This is basically an open-world first-person shooter that’s visibly inspired by and using a lot of the toys from survival horror, and it doesn’t quite manage that fusion with grace. However, Ghostwire is charming, interesting, and creepy enough that I’ve enjoyed my time with it.

WWE 2K22 is a fantastic game and one of the better offerings in the 2K era of the long-running franchise. The core gameplay isn’t quite as solid as it was in 2K19, but that’s something that can be improved upon later in some ways with things like a patch at least being able to do things like address locking in carry holds. The planned post-launch content map showcases a lot of legendary characters throughout WWE history and the launch DLC with the multi-era Undertaker and NWO content is excellent and makes recreating some of WCW’s most memorable feuds a breeze.

Like the original, GRID Legends aims to not only offer many kinds of racing, but do them at a fairly high level. That is a lofty goal, but one that is largely achieved albeit with a few odd sacrifices. The exciting on-track action is undercut by only the story mode having a bumping soundtrack, and that’s just a bizarre move that I don’t recall saying in a modern-day racer. Franchise fatigue is a real thing and the GRID reboot was hurt by being a series of races with no framework, while everything in GRID Legends has a sense of purpose to it that helps keep a “one more race” mentality throughout each play session. It’s an outstanding racing game and one that fans of the genre should pick up.

As a whole, Horizon Forbidden West tops the original game even if it doesn’t reinvent the wheel in quite the same way. Much like how The Last of Us 2 had a lot to live up to and struggled to do so, but was a superior game technically, the same holds true here. The gameplay here is more exciting as is the moment-to-moment storytelling. The pacing is faster and with that comes a bit less time for the story to breathe at points. However, it’s still a great story overall and one that keeps the player engaged from start to finish. Forbidden West is a fantastic looking, sounding and playing experience that benefits from the addition of motion controls in way that few AAA-level games have showcased before. If you enjoyed the original game, be sure to pick up the sequel – although newcomers can enjoy the action just as much, as the story can be easy to get lost in without knowing the cast and the world.

Dark Souls fans rejoice! Elden Ring is exactly the game you have been hoping it would be, I think, and it is created in grand style. I feel pretty frustrated that the keyboard controls are either so broken or so poorly laid out that I just couldn’t figure them out, and I spent a lot of time trying to (and where some things lie in the menu system are crazy counterintuitive), and I installed it on two different machines to see if it was a hardware problem (note: didn’t help). Elden Ring actually made me want to go back and play Skyrim again, because it always seemed to me that GUI was very well laid out and just made sense. But for you gamepad guys, sharpen up your sword and get in there. You have blood to spill (a lot of which may be your own).

Overall, Gran Turismo 7 is the greatest entry in the series to date and the perfect gateway game for those who are lapsed fans of the series. It takes everything the series has done right while cutting back greatly on things that have bogged it down over the years and outside of the lootboxes, feels like about as perfect an entry in the series as one could imagine. The completely restructured career mode makes for a far more fun and engaging experience and the menu overhaul makes everything so much easier to do. It looks great, plays near-perfectly, and is the exact kind of game I always wanted from the series. Simply put, Gran Turismo 7 is a must-buy for racing fans.

For now, though, I’d give Dying Light 2 a strong recommendation. You do need to put up with its first rough couple of hours before it really comes together, and it’s got some sore spots here and there, but it’s a solid, well-designed, surprisingly optimistic zombie game. I’ve enjoyed my time with it so far.

I can say that the decision to switch classes for specialists has met with a metric crapton of criticism on the interwebs, and in that I’m in agreement with the masses – thus far, about 20 hours in, all the specialists play the same to me, though I think most people will gravitate towards either the wingsuit or the grappling hook as being the most fun to play with. I suspect more content is coming – at least more maps, but hopefully more modes, and maybe some AI opponents for single player opportunities – in which case this game may grow into something good (but you’ll have to buy the year one pass to get it). But as it stands, at the price it stands at, I can’t recommend it.

So Age of Empires IV is well put together and polished to high hell. I wish that something new had been done to bring the RTS genre that has been sitting more or less idle for a decade or so into the modern era, but you can’t have everything, and I suspect that more stuff like a map editor will be added in the future. Beyond that, with the recently released AOE2 Definitive Edition, that title, now 22 years old and $30 cheaper, already comes with a map editor that AOE4 lacks, and roughly a trillion player-made maps, and is probably the better bargain for your gaming dollar, especially if somehow you never got around to playing it previously.

Forza Horizon 5 takes an already-amazing series and makes it better with a grander scale, but also an increase in quality. Even in its earliest days, it’s clear that the game will have a longer shelf life than prior entries thanks to the revamping of user-generated content adding more kinds of gameplay to the mix. Having things like obstacle courses thrown in helps evoke a bit of Project Gotham Racing, while the increase in NPCs and overall world-building makes for a better overall experience. Forza Horizon 5 is a more back-to-basics game in the sense that it puts the player on an ascendable ladder and doesn’t feel aimless like the prior two games – which in hindsight, were a bit unwieldy with regards to giving the player a set path to actually enjoy its many offerings. Forza Horizon 5 is the best entry in the series yet and should only get better as time goes on and more content is added.

