The new driving physics are very enjoyable, the sense of speed is at best dizzying, real-time weather works to a great effect, and there is a lot of offline and online content (and progress between them is mutual). Dozens of tracks to race on come from all over the world, painstakingly recreated from real ones (along with some made-up ones) to maximize their authenticity. However, these positives are buried under excess rubble of inexcusably coarse presentation and flawed game design that leans too much on merciless grind instead of rewarding natural progress.

Followers and fans of the Wasteland franchise will certainly see this third installment as the culmination of the series so far. It’s bigger, better and more varied than earlier entries but with all that ambition comes some inevitable technical issues and bugs. For those gamers without endless time and patience, there’s perhaps a feeling that they’ve seen what the game has to offer long before 50 or 60 hours. It’s a bit messy and could be leaner, but Wasteland 3 is often highly engaging with entertaining and varied combat and a world that rewards exploration.

The game itself continues to be as good as it was when it came out the first time, and to anyone looking for a deep RPG world to get lost in, you could do a lot worse. Kingdoms of Amalur is a game that shows its age, mainly through system design, and while this re-release does little more then slap a new coat of paint on an already good game, giving a new generation a chance to enjoy the sole product of a studio they otherwise would have only heard about in the annals of “bad stuff that happens to poorly led studios.”

The Sims 4: Journey To Batuu may just be another room in the virtual dollhouse that is The Sims but it absolutely nails everything that makes Galaxy’s Edge one of the most unique theme park attractions today.

At its best, Panzer Paladin leans into its great core platforming to offer genre comfort food. Its movement tools feel rewarding, with twitchy controls and a fun variety of traversal options. The game's aesthetic is similarly successful, capturing the buoyant energy of 80s mecha anime with period-appropriate character designs and vivid coloring. But unfortunately, the game’s level design isn't always as compelling. Only the boss encounters and the final few levels fully take advantage of the tight controls, resulting in stretches that fall flat. Panzer Paladin may not eclipse its influences, but it is still a very competent retro throwback.

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.

What Vader Immortal excels at is showcasing really good Star Wars VR content of which there’s been far too little outside Battlefront’s Rogue One VR mission and the upcoming Star Wars Squadrons. The dojo sequences are worth the price of admission because they offer pure gameplay using a VR control setup that is so immersive and fun that it makes you feel cool as you cut down droids and toss training remotes at unlucky Imperial troops.

Street Power Soccer lacks the street cred it really could use because as it is, there is little incentive to keep on playing. It doesn’t help that despite nice animations, the game’s overall appearance is so last generation. Local versus and co-op play lift spirits a bit until you realize that there is no real content to anything as the matches are over so quickly. There is also a very rudimentary online option but I couldn’t find any opponents whenever I tried it. It tells that Street Power Soccer is practically dead on arrival.

No Straight Roads is a mischievous celebration of creativity that is rarely seen these days. Full of breathtaking energy and fabulous personality, it travels back into time when games were wild, bold, and ingenious, and revives inventive madness to the next level. No Straight Roads feels like a fresh new song that crops up in a radio’s playlist that’s usually full of commercial crud. It may be a one-hit-wonder but the game fully deserves its platinum disc and five-star review. To quote Bunk Bed Junction’s catchphrase, bunka, junka, shakalaka!

Giraffe and Annika is a beautiful game with an intriguing plot and engaging characters, but the difficulty spike in the second half doesn’t fit the relaxed tone of the first half. I feel that someone involved with the game didn’t trust the initial vision and felt the need to shoehorn in standard platforming gameplay. It’s a shame, because the first half was really special and felt like something I hadn’t really played before. If you have a lot of patience and decent platforming skills, you might enjoy Giraffe and Annika.

In the end, Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time is a middle-of-the-road licensed game. For fans, there’s probably enough here in this victory lap of a final season cover that will make the gripes I have fade away into the beautiful backgrounds. For those in the middle, like me, the amount of good it does is just not enough to keep me coming back for more. Sadly, this Jack just doesn’t jump as well as he should.

Battletoads isn’t perfect, but it sure is a lot of fun. Despite some of its shortcomings, notably in its excessive use of mini-games and short overall length, the story is entertaining and combat is surprisingly deep. Some of the artistic design choices may not be for everyone, but those who are able to look past that will find developer Dlala Studios has done a solid job in reviving this dormant franchise.

Normally, a strategy RPG with solid gameplay, an interesting story, beautiful art and a strong soundtrack is one I'd be recommending without question and I really wish I could give Banner of the Maid that recommendation. The awful translation just manages to seep down and poison every aspect of the game though, at least a little bit. If you just want to focus on the battles and that's enough for you in this sort of title, you may find a lot to like. With the genre quickly becoming crowded on the Switch, though, there are simply better options for you to spend your time and money on.

