Although these new assignments for 47 are just bonus surprises, I prefer them to the normal Contracts and Escalation missions IO regularly publishes. The maps aren’t brand new, but it’s clear that care and creativity went into crafting the missions, and that the developers didn’t just push quickie content out the door to hold players over until the next official episode.

Half of Adr1ft is a fantastic experience. The spacewalking segments are like nothing I’ve ever encountered in a game before—freeing yet claustrophobic, beautiful and terrifying. If it was judged solely by how well it captures the mystery of and fascination with the great emptiness beyond the earth, it would be a success. This isn’t just a floating sim, though, and once simply being in zero-G gets old, there isn’t a compelling reason to get through the rest.

Inheritance doesn’t bring any of what I loved most about Layers of Fear back to the canvas, and instead feels like an unnecessary epilogue. It’s a shame, but like the work of Fear’s own tortured painter, not everything can be a masterpiece.

A success. It’s as grueling and intense as dour puzzle-platformers come, and thanks to its striking visuals and deliberate pacing, it proves an interesting and unique take on the overstuffed ‘zombpocalypse’ genre. With its tight gameplay, (mostly) great level design, and troubling vision of America in collapse, Deadlight deserves to be recognized as a standout in the genre.

Just a competent JRPG. How could it not be, considering how much it liberally lifts from its betters? Looking at it with a purely analytical eye, this Frankenstein’s Monster of a game has haphazardly pieced everything needed to make it stand among the giants it aspires to be, except the most critical of requirements—a spark of life.

My only major knock against Furi is having to repeat tedious bullet hell sequences during some matches, but otherwise I enjoyed the physicality of the duels. And to my surprise, the story actually comes to a head in a fairly satisfying way at the end. Overall this is a win for The Game Bakers, and I’d recommend Furi to anyone who appreciates demanding (but fair!) action games.

Hyper Light Drifter isn’t for everyone—the replay value is low and some may not like how cryptic and mysterious the story is, but for me, the positives far outweighed potential issues. For those wanting to explore a world with rich environments, strong atmosphere and rewarding combat, Hyper Light Drifter delivers.

I hope that we haven’t heard the last of the Zero Escape team, but I also hope that their future projects rein themselves in and they produce something more coherent and personal.

A smart puzzle-driven title, but one that might only appreciated by those with infinite patience and fingers fast enough to endure falling to their death for the 463rd time on the second ball of level 78.

While I’m not familiar with the manga this game is based on and can’t speak to its fidelity as an adaptation, when taken on its own terms it’s a robust and satisfying arena brawler with almost too much story.

I enjoyed Grand Kingdom quite a bit. On paper this game is everything I want in an SRPG, but it did leave me feeling a little underwhelmed. With a stronger narrative stitching everything together, I think it really would be the total package.

I did not like anything about Wasted. Neither its humor nor its gameplay are adequate to support the irritation of mastering the first dungeon or the tedium of blasting through the subsequent four. I spent many hours beating this game out of sheer spite and didn’t enjoy a single minute of it. Reader, do not repeat my error.

Lost Sea has some good ideas. Exploring randomized islands alongside talented crewmates sounds exciting and it looks like an enjoyable swashbuckling adventure, but the annoying music, repeated areas, boring combat and terrible AI sank this game long before the ship reached its destination.

Though prospective pilots may have a tough time giving the green light to Assault Suit Leynos due to the hefty price tag, it’s an impeccable remake of a classic, underappreciated Genesis game that delivers all that could be asked of it and more.

This undersea tour is quite short. I got through it in about two hours or so and was surprised by the brevity, but it’s probably better that way. No matter how beautiful it is to swim with whales or to descend into an undersea crevasse, there is precious little to do in Abzu, and it’s never particularly touching or thought-provoking. If it told a better tale or if there were more to it than swimming and occasionally pushing a button, it might have been a knockout. As it stands, the appeal of looking at pretty fish wears off in a hurry, and there’s not much else to recommend it.

Monochroma can proudly hold its metaphorical head high among other classy 2D puzzle-platformers. This is a game whose developers extensively studied the greats of the genre, and obviously understand what they did right. While it may not bring anything particularly new to the table, Monochroma is a beautifully executed adventure that kept me enthralled all the way from the promising opening to the slightly annoying finale.

It’s absolutely worth playing for anyone who missed it the first time, and the new features and content make a strong argument for existing fans to take a second look.

