It still boasts some great artwork and dramatic story beats while serving up a few interesting surprises, even if lacking in the action department.

The Great Perhaps does not offer anything that we haven’t seen before in its gameplay, but there is an understated beauty in its presentation that I found haunting (literally … you’ll see). The trial-and-error nature of some of its puzzles may cause you to reach for a bottle of Vodka in frustration, but its world has a certain sad and subdued charm that will, in both past and present, motivate you to keep trudging along in order to save it.

With customizable shows, an extensive list of unlockables and a massive roster of both current and classic WWE Superstars, WWE 2K17 sets out to establish itself as a simulation title and succeeds.

I think that whether you enjoy Sable will very much depend on your mood and expectations. Some gamers will appreciate it for the chill, Zen-like, conflict-and-combat-free, emotionally resonant story that it absolutely is. Other gamers may grow impatient with its lack of real incident, and weary of the pace and absence of challenge. I tend to land in the latter camp. Sable is a beautiful game, but it needs to rev up the dramatic engine or raise the stakes for the player to keep fidgety gamers like me engaged.

It really is a jack of all trades, but master of none.

Enotria: The Last Song’s delightful setting, theatre-infused narrative, and mechanical depth help it stand out from the very crowded Soulslike landscape. On the flip side, that depth translates to sometimes poorly explained, unnecessary-feeling complications. Strip all that away, and Enotria: The Last Song is still an enjoyable action RPG that should appeal to almost every fan of the genre.

SnowRunner brought out the kid in me when completing contracts. It reminded me of playing with Tonka trucks in the sandbox, but instead of sand, it’s snow and instead of Tonka, it’s real-world branded trucks and heavy machinery. While the realism kept me thinking like an adult, the mud running familiar to the series and newly introduced ice and snow mechanics make building bridges and fixing roads feel more interesting than other games. I enjoyed many aspects of SnowRunner and see the improvements that Saber Interactive has made with the new entry into the series. After tackling mud and snow, it’ll be interesting to see where the next title treads. It feels like they took a big step from MudRunner to SnowRunner and if the next step is just as big or bigger, it may be the perfect vehicular simulation game.

This is a great pinball collection but in its current state, it comes with a BIG caveat. The game crashes. A lot. It seems to be related to the online connectivity portions of the game. Before the game and servers went live, the online portions did not crash. Now it crashes every time you try to access the leaderboards. In its current state, I do not recommend picking this collection up. Keep a tab on the game and wait till you hear these issues have been addressed. Once they have, this is a for sure pickup.

Setting aside its sometimes sluggish combat controls and a few frustrating mechanics, there’s a lot to enjoy about The Lonesome Guild. With beautiful art and a much-appreciated theme centering on connection and communication, The Lonesome Guild should appeal to fans of puzzle-heavy action RPGs looking for narrative depth.

South of Midnight pares a refreshingly different narrative and setting with artistic visuals that bring to life folklore from the American Deep South. It’s captivating, and there’s almost nothing like it. Unfortunately, South of Midnight is saddled with frustrating, unpolished combat and action sequences that become repetitive long before the game’s midpoint. Even with its glaring faults, South of Midnight is mostly worth playing just for the orc-free story and uniquely American characters.

Although this isn’t the most thrilling episode so far, it seems like all of the conversations and emotional moments will act as a bridge between the first couple of episodes and the last two. While the excitement is rather lacking in the majority of this episode, Telltales gives us a more believable story overall, especially where all of the characters are concerned.

In the end, I appreciated that The Wild at Heart leans into being an actual game rather than simply a thinly disguised exploration of childhood trauma. Together with inviting art direction that suggests an animated storybook and a story that supports layers of meaning, The Wild at Heart was a pleasant discovery. The game’s combat and puzzles aren’t entirely consistent or satisfying, and moment to moment the experience can feel a little aimless, but fans of accessible puzzle and action games with heart and some emotional depth should check it out.

The platforming and level design in Wavetale is fantastic. You can easily fly up buildings in style due to the responsive controls. Even though the objectives are similar throughout, the areas are well-designed to make each island refreshing. While you can overlook the lackluster and rigid combat, the performance issues are harder to ignore. Screen tearing and pop-ins are frequent and hinder the experience. However, fans of games like Solar Ash and The Pathless will still enjoy the game.

NASCAR fans should eat this one up but it might be a little too much for the casual racer. If you are up for a challenge and are willing to spend the time to dig deep into what the Career mode has to offer, Inside Line is an enjoyable experience.

I would have expected more of the first batch of missions which are also, unsurprisingly, the most fun and best written.

