Like a Dragon: Ishin's timeless story and accessibility options make up for some of its outdated gameplay.

MechWarrior 5: Clans delivers 100 tons of BattleMech joy with outstanding missions and superb storytelling.

“Endearing” is the best way to describe Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. It constantly laughs at itself and wants you to smile and laugh along with it, and most of the time, I did. Borderlands fans and tabletop game enthusiasts in particular will find a lot to love here. Even if you’re not a longtime fan, there really is something for everyone to enjoy in Tina’s latest adventure.

Detroit: Become Human pushes ‘Heavy Rain’ and ‘Beyond: Two Souls’ designer David Cage's vision of games as playable movies further than it has ever gone. The results are mixed, but it’s an undeniable accomplishment as an adventure game.

A Way Out is a better idea than it is a game. There’s something to its cinematic presentation, its parallel stories, and its bespoke cooperative gameplay. It just never comes together as the unique, exciting game it’s clearly striving to be. The plot simply isn’t that strong, the dialogue is never very compelling, and the characters don’t develop beyond their broadly drawn archetypes. Without those things, A Way Out never lives up to its potential.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity sets the bar for both Nintendo spinoffs with A+ storytelling that enhances Breath of the Wild’s world and deceptively varied, character-driven combat. It’s still a Dynasty Warriors game at heart, for better or worse, but the game makes that feel like less of a backhanded caveat and more of a fresh start for a polarizing genre.

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.

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

WWE 2K22 is a robust wrestling simulator that gets the series back on track after its nearly career-ending 2020 installment. It’s filled with modes, impressive combat tweaks, and a truly phenomenal creative suite that turn it into a hoss of a game. There’s still work to do if 2K Sports wants to fully rehabilitate the series. Multi-man matches need a rework, its more promising modes need to be expanded, and there’s still plenty of gunk to clean up. But if this is how much an annualized series can turn itself around by taking one year off, then every franchise like it should consider an offseason.

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

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

Fortnite: Battle Royale is a fast-paced arcade alternative to PUBG, but it fails in the tension department. Its good fun when you play like you don’t only have one life, but that in and of itself makes it feel like an oddity that hasn’t quite found its identity yet.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion looks like a modern game, but its aged PSP gameplay doesn't match the HD overhaul.

Pascal's Wager doesn't quite match the impressive standards of its inspiration, but Dark Souls fans should check it out.

Skylanders: Trap Team seems intent on forcing players to open their wallets if they want the full experience of what the game has to offer.

NBA 2K20 takes a step forward with its story, but is hindered by its uninspired gameplay.

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

Cat Quest 3 is a light but charming pirate adventure that'll make you feel like a kid again.

Everybody's Golf is limited in scope, but makes up for it with pure charm.

Built as a way to capitalize on the success of 2022’s Elden Ring without committing to a full sequel, Nightreign puts a clever co-op spin on the open-world game by turning it into a roguelike. It’s a smart remix that gets more use out of existing assets while inventing a replayable multiplayer game with unexpected strategic depth despite its RPG hooks being much more streamlined than a standard Soulslike. Fully finding that hook takes a lot of effort, but it pays off for those patient enough to push through its most obvious flaws.

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble is the robust revival this classic series deserved.

Need for Speed Unbound is not trying to be an ultrarealistic simulator or even a super comprehensive open-world online racing game experience. It wants to be a stylish, tough, and rewarding ode to street racing culture. While it’s not the best in its genre due to some weak writing and eventual repetition, Need for Speed Unbound is a surprisingly entertaining racer in a year that hasn’t seen much racing game excitement since Gran Turismo 7.

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.

Technically, No Man’s Sky delivers the idea Hello Games promised — a massive sci-fi playground for you to explore. However, once you’ve spent some time poking around, it’s hard not to notice that the playground feels fairly empty, even two years later and after massive content additions.

Nintendo Labo is an awesome new way to help kids think and play creatively.

Brothership’s problems will look familiar to anyone who found themselves disappointed by games like Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam or Paper Mario: Sticker Star. Nintendo has seemingly convinced itself that every Mario RPG needs to have bespoke gimmicks. It’s not enough to give players a well-written story and iterate on a solid combat foundation; there always has to be a twist, or two, or three. Those layers drag Brothership down the longer the adventure goes on, making even its intriguing climax feel exhausting by the end.

