Resident Evil 7 Biohazard is a great new direction for the series that's genuinely scary and is only marginally held back by tedious combat.

The gameplay is the star here. Rise of The Tomb Raider does everything Tomb Raider did and does it better, taking a still-growing heroine into an unfamiliar location and unfolding its lethal mysteries as we grow to meet them. This is still not the game it could be, but it’s remarkable how quickly Crystal Dynamics has taken a half-dead franchise and turned into one of the most vital experiences on the market today, true to its essential character while still feeling absolutely new. This is the new standard for third-person shooter/adventure games. I want another.

Overall, Ace Combat 7 on Switch is as good as it was back in 2019. The performance of the game is also surprisingly good and it plays pretty much identically. You get a few extra DLC trinkets in this release too, but nothing beats unlocking and flying the mighty X-02S Strike Wyvern into the thick of combat.

It is relentlessly charming, consistently charming, and punctuated in every moment by the sheer joy of sucking. When the weather turns cold, pop this one in and imagine the troubles of the world gone, at least for a few hours.

Titanfall 2 is a masterpiece of game design that breathes life into the first-person shooter genre and treats its audience with respect.

Overall, Armored Core VI is a proper mecha action game. It’s not the best game in the series, but it is solidly done. The new target assist setup works fine and is also able to be turned off if need be. The story and localization are great, and very much inline with the Japanese dialogue for the first time in the series’ history. It’s also definitely a return to form for the Armored Core series, but the never-ending boss fights do take away from the decent mission structure and pacing, especially later in the game. However, for someone like me that’s been playing Armored Core games for over 25 years, it’s nice that this series is back and finally being given a proper chance to shine.

Dragon Quest XI is one of the best role-playing games I have ever played. Not only is it wonderfully well-made and great fun but it also has a fantastic story with lovable characters created by Akira Toriyama and a beautiful musical score by the legendary Koichi Sugiyama.

Sonic Mania is probably one of the best Sonic games ever made and is a very carefully and thoughtfully crafted game. It could have easily ended up a complete mess but the design of the game is such that it uses only what it needs to and by keeping things simple, it ends up being a wonderfully focused game.

I think the whole thing works so well, I hope that EA decides to release it on PC, and even on consoles. The brand already has a presence outside of mobile and tablet, and I think this game would do well in the same markets as Hearthstone. And really, I like this game a lot more than the original Plants Vs. Zombies. It’s harder to compare it to Garden Warfare since that’s a full-blown shooter and it’s like comparing Guacodiles to Zapricots.

Overall, despite all these faults, I found the game enjoyable throughout. A great deal of effort clearly went into making this game work and bringing SR388 to life once again. However, as a Metroid game, it still falls short of earlier releases.

If you’re a sports gamer who isn’t necessarily into hockey video games, you may be missing out on a title that has produced a rapidly improving product over the past two years. NHL 20 is my favorite edition of the series since NHL 13, and one of the best in franchise history.

Overall, Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a good game but not a great one. The echoes setup is certainly cerebral, but the lack of basic combat moves outside of the Swordfighter Form is jarring and only emphasized further at the end of the game. Here’s hoping that the next time Zelda ventures out into the wild world of Hyrule, someone remembers to give her a sword.

Overall, this is a good PC port of the first Dragon Quest Builders but has some weird design changes taken from the second game that take away from what originally made this game so special. If you have no other option than to pick up the PC version, you will definitely enjoy yourself, but it’s sadly not as good as the PlayStation 4 and Switch versions.

I really do love this game. Yes, Bethesda doesn’t match some of its peers in many places, but in part that’s because it’s trying to do everything, all at once. But if you wanted a giant Bethesda RPG set in space with better combat and a whole lot of time to level and build things and explore and find secrets, yeah, this is it. They did it. Enjoy.

Overall, Metal Gear Solid Delta is a superb remake of probably the best stealth action game ever made. It’s even more impressive that this was achieved with an insane level of accuracy in a completely separate engine and toolset. I would even go so far as to say that this version supersedes the original in almost every way, and comes highly recommended to anyone who wants to crawl on their belly through a jungle while eating snakes.

Pragmata is a very fresh take on a modern third-person shooter, with a unique combat setup that is equal parts tactics and brute force skill. It also looks wonderful throughout, and the interactions between Hugh, Diana, and Cabin are a lot of fun and genuinely sweet. It may be a bit too early to call, but thus far, this is easily my game of the year.

On a whole, you can tell the dev team focused most of their attention on tightening gameplay. That’s understandable, but this approach has left many of the modes feeling a tad empty.

Overall, Octopath Traveler II is an excellent sequel to the endearing and much loved first game. It doesn’t offer up anything all that new in the gameplay department, but all the new characters and their stories are nicely engaging, as is the excellent combat.

The Show is still striving for perfection, but if you love baseball and video games, you need this in your life.

It’s hard to imagine that Destiny 2 won’t satisfy fans of the original, but it’s also the type of game that will allow new players to jump right in, and skip some of the worst growing pains of the series. While there’s still room for improvement, and for this universe to live up to its full potential, Destiny 2 makes undeniable progress, and reinforces the idea that this is a series we’ll be playing for at least an entire decade, when all is said and done.

If you count yourself among a smaller audience that, for example, knows what an RTS or a Metroidvania is, this is a great game. It does exactly what it sets out to do, and it does it well, but it will feel overwhelming to those that have signed on during the Switch era.

Dragon Quest Builders 2 is a good game but not a great one. Its main mistake is trying to do too much and reducing the effectiveness of the player in combat and building. My only hope is that the eventual third game returns to a more focused approach, as I really feel that with the Dragon Quest Builders series, these games benefit from the mantra that less is more.

The Show looks good, plays great and is deep enough to overshadow moderately unbalanced visuals and a slight void of personality. If you’ve always loved the series, the fire will still burn despite the minor infractions.

Overall, Kirby and the Forgotten Land is an amazing and involved modern platformer, with a surprising amount of content. While Super Mario 3D World gets a lot of attention on the Switch, Kirby and the Forgotten Land is actually the better game and pushes the platforming genre forward in a surprisingly involved way.

With its strong gameplay, deep feature set and above-average visuals, the good far outweighs the bad with Dirt 4.

This is truly one of the best racing games you'll ever play.

Overall, it comes down to this; should you buy Pokémon Ultra Sun and Pokémon Ultra Moon if you already bought and played through Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon. The answer is an emphatic yes. There is a lot of new content in these Ultra versions to warrant an all-new playthrough, not to mention the swathes of improvements and other changes to the games. Considering how good Sun and Moon were, these new Ultra versions improve upon those games noticeably.

There isn’t a ton to dislike about F1 2021. The latest version adds to the series’ win streak with another strong iteration. With a few additional layers to the visual and audio presentation, we could have been looking at a form of racing perfection. As it is, F1 2021 is still really good.