It’s difficult to recommend a title that serves only the most experienced racing fans, while alienating the rest of us. When coupled with a bland visual presentation and more than a few technical issues, players should to go back to older motocross titles to get their fix.

While I can imagine how Portal may have inspired the team to expand on its concept, in the end, all I wanted to do was play more Portal.

Although I absolutely love the aesthetics and concept of Headlander, the non-combat gameplay is only fair, and it’s brought down further with too much combat detracting from the things it does well. I was interested enough to stick around and see how things turned out at the end, but there were definitely a few times when I walked away and took a break out of annoyance. Like so many other examples before it, Headlander is another could-have-been that just doesn’t play to its strengths.

For me, personally, too much of Generations is repeat content and it breaks my heart to see another installment on hardware that doesn’t do it justice. I still love the series and I’m looking forward to an all-new Monster Hunter on a better system in the future. In the meantime? I’m cutting this hunt short.

Fans of the series will find lots to love, but fighting fans who don’t know anything about One Piece shouldn’t shy away from checking out the wonderfully balanced action. By the time players reach upper tiers the opposition is formidable, but smart play is rewarded and it always feels fair no matter how weird the pirate plotline gets.

Umbrella Corps has a few interesting ideas up its sleeve, but that’s all it has. Whenever it attempts to put those ideas into practice, they’re shoddily executed and laughably inept for a tactical shooter that rewards almost no tactics whatsoever.

FRU absolutely delighted me with its ingenuity and elegance. It has gone on to become not only a surprisingly enjoyable indie gem, but one of my absolute favorite exclusives for the Xbox One, and one of my favorites of all time.

A fan of the hidden object genre who doesn’t mind a little extra padding will certainly find this to be a worthwhile entry.

Despite its lack of long-term staying power, Pac-Man 256 is a fantastic reinterpretation of an arcade classic that looks and plays great, and this port is easily the best version. That said, it’s not meant for extended sessions, so I recommend playing in small chunks to avoid burnout.

Being interesting doesn’t change the fact that Mighty No. 9 is still a dismal failure.

While it may not have reached perfection yet, the Atelier series is getting close. Each new title offers a substantive change to the core mechanics, so vets will encounter something new and new players can easily jump in. I seem to say this in every review but it remains true—this is good as JRPG design gets, and I can’t wait to see what the developers have in store next.

Just small flaws in an otherwise sublime shooter. Brigador might not necessarily satisfy players looking for a new sim or a successor to a beloved series like MechCommander, but it scratches the itch for a challenging rampage game steeped in top-notch cyberpunk atmosphere.

Being a bit soft on the narrative is a sin that many games commit, and while I’m generally a big story guy, 7th Dragon III: Code VFD performs so fantastically in all other aspects that I can’t scold it for not making me examine the human condition. For players who want an excellent RPG-lite or a nonstandard dungeon crawler, this game is the total package—it’s got some of the most entertaining mechanics I’ve seen in years, it’s as smooth as butter to play, and everything about it oozes polish. It’s not only going to be one of the best 3DS games released this year, but one of the best 3DS titles overall.

When a title shows off obvious influences one hopes that it will rise above them, but Anima: Gate of Memories isn’t fit to shine its influences’ shoes. Its fundamentals are shoddy, and its characters and narrative are a bore. Anima never executes anywhere near the level its considerable ambitions demand.

The difficulty of Downwell will turn away just as many players as it attracts. While persistent effort will ultimately unlock alternative starting stats that benefit less-skilled players, the game starts players from zero after each death—it’s a formula that will either exhaust or inspire the player depending on how they feel about this kind of experience. As for me, Downwell joins the ranks of Spelunky as a go-to, action-oriented roguelike, but I expect many who try it will quickly shelve it for less difficult adventures.

This leaves TurnOn in a tough spot. More than 90% of the game is a high-quality, quirky, relaxing exploratory platformer. Unfortunately, that game is broken up and gated off by runner levels that add a disconnected (and possibly fatal) element of challenge, so I can’t recommend it for that strength.

Its vividly depressing, yet wondrous world proves that Playdead is still the master of atmospheric side-scrolling platformers, and it quickly became one of the best games I’ve played this year.

After the smaller and less satisfying DLCs that came before, it’s nice to have something larger and deeper to add to my Fallout 4 experience. Although this is really just more Fallout, Bethesda hit a high note here.