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

Promise Mascot Agency is a positively zany yakuza adventure that's an unpredictable delight.

Riders Republic makes the best use of Ubisoft’s open-world template. It’s a consistently fun extreme sports game with tons of variety, a wealth of challenges to chase, and excellent social hooks. All of its sporting events are easy to pick up and play, making it perfectly suited for quick drop-ins. Its sense of style is a little out of whack and it doesn’t have the most elegant camera solution, but I’m always eager to fire it up and see how much more it can one-up its zaniness.

The Disney magic shines brightly in Fantasia: Music Evolved, and Harmonix has delivered another great reason to own a Kinect.

South of Midnight is a tremendous display of artistry, even if its gameplay doesn't hit the same heights.

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

Zenless Zone Zero is at its best when it's delivering stylish action over puzzles.

Graceful movement and jaw-dropping fights against colossal monsters make Solar Ash a worthy follow-up to Hyper Light Drifter. [Recommended]

Immortals Fenyx Rising merges the best and worst of Ubisoft games with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

With As Dusk Falls, Interior Night and Xbox Game Studios are testing the limits of what an interactive narrative adventure game can be. It's certainly odd for this to be one of the biggest Xbox exclusives of 2022, but it keenly demonstrates that there's still a lot that developers can do to innovate within a genre that seems limited at first glance.

Sniper Elite 5 is an increasingly rare WWII game that actually does something new with the conflict. While its story has nothing new to say and its commitment to history can be a burden on its creative potential, its open-ended missions make for a devilishly enjoyable stealth action game. Its excessive violence can be a little hard to stomach, even for the most hardened gamers, but you can’t have a guilty pleasure without a heaping helping of self-indulgence.

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

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

The Brave and Default combat system strikes a near-perfect balance between two rival battle mechanics that have struggled to coexist over the decades, but that’s about the extent of the game’s individuality. Beyond that, it features a comically overused premise, music that’s simply remixed to suit your current locale, countless dungeons that offer no new experiences and only serve to pad the game’s supposed worth, and an overall gameplay loop that’s worn out before the end of the first chapter. Besides looking a bit nicer on newer hardware, the reason for this sequel’s existence isn’t clear.

If you are looking for a fresh new multiplayer arena shooter experience, LawBreakers is great at blazing its own zero-g path, and does so at a $30 “budget” price. That’s if you’re looking. With more open-ended multiplayer shooters available than ever, you may be fine with the shooter you’ve got.

Tchia pays tribute to New Caledonia with a gorgeous open-world game that takes the right notes from Breath of the Wild.

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania should include everything fans love about the series: Skill-based difficulty, great music, fun minigames, and excellent replayability with a good group of buddies by your side. Unfortunately, this collection feels like a rushed remake that throws out the precise controls and stellar music of the original titles. The charm and fun gameplay of the original games are still there, but this remake doesn’t feel like much of an improvement over the classics.

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.

World of Goo 2 is the meta sequel that the eccentric puzzle classic deserves.

While it has its quirks, Weird West is a bit of storytelling spectacle that seems to have been hand-crafted for diehard RPG fans.

A solid shooter standing atop fan service and nostalgia.

Revenge of the Savage Planet plays its open-world formula safe, but it shows its teeth where it matters.

With a slow plot and uninteresting characters, Dying Light 2: Stay Human's few redeeming qualities are what sets the franchise apart from other zombie games out there.

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

The Evil Within 2 overhauls every aspect of the original to create a surprisingly adept sequel that makes us a hungry for more. Both gunplay and stealth have been refined and lend themselves well to the restrained open world format. Its surprisingly heartfelt narrative and many twist and turns round out the experience.

12 Minutes is something unique and experimental, and like any experiment, there are going to be some hiccups. As it turns out, this game’s main fault was that it, by its nature, rips time from its players. But between those moments, it tells a brilliant story, one in which you can go back to any chapter and decide to do a rewrite. 12 Minutes certainly won’t be for everyone, but if you’re looking for a change of pace, the game comes recommended highly.

