Minor quibbles aside, Absolum is an excellent beat-’em-up full of cool combos, neat build variations, random events and enjoyable roguelike power evolution spearheaded by a team that Absolumetely knows what they’re doing when it comes to crafting quality content. For fans of roguelikes or side-scrollers, this is one to check out.

The definition of what a perfect sequel should be, and an excellent game in its own right.

West of Loathing is one of the best RPGs on the market, hands down. The simplistic art style and humorous themes mean anyone will be able to get in and enjoy themselves, there’s plenty of laughs and sharp writing, and players only need to engage with it in the ways that they want to. I’m hard-pressed to find anything negative to say about it! And now if you’ll excuse me, I have to hit the ol’ dusty trail and get back to it…

It's hard to deny that from its humble beginnings to the spectacular finale, Kingdom Hearts II is absolutely what the first game should have been. Its production values are still amazingly high, but the mechanics and tactile experience of play are now equals.

GGX2 is probably the most vibrantly animated two-dimensional videogame ever made, with each attack and movement drawn to exceptional detail.

The bosses in Ratchet & Clank however had always seemed on the cusp of greatness, but never quite reached it. That changed with A Crack in Time. While most of the game's bosses are fairly nondescript, the final two are exactly what I was waiting for. Fast-paced, multi-faceted, and grandiose in scale, these battles were, in a word, awesome.

This game managed to do something its 3-D counterparts never could: catch my interest and hold on to it. I spent a lot of time simply looking around each level, experimenting with each character and attempting to find the various chao emeralds.

In a world of generic RPGs with cookie cutter plots and characters, Persona 3 is like a breath of fresh air—a game that marches to a different drummer and is worth playing because of it.

Tales is far and away the most entertaining game I've played from Telltale yet.... And given the way the final episode ends, I'm very much looking forward to the sure-to-come second season.

As wonderful as Gone Home is, it mostly demonstrates that there's still a long way to go.

Even if the tunes aren't all things to all players, that shouldn't hold anyone back from putting cash down and picking up one of the most original games to grace consoles for some time. DJ Hero 2 is sublime.

Writing a review of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is something I never thought I’d get to do, but I am so glad that Capcom decided to take a chance in bringing these two exceptional stories to the West. Despite its status as an offshoot from the main franchise and a heavy reliance on very specific settings, it might even represent the best opportunity to delve into this wonderfully quirky and original series thanks to excellent quality-of-life improvements and slick presentation. Longtime fans have surely bought it already, but The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is a fantastic pickup for anyone looking for a good yarn coming from a series filled with them.

The music is often phenomenal, the translation and dialogue are exquisite, and the world is one that's worth spending time in. However, it's all based on grind-heavy gameplay, and it's still subscription based. My advice is to buy it, burn through the new content, and then put it aside until the next substantial expansion is released.

Out of the Park Baseball 14, like it predecessors, does exactly what it sets out to do-it provides the hardcore fan with the most detailed front office sim experience possible.

Serpentcoil Island is easily, easily one of the best things I played 2024. In a just world, it would be on a lot of others’ lists as well.

In a game that encourages perfection to the nanosecond, having to occasionally stop to think about which button does what can occasionally cost time. It's a small issue and one that won't affect players unconcerned with high scores.

I very much enjoyed this game, and the good elements definitely outweigh the bad, but I sincerely hope that a sequel gets produced someday, because with a few changes and some better writing this could be among my all-time favorites.

While the future of the game is anyone’s guess, at present Diablo IV is a solid, but strangely unambitious take that fails to bring much new to the table. By the end of my travels, I was more than willing to put it down and take a break — somewhere amongst all the grinding, Diablo IV had unfortunately ground me down as well.

Skipping my usual witty remark or pun-laden ending line in closing, let me just say that Clash of Heroes is an absolute winner from start to finish. Any gamer worthy of the title needs to have a copy of this cart in their library. Buy it. Ra

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.

Apart from the suboptimal multiplayer matching, Sunbreak is damn good Monster Hunter and I hope they keep some of the features introduced here as the series moves forward, especially the human NPC companions. For anyone who owns and enjoyed Rise, picking up Sunbreak should be a no-brainer. It’s an intelligent expansion that retains the best of Monster Hunter Rise and adds more than enough to warrant its existence atop an already-meaty title.

I wonder if we haven't reached the point where games like this can start leaving out the plot entirely. It's a game about giving the player a gun and telling them to go nuts.

Beating The Lost Age is going to require at least 30 hours (and more if the player wants to do all of the side-quests and find all of the hidden goodies) and maybe more if gamers aren't good at puzzles. There's nothing inherently wrong with a game lasting this amount of time (although it does seem long for a handheld RPG) as long as the gameplay warrants it. Too bad for The Lost Age that it shows all of its tricks in the first 12 hours or so...

It's easy to recommend this compilation to anyone looking for JRPG gaming on the go, and this pair of games is poised to steal my free time all over again—and I'm perfectly willing to let it.

I thought that Grapple Dog was one of the best 2D platformers I’d played in ages, and this sequel absolutely lives up to its pedigree. Whatever the developers want to do next with these characters, it’s going to be worth tagging along.

While Monster Hunter 4: Ultimate is still Monster Hunter (and thank goodness for that) Capcom has put a great deal of effort into improving the overall experience, and I'd say that their revamp has been a wild success.

Dragon Quest Builders 2 takes what was great about the first game and expands on it meaningfully, focusing on community development and large-scale building. While the combat is less-than-stellar, the overall result is a more unique experience that offers much to work with on the Isle of Awakening.

Despite my qualms about the combat engine, graphics and the amount of minor bugs on display, it's a testament to BioWare's craft that Dragon Age: Origins is as intensely addicting and as ultimately satisfying as it is.