It’s certainly not the best way to experience the Berserk saga for the first time (I’d recommend the original manga or 1997 anime series instead) and it’s not the best example of a Musou game, but for established fans of Berserk who fancy engaging in some rampant slaughter, it should do the trick.

State of Decay was the high-water mark for open-world zombie survival, and while State of Decay 2 doesn’t top it thanks to the complete lack of storytelling, it’s a suitable upgrade. The hero system and three maps add replayability to the game, and Undead Labs’ history with the franchise suggests that they’ll get around to fixing many of these problems later. That said, it took them two years and a new platform to finally iron out the first State of Decay — let’s hope this one has a quicker turnaround time.

The bland graphics, clunky controls, and atrocious load times (nearing 40 seconds in some instances) are nearly insurmountable shortcomings.

All of its issues are worth enduring for the haunting and beautiful world that Diluvion portrays. The limited draw distance, slow movement speed and near-total lack of signposting will grate on players looking for immediate thrills, but I find it praiseworthy that Arachnid would place so many deliberate handicaps on the player in service of atmosphere and immersion — it’s a spell that worked on me the vast majority of its running time. Many games render alien worlds, but Dilvuion actually transported me to one.

In the end, Battlezone is an incredible VR experience. It’s enough of a full-featured tank simulator that it would be a great time played with standard controls on a normal television, but the perfect immersion takes that already-great play and elevates it to something truly special. Among the eight PSVR launch titles, Battlezone is the best at creating a seamless world for the player to inhabit, and even with a few balance problems in the campaign, it stands as one of the best arguments for getting PSVR.

Truberbrook is a beautiful sight to behold, and its story is a great example of light comedy sci-fi. It’s only the overly-oblique puzzles that killed the adventure genre in the first place that keep it from being a truly exceptional title. There’s a valuable lesson here to adventure game developers here — it’s possible to have the best production values and plotting imaginable, but if consideration isn’t given to how players interact with the work, the result will wind up frustrating instead of magnificent.

After equipping a few blessings, the playing field becomes a bit more level, but having the option to turn City of Brass into a slightly less frustrating experience isn’t enough to redeem it. A lot of roguelikes could stand to learn something about difficulty from the concept of the blessings and burdens system, but as for me, all I managed to dig out of the game’s mountains of gold and sand was that artificial fairness and difficulty can’t hold a candle to genuine polish and balance.

Big fans of professional soccer or management sims may find more to like in Nutmeg! than I did, but as for me, I’m putting in my resignation from the team.

In total, Warp Frontier was an unexpected surprise. This well-written, well-designed point-and-click adventure please genre fans and — perhaps — might even entice a few newcomers to try this storied genre.

The main game alone is more than worth the budget price, but there's also a series of challenge levels and a New Game Plus option that allows players to go back and find all the secrets they missed the first time around.

While I ended up being surprised at how much I liked Need for Speed when it wasn't trying to strangle the very joy out of life itself, it's a game that's obviously flawed -- the cheating AI, the always-online requirement, the glitches -- but it's still a damn good looking racer that gives a real buzz when it's working as intended. Whether people will be willing to put up with the bad in order to enjoy the good... Well, that's debatable.

Aside from that irritating final segment there's nothing significant to complain about in Planet of the Eyes, but neither is there anything to praise. It has solid action, and it looks and sounds fine. What it lacks is a hook, something for the mind or eye, or even just the reflexes to work over. Without that, Planet of the Eyes is just a competent thing that passes quickly and leaves no impression.

Attack of the Earthlings is by no means a bad game — its personality and anti-capitalist, anti-human stance works, and the ideas underlying the mechanics are well-thought-out. Unfortunately, the execution, lack of optimization and muddy presentation undermine a title that was already going to struggle in a genre well-stocked with plenty of superlative examples.

On one level, I feel a little cheated by Neptunia x Senran Kagura: Ninja Wars — generally we can expect a new Senran Kagura and a new Neptunia every year, so it’s a bit of a disappointment that in 2021 audiences are getting a single game from both franchises. Fortunately it’s an exceptional piece of work. It won’t give players everything they’d expect from either franchise, it has satisfying systems and some of the funniest writing either series has seen in years. This is a good action-adventure, but for fans of either series, it’s absolutely essential.

Unless one is a hardcore fan of classic platform titles or a Wonder Boy completist, there isn’t much to recommend Asha in Monster World. It’s an okay example of its genre’s older titles, but I’d say it’s a bit too rooted in the past to interest players who aren’t coming to it for the nostalgia.

An amazingly accessible and fun experience in a genre overfull with games that pride themselves on their depth and complexity.

As average a game can get, with plenty of things going wrong for it, as enjoyable as it might be at times.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that Jewel Summoner is at least half dialogue, if not three-quarters - a fatal mistake when the quality of such is so unappealing.

The critic in me tells me this series needs to innovate, but as a gamer I'm once again completely satisfied by the experience. Defying conventional wisdom, Dynasty Warriors is unique in that the gameplay achieves a near perfect harmonious balanced and change would only upset that.

Clocking in at around five hours, Mr. Shifty struck a good balance for me between wanting more versus wearing out its welcome. I enjoyed my time with it despite some of the later levels being slightly frustrating and the finale being a little anti-climatic, but overall, this is a solid addition to the Switch’s growing library.

Despite the various flaws and stumbles, it does something few, if any, RPGs even attempt in its ambitious stab at creating a combat-free RPG. Its embrace of the deliciously edgy lore of the Vampire setting also lends an inimitable sense of flavor and style, even if the graphics don’t always do it justice. In the end, while the final experience is two courses short of being a banquet, it’s good eating for fans who are starving for vampire videogames.

With just seven levels-three of which have serious problems working with the current control scheme-it's not like the game has a wealth of content, and its hostility to new players prevents me from recommending it to any but the hardcore.

I definitely like the ideas that Crystal Dynamics are flirting with here, it just seems disingenuous to ask players to pay so much for this small taste.

As the central deficiencies (car physics, handling, lack of challenge) also become more and more prominent with each race, most players will simply tire of its blandness, and decide to save the time Namco wants them to spend tuning their cars for an altogether better racing game.

Fortunately, not even the rough patches could shake the shine off of the gift that Detached had given me. The likelihood that I will ever board a spaceship in real life decreases with each passing day as the responsibilities of adulthood tether me to the ground, but at least now I can load up Detached, put on my helmet, and dream my dreams again.

Although I'm not satisfied with its economics and it still needs polish, I freely admit that Destiny of Spirits remains strangely compelling, and putting together a roster of fantasy creatures holds appeal.

Though Absolute Drift was not the drifting game that I wanted it to be, I was pleasantly surprised by what it actually was. As a relaxing and engrossing experience over the course of a short playtime, it's an interesting foray into the growing genre of alternative driving games.

The ABC Murders is a great piece of work. Made by fans of the source material for fans of the source material, Poirot is fully at home in the point and click adventure game genre. While I can't guarantee how playable it will be for people unfamiliar with the character or story, I suspect that newcomers will find it just as captivating as I did the first time.