NCAA Football 14 feels like a great culmination of all the NCAA Football titles this generation. The new engine fixes a lot of the weird problems that occurred in the past few games and allows the running game to take center stage.

Against all odds (read: some big-name racing games that eventually turned out disappointing), Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered is the racing game to get this holiday season. It’s pure video gaming at its best with no extra thrills or frills other than serious pedal to the metal racing. It wisely focuses on what it does best and therefore drives to the finish line as a winner. The remaster doesn’t change the successful formula, only polishes it to meet the modern standards.

There’s fun to be had and things to like in Unruly Heroes, though there are moments I felt the gameplay and mechanics had an annoying habit of getting in the way.

A rehash of what we saw on the current gen consoles with a bit better visuals.

The Metroid-style design could be a great fit for Strider, but this first outing comes up a little lacking.

The underrated Grandia RPG series gets its third game, and wows us with its engaging story, superbly involving battles and sleek visuals.

All in all, I had fun with Superliminal. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a quick and moderately challenging (but not too difficult) puzzle game. As long as you aren’t looking for cutting edge graphics or a strong narrative, I think there is a lot of fun to be had here. You will have to deal with some literally dream nonsense logic, though. But isn’t that half the fun?

Valiant Hearts defies the traditional war game, featuring comical, fluidly animated visuals that tell a somber story about people caught up in World War I. The interactive puzzles, alongside engaging action segments, are effectively interspersed in an experience that is hard to put down. While this slower-paced war title may not be everyone’s cup of tea, it’s worth a playthrough for history buffs, puzzle platformer fans, or anyone who wants a beautiful adventure game with a lot of heart.

The Gunstringer is one of the best Kinect titles for the core gamer.

It's business as usual as this expansion retains the essence of the original, with the addition of new weapons and redesigned levels, expect for the disappointing online play.

Some up-close texture issues, occasional framerate hiccups, and a lackluster cadre of voice actors aside, Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock is one of the best -- and certainly, most respectful -- of the Galactica -inspired games. Although no game has really captured the deep philosophical underpinnings and complex human drama that made the series so engaging Deadlock nails the exciting and tactical battles that were such a memorable aspect of the show.

Coming in at around six hours for a pretty thorough playthrough, Headlander was an absolute delight.

ZombiU is definitely not a game for everyone, mostly due to its unforgiving design and flat fiction. But few horror games really make you feel like you're in a desperate struggle for survival, and few action games command all of your attention and precision to play. ZombiU manages both those things simultaneously, and the result feels fresh and interesting in all the right ways.

Still an excellent game of golf. I am a huge fan of the new Legends of the Majors modes. It has a ton of content and is one of the better pick up and play modes in a sports game. Although not a major update, if you’re in the mood for more golf or may have missed a couple of Tiger Woods outings, this is a great one to jump back into.

Cognition – An Erica Reed Thriller – Episode 3: The Oracle, is mostly an entertaining experience. You may miss some of the features that showed up in the first two episodes, like the forensics/murder investigation elements and the variety of locations.

In the eight years since Dawn of War II, the RTS genre has evolved to include MOBA-like elements, but someone returning to the RTS fold will have no problem getting up to speed. The stalwart staple of three balanced factions has been enriched with Elite hero units, and the multiplayer mode clearly shows the influence of DOTA and its brethren. Dawn of War III's campaign is substantial -- if not always entirely entertaining -- and once mastered, its three factions offer extended fun in skirmishes with the game's capable AI or online against human competitors. While there is no longer a steady stream of RTS games, fans will be more than satisfied by Dawn of War III's fundamentally classic approach.

I have to say that my overall feelings on F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin was that of a really solid experience.

Tera will be remembered for two things: art and its implementation of a combat experience unique to the genre. But the use of familiar MMO tropes feels somewhat uninspired. From the beginning, taking down monsters and levelling up is easy and only after the player leaves the Island of Dawn do monsters pose more of a challenge, but the biggest enemy you'll have to contend with is boredom. While Tera has a strong focus on community and PvP and the combat certainly is an innovation that I'd like to see implemented in more MMOs, I've had a difficult time breaking through the monotony of the non-community experience.