Although some mechanical elements suggest other games, Under the Waves uses deep sea exploration for its twin themes of personal grief and environmental exploitation in a unique way. There’s a lack of technical refinement here and there, and the messaging gets heavy-handed at times. Under the Waves is actually about something which puts it ahead of many other games in the survival crafting genre.

Shadow Warrior 3 is a real study in contrasts. There are times when its environments and cutscenes are triple-A game adjacent. Its combat is fast, furious, and fun. On the other hand, there’s not much story to tell, and that engaging combat gets frustrating and numbingly repetitive. Shadow Warrior 3 embraces much of what we remember about early shooters, with a lot more visual panache and polish. By the end, though, we’re desperate for the kind of variety and sophistication that later shooters brought to the genre.

Being able to switch back and forth on the fly from classic first-person action to a top-down third-person perspective made for a decent and varied mobile CoD experience.

Ittle Dew 2+ is a perfect fit for the portable Switch, and a supplement if you’ve been missing a top-down Zelda title on it. It has its own brand of humor and is chock-full of creativity with its visuals, dialogue, and puzzles, but can be found lacking with regard to its repetitive, unrewarding combat.

The scary bits aren’t scary and the story goes flat almost out of nowhere, leaving for an experience that is very stunted.

Darksburg is an exciting, dark roguelite with tons of replayability. The cast of playable characters is diverse in their play styles and these are only enhanced with Team Experience power ups and the Curios. The setting is beautiful and lush – far more than I expected out of a procedurally generated experience. The AI companions are good enough to keep you alive but the game really shines in Co-Op with other players. I would love to see controller support or a dodge roll to make managing the horde a little more balanced, but all in all it’s the kind of experience meant for friends diving into dungeons and just having a great time.

With its more focused campaign less burdened by irrelevancy, The Siege of Paris is a leaner, tighter and brisker expansion than Wrath of the Druids or much of the main story. The new/old Infiltration mechanic is a welcome changeup from the usual routine of explore and battle, but maybe not enough to entirely wipe away the feeling that the Siege of Paris is sticking a little too close to the template. What it lacks in creativity, bold new mechanics and mission structures, The Siege of Paris delivers in art direction, atmosphere and story. Though I personally enjoyed the visit to Ireland a little more, Eivor’s trip to Francia is by no means lacking in quality. For better or worse, it’s just more of the same.

In one sense, spending hours mowing virtual lawns in a game could be considered a ridiculous waste of time. But aside from being a satisfying management sim, the act of mowing lawns in Lawn Mowing Simulator can be surprisingly relaxing and maybe even a little inspiring. This isn’t a lawn mowing version of Formula One, where you play a plucky kid with a push mower dreaming of glory on a shiny, souped- up John Deere. But it’s also much more than a one-joke game. Lawn Mowing Simulation is a full-featured product with a very specific focus, and a pretty well-made one, at that.

There’s a lot to like here if you’re the right kind of person. The combat is tight and precise, there’s a ton of variety, and the challenge is mighty stiff. At the same time, Nioh 2 is mechanical on a level that’s a few layers too deep. I see what the goal was – differentiation – but it overcomplicates things where it doesn’t need to. Souls die hards: buckle up and get in there. Souls haters: you’ll hate this too. If you’re somewhere in the middle, give it a go, but beware you might end up like me: appreciating Nioh 2’s craft, but not actually enjoying it.

There is a healthy number of tracks that will take hours to master, cool Gravs and parts to unlock, and it’s a joy to look at and listen to while you do it. But with a little polish and workshopping, Antigraviator could have gone from really good, to really great.

Ironcast isn’t for everyone as it’s geared towards the more hardcore strategy gamer but if you like a challenge and have a low frustration tolerance, Ironcast could be for you.

Fabledom has deeper mechanics than maybe its storybook look suggests, and the folding-in of fairytale fantasy is winning. While both the fairytale and romance elements are unique twists, the core mechanics are pretty standard. Fans of the genre will feel right at home. I wouldn’t call Fabledom uninspired, but whatever it lacks in ambition it makes up in charm and familiar fun.

Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus is a good game, once you take some time to learn strategy and tactics. The upgrades to your Priests also help a lot in the middle to late game, so although it starts out tough things get better over time. I just wish their were more variety to gameplay and enemies, and I was disappointed that exploration seemed to almost be discouraged by the unfair RNG-generated outcomes of choices. The great writing and characters will appeal to any player, but I think you’d need to be a Warhammer fan to love the dull, grim visuals. Check this one out if you’re looking for a change from XCOM.