The Vanishing of Ethan Carter may not be a long journey, but the breathtaking visuals and atmosphere are enough to captivate most anybody on their way to solving a number of mysteries that all play a part in the overall story.

Assassin's Creed: Syndicate is about what we've come to expect from annual franchise. Ubisoft Quebec has built a beautiful new world to explore but relies on many of the same ideas from previous games to keep players interested.

Yacht Club Games has delivered once again in the latest expansion for Shovel Knight thanks to exciting gameplay and level design that proves Shovel Knight: King of Cards was well worth the wait.

While game mode improvements are definitely minimal this year, the new gameplay mechanics definitely tip the scale towards making NHL 20 one that you probably will not want to skip.

A fun adventure with an emotional narrative, interesting characters and relationships.

If you're looking to fall in love with a platformer that wears its heart on its sleeve, you'll be happy to know that these titles still do hold up tremendously well, even if they may not feel as polished as some newer games in the genre. If you're willing to deal with some frustrations from dated design, you may find yourself head over heels for this loveable Dream Warrior, no questions asked.

Splatoon 3 makes many fantastic improvements and changes to the games before it. These minor additions will surely go a long way in retaining a large number of players, even if most of the brand-new content feels somewhat lacking. Splatoon 3 is the best game to start with for newcomers to the franchise. It might be tougher to convince die-hard fans of its merit, but future updates and changes will likely sway their opinions as well.

The collection is a faithful representation of the arcade classics with a rich and deep museum to fill your brain with enough Street Fighter lore and history to last you for years.

Destiny 2 Lightfall successfully expands upon and upgrades an already fantastic game. With Neomuna, Strand, and the numerous quality of life additions, the only big area Lightfall falters is the story. And while Lightfall's missions are really fun and well-designed, writing excluded, the overall story's biggest problems are its lack of exposition and the fact that it's just the wrong story.

As a conclusion to Remnant: From the Ashes narrative, Subject 2923 is mediocre, but more than makes up for this fault by introducing a wealth of lore for purists, a solid new biome with a fantastic variety of secrets to discover, and exceptional new boss battles. The story may not be the greatest, yet Subject 2923 manages to conclude Remnant with a bang, not a whimper.

Minecraft: Story Mode Episode 3 pulls off a fantastic turnaround for a series that was looking rather lackluster. Issues still persist, and Telltale will have to capitalize on what works well here while moving beyond the things that didn't, but overall it is a massive improvement over what we saw in the first two episodes.

Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak is a fantastic expansion to the original Monster Hunter Rise. It lacks some of the robustness of previous franchise expansions on launch, and there can be some frustrating moments found within. However, this is more than made up for by new abilities, extra quality-of-life features, and increased challenge. Sunbreak is a fantastic choice for new players wanting more variety or veteran hunters seeking tougher battles.

While it may not return to the heights of The Thousand-Year Door, Paper Mario: The Origami King is by far the best entry in the series in over a decade and gives us hope for the future of the series for the first time in awhile.

If you like the building, crafting, and collecting aspects of something like Minecraft, but wanted a little more structure, Dragon Quest Builders 2 is an easy recommendation whether you're a Dragon Quest fan or not.

PlayStation VR is all about immersion and EVE: Valkyrie does a fantastic job at handling this, and even with the presence of microtransactions, EVE: Valkyrie is still one of the best experiences thus far on PSVR.

As newcomers to the pixelated shooter genre, Roll7 has succeeded in producing a fun, challenging, and gory experience with Not a Hero.

It's been a long wait, but Aloy's new adventure into The Frozen Wilds is every bit as fulfilling as the main game.

Capcom's partnership with Disney back in the 8-bit era led to some really fantastic games, six of which have been brought back via The Disney Afternoon Collection. On top of making these often difficult games more accessible with a rewind feature, also having competitive game options like Time Attack and Boss Rush make The Disney Afternoon Collection a worthwhile trip back to the past.

Octopath Traveler may not be the perfect JRPG revival that many had hoped for, but this PC port takes what worked before and makes it just a touch better.

While not as innovative as it once was in the current gaming landscape, Payday 2: Crimewave Edition is the definitive Payday experience on consoles that will provide hours of multiplayer fun.

Even with no new content outside of a few downloadable characters and costumes, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 Road to Boruto is still the best that the franchise has to offer gaming wise and performs with very few hiccups in its latest release on the Nintendo Switch.

Rising Storm 2: Vietnam hits a sweet spot between realism, fun, and required teamwork that few games do.

Persona 5 Tactica is an excellent addition to the popular franchise, bringing a heartfelt story and an addicting tactical-based combat loop. The ending part overstays it’s welcome and becomes fairly repetitive, but that can be overlooked for all the positives the game brings to the table.

Mega Man 11 offers a successfully modernized take on the classic Mega Man experience and should please fans both old and new.

Ultimately, Codemasters plays it safe with GRID, for better and worse. There's certainly a lack of features, less modes, and a lesser number of cars and tracks than other contemporary racers. This is a no-frills arcade racer, but a very good one. If solid racing action is the only thing you care about, GRID has it in spades.

While the West may have been skipped over for much of the last decade with Digimon games, fans can rejoice over Bandai Namco's choice to localize Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, as they will find plenty of reasons to love this game with its nearly 250 different Digimon available.

A surprisingly well put together open-world survival game with a lot of moving parts, all of which add up to something pretty fun to play. It’s not going to blow your mind in terms of story, and the mission structure of the campaign is certainly familiar, but Dying Light has cohesion between its parts that make it enjoyable.

The action is tight, the dialogue is engaging, and the characters are all fantastically acted and scripted. Fans of Batman and/or Telltale will be very pleased with the direction that this series is going. However, technical problems still create headaches, though they might be lesser for some players depending on the system they play on and the setup they have.