Hue presents a different interpretation on the puzzle-platformer genre with its color-shifting concept and non-traditional storytelling approach; but even with all its inventive ideas, it suffers from a lack of development for each one.

The world of Immortals: Fenyx Rising features plenty of things to keep you occupied as you rescue the gods and goddess of Mount Olympus. It’s not an especially deep game and after the first hour, you’ll have a pretty good idea of what to expect from the rest of the adventure. Breath of the Wild was fascinating because it left the player to figure things out on their own through experimentation. Immortals, on the other hand, can’t wait to show you everything it has to offer and will take the time to do so. And just when I started to feel weary and slipping into disinterest, I’d stumble onto a really fun Vault of Tartaros that served as a reminder that it’s the game’s inventive puzzles—not the boss fights, the witty commentary between Zeus and Prometheus, or the moving confessions of the gods—that make Immortals: Fenyx Rising a surprisingly delightful epic.

Floating Cloud God Saves the Pilgrims is a simple game that’s easy to pick up and play, though I don’t recommend playing it in long stretches (which I did), lest you grow bored with it entirely.

Just like I said in my review of the Xbox 360 version of Stranglehold, I truly believe this is a game that is worth checking out, it doesn't take itself to seriously and makes for a good experience.

It’s hard to say when the games overall strayed into paths so unfortunately tainted by violence and blood, but to me, The Pathless is what video games are essentially about; flights into fantastical worlds like no other media could do. It is meditative escapism at its finest. Not all games need to be motion captured tragedies or realistic violence simulations. Of course, I enjoy those games now and then, too, but to detox all their pain and suffering I need something like The Pathless.

Gaming needs more entries like The World Ends With You: Final Mix. Perfection in entertainment isn’t about lacking a single negative aspect, but rather how those blemishes are overcome, and how the work makes you feel. The game has issues as it fails in areas that could potentially cripple it for some. But at the end of the day, I believe it to be worthy of a perfect score. Deserving the highest praise, The World Ends With You: Final Mix can, and should, be listed among the best titles in the history of the medium.

Relish the art and the experience it across several sittings; Sohta’s journey is brief, but very uplifting.

Star Renegades is an impressive roguelike I didn’t realize I wanted until I finally gave it a shot. It’s a polished title that wears its inspirations on its sleeves and delivers a well-crafted gameplay experience from beginning to end. The sharp blend of luck, skill, and perseverance needed to beat the game as well as the superb presentation kept me coming back for more. Each playthrough rewards the player with subtle improvements along with a greater familiarity with how each character functions on a mechanical level. Without a doubt, Star Renegades is a quality title well worth putting your time into.

MLB 07: The Show is one of those games that had the potential to be a real home run hitter coming out of the gates with very little in terms of expectations. I would say the final results are more of a base hit than anything that they game had the potential to do.

The charming oddity of GNOG makes for a fun and stress-free gaming experience. It's fitting that Double Fine published the title as it feels right at home with Schafer and company’s collection of unique downloadable games, like Stacked and The Cave. The added VR functionality is neat, but the game doesn’t use it enough to justify its purchase strictly as a VR game. As a side note, I added it to my list of games that I’d demonstrate when showing off VR primarily for its soothing and nausea-free experience. At $15, it is a predictably short game that doesn’t offer much replay value (beyond trophies), but the hour or two it took to get through all nine puzzle boxes was a delightful experience that I’m happy to recommend.

Dark Train easily could be a game you’ll either love or hate. Those who appreciate a good hint system, distinct feedback and puzzle pathfinding might feel left in the weeds because of its obfuscating nature. But if you like games that don’t hold your hand or get in the way, prepare to be challenged. You’ll want to keep a pen and paper handy to make notes as the game mixes things up at nearly every turn. Dark Train is a neat, confounding, obtuse, and fascinating puzzle adventure that brings to mind older, niche PC games.