Overall, Riders Republic is a fantastic game and the most addictive extreme sports game on the market outside of maybe the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 remake. The variety of sports enables the experience to remain fresh, while those wanting a greater challenge can enjoy more events faster by stepping their game up and going for a more all-encompassing experience with more tricks and tougher difficulty. Cross-generation buyers will be in for a far better experience on the PS5 thanks to the SSD speeding things up and making for a much smoother experience, but the PS4 version is impressive given the tech. If it wasn’t for the SSD’s speed, the feeling of both versions’ races would be quite similar and you can’t go wrong with any version.

On the whole, I really like B4B. I’d like to see the difficulty spikes addressed and some expanded PvP choices, both of which I think can and will be pretty easily added and fixed. I’m also hoping that more people start playing it, as most of the runs I’ve joined have at least one BOT in it and is often nothing but BOTs (and when I’m playing with nothing but BOTs, why do I have to wait for online server space to play it?). The BOTs are competent shooters, and use their player advantages pretty well, but have zero ability with regards to the additional level objectives – they won’t plant explosives or carry supplies, and they tend to hang near you, which is good from a survival perspective, but doesn’t help in finding weapon and healing caches. But for a team that plays well together, and I’m hoping to get my crew to move over from L4D, it’s a fine zombie run and gun.

I applaud Arkane for switching up the Dishonored stealth/action formula here, and for addressing a few of the issues Dishonored had. Deathloop just feels too limited by comparison, though, and too repetitive by half besides. I know a lot of people who really like it, but it fell pretty flat for me.

Overall, Sonic Colors Ultimate is a must-buy for anyone who loved the original release – or who missed it and always wanted to try it out. On the PS4 and PS5, it plays wonderfully and our time netted zero issues either visually or with crashes. Some have reported issues on the Switch version and it seems like it would be best to wait for that one to get fixed-up before buying. However, if you’re playing on PlayStation and Xbox hardware, you’re in great shape to enjoy one of Sonic’s finest adventures ever and his best 3D outing in history.

As great as Marvel’s Avengers was, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy takes the framework of combat there and fine-tunes it.

With graphical refinements that create a better-looking experience, the PS5 version of Final Fantasy VII Remake is the best way to experience the core game, while Intermission is a finely-tuned side story. Yuffie is completely unlike any other character in the main adventure, and will make for a lot of fun to use when she takes on a bigger overall role in future entries of Remake. Anyone who held off until now to get the game will be happy to see just how much more of Midgar’s world is showcased in Remake versus the original release in ’97, and those wanting a faster-paced gameplay experience will love the action-centric take on FF VII’s ATB system. It’s a must-buy for long-time fans of the series and PS4 owners of the original full-on Remake release can upgrade to the PS5 version for free, with Intermission only costing $20.

After an iffy PS4 entry, Rift Apart delivers the full-on next generation experience for series fans and newcomers alike. It’s the best showcase game the PS5 has had yet and makes the on-board SSD shine in ways that truly impress when you take a step back to soak in just what’s happening in real-time.

Look, Mass Effect Legendary Edition isn’t bad. It’s good. It’s as good as a revamping of the original series all delivered in one sleek package can be. I’m just not sure who has been asking for that.

As it stands now, Biomutant is a flawed, but super-fun game that is well-worth picking up as long as you come into it with an open-mind and are prepared for an experience that may not top the charts visually, but offers a fun blend of combat that can’t be found anywhere else.

A game with a fundamentally really messed up economy in a lot of ways (money, trust, gas, ammunition, motorcycle repair – none of it works right) wrapped around a so-so open world zombie combat sandbox. I think more than anything else, it makes me want to play more Dying Light.

The game’s blend of an original Metroid-style progression system with a rogue-lite and a bit of Alien thrown in with the unknown nature of the world makes Returnal a compelling experience at all times. It looks and sounds great and controls like a dream – although it would be nice if gyroscopic aiming was added in later on for a bit more intuitive control.

Whenever I decide to try and play Outriders, I enjoy it, but it is a visible crapshoot whether it’ll crash or disconnect on me before I have the chance to do anything fun. Other players have reported losing their entire inventories or having consistent fatal errors. The game flat-out doesn’t feel complete. Again, though, I have cleared the story campaign, so Outriders has a few things going for it. I’d like to see a sequel that addresses some of this, by getting rid of the always-online functionality, ditching some of the petty annoyances like how fast travel works between zones, and generally getting the game to a place where it doesn’t crash every hour or so. As it stands, it’s good, but obnoxious, and might be better after a few solid patches.

