Ironcast’s gameplay makes you feel like you are inside a mech’s cockpit, constantly checking on tons of different systems, and becomes very addictive and rewarding as the game goes on.

The gameplay of Crash Team Racing has more layers to it—whether it makes the game more ‘fun’ is up to someone’s playstyle, but I’ll always appreciate manual over automatic.

After years of the series feeling running in place, the roguelite and hero-based approach to Orcs Must Die’s decade-old tower-defense formula feels perfect. Deathtrap is a return to form with much-appreciated new twists like 4-player co-op, upgradable traps, hero abilities, and much bigger maps. Although the barricade limit is a solid deal-breaker, Deathtrap feels and plays like a solid Orcs Must Die! game and finally feels like a proper step forward for a series that felt like it was doomed to be forever chasing past successes.

With some intriguing world-building and phenomenal choices, Tides of Tomorrow is a game that warrants some real investment. It isn't perfect by any metric, but it is good enough to draw you in and reward your time. Seeing everything through, even when it's tough, gives you a sensation of completion that very few games can achieve. With the innovative Social-Link system, there's a real opportunity to create a new sort of way for players to interact, but it hasn't been perfected just yet. Tides of Tomorrow isn't the next big game, but it is a game that will stay with people long after they finish it.

If you haven’t played this game, or series, since 2012 and want to experience a portable-friendly game in a genre not seen often on these kinds of consoles, the Nintendo Switch version of Sniper Elite V2 Remastered should be in your sights. Even though the game itself may be dated in a few areas and this port may technically be the worst current-gen version to pick up from a visual standpoint, the Switch port of Sniper Elite V2 Remastered is competently put together and stands out from the rest of the hybrid console’s third-party library.

Despite some flaws, The Wandering Village still succeeds in creating something unique in the city-building genre that's usually monopolized by AAA titles. It's a game that isn't entirely rooted in building the perfect metropolis or maximizing efficiency by carving a better route to take. Instead, it's about surviving together, adapting together, and the symbiotic relationship between you, the villagers, and the gentle giant carrying you all to mend a broken world. The game feels slightly overpriced for what it is, though it does offer you a lot of replayability after you've finished the story in its Challenge and Sandbox modes.

Date Everything! represents the best parts of the indie gaming scene and captures the zeitgeist of Internet culture. Date Everything! has a clear, vehemently anti-AI message among the rising tide of AI-generated content, showing just how much love and care are put into its creation, with a not-so-subtle anti-AI message about corporations trying to replace people with soulless machines. Despite some shortcomings and frustrating technical difficulties I may have during my playthrough, the good heavily outweighs the problems, and Date Everything! is an absolute riot and an emotional rollercoaster. It's sincere, hilarious, and honest, and is probably one of the most enjoyable indie games I've ever played. As a debut game, Sassy Chap Games knocked it out of the park with this sandbox dating sim. If you appreciate the talent behind voice acting, weird dating sims, and most of all supporting indie studios, then Date Everything! is the perfect game for you.

After a dozen or so hours in Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition, I can safely say that it's the real McCoy. This is not a watered-down port to give Microsoft an easy first-party Xbox Game Pass release. It's the real deal and as feature complete as the PC edition, which is quite an accomplishment. A myriad of quality-of-life improvements makes the original game, while still a classic, very much redundant. The only reason to keep hold of the original is to preserve those big beautiful boxes PC games used to ship in. We're in a new age now, and Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition is the perfect example of taking an ancient game and giving it just enough love to make it feel almost new, something that many other remasters and re-releases so often miss the mark on.

If TumbleSeed intrigues you at all, I would recommend picking it up. The game is as unique and engaging to play as it looks, just be aware of the steep difficulty curve you will most likely run into once you get more serious about passing the starting area. Games this original don’t come around to often, but its always a treat when they do.

A slice of life approach to storytelling with a cast of characters that I’ve had the honor to see evolve over the past seven years. Aside from taking on missions and wrecking thousands of enemies, the story and characters drive this game forward which is important because there is a lot of story here.