Mothergunship is a cool FPS rogue-like shooter with a cool mechanic that’s hurt by technical hiccups. There's enough to like, though; gun crafting is fun and creative, the writing has a good sense of humor, and some of the boss fights are both pretty neat and intense. Building guns will soon be better with friends when a free update launches in August that will let you play with someone else in co-op mode.

Fall of Cybertron is undoubtedly an improvement over an already impressive debut, yet it doesn't feel nearly as invigorating or daring as War for Cybertron did.

Love 'em or hate 'em, snipers are modern combat's ninjas. Sniping your way through one whole game might be fun, if you can stand the slow pace.

With your brain getting older by the minute, Nintendo lets you reverse the flow and makes it younger. Fun exercises to stimulate the mind while on the go.

Although it adds nothing unique and makes some visual concessions to fit the platform, Darksiders Warmastered Edition is a great way to revisit what is now considered a minor classic of the action-RPG genre. With fluid combat and a dramatic, if skeletal story, Darksiders has retained most of the fun-factor that made the game stand out way back in 2010. Playing the game on a big screen in 4K might be optimal, but Darksiders on the Switch is a decent alternative.

You get a whole new slew of 80 levels that takes about as long as the main game to get through, and has even more to do because it’s just so amazingly difficult. While some of the visual elements feel a little pasted-in, New Super Luigi U adds enough fresh things to an already excellent base game to be more than worth your time.

FIFA Street is a solid street soccer experience that feels very familiar to FIFA 12 and yet still feels like its own game. The game has an incredible first impression but I didn't feel like the game had the staying power that would make me want to come back to it weeks or months down the road. There is no denying I had a lot of fun with FIFA Street sadly the fun curve starts dwindling faster than the developers were hoping for.

Awesomenauts isn't really a bad game. It's well built, holds promise for additional content and serves as a good primer to the MOBA genre. Unfortunately, the lack of players kills the product.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 is a good game of golf. The new controls will freshen things up a bit and of course there are modes up the wazoo to try out. Kinect support is included but after a few holes probably won't get much in terms of playtime. I can't say it's an easy buy recommendation to make but if you have missed a few years of Tiger Woods games then this one is a good one to get back into.

Gripes aside, this is easily the best episode Telltale has released since the first, and with the quality gradually increasing, I am becoming immeasurably impatient for the final episodes.

Aaero contains fifteen music tracks, which makes it a fairly short experience that can be completed in one sitting. As an arcade style action game, however, it offers a lot of replayability, so the game's once through length isn't really a fair assessment of its value. Still, the price tag of $15 is probably on the high side for the overall level of quality and variety that the game has to offer. The game has plenty of high points and some very memorable tracks and levels, but it has some forgettable ones as well. It is worth playing for those high points, but a lower price and more consistent quality would have made the game a much easier recommendation.

Launch titles are usually a mixed bag, but EA excels in this updated next-gen port, with plenty of visual candy and modes to be excited about.

There are some things you expect coming into a Square Enix produced JRPG. You expect some grinding, you expect some weird dialogue, you even expect it to take a while to get going (I’m looking at you Final Fantasy XIII and the 30 hours it took to get good). What you don’t expect is for the game to feel like it’s just going through the motions with its story, for the central class system to not feel worthwhile, and for the battle system’s main claim to fame being you get to skip your turn to go later. Turns out Defaulting on this one is the right move.

Although I can’t confirm the differences between the original Xbox One X version and the new Switch edition, I can say that I had a lot of fun with this gem. It was dull and unfocused at times, but it never felt like a slog. Perhaps the game can be remembered fondly one day as a rare 3D platformer throwback of this decade, alongside Super Mario Odyssey, Yooka-Laylee, and A Hat in Time. Or at the very least, some may consider this the long-lost spiritual imagining of Rare’s Twelve Tales: Conker 64.

