Hindsight struggles to find a place within traditional expectations of a video game, but aside from some finicky controls, it achieves what it sets out to do. It’s up to you to decide if that journey sounds like a worthwhile endeavor.

Although true horror or explicit gore is nowhere to be found, Reveil’s gameplay is filled with tension, mystery, and some genuine surprises. Its many puzzles are fairly well integrated into the narrative and rarely too frustrating or illogical. Part walking simulator, part puzzle game, and part mind-bending mystery, Reveil is a genre-bender that packs a lot of story and memorable creepiness into its modest length.

If you think DLC should offer a literal game-changing experience or massive amount of new content, Wicked Isle will disappoint you. In all ways, it is of a piece with the main game. It expands the world with a relatively large new zone. It deepens or adds a new wrinkle to the base game’s lore. There are some new weapons, a handful of new enemy types and a small cast of new NPCs. If you love Atomfall’s world, fiction and mechanics, Wicked Isle is more of that, and included with the Deluxe Edition. If you were on the fence about Atomfall, Wicked Isle isn’t going to turn you into a fervent believer. Wicked Isle doesn’t do anything to hurt the main Atomfall experience, but it doesn’t do much to change or improve it, either.

Star Overdrive is a gorgeous and ambitious indie third-person adventure game. It has lofty dreams of being Breath of the Wild with SSX-style hoverboard traversal. The exploration and board riding feel great. I loved the gameplay loop of travelling to new areas and gaining powers from dungeons. But the combat is way too simple, and obviously masked by a way too forgiving difficulty. A lot of the RPG mechanics are light and work well, but the hoverboard crafting system is an unexpected, overly complicated mess. There are a lot of interesting ideas in Star Overdrive. Even though they’re not all well-executed, I urge anyone curious to give it a try.

While the game's visuals, witty dialogue and chainsaw welding combat are certainly entertaining, the game is just a tad too thin on features for me to recommend it, especially with the lack of any cooperative play. On top of it all, the wonky camera issues, and other combat related issues I experienced pull the entire experience down a few notches.

It’s wacky, balls to the wall approach to open-world crime games is still in a league of its own, but you could just as easily grab the game on a platform where it runs significantly better than it does on this platform.

It's hard not to admire developer Ebb's commitment to a bleak and violent biomechanical world. No game has ever nailed the style of Giger quite so precisely and consistently. Scorn is genuinely disturbing in the way of an unsettling nightmare, but even unrelenting tension eventually loses impact. Its puzzles and exploration sometimes feel arbitrary and needlessly obtuse. Ebb might not care if I waste time getting lost or missing important clues, but Scorn's rewards aren't always worth the effort. Scorn is a darkly beautiful vision but just not much fun to play.

Just like other yearly releases, Just Dance 2015 doesn’t reinvent the wheel but instead take the safe route with the “if it ain’t broke, then don’t fix” approach. We get a new slate of songs and a few new features but at its core Just Dance 2015 remains the same.

Ghost Recon Wildlands is a game that is hurt by its own ambition. Its blend of genres results in a game that tries to do everything, yet excels at nothing. The sheer scope of the world makes it impossible to be filled with interesting details, and Ubisoft manages to make the entire country of Bolivia feel boring. Nothing fits together as well as it should, and it all results in one very disappointing package.

Code Vein II is a deep, stylish, and highly accessible entry into the “Soulslike” genre that prioritizes player empowerment over brutal punishment. While it lacks the technical polish of the titles that inspired it – most notably Elden Ring – it successfully carves out its own identity through an exceptional character creator, a unique time-traveling narrative, and a “Partner System” that provides a significant safety net for newcomers.

Arca’s Path is at once a flowery, majestic adventure that immerses you in the magic of its world and in the madness of its moments, while also presenting another side that consists of a mundane, empty trek through a dead world. And this juxtaposition can be seen in all areas of Arca’s Path, from its gameplay to its design and visual makeup. It is an adventure that can be sliced in halves of good and bad, and a game that I can only recommend to those who don’t mind sitting through one side to get to the other.

You’d think that a series wouldn’t have a ton of new tricks up its sleeves 15 years in, but Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires is a pleasant surprise. While the core gameplay might still be a deal breaker for some, the strategic offerings add a new layer of depth, and importance, to the battles. It’s still repetitive, but there is plenty to like here.

All in all, there’s enough happening in Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum Session! that can keep you entertained for a long time. If you’re looking for a challenge, you can try filling out all the Bingo cards, beating your own high scores, and playing with friends and strangers online. There are fun rewards and lots of familiar songs that make this game feel nostalgic yet new at the same time. While there was opportunity missed by not having the drum controller available here, Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum Session! is still enjoyable by itself.

