Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 is tough to recommend when the first game is still around. This new entry sure is a sequel, but that’s about it.

As I ran around this forest performing repetitive fetch quests for much longer than I wanted to, I felt an awful lot like the fox I was possessing – a tool in a conflict I have no stake in, when all I wanted to do was look at the pretty scenery.

Nearly every aspect of its aesthetic was, paradoxically, both aggressively unpleasant and lazily innocuous. Its story switched between wild flights of hard-to-follow, drug-like fantasy and drudging resistance to do anything at all for long stretches of time. I’m certain that this work will connect with a very specific type of player, but it was like nails on a chalkboard to me.

Hiccups aside, my hat is tipped to Codemasters for listening to fans and critics. In F1 2016, the company delivers the deep, intricate racing experience we should have enjoyed a year sooner, and the title is loaded with all the depth and customization that F1 enthusiasts can handle, while also welcoming clutch-wary newcomers. F1 2016 may not be perfect, but no sports sim has seen more improvement in such a short amount of time.

Overall, it’s more than a little eyebrow-raising to see how closely Vermintide has followed the template set by Valve, and disappointing to see that it hasn’t improved or advanced the precedent that was set — it’s just a not-as-good version with rodents in place of the undead.

While it manages to offer decent characters and an interesting battle system, MeiQ: Labyrinth Of Death is a disappointment overall. With so many strong entries in the dungeon-crawl genre already, one that only goes half the distance is impossible to recommend.

The game is a technical and mechanical mess, with unbalanced combat that’s neither intense nor rewarding.

Atlas Reactor has tons of strategic depth compressed into hyper-kinetic ten-minute chunks.

Livelock isn’t a title that’s going to move its genre forward, but it is a great example of the genre it’s representing. Anyone who enjoys this brand of action will find spending time with this metallic trio of saviors to be worthwhile.

Syndrome might offer a beautiful ship to look at, but it’s a buggy mess that fails to get the essentials right. This lovely ship can’t make up for an ugly everything else.

Metronomicon has a lot going for it — the songs are catchy, the combat is intuitive, and the storyline, while thin, is delightfully weird. I only wish the developers had found a way to let me enjoy the graphics. As it stands, it’s a game that plays well and is interesting to watch, but doesn’t manage to be both of those things at the same time.

Redout delivers excitement I haven’t felt since Nintendo released the last great F-Zero title over a decade ago. I don’t know if it’s the best racer I’ve ever played, but it’s almost certainly the most exhilarating, and earns its place among the very games it takes inspiration from.

Unto the Evil is a solid start, but it’s likely that the two other DLCs yet to come will surpass it since the development team will have thousands of hours of community play and feedback by that time. Time will tell.

For those looking to spend a few melancholic hours drinking in the sights and sounds of a desolate island while churning over an old man’s heartbreak, this version of Dear Esther is as good as it gets.

There’s a lot going for Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors. The characters are likable, the writing is solid, the combat is fresh, and it feels like a great fit for the Vita. However, it’s embarrassing to level up when others are around, and the ‘sexy’ minigames wore out their welcome in a hurry.

Clustertruck is admirably insane. The action is so fast and engaging that it made me enjoy a randomized, chaotic platformer, which was something I’d previously thought impossible. Still, I couldn’t avoid the nagging sense that I wasn’t wholly responsible for my failures (and successes!) they way I would have been in a more tightly-designed game. That said, anyone willing to loosen their grip on the wheel and go with the flow can expect a consistently surprising and raucous good time.

Episode 4 might ultimately be more of the same, but this year’s episodic Hitman is the best the series has ever been, and I’m not complaining. However, with the United States and Japan chapters still to come before this season ends, I do hope IO Interactive has a few more tricks up its sleeve.

Though still a bit flawed in execution, players who want to see how narrative-based games can evolve should absolutely play Event[0].

NBA 2K17 is an all-around win. There is simply no equal to the depth and overall quality of this title, cementing the series as perhaps the best of all sports. Those who enjoy drama will find MyPlayer to their liking. Armchair point guards will enjoy MyLeague and MyGM. Casual ballers can hop in and play some of the most finely-tuned basketball ever. There’s more content here than most basketball fans will ever experience, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t try. Any fan needs NBA 2K17 in their library.

Spirit of Justice is a must-play for fans of Phoenix Wright’s continuing adventures. Though some minor mechanical quibbles remain, this is, by far, the most intuitive and visually engaging entry in the series. The amount of innovation and genuine humor found throughout paint a rosy picture for the future of the franchise and make Spirit of Justice the freshest courtroom since the first.

While I can’t say much about Batman as a series yet, what I can say is that I enjoyed my two hours as both Bruce and Batman. It’s a solid beginning for the caped crusader.

Virginia is an excellent example of what can be done with the medium – the director’s hand is felt, the approach is unusual and the subject is intriguing. However, “Ambiguous Story” is becoming a widespread disease in videogames, and it’s hitting the indie scene are particularly hard. While occasionally appropriate, it’s a perilous shortcut that leads too many narratives astray, and this game is a victim. I recommend Virginia to examine how it moves a player through its story, but I can’t sign off on the story itself.

While the visuals are appealing and the bots are full of life, I find myself a bit let down by the gameplay. It’s not precise enough to be a true ballet of blades as the title implies, and really, it’s too bad since the market has room for a top-down Nidhogg. On the other hand, it’s too precise to be a wacky laugh-with-your-mates brawler like Gang Beasts, which it could have done equally well. As is, it is a decent game within reach (in either direction) of being something much greater.

Despite a cliché story, unnecessary combat and some borrowed elements, Valley delivers a well-paced, beautifully scored, and engaging first-person adventure. At times it achieves an extraordinary sense of majestic isolation, but more peaks and less valleys would have helped this adventure truly soar.

I really like what Strike Vector EX does — the ships look great, it feels good to fly around in the world (when not hovering, anyway) and dogfighting games aren’t as common as they used to be. The developers are onto something good here, and I hope Ragequit continues on this track — maybe a sequel with a bigger focus on the campaign next time?

I wanted to like Lifeless Planet. I gave it a fair shake and I even liked it until I got a grasp on everything it has to see and do — about 45 minutes. Past that, it’s just an exercise in running and jumping across boring vistas while collecting uninteresting audiologs to support the bloated, unsatisfying story.

#killallzombies has no excuse for getting this so wrong.

In a market where fresh faces are constantly churning out promising new content, seeing a game as sloppy, unpolished and archaic as ReCore being produced by such experienced minds is downright heartbreaking. The game shows promise in its early hours, but after seeing the whole thing, I can’t recommend ReCore in good conscience.