Overall, I have mixed feelings about Evil Genius 2. It does a nice enough job of modernizing the original game, and it has far more replay value than the original game had (with four evil geniuses and three islands to choose from, where each choice changes the way you play the game). But the 60+ hour campaign is a slow slog, and it wears out its welcome so thoroughly that you might not even care about replay value by the time you finally grind your way through it. I could see Evil Genius 2 getting better after patching and DLC, but it’s tough to see how Revolution can possibly fix the campaign. And so Evil Genius 2 is a coin flip for me. Get it if you loved the original game, or if base-building / tower defense games are your cup of tea. Wait for patches and a sale otherwise.

The Groundhog Day of tile-based fantasy RPGs, Loop Hero is a unique, highly addictive and well-crafted roguelike that will have you saying, “just one more loop.” If this mix of genres intrigues you, I highly recommend you check the game out.

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury is one of the best values on the Switch. It goes above and beyond the usual port jobs to create a whole new experience – one that fits the platform perfectly. You can easily lose hours playing stages to completion or kick back for five minutes and play a single stage in portable mode and have a blast. This is a very versatile adventure and one that all past and present fans of Mario should pick up.

Overall, this is a fascinating disappointment. Earthblood is the bones of several good ideas, awkwardly welded together and thrown out into the world. It feels more like Cyanide had a stealth/action game lying around that they decided on a whim to staple a lot of the Werewolf license onto, and while it does do some justice to its source material, it’s not really much fun.

Medium is definitely the most ambitious project of Bloober Team, albeit it cannot completely avoid the moniker of an “AA” production. The visuals of both the real and metaphysical worlds are of high quality, the story keeps the interest high and the music is the glue that holds firmly together the whole experience. If only it tried to offer more depth in its overly simplistic environmental puzzles and gameplay in general.

If you’re a fan of older adventure games, like Syberia or Still Life, The Medium was made almost specifically for you. If you’re an old-school survival horror fan who doesn’t think the genre’s done better than Silent Hill 2 in 20 years, The Medium is very much in your wheelhouse. If you’re not in either of those categories, I’m not sure if you’d get past the first 20 minutes. For me, it’s a 90%, because I’ll be thinking about this one for a while, but I can’t give it more than an extremely qualified recommendation.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game – Complete Edition is a must-buy for any fans of beat ‘em ups who missed it the first time around. With the game hitting all consoles and PC via the Epic Games Store, it is now going to be archived for a much longer period of time and its reach won’t be as limited as it was before. The gameplay is satisfying and it remains one of the best brawlers ever – with a top-tier combo system and soundtrack that is as fun to listen to now as it was a decade ago. The included DLC from the original game’s release adds extra value as well, and gives the game an even longer shelf life.

So while I had some fun here and there, and while I can see some potential if I squint just right, Empire of Sin is a tough game to recommend. You’re much better off waiting for some patches and DLCs, and certainly for a price drop, before investing any of your time or money in it.

Overall, despite some performance issues, I rather enjoyed the mercenaries, spies and private eyes campaign that is Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. I’d like to see the development team get a chance to really flesh out a longer campaign in this style, but you know…the call of duty.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla has new stuff, at least to me, but keep in mind that I missed Origins and Odyssey and a slew of other titles. Still, it’s another AC game, at the core a lot like other AC games. If you’ve played the other 22 titles, and somehow (I can’t imagine how) want more, have at it. If, like me, you’ve missed more titles than you thought humanly possible, it’s not a bad place to jump back in. I’ve been enjoying myself. What more could you want out of a game?

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is an all-killer, no-filler follow-up to the 2018 classic – and has managed to unseat it as the best Spider-Man game ever made. It takes all of the same core gameplay and fine-tunes it while cutting out a lot of the bloat and telling a better story to boot. It looks gorgeous on any console you play it on, but PS5 users do get a boost in graphics and the added tension on the trigger when you’re swinging helps a bit with immersion when compared to the normal DualShock 4 controller. Anyone who loved the original game will enjoy this, and you may very well come away from it digging it more than that.

It could use a few quality-of-life bonuses that Until Dawn also needed, like being able to skip cutscenes if you’ve seen them already and an actual run button, but it’s a fun mystery wrapped around a solid horror B-movie. One of the cool things about a game as a narrative, as opposed to anything else, is that it’s got a lot of room to cram extra stuff in there, and Little Hope takes full advantage to really pack itself fat with lore.cSeriously, I’d pay for DLC that changed the ending. I’m on that team. I’d probably still recommend Little Hope to horror and adventure-game fans, particularly since it only costs $30, but the last five minutes tips over the entire apple cart.

