Call of Duty: Vanguard is built like a rollercoaster so you have your highs, your lows, and moments that flatline. There’s no question its three modes are fun to play and offer fans enough content to keep them busy for some time, but this is Call of Duty, after all. Until Activision does something completely different with the series, don’t expect it to feel too different each year.

Medieval Dynasty won’t reinvent the wheel of the survival or resource management genres, but it will give you a relaxing and low-key experience you can customize to your liking. Its story and UI set it back from truly shining, but its focus on building a village and surviving through the seasons will keep you coming back for hours of simple entertainment.

To a T is one of the strangest, most adorable, most heartwarming games I’ve played in a long time. Through all its absurdities, it has a profound message that will stay with you long after you put the controller down. This is a short, delightful experience that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend to anyone. It’s nearly impossible to play this game without smiling.

I never could have seen this coming, but it makes sense that such a talented indie studio would make an awesome Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game. Fun and challenging battles combine perfectly with a unique tabletop-like art style and an excellent soundtrack, making this game feel like a new side street off memory lane.

Dead Island 2’s witty lines, weapon system, and combat customization options save it from obscurity, but let’s hope the next installment offers a lot more variety and creativity to compete with the other zombie titles out there doing it better.

If this isn’t your first foray into the series, then Far Cry 6 may leave you feeling a little exhausted. But if you’ve never played a Far Cry game before, you are in for the ride of your life.

While Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree reads well on paper and boasts an intriguing premise, it stumbles in execution, delivering a game that needs more polish to truly shine as the next great Soulslike Metroidvania.

Stressful yet relaxing, realistic yet laughably stiff at times – Bus Simulator 21 is full of contradictions some will appreciate and others won’t understand. It succeeds in giving you a faithful recreation of what it’s like to drive around a bus all day and all the ups and downs that come with the job. It also keeps things as safe as possible causing it to be as mundane as, well, driving a bus all day.

I will say the amount of art, voice overs, and unique environments is really impressive. You’ll still have to do plenty of reading but they do a good job of making the world look, feel, and sound unique. Everything feels handmade and it almost makes me think if this developer team remade Fallout I just might make time for that trip back to the wasteland.

Much of the fun that you will get from Mario Strikers: Battle League will be on the field mastering its tight controls, discovering the best ways to give certain characters various gear combinations to maximize their potential, and understanding the ins and outs of playing offense and defense. Its modes, however, are simple so but don’t expect too much right now in terms of extra features and characters. What you see is what you get.

Combat, stealth, and even exploration could have been handled better, sure, but Atomfall’s themes, atmosphere, and story make for a solid game that lets you forgive some of these issues if you let it.

Gamedec’s worlds are fascinating, albeit silent at times, and are made even more absorbing knowing there is a lingering feeling of dread in the air. It touches on some dark subject matter that makes for an interesting read and its branching narrative gives you multiple ways of enjoying the overarching story. Like a sci-fi novel, Gamedec requires your full attention otherwise you may get overwhelmed or bored of it before you turn the final page.

The exploration and the excitement we get from The Invincible is second perhaps only to its brilliant storyline. The developers come out on top of an extremely difficult task: interpreting an all-time literary classic, staying faithful to its content, introducing precise changes that make it work as a game, and delivering a gripping “walking sim” set on a stunning planet. This truly is one of the greatest games of this year and beyond.

Online mode helps keep Nintendo Switch Sports alive if you play it solo, but the game doesn’t offer much besides the sports you expect it to have. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel so don’t expect something brand new, but if you have friends nearby, you will definitely have a good time.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora feels powerful when it lets you connect with nature as it offers you something unique only the world of Avatar can show. Once you leave the warmth of its natural beauty behind, what you are left with is just another open-world game with an overworked story of saving the world.

At times Monster Slayer becomes a super immersive experience, and it’s always a joy to discover a new monster during a different time of day or when the weather changes. When that sense of wonder wears off after lots of grinding and walking around to find more monsters, you may begin to question whether you want to keep going. If you do, things get better as you stronger, but the path of a witcher is an arduous one and requires lots and lots of battles.

Overall, this is a great game that is bogged down by a handful of issues. Many of the problems with this game come from the genre it’s replicating but Cris Tales still manages to add some new and exciting mechanics. Going forward it will be exciting to see what new and creative ideas Dreams Uncorporated thinks of next.

Soulstice has a lot of fun moments and features some impressive fights that leave you feeling accomplished. Besides the thrill of perfecting each chapter every encounter, the game also features special battles that give you requirements to beat them offering you items that power-up your abilities or increase your health. These challenges are entirely optional but add to the game’s twelve hour story and continue to test your skills.

