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.

The Castlevania series is something of a comfort food for me, and any game that can properly emulate what it does gets my recommendation. Predictable as it may be, Reverie is the tight, efficient, and beautiful work from someone who knows the subgenre well. I may even go check out the other three now.

Madden 17 is still an improvement, and represents the best in sports sim gaming today.

It has a genuinely cool premise, and the core mechanic of reeling into titans at absurd speeds with the intent of doing hideous amounts of damage is a good one. There’s just very little else to it, so while it’s initially exciting and gives a unique feeling of freedom to murder adversaries, longer sessions allow tedium to set in.

Gamers with a special place in their hearts for beat-’em-ups may get several sessions’ worth of enjoyment out of it (and I’d still recommend it to folks who really enjoyed arcade beat-’em-ups back in the day) but Mother Russia Bleeds is not the shot in the arm the genre needed to remain relevant in 2016.

I looked hard for something wrong with this re-release of RE4, but I found… nothing. I suppose some could fault the developers for not adding a quick weapon switch to the D-pad (going into a briefcase to switch weapons has never been ideal) and it’s disappointing to see that the FMV sequences weren’t given the same visual overhaul as the rest of the title. Beyond those small quibbles, however, the game remains as good as it’s ever been. The campaign is the best in the series, the bonus chapter offers a huge amount of new content, and the costumes change the way the game is played. This really is one of the best games ever made, and over a decade later, it hasn’t lost any of its cachet.

Although it asks some weighty questions and fails to answer them through its limited narrative, Hue is best enjoyed for its color-swapping puzzle mechanics and austere visual design.

The team at Thunder Lotus is on the right track, but I hope their next effort focuses on adding more depth and intricacy to their work.

Even three months and numerous patches after release, it’s clear that this project is nowhere near complete.Worse, the developers are clearly prioritizing the more successful PC version over this compromised port job. Console-owning fans of the survival genre may find something to enjoy in 7 Days To Die, but my advice is to steer clear all the same.

Despite a few minor missteps, Alone With You is an excellent example of a genuine sci-fi title, and spending time getting to know artificial people while quietly struggling to survive the aftermath of a colony’s collapse kept me wholly interested from start to finish. More cerebral and moody than most, I would strongly recommend it to anyone who doesn’t mind leaving their laser rifle at home in favor of having an experience about an experience.

When taken as a whole, Shiren The Wanderer: The Tower Of Fortune And The Dice Of Fate delivers a carefully crafted, carefully considered experience that captures the best of what makes a good roguelike, while also mitigating the pain points that give the genre its hardcore reputation.