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

WarioWare: Get It Together's character-swapping gimmick adds unnecessary confusion to a perfectly enjoyable microgame collection.

By locking away the other two monster classes at the beginning, Evolve needlessly gates off completely different styles of play that new players will want to experiment with immediately, if only to get a feel for competition. Even in the case of the hunters, the slow leveling and unlocking of new skills, perks, and characters feels needlessly complex in what could have been a simpler and more approachable game.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game — Complete Edition is a much-needed re-release that faithfully preserves the long lost original. The outdated beat-’em-up combat and light features may not live up to fans’ almost mythological memory, but just being able to find that out is a victory in its own right.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II doesn't quite live up to the heights set by the game it reboots, but it's still great for those just looking for some fun online shootouts.

There isn’t a AAA game out there that doesn’t exist to make money, but Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel stumps for dollars in a brazenly insipid way. It’s a paint-by-numbers effort, almost from top to bottom.

Exciting from the title screen to the closing credits, Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a tremendous thrill ride. It’s the definitive final chapter for story threads we’ve been following since 2013’s game, but also leaves the door open for more adventures in the future. We’ve got our fingers crossed that this isn’t Lara’s last hurrah. It doesn’t matter where she travels. Lara is going to be involved in some precarious predicaments, and we want to be there with her.

At its core, there’s a solid Mario Kart game here, and I hope the environmental and gate effects are brought over to the main series for the proper ninth installment, as I think those additions could add something to the franchise. Still, Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit has too many little annoyances that can only be alleviated by having a perfectly sized, perfectly lit space — like the one in Nintendo’s promotional materials. This might still be a hit with children, or anyone else less interested is Home Circuit as a game than a toy, but anyone hoping for depth or replaying the game will be disappointed.

NHL 18 bites off more than it can chew in terms of new gameplay moves, although the defensive skill stick is a welcome feature. The arcade game mode NHL Threes delivers fast and lasting fun, but the simulation modes — the series’ most important components — lacks personality in an age when most sports games ooze personality.

What’s included in Mario Tennis Aces makes the game a great choice for Mario and tennis fans alike, and we can see dedicated players competing in high-level player over the next few months, but we wish there was more meat. Unless you plan on becoming really good at online player, or constantly have visitors at your home, you’ll be limited to only a few modes, none of which are likely to keep you entertained for more than an hour or so at a time. For a commute, or something to play before work or bed, it does the job — but don’t expect it to keep your attention throughout the summer.

For every mission of dull gunplay, though, Saints Row IV offers up something freaky in response.

Visions of Mana isn't the most sophisticated RPG, but it's good comfort food for genre fans.

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.

Absolver’s is hyper-focused on its fighting system, and the work Sloclap did there pays off. Its combination of cool systems, like learning fighting moves from enemies and player mentors, creating your own combos, and carefully and strategically using them during fights, makes every battle feel intense and important, especially in multiplayer scenarios. While everything else surrounding that system feels a bit anemic by comparison, the mix of great ideas Absolver brings to its core concept carries the rest, and should inspire plenty of other fighting and action games.

Buy it if you want a competitive racer that’s willing to hold your hand while you take your time honing your skills. Don’t buy it if you’re more into building massive collections of your favorite cars, or if you only ever playing by yourself. If that’s your preferred style, grab Forza 7 instead.

Outside of its stunning visuals, Hot Wheels Unleashed is a toothless kart racer, relying too heavily on nostalgia goggles and the Hot Wheels brand to carry it instead of the solid ideas that end up hardly being implemented. What players get with Hot Wheels Unleashed is the same experience I had with many of my Hot Wheels as a child; I was entertained for a few hours, then grew bored and tossed it in a box. That’s not to say that I didn’t have fun with the game. Those few hours were full of spectacle, because it’s simply impossible to not get caught up in the game’s sights and sounds. Eventually, though, it’s going to take more than racing a hot dog car down a strip of vinyl track to keep me interested.

Fear the Spotlight is an imperfect, but sincere lo-fi horror debut for Blumhouse Games.

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

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

A Little to the Left might be this year's most plesant game thanks to its cathartic organization puzzles.