Overall, Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered may very well be the best Need For Speed game on modern hardware. There’s something about the more focused menu-centric system in place here that makes it more fun to go back and forth between racing and police action, and the retooled graphics and sound do a lot to help make the game more intense than ever before. If you enjoyed the game the first time around, it’s better now and feels more modern than one would expect for something that isn’t a ground-up remake. For anyone who missed it, you can now enjoy a better-looking, better-sounding, and better-playing version of one of the best racing games of the past decade.

Overall, DIRT 5 fixes everything that was iffy about the prior entry and does so in a way that breathes new life into the long-running series. DIRT 5 has smoother controls and more versatile framerate options than prior entries have had – at least on consoles – and the addition of non-position objectives helps makes races more replayable and a bit more fun since you may have to step outside of your comfort zone, or more accurately, increase your comfort zone over time, to fully embrace it. DIRT 5 clicks with the player faster than any prior entry and is an absolute must-play for anyone who has loved the series before, or who hasn’t and wants to start fresh. There’s no better rally racer on the market than DIRT 5.

Legion’s biggest problem is that it’s boring: its central mechanic is effectively meaningless, which just leaves you piloting a generic character through yet another Ubisoft-styled open-world. Legion will likely find some fans, but as seems to be the curse of the Watch Dogs series, it’s watered itself down so much in an attempt to appeal to as broad an audience as possible that it’s lost all its texture. If a bad open-world game is an oversalted omelet, Watch Dogs: Legion is plain oatmeal.

Didn’t hate it. Didn’t love it. Don’t feel like it soiled my fond memories of the last X-Wing series in any serious way. It’s just another in a long line of Star Wars games that could have been great and instead ended up being solidly mediocre.

Overall, Crash Bandicoot 4 is the best-playing entry in the series and a must-buy for fans – even with some cumbersome jank on its backend. It’s one of the finest platformers of the last decade and manages to seamlessly combine and transition between 2D sidescrolling and 3D platforming better than anything on the market. It plays like a dream and anyone who wanted a new Crash game in the style of the old ones will be happy, as will those hoping that core game design would be taken to the next level.

Serious Sam 4 is another iteration on a successful formula of pedal-to-the-metal first-person shooters, and at its best, it’s a pure shot of adrenaline that can remind anyone from cynics to novices why the FPS took off in the first place. It needs some more time in the oven and a few coats of paint before it’s done, though. By the time it hits consoles in 2021, SS4 ought to be well worth anyone’s time, particularly as a co-op game.

WWE 2K Battlegrounds is definitely not the perfect arcade-style WWE experience, but it’s a far better game than I expected going in with minimal bugs and issues. As a workprint for the future, it’s rock-solid and can easily lead to the Battlegrounds games being a great breather between simulation-based entries in the series going forward. Hopefully we’ll see things like customizable movesets be added into future installments – but as it stands, this is a great way to enjoy some pick up and play WWE action on any gaming platform you have.

It’s a great-looking and sounding game, but one that definitely needs some fine-tuning with the loading and quality of life issues that hamper the experience. Still, the good far outweighs the bad, and Marvel’s Avengers ends up being one of the best superhero experiences ever put in a video game.

I think for the story lore alone, I’d play Wasteland 3. Add into it some mid-level tactical combat, a wide-open character progression tree, and a pretty sick sense of humor, and I think I’ve found a winner.

Overall, Battletoads succeeds far more than I ever could have imagined going in. It’s a great time for beat ‘em up revivals with both Streets of Rage 4 and now Battletoads bringing the goods. Battletoads is packed with even more variety than the original series and features smoother action, with a couple of small caveats that hurt the gameplay slightly. Still, it’s a gorgeous-looking and sounding game with top-shelf voice work and a surprisingly successful turn to a comedy-heavy story that works far better than prior, more serious tales. The revival of the Battletoads is a huge success when it comes to offering up a high-quality experience, and it’s a fitting entry in a beloved series that winds up being one of the best brawlers ever.

EA Sports UFC 4 is EA’s strongest MMA game yet, even if it isn’t quite all it could be. The career mode is top-shelf, but it’s still a bit disappointing to not see PRIDE replicated in an EA UFC game when they had their own expy for its follow-up in DREAM in EA MMA. Still, EA Sports UFC 4 manages to deliver the best-playing MMA action in company history and maybe we’ll see some new content down the road to fill in some of the gaps in mode selection and the roster. As it stands, this is a must-play game for MMA fans and finally provides a satisfying, easy to learn submission system that makes the entirety of MMA action enjoyable for players of all skill levels.

If you don’t usually go for this kind of game, if you just can’t get enough open-world action, and/or you’re a massive mark for samurai movies, Ghost of Tsushima is a perfectly good game with an amazing presentation. Its biggest problem is that it’s Yet Another Open-World Game, and if you haven’t played all the others, this is one of the best places to start. This score is for me, as I can’t really get into Ghost due to how repetitive it feels, but newer players can safely tack on another 10 points or more.

