Cruis’n Blast is great at what it does. However, there’s not much here beyond straightforward, arcade racing. While this was generally great for me, how much mileage someone will get out of it depends on how much they enjoy this relatively simple genre.

In the end, Deathloop is a pretty decent ride with a fantastic sense of style and a lot of freedom for players to experience Colt’s story as they see fit. However, the overall experience is shaken by a surprising amount of bugs, braindead enemy artificial intelligence, lackluster PVP and by-design repetition as Colt works to piece together the mystery of Blackreef. I largely enjoyed my time, though I was very ready for Colt’s day to end as I neared the campaign’s finale, and it’s unlikely I’ll be looping back into the game for more any time soon.

Despite the mild annoyances and missed opportunities for further narrative development, Lost At Sea mostly hits its themes on-target and serves its message and philosophical questions confidently. With strong core elements in place, Lost At Sea is a recommended title to anyone who might want to explore this side of life in an interactive way.

Overall, World War Z: Aftermath is a great team-based shooter, and if players have been waiting for the game to be significantly updated before checking it out, the time is now. Likewise, anyone who played at launch will find that this revamp is well worth a second tour of duty against the undead.

Honestly, I love Black Book. This marvelous piece of work consistently avoids the expected beats, and I have no doubt that many aspects of the story and how it’s told will be quite surprising – hell, simply being exposed to the attitudes and views of the characters is eye-opening all on its own. Morteshka has brought us a title that offers a glimpse into a time and place that we rarely see, and has couched it the incredible journey of a humble Russian girl.

Scarlet Nexus is one of the most surprising releases of the year for me thanks to a bombastic combat style and storytelling. I enjoyed my time in the OSF and look forward to flinging more big rigs into unsuspecting enemies soon.

Lost Judgment is a fantastic success. It expertly builds on the foundation laid by the first game while also continuing to differentiate itself from the Yakuza franchise in smart ways. It’s still very much a Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio Joint, but their brawling mechanics have never been sharper, their graphics have never been better, and this is one of the strongest stories they’ve ever produced. It’s a no-brainer purchase for fans, and new players will find it surprisingly accommodating.

While there are some small issues like a slightly clunky and complicated interface, Before We Leave ended up being a great little sim that was pleasantly peaceful and delivered a kind of gameplay that I think will be perfect for sim fans looking for something on the lighter side. We may not get as may of these as we used to, but I’m happy we got this one.

Ambition is an appropriately-named title in terms of its genre – it is not without its flaws, but the overall experience is heightened by compelling core mechanics and a grandiose scope, and I recommend players take this captivating tour through 18th-century Paris to make their own history.

Dodgeball Academia hits the mark in almost every way. It’s a great combination of classic and new game ideas coming together in a charming adventure. Fans of JRPGs looking for something a little different should get on this court and play some ball.

I appreciate F1 2021 for its experimentation with new modes and options, proving that this franchise is much more than the average annual drivers’ update. Not only does driving feel more realistic than ever, 2021’s story mode is a pleasant surprise that I hope attracts further development for the series’ next iteration. For now, though, it remains a great F1 simulator that will generate the same excitement happening in the real world’s F1 competition right now.

SimPocalypse is an easy game to learn and can be used to introduce new players to the sim management genre because it has a clear tutorial and simplified mechanics. On the other hand, the repetitiveness of the battles and actions builds up quickly and the replayability is weak. While the developers have come a long way since launch, I can’t shake the feeling that SimPocalypse has yet to reach its full potential, especially in the late game when many choices seem pointless. Hopefully the developers are still listening to feedback and working to improve the experience.

I’m torn on Banners of Ruin. The atmosphere and artwork are superb, and I like the story that it’s trying to tell. I also enjoy the concepts it’s trying to deliver and the new ideas it offers to the deckbuilding genre. Ultimately though, it doesn’t feel like it hits what it’s aiming for and it’s a hard one to recommend except to the most hardcore deckbuilder fans out there.

Sadly, decent platforming is not enough to save Exodemon. I was looking forward to a dose of ’90s era nostalgia offering visceral shooting at high speed, but what I got was a drab-looking project which is far too simple and greatly lacking creativity in art design. It may seem competent at first, but Exodemon lacks anything to keep it interesting past the first few levels.

