God Eater 3 doesn’t break any molds and that’s okay. It fulfills its role as a solid action JRPG and a worthy successor to Bandai Namco‘s God Eater franchise by combining the rustic tropes of the genre with a heart-warming, if familiar, story of a developing family struggling to survive. Even through repetitive beats, the missions that run into each other, and the humdrum of the reused environmental assets, the story shines bright like a beacon in the Ashlands.

The lore may make the game seem too intimidating to jump into, but Kingdom Hearts 3 offers an exciting and over-the-top adventure that any light-hearted gamer could enjoy. You may find yourself googling character names and plot details from 15 years ago, but all of that confusion fades away when you get lost in the moment summoning tea cups or a giant rollercoaster to help attack a big boss with your best friends.

Resident Evil 2 is definitely worth the price of admission, especially for horror fans or fans of the Resident Evil franchise. The game pays homage to the original release while successfully updating the experience for modern audiences. It’s not perfect, but it’s close, and here’s hoping it inspires Capcom to remake other Resident Evil games in a similar style.

Ultimately, this is one of the most refined entries in the series as a whole, and everything old seems new again.

All of this is not to say that PUBG on PS4 isn’t fun, as it’s definitely a serviceable experience for Battle Royale aficionados who want a more strategic and deliberately paced alternative to competitors like Fortnite and Black Ops 4‘s Blackout. Unfortunately, though, there are still a host of problems that PUBG Corp. needs to address so as to justify the PlayStation 4 port’s $30 price tag.

Pokemon Let’s Go botches co-op and may feel like a step backwards in some ways, but in others, it is a surprising leap forward for the franchise. By streamlining many elements that made past Pokemon games frustrating, Pokemon Let’s Go successfully delivers a faster-paced Pokemon adventure, even though it has some missteps here and there.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate offers near-endless replayability.

If nothing else, the studio’s excellent work on Spyro: Reignited Trilogy shows the franchise in good hands, and a new game could address some of the poorly-aged elements and other fan complaints, like the the Reignited Trilogy‘s lack of subtitles.

With the emphasis on human to human interaction, Fallout 76 removed many living NPCs in favor of journals, AI, and radio broadcasts to fill the void. Although this makes sense for a game that is meant to concentrate on multiplayer, it certainly seems to have made the wasteland feel a bit more empty and lonely.

Realistic to a fault, with a player’s determination tested throughout the game.

The game is a nightmare to play through, with an unlikable protagonist, a chugging frame rate, and a mountain of bugs. It’s completely and utterly broken, but even when it works (which is almost never), it amounts to nothing more than a below average hack-and-slash with some decent puzzles.

It’s simply incredible how much Rockstar has accounted for. But even beyond the jaw-dropping visuals, the diverse score, and the gameplay, the story is something special and memorable. Red Dead Redemption 2 is a must-play for its entertainment value, its boundary-pushing, and its place as a landmark moment in video games.

Hitman 2 doesn’t break too much new ground for the series, for in many respects it can be viewed as Hitman: Season Two. Nevertheless, IO Interactive has brought a bevy of remarkable updates to the table that make the sequel a worthy successor to the game that came before it.

Call of Cthulhu wants to be scary. But instead of invoking a sense of fear in the player, Call of Cthulhu is almost relaxing to play, especially during the detective sequences, which is the exact opposite way a horror game should make players feel. Fans of the genre shouldn’t bother seeking it out for that reason alone, but for many other reasons, it’s not worth playing in general, horror fan or not.

LEGO DC Super-Villains does little to distinguish itself from past LEGO games, to the point that it still features some of the franchise’s trademark technical issues and glitches.

Deracine doesn’t stick the landing with its ending, and the game can often be more annoying to play than it is fun. It gets points for its bizarre atmosphere and intriguing plot, but they’re not quite enough to make it a game worth playing through.

Soulcalibur 6 might not be quite as groundbreaking as past games, but it’s still a must-buy for fighting game enthusiasts or fans of the franchise.

Lingering issues aside, The Jackbox Party Pack 5 provides some great Party Pack games, with Split the Room, Mad Verse City, and Patently Stupid standing out as especially entertaining.

It will almost certainly improve with age, but at launch, WWE 2K19 is still a generally high quality professional wrestling experience that will give fans of the franchise plenty of bang for their buck.

It simply has more options than many other first-person shooters on the market, and even though it’s lacking a campaign, it doesn’t feel content deficient at all. Between the multiplayer, Blackout battle royale mode, and Zombies, players will more than get their money’s worth with this game.

It still suffers from the same problems that have plagued the series for years, and the online mode is disappointing, to put it mildly.

The game is still arguably the best racing game available on modern consoles, and even non-racing game fans will still be able to appreciate the top of the line graphics and impressive open world.

Save for the ever-encroaching reach for players’ wallets with the Virtual Currency system, the sheer breadth of content alone in NBA 2K19 will be plenty to satisfy newbies and long-time fans of the franchise looking for a complete basketball sim experience.

Fans who arrive at Odyssey expecting the Assassin’s Creed experience they grew up with may be disappointed or confused, but gamers ready for a new era for the franchise should plan to be overwhelmed with opportunity.

While Episode 2 is an improvement, it comes with a big caveat as fans wait to see how Telltale handles the remainder of The Walking Dead: The Final Season. It would be a shame for the ending of episode two to simply be it, as the coming war promises players a legitimate, if cruel and heart-breaking, end for the beloved Clementine.

As far as turn-based JRPGs go, Dragon Quest 11 is one of the best we’ve seen in years. The game delivers a classic-style JRPG adventure with small, smart tweaks that make it feel like a more modern take on the genre.

As far as virtual reality games go, Transference isn’t the best, but it’s definitely one of the scariest. Anyone looking for a solid horror game will want to give it a go despite its shortcomings.

The series continues to struggle with giving players a compelling reason to keep playing beyond the end credits and aspects of the narrative could have used more work, but it’s still a mostly satisfying conclusion to Lara’s origin story.