Even if it isn’t an overhaul of Elden Ring, Shadow of the Erdtree is a massive achievement in both open-world and DLC design. It’s a daunting task to provide new content for one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time, especially with the expectations surrounding it. However, the over two-year wait was well worth it as there’s a staggering amount of content to play with here. Those who love Elden Ring will experience the same sense of awe and surprise that they felt on their first playthrough. The massive world, challenging bosses, and game-changing equipment make this expansion feel like an unofficial sequel.

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance makes one of the best open-world RPGs around even better.

This isn’t a remake that completely redefines its predecessor, unlike Final Fantasy VII and Resident Evil 4. This is much more in line with Nintendo’s recent Super Mario RPG and Mario vs. Donkey Kong remakes that refurbish and update the visuals with some small quality-of-life tweaks. Those with a working GameCube and copy of The Thousand-Year Door don’t need to worry about picking this up. Still, anyone grabbing it for the first time ever or in a while on Nintendo Switch is in store for an off-kilter and memorable experience from the moment they see that first image of a gallows in Rogueport.

Though I initially worried that Hellblade 2's dark story about psychosis would trigger my anxiety, it's a surprisingly inspiring sequel about perseverance in the face of pain. It tells a story about overcoming what holds us down, and finding solace in others. It doesn't quite reach instant classic status due to uninspired gameplay that's much less creative and ambitious than its stunning presentation, but Ninja Theory's latest is still an absolute must-play for any Xbox Game Pass subscriber and an experience I certainly won't forget anytime soon.

The cryptic Lorelei and the Laser Eyes may very well be the greatest puzzle game ever made.

Homeworld 3 did keep me engaged for a time thanks to gorgeous visuals and exciting tactical combat in the vastness of space. Performance-wise, I didn’t notice too many hiccups. With an Nvidia RTX 3080, Intel i9-10900K, and 32GB of RAM, I was able to select high graphical settings without a hitch. Unfortunately, the campaign’s story is a huge step down from previous installments. Missions, whether in the campaign or in multiplayer modes, are plagued by innumerable issues related to unit pathing, controls, and commands. It’s a disappointment that was 20 years in the making.

Animal Well's deep secrets and arresting atmosphere will suck you down the rabbit hole.

Stellar Blade is a masterclass in style, but it's lacking substance.

As far as franchise revivals go, Endless Ocean: Luminous doesn't put its best fin forward.

Another Crab's Treasure utilizes its charming setting and assist mode options to become one of the most approachable Soulslikes ever.

Sand Land is a definitive adaption of a great Akira Toriyama manga, but just fine as a game.

Tales of Kenzera: Zau is more effective as a moving reflection on grief than as a Metroidvania.

As a Suikoden successor, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is perhaps faithful to a fault. Its war story is better than those found in most Fire Emblem games, and its vibrant cast of characters are a highlight. The turn-based battle system is one of the best I’ve experienced of its kind in recent years, too. It’s just a shame that frustratingly retro RPG design and lacking quality-of-life features put a damper on the whole journey. With a few adjustments, Nowa’s story could’ve been a better tale to bring back home from the frontlines.

Harold Halibut makes some key compromises to make its eye-popping claymation art style work.

Children of the Sun stumbles on story, but its unnerving hyper violence hits its mark.

South Park: Snow Day! flushes a nostalgic multiplayer premise down the toilet.

Princess Peach: Showtime! is a charming start to a new series, even if it feels like a dress rehearsal for the real show.

Rise of the Ronin has an excellent parrying system that makes its Soulslike gameplay feel challenging, yet fair compared to its contemporaries.

Dragon's Dogma 2 is an exhilarating, if occasionally frustrating, RPG full of dynamic player-driven moments.

Alone in the Dark’s clumsy action and boilerplate occult story may be off-putting to new players hoping for a Resident Evil-like glow-up. Meet the remake on its own terms, though, and you’ll find a charming '90s horror homage that doesn’t turn its nose up at gaming’s roots. It revels in its old-school design like a dedicated cultist, even inviting Hollywood actors to dance around the fire with it.

Unicorn Overlord is the strategy RPG fans of the genre have been waiting for.

WWE 2K24 finishes the wrestling series' comeback story with its best installment yet.

Penny's Big Breakaway isn't one of the genre's greats, but it's a very unique and fun 3D platformer.

In another brilliantly self-reflexive action RPG, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth uses gaming’s most iconic bit of dramatic irony to fuel a deeply moving tale of self-doubt and personal rediscovery. It’s a bigger, at times less focused adventure, but one that leaves the kind of life-affirming imprint bound to make it another instant classic.