The Last of Us Part II takes everything that made the first game such a sea of change in the industry and amplifies it. We have seen Naughty Dog itself raise the bar and while this is easily their best PS4 game, I think the original game’s narrative ever so slightly tops the sequel even if the scope is larger with a more expansive cast. Part II plays better than the first, with more involved stealth and combat along with many quality of life improvements to make it a more enjoyable experience. In terms of all-time great games, it is right up there with the original and you can flip a coin on which is “better”. The original hooks you more right away, while the sequel is more of a slow burn that builds everything up just a bit more. The Last of Us Part II is Naughty Dog’s finest game yet.

Overall, Minecraft Dungeons is a well-meaning game that succeeds far more than it falters. The core action-based dungeon-crawling gameplay loop is far more fun than others like it and puts the emphasis on fun than grinding. There are many upsides to this, but there is a bit lost when it comes to the story – which is rather barren. However, if you want to get into dungeon-crawlers, this is a great way to go about it. It works as an action RPG, or just a core action-based game with stats to keep track of every now and then. It looks great on the Xbox One and PC, and while it falls a bit short on Switch, its smaller dungeon size is perfect for the Switch’s at-home or on-the-go nature.

Don’t get me wrong; it’s not bad by any stretch of the imagination. But given that XCOM2 is over four years old, I was expecting something more and better, and I feel like Gears: Tactics delivered neither.

Overall, while it isn’t perfect and doesn’t quite feature some of the more versatile quality of life features in the genre – Streets of Rage 4 still delivers an incredible experience. The increased focus on the narrative works surprisingly well despite the genre being known for having razor-thin plots. The combat flows smoothly. Long-time fans will love the latest entry in the series, while newcomers may want to start with an earlier entry as some of the humor and fun is tied a bit too deeply into callbacks to really work on a series newcomer. The game looks great, plays even better, and has one of the finest OSTs in the genre’s history. The 25-year wait for Streets of Rage 4 was worth it.

Overall, Final Fantasy VII Remake is a must-buy for fans of the original – but with some caveats attached. Those going into it expecting the complete FF VII experience from start to finish with a new gameplay setup and graphics will be disappointed, while those going in knowing that it is part of the overall package, just with a poor name choice, will wind up quite happy with it. Being able to go between a more classic gameplay approach or a modernized one offers up a lot of freedom to players, while the story itself remains my favorite in franchise history – and it’s now told with more depth and detail than ever before. The revamped graphics aren’t perfect – but do a better job on the whole of conveying the story, while the voice work helps it gain a new level of gravitas that wasn’t there before.

The game as a whole has a curve like an electrocardiogram: when it's good, it's really good, and when it’s bad, it’s awful.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps succeeds where the original game faltered while maintaining everything that made it work. The spirit of the first game lives on with a touching tale of life, love, and loss that just so happens to have some of the tighest combat in a side-scrolling game on the market today. It’s a more exciting game than the original and an improvement on something that was already so well-crafted is quite an accomplishment. Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a must-play game for anyone who loves side-scrolling action-platformers and sends you on an emotional journey from beginning to end.

Dreams is a must-have for anyone who has wanted to create a game but didn’t have the know-how to make all of the elements work together. Dreams does a better job of teaching you about game logic than any toolset I’ve used, and makes it fun. It’s perfect for any age range and can foster creativity in its users for years to come.

The core of what made Shenmue so special before is retained, and Yu Suzuki’s ability to keep the story flowing seamlessly for 20 years is remarkable. If you loved the first games, get this as soon as you can. If you haven’t tried the series, then the remastered version is the best way to start and then grab this when you feel ready.

As I played Afterparty, I kept thinking that I should be liking it more than I was. A character- and story-driven game sounds like it should be right up my alley, and I can picture people enjoying the conversations and appreciating a vision of Hell where it’s being run by devils with just as many problems as everybody else. But I didn’t like the game, and I didn’t really like that there isn’t much game in the game (there aren’t any puzzles, and the drinking mini-games are so inconsequential it doesn’t even matter if you win them). So I’m giving Afterparty a lukewarm score. It’s definitely a game where your mileage may vary.

I’m completely and totally immersed in this world, but at the same time kind of wondering about the “gameness” of what I’m doing, which is often less about thrilling adventure and more about Zen and the art of horseback riding, which makes it kind of a unique experience, and for me one worth having.

Need For Speed Heat is a return to form for the series and the best entry this generation. The racing action is top-shelf and the day to night shift in gameplay focus keeps things fresh.

The game is flat-out broken right now and unlike Matt Hardy, I don’t think the lake of reincarnation can help it. It needs some time to be fixed up and lots of it. Fortunately, 2K through their WWEGames Twitter account maintains that patches are coming in the next few weeks – so if those come out and fix things up, grab the game then. Until then, you can safely skip 2K20 and it’s a shame because conceptually, it’s got a lot of improvements – but the final product just doesn’t live up to its potential.

