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.