Under the Waves delivers an incredibly emotional story about grief and its ability to manifest in the realities of those who attempt to evade it. While the title's main narrative is powerfully effective, its secondary focus on environmentalism, fueled by a real-world partnership, diminishes the overall impact of the experience. Though its close-up visuals and optional objectives are marred by technical issues, the core of Under the Waves' gameplay is enough to keep players engaged in its mandatory tasks. The story of Stan is one many fans will resonate with, as it captures the difficult thoughts that accompany grief. Unfortunately, Under the Waves doesn't quite deliver a gaming experience deserving of such meaningful concepts.

Artificial difficulty spikes and needlessly obtuse level design can lead to a lot of unnecessary frustration, and that frustration can quickly overshadow the game's greatest strengths. Blades of Fire had all the right materials in front of it, but it forged an uneven blade that keeps accidentally wounding its wielder.

Last Word certainly stands out from the multitude of other JRPGs in terms of style and a few unique mechanics, but ultimately falls short where it should have been strongest — dialogue.

All in all, despite not being a game that is often affiliated with the family-friendly Switch, Catherine: Full Body is a well-developed port to Nintendo's hybrid system.

Mafia 2: Definitive Edition is a decent buy for anyone that hasn't played the original (on PC, anyway). It's a more complete package with superior graphics, but there are definitely aspects of the game that haven't aged well.

The game works hard to create a world full of fresh designs and although it might not be as obvious, there is a narrative to follow throughout Shattered: Tale of the Forgotten King. But the issues with mechanics and the problems with camera angles are frustrating.

Poly Bridge 2 has all the tools to be really good. The building mechanics are solid and the satisfying feeling of seeing a bridge come together, with all the moving parts working perfectly, is certainly awesome. With some of the puzzles, true satisfaction can be found, and the tools in the sandbox mode allow players to create endless opportunities. However, the game is missing some of the polish that should probably come with a sequel. Instead of the eureka moment of putting the pieces together just right, the final product is often frustrating and confusing. Still, Poly Bridge 2 is at its best when everything clicks just right, like when a gorgeous bridge is constructed that lifts up high enough for a submarine to float right under just as a buggy flies on by.

Above the Law is a decent continuation of The Walking Dead: A New Frontier‘s story, but still a bit of a come-down from Episode 1 and 2. It does succeed in setting the stage for Episode 4, and with a few characters’ fates hanging in the balance and questions left unanswered, chances are most players who have come this far will see the rest of the season through.

Even with the brief runtime, Road 96: Mile 0 ends just as the narrative becomes interesting, making it difficult to care about what does occur. These are issues that could have been potentially fixed with slight tweaks to the story, but there is enough that works to inspire some curiosity as to how the overall narrative can be expanded in a theoretical sequel. There are reasons to go back and do multiple playthroughs if one wishes to see all potential outcomes, but that can only be recommended for someone who already has an attachment to the characters and would like to spend more time with them.

It's also a visual knockout, with highly detailed environments and character models. Regardless of how well-animated or detailed the characters are, though, many players will find it difficult to care about them or the story, which is a huge blow to something that is basically an interactive movie. However, those who push through will be rewarded with a memorable ending, and if nothing else, Little Hope is still a solid choice as a sort-of party game.

While the game is still beautiful and has some redeeming qualities to it, it’s hard to explicitly recommend Deadlight: Director’s Cut to anyone except the most dedicated fans of the original or of Limbo-style games.

Until Dawn: Rush of Blood features a haunting atmosphere and plenty of scares, but the experience is hampered by a constant need to calibrate the hardware.

South of Midnight excels in key areas, but its gameplay is so underwhelming that it's hard to truly appreciate everything it does well.

Technical issues aside, The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners is generally a good time and one of the better VR horror games on the market. The level of interactivity alone makes it a game that many VR enthusiasts will want to check out, though expect to be frustrated by the poorly-implemented stealth mechanics and human combat encounters.

