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

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

Hogwarts Legacy delivers a perfectly competent adventure, but its most unforgivable curse is its lack of imagination. Despite having access to an entire universe of possibilities, its sole trick is using magic to cover up tired video game clichés that feel entirely disconnected from the vibrant source material it’s adapting. The only unique aspect it brings to the open-world genre is franchise branding, making for a shallow experience that doesn’t offer much more than wish fulfillment for fans unable to let go of a dream.

Despite its inventive take on the zombie survival genre, State of Decay 2 struggles with technical issues. Cooperative multiplayer and flexible play may appeal to some, but its pacing issues and a barrage of bugs make it a hard sell.

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.

FBC: Firebreak hides a fine co-op shooter behind a tedious grind.

This is a series that refuses to grow, even as it chases an older audience.

We can imagine a Metal Gear game with zombies that would be a lot of fun, but Metal Gear Survive is not that game. Everything about it, from the thin and uninspiring story and characters to the survival systems and combat, feels tuned to keep you busy, but not entertained. It’s a game that crams in mechanics and ideas without finding a way to make them fun together, while always failing to respect players’ time.

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

South Park: The Fractured But Whole isn’t an even experience. Some moments are fun and pretty funny, but others feel pretty uninspired. Exploring the town of South Park isn’t as novel this time out, and it largely isn’t as funny. RPG systems like combat, looting and crafting are just involved enough to make them interesting, but the firm emphasis is on the story and humor of the show. With the plot taking a while to develop and with so many jokes just feeling played out, loose on their landings or easy and obvious, it’s tough to really get excited to head back down to South Park.

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.

Gungrave G.O.R.E delivers on the run-and-gun, stylish action with a modern PS2-like coat of paint that you'll either love or hate.

I’ve played a decent number of RPG expansions in my time, and a majority of them have built on what makes the base game good. Whether it was The Witcher 3‘s Blood and Wine or New Vegas‘ Old World Blues, a good DLC takes the best aspects of the base game and raises them up while including a unique, new spin. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla‘s Siege of Paris is antithetical to that. The game’s best parts — its world and characters — are left in the muck, while a boring gameplay loop and heavy-handed story take center stage. Of course, some players will enjoy having more of the same to explore, but considering how long it takes to even finish Valhalla, I couldn’t imagine coming back for seconds. When I first arrived in the game’s version of Paris, I saw an exhausted, burnt-out land. When I left it, I could certainly sympathize.

Valkyrie Elysium delivers an average action experience that fails to revive a classic RPG series.

Destruction AllStars has a sturdy engine, but it’s overworked in almost every respect. The needless on-foot component and character abilities clutter an otherwise light but fun pick-up-and-play game with satisfying wrecks. Toss in some overeager DualSense support, and the result is a multiplayer game that’s chaotic for all the wrong reasons.

Tunic desperately tries to recreate the magic of classic Legend of Zelda games, all too often doing so to a fault. It tries to be hands-off and instead leaves the player with no idea of where to go. It wants to have simple combat, akin to something like the Zelda Oracle games, but that approach gets stale incredibly fast here. More than anything though, Tunic left me feeling lost in its mysteries, which I didn’t want to solve out of need or drive, but because I couldn’t bear them anymore.

Anger Foot's one-note action gimmick can't find a second leg to stand on.

Redfall makes concessions to work as a middling multiplayer game at the expense of a promising single-player experience.

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.

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

If you've played a game bySpiders, Steelrising is the same story. It's a game with lofty ambitions, aiming to compete with the best in the genre, but ultimately lacking the resources and polish to pull it off. I admire a studio stretching to push beyond its perceived ability, but working within limitations is crucial. If this is a path Spiders is truly committed to taking, I hope it can find its footing in its next project. The studio has loads of promise with its RPG experience and its ability to lay solid groundwork for action combat. But Steelrising feels more like a prototype than what the studio is truly capable of.

The Saints go straight to hell, both literally and metaphorically, in Saints Row IV standalone expansion, Gat Out of Hell.

Monark tries a lot of new ideas, but only finds success with an intriguing battle system ... and even that has a mileage that may vary.

Agents of Mayhem is a generic take on the city open world shooter. A diverse cast of heroes and a few funny one liners save it from being downright bad, but its repetitive missions and bland world firmly solidify its mediocrity.

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

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.

Madden NFL 23 is an improved game when compared to Madden NFL 22, but that isn't enough to make it good.

Assassin’s Creed Unity may be an incredible piece of architecture, but that’s sadly all it is.