From the moment I began my journey in New World I felt like, outside of the specific world and story, I had been here and done this many times before, in many other MMOs. That said, New World does those familiar things very competently. It looks great and controls well, either with mouse and keyboard, or the slightly less optimized controller. Survival mechanics and crafting are core elements and not side gigs, but luckily, they are engaging and layered with depth. New World rewards the player for just about everything, all the time, and there is always something to do, whether fighting, farming or exploring and questing. It’s accessible to solo players and embraces the PvP and coop communities with a great deal of content. All MMORPGs are major time commitments by definition, so whether New World can hold your attention long term is probably a function of your expectations, and whether you connect with what the game has to offer. New World probably won’t ever surprise you, but it won’t disappoint you either.

Graphically the fight scenes in Estival Versus are better; however, Shinovi Versus has a superior story line. The music just as always is extremely fun and upbeat and is certainly something I would just listen to on my own time.

Maybe there’s no healthy way to insulate yourself from heartbreak, but there’s still beauty in the retrospective. Maquette casts a rosy lens on a love story softened by time’s eventual passage. It’s an important lesson, that the sorrow of love lost can be soothed and sanded down by the steady movement of the clock. The story’s frequent puzzle breaks mean that you’re eased into the worst of it. You’re given a long runway before the inevitable climax, which might be a blessing in itself. Even if a reflective journey through a complex relationship doesn’t appeal to you, the intricate world and it’s fascinating puzzles will surely have you hooked.

Although Mosaic’s gameplay is simple and the play length short, it boasts a powerful story with many unique elements you won’t find anywhere else.

While Mother Russia Bleeds is a competent brawler with a nice variety of punishment to extoll, it clings a little too tightly to old school mechanics and ideas about gameplay and narrative. The slick presentation is nice to look at, though, so you could do much worse for an afternoon on the couch with your buddies.

UFC is not as refined as an experience it could be and compared to other sports franchises it lacks in the depth department; however, there is no question EA Sports UFC game is fun to play and overall is a satisfying fighter.

I didn’t really have any expectations on Beat Cop when I first played it on PC back in 2017. Even two years later now on the Nintendo Switch it manages a quite pleasant surprise playing it. The story is quite addicting and I’m always eager to see what is next or even replay to see what else could have happened. Beat Cop is a pretty decent length as well and should clock in for most somewhere between seven and ten hours. The non-linear story, along with the multiple endings, means there is a good amount of replayability as well. All in all, this is a great homage to 1980’s cop shows that shouldn’t be missed.

Card battle games offer endless replayability, with little chance of things getting stale because the combinations of cards in a particular situation are unpredictable. Knights in Tight Places has solid and very enjoyable core systems and mechanics. The combat is fun and the new art style helps sell the new setting. The story was perfunctory but it got the action where it needed to go. If card battle games are your go-to genre, you’ll enjoy Knights in Tight Spaces. If you’ve never played this kind of game, it’s an easy one to start with, welcoming to new players and very satisfying to veterans.

Although more traditional than previous games in the series, Anomaly Defenders provides a flexible and entertaining strategy-light experience. It looks great, provides multiple options for players and play styles, and is challenging enough to require forethought and adaptation.

Darkestville Castle is a nostalgic game for sure. But play at your own risk as rose-colored glasses are not included.

Remember Me offers nothing new as far as gameplay goes but it has an interesting concept that parallels many of the things happening now in our technologically obsessed social media culture.

Although the narrative was lacking and required some knowledge of the French Revolution in order for players to be fully immersed in the game, Banner of the Maid presented such a thoughtful strategy RPG that I looked forward to every single battle. The characters and visuals were excellent, the girls were cute, the guys were handsome, and being able to play as a powerful female lead was a great experience. Despite the weak storytelling and lengthy drawn-out battles, Banner of the Maid proved to be an excellent challenge and remains a game I struggle to put down at night.

There’s always room for innovation, and I know in the future that games will continue to achieve things I didn’t think were possible, but Beyond didn’t hit the points I needed to really be impressed, especially when the bar has already been set high by other narrative-driven games.

Graphical caveats aside, Sniper Elite: Resistance is fun to play not only because of the various game modes but how you can approach missions. The developers also devoted significant effort to ballistics and weapons handling. Veteran players will feel right at home. New players will be delighted with the variety of missions. Both will be delighted with the options of how they can play them.

While it’s a bit intimidating to newcomers, and the single player campaign can seem tedious as it relies on a tried and true formula, Worms Battlegrounds does offer a very enjoyable multiplayer experience that fans have come to know and love.