The Writer is a much more confident and focused piece of content than The Signal. Above all else, it solves the problem of creating a canonical piece of post-game content that's neither required nor unnecessary. Not quite essential, but hardly regrettable either.

Dragon's Crown responds to the routinely shallow beat 'em up genre by raising its ceiling so high it's hard to tell when or where it may end. The relationship between play style and potential is cyclical, ensuring any lingering curiosity over a different class or build feeds into a completely new experience. There are some more abrasive aspects that might render Dragon's Crown inaccessible, which is unfortunate, but it’s currently near the top of its genre otherwise.

Ghostwire: Tokyo is a good game, if only for how thick and unnerving the story and world might be. While the gameplay does come up a bit empty, the story helps to pick up the slack and make the adventure worthwhile.

Despite the free-to-play model, there is a lot of fun to be had with Call of Champions without laying down a dime. It does give enough reason to break the piggy bank, but doesn’t require you to do so to enjoy it.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is a great remaster of the original Oblivion. Virtuos Games and Bethesda’s decisions to use Unreal Engine 5, add new aesthetic content, refine some of the original’s UI, and update core systems to today’s standards are great to see. While the classic bugginess, jank, and rough edges remain, they’re not enough to prevent me from investing another 80-or-so hours into replaying this classic Elder Scrolls game.

No matter what mode you play, KZ3 looks great. I don't have a 3DTV to test the 3D mode on, but your eyes and ears are in for a visual treat nonetheless.

TopSpin 2K25 from Hangar 13 and 2K is a superb tennis game that looks and feels like you would expect tennis to feel, even down to the frustration and learning curve. It certainly is made for hardcore tennis fans but has enough space for those looking to dip into the series for the first time.

The Rogue Prince of Persia’s fluid traversal, gorgeous art style, and satisfying combat make it a promising roguelike platformer. What it lacks in endgame content and variety it makes up for in a game that has now set the gold standard for what traversal should be for all platformers going forward. With its physical release and imminent free content updates, now might be the best time to try Evil Empire’s take on a Prince of Persia title.

Great googly moogly, SCHiM is a beautiful feat of a 3D-platformer with puzzle elements. Its most charming and emotional moments will sneak up on you, so enjoy every single second of this cozy tale of a little shadow that could.

Oxenfree II: Lost Signals from Night School Studio is a worthy predecessor to the original. The sequel has a thick branching narrative gameplay mechanic that drives the story and gives you a reason to replay the game. The only big knock is that Riley’s story starts slow, which could put off some folks expecting immediate satisfaction with mystery and horror like the first delivered almost right out of the gate. Regardless of takeoff, the sequel is entertaining and something you should check out, especially if you enjoyed the first game.

Despite the wait time to get the games going with real players, if you've never had the pleasure of playing a MOBA, then let Guardians of Middle-earth be your first. It has all the fast-paced insanity that comes with the genre, a wealthy amount of options for loadouts, and a nice dash of Lord of the Rings personalities and species to boot.

The Nintendo Switch version of L.A. Noire maintains everything good about the original release, while adding a few new tricks to the mix to make the game a little bit more interesting, including ‘touch’. Beyond the Switch tricks, L.A. Noire is still a game I enjoy playing, especially in a portable form. It’s like a violent Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego mixed with the open world structure of a Grand Theft Auto, both intelligent and dumb fun.

Driveclub delivers driving fun on gorgeous and expansive maps, offers a variety of ways to race and a bevy of cars to choose from. It won’t satisfy your need for a Gran Turismo-esque experience, but it will certainly bring enjoyment to your racing lives.

CoD: WWII's The Resistance DLC is a strong start to the DLC packs for WW2. While the highlight is certainly The Darkest Shore zombie map, the other four map additions are certainly welcome, and offer some much needed variety to the multiplayer mode.

