Overall, I’ll fondly remember my time with Bendy and the Ink Machine. It’s a dark world with fantastic aesthetics and a compelling, if tritely-told narrative. While the horror tropes of revenge, abandoned places, and jump scares may be a bit cliché and the tension loses some punch at key moments, the exploration of a long-dark studio and the menace of creatures of black ink will stay with me.

While some might look at EDF5 and point out the recycled levels and long-established gameplay mechanics, I see developers devoted to delivering the best possible version of a concept, and an unwillingness to settle for merely improving the graphics each console generation. This is a series that truly gets better with each iteration, and as such, this is the best EDF game yet.

When it’s not crashing, Road Redemption offers perfect bite-sized pieces of vehicular mayhem. It’s loud and bloody and raw, and the dated graphics only increase the grit and messiness. With a few fixes, this could be an all-time classic of the genre, rather than the deeply flawed romp that it is.

Skyhill is a decently short game that can be played in bursts, and despite the inconsistencies and annoying interface, I enjoyed it and was curious enough to see it through to the end. (And there are multiple endings.) However, the ‘survival’ aspect feels nonexistent — my runs were either doomed from the beginning or flawless victories, and I can’t wholeheartedly recommend something so unbalanced from one run to the next.

While I’ll probably never know what a zarvot is, this project offers a solid arcade shooter and a decent campaign — it just needs a little more polish.

As it stands, MYZ is an excellent game that carved off too much meat when trimming the fat. It’s a delicious dish, but it might leave one hungry for more.

All in all, I like GRIP more as a concept than I do in practice. Rough and tumble racing is fine, but the combat is shaky and it’s far too easy to accidentally clip a piece of scenery and get launched into race-losing situations. It’s also downright strange that a game which promotes driving like mad also requires navigating each track like I’m walking on eggshells. GRIP should [be] bursting free of traditional racing constraints, but instead adheres to them more often than the ceilings.

I enjoyed my time with this blend of warring states Japan, three kingdoms China, and mythological fighters colliding with each other. The character roster and amount of magic flair is deep (even if the combat itself is simple) and Warriors Orochi 4 scratches a very specific itch with its over-the-top action — but not everyone has that same itch. But for those that do, it’s more of the same that fans love.

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.

I finished in roughly an hour and was shocked that it finished. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with short games, but brief experiences still need to deliver some substance — and sadly, Storm Boy doesn’t deliver.

It’s telling that the biggest complaint I can generate about 11-11 is that it suffers from occasionally-lazy plotting. The storytelling is good enough that the developers get away with some fairly large coincidences, and we’re asked to believe that Harry is almost unbelievably bad at languages. However, the story reaches a point where it beggars belief that he’s still baffled by what the Germans are saying. There’s not much apart from that to criticize, though — this is a great tale being told by people with the skills necessary to tell it.

Guacamelee! 2’s penchant for self-deprecating humor often functions as an acknowledgement and dismissal of its own issues. Why yes, it is awfully convenient that I’ve suddenly been pulled into an alternate timeline in which I must save the world in roughly the same manner as my last go, but no, Guacamelee! 2 doesn’t stop being an uncharacteristically halfhearted rehash just because the writers scored a few easy laughs from it.

Toast Time is a good fit for the Switch. It’s nice to play in bursts, the humor is amusing, and the levels available give the game plenty of challenge without being unfair. However, it would be better served by offering more missions for the singleplayer campaign instead of putting resources towards the lackluster multiplayer mode. Even so, I’d call it a worthwhile addition for the Switch library — it’s a simple arcade experience, but does what it does well.

Divinity 2: Original Sin is an excellent RPG that’s packed full of excellent writing, great characters and lengthy adventure filled with inventive and quirky twists on the genre. The combat can be a bit of a slog, there are a few bugs, and the console interface isn’t perfect, but it’s still an absolutely cracking title that will suck up an obscene amount of hours from those who get stuck in. As mentioned at the start of this review, Larian Studios have been making great role-playing games for years and years, and this one stands as one of their very best.

Overall, Flashpoint doesn’t offer anything that will pull new players in — almost everything in this DLC is geared toward end- or post-game content, and this is its underlying problem. If all of these elements were mixed in with the single player campaign, they’d be nice flavor in the otherwise-dull side content. However, since this DLC seems tailor-made for people who’ve already finished the story (like me) there just isn’t enough to hold my interest.