While MediEvil has a couple of rough edges, the core game is more fun than ever before thanks to an extensive reworking of the original mechanics.

Overall, I think Trine remains a clever little side-scrolling puzzler, which, four iterations in, is a genuinely pleasant surprise for me. The puzzles remain fresh, and build kind of organically as the game progresses, so the difficulty curve is rather constant throughout. The multiplayer isn’t all that great unless you have a friend and a yen to really play it that way. I’m at about the 75% point in just four hours of play, so I think something like 5-7 hours is about what you’ll get out of it, multiplayer aside. I seem to recall in an earlier review that I said that Trine takes the side scroller about as far as it can go, and I think that remains true of Trine 4 as well.

Overall, GRID is a very good game – but one that fails to fully find its own voice. One thing that defined the series when it began was a unique team-based premise and a defined structure to its career mode. You had a sense of identity there that isn’t present now and it hurts the overall experience. Fortunately, the core racing action is still top-shelf and the nemesis system keeps you glued to the race and doing your best to either avoid contact or exploit it depending on your play style. This reboot isn’t my favorite in the franchise, but it is the best-playing on-track experience even if the rest of the game doesn’t quite match its greatness.

Yooka-Laylee: The Impossible Lair manages to outshine the franchise’s debut effort in every major way. The game’s design remains open to an extent, but greatly focuses in on what you need to do – cutting down on a lot of busy work. The fast-paced action feels perfect and manages to out-Donkey Kong Country the Returns series as a result of nailing the pacing that made the original DKC trilogy so addicting on the SNES. The action meshes perfectly with the lush graphics and robust soundtrack to create one of the finest side-scrolling platformers on the market today. The Impossible Lair is a must-buy for any platforming fan.

The game is very polished and smooth – I hit zero bugs while playing it, and didn’t have to download a 10GB patch the day after it was released, and Gearbox should be congratulated for that if nothing else. So if what you’re looking for is more Borderlands, this would be the place to find it.

Sea of Solitude tries to tackle some very serious topics about bullying, divorces and relationships depicting them quite nicely in its allegorical environment. What it’s missing though is any meaningful examination or resolutions in said issues. As it stands, it doesn’t offer anything more than acknowledging that these issues exist in our world without ever delving any deeper.

Certainly Bethesda can make great games (Fallout 76 aside), and Machinegames has been at it for years, and I like what I’ve seen from Arkane, but Wolfenstein: Youngblood just feels lazy, playing off my desire for yet more of that Wolfenstein Nazi killing action flavor. And when my editor offered Youngblood to me, I was excited to play it. Yet somewhere between that excitement and what it actually plays like leaves me feeling like I’ve done it all before (and I have) better (which it has been).

Overall, Samurai Shodown has some rough edges to it – but fewer than any entry has had in around 20 years. It’s the best-playing entry in the series since the legendary second installment, and stands out nicely even in today’s crowded field of fighters. Much like it did in the early ’90s, by being different than the pack with its feudal Japanese setting and story, it allows the core game to be different even if the framework is still a single-plane fighter. It’s a must-play for any lapsed fans of the series and will not only rekindle old memories, but forge new ones for all who play it.

Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled is just about perfect at what it’s trying to do. The redone adventure mode is a blast minus the grind required to get coins to unlock stuff, and the core gameplay has been refined. This results in the best-playing Crash racing game ever and yet another top-shelf kart racer. Right now, the genre is as big as it’s been in 20 years, with Sonic, Mario, and Crash all competing at stores and the best thing for players is that you can’t go wrong with any of them. Crash offers up a tremendous game overall and it’s definitely an experience I would put above Team Sonic Racing, but ever so slightly behind Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

I played almost all of last weekend, and just stopped playing an hour ago, and I have no specific memory of any of it. Some driving, some shooting. I can hardly recall the boss battles except the ones that stood out as awful. Come to think of it, beyond general feelings that I liked it, I have no memories of Rage 1 either. And that’s Rage 2 in a nutshell: good enough, not great, entirely forgettable.

Overall, Team Sonic Racing is hurt ever-so-slightly by not keeping the transformative aspects of the last Sonic racing game – but that is largely offset by the team-based nature of things. Unlike OnRush, the team-based side of things is pretty seamless and feels like a natural extension of the single character-centric style from before. The tracks are outstanding and feature a slew of new environments for a Sega-based racer, while the controls are great for the relative car class. The game plays like a dream, looks great, and sounds fantastic. No matter what platform you get it on, you’re in for a fun time.

Overall, I enjoyed the time I spent with A Plague Tale: Innocence. It’s unique in premise and content, it looks and sounds good, and it doesn’t overstay its welcome. I probably would have liked it even better if it had stayed more stealthy than action-oriented, but I’m not going to complain. A Plague Take definitely isn’t for kids — violence and gruesome deaths abound, and there is also some (completely unnecessary) profanity — but for everyone else, it’s a worthwhile game to check out, just perhaps at a slightly cheaper price.