Midway continues to impress with hard-hitting and fast-paced arcade football title, but goes a bit too far with their mature "reality" presentation.

EA releases a gentle and promising introduction the popular sport of Rugby, with fluid action, decent selection of gameplay modes and tidy visuals.

The action works when called upon, the story really tries to expand on Batman’s world, and the new relationship mechanics add another layer to interactions. If you played the first season, there’s absolutely nothing that should keep you from this one.

Despite my love for the series, Kingdom Hearts 2.8 is not without its faults, the most glaring being the high barrier of entry. As I said earlier, I cannot in good conscience recommend this game to folks unfamiliar with the series. However, if you don't care about story or you're a Kingdom Hearts vet, then have at it. Or as so many of the Kingdom Hearts armchair psychologists will tell you, "May your heart be your guiding key". What does that even mean?

Destiny is by no means a flawless game, but it’s able to overshadow its faults by offering superb gameplay while blending everything into a singular, truly fun experience.

Beholder 2 moves a little bit slow at times and its one-note humor can be hit-or-miss, but it still merits a Ministry of Reviews stamp of approval.

Unto the End is a relatively short game that I completed in approximately six hours. Despite a few blemishes, it’s one that made me want to continually dig into, and when I finished it, I wanted more. So, I immediately played it through a second time. I don’t know if I can express how much I love having a bite-sized experience that isn’t a walking-simulator a roguelike. And I think I finally understand what fans of Soulslikes mean when they talk about rewarding those games are. Despite its minute size and minimalist appearance, Unto the End is a beautiful and substantive experience that rewards perseverance, calm nerves, and is absolutely worth your time.

I’m torn between the amazing gameplay and the lack of content. Fighting feels fantastic but there's too little where to put it to use. What is this alarming trend that fighting games are put out without their traditional content? One can only hope that three non-functioning arcade cabinets standing abandoned in the game’s 3D entrance are a promise of arcade mode coming sometime in the future – as long as it’s not paid DLC.

Fans of Dynasty Warriors or the Dragon Quest series will enjoy this second-edition genre mashup. Dragon Quest Heroes 2 strikes a great balance between complexity and action and weaves an entertaining story through and around its fast and furious battles. Whether mainlining the story quest or venturing off into the side missions, the fun-factor of plowing through masses of monsters may eventually wane. That said, it was refreshing to enjoy an action RPG that didn't involve geysers of plasma or the dark forces of evil.

Tacoma may only be about 3 hours long, but it fills that time beautifully, telling a thoughtful, poignant tale told through the magic of science fiction. Come for the space, stay for the heart. And the space basketball.

Despite not really achieving anything with its barely-there story, SteamWorld Dig is an excellent surprise from an independent studio putting out a game that is more than the sum of its parts.

Overall Q.U.B.E Director’s Cut is a great puzzle game for those that haven’t played the original version. If you played it back in 2011 this game won’t have much to offer in the way of new content and excitement.

There is no denying that NCAA Football 13 is a small step forward for the franchise, especially in comparison to the past few years. However where NCAA Football 13 continues to succeed is in bringing the action we love on Saturdays to life. If you bought last year's game there isn't a huge incentive to go out and pick this one up for full retail price, but if you're looking to get a fix of college football, NCAA Football 13 is an amazing game of football.

Even though the port has extremely clunky controls and horrendously optimized graphics, The Long Dark’s survival and challenge modes offer hours of unhinged fun trying to cope and survive in the harsh Canadian wilderness. The campaign, while unfinished and episodic, offers a wholly divergent approach from typical post-apocalyptic genre norms. Unfortunately, if you are the type of player who is looking for a completely fleshed out campaign, this is not the game for you. Even with its misfortunes, Hinterland Games’ The Long Dark provides Nintendo Switch owners a breath of fresh air as it is the first somewhat enjoyable, open-world, survival game on the console.

