A beautiful third-person action title that has deep role-playing game elements embedded firmly into it. You also get enormously detailed and deep environments, with unique enemies to populate it. This is simply a superb game.

There were a lot of strong points in this game, and they outweigh the bad. Mantine surfing, the Ultra Recon Squad, heck, even the new/updated trials! The game took Sun and Moon, which may be story-heavy, but empty in its postgame, and made it into something that can really be called “Ultra”. It’s certainly several steps up from Sun and Moon.

There’s little doubt that Octopath Traveler 0 is one of the best JRPGs of the year, if not the best entry in the series. Its novel additions alongside the series’ staples elevate it to new heights. Despite having enough content for a hundred or so hours, it respects players’ time more than any other JRPG I have played.

Overall, there is no doubt in my mind that Horizon Zero Dawn on the PC is the best version of the 2017 title if you have the right hardware to handle it. If you don’t, you can still bring down the quality to near console and find one of the best games in this generation.

Ultimately, there is very little bad to say about SoT. It’s an excellent 2D action platformer with some good RPG elements, and its balanced difficulty lets genre hacks like me struggle through while more seasoned players can still expect a good, but not overly difficult challenge. To be honest, some of the early bosses proved harrowing for me, but I liked that I could try going after the different knights out of order, find checkpoints, and have a lot of opportunities to continue at those checkpoints, too. Much like the old games its inspired by, it’s a tough, but short, and arguably more memorable than many of those older games. Additionally, with New Game+ support for more nooks and crannies to explore, as well as Feats and Challenges, there’s a solid value here for $10. The only better value would be to get SoT via the Treasure Trove release instead.

Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes is an addictive puzzle/RPG/strategy experience that looks and plays great on consoles.

F1 2021 continues to grow on what 2020 built. It’s a technical, story driver, fast, and fun ride. It’s a continuation into a franchise that has become what any F1 fan, or honestly racing fan in general has been wanting for years.

BlazBlue Entropy Effect X brings the stellar roguelite by way of fighting game to a broader audience. Incorporating a massive roster with deep combat turns it into one of the genre’s flashiest and most entertaining spectacles.

If this is a usual 12 month purchasing decision for you, absolutely no reason to stop now.

Overall, a ticket to Plant Coaster: Console Edition is a great buy if you’re at all into theme park management. Frontier did a superb job bringing their excellent 2016 PC game to next-gen with console-friendly UI, controls, and everything you could need to get a big jump on your theme park building and management gameplay.

I loved Star of Providence to the point of having trouble putting it down because of its fast-paced shmup gameplay, punishing bullet hell patterns, and replayability. Defeating its astoundingly difficult boss battles is satisfying and encourages the player to improve mechanically and thoughtfully. If you make it to the Hard mode, you’ll be treated to bullet patterns that will test your dexterity like few others have done before.

Sound Shapes boasts an effortless dedication to intoxicating the player's senses through its sights and sounds. Call it distilled bliss or displaced affection, but there's an explicit sense of euphoria acquired by absorbing Sound Shapes' rich presentation. It's great at being a game, but it's better understood as a favorite song or album. It's something to be played and enjoyed if for no other reason than the sheer pleasure of repeating the process.

Gamers wanted a boxing game that was close to the actual sport and EA has delivered.

Overall, this is the best version of Hitman you can get, as it is the complete version. This is especially nice, if you don’t own any of the prior content.

Dead in Antares, from developer Ishtar Games and publisher Nacon, is an impressive game that is led by survival management, player choice, and paying attention to crew members’ attributes and stats. The gameplay lies within its details and depends on players making a logical decision on how best to keep the crashed crew alive in the game. It can be overwhelming for those uninitiated to the series, but it’s impressive nonetheless.

God of War: Origins Collections is the best reason yet to embrace these HD collections many publishers are bringing to the PS3. Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta feel right at home here, and I'm really happy to be able to enjoy these again without a PSP.

Sometimes it just takes time to get to know a game, and that’s certainly the case with Monster Hunter Tri. While it's initially overwhelming, if you can take some punishment and you don’t mind a deep game, at some point you’ll find yourself inexplicably hooked—and more than likely, it will be the online multiplayer that does the hooking.

Blasphemous 2 felt incredibly good to play despite its challenging nature and complex combat. It’s a great Soulslike 2D action-platformer that doesn’t rely on nonsense gimmicks that make the game artificially difficult for the sake of being punishing. Its exploration, art direction, and worldbuilding are unmatched in a sea of modern Metroidvanias released in 2023. If you’re down for a good challenge or path of penitence in a Roman Catholic-inspired 2D platformer, look no further. Like it or not, you will pay for your gameplay sins.

Ubisoft continues its upward trend with its golden goose of a series. It brings a deeper amount of gameplay, story and enjoyment to the mix with Assassin's Creed III. It's certainly not perfect, but it's good enough to be considered for 'Game of the Year'.

Style and substance creates a very solid game. The core platform mechanics are right up there with the best, and the added element of switching between "hot" and "cold" creates just that much more frustration and fun. The different but pleasing visual presentation with a good library of dependable sounds fleshes out the strong gameplay foundation quite well. Download the trial and if your first impression is positive, the 800 MS Points will be well spent.

At $20, this is honestly a bargain, especially considering the appeal of the first three titles in particular. In terms of quality, I’d rank them (perhaps unsurprisingly) as such: X, X2, X3, and X4. But they’re all worth experiencing if you’ve never done so before, and with the terrific presentation, true-to-form gameplay, and extensive bonus content, Legacy Collection is certainly the best way to go about it.

Campaign is worthy of its ancestors and will probably prompt more than one play through for hardcore fans. Versus and Horde 3.0 both add tons of replayability and the presentation package is the best in series history and is contemporaneously adroit.

Guardians is a very good game. Campaign is very strong while adding a few items here and there that make it an independent experience. Multiplayer stands tall along side the best in series history, and time will tell where it ultimately ranks among H2 and H3.

You may not find the real life 2017 Formula 1 season engaging and exciting but in the gaming sense it’s the best its ever been. The addition of historic cars is wonderful and weaving them into the career as special events a masterstroke. Codemasters have paid careful attention to where they needed to improve and left well alone the areas that they didn’t. This was mostly in the career mode and the cars themselves as really very little had to be done in regards to time-trials and multiplayer racing. It’s paid off in spades and I’m even more excited to see how much better things will look post-XBox One X release given that F1 2017 is one of the games that will be enhanced for Microsoft’s new console. Gaming F1 fans like myself have been waiting for Codemasters to realise the potential of their past titles since they took up the license in 2010. They’ve taken their time and had a few missteps along the way but my word have they got it right.

You won't find a more complete version of one of the best indie games ever than on the Wii U eShop.

Through its characters, its designer, and its player, Gorogoa keeps an outsider’s perspective in a present state of mind. Straightforward action—shifting panels and considering different points of view—doesn’t preclude logical twists or emotional complexity. In only a couple hours, Gorogoa creates a window into a daydream and a companion to despair.

Hopefully, Codemasters are well underway with 2019’s development and I look forward to eating humble pie when they announce a raft of new features and updates. Until then F1 2018 is worthy of a spot in your library and takes on the mantel of the best ever official F1 to date.

No More Heroes 2 has some minor shortcomings and a few unnecessary quirks in the gameplay, but to its credit, it is not a button masher and it is not a waggle fest. The interesting and well-developed boss characters at least attempt to force you to make a lot of in-the-heat-of-moment adjustments to your game plan.