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.

It may not surpass Dark Souls as my favorite game in the series, but Bloodborne is still a wonderful way to usher the franchise onto a new generation of consoles, for new and old players alike. Buy It.

If you like flying in space (especially with complicated HOTAS rigs) and you're a fan of the original 1984 Elite, this is an insta-buy. If you've never played an Elite game but you love the genre—like, if your game shelf has a bunch of Wing Commander and Freespace and Lucasarts' X-Wing and TIE Fighter boxes on it—then you should definitely give this game a shot. If you're in the market for a game that's mostly EVE but from a cockpit perspective,wait for EVE: Valkyrie instead.

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.

Ultimately, there's more meat on the second act's puzzle bones, especially due to a memorable final-blast puzzle, and while the game's ending was more of a whimper than a bang—and it included some cockamamie ways to tie up the plot's loose ends—I appreciated the restraint on the writers' part to not force melodrama or melancholy on what eventually transpired.

While The Old Blood does manage to achieve greatness, it doesn’t quite have the scope to do so consistently enough.

If the thought of having a steering wheel in your living room isn’t one you’d ever entertain, Project CARS probably isn’t the game for you. But if you’re the kind of person who keeps their shopping cart on the racing line at grocery time, you’re in for a treat.

If you're curious about the plot, and the technical issues haven't scared you off, it's probably worth giving Toren its $10, 90-minute shot.

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.

There is absolutely fun to be had in a good Splatoon battle, but the catch here is the future tense. Splatoon reveals more than a few signs of immaturity in the online gaming space, but its worse offense sees Nintendo catching up, unfortunately, with another big gaming trend of late. This is yet another retail launch of an unfinished game. The version of Splatoon we'd like to play—different from the one people are about to spend $60 on—evidently hasn't been made yet.

It's an absurd value proposition for a game where every moment seems hand-crafted. It's not flawless, but the game's few faults won't diminish the growing return on your investment. Buy it and set aside some time.

Massive Chalice doesn't surpass XCOM: Enemy Unknown as the tactical strategy RPG of note, but it does offer a bit of the same satisfaction with a great deal less frustration. Try it.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Spend this game's five-hour runtime catching up on a better story game you might have missed.

Try it if you’re OK breezing through the stealth-action gameplay while enjoying a competent story.

People expect their sequels to be bigger, better, and more complex than what has come before, while also demanding they stay true to what they know and love. Metal Gear Solid V is one of those rare occasions where a game threads the needle between those two somewhat contradictory expectations, to great effect.

Until Dawn is entertaining in all the ways it needs to be, even if it isn’t perfect in all the ways I’d like it to be. Try it, or wait for a discount.

If you have any fond memories of 2D Mario games, you owe it to yourself to examine their construction first-hand; and you'll have a great time doing so, too. Buy it.

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

The game's wet race simulations are exceedingly convincing, and I write that as someone who has driven in a lot of wet races and who enjoys racing in the rain. The selection of cars is eclectic, and they look gorgeous, particularly in ForzaVista mode, as do the tracks, both new and revamped. If you like cars or racing games and you own an Xbox One, you should buy this game.

Despite its presentational flaws, PES 16’s skilled mechanics make it an instant classic, showing that sports games are at their best when the fundamentals are respected and imitated as a priority.

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.

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

Potential meta-joking aside, The Beginner's Guide plays out like a diary, wholly and shamelessly. While there's an argument to be had over whether or not a straight-up diary counts as art worth celebrating, a video game trying to do the same thing, without meaningful interactive options or epiphanies, and without giving us as players the space to come to our own conclusions, doesn't respect the viewer or create interesting opportunities for either empathy or outrage.