Röki pretends to be smarter - and more emotional - than it really is. As hard as it tries to impress and touch, it left me feeling as if I had eaten a plate of stale pickled herrings. Röki has gameplay and pacing issues but the biggest annoyance is that the lovable character you will play as has not been given any humanly worth beyond her obsessive mission. Maybe I take things too emotionally but overall, when reaching the unfortunately cliched ending after 14 hours of playing, I felt I could have spent that time better. While I enjoyed the game in parts and admired its enchanting look, it left a sour taste in my mouth.

Dokuro feels like an idea with a lot of passion and little effort in its execution.

Relive those thrilling aerial battles in this low-key but surprisingly solid WWII flight sim, featuring plethora of aircrafts, modes and online support.

Airborne Kingdom is a pleasure to spend a relaxing few hours with. It has a refreshing approach to the city building genre which is genuinely unique and although it eschews conflict and drama, the survival elements, resource collection tasks and challenges of building an optimal floating city are both engaging and relaxing. Airborne Kingdom has an outstanding core premise and aesthetics but lacking some genre-standard features like a sandbox mode or customizable structures, it can offer up its pleasures and be done a little too quickly.

It’s a competent but unambitious physics platformer – nothing more, and nothing less.

Ghostrunner is a game of exciting highs and extremely low lows. When its controls click, it offers a thrilling parkour platforming experience. But these moments aren’t worth contending with its frustrating combat and aggravating bugs. If you’re an enthusiast for first-person platformers and can overlook a glaring lack of polish, Ghostrunner may have some limited value. For all else, there are other genre titles more deserving of your time.

Creator Vince Wesselman's passion for the adventure genre shines through every one of Resonance's pronounced pixels. There are a few hitches here and there, but they won't stop Resonance from being one of the best adventure games you will play this year.

The latest in the DDR franchise debuts an online mode, and loads of the songs to get your groove on. Solid dancer, but perhaps not a must-have title.

Despite its flaws, Gunpowder hits the most important notes for a simple puzzle game. It is a fairly easy game to recommend, although at $10, the PC version is hard to recommend over the iOS version, which is only $3.

Fortunately for me, I happened to be in just that frame of mind after playing through the amazing and absolutely brutal Cuphead. The last thing I wanted to do after that was play another stressful and nail-biting experience. So, HOB just so happened to scratch the opposite itch I was craving. Had I played it under a different mindset, it’s hard to tell what my reaction might have been. If you’re in that sort of mood, I think HOB might hit the spot. If not, well then, maybe HOB isn't the game for you. But if that is the case, I would encourage you to play it when you are feeling inquisitive.

There's plenty to like in Mr. Driller DrillLand. It looks and sounds great and the same core gameplay that people loved more than twenty years ago holds up beautifully. However, it ends up being let down by a structure that doesn't make a lot of sense and glitches which don't belong in a game released in 2020. If you have a ton of nostalgia for Mr. Driller or just need a well-designed puzzle game, though, there is still fun to be had.

While it is technically the best version of Crysis out there, it is really only a slightly better version of Crysis 2’s mechanics and graphics. Because of that, Crysis 3 feels more like an expansion pack to Crysis 2 than a true sequel and more than likely not worth your time.

Chime Sharp is like that old bicycle you’ve left in your garage for the past few years: the framework is solid, but the tires are flat. You take out your old hand-pump that barely works and start pumping away, and after all of the energy spent on that you can finally ride free. Perhaps my analogy is a bit cheesy, but it’s the truth. This game will not offer you a helping hand, so if you want to succeed, you’d best be prepared to put in a lot of effort. It might look a little bland, but it’s certainly not a bad way to spend some of your time. Honestly, if you’re a fan of electronic music and have a lot of patience, those are good reasons to try it.

Hob has a lot of style, just not much heart. The game is far more than a walking simulator but its stripped-down approach to combat, loot and character development can leave the player unsatisfied. The visual elements can be striking and beautiful, and the platforming is generally mechanically sound, but Hob's progression feels aimless and ultimately disappointing. Despite the attractiveness of the world, there simply isn't enough story or emotional content to support the game's ten or so hours of play.

