The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is an exhibition of lessons learned not only from CD Projeckt RED’s past work, but also from a spectrum of open-world and role-playing contemporaries. It's expected for games of this nature to excel at taking your time away. What's most impressive about The Witcher 3 is that rarely seems to waste it.

Naughty Dog has crafted another game bursting at the seams with passion. Coming at the close of another console cycle, the studio proves its ability to evolve and defy expectations. The Last of Us Part II is no simple sequel. It is a fully realized vision of the world players were introduced to in 2013. Evolved gameplay not only asks players to be more tactical, it taxes them emotionally. But it is also a loving send off of beloved, grounded characters. Whether grabbing a pallet in water or carrying around a ladder, subtle nods exist to the first game, showing the studio takes to criticism and can improve.

An exemplary roguelike incentives and broadens its intrinsic repetition. An ideal narrative adventure paces its characters and their conflicts across a finite timeline. Hades is a vantage point engineered to view a singular setting of both perspectives. Whichever side you ultimately settle on, Hades is a capable ascent from the dregs of genre stagnation.

BioShock Infinite is a proper interactive mystery, and it's a sight to behold and a joy to experience.

As a whole, Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a beautiful, tragic, and complex story told on a stunning landscape and full of unique and loveable characters that will make you feel...so so many emotions. Its gameplay is incredibly satisfactory with challenging, creative puzzles, hidden rooms, and difficult-enough enemies. I would, and already have, recommend this game to anyone and everyone.

Under a thick layer of polish and charm, you’ll find yet another top-notch platforming adventure, chocked full of secrets and clever twists and about as challenging as anything Mario has thrown our way thus far. It isn’t groundbreaking or approaching the level of perfection that the Galaxy games did, but if nothing else, it’s a must-have title for Wii U owners.

God of War is still one of the most entertaining, engaging, and impactful games to come out of Santa Monica Studios. The story is meaningful and emotional, the mechanics are thoughtful and entertaining, and the presentation on the PC is simply unrivaled. This is still a treat after nearly four years.

At the end of the day, you get a fabulous 'ultimate' collection of all the Metal Gear games that make us Metal Gear fanatics happy. While there are a couple of games missing from the 'portable' side of things, most of what you want is in this Legacy Collection. It will certainly be worth your time and money in exchange for playing this games once again (or packaging and storing them somewhere safe).

An exemplary roguelike incentives and broadens its intrinsic repetition. An ideal narrative adventure paces its characters and their conflicts across a finite timeline. Hades is a vantage point engineered to showcase both perspectives. Whichever side you ultimately settle on, Hades’ character-rich action is a capable ascent from the dregs of genre stagnation.

Golden is technically the fifth iteration of a formula established with Persona 3 but it feels just as appealing and engaging now as it did four years ago. No one else (literally) is making games like this and if you've somehow avoided a modern day Persona title you owe it to yourself to give Golden a shot. It's sweet icing on a delicious cake.

Persona 5 will be beautiful forever. Meticulous thought and consideration has been applied to Shin Megami Tensei's durable model of dungeon crawling and Persona's paragon of social simulation, creating a brilliant pulse visible through (almost) every aspect of its performance. Keeping this pace across a formidable length is Persona 5's most impressive trick, ensuring it will steal your heart without wasting your time.

Red Dead Redemption 2 on the PC is the top-tier version of the game. It’s the Woodford Reserve bourbon when you’re used to drinking Kentucky Gentleman. It will most undoubtedly look better than the console version and include all the gameplay that you would expect from the title, but the cost of getting it to that Woodford Reserve level is definitely a price only a PC elitist would understand and accept.

Preserving the importance of a personal story against the backdrop of a galactic catastrophe, Mass Effect 3 respects its foundation as much as it understands and indulges in the player's choices. And it does it better than anything else.

Skyward Sword is a masterpiece. It raises the bar for the legendary series and is memorable from start to finish. It's challenging, unpredictable, diverse, thrilling, and endearing. It is the Zelda game you've been waiting for.

Resident Evil 4 was a marvel when it was released back in 2005 and Resident Evil 4 Remake follows the same path. It’s pure perfection from beginning to end and groundbreaking with its backend improvements and details. Capcom has hit another home run with this one.

A performance of power. Naughty Dog realizes their profound technical ability, showcases a relationship between gorgeous locales and engaging level design, and executes a progressive yet agile and animated narrative. The viability of Uncharted's action—safe but nimble platforming and brisk cover-based shooting parallel to limitless coincidences and explosions—can feel out of sync with 2016, but A Thief's End is easily the best it has ever been.

Inside's quiet confidence is a maneuver invented to not only disarm the player, but also destabilize assumptions that seem inseparable from an entire class of games. Plenty of games have pulled the curtain away to thunderous applause. Only Inside has room for shock, panic, and the inconceivable notion that the nightmare isn't yet over.

Maestro is quite approachable for a rhythm title – something I often have trouble saying given rhythm games’ steep difficulty curves, disparate input methods, and pricy entry points thanks to needing custom hardware. On the Quest 3, all you need is your hands (or controllers, if you choose) to immerse yourself in a novel rhythm game setting. The Complete Edition comes with the full musical experience that will keep you playing for hours!

You know, outside of the minor points I made earlier, God of War III just plays like a dream; a really, really awesome dream. It's hard not to be giddy about how amazing this game, this series, has been.

A great game that should have been superb. The experience is tainted by several gameplay mechanic problems that just shouldn't be there for this third game in the franchise this generation. Ultimately the good far outweighs the bad, but I can't escape the notion that I feel that the full potential of this sequel was not realized.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth codifies the long-lasting significance of JRPGs from the mid to late ’90s, an era in which developers finally had the tools to tell captivating sagas with little compromise. In 2024, Square Enix captures and recontextualizes 1997’s opus with an unyielding vision, building out its world and preserving it with a keen eye for how it fits into the modern landscape. With a cast of characters and a boundless world that has resonated with players for decades, that emotional core is not untouched, merely reborn.

With aggression as its invitation, Bloodborne invokes a calculated shift in Souls parlance. Its aim isn't necessarily a course correction, but rather a Y-axis slant into an alternative series of objectives. Sacrificed are a few degrees of personal customization, only to be replaced by a renewed sense of distress and wonder. Bloodborne’s demanding novelty, even with its unrepentant focus, feels built to last.

Blue Prince from developer Dogubomb and publisher Raw Fury is everything it is cracked up to be. It’s easy to pick up and play, thick with strategy and play-driven decisions, and simple to come back to repeatedly in the face of failure thanks to some amazing gameplay elements that were methodically built for its design.

Street Fighter 6 is one of the most comprehensive fighting games on the market.

The newest entry into the acclaimed Forza series is nothing short of excellent. Forza 3 is packed with content and offers something for every type of racer. Sit down, buckle up, and drive.

If you need a challenge that is less forgiving than the Dark Souls’ series, then you want Demon’s Souls. Bluepoint Games brings the very essence of the original 2009 title with this remastered version, upgrades the experience with PS5 hardware, and makes the game more terrifying.

Some thirteen years after Melee’s release, Nintendo has finally formulated an experience which compares appreciably to the masterpiece that we all love (and many of us still play). Whether for fun or for glory, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U is the follow-up Smash fans have been anticipating since.

Its approach to control, cooperative play, failure, exploration, and gratification are fundamentally novel and indifferent to its peers. These deliberate alternatives might seem unwieldy because we keep implicit rules reserved in our minds, but Journey's pretends none of them ever existed and still manages to treat its audience with the utmost respect. What a joy that it's a lot of fun to play, too.