It's a pleasure to dive back into Control, and that's why I genuinely enjoyed my time with The Foundation. I still love hunting down every research note and every minute-long audio file -- anything to fill in more of the lore gaps in this bizarre, enigmatic world. This expansion does all of that even if it's ultimately left feeling inconsequential. Ironically, The Foundation fails to build on the excellent structure Remedy already built with Control.

It took Team Ninja over eight months to get to this point, but we finally have a post-launch DLC that's worth picking up.

Despite some lingering issues with the formula as a whole, Borderlands 3: Guns, Love, and Tentacles has a little more heart in it than the first DLC.

There's a decent multiplayer action game concept buried in here, absolutely. Some of these characters deserve to live on in future projects. At the same time, it feels like there are only so many team dynamics to experience. It's all too fleeting. Once you've hit that point of no return, there's no real motivation to continue. I'd like to pick this back up one day, but realistically, I don't see that happening...If you're even remotely interested in Bleeding Edge, play it now while the matchmaking is still lively.

This is legit, folks. A 10-12 hour Half-Life might finally be enough for you to spring for a VR headset. We can only hope it similarly reinvigorated Valve.

Doom Eternal keeps the strong foundation built back in 2016 intact, while adding some of its own panache in the process.

Ultimately, though, what stings the most about seeing My Hero One's Justice 2 is how much hasn't changed since the first game.

Based on what I have been able to experience, it's what I've wanted Animal Crossing to be for many years.

If there's one point I want to get across above all others, it's this: Nioh 2 isn't as revelatory as the first game, but that shouldn't be held as a mark against it.

With the need to go bigger, Ori and the Will of the Wisps loses some of the simplicity and innocence of the original game, but it steps up in turn with bite and refinement.

It's more charitable to see One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows as more of a Hero Association RPG than a fully qualified fighting game. You won't be seeing it on the main stage at EVO anytime soon, but you can at least have a fun few hours raising your own hero.

Hardcore players might scoff at the lower ceiling compared to other fighters, but there's a lot of potential here.

Despite some minor flaws, Bloodroots is a manically fun game that oozes style. Discovering new and unique ways to use the extremely varied arsenal to my advantage kept me coming back again and again. Even when I died (and believe me, I died plenty), I was thoroughly enjoying myself. If you're in the mood for a fast, stylish action game with plenty of challenge, Bloodroots might be just what you're looking for.

Silver Dollar Games has wholeheartedly delivered on the promise of the original and managed to outdo my expectations spectacularly. One Finger Death Punch 2 is everything I love about the series turned up to 11, and it’s a fantastic example of how minimalist design can effectively carry a game, even when pared down to just two simple inputs.

Your reaction to it will likely depend on how receptive you are to Azur Lane itself. Existing fans and open-minded lovers of cute anime girls gabbing will find much to dive deep into, but everyone else is probably better off taking some shore leave.

So long as you can deal with some antiquated visuals and a bit of exploration-based frustration with the ZX games in particular, you'll have plenty of rainy days squared away.

Taur has a wonderful central idea – it lets you tear up the place with a ridiculously powerful sci-fi cannon that's a joy to control – but the elements surrounding that core concept aren't as fleshed-out, refined, or engaging. It's the kind of game that leaves you wanting a sequel that can fire on all cylinders.

I don't think anyone but Media Molecule could have nailed Dreams. It's truly one-of-a-kind.

If the shrug emoticon were a video game, it would be Code Shifter. It's just a tepid experience from top to bottom, one that doesn't do anything to make me hate it but certainly doesn't do anything to garner a recommendation.

The Bad Seed is a natural extension of everything that made Dead Cells so tireless and long-lasting. The new levels don't feel arbitrarily tacked-on (even though they essentially are), and you don't need to be a masterful player to conquer them. I could go for a few more DLC packs with this exact structure, easily.

The stakes aren't high, and given how ridiculously high the stakes often are in video game stories, I appreciate the humble slice-of-life premise. Still, I would have liked to see a little more ambition – something to wrap a bow on an otherwise pleasant present. I ended Wide Ocean Big Jacket feeling good, and it resonates, but at the same time, it's not necessarily an experience that will stick with me.

The old Blizzard, in fact, wouldn't have shipped the game so quickly at all. There are more sinister changes lurking below the surface, like the inexcusable choice to ruin the original Warcraft III launcher and bring it into the modern era: a cardinal sin.

There are many more baffling design decisions or ideas hampered by poor execution I could cover, but honestly, this is way too long a review already and I'm only going to get more upset the further I dig. I wish there was some redeeming value to Silver Falls: 3 Down Stars or it ended up in a "so bad it's good" situation, but it's just a bland survival-horror game that's light on scares and heavy on aggravation. When I wrote about it back in 2018, I had hope it would end up as one of the great final games for my beloved Nintendo 3DS. But after a month of struggling to get through it, that hope is dead.

Coffee Talk is very much a mismatched brew. Without strong focus, the surface-level approach to a catalogue of important issues hampers the writing, the principal element of all visual novels. But while its casual philosophies can sometimes be hard to swallow, great visuals, fun side modes, and a budget price point suggests that, for some readers, Coffee Talk will still go down smooth.

Journey to the Savage Planet was such a fun way to kick off the decade.

Like every incarnation of the game, even the Re Mind DLC is going to both confuse and excite people en masse.

Despite some technical misgivings, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners honors the Walking Dead name: a rarity in the current climate.

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is not the anime game to end all anime games. It's not going to convert any non-believers or onboard them into this decades-old classic universe. Even as someone who still re-watches DBZ, it can be grating at times ⁠— but the juice is mostly worth the squeeze.