If you’re willing to put in the effort and learn what Total War: Rome 2 wants to teach you then you’ll find a game that is deeper, more robust, and more detailed than any strategy game that’s come before it.

Overall, WRC 8 screams mediocrity in every turn, something akin to a budget title, but still it’s sold for a full price. It’s not a bad game by any means but not that great either. At its best, WRC 8 can be nice enough to hop into now and then but nice isn’t enough when there’s a superior rally racing game available. As of writing, there are four rally events left in the world championship so there’s still room to get excited whether Ott Tänak can keep up his top form or will Sébastien Ogier make a late-season comeback and continue his winning streak. In video games, the competition is already over, though, as WRC 8 has to settle for a distant second place behind DiRT Rally 2.0.

This is not a perfect outing but dang is it a big improvement over last year’s outing and if your looking at this as a potential option I would say rent it first and make sure the style fits your needs as the game has plenty of content to take you outside of a rental period.

As a first episode, Done Running managed to hook me in with its quiet, character moments, allowing for a closer connection to a character I have watched grow from a child into a young woman. I know there’s a lot left to come, but if these moments are any indication of where this season is headed, I am quite sure that the combination of Clem and AJ will have me breaking down in a flood of tears at the end. While the action detracts from the overall experience, I can’t help but look forward to the end, and the hope, that maybe, there is a happy ending inside the world of The Walking Dead.

Overall, Cake Bash is a fun, simple game that the whole family will enjoy. The graphics are bright and colorful, and as someone who has a major sweet tooth this game made it really difficult to avoid raiding the cabinets for second dessert. If you’re hungry, don’t play this game; the detail in the frosting and cakes aren’t conducive to diet plans.

However weak the ending is, it was the journey that made the biggest impression on me. In that regard, the game is positively sublime.

Star Command is a very unique iOS experience that I hope to see a lot more of in the future. The biggest problem I have with this game compared to FTL is that you aren’t going to see a lot of variety in your play experiences because, unlike FTL, there is a full story here that takes about four hours to run through so you’re pretty much tied to the same path every time you play with very little branching.

By publishing the game three days before the launch of the PS4 without any hoopla, Sony has all but guaranteed that sales of this game will be abysmal. It really is a shame, because it is a game worthy of the top billing that an excellent first party game should get.

Unless you are craving another telekinesis type action game this one will be best as just a rental.

The Consequence is entertaining. It’s not an introspective, philosophical mindbender; it’s campy fun. It has its flaws, but in a game where Claude Debussy’s “Claire De Lune” is mixed with Inception, buckets of blood, and a Victorian loveseat/black cat combo that acts as your save point, I can’t help but enjoy it.

Between its story, flavorful presentation, and adequate point-and-click gameplay, there is a lot to like with this episode of Broken Age.

Command-based RPGs are becoming a thing of the past but SaGa: Scarlet Grace shows that there’s still life to them when they are made passionately and effectively. Backed up by likable characters and bright outlook, the game lives up to the legacy of the series that while very niche, has been bubbling under more big-named franchises, only waiting to make a creditable return to players’ awareness. SaGa: Scarlet Grace - Ambitions is worth recommending to anyone looking for an unstrained and lively JRPG. An old cliché “easy to pick up but hard to put down” holds very much true to it.

I actually liked playing Trover Saves The Universe despite the cheap laughs and sometime annoying cast of characters.

After playing through Lego Star Wars multiple times the one thing that holds this game back from being extremely fun is, first the length which could have been longer, and secondly the camera, which at times did get in the way.

All aspects of the game are refined and improved and the change from heavy shooter to more platforming gameplay is a welcomed and refreshing change.

Mafia Definitive Edition is a lovely redressing of a game I carry fond memories for and to experience it again in a comfortably playable fashion was a joy.

