Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight is a solid entry in a super-solid series, and it's actually a pretty good place for newcomers to jump in thanks to the accessible story mode, wealth of polish and adjustable difficulty.

I was ready to forgive a couple of rough episodes as long as things got rolling by the midpoint, but with only two installments left, it seems unlikely that The Walking Dead, Season Two will be able to muster anything that season one didn't already do better.

Lair of the Leviathan is, I think, the best chapter of Tales of Monkey Island so far.

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion is a game I really wish I was more skilled at. I appreciate all the various aspects of gameplay and the depth that the combination of those aspects provides. Still, as my fellow critic Kristin Taylor might say, I was far too enamored with the construction of my newfangled Titan to react quickly enough to the raiders destroying my infrastructure. While it's a long, long way from being up my alley, it at least makes for a good spectator sport.

Technically the game gets many things right, besides the faulty AI. The graphics overall may be subpar, but the animations are done well.

At issue is the way 'violence' in the game has been obscured. Despite the fact that Mega Man Zero deals with war and genocide, it's disturbing to see how often the game never completely engages with its subject matter. Any instance of violence that does occur has been minimized in various ways.

Endlessly replayable with great multiplayer, fantastic combat, and a movement system that should be the envy and inspiration of every developer, Sairento is an absolute must-play for anyone who can handle the action. Hopefully the developers are already at work on the promised sequel, because the only thing Sairento left me wanting is more.

Arkane excelled at engineering a thoughtful, complex addition to Prey’s existing formula, but as someone who’s never been smitten with roguelikes or roguelites, Mooncrash just didn’t grab me the way the original did.

For those satisfied with their Talos adventure, I'd say that there's nothing essential in this expansion, and it might be hard for forgetful players to get back up to speed. On the other hand, players who enjoyed the base game and want more will find Road To Gehenna to be beautiful, brilliant, brain-breaking, and heartily recommended as something that recaptures (and builds upon) much of what made The Talos Principle great.

An excellent effort from Obsidian, and though The Outer Worlds doesn’t surpass its predecessors by offering a world worth visiting over and over, the adventure it presents is more than worth the time spent.

Its charm and style engrossed me from the opening level and never let go, and I received an experience with lots of substance, challenge, and a little heart thrown in for good measure.

Those lusting after a well-written visual novel with drab visuals and little ability to alter its outcome might enjoy The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante. As for me, although my opinion was initially favorable, my mood soured after wasting hours of playtime due to a minor choice that had no connection to the overarching plot. It’s still recommended to visual novel fans, but cautiously so.

While it lasted, Cult of the Lamb was a darkly enlightening experience that wholly delivers on the premise of its cutesy horror genre-mash-up. For the many who have been eagerly anticipating its release, that faith has been rewarded.

Despite its flaws, Children of Morta’s incredible story and generally enjoyable combat kept me coming back for more, and while the mid-section did drag, I still felt compelled to see the story through to the end.

GALAK-Z feels like a Steam Early Access game. The lack of content, repeating environments, glitches and bugs, framerate issues, and the final season of the campaign being listed as "coming soon" (yes, really!) scream that the work isn't finished.

The only downside to the game is that the "Extreme" levels must be completed in order to get the real ending, and a few of them seem impossible for a human to complete.

Space Marine II is so much more than its decade-old predecessor with baked-in co-op, PVP and a wealth of customization. Yet for all the promise of eternal war, its core strength is still in its main campaign — it’s an arcadey blast-and-slash extravaganza that fully realizes all the grisly pageantry of its grimdark setting. It is the best opportunity yet to act out the sagas of Space Marine combat for those who, like me with the Battle for Macragge, long ago put their poorly-painted miniatures into storage.

Great presentation, (mostly) great gameplay, and an above-average set of characters combine to deliver what I see as the most diverse, entertaining Trauma game to date in a series that really doesn't have a weak link.

The problem with workout mode is that there is no continuous play option, and the player will have to pause after each song to manipulate the menus and choose another song. Each song burns around fifteen calories.

While they're certainly a strange pair, I'm glad Zen combined these two tables into a single five-dollar package. While I quite probably would have paid three dollars for CastleStorm, I doubt I ever would have taken a chance on a complete unknown for the same price. Maybe their plan was to convince people to throw a little extra money at a dud by attaching it to something with brand recognition, but in the end, the unknown was the real gem.

The Castlevania series is something of a comfort food for me, and any game that can properly emulate what it does gets my recommendation. Predictable as it may be, Reverie is the tight, efficient, and beautiful work from someone who knows the subgenre well. I may even go check out the other three now.

When Pyre shines, it shines immensely. I haven’t been this invested in the lore of a game for a long time, and was left craving more. What’s the process that connects the Downside to the Commonwealth? What history do the two mysterious minerals share? How on earth is communication between these two worlds possible? I have countless questions about Pyre‘s setting. However, considering where the game’s strengths lie, the structure they chose to couch it in feels uncharacteristically off-target. Pyre could have been a great text game, or even a fantastic TV series or Netflix show, but as a sports game? It’s a misfire.

Overall, Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late [cl-r] is a great fighting game with a verbose and tiresome visual novel added in. The combat is enjoyable, there’s tons to unlock, and there are numerous characters to master. Some of the chatter might be a chore to get through, but getting to the meat on these bones is worth the effort.

Despite my problems with the combat and supreme frustration at failing to find the true ending, I remain impressed by Batbarian. The characters are winning, the puzzles are brilliantly constructed, and it looks fantastic. While I can wish that the developers had done a little more to make the secrets a little more accessible, I can’t criticize their craftsmanship.

Crow Country expertly recreates the aesthetic of PS1 survival horror, with a mood and atmosphere that would have felt right at home in the ’90s. While some of the survival horror elements are a bit too safe and the story is oddly paced, SFB Games has struck spooky gold.

The no-frills approach to racing may not appeal to everyone, but for those who are willing to put in the time to watch and learn, Phantom Spark presents an aesthetically pleasing and nuanced experience that would benefit from just a bit more under the hood.

In the end, there is much to like about Death Stranding, and I can’t stress enough how much I loved rebuilding America with thousands of concurrent players — that spirit of cooperation was magical. It’s just tragic that the core gameplay loop was let down by dodgy combat scenarios and a listless, meandering story. Death Stranding is still one of the most memorable gaming experiences I’ve had in a while and I certainly don’t regret playing it, but I can’t rate it higher when it whiffs so hard on so many areas that needed more focus.

It's an incredibly rich, unique and innovative take on first-person shooters-yet it's also a flawed game, suffering from a few minor scripting bugs and some rough edges in the gameplay that occasionally interfere with what is, for the most part, an exceptionally engaging experience. But despite its imperfections, it is a truly groundbreaking game, captivating in its complexity, its mystery, and its vividly realized world that stands as a milestone in both imagination and engineering.