Conan Exiles is a game where you make your own experience. Much like Minecraft, Exiles will have you exploring, creating, and building, while also providing a fully immersive game set in the world of Conan the Barbarian. Most of the time that will equal out to fun.

Played on the Vita or the PS4, Damascus Gear offers simple, enjoyable mech combat with a good story and lots of customization at a great price.

Tandem: A Tale of Shadows from Monochrome is a cleverly designed game that puzzle-loving gamers will enjoy. The range of difficulty helps to sell this, as does the level design and characters you confront in the game. If you don’t like puzzle games, then this probably won’t bring you into the genre.

Kinitsu-Gami: Path of The Goddess yet again shows a Capcom willing to take risks. Who would of thought a niche hybrid of action, strategy, and tower defense would translate into a Japanese mold like this? While the game suffers from familiar genre tropes like a sluggish pace and busy menus, players won’t deny the clever, tense implementation of building an impeccable line of defense. From fighting dinosaurs from the future to dancing away evil spirits, I’m excited to see what new experiment Capcom brings us next.

Designing a multiplayer game with inherent asymmetry is quite ambitious. To make it a white knuckle action title geared towards seriously competitive players could be considered lunacy. Yet, this is what Turtle Rock attempted, and, for the most part, made work.

Overall, Madden NFL 20 updates and adds some interesting attributes to its football structure. It polishes up the story mode and gives it focus while maintaining the entertainment value of the series steadily. It needed a bit more with regard to content, but what it has is still good.

Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan is a good entry into the RPG and 2.5D platforming genres that will give newer and younger players a taste of what similar games of this genre should look like. Its charm, simplicity, and accessibility can become overshadowed by the amount of conversation, but those who love reading will have a good time with this game. It’s beautifully charming, and it was clearly made with love. Just be sure to temper your expectations.

Alan Wake's American Nightmare is Alan Wake with the benefit of proper editing and revision.

Overall, this collection is accurate to a fault, packed with some additional goodies and reminds us how absolutely insane we all must have been when we played these games the first time around. Bravo to Digital Eclipse and Capcom for taking a chance on some classics.

Wipeout persists as a utopian phantom consumed with aesthetic elegance and driven to exhibit a vivid sensation of speed. The nature of this package’s identity—Wipeout Omega Collection is three different but very similar experiences—may nudge against a wall of homogeneity, but it’s easy to overlook when you’re going too fast to focus on anything in the periphery.

Souldiers is a kind of comfort food. There are players who will actively seek out a game like this, one that is inspired by the best kinds of interactive nostalgia. While developer Retro Forge is keen on piquing the interest of classic key genres, Souldiers stands surprisingly well on its own qualities. This is a beautiful game that can be absurdly difficult but it’s more than a large, interconnected map and a twist on punishing combat. The name might be a little too clever for its own good but keep in mind that Souldiers is unique in its own right.

Blood & Truth is a savvy and seasoned virtual reality thriller confident in its suave posture and meticulous operation. It is simultaneously a bonkers riff on outrageous action cinema where it’s just as easy to imagine its main character as narrowly sentient tank treads with gun-hands born to decimate cloned hordes of bungling bald men. Blood & Truth works even as its internal truth is a grinning mystery.

Disney Magical World 2: Enchanted Edition is a magical experience for all casual Disney lovers and feels like you are on a digital Disney World vacation without paying the Disney price and fees! With so many things to do like customizing yourself, cafe, and house the amount of time you will be spending in this game is more than you think. Exploring worlds based on Lilo and Stitch, Winnie the Pooh, Aladdin, and getting to battle, fish, and collect materials kept me very busy! Although there are a couple issues with visual glitches and there aren’t too many challenges, this game is still worth playing if you’re just a Disney fan looking for an Animal Crossing and or Harvest Moon Disney type game! It’s definitely worth trying out!

It’s safe to say that if the gods of gaming are indeed good, then we should expect to see further installments in this longstanding staple of action/platforming entertainment.