EA's arguably final Burnout on the PS2 sadly doesn't bring the best racing experience to the market, but feels like a washed down and cheap title.

I don’t think I’ve ever played a game like The Beginner’s Guide and I’m not sure any game will ever need to duplicate what it accomplished.

EA shows some love to the PS2 with arguably their last MVP Baseball title, which continues with the innovations set by the original, but sadly doesn't have anything fresh this time around.

For the asking price of $7.99, anyone would be hard pressed to find such a quality shmup within reach, especially one which seems to not only to celebrate, but actually relish in the difficult roots which birthed it. Naming itself a love letter to the ’90s, Syder Arcade is a great ride to a glorious, and well earned, death.

I enjoyed playing NeuroVoider, but it resembled the guilty pleasure of having fun with something so simple and mindless. The game has tons of options to customize your robot and it was fun to experiment various types of weapons, classes and skills in the early stages. However, the inequity of usefulness in weapon types forced me to hog only the strongest type of weapon available in later stages. It became a routine to hope for a strong and useful weapon to brute-force my way in several stages. The excitement of getting rare and powerful weapons replaced the excitement of actually playing the game. At this point, the game became tedious. Overall, NeuroVoider has both the charm and the silliness of generic shoot'em up games from the 8-bit era. It is, without a doubt, a great game to spend some time mindlessly playing couch co-op with your friends. Yet, this experience is short-lived and transient. Enjoy it while it lasts.

With 50 songs and multiple skill levels to test yourself in, there’s definitely a good bit here to dig into. I wish the game was a little more involved and the soundtrack was more memorable, but it’s enjoyable nonetheless and has enough charm to make it worth finishing.

From its title screens to its combat mechanics, The Surge 2 copy/pastes a great deal from the two-year-old original and while it moves the franchise into a more open and populated world, I was hoping for a more dramatic evolutionary leap. Like its Soulsborne models and its predecessor, The Surge 2 is a challenging game, made more so by an inconsistent frame rate and sometimes imprecise combat controls. It’s still a pleasantly familiar Souls-like experience but like The Surge, the sequel hasn’t quite discovered the alchemy that transmutes repetitive grinding into a satisfying feeling of mastery.

Ultimately, the Arctic Pack is the same kind of high quality content that we’ve come to expect from Frontier, and sets the stage for a series of geography-themed DLC. The sticking point for some players will be the cost. At $10, it could be argued that the number of animals and other goodies is a little thin. Planet Coaster had a habit of including free content updates in addition to, and often alongside, paid DLC and one hopes this will continue with Planet Zoo. The Arctic Pack is an excellent, if not especially generous, supplement to the base game.

Overall, this type of game is bursting with replayability and I found the actual gameplay to be quite fun. There’s a lot of options for customizing your units and the unit variety was great as well (especially when you start leveling up monsters and doing quests to get more items). I also really enjoyed the soundtrack and the absolutely amazing artwork (it’s just so gorgeous!). Sadly, the story and 3D graphics do leave a bit to be desired, but the game is still an easy recommend to strategy RPG fans. It' doesn’t quite stand up as tall as, say, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, but if you’re looking for that next strategy title to scratch that itch you’ve been having, you should give Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia a go!

Edna & Harvey: The Breakout certainly has the DNA of old-fashioned graphic adventures. If you’re up for some funny and taxing adventuring, it will keep you occupied with the puzzles while the story and its delivery will amuse you. The 10th Anniversary Edition polishes the original sketchy look of the game to make it more approachable but it doesn’t lose the crazy heart that beats life to Edna’s odd world.

Though it’s a little rough around the edges, Minoria delivers an experience that is mechanically satisfying, yet thematically depressing. The combat has its flaws but was engaging enough to keep me going throughout. Clocking in at around five hours, Minoria is a game that’s short and sweet. The story is a solemn and sad affair that takes a harsh look into the problems of religious overreach. Overall, I’d recommend Minoria to Metroidvania fans willing to overlook the occasional blemish.