The online is worthy of special mention, as it’s arguably the most important factor when it comes to a fighting game’s longevity. Fortunately, Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator nails this aspect admirably. The netcode is solid, with even games held between Japan and the UK offering decent matches.

All of these positives were true in the PS2 original, though, so the triumph of Leifthrasir is in making things easier to enjoy on current platforms.

Hyperdevotion Noire: Goddess Black Heart is both too similar to and too different from its parent series to hold my interest. Trying to “fix” the lackluster battle system with more minutiae has only made it less tolerable, and worse, I just don’t care about these characters anymore. I’ve played worse games—far worse—but Hyperdevotion Noire has lost the soul of a franchise I once loved.

Koihime Enbu’s a decent little brawler, though it doesn’t do enough to stand out from the crowd apart from its all-female cast. As such, it comes moderately recommended for fighting game enthusiasts who want to jump into something new, but it’s a much harder sell to a more casual demographic.

Although my tone and criticisms might not suggest it, Episode 3 is still a solid addition to the Hitman universe. Marrakesh is an interesting place to explore, but IO just doesn’t do enough to make it a standout here. Considering that there are still three episodes left to go, I’m hoping that the next installment will keep enriching the game and not just coast on fumes from the first two excellent episodes.

There’s not much to dislike about this new Doom. The multiplayer’s bland, the sound mix could be a little punchier, and players who expect deep worldbuilding and story twists are straight out of luck, but putting all that aside, Doom remains packed to the gills with exceptional blood-spraying gameplay and deserves respect for this unfiltered, uncompromised approach. My advice? Grab a chainsaw, rev it up and get stuck right in.

Total War: Warhammer is a great addition to the Total War formula and the most radical departure from the series yet, and the differences between each group offer more replay than anyTotal War before it. Unfortunately, a tiresome endgame comes too early and kills the pace of each campaign. If Creative Assembly can find a way to deal with that issue, this entertaining entry will be truly outstanding.

DICE fixed nearly everything wrong with the original, expanded the world and made traversal faster and more exciting in every way.

Getting back to me here, although I can see potential in controlling a team of four and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a perfect fit for such a concept, Mutants In Manhattan feels like a rushed contractual obligation rather than something created out of love or inspiration from the source material.

Life Goes On isn’t the longest puzzler with just three worlds with around a dozen maps in each, but its unique worldview and mechanics ensure that it stands above the crowd.

For such a small title, The Magic Circle has a lot to say. This isn’t something most games can claim, and it sits comfortably along other recent indies like The Beginner’s Guide, which deconstruct traditional approaches to design.

Overall, CarneyVale Showtime offers striking presentation and promising core gameplay which is let down by some questionable design decisions, sometimes-poor controls, and a lack of accessibility options.

I absolutely loved the Sega 3D Classics Collection. Sega did an outstanding job in picking this lineup (they credit fan requests) and the work is presented with love.

If Uncharted 4 played even half as good as it looked, it would be a masterpiece… but it doesn’t. In fact, for all its splendor and all the obvious care taken towards making it look and sound as good as humanly possible, it makes one cardinal sin that’s impossible to forgive—it’s downright boring to play. There are moments when it’s easy to get swept up the visual opulence and bombast, but then the moments pass, and it’s straight back to snarky comments and auto-climbing up mountainsides...But hey—it sure does look nice, doesn’t it?

Overwatch is trying hard to rope in players who don’t normally go for team-based shooters, and in that respect it succeeds better than any other game in its class. The exceptional treatment newcomers get makes me want to love it, but I’ll need more modes and better maps if I’m going to spend hundreds of hours with it as I have with similar titles.

Although it seems like I’ve got more complaints than praise for Invisible, Inc., I ended up enjoying my time with it a great deal. The character designs and futuristic premise are great, and pulling off a win after agonizing over every single action in every single turn feels amazing. It’s a stiff challenge with much patience required on the player’s part, but Invisible, Inc. delivers a deliciously strategic dish—although one that’s probably not to everyone’s taste.

P.O.L.L.E.N. fails to live up to its lofty narrative aspirations, but deserves credit for its considered, lovingly-crafted aesthetic and intriguing premise.

