utilized to its fullest potential. Maybe an expansion or two can bring this one back from extinction down the line.

There are plenty of better games to spend your time and money on right now. If you absolutely, specifically need an inoffensive couch co-op brawler right now, try it.

The other, bigger problem with Sea of Thieves’ player-vs-player combat is more damning of the game in general: what’s the point? The islands are devoid of anything to discover, the quests are tremendously tedious, there’s no story to speak of, and it’s all in service of cosmetics that aren’t nearly as interesting as some of their item descriptions imply. The Lowly Souls Tankard says it’ll make you drinking buddies with spirits, but really it’s just... purple.

Mad Max doesn't play well with its intended audiences, or as a video game. Skip it.

Try it if you have found modern platforming games to be too "soft."

Yooka-Laylee stays true to its '90s platformer roots, even to its detriment. But there are just enough modern touches and excellent platforming to make it more than just another nostalgia play.

If it wasn't clear by now, Battlefield 2042 is a mess in more ways than should be reasonably expected, with the laundry list above barely scratching the surface of its wreckage (I didn't even mention lag, persistent server issues, no game search, or countless other concerns). But for all the failures, missing elements, and bizarre revisions, the most telling thing I can say about it is also one of the simplest: I rarely wanted to keep playing.