It’s a must-buy for anyone who has craved a new Burnout game and physical buyers of the console version get Danger Zone 2 as a freebie – essentially bringing back Crash mode and providing more value for the money.

It’s just below average in too many areas — writing, puzzles, and voice acting to name but a few — for me to recommend. But it’s different, and it’s available in a dozen languages and three operating systems, and so it might fill a need for some people. If you’re interested, just wait for it to go on sale. By a lot.

Above all, I’m surprised that even on the drawing board someone thought Anthem looked like a good game.

Trials Rising is a mixed bag of an experience that still manages to deliver a ton of thrills in spite of some flaws. The F2P mobile elements feel completely out of place, as does the awful attempt at world-building. The series CAN do plot right, as Blood Dragon showed, with over the top goofiness. This is a series of racing-related events alongside some tricks at times and the game as a whole is a physics showcase. It’s the best-playing entry in the series so far, with a lot of robust tracks, but the experience is marred. It’s a recommended purchase for veterans, but newcomers are better-served by getting one of the older and far less expensive entries to see if you like what the series has to offer.

A fantastic return to form for an underrated franchise.

The villains weren’t that intriguing in New Dawn, the heightened focus on resource gathering and crafting led to some grinding stretches of gameplay, and I’m not quite sure how to feel about bullet sponge and floating damage appearing in a Far Cry game. Luckily, combat is just as chaotic and explosive as ever, especially with a co-op buddy, and I would still recommend the game to Far Cry fans.

Crackdown 3 is technically the best entry in the series to date – but doesn’t feel like a 2019 reincarnation of the franchise. It feels like a soft reboot of the 2007 game with 2009-era gameplay and graphics that are impressive due to their lack of slowdown and crisp appearance, but little else.

Kingdom Hearts 3 ends the current era of the series wonderfully. It ties many once-confusing parts of the narrative together. The story still has a few cumbersome points, but a lot of effort has gone into making the obtuse narrative easier to follow. The end result is the finest entry in the series in many ways, with stunning graphics and whimsical sound design. Kingdom Hearts 3 takes many elements from the first game’s structure and is better for it, with a greater emphasis on the Disney side of things that has been seen in over a decade, and some nice gameplay improvements.

If you’re familiar with the original, you’ll find a peculiar blend of nostalgia and surprise here, along with a faithful update of the survival-horror mechanics that put the genre over the top; if you aren’t, this is a tense, suspenseful ride, with likeable characters and a surprisingly grounded plot. I’ve got more than a few nitpicks–Claire needs better guns–but if this turned out to be the pilot project for a new generation of survival horror, I’d be ecstatic.

I didn’t enjoy The Council particularly much. It has some good stuff to it — the premise is great, and it’s fun sparring with (sometimes fictional) historical characters — but for me there were too many design issues, there was too much potion hunting, and the twist at the midway point just ruined everything.

Overall, Just Cause 4 is a fairly big improvement as an experience compared to the third entry. It doesn’t quite reach the heights of the second, which felt like the franchise’s peak at the time and has remained so to this day. This game lacks the thrill of “wow, the series is truly finding itself” – akin to Saints Row the Third doing that for the Saints Row games, and while it is better than the third entry, that’s a fairly low bar to fly over given how many issues plagued the console versions of the game. It performs a lot better, at the expense of the core graphics suffering a bit. The core gunplay and frantic action are better now than before though, but something still feels missing in the overall experience.

I wasn’t wild about Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Don’t Dry. The puzzles work pretty well, and that’s the most important thing for an adventure, but the writing is sub-par, and the longer I played the game, the more I felt bad for Al Lowe, the franchise’s creator. Wet Dreams is definitely a game for adults — with a slew of references to penises, dildos, fleshlights, and more — but if you’re a part of that target demographic, and if you like adventures, then you might get enough out of the title for it to be a worthwhile purchase. Just wait for it to go on sale first.

Technically, BFV remains a really nicely constructed game for the most part. The weapons feel and sound great. The environments of snow and water and sand are stunning. The game is relatively bug free (other than AI shortcomings) and the servers are stable. The menu structures however are terrible, with a layout reminiscent of the windows tiles and a functionality that would best be described as counterintuitive. Sometimes I found myself just clicking on boxes almost randomly, curious where they would take me because I didn’t really know.

Ultimately the big change, and kind of the whole purpose for F76, is the multiplayer component, and how that plays out is going to depend a lot on the community, a quantity that I believe is still very much to be determined.