Skull and Bones turns the Golden Age of Piracy, one of the most exciting periods in history, into a mundane and plodding experience.

Helldivers 2 is one of the most entertaining co-op games you can get on PS5.

For those who harbor warm nostalgia for the Game Boy Advance era, Mario vs. Donkey Kong is a fun and faithful remake with some solid new puzzles and an unexpectedly terrific soundtrack. It’s an odd choice for a revisit, though, as the first-draft puzzles and rigid movement of the original release poke through the Switch version’s modern façade. It’s less of an exciting new Switch game and more like something light to hold Nintendo fans over while they wait for a shiny new console.

Islands of Insight is the modern reinvention the puzzle genre needs.

Foamstars' core gameplay offers plenty of strategic fun, but you'll have to grit your teeth through some of its worst instincts to enjoy them.

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden delivers both slick action and tough moral choices.

Ultros is a bold and beautiful artistic vision, but a convoluted Metroidvania.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League constantly finds ways to stop players from enjoying this bombastic cooperative shooter.

Lysfanga: The Time Shift Warrior's time-bending combat hook is so smart, you'll want to show it to everyone you know.

Whether you love the high-octane spectacle of Final Fantasy XVI or the character collection of Genshin Impact, Granblue Fantasy: Relink has a little something for you. It’s a smart blend of ideas, even if it's a bit torn between console and mobile gaming philosophies. More importantly, though, it does all that without sacrificing the playful energy the RPG genre was built on.

Even if it’s not quite the best possible version of itself thanks to some missing content from its past versions, Reload is the definitive way to experience Persona 3. It’s a remake that will keep fans of the original happy, while bringing series’ newcomers a smoother RPG experience built on the bones of one of the genre’s best games.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is the most emotionally impactful chapter in gaming’s best soap opera. It struggles to stay fully engaging from start to finish due to a supersized runtime filled with exhausting exposition dumps, but developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio delivers a deeply personal story that’s serious without sacrificing its heart. If any video game could leave you with a new lease on life, it’s this.

Despite its poor Arcade Quest mode, Tekken 8 is another great entry in one of the fighting genre's best series. Whether you come for the story or just the core brawling, the team at Bandai Namco makes sure there's something everyone can enjoy here. It's a tight package that loads a lot of surprises into every corner and another fighting game that's very much worth your time in a true golden age for the genre.

Another Code: Recollection left me with a lasting impression that's sure to keep my memory of the lost series alive.

As a double-dip built for superfans, The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered is a fine (though inaccurately titled) collector’s edition with some valuable archival material. But as an extension of Naughty Dog’s creative vision, it’s borderline mockery that turns a thoughtful story into a cruel punch line.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is the best Metroidvania since 2021's Metroid Dread. It sticks to the rewarding style of exploration that makes this genre great while ensuring that experience is as seamless as possible thanks to the innovative Memory Shards system and helpful Guided Mode option. All of that is held up by a backbone of silky smooth platforming and combat that's as easy or difficult as you want it to be.

God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla isn't just a fun free DLC; it's a fitting epilogue to the entire God of War series.

Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince is fun enough to give frustrated Pokémon fans a solid alternative.

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader delivers a dream CRPG for Warhammer fans if you can get past its bugs.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora tries to have its cake and eat it too. It wants to respect James Cameron’s cinematic vision by adapting Na’vi culture to an interactive medium while still packing in every open-world action trope possible. For a story about a race that only takes what it needs from nature, Frontiers of Pandora sure seems obsessed with excess.

A Highland Song successfully brings the awe-inspiring freedom of Breath of the Wild to the Scottish Highlands.

Arizona Sunshine 2's technical problems prevent an otherwise solid zombie VR shooter from reaching its full potential.

The fun, snappy Sonic Dream Team might just hold the blueprints for the hedgehog's future.

American Arcadia turns The Truman Show into an interactive indie thriller you don't want to miss.

I hesitate to call Super Mario RPG an improvement over the 1996 version. It’s still the same whimsical adventure that I’ll never tire of playing, but it loses a bit of what made the original special amid a stack of tweaks that go both too far and not far enough. I imagine that a lot of players will stick to the original on future replays, opting to soak in its dense pixels and dark landscapes.

Persona 5 Tactica's strategic elements are its highlights, but don't expect it to take your heart.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 might just be the series' worst installment yet.

