In great news, everything you do in the game looks tremendous thanks to MachineGames' use of the idTech6 engine, which is an upgrade from the last game's idTech5. I tested the entire game on a souped-up PC and had the game cranking at max settings in 4K with zero hitches in frame rate or responsiveness, and this was in spite of the game throwing up all matter of gorgeous particle, shadow, and lighting effects.

If you have a Switch, get this game. If you don't have a Switch, get one, then get this game.

I'm so delighted that the years of wait for Engare, after teases at events like GDC, turned out to feel absolutely magical and unique in the gaming realm.

Gran Turismo Sport might not be the world’s most accurate driving simulation, but it’s fun—a lot of fun, particularly with a steering wheel. And refreshingly, it doesn't try to make you open your wallet to unlock anything.

The Evil Within 2 is a mechanical step up from the first game in nearly every way, even if the narrative is just as disposable as ever. Buy it if that balance doesn't bother you.

There's $60 of content here, undoubtedly, but I'd happily pay Ubisoft for a slimmed-down non-interactive version with the unfunny game portions trimmed out. I loved how well Obsidian nailed the balancing act of "make it funny and make it interesting to play" last time. Ubisoft deserves credit for trying something new but not for how badly they stumbled.

ECHO doesn’t bill itself as a horror game, but it still takes that genre’s explicit fear of death and stretches it well past a single checkpoint.

Total War: Warhammer 2 shakes up the wonderful strategy of its predecessor with new factions and locales. Although the DLC X-factor could shake up the campaigns even further. Buy it.

Like so many classics of the 8-bit era before it, Cuphead extends its length via a brutal difficulty that will require hundreds of cumulative deaths for all but the preternaturally gifted.

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.

Ruiner has a lot in common with other top-down action games but blends bits of all of them into a uniquely demanding, satisfying shooter.

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.

Dishonored: Death of the Outsider frees itself from the franchise's usual restrictions, while putting its usual tools to satisfying use. Buy it.

Enjoy this with a willing friend (or three) if you like the idea of RTS games but suck at them. Jump right into online matchmaking if you're a pro. Test it out if you're RTS-shy.

War of the Chosen is the definitive way to play XCOM 2. Even if you weren't impressed with the original package, this feels like a whole new game.

Before the Storm is at its best when it focuses on the untold elements of Life Is Strange. So far, those moments capture the spirit of the original, but I’m anxious to see if it can hold up as the timelines converge.

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.

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.

As to whether or not the game is worth your money, for the F1 fan, I have few qualms recommending it. The game will keep such gamers busy for weeks with both Career and Championship modes. In fact, just the addition of the classic cars to the game is probably reason enough for someone to pick up a copy. For the gamer who's not quite as passionate about Formula 1 or racing in general, it might be worth trying out before coughing up your hard-earned cash. But even then, I think you'll find it engaging.

Absolver trades in tutorials for mystique, but if you think you can climb the learning curve, you should try it.

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.

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.

Agents of Mayhem has spirit, but not as much as its Saints Row predecessors and not enough to completely outshine the paint-by-numbers design.

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.

Sonic Mania comes packed with enough delicious, best-in-series goodness for any self-proclaimed Sonic fan to buy it immediately, with the caveat of a few bugs in the near term. Lesser series fans should tread carefully between those bugs and the pacing issues mentioned above.

The classic game runs efficiently on lower-specced machines, owing to its low-poly aesthetic, while the game's newer "Area X" zone will run fine at 1080p with some settings turned down on weaker systems. Should you have CPU and GPU overhead to work with, you can turn on updated 4K-friendly textures (yes, this game has some), full-blast anti-aliasing, and some serious super-sampling. As in, up to 250 percent. In the original game, I cranked this all the way up to a 9,600 x 5,400 resolution without a single stutter on my 1080 Ti rig!

This is my favorite quick-burst, brain-busting puzzle game in years.

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.