The Spyro Reignited Trilogy is a fantastic remake of some flawed games and with that comes a mixed bag of a recommendation. If you’re a series veteran and absolutely love collect-a-thons now as much as you did then, pick it up and you’ll have a lot of fun. If you’re new to the series and have access to the PS1 games via a PS1, PS2, or PS3 digitally, see if the formula is for you. As remakes go, this is a far more thorough one than even the Crash Bandicoot one and in that sense, it’s a better collection for PS1 classic fans – but the game themselves lack variety and feel a bit too similar to one another to recommend a full-price purchase right out of the gate.

The primary problem with 2018’s Call of Cthulhu is simply that it’s a Cthulhu game, done as straight as it possibly can be. In a game that’s mostly about its story, it’s a detriment that its story is thus extremely predictable.

Red Dead Redemption 2’s elusive, mysterious quality may be just that… it feels like every character in it has a soul. Considering the number of people across Rockstar’s entire studio roster that poured their blood, sweat and tears into this game it is no wonder that it actually feels alive.

My overall impression of this game is that’s it’s not a bad game, and I have every belief that the developers will stick with it and work to make it better, but it resides in a very crowded field of very similar games, most of which seem to be just a little bit better in some way. I remember that the interface of Pillars of Eternity seemed just a little bit easier to use. The artwork in Torment: Tides of Numenera was just a little bit snazzier. The plot of Baldur’s Gate just a little bit more engrossing. The characters in Neverwinter just a little more interesting. And none of those games suffered from the kind of the difficulty spikes this one does.

Newcomers who have heard of that game’s legend may want to wait for a demo or a price drop – but at only $20, this is one of the rare games out there you can blind buy and get a lot of enjoyment out of without worrying about buyer’s remorse. It plays like a dream, looks good, and is a satisfying score-based game that makes you want to keep playing to do better – not force you into doing so.

Overall, WWE 2K19 is an evolutionary step forward for the series – but a big one. The return of the showcase mode offers up a lot to enjoy for fans of Daniel Bryan while the MyCareer mode brings things back that worked before – but tells a far better narrative than most. The debuting 2K Towers offer an ever-present challenge and are sure to make even seasoned players wince a time or two, and the revamped gameplay for things like striking and cage-related modes allows for more realistic matches than prior entries across the board.

Shadows: Awakening could use a longer power curve, or to dole out some more significant fights or abilities, to keep things from feeling stale. It’s the best possible version of what it is, but after a while, a lot of the shine wore off and it started feeling like a particularly violent part-time job. Still, if you’re looking for a new dungeon crawler, this is a pretty good one, and I did enjoy the first twelve hours or so.

Mega Man 11 is coming at a time of great unrest for the character and this shows that the franchise can be done quite well even with new people at the helm. It takes the best of what worked before and manages to add new things in to make it feel modern and more than just a retread of the past. It’s a great buy for anyone who has either loved Mega Man, or wanted to see what the fuss was about.

If the Horizon series is new to you, then this is a great one to start with – as it’s very user-friendly and allows you to tweak more of the world now than ever before. It has a lot of content, controls like a dream, and looks and sounds fantastic. Forza Horizon 4 has all the ingredients to deliver a fulfilling experience for quite some time.

For what the game is trying to do, it is reasonably good – it just lacks content. As a result, it is technically okay, but falls short in major ways. The combat doesn’t feel satisfying, and there’s no thrill of victory since everything has to end in the same kind of attack every single time. The game looks good-ish at times, but also has some parts that look slapped together and not quite fully-formed just yet. The whole game feels like a bad rough draft that is being showcased as a final product – and it’s a shame. The concept of an all-female SNK fighter has potential – but Gals Fighter remains the best overall to enjoy that core concept.

The Kiwami reissues of the older titles are exactly what fans have wanted all of these years. The fact that we’re getting them on a fast and furious basis is testament to the fact that there was a considerable market just waiting for this to happen. Yakuza Kiwami 2 is one of the best entries yet, and let us all hope that the trend of releasing these quality remasters continues on through the ones that remain. Despite Kiryu’s swan song having been sung with Yakuza 6, I would personally look forward to a few more outings through Japan in his white Travolta-esque disco suit.

Overall, Blade Strangers is a must-buy for fighting game fans. Switch owners will love having a fighter on the go that actually works well in that format – as the controls are such that you can comfortably play them in portable mode unlike the Street Fighter games. It’s a great-looking and playing game that has enough depth for die-hard brawlers, but is also easy to learn and fun to play at all skill levels. The robust roster may not be huge in number – but there is more variety in play types here, and it’s easy to find at least a handful of characters you’ll want to play as regularly.

Marvel’s Spider-Man is the best gaming representation of the legendary comic book character to date. Insomniac nailed the smartass tone that has been his calling card better than anyone else and the core action is faster here, with a solid blend of combat and world exploration. It looks great and controls like a dream. Spider-Man has had his troubles in gaming, but Insomniac’s effort checks all the boxes for a top-shelf Spidey experience and delivers a solid storyline that brings its own unique universe to the mix to tell an all-new tale that keeps you engaged and adds some gravitas to everything you do.