A Hat in Time lacks polish, but it makes up for its shortcomings with excellent platforming and a universe I was happy to be part of. The whole experience is adorable, and in many ways it improves on the very platformers it uses as inspiration.

A Hat in Time lacks polish, but it makes up for its shortcomings with excellent platforming and a universe I was happy to be part of. The whole experience is adorable, and in many ways it improves on the very platformers it uses as inspiration.

A Hat in Time lacks polish, but it makes up for its shortcomings with excellent platforming and a universe I was happy to be part of. The whole experience is adorable, and in many ways it improves on the very platformers it uses as inspiration.

Gorogoa’s artist and designer, Jason Roberts, clearly had a vision with this game and I applaud him and everyone else at developer Buried Signal for making it a reality. But I struggle to recommend this experience, because whatever emotions Gorogoa was hoping to convey, I simply did not feel them.

Navigating the chaotic social structure of a medieval kingdom is no easy task, and the day-to-day life of a queen is not as glorious as it first appears.

Perhaps it's due to Gear Club's mobile roots, but this title is more form than function, which does not give it a strong foundation.

Black Mirror is a difficult game to recommend. The story falls flat, characters are forgettable, and exploration is tedious because of poor environmental design and wonky camera angles. Despite a few clever puzzles, this emotionless journey into gothic horror left me with more questions than answers.

Black Mirror is a difficult game to recommend. The story falls flat, characters are forgettable, and exploration is tedious because of poor environmental design and wonky camera angles. Despite a few clever puzzles, this emotionless journey into gothic horror left me with more questions than answers.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a sprawling RPG with numerous interconnected pieces, so no part of the experience is isolated. It takes about 100 hours to finish, and not all of that time feels well spent, with bloated quests and repetitive combat. On the other hand, the vast world and intricate upgrades are a joy to dive into. Everything evens out in the end, but the wild swings between its highs and lows make it impossible for Xenoblade Chronicles 2 to maintain altitude above its peers.

When all is said and done, Fractured Mask emerges as one of the stronger episodes in both Batman seasons as well as one of the strongest outings of Telltale’s catalog in recent memory. While the old problems are still ever present, watching the Joker’s gradual, earned transformation into villain as well as having to make genuinely difficult choices have me curious about what’s going to be left of Telltale’s Gotham (not to mention Bruce Wayne) by the series’ end.

While many aspects of the story are on a linear path, the consequences of some defining choices do echo into the season’s end, including a few important characters being alive or dead. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t go so far as to suggest that Guardians of the Galaxy offers a particularly compelling spread of choices across its many episodes. Instead, the biggest selling point of the season is the opportunity to glimpse some backstory for these popular superheroes, and explore the interpersonal dynamics that those histories have on the team. If that sounds appealing, there’s good reason to give Guardians a shot. The action may be lackluster, and the path through the story may not be filled with surprises, but I did manage to care how it all shook out for this mismatched squad of heroes, and that’s more than I can say for a lot of video game characters.

The Switch version may suffer visually, but the modular nature of this narrative makes it a perfect companion for gaming on the go.

Battle Chef Bridge is breezy and fun, offering roughly 8 to 10 hours of stressful cooking with a decent narrative and beautiful pastel visuals to pull it along. It may seem lighthearted and innocent, but it succeeds more in being overly chaotic in its match-three gameplay.

Without its many technical issues, Save the Light could have been a good video game adaptation of an excellent show. The involvement of its creator is apparent and the voice cast gave the game the same consideration they do the source material. I even liked the combat and storytelling, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the frustrations of having to frequently restart the game or watch helplessly as Steven’s run animation looped while he stood next to a rock.

WWE 2K18 features some incremental additions, but the action is largely similar to last year’s game. In fact, there were moments where I worried that I’d accidentally booted up 2K17. As it stands, 2K needs to do more to expand its reach beyond the hardcore audience that comes back year after year.

I would love to see more experiments like Skyrim VR and Resident Evil 7 in virtual reality, where fully featured games get ported to this still-young medium. This port is rough, but I’m still hopeful that there is a game out there that works both ways. For now, if you want to revisit Skyrim, your best bet is to boot up one of the editions you already own or grab it on Switch.

