Assassin’s Creed Odyssey features a rich, lush world lessened by its repetitive activities. Though the main story is compelling, completing it requires you to participate in a massive amount of level grinding through less-than-stellar side quests. There’s plenty to do in this world, but a lot of it feels like busy work that fights to stay exciting or compelling. Odyssey is yet another open world game that misinterprets the meaning of more content.

Dark Souls II desperately needed Ivory King's detailed frozen wasteland.

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

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 offers story thrills, wacky movement, and a whole lot of microtransactions.

Lost Judgment is a mechanically sound Yakuza spin-off, but its convoluted story makes it feel like a TV show that's gone on a few seasons too long.

Project CARS 2 offers an incredible drive in spite of technical issues and broken AI.

The Division 2 is the best loot shooter I’ve ever played. The cover shooting mechanics are refined, enemy AI is smart and punishing, and the mission design is varied and surprising. Ubisoft has created a wondrously detailed post-apocalyptic Washington D.C. that compels you to keep scouring for loot. The story flounders, but the activities soar all the way through the lengthy story and engaging endgame. The Dark Zones don’t feel as consequential as the main map at the moment, but they still offer additional fun.

Even without any changes to Franchise mode, Madden NFL 18 is the best entry in the series to date. Realistic visuals, overhauled mechanics, and Longshot mode create a more authentic NFL football experience.

Forsaken re-forges Destiny 2 with a dangerously addictive endgame.

Cult of the Lamb excels as a darkly comedic management game, though its roguelite component commits some cardinal sins.

For those whose favorite games list features the three titles in this collection, you’ll probably be over the moon with the opportunity to play them all at any time on either your TV or on the go. Those who missed out on these entries in gaming history will likely have a tough time adapting to their controls but will find wonder and joy in playing Super Mario Galaxy.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine delivers non-stop co-op action in all its gory glory.

The artists and designers at Supergiant are so studied that they manage to ground their most interesting ideas in a shell that makes them smooth and accessible. It’s our favorite game of theirs, and that says a lot.

Right from the very first moments, Hitman 2 is a massive experience. Landscapes are gorgeous playgrounds for chasing objectives and the variety of tools and weapons at your disposal feels endless. Completing all the story missions is just scraping the surface of Hitman 2’s potential as it demands more finesse in your following visits, and shows promise for the future with its current roadmap. Hitman 2 takes everything we enjoyed from Hitman and improves on it, bringing forth the ultimate assassination game.

Death Stranding is The Tree of Life of videogames. Some people will hail it as a technical and narrative masterpiece that pushes the medium forward. Others will simply be bored to tears by the slow, repetitive gameplay. Both takes are valid. Death Stranding is a bold project that’s sure to be as divisive as the political anxiety it’s commenting on. It won’t change the minds of Kojima detractors who think he should just make movies, but the game’s thoughtful social components showcase why he still plays such a vital role in the games industry.

The combat is the most fluid it’s ever been, seamlessly flowing from one move to another. The huge number of attacks and play-style options make it feel like the ideal choice for dedicated fighting game community members while the game-changing Fatal Blows help to make newcomers feel more welcome to the genre. The story mode heightens gameplay with gorgeously-shot cutscenes and the numerous modes will keep you busy for weeks after you’ve finished it. It’s safe to say that the series has long exited the shadow of competitors and that Mortal Kombat 11 stands as the pinnacle of this ascent.

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.

Taken as a complete package, Sonic X Shadow Generations paints a full picture of the series’ long, hard journey. I started by dragging my way through a fun but shallow game that never quite felt right and arrived at a revelatory thrill that feels like the genuine future of the series. The takeaway from all this shouldn’t be to make a third Generations game, put Shadow in the starring role more often, or to even bow down to anyone with a complaint — lord knows that last one is a recipe for disaster these days. Rather, the most positive possible outcome is that it will inspire a moment of self-reflection. We do not grow by plugging our ears, running away from the past, and ignoring anyone who doesn’t say exactly what we want to hear. Growing up is about recognizing our imperfections, and knowing which are worth embracing and which are actually worth working on.

Control feels like the first step in a bigger project for Remedy Entertainment. While it doesn’t reach its full potential in storytelling and there isn’t enough variation in the combat, the powers that are there are great and the creepy atmosphere complement the action well. Traditional single-player games that aren’t bogged down in level-gating or unnecessary role-playing mechanics are a rarity these days, and that alone makes Control worth paying full price for.

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is the most engaging Lego game in years, thanks to its deeper gameplay and all of the faithfully recreated Star Wars locales that players can explore. But like the protagonists of each Star Wars trilogy, The Skywalker Saga has an identity crisis. It always feels divided between being an accurate retelling of the Star Wars series and an ambitious galactic sandbox where players can go anywhere as anyone.

Super Mario Party Jamboree’s core board game is still as fun as ever, and made even better thanks to some clever new maps. Its signature minigames, though, are a little more inconsistent as some of Nintendo’s best ideas are almost exclusively saved for hit-and-miss side modes. It’s a multiplayer package that spreads itself thin, but there’s enough fun content here to keep the dice rolling for another turn.

As a standalone story, Death of the Outsider is well worth the price of admission. Although it doesn’t innovate on the gameplay in any meaningful way, it’s as well-designed as anything in the series and fans will enjoy facing new challenges in the streets of Karnaca. We particularly enjoyed the scrappy underdog feeling of playing as Billie, with fewer powers than her protagonist predecessors.

MLB The Show 18 makes some missteps this time around, and if you’re most interested in building up a star in Road to the Show, it’s an especially weak year. That said, with fantastic online play and the expected stellar hitting and pitching, it is still an incredibly fun game, and the best baseball simulator coming out this year.

Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake gives an NES classic the royal treatment it deserves.

NBA2K’s latest installment proves to be an excellent basketball sim, bringing more refined, realistic gameplay, and balances to offense and defense. The MyCareer story is much improved, and the progression system feels more forgiving than previous iterations. While the rest of the package mostly mirrors what we’ve seen before, overall, these marked improvements to the series make it hard to hold it against 2K19.

The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story is an exhilarating action title that you don't need to be a League fan to enjoy.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a return to form for this once-lauded RPG studio that should satiate Dragon Age fans quite well after a decade-long wait. But returning to form and perfecting form are not the same thing. BioWare has plenty of room to regrow as it gets back on track making the kinds of games RPG fans want them to create.

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.