Depth of Extinction has a solid concept but suffers from repeated assets, uninspiring combat and questionable mechanics. With all the other tactics options on the market, I find it impossible to recommend this one.

Black Bird is stunning. It’s rare to see a project so finely tuned, so perfectly balanced, confidently paced and smartly constructed, let alone from a team whose previous work was an iOS puzzler. This is fantastic stuff. So, like I said earlier… I think I need to go download Million Onion Hotel now.

Steel Rats, with its demanding combat and big-budget action, pretty much builds a whole new genre around itself. I’ve seen stunt racing and vehicular combat before, but the developers have blended the two so exquisitely that the it defies comparison to anything else. Naturally, Steel Rats ends with an obvious sequel hook, so I’ll end this review with a ‘More, please.’

So, is The Long Journey Home worth it? Overall I’d say yes, the moments of discovery and dealing with alien races makes the experience worth engaging in. My only hope is that the developers introduce a difficulty setting that allows players to dial back the drudgery of resource collection. The good outweighs the bad here, but there’s a much better experience waiting to be discovered underneath the busywork and failure.

At face value, Transpose is a wonderful VR puzzle game that’s as entertaining as it is mind-boggling. However, on the mornings when I started my day with Transpose, I found myself possessed of a calmness and patience that I had difficulty characterizing. As pretentious and hyperbolic as it sounds, the mindfulness and self-acceptance that it imbued in me made Secret Location’s work as transformative — it was an incredible experience to wave to myself, to give myself a high five, to rip my own heart out, or to stand beside myself while waiting longingly for another me.

The monsters are creepy, the combat is great, and the setting is endlessly explorable – Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics has plenty going for it, and yet it still feels underdeveloped. The RPG elements are thin, and the story is little more than a skeletal justification for the next skirmish. There’s plenty of stellar design here, but it feels like a preview of a more robust experience. It’s a fantastic use of the Cthulhu Mythos and a solid game, but I’m guessing the franchise will have more to offer next time.

The most positive thing I can say about Fallout 76 is that a train wreck of this magnitude might finally yank Bethesda – a company that gets away with too much – back to reality. Maybe it’s finally time to update that engine. Maybe it’s not a good idea to slap the Fallout name onto a game that isn’t fit for release and expect it to go over well.

Heavy Fire: Red Shadow is a head-scratcher. It does what it says it does and certainly contains an extended turret section that spans multiple hours with competent delivery from the development team. It’s also unpretentious, which is something I want to admire. That said, the results are tepid and this version, remarkably, feels like a step back from its already basic predecessors.

I’m fine with gut-wrenching violence if it’s taken seriously or if there’s a point to be made, but Rise & Shine’s over-the-top carnage is constantly being interrupted by some of the laziest and most ill-timed humor imaginable, all in service of a message that isn’t particularly original or insightful. These uncomfortable tonal shifts would be enough to tarnish even a good game, but the frustrating and underwhelming Rise & Shine isn’t worth putting up with it.

The standalone Gwent release is free on GOG, and I encourage those who enjoy it to shell out the money for Thronebreaker, a strong expansion of both the base game and the Witcher universe. Geralt’s portion of this story may have concluded, but the folks at CD Projekt RED seem committed to sharing more tales from this world, and I couldn’t be more excited.

Pig Eat Ball is vaguely similar to might be seen as an interstellar version of Hungry Hungry Hippos. Players compete to do various things (including making a sandwich!) but if players bite another’s tail, they vomit up their balls and other players have a chance to grab them. It’s not a mode I’ll do on a regular basis, but I can’t deny it was a good time. As a genuine fan of Nathan’s for many years, I’m glad to see that the guy is still making games, and for those out there who have yet to sample his work, now is the perfect time to try.

After more than fifty hours in Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, I am still a tourist because I can’t possibly live here. After marching through countless quests, this installment struck me as nothing so much as a devoted recitation of franchise iconography that will only feel warm and comfortable to long-time MH veterans. There is an experience suggested by the mechanics that could amount to more than a whimsical hack-a-thon where players frantically chase piñatas that occasionally breathe fire, but that world never materializes beyond the momentary thrill of the hunt.

Assault Spy is entertaining, but it’s highly flawed. I’d be hard-pressed to pay full price for it, but the laughs alone make it worth tracking down once it goes on sale.