Life is Strange: True Colors is a rumination on loss, empathy, and finding your place in the word. A great cast is bolstered by improved visuals, animations, and a truly remarkable protagonist in Alex Chen, making this the true highlight of the series.

While short, SUPERHOT VR is very accessible, addictive, and simply fun to play. It’s also very comfortable to experience, and the Forever Edition adds more reason to come back for additional challenges should you desire. If you haven’t checked it out yet, this is the way to play it.

Spindle from developer Let’s GameDev and publisher Deck 13 is a marvelous action-RPG adventure that hits all the right notes when it comes to action, puzzles, and payoff. It’s incredibly balanced with all three, which makes it feel like you don’t waste a minute playing it.

Watch Dogs doesn’t have the depth you’ll find in a Grand Theft Auto title, but it does have a unique gameplay experience through hacking abilities, a gorgeous gaming environment to play in and enough added content via side quests and online play to make it worth your time.

Though Immortals Fenyx Rising may borrow familiar elements from other series, this new IP from Ubisoft establishes a unique identity through the lens of Greek mythology by using humor, intelligent puzzles, powerful combat, and clever world building.

LISA: Definitive Edition from Dingaling Productions is a warped, twisted, dark game that doesn’t pull its punches with any of its storytelling. The complementary gameplay helps to enhance the story and create some major connection between game and gamer. It’s something to behold, even if the beginning feels impossible to overcome.

Escape Academy is a good game. It emulates the structure of an escape room while allowing the idea to go beyond real-world confines. It might be quick for some players, but it’s nonetheless enjoyable, especially with a group of friends.

A must-have for the Xbox One X. It’s a beautifully re-created/remastered trilogy that maintains the wonderful essence, as well as difficulty, that came with the original releases way back in the day. Vicarious Visions did a superb job with this one.

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.

While 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim‘s monstrosity versus mech action may have faltered in key ways, it is impossible to turn a blind eye to how absolutely captivating the entire package is. Gaming allows the most bizarre, gut-wrenching, poignant stories to be told in such broad, creative strokes. Vanillaware’s ability to reach into decades of inspiration and craft their own intricately wonderful narrative about growth, loss, and a million other things should not be ignored because it is delivered in such a complex, entertaining way. This is a game that does not have to beg for players’ maximum attention as each new revelation leads to yet another unmissable moment.

DiRT Rally was the entry point, the entrée if you will, ahead of the main course of DiRT 4. While sim die-hards may still prefer the former it’s hard for me to go back given everything on offer here. The simulation underpinnings are still there and the cars will still spit you off if you go over the edge but everything is much more pliable and far friendlier to those of us driving on a gamepad. There’s more to see, more to do and more importantly, it’s much more fun!

Even after a dozen years and seven (or eleven) games, Yakuza 0 is an impressive and easy invitation to its namesake's adrenalized world.

I have not replayed through the Warmastered Edition on Switch as I write this, but I have played it some — enough that I feel ready to report that the game is still great but that this release is quite simply a direct port to the Switch with no new features or changes that I can discern.

By all accounts, Thimbleweed Park on the Switch looks and plays very much like its PC counterpart that I played several months ago. Just as was the case then, this is a must-have for point and click adventure gamers who either don’t have it on PC or prefer to play on Switch.

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.

Scribblenauts Unlimited is a bigger game than the previous. It offers more chances to put your creativity to the test and its replay value is through the roof. Granted, it doesn't offer the same type of challenge as previous version, but that also decreases the frustration that might come with said challenge. If you're looking for a game that is fun for the kids, and the adults, in the house then look no further than this.

The stellar pace and production of Persona 5 did not require adjustments and additions to its one hundred hour run time. And yet here is Persona 5 Royal, presenting that package with integral new characters as it remodels the structure, combat, and whimsical ephemera that binds them all together. Persona 5 Royal is the most articulate and realized expression of Persona’s ethos, provided one has the time (and patience) to see it through.

An excellent 'western' fighter that is more about accessibility and fun than mastering techniques and detailed strategies.

Baby Steps is not a game for a broad audience. But it’s not just rage bait trying to frustrate players while providing amusement to passive observers. There are lessons to be learned and accomplishments to be felt. It tiptoes on the knife’s edge of punishment and profundity, victimizing or enthralling, depending on the player. That fine line opens the path for both a brilliant anti-game or a fist through your screen, your mileage simply may vary.

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.

To sum up, if you already have these games, Qubed doesn't offer anything new or compelling to warrant a re-purchase, but if you've held out on getting these great, addictive, and beautifully presented puzzle games, Qubed is a great value.

Overall, MLB The Show 19 shows that San Diego Studios isn’t sitting on their butts doing nothing to improve the player experience. They are still making this game better and better each year. This year’s game brings more refined game modes, a more engaged baseball experience, and it does enough to stay fresh. It isn’t perfect, but it’s damn near it.

On the whole, Soulcalibur VI does an excellent job of advancing the series while also stay true to its roots. Character creation, two new battle mechanics, new playable characters, two story modes, online play — there’s a lot of meat here for fight-hungry fans to dive into and it’s crafted and presented with the skill we’ve come to know from Project Soul.

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.

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.

The ending of this first installment of the DLC certainly ends on a cliffhanger, leaving us excited for November’s content. Whether you play it now or wait until all three DLCs are out, The Heist is definitely worth the price of admission and the four hours it takes to complete.

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies is the latest Dragon Quest adventure to capture my heart. From the incredibly deep character building and item alchemy to the sheer depth of the game (compared to previous DS remakes), DQIX is one of the best RPGs on the DS to date.

Duelists of Eden is an excellent bite-sized grid-battler and deckbuilder fighting game that is properly fit for competitive play. Despite the chaos and learning curve, it’s worth the time investment to experience the chaotic, frenetic, yet strategic battles. I cannot wait to see this game grow!