Tropico 6 is the realization of what I’ve wanted from this series for years now.

Like a Pop-Up Book, Crafted World is creative and fun, but only paper-thin.

It’s still a FromSoft game, and it feels like one, from the familiar fonts and dialogue to fast-travel options and epic boss fights, but it’s both fresh and familiar, and still as challenging and mysterious as its predecessors.

If you find this game’s story distasteful, especially considering the modern American political climate of misused government overreach, I really can’t blame you. Everything is political, it’s just that many don’t realize that things like the status quo or basic power fantasies fall into that category whether they like it or not.

Fate/Extella Link improves upon Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star in nearly every way, even if it still struggles in many areas.

RollerCoaster Tycoon Joyride is a game that fails in delivering anything that remotely resembles what made the series good in the first place, instead, players are left with a hollow husk of a game that feels unfinished and rushed.

Baba is You is a delightful puzzle game filled with absurd solutions and situations, asking players to discard what they think they know about games to solve them.

One Piece: World Seeker, apart from a select few elements, is tedious. The basic gameplay loop has nothing special going for it, and none of the elements that make One Piece special do anything other than highlight just how bland the game is as a whole. One Piece at its best is full of joy, surprises, and most of all, a sense of adventure, all of which are sorely lacking here. Trust me when I say that even the most die-hard One Piece fans should look elsewhere.

Claybook provides a soothing sandbox experience that is only hampered by the lack of variety in premade levels currently on offer by the community.

In concept, Left Alive could have had the potential to bring about the revival of Front Mission and fill the void left by the absence of Metal Gear at the same time, but none of its elements click to become a cohesive whole.

Devil May Cry 5’s risk-averse approach grounds it as other games in the genre are reaching for the sky.

Stellaris: Console Edition has a long way to go to catch up to the PC version, but its intuitive controls make it a compelling strategy game on consoles nonetheless.

Dead or Alive 6’s buried and yet still aggressive fanservice will no doubt alienate potential newcomers and at the same time, its lack of content will frustrate returning players.

Trials Rising, another excellent racing platformer hybrid, is bogged down slightly by an ugly loot box economy and an unnecessary leveling system.

ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove just feels like more of the original game sprinkled with some modern-day trimmings (rogue-lite progression, for example) that feel like an afterthought.

RemiLore gets the mechanics for a fun dungeon crawler down, but does little to hold a player’s attention.

Deceptively simple and undoubtedly original, Ape Out’s fast and frantic jazz infused gameplay never loses sight of what videogames are really all about: having fun.

Bannermen feels half baked and underfunded. It takes ideas from classics, but you’re really better off playing those again.

Die-hard Atari fans probably already have the third volume of this compilation but for everyone else, they’re probably better off sticking to some of the earlier releases, which feature more familiar titles for the less initiated or casual player.

Death’s End re;Quest has an interesting story to tell, but sometimes struggles with the ways it tries to tell it.

With impeccable world-building and compelling exploration, Sunless Skies is a haunting journey that is worth traversing time and time again.

Despite its myriad of issues, I still enjoyed the fun gameplay of Anthem and plan to revisit the game after it has developed a larger suite of content and events for me to experience.

New Dawn’s post-apocalyptic landscape makes for a more focused version of the Far Cry package, which is great if you just want to kill time capturing outposts and hunting animals.

If you liked the original Crackdown and want basically more of that, then you’ve found your game. If you want a modern first party AAA game, look elsewhere.

Jump Force fails to hit the mark with a total lack of care in terms of everything outside of its decent fighting mechanics.

I have some issues with Metro: Exodus. The larger story is completely off the wall ludicrous and makes everything that came before feel completely invalid. If I had been forced to live in a hole for 20 years, fight monsters and Nazis, and I was all a lie, I’m certainly not letting the people lying about it on my freedom train, much less call any shots. The smaller, more personal stories, however, often hit a little closer to home, and make life just a bit more interesting.

With a level of polish unseen in the genre, Apex Legends is the best battle royale ever made.

Civilization VI: Gathering Storm makes Civilization VI feel complete, thanks mostly to the great new civs and small quality of life improvements.