Thankfully, these issues don’t overshadow the impressive feat that Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 achieves. The sequel takes so many steps beyond its predecessor that it nearly feels like a different beast entirely. And the actual fighting at its heart? That’s what makes it an all-star.

Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name satisfyingly ties up many loose ends in Kiryu's story, but it's one of the franchise's most tedious adventures.

The Talos Principle 2 turns puzzle solving into a sacred act with its super-sized suite of intellectual challenges.

While its creative gameplay ideas are spread thin, Thirsty Suitors offers a charmingly nuanced coming of age story about messy adults.

WarioWare: Move It! is a joyously fun return to the series motion-control era, though it doesn't evolve the formula too much.”

Jusant's creative take on climbing and a minimalistic approach to storytelling make it one of the boldest titles from Don't Nod so far.

Song of Nunu is Riot Forge's best game yet, emphasizing gameplay variety and an emotional narrative about processing grief.

Save for a few odd gameplay quirks and frustrating tech issues at launch, Alan Wake 2 is Remedy Interactive’s most confident, fully realized creative vision to date. It fully pays off the long-simmering potential of the studio’s interconnected universe to create a densely detailed, cerebral experience about the nature of horror – both in the nightmares we face in everyday life and the scary stories we create to cope with them.

Ghostrunner 2's intense action is a fun as ever, but the ambitious sequel overthinks a lean concept with messy new features.

The 7th Guest VR is haunted by clumsy motion controls, but satisfying puzzle design keeps this 90s PC remake alive.

With its wealth of unpredictable levels, Super Mario Bros. Wonder is the series’ best 2D entry since its SNES days. It’s still the same familiar platformer, but one that’s been given a new lease on life thanks to a fantastic new art style, delightfully absurd transformations, and flexible difficulty. It’s the closest I’ve gotten to recapturing those magic moments with the original platformers, even if there’s still room for Mario to grow into his new overalls.

Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged enhances the original's formula in every possible way.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 delivers a personal story about two busybodies struggling to find balance in their lives, while all webbed up in larger-than-life comic book arcs. That’s a perfect match for Insomniac’s winning action-adventure formula, which is improved in almost every conceivable way here. Its expansive narrative and open-world checklists may feel overwhelming at times, but that effectively drives home its ultimate point: Great power isn’t a cure for great responsibility.

Saltsea Chronicles is a poignant nautical adventure about the distances between us and what we gain from crossing them.

Like recent mainline Pokémon games, Detective Pikachu Returns struggles to find a way for the franchise's wide-ranging fanbase to coexist. Childproofed investigation systems don’t leave much room for surprise in a string of heavily telegraphed cases. Thankfully, both kids and adults will find some common ground in a playful adventure that has a lot of fun bringing personality to the series’ various critters.

At first, Assassin’s Creed Mirage seems like it’s going through all of the proper classical motions of an old-school Assassin’s Creed, but it lacks the passion and innovation necessary to make it a truly memorable installment. While Ubisoft’s ability to create historical locations in immaculate detail is still unmatched, the bland story and missions demonstrate that Assassin’s Creed still needs to make a true leap of faith.

Forza Motorsport cements itself as one of the best-looking and most approachable racing simulators to date. It can sometimes feel too clinical, but the core driving is perfectly fine-tuned. It’s a tremendous first-party visual showpiece that demonstrates the power of the Xbox Series X and provides a consistent sense of progression to modify the experience. The work was worth it; Forza Motorsport seems well-equipped to handle the long live service journey ahead.

Cocoon is a mesmerizing debut for Geometric Interactive that's filled with ingenious puzzles that will unlock your animal instincts.

El Paso, Elsewhere is an intense, personal indie shooter that you'll want to see through to the end.

Payday 3 doesn't shake up its predecessor's formula much, but a strong batch of initial heists sets the live service shooter up for success.

Mortal Kombat 1's creative Kameo system helps reinvent the classic fighting series, but poor single-player offerings feel like a step back.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty wants you to feel like a pawn being led around by a carrot on a stick -- one we know V will never reach since the story takes place before the end of the game proper. That conceit would normally diffuse any tension or stakes, but in this case, it adds to the DLC's thematic power. Your promised liberation is but a phantom. The reason you play along all the same is because the characters, world, and stakes all feel real.

The Teal Mask contains your average monste- catching fun, but it doesn't do enough to address Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's biggest problems.

Lies of P makes it clear that developer Neowiz has a deep appreciation and understanding for FromSoftware;s games that goes beyond a surface-level copy.