Overall, Windbound is a genuinely enjoyable experience. With its charming visuals, rewarding gameplay, and earnest game design, it has successfully sailed across the sea of mediocre single-player survival games and reached a new high.

There is a day-one patch that will go up right around the time of this review that will address some of the less polished elements I experienced. But it’s a game that more so than past versions feels like it needed more development time before release. It’s also a tough one to recommend because the changes between this year’s game and last feel minor. It’s still a very good game of football and I’m excited to see where the franchise goes on the next-gen consoles, but as the swan song for this generation, this version goes out with a very quiet release.

Tell Me Why might lack the excitement of time travel or superhuman abilities but its subdued tone works in its favor as a tightly paced and progressive character drama.

Combining some fascinating mechanics I've never seen in a card game with a lot of variety, there's plenty to recommend Faeria. Its held back however by poor tools to really learn the game and design decisions that just don't fit a portable console. Add in concerns for the future of the game and I'm nervous to invest too much more of myself into Faeria, but it may be too late for me to stop. It has that wonderful just one more game quality that will keep me firing it up. Just make sure you know what you're getting before you decide to follow me.

The game heartily emphasizes family values, where the unifying factor is ultimately to love over good food. Those who enter the family from outside are as much uncles, aunts, and cousins as those who were born into it. Of course, the story is mushy, but these days when gritty games try their hardest to tear you into pieces, there’s a vacant lot for feel-good entertainment. In this context, it’s heartless to moan about some gameplay and design issues, like mostly uneventful driving parts or linear nature of family meetings where a failure is hardly an option. All these gripes are fully acceptable if you put your heart into the game. Road to Guangdong might not be the next must-buy hit but it has more humanity to share than most games out there put together.

Darkestville Castle is imaginative and well-written, but the obscurity of the puzzle solutions, unfriendly design choices, and presence of a potentially game breaking bug make it difficult to recommend. If you love retro adventure games and have a high tolerance for difficult puzzles, you might want to check it out. Just back up your save as you go.

I can’t help but think that Kandagawa Jet Girls is a rather half-baked attempt at a new media franchise to please Senran Kagura fans. With a more prudish approach to the looks and the game, the possible audience might even be wider than before but that would require a great game as an incentive. Beneath their lewd surface, Senran Kagura games were excellent third-person action games. Unfortunately, Kandagawa Jet Girls is a mediocre racing game at best as it fails in the essentials of the genre. It simply lacks the speed, the excitement, and the challenge to make it to the top.

With its unique edutainment approach, Rainway Empire is an engaging and informative simulation that introduces players to the colorful and capitalistic world of railroad management. Packed with lots of extra content that benefits from a healthy existence on PC, Railway Empire Complete Collection for the PlayStation 4 is a solid and thorough management sim that captures the essence of the Golden Age of American (and international) Railroad.

It’s a shame that more time and money wasn’t spent on Fairy Tail, because, in the end, I really enjoyed large chunks of the game. Once I started playing, I could play for hours and be entertained. The guild building is really fun, as is the combat. This could have been a great game, but the developers leaned too hard on the license and not enough on fleshing out the elements of the game. If you’re a fan of the franchise, you should definitely give it a shot. If you are an anime fan and like turn-based combat, this might be a good game to put on your wishlist for later. Otherwise, you can safely give Fairy Tail a pass.

Whether by choice or due to the small size of the development team, Mortal Shell is highly concentrated action, focused on giving players that uniquely Souls-like experience of challenge, mystery and eventual mastery.

The premise and production values are pretty much the only things that made me interested in West of Dead but the frustration over not being able to gain a proper foothold for forward progress really got to me. Character advancement doesn’t carry over into each new play session, making any boosts you find a zero-sum game. These days, my time is increasingly valuable. Nothing about the experience was ever fun and at the end of the day, I fell into the mindset that the only way to win was to simply not play.

PGA Tour 2K21 is a great game of golf. There are things I’d still love to see improved like animation, replays, and further deepening of the career mode. But there are plenty of courses (with more to come), solid mechanics, insane amounts of customization including a massive course creation tool, and a foundation for a game and series that I for one am very excited for. There’s a lot to love in PGA Tour 2K21 and the good news is with real-life courses overcrowded due to COVID, there’s a great digital alternative in PGA Tour 2K21.

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?

It’s hard to imagine a product as ambitious and complex as Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 being technically perfect right of the gate — and it isn’t. But despite some issues, when everything is dialed in and running well, the game is visually stunning and its version of the flight experience is awe-inspiring. At its best, it is a technical and artistic marvel that fully deserves (for once) the “next gen” label.

UFC 4 is not without its flaws, most notably in its ground game and its lackluster career mode, but there are much welcomed upgrades virtually everywhere else. Meaningful character progression, a reworked striking system and an array of other improvements makes this easily the best of the series.