Ultimately, Stonefly ends up being a mixed bag. On one hand, exploring the forest by piloting tiny mechs is a wonderful idea, but the repetitious nature of resource gathering is compounded by the clunky combat, and I’d imagine that most players will be driven away before the experience is over.

From a gameplay standpoint, Samurai Warriors 5 is an easy recommendation. However, the political content isn’t as easy to sign off on. While there’s always going to be some celebration of military action in a title like this, the way the script goes out of its way to portray the bloodthirsty as heroes in defiance of true historical facts feels like a step too far. Samurai Warriors 5 isn’t a depiction of Japan’s violent past, it’s a celebration of it.

Backbone’s narrative and character work are thrilling, complex, and thought-provoking, and the writing deserves all the praise it can get. That said, there is some feeling of the pacing being slightly off, since the final acts feel like they follow too quickly after the introductory ones. Whether it’s due to a lack of time or inspiration, the story could’ve done with at least two more chapters of narrative substance during the middle stretch. Any other issues I might raise with Backbone are mostly trivial. With its inspired script that accentuates themes of dystopia and desperation, this detective story delivers one of the most inspiring narrative-driven titles I’ve played in some time.

With so many great cooperative experiences already out there, it’s impossible to recommend Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance — it shows little promise from the start, and somehow only gets worse as time goes on. This is one quest that even the bravest warriors would be wise to avoid.

After a dozen times, I threw in the towel. It’s a shame, because up until the final stage, I enjoyed Tetragon. It has fantastic graphics, a decent story, and many challenging puzzles. Unfortunately, the end battle is so frustratingly out-of-place that it ruins everything that came before it.

Grime is a game of gaping contradictions. It is one of the most visually striking releases of the year… and also one of the ugliest. It’s one of the most imaginative games in some time… and also one of the most generic. For all of Grime’s talk about chiseled stone, the experience feels like a half-finished sculpture – occasional details reveal tantalizing glimpses of the creators’ vision, but it’s largely an indistinct blob.

The choices made by Igor during his journey truly matter, and despite some rough edges and certain aspects of the experience feeling a bit underdeveloped, I loved my time with Chernobylite and would recommend spending time with Igor and his crew to anyone.

With its fast pace and emphasis on explosive action, Jupiter Hell is a more-than-welcome addition to the ranks of the roguelike genre. Even without the nods to its better-known brethren, it still packs quite a wallop. It isn’t perfect, but I loved blasting demons and zombified minions too much to care. Now, where is that chainsaw?

When Francis played his final set and the credits started rolling, I was quite glad to have played The Artful Escape. It is very clearly Its Own Thing, and not only is that thing pretty awesome, it’s just one more example that videogames are able to deliver a huge array of experiences that are all worthwhile in their own way. I love that Beethoven & Dinosaur brought their vision to my screen, and if nothing else, maybe this rock-fueled journey through the stars will get developers off of movies and on to music videos for a while.

Indigo 7 might not win any awards for writing, but I’ll be damned if there’s another arcade puzzler with this much charm and an equally addicting gameplay hook. Similar to the great Puyo Puyo Tetris 2, it’s an experience that’s preventing me from putting my Switch down.

I understand that the last arena is supposed to be a quote-unquote boss fight, but I feel the drastic shift will sucker punch players right at the end of the game. Don’t get me wrong though, I enjoyed Boomerang X. Enemy designs were clever and paired well with the abilities available, and even though the plot was thin, there was just enough to keep me curious right up until the end.

In spite of any future expansions or additions, the game is still very much worth playing in its current state, particularly for fans looking for a quality entry in the Warhammer 40,000 setting. Battlesector’s engaging combat system and grimdark characters offer a solid foundation only slightly marred by scope — but there’s nothing necessarily wrong about a game that leaves a player wanting more of it.

In the end, Last Stop is an entertaining collection of three narratives, but given the superficial nature of the player’s interactions, I can’t help but think that the whole project might have worked better as a straightforward visual novel.

As a games critic for more than 20 years, I play a lot of titles. For me, the best ones are those that surprise me or subvert my expectations – titles that find a new angle, or offer something that I haven’t quite seen before. Golf Club Wasteland managed all of that, and left me with a few things to think about afterwards, to boot.