The lack of freedom in Return to Moria is probably one of its biggest faults. Along with that, the actual gameplay is not really doing anything fascinating with the concept. While the game can be fun, especially with friends, it is not that memorable when compared to other games in the genre. Besides the Lord of the Rings brand, it lacks anything truly special to make it stand out.

Even with its blemishes and missteps,The Knightling is not bad, or even totally mediocre. Its combat is weak, its story underwhelming at best, and its open-world design is nothing to write home about, but traversal and atmosphere save the day. Indeed,The Knightling is worth recommending on the grounds of its movement abilities and soundtrack alone - it's just the rest of the package that isn't up to snuff.

Those who were starving for a new Mario Strikers game will likely get a lot of playtime out of Mario Strikers: Battle League despite its general lack of content, but those who need a little more meat on the bone will likely come away disappointed. The core gameplay is great, but there's not much to the game beyond that.

Team Sonic Racing is still one of the weaker kart racers we’ve played.

Cyber Ops is a deeply flawed game, but it's not without potential. Games that make you the action hero are wildly common, but games that make you the person in the chair are far less frequent. If you've ever wanted to see what it's like to be that type of character, Cyber Ops might just be worth a try.

Soccer Story is a valiant attempt at a Sports RPG, but it falls victim to a repetitive story and quest structure. Its light narrative quickly falls to the side, with annoying bugs taking its place. Perhaps a player can find value in the endless amount of running and collectible items to be found but, for the most part, its lively world and polished soccer ball physics aren’t enough to make this an enjoyable experience.

At times, I was blown away by Starfield: Shattered Space's beautifully rendered new areas, but other times, my immersion was ruined by the annoying progression-killing quest bugs and weird graphical oddities. The DLC is uneven to say the least, and that's something Starfield fans should take into consideration when deciding if they should spend $30 on the expansion...$30 for a four-hour main quest sounds a bit steep, but the new weapons and side quests may make it worth the investment for diehard Starfield fans that simply want more - once the bugs are ironed out, anyway. Future updates will likely make it a lot easier to recommend Shattered Space, but for now, fans may want to hold off until its more egregious bugs and glitches are addressed.

When it comes to adaptations, Hellboy hasn't had a ton of luck lately. Hellboy Web of Wyrd certainly isn't on the same disastrous level, but it's underwhelming in its own respects. Hellboy and his world is a potential gold mine of fantastic adaptive potential, as Guillermo del Toro proved with his pair of films in the early 2000s. The character offers so much more, and though Web of Wyrd has some bright spots, it ultimately fails to realize the potential of its source material.

Like other looter-style games, Godfall could become a much more appealing prospect in time. Godfall's $70 price tag works against it big time because as it stands, it's difficult to recommend such an expensive game to anyone when it recycles the same content repeatedly throughout the entire experience. Godfall's core combat mechanics are great and it's a visually-impressive experience, but gamers may want to wait and see if the game gets some compelling post-launch content updates first.

Atlas Fallen had promise, but nothing that this game strives to accomplish ever lands very well or feels fully realized. Between a lackluster story filled with generic and soulless voice acting and a combat system that loses its momentum well before the credits roll, there is rarely a moment where this game feels memorable or worth the time to finish. There is some good stuff on the surface of Deck13’s new IP, with its beautiful vistas and interesting world-building and aesthetic, but digging past the surface of Atlas Fallen shows that it is mostly hollow underneath.

Behind the janky combat in Hotel Barcelona, the lackluster stage design, and the annoying difficulty, there's actually an interesting story and narrative that had me wanting more. I was expecting to get a lot more lore bits each time I came back to the Hotel after dying, but that just didn't really happen. There aren't many cutscenes in Hotel Barcelona either, and it's a shame since the few that are there are quite fun to watch, like the intro.

Pacing is a problem, but the experience can be a memorable one if you buy into Night School Studio’s concept.

Breached is ultimately a very short experience, and we expect most gamers will be able to complete it in under 2 hours. In this short window, gamers will have seen and done most of what the game has to offer, with the only replay value coming through hidden journal entries.

Eventually, Modern Warfare 2 should get to a point where it becomes an easy recommendation for shooter fans, but it's undercooked and underwhelming in its current state.