The total package is a game of deceptive brilliance.

It can be oddly frustrating at times, yet it has enough merit to make it one of my favorite games this year. It doesn't necessarily refresh the nostalgia I had when it was SSX two releases ago, but it definitely re-introduces the fun lacking in the gaming slump I've experienced lately.

As much as I enjoyed my time in Century : Age of Ashes, I do have wonder how much staying power it will have. Since all classes are viable in each mode, I suspect many players may stick with one character class, get invested, and not explore the rest of what the game has to offer. As an example, I found myself only switching to other classes if the daily mission or hatching a dragon egg specifically required it. Also, due to the limited amount of content that is currently present, a busy player will see nearly everything within a couple of hours. Despite those concerns, the game looks great, each class is enjoyable to play, and each match is maybe 20 minutes at most — perfect for quick sessions.

Despite the rough patches, Warhanmmer 40,000 Boltgun remains impressive. It’s fast, action-packed, controls well, and is (mostly) a joy to play. With just a little tweaking and a few adjustments, this could easily be one of the all-time greats.

After the last few installments, WWE 2K22 succeeds in bringing the zest back into this long-running franchise. Each match is intense and exciting, and I couldn’t stop myself from exploring different play styles and re-enacting some of my favorite encounters. Even if the whole WWE circus only exists to present a cheap power fantasy, games like this one triumph in highlighting the best side of the affair.

In the end, Paradise is both more and less than its predecessors. Not everything that made the previous Burnout games great has survived the transition to the new open world format.

This shining example of old-school design infused with new-school wisdom completely destroyed my expectations and delivered a supremely polished and challenging adventure that only grew more rewarding the further I went.

While the game employs well-established and well-worn tropes from the adventure genre, it successfully creates an eerie, compelling atmosphere, and the writing conveys a strong story. The Charnel House Trilogy is a short, but worthwhile trip.

With a fascinating story and great gameplay, Broken Lines makes a strong case that turn-based combat can be used for projects more modest than the grand strategy and expansive RPGs that generally feature it.

Although it offers a simple premise and equally simple mechanics, Infinite Minigolf actually ends up being one of the PSVR’s more promising titles. The tournament content is engaging despite having to play through each difficulty, but the real future of Infinite Minigolf depends on an engaged community of creators. The tools are here, but the devs will have to come up with a method of purging the servers of one-slab, featureless courses if they want people to continue to build on the infinite amount of content suggested in the title.

The definitive edition of the game, and should be a no-brainer for existing fans of the series. Newcomers shouldn't miss out either, as it presents deep, meaty gameplay and narrative experience that puts paid the notion that portable platforms can't be home to true enthusiast fare.

As someone with no deep knowledge of the franchise and severe misgivings about fighting game innovations, I was pleasantly surprised at how extremely playable Gundam Versus is. Great balancing and simple controls allow anyone to jump right into the combat, and the matches are always brief enough that I never felt like I was being forced to wallow in failure while learning the ropes. It turns out that a player doesn’t need to already know and love Gundam to appreciate high-speed robot carnage.

All in all, Lego City Undercover still ranks as one of the all-around best LEGO games I’ve spent time with, and while I’d recommend it to any fan of the series, that goes double for kids who crave some open-world GTA-style screw-around action without any of the questionable stuff that makes parents raise an eyebrow. I’m glad LCU finally made its way to a console besides the WiiU, and I’m guessing a lot of other people will be, too.

Although it may not sound like high praise to say that The Wolf Among Us: Smoke & Mirrors is holding steady with the status quo, it's so stylish and enjoyable that I'm quite content to get more of the same.

A lack of ambition isn't necessarily a problem here—for players looking for solid Tower Defense, DG2 has a decent story, plenty of well-built levels, and truly impressive number of gameplay modifiers and modes, and it has handily replaced DG1 as the most technically adept game of its type.

For those who are in search of a good puzzler wrapped up in bloody homage, Slayaway Camp: Butcher’s Cut is a great way to go.

I really wanted to love Little Nightmares, and in some ways, I do. It tells an intriguing, ambiguous story through a gorgeous, gothic-inspired art style. However, the moment-to-moment interaction suffers from loose controls, questionable physics, and cat-and-mouse sequences that quickly grow tedious. To its credit, the story begins and ends on strong high notes, making both a good first impression and a final lasting one. More art exhibit than enjoyable game, Little Nightmares nevertheless deserves to be in the same conversations as Limbo and Inside, if not because it tops them, then because it shares the same artistic and narrative ambitions.

The world is so carefully crafted and the combat so great, they both carry all the weight the story doesn’t, and then some. After being unimpressed with Remedy’s previous work, Control feels like a powerful final draft after those early false starts and marks a strong new creative direction for the studio.

I enjoyed myself in almost every one of Gravity Ghost’s levels, and had a great time weaving my way around and through its many planets. Iona’s starbound story is a tragedy, but her afterlife is a triumph.

If Monolith's ducks had all been in a row, Mordor could have been a top contender for the year, but even so, it's still worth getting into for no other reason than it delivers what I've wanted from Assassin's Creed since the start.

Roadcraft is not a game for everyone, and it’s not even for every Snowrunner fan — but that’s what makes it brilliant for those willing to tune in, and the number of potential fans is probably larger than one might guess. So, despite how eager I am for the return of the Chosen One in Snowrunner 2, I also will be keenly watching where Roadcraft goes. I can’t think of anything in the double-A space that’s more interesting, or has more potential, than this game.

Symphonia is an audiovisual masterpiece. It’s short, sweet, and just challenging enough to keep even the most seasoned players on their toes. I look forward to returning to Symphonia’s magical soundscape when I need to feel inspired, and I am excited to see what Sunny Peak has in store for the future.

While reading off of my TV for forty hours took some getting used to, I’m glad I read Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception. The characters are well-written, it’s beautiful to look at, and I can’t wait to see where it’s all going.

Earth Atlantis remains a beautiful, enjoyable shoot-’em-up under the sea, and I highly recommend taking the dive.

Alan Wake 2 is a unique experience thanks to the innovative blending of photorealism and traditional visual design, as well as a narrative deeply entwined to gameplay mechanics to an extent rarely seen before. It is not a perfect experience, but it is innovative enough to inspire gamers and devs alike for years to come.

For all its depth, though, I quickly discovered that I had little control of the game after the early part of it.

I hate Monster Rancher. No other series turns me into such a complete vegetable, helpless to do anything but sit in front of my PlayStation 2 devoting hours upon hours the way this one does.

While the fourth chapter disappoints with superfluous wrapup and temporal confusion, the three other chapters of The Lion’s Song offer engaging tales of creative struggle and triumph. In their best moments, they convey the sense of being in a city enjoying the full bloom of artistic and intellectual development, where new sciences and new approaches to art might connect and transform each other, and that’s a kind of excitement games rarely capture.