There are a few issues like the disconnect between the player and the characters or the omission of any challenge, but the story and the way it is told is done exceptionally well. Quarantine Circular is worth every minute of your time.

Love Eternal delivers on the promise of a psychological-horror platformer in most ways. Its setting and presentation create a world where you're never quite sure what reality you're in, and a big mechanical switch-up halfway through is a wonderful, creative surprise that I'll be thinking about for a long time. The game gets more meta in ways than I could've predicted, and left my own brain scrambled entirely by the end of the short four-hour experience. As a platformer, it's easy to understand, though the unpredictable momentum of movement unfortunately keeps it from feeling as precise as genre enthusiasts will surely prefer. Still, it's one of those "play in one sitting" type of games that you won't want to miss if anything about the premise speaks to you.

Persona 5 Tactica takes a while to really get going, but once it does, you'll have no choice but to stick around for the ride.

Unravel Two is one of the finest puzzle platformers and couch co-op games in 2018.

GNOG serves as a great way to spend an afternoon and one of those rare occurrences where you’ll want that earworm (albeit a relaxed, whimsical one) floating around in your brain.

The game has a decent amount of modes that ultimately all work together in helping the player learn and progress through the game. So if you’ve been itching for a cheap shoot’em up game on the handheld-console hybrid, maybe do yourself a favor and check out this one.

Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath is a really great expansion to an already amazing fighting game.

The game took the developers six years to make, and this is seems to have paid off when looking at in the quality of the visuals, controls, and how well the Chasm’s take on procedural generation and the placement of its rooms works out.

Altogether, this year’s entry in the Call of Duty franchise is as solid it gets.

Scorn's ways are obscure, and often frustrating in a way that gamers who didn’t grow up in the 90s may struggle with more than myself. It's a work of breathtaking vision and uneven execution - from its combat, to its unsatisfying ending that sadly doesn't do justice to the gruelling yet oddly poignant odyssey you embark upon. But for its flaws, Scorn makes a hell of an impression, filling me with equal parts immense curiosity and dread. I don't want to return to it any time soon - maybe ever - but I will be scouring the Subreddits and the Steam boards in an attempt to decipher it for a long time yet.

While it's nowhere near a perfect game, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is an open-world adventure that fans of the franchise will love. DualShockers was provided with a copy of the game for review purposes.

Once you get down into the dilapidated yet impressive levels of the Hive and start swinging, Darktide is as great a swarm shooter experience as any, but it needs to improve much of the surrounding infrastructure to make that core combat experience feel rewarding and meaningful. Who knows? I may even come back in a year to re-review the game (which is something that should generally happen with more game reviews), but in the meantime it’s a simmering cauldron of potential that still feels a little raw.

A beautiful, dark, and atmospheric game set in one of the most alluring Souls-like game settings of recent years that hits too many of the same notes as its predecessor to have quite the same impact.

As the penultimate chapter of the season, Life is Strange 2: Episode 4 brings the story to a head with several challenging situations.

All in all, Elli is a cute, fun, and semi-challenging puzzle platformer, full of variation and surprise to keep your interest through its journey.

Culdcept Revolt is a niche game that is directed at those willing to take a chance on a series that disappeared for quite awhile.

Tormented Souls 2 is a fun, albeit thematically predictable, sequel to a game that served as a delightfully nostalgic surprise to longtime horror fans. It's abundantly clear that Dual Effect has put their heart into this ongoing love letter to classic survival horror, utilizing elements that few other horror indies have dared to touch in favor of modern playstyles and concepts. Charmingly familiar tank control gameplay, ambitious puzzle mechanics that can still feel a bit too heavy-handed for the average player, and thematic horror elements that do work well for the most part. Like its predecessor, Tormented Souls 2 still struggles with storytelling and character elements that just don't quite hit the mark. While it doesn't go as deep as I would like, above all else, it still serves its grandest purpose with all the passion you could ask for.

Oxenfree 2 may lack the surprises and 'WTF' factor of the original game, but the older protagonists and solid writing make this return to the Pacific Northwest worthwhile.