If you disliked Butcher Bay, then nothing about The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena will win you over. However, if you enjoyed the original title and are thirsty for more of the same action with several tweaks, feel free to get this game. Just try to forget the last few hours of Athena and don’t mess around with the multiplayer too much.

I’m shocked with how well Knockout City turned out. It’s easily the biggest surprise of 2021, something everyone should give a go while it’s still free to try.

Titanfall has all of the pieces to make a very nice FPS puzzle -- a wide variety of well crafted maps, a decent amount of familiar game modes, and a prestige system to hold the interest of veterans. In that sense, it's a very welcoming game that many disenfranchised genre fans will enjoy. Just don't expect anything monumentally different, or a worthwhile world to enjoy while you're having fun shooting everything in sight.

Wave manipulation is a neat concept -- one I don't recall encountering in this form before -- but despite admirable attempts to introduce slight tweaks to the formula, it is eventually stretched to its limit. Even still, Waveform is a solid, highly polished game that's very much its own thing, and very much worth checking out.

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood operates just like an old school PC expansion should, and if you liked New Order, this is a no-brainer. In fact, due to the pulp feel of the second half I even slightly prefer it to the original, and the two interconnected plots are incredibly easy to swallow in an afternoon.

I don't think Eternal Poison is trying to be a ground-breaking strategy role-playing game. I think the developers were aiming for stylistic and different, and they've definitely succeeded at that.

Little quality-of-life additions like GamePad item management go a long way with The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD. They manage to hide some of the game's less flattering blemishes, and let you focus on what it does best. While I still wouldn't put it near the top of the Zelda pile, it's still head and shoulders above most modern adventure games.

Combat isn't really what I found myself wanting from Prey. Neither is conflict. Solving issues and making things right works in the power fantasy of a video game, but it doesn't really suit what Arkane excelled at with this effort. Prey is about discovering a place that people lived and worked in. It's especially interesting in the context of all the sci-fi plot devices that power everything, but it's also the human angle that's undeniably fascinating in its weird posthumous voyeurism. Danielle Sho seemed like a hell of a scientist, but I found myself caring more about her love life and musical talents.

I hated my first hour or so of Two Worlds II. I believed I was in for a boring, dreary, aggravating eighty hours of wasted life that I'd never be able to get back. I was wrong. Two Worlds II is the perfect gaming equivalent to a diamond in the rough. It's ugly, it's coarse, and it's got one foot in the past, but it's just too damn lovable to be thrown into the trash.

Luminous Avenger distills so much of what made the series pop in the first place that it's also worth investing in.

I've been playing No More Heroes and No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle for more than a decade now as they never cease to amaze me with their untethered style, violent action, and satisfying combat.

Thanks to the new swing setup, I've had more fun playing Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 than any previous entry in the series. By putting the onus on you to think like a real golfer and execute every shot, PGA Tour 13 makes successful play more rewarding than ever before and gives you the closest possible feeling to mastering a world-class golf course in real life.

What Football Manager needs to do as a franchise is make it much more approachable to new players.

Overall, H.A.W.X. is the type of game you'd hope iPhone developers are looking up to. It's a big game in a little package. Recommended.

Ultimately, ZZZ delights with guiding design principles—remembering what so many adore about other Hoyoverse characters while breaking those moments up into short, snappier pieces. It’s rather easy to pick up and put down, and for something on the go, it’s certainly the preferable Hoyo title. For now, I’m all on board with New Eridu, and eager to watch the cast and world grow in many of the ways Honkai and Genshin have, too.

Although it may not be the best game in the franchise, Gates to Infinity is still an enjoyable dungeon crawl, and a beautiful-looking game to boot. So long as you can deal with an easier adventure, this is another mystery worth solving.

What sets TOEM apart from the many other wholesome games that plateau at mediocrity is its excellent execution of the concepts it puts forth. There is no design here that is questionable, no idea that feels unfinished. This is simply a well-crafted jaunt through a charming world. And it’s one that beckons me to return long after I’ve done everything I can possibly do in the game just to see what other amusing pictures I can take.

A thrilling, hectic vehicle shooter that's quite a bit deeper than the forebears that inspired it.

Pangya: Fantasy Golf takes approachable, easy-to-play golf action and stacks on a ton of game play and even more unlockable content.

It's tough, it's overwhelming, and it'll break your brain, but E.Y.E is also one of the most creatively successful, conceptually lavish, mentally arresting games released in a long, long time.

It's the ideal mix of fun and funny, without being too over-the-top.

Even with the balance issues and design missteps, Need for Speed: Rivals is a blast. Literally. Plowing into cops to watch them explode off the side of the road as you zip by is never not fun. So is blasting them with EMP to watch them flip in the air.

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.

The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails is pure gaming comfort food. Its mix of action, platforming, and RPG is too pleasant to resist, especially accompanied by its fantastic soundtrack. It certainly shows its age, and especially its portable origins. But that aside, Nayuta’s tale captures an authentic spirit of classic RPGs that I found as charming as I did entertaining. I’m sure fans of Falcom’s work have this one pre-ordered already, but even if you aren’t in that fandom, give this one a look.

If you're no fan of the series, this title will not sway you. Those of us who dig the formula, however, will be able to spot the significant changes made to the series, and enjoy a huge amount of gameplay. The only thing holding it back is a handful of poor design decisions that let the experience down, but not quite enough to stop this being an engrossing, addictive button smasher.

Sometimes it's okay to just unwind with a lower-stakes adventure, and that's where Concrete Genie comes in.

Shakedown: Hawaii might play similarly to Retro City Rampage, but it takes place in a markedly different world.

Ultimately, despite being the fourth game in its series, Valkyria Chronicles 4 really is the sequel Valkyria Chronicles needed, and I have to say that I'm pleased that war has never looked more pleasant.