Ghostwire: Tokyo is at its best when it's reimagining Japanese folklore in visually astonishing ways and delivering moving visualizations of what it’s like to pass on. It’s less compelling as a checkbox-driven open-world game, with limited content stretched too thin across its apocalyptic version of Shibuya.

It’s a game that seemingly aims to bottle lighting a second time, and fails spectacularly.

Sniper Elite: Resistance offers more of the same action with virtually no surprises and a dull World War 2 story. That’s perfectly fine considering that the Rebellion team is still great at the one thing they’ve dedicated their career to doing: creating tightly designed murder playgrounds for those who want to vent their real world political frustrations in the safety of a virtual shooting gallery.

Revelations 2 is neither a particularly good game nor a particularly bad one. It has all the ingredients of a good Resident Evil game, but lacks substance.

No More Heroes 3 is one of the best action games of the year and offers some well-rounded fun. The writing, gameplay, performance, music, and virtually everything else come together to deliver a must-play game for the Nintendo Switch, just as the original did back in 2007 on the Nintendo Wii. Fans of Suda51, No More Heroes, action games, and a hilariously good time need to give this one a try. If you weren’t a fan of developer Grasshopper Manufacture and Suda before, you will be after this one.

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

Marvel Rivals is the most entertaining hero shooter since Overwatch.

An enjoyable real-time strategy game held back by a lack of polish and content.

Flock will bring out the inner birdwatcher in you, even if only for a few short hours.

In a sea of tactical shooters, Fragpunk is the one finally willing to challenge the status quo.

Ara: History Untold brings city-building to Civilization with strategic success.

The higher resolution leads to a sort of spatial uncanny valley, leaving the world feeling a little cold, a little off.

Emio — The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club is a refreshingly mature turn for Nintendo in more ways than one.

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

Tron: Identity is a smart and respectful use of the classic series, turning it into a gripping sci-fi detective story.

Don’t let concerns with Techland’s previous Dead Island games stop you from taking on a chance on Dying Light. You have to slog through some really terrible story missions and some very janky combat, but there’s a detailed world to discover, and a lot of fun mechanics to take advantage of.

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

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

Playing Afterparty feels like a bad night out with friends. Things didn’t go as expected, but it’s still fun.

Lost Records: Bloom and Rage pays tribute to 90s angst and the riot grrrl rock in a deeply moving coming of age story.

In its latest action-adventure game, Sniper Elite developer Rebellion lays out a solid plan to thrive in a wasteland of nuclear apocalypse games. Rather than aping Fallout or Stalker’s action RPG formula, the more streamlined Atomfall scavenges together some original ideas in its deconstructed quests and an emphasis on bartering. That could have made for a compelling survival story built around open-ended exploration, but it’s those pesky details that will get you killed during a nuclear disaster.

One Piece Odyssey isn’t the most perfect adventure, but it is a grand one that plays to its strengths. It sets out to be a journey that anyone can enjoy, and achieves it by embracing well-established formulas while adding its own flavor into the mix. While there are a few bad winds pushing the ship away from the harbor of being a perfect experience, this is an excellent addition to the JRPG genre and one that I think you should try out whether you’re a big One Piece fan or just an appreciator of JRPGs.

Mafia: The Old Country is a game at war with itself. None of the pieces it puts down fit together to form a unified picture. It lacks any standout gameplay system to build around, nor a strong character with clear motivations to give the game a distinct identity. It is a game that feels torn between multiple different directions, with the only piece left unscathed being the strong performances, an authentic historical setting, and the writing of the supporting cast. However, that can't hold up a barebones gameplay experience and narrative hook that takes way too long to take hold. This is one offer you can safely refuse.

Chorus' stellar space combat is brought down by a myriad of design choices that range from frustrating to outright annoying.

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

Is it fair to review a game when I’m still downloading massive patches for it? Whether you believe that answer to be yes or no, the headache-inducing roadblocks that I encountered while playing the highly unstable Stalker 2 have made for a disappointing playthrough. After nearly 15 years of waiting for the next mainline series entry, the game feels less like a groundbreaking continuation and more like a world full of missed opportunities.