Dirt 5 is a breath of fresh air into the franchise. Bringing in new and relevant influencers from car culture into the game, and having a blast behind the wheel, it’s a game for any gear head. The gameplay is fresh and uplifting to be apart of. You can take it as seriously as F1 or any other racing game, but you can also just sit down and have a fun enough time just running around and braking everything. The depth and diversity of the career mode is something that can keep anyone around to play with such a wide array of races to choose from. My only real knocks are that the customization for cars is slightly limited livery wise and that the HUD takes a bit to fully grasp. Other than that, Dirt 5 is a game for any car enthusiast to pick up and go have a ball with.

Umurangi Generation's camera granted players the agency to capture a despairing world and reframe it however they pleased. Macro expands this objective across four profoundly photogenic locales and tosses in a giddying pair of roller skates. Vicious social commentary, newly material to 2020's unique ills, serves as a compliment to Umurangi Generation's existential dread and completes one of the most powerful and relevant games assigned to this cursed year.

Spider-Man: Miles Morales on PS4 is fun, frantic, and full of heart. While not as large in scope as 2018’s Spider-Man, Miles Morales continues to build upon the world Insomniac has crafted to deliver a heartfelt story about a kid in Harlem just trying to deal with the responsibility of balancing being a hero with protecting his family. Miles Morales doesn’t add a ton to the formula, nor does it need to. Swinging through New York is just as fun as it was in 2018, and some of Miles’ new Venom powers allow him to feel different than Peter Parker. You’re not going to get all the bells and whistles the PS5 version offers, but the story itself is a must-play.

If all interactive stories are like this, then sign me up. While If Found…starts out slow, it picks up the pace and draws you in with the personal journey of Kasio that is complemented by the beautiful artwork from Liadh Young. It’s a story that everyone, especially younger gamers, should experience.

The sum of the parts makes for a game that’s very much aimed at GI Joe fans, and that’s great. There are a lot of fan service games out there, most of which have no interest from me, but this one did. Between that nostalgia and innate interest, and recognizing very early on that this game is by far best played with a couch co-op buddy, GI Joe Operation Blackout is fun in spurts. I enjoyed the different feel to the characters and the story was entertaining as well. There’s a lot of pretty good elements to the game, but repetitive level design and gameplay, blah AI, and aiming woes taint the experience considerably — not necessarily to deal-breaker territory, but just proceed with caution.

Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty is a game that is sure to make faithful fans of the series happy and bring in new fans too. It’s a unique 2D platforming puzzle adventure that the community needed a good reminder that it exists. Although the controls can get a little out of hand even after playing for a while, the story and gameplay give the game a unique charm that I haven’t seen in most platforming games for a long time. Abe and the Mudokons are some wacky characters that I won’t be forgetting anytime soon and hope to see more remakes and new installments from Oddworld Inhabitants soon! But for now, Oddworld: Abe’s Odysee really is New ‘n’ Tasty!

The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope isn’t a long game by any measure, but what it delivers in its time is used effectively enough to purvey a sense of dread. While not necessarily a traditional horror game full of jump scares or horrific machinations, Little Hope attempts to deliver nuance in the style of an arthouse horror film. It mostly gets there depending on a player’s choice, but overall it doesn’t completely stick the landing. Little Hope’s themes put in a 2020-context make it stand out as a horror title but otherwise, it offers very little in terms of true horror.

In sum, 9 Monkeys of Shaolin is a fun, accessible, and deeper-than-you’d-expect brawler that is perfect to co-op through with a buddy. Happy to recommend to anyone looking for a good experience in the genre or anyone that likes brawlers/beat’em ups.

The Be a Pro mode is enough of a reason to pick this up. While it holds up some similarities to NHL 20, there is enough to go into the rink, lace up your skates, and hit the ice.

Overall, the gameplay design of Torchlight III is fun and motivating, but it has some deeper flaws that need to be addressed. Players must have a balance of difficulty and challenge. Giving players too much advantage at the beginning and overpowering them will not benefit the longevity of the game. If you need proof, go look at Bungie’s Destiny 2, which is struggling to maintain challenging content, while believing that making players ‘grind’ for shoddy rewards is the right solution for the issue. Finding that balance of building up a character properly and delivering difficulty and challenging enemies along the way is what other action RPGs, like Diablo, classics. Echtra Games did a great job with the initial groundwork of Torchlight III’s gameplay design, but it needs a bit more balance in some backend areas.

Foregone is a whirring pastiche of ideas that came to define the last decade of side-scrolling action games. There remains an artful satisfaction to cutting through hordes of exquisitely fashioned monsters across splendid vistas but, without a thought to call its own, Foregone’s performance will be consigned to oblivion the moment its player puts down their controller. It’s a beautiful, sterile wasteland.

