I don't think it's an overstatement to say that Quantic Dream's work is an achievement for dramatic storytelling and a bold step forward towards maturation of the medium. Games like this are what I live for as a player and as a critic.

It's extremely smart, has a great sense of humor, a bold design and fantastic art direction.

Ghost Trick is a game where every fantastic detail comes together to make something even greater than the sum of its parts — and those parts are plenty great on their own. This is an experience worth checking out for just about anyone, and with a modest price tag and a free demo, there’s absolutely no excuse to pass.

I’m pretty fond of ICEY. The combat could (and should) be better but I enjoyed my time with it, and appreciated its willingness to whip out the sort of unexpected, bizarre narrative twists that most games don’t even consider.

As a long time Lovecraft fan and someone who appreciates a good cosmic horror, Dredge is top class.

Despite all of my moral problems with the game, I can't deny that it's an incredible experience, one that has to be played to be believed. It's worth buying just to get a glimpse at a perfectly designed control scheme.

Thimbleweed Park ultimately seems to care about neither its story nor its characters. What’s the core here, then? I suspect it’s just about the easy, wistful smile, and the prick of familiar memory. Do you remember? asks Thimbleweed Park as it displays its lustrous imitation of a bygone era, and on seeing a nod it lies: Yes, it was just like this.

While the Legends edition content remains a bitter disappointment and not worth investing in, the bad taste it leaves in one’s mouth isn’t enough to sour one of the best yearly sports franchises on the planet. F1 2019 is a fantastic representation of its sport, and while this year is more evolution than revolution, there’s enough here to keep fans coming back.

While the Rainbow Six series has disappointly compromised the realistic approach that was once its calling card, the Ghost Recon series remains planted firmly in its one-hit-kill, tactical-action roots and, with Summit Strike, reaffirms its place at the top of the tactical shooter hill.

In a year when games like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt have redefined what open-world RPGs are capable of, I suspect that a lot of Fallout fans will be forced to question whether the usual Bethesda shtick of providing vast amounts of unpolished content with no emotional investment is still enough. I had a pretty good time, but despite its many strong points, Fallout 4 feels like one of Bethesda's minor works.

The frenetic battles in Valkyrie Profile 2 belie the flowerlike way its characters unfold, one petal at a time. The story it tells may not look like the stories a film critic like Roger Ebert is used to, but it's still a story—a good one—nonetheless.

One may play for an hour or two, but they're constantly tempted to go back in and uncover the scads of remaining secrets. It's a style of game that really intrigues me, and one I want to see more of

Ultra was a great time over a weekend (especially trading off between rounds with my kids) and I'm sure that players who've stayed current with Street Fighter have already purchased it and sussed out the new tweaks and systems, but as someone who popped in to see how things are going, I quickly popped back out and wished the series well

The original Trine was an excellent title, but Trine 2 has re-established Frozenbyte's well-earned reputation for quality. A steal at $15, Trine 2 is worthwhile investment for any puzzle-oriented players looking for something to sink their teeth into.

In fact, I was this close to simply quitting the series and not coming back, but Clementine & co. definitely recaptured some of the original Walking Dead magic before the final credits rolled, and I was grateful for that.

Virtue's Last Reward takes everything that 999 did well and does it better.

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

Despite the issues I had, I would recommend This Way Madness Lies to those who enjoy turn-based RPGs, or those who (like me) were intrigued by the sheer ridiculous nature of magical drama girls fighting nightmare creatures to save Shakespeare’s works. In addition, I appreciated how Zeboyd altered the standard turn-based style of combat and how the characters interacted with each other to create an enjoyable fling.

Not only is Ape Out primed to be one of the most stylish games of the year, but it’s a strong argument for how far style can elevate material.

Oh, and one final message to the developers, a little note for next time-if you're not going to bother making your characters able to climb stairs, a good way to disguise this massively unrealistic shortcoming is to not put any stairs in the game! Something to keep in mind.

A lot of management titles can have a sort of Excellian abstractness to them — a whiff of spreadsheet seeping out around their ostensible settings. Not so with News Tower. No, it evokes the golden age of paper news across its entire mechanical suite, bolstered further by an absolutely wonderful, period-appropriate live jazz soundtrack from Dutch ensemble New Cool Collective. To quote legendary schlock-peddler, Xanadu denizen, and all around freak William Randolph Hearst — it’s immersive as hell. And from me? It’s an enthusiastic recommend.

Overall, the core of a highly successful soccer game is in FIFA 16 but there's a niggling sense of "been there, done that," alongside a healthy dollop of "coulda shoulda woulda" that gets in the way. It's just a bit too safe and predictable. FIFA is still the Cup winner, but PES 2016 has made this annual Friendly a more heated affair.

My highest possible praise goes out to Shinji Mikami and Platinum Games, and my sympathies go out to every third-person shooter that comes after Vanquish-it's an impossible act to follow

Onimusha 2 may not be as great as it could have been, but it's clearly improved and worth your attention if the idea of samurai hacking up demons from hell sounds good to you. It sure does to me.

So ingenious, yet simple in its execution that it would have succeeded on almost any platform. In spite of a few flaws, it is damn near a match made in heaven.

Despite all of my moral problems with the game, I can't deny that it's an incredible experience, one that has to be played to be believed. It's worth buying just to get a glimpse at a perfectly designed control scheme.

While it's a solid action title, DmC doesn't measure up to the queen of the genre, Bayonetta. Ninja Theory's combat and graphic design illustrate their talent, but the weaker environmental exploration and narrative make the game an uneven package. Fans of the action genre may find a lot to love, but for most, this is a title better left in Limbo.

It’s not that I can’t respect it — it seems to offer decent value in that it’s essentially three different types of shooter in one package, but aside from the new Blackout mode, I’ve had significantly better experiences from many of its competitors. And honestly, Blackout’s main competition is a free-to-play game. It may be better than Fortnite in my opinion, but sixty dollars better? I’m not entirely convinced about that, and without a decent singleplayer campaign attached, it’s a pretty hard sell for anyone who isn’t already a fan.