Even if there are a few rough spots, Afterimage is a magical Metroidvania that shines. Most of the issues require a little patching but the core remains engaging. The combat works because the enemy variety compliments Renee's moves, and overcoming previously difficult bosses is intensely satisfying. Platforming has a few quirks, but using enemies as impromptu platforms to find secrets or barely making a jump is exhilarating. Even the story, which doesn't start out with alot to set it apart, blossoms thanks to a spectacular world and interesting themes. This title is an absolute gem for Metroidvania fans.

Truthfully, Assassin's Creed Shadows does play it a bit safe and formulaic with its open world. But when the formula is as good as it is in this iteration of the Assassin's Creed franchise, it's hardly a knock against it. After spending about 40 hours traveling around Sengoku-era Japan as both a stealthy shinobi and a powerful samurai, there was still had plenty of untouched side content left to tackle and several endgame quests that demanded both of my heroes to be at levels far beyond their current power.

Despite the limited content and somewhat fiddly controls, the game feels great to play. It's endlessly satisfying to turn a neglected garbage heap back into a happy home. The sandbox mode in House Flipper 2 offers lots of creative opportunities and the ability to share with fellow flippers is a big bonus, and will hopefully help the game build an ongoing community. Fingers crossed that more content comes down the road to provide players with even more possibilities.

In the end, Dying Light: The Beast proves that Techland still knows how to craft a memorable zombie apocalypse, with visceral parkour and survival thrills to boot. Its linear revenge story is taken to greater heights by side quests that bring out Crane's humanity, its open world is breathtaking despite some repetitive activities, and Beast Mode adds a ferocity that keeps combat feeling fresh and intense. With stable performance and plenty of memorable moments, it may not reinvent the franchise, but it stands as one of its most polished and engaging Dying Light games yet.

Stoic’s tactical RPG The Banner Saga makes its way to consoles, and still manages to deliver a fantastic, captivating story alongside a fun and challenging battle system.

In the end, the quality of life improvements from the emulation and the enhancements make the collection a brilliant way to play some classic TMNT titles on modern consoles. Nothing has been "ruined" by being overly tweaked for the sake of modernizing, and the emulation only improves the games to make them more manageable. Combine this with the Cowabunga Collection's local and online co-op, and there has never been a better time to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles gaming fan.

The more focus a player can give to Metal: Hellsinger, the more it shines. When it all clicks, a flow builds that can only be achieved by this style of rhythmic combat. It takes some powerful music and grafts it onto the iconic Doom formula. The result is that the player feels like they are in the middle of a perfectly choreographed movie or trailer. It's certainly challenging, especially on higher difficulties, but if players can think of it as less a shooter and more a rhythm game, it really opens up. Lack of enemy variety and short gameplay aside, what's on offer here is a hugely fun rip through Hell that feels great to play and sounds like something torn straight out of a nightmare - in a good way.

Sackboy: A Big Adventure is an easy recommendation to fans of the platforming genre or anyone looking for a co-op game to play on their new PS5 console. While it would be nice to see a proper LittleBigPlanet 4 come to Sony's next-generation system, hopefully, fans can look forward to future Sackboy platforming adventures as well.

Its story may not have as much of an impact as franchise fans are used to, but Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is still an entertaining pirate adventure. I would love to see Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio explore the concept in a larger-scale game because Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii shows that there is a ton of potential for a Like a Dragon game that fully embraces the pirating life.

Call of Duty: Warzone is a top tier battle royale game and its early player numbers are reflective of that. As long as Infinity Ward is able to keep the game updated in terms of bug fixes and new content, it's hard to see why it won't remain one of the top battle royale games for months if not years to come.

Returning to this pivotal Atlus JRPG well over a decade after its original release, Shin Megami Tensei 3 Nocturne HD Remaster has never been more accessible. Nocturne is unabashedly old-school, in both good ways and not-so-great ways. The gameplay adjustments and options allow for decent customization of the experience, but some of the omissions in this re-release are pretty glaring. It's not perfect, but so long as players can adjust to its rustic edges, there is a fantastic old-school JRPG in Nocturne's remaster full of quality of life changes that make it worth playing in 2021.

Nobody Saves the World could have been exceptional, but there are certain aspects that are lacking. The expected Drinkbox Studios humor isn’t pervasive enough to keep people playing to see what’s next, the story is negligible and seems like something tossed in to give players a half-hearted sense of purpose, and the repetitiveness of quests gets tiresome very quickly. The positives of the game – the appealing art style, variety of skills and dungeons, and perhaps multiplayer — might not be enough to keep players interested either. That being said, the gameplay and presentation of Nobody Saves the World will undoubtedly win over many people, and it may capture the attention of others for a solid chunk of time.

Ultros is another surprisingly great 2024 Metroidvania, and an incredibly impressive first outing for developer Hadoque. While its combat may leave a little to be desired, and some of its major gameplay decisions might be a tad off-putting initially, Ultros is a gorgeous game that should keep players well and truly engaged for its entire runtime.

The Quarry is predominantly a successful offering from Supermassive, with a satisfying amount of scares paired with recurring weak points from previous titles that slightly mar the experience. The positives far outweigh the negatives, however, and the game will no doubt please fans of the genre with its fun though not entirely innovative story. The Quarry fully delivers on its promise of a campy horror experience and is one of the best titles from the developer since Until Dawn.