If you haven’t played Skyrim, or you’re just looking to return and don’t mind exchanging the mods for convenient portability, the Switch version offers up everything that makes this game a stone-cold classic.

As a revisiting of the excellent Sun and Moon, it feels like a good note to close the generation on, but if you had your fill with Sun and Moon, don’t worry – you aren’t missing anything important.

This is a game aimed at children and younger players, and I imagine that far too many of them will think they’re doing something wrong when a boss battle doesn’t end – not realizing that the trigger to activate the next battle phase didn’t flip for some unknown reason. Perhaps a patch will come and address these issues. Unfortunately, it’s not here yet and I have to review the game in its current state. As it stands, I can’t recommend it to anyone, no matter how deep their love for Lego, Marvel, or past glories from TT Games.

Scattered across its unnaturally lengthy campaign, Payback has several fun event sequences that blend cinematic action with rousing racing. And as players begin to control more sophisticated cars, the sense of excitement and speed can be engaging. Unfortunately, too much of the rest of the game feels lackluster, unpolished, and catered to other priorities besides fun. Payback hits a lot of the checkpoints on a bullet list for a big modern racing adventure, but lacks the discipline and execution to come in for anything but a disappointing finish.

Technical limitations make the Switch version the worst way to experience id’s fantastic Doom reboot, but the stellar campaign is still there underneath the layers of muddy textures and resolution dips. Despite its less attractive veneer, being able to play such a demanding game on the go is still a strong selling point.

The dark side courses through Star Wars Battlefront II, playing mind tricks on gamers to spend more money to become stronger. By the time you read this review, there’s a chance EA may change how the Star Cards or loot crates work, but at this point in time, this predatory microtransaction model Force-chokes Battlefront II’s experience. It’s a shame to see a game with such clear greatness get pulled down to these depths. Star Wars deserves better. We deserve better.

Hand of Fate was a hidden gem, a Kickstarter surprise that showed us that there was a cool way to mix up an action-RPG with tabletop conventions. The sequel polishes and preens itself into a much more efficient and entertaining entity, and if you can handle some less-than-stellar combat, you find yourself immersed in a spectacular world.

While the final shot does give me a sense of intrigue about the finale, the rest of the episode does very little to excite me. Telltale addressed its main issues with the last episode by doubling down on action and providing more meaningful interactions, but with such a detour from the main conflict right before the final episode, much of the tension was let out of the balloon. I'm still curious to see how this all plays out, but Below the Bedrock did little to fuel my interest.

While the final shot does give me a sense of intrigue about the finale, the rest of the episode does very little to excite me. Telltale addressed its main issues with the last episode by doubling down on action and providing more meaningful interactions, but with such a detour from the main conflict right before the final episode, much of the tension was let out of the balloon. I'm still curious to see how this all plays out, but Below the Bedrock did little to fuel my interest.

While the final shot does give me a sense of intrigue about the finale, the rest of the episode does very little to excite me. Telltale addressed its main issues with the last episode by doubling down on action and providing more meaningful interactions, but with such a detour from the main conflict right before the final episode, much of the tension was let out of the balloon. I'm still curious to see how this all plays out, but Below the Bedrock did little to fuel my interest.

While the final shot does give me a sense of intrigue about the finale, the rest of the episode does very little to excite me. Telltale addressed its main issues with the last episode by doubling down on action and providing more meaningful interactions, but with such a detour from the main conflict right before the final episode, much of the tension was let out of the balloon. I'm still curious to see how this all plays out, but Below the Bedrock did little to fuel my interest.

The Sims 4 is a beefier and better game with its diverse expansion packs and added content since release, but without much of that being available on console just yet, this feels like a step back from the PC version. Nonetheless, this is essentially the same core experience as the base game on PC, and it’s worth checking out if you don’t already own the game. Although the console version features some dodgy controls, it largely delivers on its promise of bringing a faithful port to the console audience.