The Curse of the Pharaohs is among the most ambitious of Assassin's Creed add-ons while also among the least jarring. It's quite possibly the best DLC to date. If this is Bayek's swan song, he went out on a high note.

One of the first things I did was head over to the ocean and pee in it with a dedicated button.

It packs in pretty much everything past games have offered, and then brings in several great new characters and one of the biggest stories in fighting game history.

I can only hope the community breathes some life into this title. While the few songs that are included are a decent afternoon distraction, in the end, it feels like a wasted effort; the illusion of innovation wrapped in the familiar shell of Locco Rocco, LittleBigPlanet, and to a lesser extent, Frequency. Innovation is one thing, but familiarity breeds contempt.

The Coalition has achieved a lot with Gears 5. The writing and action often rivals the best moments in the series, even surpassing its predecessors at times. The overall package is the most robust Gears has ever seen. But, the big structural alteration feels like an unequivocal misstep. Gears 5 is a rousing success, but it could've done without the needless change.

It’s not going to revolutionize videogames and is definitely not a huge step forward in the series, but it contains some of the coolest set pieces and most incredible boss fights I have ever seen in my entire life. And that makes me very happy.

It's difficult to be disappointed by a great studio taking solid mechanics and narrative beats from one of the best studios around, especially when the result is something as well-crafted as Salt and Sanctuary. While I do wish Ska Studio's latest had more of its own identity, I can't deny that I enjoyed every minute of it.

Dark Souls Remastered speaks for itself just in terms of the raw mysteries it offers beyond its new coat of paint.

If you've got the strategy chops and don't mind a bit of a challenge, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor is a fantastic role-playing experience on the DS. Its time-based, branching story and clever blend of both strategy and turn-based game play styles make for a highly original title.

Its consistently funny writing and duo of unreliable narrator protagonists set the stage for a great overarching story, and it feels very much like it belongs in the Borderlands franchise. If the rest of the season maintains this level of quality, Tales from the Borderlands will be up there in history with the other great recent Telltale adventures.

For $50 ($60 with the Classic Controller Pro), Monster Hunter Tri provides a World of Warcraft-quality experience without the $14.99 monthly subscription. That makes Monster Hunter Tri the best value going in MMORPGs today. Add to that a more-than-adequate single-player mode, and you get a...[90].

Castlevania Advance Collection really showcases a side of Konami we don't see very often anymore.

Cohesion (or lack thereof) is the main issue with Assassin's Creed III. There are dozens of secondary elements which make up the content of the game, but they offer little in terms of reward and rarely contribute anything to the Assassin/Templar conflict. While the game is often quite fun, beautiful to look at and empowering to the player, it doesn't offer much challenge beyond the endurance necessary to complete all of the single-player campaign elements.

The core of Bayonetta remains as solid and frustrating as it was when it first released. It lacks the polish, semi-coherent story, and rich color palette of its superior sequel, sure, but it’s so masterfully designed and brazen in its direction that it’s still a must play for every action game fanatic. While the Switch port may lack the exhaustive resolution and graphics options of the PC version, it’s an absolute knock-out as a portable action game and further proof there seems to be very little the Switch is incapable of doing.

There just isn't enough here to justify warranting a purchase of Definitive Edition. It's slightly worse than its prior counterparts (even forgoing the Wii U's gameplay twist with Murfy and not letting another Switch user connect and play in that particular way), and the only truly new feature is the ability to play a tournament mode in the Kung Foot soccer minigame.

This was a fine first showing but it'd be nice to see The Coalition carve its own identity for Gears of War. Using Epic's foundation is understandable and expected, but it often feels like a crutch. Marcus' boy had grown up just like him.

It’s not a perfect finale, but it’s one that highlights the best we’ve seen from the series so far, and it’s not without its own set of endearing idiosyncrasies.

If it weren't for Warzone, Halo 5: Guardians would probably be somewhere on the lower end of the franchise's spectrum for me. It's still a fantastic and well-oiled machine, but the story falls flat, and the shift in gameplay mechanics result in the loss of some elements that made the series so unique in the first place. Still, if you're looking to shoot some dudes online, Guardians is your huckleberry.

It's not like Sega did a lot of work to put this out on the iPhone, but that doesn't change the fact that Shining Force was a fantastic game. It still is, and for only $2.99, it's a no-brainer.

There isn’t all that much to say about Lil Gator Game because there really isn’t much to it. It’s simply a wonderful game that I think will resonate with those who have cherished memories of the simpler days of youth and long afternoons spent exploring the world around us. We all have to grow up sometime, but Lil Gator Game is a great reminder of why you should never completely stop being a kid.

Despite the fact that it's probably being developed for refrigerators at this point, Skyrim is a great choice to port to the Switch.

Despite the padding, there's plenty to do, and it should ultimately send the fans home happy.

Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon might turn some people off with its roguelite framework and randomization, but there's a deep puzzle game at work here.

Right from the start, Guacamelee! offers up a sugar skull-covered playground to delight in and devour with mucho gusto. It's a game I'll be playing and replaying again for some time to come.

It's extremely well crafted from beginning to end, and rarely (if ever) sacrifices fun for delivering a message. No More Heroes 2 still makes me laugh, scream, think, and violently wank, even more so after the first play-through. That's more than I can say for almost any game this generation.

Despite the grind, despite the perhaps undue commitment to brutality, and despite what I feel is a joke at the player's expense at the end, Darkest Dungeon still manages to be one of the most engaging and intriguing roguelikes I've ever played and I'll probably still be diving dungeons and trying new party compositions weeks from now. After all, it would be madness to stop at this point.

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair neatly captures the essence of Yooka-Laylee and reimagines it as a new type of game. It's a distillation and a simplification, but it's effective. Then, as its grand finale -- a necessary conclusion that looms over the whole game -- it turns uncharacteristically punitive. It's rewarding, that much is undeniable. But it also leaves you feeling like all those hours spent beekeeping never really prepared you for the final challenge. Those bees just afford more leeway over the course of a very long struggle. It's kind of a buzzkill.

There's something so magical about the way Overcooked mixes simple cooking instructions with frantic stage hazards that require verbal check-ins between co-op players. I can't get enough. I've lost track of how many times I've beaten these games, and it's a testament to their design that they still hold up so well. If you're hankering for more happy, shouty, don't-blame-me vibes, All You Can Eat feels definitive.