Although the game can feel a little underwhelming when it comes to rewarding you for collecting all of the Grenkins and got a bit glitchy towards the end, the real reward from playing I Am Dead rewards you with good storytelling and a life lesson about life, death, and knowing where you come from.

Overall Puddle Knights was a blast to playthrough. For fans of the original, Puddle Knights on the switch does not disappoint. The new stages provide a brand new challenge that can’t be seen in the original. For new players, it is a must have if you are into puzzle games. It provides an excellent amount of challenge without much frustration.

Overall, RIDE 4 was my first attempt at getting my toes wet for motorcycles both in general and racing wise. While excited going into this new world, I found myself uninterested and not entertained. Most racing games really bring me in and keep me there technically. As someone who works with their hands a lot and wants to know how things work/make them go faster, racing games really get me going. Herewith RIDE 4, I didn’t really fill that. It felt lackluster and just kind of plain.

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.

All in all, Squadrons is a great encapsulation of what it feels like to be a star fighter in Star Wars, but only if you can experience it in VR. I find it hard to recommend if your only means of playing this game is on a standard monitor or TV, but an opportunity to play Squadrons in VR is an experience worth having. Doubly so if you’re able to play the game with a flight stick.

Cost and access aside, having played both this remaster on PS4 Pro and the original on PC, there is not a clearly compelling reason for me to recommend jumping to the remaster. With some patching, perhaps this release could get a nanosuit-like boost in value, but as is, it’s too rough to earnestly recommend.

Crash 4 is an enjoyable experience that will entice new and old to the series. The gameplay loop has been designed elegantly so that levels never feel taxing, but rather feels refreshing. No level makes you do the same thing over and over again, there is a wonderful mixture of features. This includes adding new masks and playable characters that break up the monotony of playing as regular Crash. The level design and graphics alone, are enough to leave you in awe. The pros of It's About Time by far outweigh the cons making it one of the best Crash adventures.

Overall, The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos is a great tactical RPG from Artefacts Studio. It has everything you want from a tactical RPG, adds a sprinkle of difference with some of its design elements, and brings it all together with a solid bit of wacky humor and fun personalities.

At the end of the day, SS4 is what it sets out to be — a racous, over the top, arcade FPS that is best played with up to three friends. If that’s the kind of game you’re looking for, it’s very easy to recommend it. With a launch price of $40, it’s a lot more feasible to get some friends to buy in as well than if the price were $60, so keep that in mind, too.

Ys Origins is more than just a simple hack n’ slash action role-playing game! Solving puzzles as you climb the Demon Tower and its unique boss battles make the game a truly magical experience and a great way to jump into the Ys series. Ys Origins may suffer from information overload and feels a little outdated it is still a game that you should consider trying out, especially if you’ve ever been curious about the Ys series.

Tennis World Tour 2 isn’t necessarily the most robust or enticing offering when it comes to tennis games, but it’s one of the only simulation games out there. If you’re a die-hard tennis fan, it’s worth a shot to see if it can keep your attention. But casual fans should consider looking elsewhere.

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.

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.

Overall, The Suicide of Rachel Foster does its best to get you in that uncomfortable gameplay horror structure it aspires to achieve, and it succeeds in engaging and pulling you into the experience. The game just falls short in the story and never really brings the actual horror you would expect to the table, which hurts the gameplay. The long journey to start the horror and the payoff by the end doesn’t match up. That’s not to say you won’t get something out of the game, at least some mystery and suspense, but your expectations of what you should get and what you want to get will never quite come to fruition.

Overall, Spelunky 2 is an absolute delight to play, even in the midst of my repeating failure in the game. Its randomized level generator and the bevy of tools to strategize your way through each level makes for a fun time. While the PvP isn’t up to snuff with the main adventure, the ability to play this game with friends (online or local) will keep you occupied for months to come.

Fight Crab is one of the funniest and entertaining fighting games I’ve ever played. Although it may seem like a simple idea, the game is very enjoyable especially when using gyro controls and moving your arms to fight your opponents!

The art style is pixelated and feels very Dragon Force mid-90s, which I adore. The action sequences are over-the-top in the best of ways, and the music…good GOD…the music is an electronic, bass-driven masterpiece. Related to the music, I’m not sure I enjoyed a set of sound effects before as much as I did with this game. I know, I know, that is a ridiculous statement, but they’re well done and add to the atmosphere of the game. Anyway, the presentation is a treat during the fights and the maps are equally well done with a forced depth of field to make the scenery very pleasant and visually active. Star Renegades is an impressive game that is easy to start and will keep you playing with its strategic depth.