This is a game that takes the side activities in BioShock and puts its full weight behind it. If you’ve ever hoarded every useless scrap of paper and loose cigarette in other games, Void Bastards will reward you. It’s a constant cycle of upgrading your character and venturing deeper into the void while you find new rooms and tougher challenges. Best of all, there’s a definitive end alongside the promise of a harder difficulty. It’s everything you could want in a procedural shooter, bridging the gap between action and strategy in an innovative new way that makes it easy to want to jump into the void over and over again.

It’s a funny enough game but its one-note dialogue slightly outweighs its instances of decent humor. The mechanics work well at first, but they are too simplistic and don’t take as much advantage of the VR medium as they could. But despite their flaws, all of these parts are good enough to make Trover Saves the Universe one of the more memorable VR experiences.

Firefights are frenetic because of the intuitive gunplay mechanics that use VR intelligently to make normal tasks more involving while also going above and beyond in some instances.

Unlike Nintendogs, Little Friends isn’t a meditative game in which you joyfully play with and e-cuddle a bunch of adorbs animals. Instead, it’s a laborious slog in which strengthening your bond with your virtual pets takes too long, and the end results aren’t worth the time invested.

The disconnect that the overly convoluted plotline produces mixed with the detachment I felt with the world because of the continually shifting environment left made the whole thing feel hollow to me. I can’t recommend Layers of Fear 2 unless you just absolutely love the genre and have played everything else out there.

An interesting experiment that almost works as a video game. If you’re a grizzled Nicktoons fan willing to look past a pile of gameplay flaws, you might find that there’s a good time to be had with this good doctor. If you’re looking for your next roguelike addiction, you may want to wait for the next contender.

Whether you want to buy the complete Resident Evil Origins Collection or prefer to experience the original game on the go, Capcom did a great job with these handheld ports. Not only do both look just as good as ever before, but they are a natural fit on Nintendo Switch. The dated gameplay won’t appeal to everyone and Zero is a bummer, but the quality of the remastering can’t be denied and the REmake has plenty of fantastic scares for players to enjoy. It’s a great history lesson, even if it’s just serves as a reminder of how far the series has come over time.

No matter if it is your first time dealing with the plagas or you know RE4‘s map like the back of your hand, this is a worthwhile version that should be replayed. Even in 2019, this is still Capcom’s crowning achievement and a master class in game design.

There simultaneously needed to be a lot more of Rage 2 and lot less; a lot more depth in its driving, story, and missions and a lot less repeated content and long stretches of empty landscape. With all of the fluff in between frenetic firefights, most of Rage 2‘s incredible moments are bookended by elements that are underbaked by comparison. But id’s knack for making impeccable first-person shooting mechanics makes Rage 2 succeed despite having faults that would doom a lesser shooter.

A Plague Tale tells a tale about human cruelty, the loss of innocence, survival, and family via its beautiful visual and imaginative level design, but it feels like near the game’s end confidence was lost in this vision. It gets in its own way by deciding that something bigger was needed to keep the player’s attention. It’s a sour end to an otherwise great game.

It all falls on the characters but the game’s cast isn’t strong enough to bear that burden. Its tame story would be more acceptable if the many soft moments in between beats had less cringeworthy dialogue and more actual humor.

The masterful character work and slowly building absurdity prove that this game isn’t just a joke, even if it does have a giant purple dildo bat in it.

Despite some setbacks with the fetch quests and the bad jokes, Provinciano’s follow-up to his classic Retro City Rampage doesn’t disappoint. Shakedown Hawaii has loads of replay value, between acquisitions, mayhem, and raging through city streets. It is splendidly designed, composed, and its visuals are a great nostalgic reminder of the SNES era.

While there are certainly some rough edges that keep it from being truly great, They Came From Below is We Happy Few at its best and then some. It’s the dark cinematic adventure that fans wanted from the original game, even if it tackles very different themes.

Despite having a story that is filled with cybernetically enhanced people trying to cope with their dystopian life that is blurred more than ever due to lifelike artificial intelligence, VA-11 Hall-A is remarkably human in its nature.

Everything about it makes sense, and it’s a better game at the end of the day due to the added polish. However, it’s not nearly good enough to get recommended with the games it’s now competing with and has lost much of its original appeal along the way.

Mortal Kombat 11’s toned down yet more tactical play gives it its own style that also remains true to the heart of the series. Although the franchise has been all about ripping out beating hearts, MK11 thankfully knew to leave that heart intact.

Anno 1800 is one of the most fun city-builders I’ve played in a long time. The construction of your city isn’t as complex as Cities: Skylines, but the complex supply and demand mechanics make Anno more action-packed than many combat oriented RTS games. You’ll constantly be juggling trade routes and worker types, and it all adds up to an incredibly rewarding experience.

It’s not the greatest playing horror game, and some aspects feel extremely dated. However, Yuppie Psycho is undeniably worth playing for anyone that is looking for something weird and wants art to actually have something to say.

The game is a little too easy, especially for those of you not worried about collecting every crown. The hint system provides too much of a safety net that is far too easy to fall back on. Thankfully, though, the series clever puzzles are as entertaining as they ever have been and keep the pesky frame rate issues and low difficulty from boxing you out of enjoying Qbby’s latest adventure.

Days Gone is one of the better zombie games in recent years. It doesn't beat out the Resident Evil 2 remake (very few games do) as being my go-to zombie fix, but it's an entertaining if somewhat unevenly-paced adventure through post-apocalyptic Oregon.

No, this isn’t a total essential purchase since some key titles are missing. But for those of you that are Konami fans or just need some old school fun to sink your teeth into, you could do a lot worse. Besides, at least Thunder Cross is surprisingly good. Who saw that coming?

It demonstrates that an actual sequel is long overdue as the core gameplay is still compelling in 2019 and no other game has quite filled that same niche. Either way, Capcom’s underrated gem is worth playing in one of its various ways and is well worth the time investment due to its fantastic ending.

Everything about Cuphead just feels right, even all these months after its original release. As it stands right now, this game is nearly flawless in its own right, thanks to its responsive controls and signature style.

If you can ignore gameplay flaws and focus on style, you might fall in love with its VHS trappings. However, if you want something beyond style, if you want an interesting interactive tale or a precise action game, you should look elsewhere.

Some of the more unique levels are a blast to play and the core combat is fun from start to finish. The cooperative focus is also a great bullet point in its favor, and it’s implemented in such a way that the single-player doesn’t feel lessened because of it.

While My Time At Portia does stretch a bit too far into the realm of realism, it also offers an accessible entry point into this style of gaming. It’s constantly surprising how much fun it is to sit down, turn on a podcast, and farm for hours.

Hell is Other Demons captures a certain vibe incredibly well. Its inspirations, from Devil Daggers to Super Crate Box, are clearly visible but everything clicks together into a wholly original creation.