Nights of Azure’s a disappointing game for sure, but it’s not exactly awful—the mindless combat is balanced by the tremendous art and sound design, and despite the negative tone of this review it’s not offensively bad at anything it does. It’s just aggressively bland and tough to recommend when the action’s too toothless to keep players engaged.

Its puzzles and story aren’t really bad, they’re just bland. There are occasional mentions of philosophical and moral debates regarding the game’s artificial afterlife, and a deeper, more thought-provoking analysis would have made for a more engaging experience. Instead, these headier subjects were kept on the back burner in favor of a less-thrilling, more pedestrian adventure, and the game suffered for it.

By sticking to its core identity and cranking the intensity up, id has raised the bar on how I want action-oriented first-person shooters to feel, and it’s going to be hard to go back to something with less adrenaline after my time with this heavy metal beast.

I know that the company gets a lot of flak for rehashing its material, but if Star Fox Zero is Nintendo’s idea of innovating an established franchise, I hope that this is their final attempt to prove that motion control wasn’t just a fad.

The Witch and the Hundred Knight isn’t a good game by any means. It has an impenetrable equipment system, lackluster combat with no other gameplay mechanics, and a story that only gets good if players consult an FAQ.

While I was thrilled to be able to spend more time with Graham and company, Once Upon A Climb is somewhat unsubstantial and unsatisfying. It’s not a bad episode by any means, but with only two more installments left to go, I’m hoping that the Gentlemen can get back up to speed and finish the series as strong as it started.

Ultimately, though, the drudgery of actually playing this game outweighs whatever interest its narrative has to offer. I have to admire the ambition of the concept here, but Stories: The Path of Destinies falls short of having systems equal to that aspiration. Like its swashbuckling hero, this game’s reach exceeds its grasp.

Although the campaign only lasts about two hours, I found it to be the perfect length to establish what it does, to get me invested, and then have me on my way before ever wearing out its welcome.

While I’d say that the Aliens vs. Pinball pack delivers great value for money overall, the Aliens table all by itself is an absolute knockout. For fans of Aliens or of Zen Pinball 2, picking this one is the definition of a no-brainer.

This episode is stronger than the previous two, but it can’t support the trilogy by itself.

Cyber Sleuth doesn't reinvent the JRPG that comprises its core, but for a Digimon title, this is a solid step in the right direction.

Much like the previous episode, Tomorrow feels like a mashup of everything that made older Hitman games great.

The two halves of Return to Popolocrois aren't equal. By the twenty-hour mark, I was enraptured with being a bigwig farmer, but the JRPG side had lost its appeal. I was essentially grinding out the dungeons not to advance the narrative, but to find items that could be utilised or exploited on the farm. I have to wonder what the experience would have been like had the developer done away with the JRPG side altogether.

Although it was originally released for PC in the fall of 2015, The Park feels like a quick tech demo for virtual reality headsets more than a full release, and even if the content were presented in VR, everything about it is so bland that it wouldn't be effective anyway.

The quality of the port and of the game itself make Valkyria Chronicles Remastered a must-play title for strategy fans who haven't cracked it yet. The proposition of a purchase might be a bit more fraught for vets who don't feel the need to revisit since there's no genuinely new content here, but there's no question that it's good to see this classic made available to new fans on a new console.

It pains me greatly to say it, but this one is a whiff for a studio with a previously-perfect record. For those who need something to play on the Vita, I would strongly encourage them to pick up either of the Mutant Blob titles, and Guacamelee is an absolute must-have. Those are genuinely great works, and despite my disappointment here, I still call myself a Drinkbox fan... I'll just forget that Severed exists while I look forward to what they do next.

Despite the questionable combat, Blues and Bullets remains a must-play episodic adventure with an incredibly intriguing story told with utter confidence by consummate professionals. Sure, the shooting isn't fantastic (and again there's a single joke that pulls me right out of the narrative!) but overall, this is as good as interactive movies get, and I only hope the wait for chapter three is considerably shorter than the gap between parts one and two.

Sure, there's no new content, but Disgaea PC is still the definitive version of this game.

Samorost 3 is an excellent point-and-click adventure game for those looking for a slow, surreal experience.

I like the idea of taking a fish on an unconventional journey, but Koi isn't atmospheric or relaxing enough to be a chill game, and the gameplay isn't substantial or clever enough to make it a puzzler.

Its castle isn't worth exploring, nor are its mysteries worth examining.