Chants of Sennaar is an ingenious linguistic puzzle game that takes the right notes from genre greats like Return of the Obra Dinn.

Starfield isn’t the generation-defining video game that overeager fans might be expecting; it’s a fairly typical, though impressively constructed Bethesda RPG where depth and stability often come at the expense of scope. The surprisingly limited base adventure isn’t so much the draw here, though. The enormous intergalactic playground feels custom-made for modders who want to explore the infinite possibilities of space just as much as Constellation and Bethesda itself.

Baldur's Gate 3 is a staggering CRPG with a level of player freedom that make its possibilities feel endless.

Sea of Stars goes beyond retro homage to deliver a moving indie RPG with a strong combat system at its heart.

Samba de Amigo: Party Central is a charming hit of motion-controlled nostalgia, though inconsistent controller detection can be a buzzkill.

Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon is a powerful mech flying with faulty thrusters. A fast-paced action game loaded with thrilling dogfights and stimulating mech customization is dragged down by all too familiar FromSoftware quirks like illegible UI and a headache-inducing third-person camera. It’s not enough to fully spoil an exciting ride, but it does leave me wondering how far a good tune-up would have gone.

Immortals of Aveum is a colorful magic FPS that's sometimes too snarky for its own good.

While it commits its fair share of game design sins, Blasphemous 2 delivers a rewarding, unsettling Metroidvania that's worthy of some devotion.

Atlas Fallen has some ambitious ideas for a game of its scale, but its poor presentation holds back a promising combat system.

Venba delivers an elegantly nuanced story about cultural identity through sharply written dialogue and meaningful cooking interludes.

Disney Illusion Island is a charming all-ages platformer that acts as a breezy introduction to the Metroidvania genre.

Exoprimal demands a lot of patience, but those who stick with it will uncover a shockingly innovative multiplayer shooter.

Though faithful fans might be put off by a more laid-back sequel that’s over-eager to hold players’ hands, Pikmin 4 is a purposeful reconstruction of Nintendo’s most niche series. A stressful comedy of errors becomes a digestible puzzle-strategy hybrid that gives players valuable organization strategies that are just as useful in real life as they are on their Nintendo Switch adventure.

Viewfinder is an ingenious puzzle game that wows at every turn, even if its sci-fi story stretches to find deeper meaning in its mind-bending photo hook.

Oxenfree II: Lost Signals is another narrative hit for Night School, delivering a slow-burn story that expertly weaves together supernatural horror with an introspective story of self-discovery. The sequel does find itself struggling with its own identity crisis though, as tedious interactivity leaves me wondering if the studio’s heart is more in movies or TV than video games.

Everybody 1-2-Switch! is a perfectly enjoyable minigame collection dragged down by what feel like obvious oversights.

Synapse is a flashy PlayStation VR2 exclusive roguelite that gets too repetitive for its own good.

AEW: Fight Forever will win over N64 nostalgists, but anyone looking for a modern wrestling experience may be let down by an unpolished, bare-bones package.

Final Fantasy XVI delivers on the “action” side of its action-RPG formula. A fierce and fast-paced combat system makes for the series’ most exciting stab at real-time swordplay yet, while its blockbuster Eikon fights rank among some of gaming’s most awe-inspiring battles. But there’s a general flatness surrounding those exhilarating highs, as shallow RPG hooks and dated design leave a promising evolution for the series stuck in the past.

Pixel Ripped 1978 brings Atari nostalgia to VR in a charming adventure that feels a little too removed from reality at times.

Diablo 4 strides out of the gate with an impressive blend of engrossing storytelling, engaging gameplay, and top-tier audio-visual design. As a result, it stands as a groundbreaking addition to the ARPG genre, despite my hovering concerns about its compulsory persistent multiplayer and potential future microtransactions.

Street Fighter 6 feels like the most significant revelation for the fighting game genre since Street Fighter 2. No matter the skill level, all types of players will find something to enjoy here -- and even feel represented in some way. And for the most part, it does all of those things well while looking incredibly stylish.

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is a disaster in a way that I sincerely thought wasn’t possible anymore. With so much money on the line, I thought we’d long passed the days where a game as transparently bad as Superman 64 could exist. Popular IPs are like gold in 2023, and companies carefully guard them like protective dragons. And yet, Gollum seems to have slipped by the watchful eye of so many stakeholders undetected. It’s a rare sight in the modern gaming landscape, and one that almost makes me nostalgic for the bad games of my childhood.