FIFA 20 certainly has a wide variety of changes to it, but much like MLS expansion team FC Cincinnati, these changes are in need of some more development time and polish - though the product on the pitch is still a real joy to watch.

Even with a few minor gripes against it, Elden Ring Nightreign never stops being fun, whether it's your first Expedition or your hundredth. For fans of roguelikes and FromSoftware games, Elden Ring Nightreign's gameplay feels like a match made in heaven, and FromSoftware deserves praise for its skillful pivot of the award-winning Elden Ring formula into a whole new subgenre that is bound to become one of 2025's most-played games.

Grand Theft Auto 5 and GTA Online for PS5 and Xbox Series X are still phenomenal games that one could easily sink hundreds of hours into, but there's no getting around that they are fundamentally the same experiences as before, only with better graphics and performance. Someone that hasn't played GTA 5 or GTA Online in a long time will get more mileage out of this new version, but those that have played both regularly since launch may be better off waiting for the eventual Grand Theft Auto 6.

In the end, players will leave with two things: some great music recommendations and the craving to play Life is Strange: True Colors once again, especially if they wooed Steph while in the shoes of Alex Chen, if nothing else but to see her finally get the wholesome romance she deserves. Overall, it's only a short piece of Steph's life, to connect the dots between Before the Storm and Alex's story in True Colors, but it adds some context to her grounded attitude towards trauma and the decision she eventually makes to leave Haven Springs. Steph feels a bit out of place as a lesbian in a rural town, and she still desires the thrilling life of an indie band. Wavelengths provides the middle to Before the Storm's beginning and True Colors' end of the Steph Gingrich saga.

It seems the idea here was to make an accessible, stunning, and fun-focused racing game that opens the door to new players as the next generation begins, and in that regard, Dirt 5 knocks it out of the park. Its driving is exceptionally precise, making players feel like a master behind the wheel, while the sheer variety of gorgeous, globe-hopping tracks with treacherous terrain to conquer create a wonderfully diverse gameplay experience. It runs out of steam towards the end of its campaign and lacks much meaningful vehicle progression, but on the whole, this is one of Codemasters' most confident racing packages to date.

Tales of Berseria’s heavy anime and manga influence and its incredibly lengthy campaign will likely be a difficult barrier of entry for many gamers. That said, RPG fans won’t want to pass this one up. Its style may be over the top, but there is actually a pretty compelling story here and an unforgettable cast of characters with unique abilities to get to know. All of that on top of a challenging combat system make this the best installment in the Tales franchise in recent memory.

By and large, Trials Rising doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it maintains a high level of quality with the vast majority of its content by fine-tuning the series’ strengths with a bevy of well-designed tracks, tight controls, physics-focused gameplay, and offbeat sense of humor.

The game’s technical problems on Xbox One are a real shame, especially since the game is console exclusive to Xbox One, but those looking to look past these issues will be treated to an engrossing and surprising story aboard the Tacoma space station.

When all of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty’s systems are going, they masterfully work in harmony to make the player want to see more, fight more, and challenge themselves. When players are pushing their limits and conquering the game's mechanics, Wo Long becomes a hard game to put down. It doesn’t totally reinvent the mechanics that Team Ninja has been building since Nioh, nor does it fully flesh out concepts from Sekiro that inspired it; however, Wo Long takes enough from both to make something engrossing.

LEGO Voyagers is an incredibly gorgeous, charming game with a strong emotional core and engaging gameplay. The freedom its physics-based mechanics allow for can lead to some puzzles feeling a tad too easy for older audiences, and its lack of side content might make its short 3–4 hour runtime sting a little. But in spite of that, LEGO Voyagers is an adventure that will have players of all ages grinning from ear to ear, from beginning to end.

Technical issues and the lack of content in Blitz aside, Halo Wars 2 is a fun game that is the best bet for RTS fans looking for something to play on Xbox One. The campaign is engrossing from start to finish, the multiplayer matches are consistently exciting, and thanks to its status as an Xbox Play Anywhere game, Halo Wars 2 offers fans plenty of bang for the buck. If 343 and Creative Assembly are able to patch the game’s technical issues and add more areas to Blitz mode soon, then Halo Wars 2 will be a no-brainer for fans of the real-time strategy genre and the Halo franchise in general.

Hue easily sets itself apart from its indie platformer peers, with a well-crafted world, pitch perfect art and sound design, and taxing gameplay with an excellent learning curve.

For long-term players, Overwatch 2 may feel more like a glorified update with problematic progression and roadblocks to enjoyment that didn't exist in the original game. In its current state, Overwatch 2 is more product than art, but there is still plenty of time to turn things around between now and whenever the game's 1.0 version launches.

Sid Meier's Civilization 7 offers a fantastic experience for fans of the franchise and genre. Its turn-based gameplay loop is endlessly addicting, the civilizations and leaders are a joy to play around with, and its exploration of history is a sight to behold. It has a few flaws that need to be worked out, but just like almost every Sid Meier's Civilization game before it, those will likely be addressed with future patches and DLC content. So, for those veteran players who were eagerly anticipating the next entry or new players who may have never touched this franchise before, this may be exactly what they were looking for.