This new entry banks its entire identity on being the sum of parts we've seen before, and the sense of familiarity can be too much at times for series vets.

There's a great experience to be had here... Just make sure to take the proper steps needed to avoid the mid-game difficulty spike.

Anyone interested in horror, Lovecraft, or top-notch point-and-click adventures has no excuse for missing this one.

It's colourful, simple to pick up and play, and only the longest dungeons at the end of the game take more than a few minutes to conquer or be defeated by. Dungelot may not be the perfect roguelite, but it's certainly close.

There's a lot to love in Street Fighter V, especially Rainbow Mika, but the fact is that the game still isn't where it needs to be yet. The March update helped, but it was just a band aid on some pretty deep lacerations. Serious fighting game fans can hop in now without too many problems, but more casual players might want to wait—more fixes and a real story mode are still coming.

Enter the Gungeon is a wonderful mix of intricate difficulty and vast silliness (dodge)rolled into one— Any player partial to roguelikes or bullet-hell games will find a lot to do, and completists will be running around the gungeon for months to come.

I do like what Trillion's going for, and in the early stages I enjoyed my time with it. However, the grind over the lifespans of several Overlords grows dull, and no amount of amusing writing can stave off the boredom that settles in. When it's good, it's very good, but when it wears out its welcome, that welcome wears out hard.

All Quantum Break made me want to do is invent my own time machine to go back and un-play this title, so I could reclaim the nine hours I spent on it.

Although I like the idea of what Protonovus is going for, it plays its cards too soon and runs out of steam far too quickly. There simply isn't enough variety to sustain its extended run time, so fatigue and boredom set right in. It's a good try, but these rotating rings of death are in need of a more challenging, more interesting campaign.

On balance, République lives up to the promise of its long-ago Kickstarter pitch, and delivers an engaging, well-built adventure from its humble beginnings as a crowdfunded indie effort on a shoestring budget.

Players who haven't started (or finished) Fallout 4 yet will likely get more out of Wasteland Workshop than I did, but this content was too insubstantial to keep my attention for long.

While it seems like Omega Force should have this formula locked down tight, the truth is that Samurai Warriors 4: Empires doesn't quite gel.

While it's a stronger entry than In Too Deep, Give No Shelter doesn't justify this mini-season. Michonne's story so far—and the series in general—relies more and more on death and violence while providing fewer meaningful choices for players to contemplate.

Overall, Dreii is an elegant, yet maddeningly difficult block-balancer.

There are highs and lows to the design, but it's a fundamentally solid action title with a few terrible design decisions that make it harder to get into than it should be.

While there's no doubt that Senran Kagura: Estival Versus won't be a good fit for a fair amount of people based solely on the amount of jiggle, there's no denying the quality that went into its design and production.

Even with that ridiculous level of challenge aside, every chunk of Assault Android Cactus feels like it's almost more than I can do, and it feels great to overcome the challenges Witch Beam threw my way. For those who think they're up for the task, this one comes highly recommended.

Frankly speaking, I find Just Cause 3 to be a bloated, boring game full of wrong decisions and wasted potential, but there's no denying that strapping a rocket to Rico and owning the skies is pretty fabulous. It's not good enough to recommend buying the game, but for people who already own it, Sky Fortress is an absolute must-have.

It was entertaining, but it didn't provide much challenge or mystery—it was just more of what I'd already been doing, plus robots.

A lovely face paired with an empty head is a cliché, but I'm not going to waste a better metaphor on a game this dull.

In the end I found Naruto to be a great experience, and also developed an appreciation for the series. I may never cosplay as any of the characters, but over the course of the time I spent with the title, I found myself engrossed in the story and loving the frantic ninja warfare.

Despite my complaints, this first installment of Hitman shows that IO seems committed to bringing the series back to the sort of rich, complex gameplay it's known for.

With an interesting plot, likeable characters, and gameplay that manages to hold up to the series' standard, Megadimension Neptuna VII is the best entry yet.

I didn't love it as a survival experience—maybe I couldn't have—but I enjoyed The Flame in the Flood as a tour of a drowning America.

While the game is relatively short, it ends before overstaying its welcome and the difficulty in many stages means players won't be breezing through on their first pass. It also makes up for its brevity by providing strong atmosphere and an intriguing story. Despite the issues I had with it, it's worth seeking out every one of Mion's memories and uncovering how this little girl and her fireflies ended up in such a dire situation.