They may be limited to what the Switch can put out, but Pokemon Scarlet and Violet take things to the next level and highlight a new generation of what Pokemon games should feel like. At the root of it all are two games that excel in the thrill of discovery and invite you into a world you just want to keep exploring.

This is good but it could have been great. Fans who wanted more story and more Ash Williams will be disappointed. Though the PvP can be engaging at times there’s a few broken elements to the gameplay that need fixing so players and demons go head to head on an even battlefield. The rest is your standard loot, fight, complete objectives multiplayer game. In its current state I was left wanting more: more story, more gameplay scenarios, and way more Bruce Campbell.

Quality-of-life improvements here and there, preserving its online modes, and additional content would have made this the “ultimate” trilogy fans may have been hoping for. Instead, newcomers will enjoy playing one of the best, if not most challenging, action games ever made and older fans will remember why they fell in love with the series in the first place, all of its flaws included.

I had quite high expectations for Commandos: Origins. I wasn't disappointed in the most important aspect - it's a good stealth game, in which quietly eliminating enemies is rewarded and even desired. However, I cannot turn a blind eye to its archaisms and poor technical aspects.

By the time the credits had rolled I didn’t feel much beyond “that was a video game”. Which is fine, SW3’s combat has been finely tuned, but it takes so many pages from Doom Eternal’s playbook it begs the question of why people shouldn’t just go play that game instead. SW3 doesn’t offer a riveting story, it plods forward without any surprises or a real hook, and ends as generically as it begins.

They may be limited to what the Switch can put out, but Pokemon Scarlet and Violet take things to the next level and highlight a new generation of what Pokemon games should feel like. At the root of it all are two games that excel in the thrill of discovery and invite you into a world you just want to keep exploring.

Like a weathered axe, Song of Iron needs polish. Its combat needs refinement, its bugs are frustrating, and its ability and item system need to be fleshed out more. Where it shines is in its soundtrack and presentation that showcase the ideas one person had to create the game he envisioned. And with its credits hinting at a sequel, there is no place to go but up.

Trek could have stayed entirely in the land of the living and still be a surprise hit of a game. It’s gone well beyond that though and cemented its place as one of the greats. The side-scrolling genre has become a place for artful indies to exist but it’s been a while since a game like Trek made gamers take notice; and they definitely should.

Playing it safe, NHL 22 features a plethora of fun yet all-too familiar online and offline modes that play well and look great. The engine upgrades it received this year and enhanced animations make it one of the best hockey sims out there even though it has the potential to be so much more. Fans of the series will feel some slight improvements, and newcomers will receive a robust package that will keep them busy all throughout the season.

“Hoa” means flower in Vietnamese, so it makes sense for the game to be ephemeral, delicate, and yet beautiful all at once. If you strip away its art and music, would be a very boring game. But its art direction and wonderful soundtrack truly turn it into a playable piece of art that you just want to explore. Where it lacks in ingenuity, Hoa makes up for in the mood it creates for you within its short life.

With daily challenges and quests that reward you the more you play, Naraka: Bladepoint is shaping up to be game that plans for set up shop and last for a while. No two rounds feel the same, and yet the familiarity of each one makes it easy to keep coming back for more. It’s not perfect, by any means, with its combat system offering a breath of fresh air but also leading to moments of frustration. Still, its emphasis on customization, melee combat, and some robust features turn it into one battle royale experience worth checking out.

An enjoyable, if a bit brief, piece of blockbuster popcorn action fun.

Blades of Fire is a pretty decent, average game. It looks good graphically and works just as well. Unfortunately, it can be irritating and even boring at times.

Developers from the Polish studio Red Dot Games have chosen the path of slow evolution of their brand – I'm still waiting for a revolution. I wanted a shiny new car straight from the factory – instead I got a decent used car, which, albeit pretty and working, isn't that spectacular.

Scorn is an atmospheric masterpiece that wants you to be smart, logical, and mindful. If you are not, then it will feel more like a frustrating tease than a disturbing journey of discovery.

Mario Golf: Super Rush brings some genuinely fun and unique ideas to the franchise. Unfortunately they just don’t seem to have lived up to their potential just yet. The upcoming DLC could make this game a lot better, but it shouldn’t need to. It’s a shame because there is a really great game hidden somewhere in here, and there is no doubt it can make for a really fun game night. But, as is, Mario Golf: Super Rush doesn’t seem to have the longevity and replayability that you might come to expect from a Nintendo title, especially a game with Mario at the helm.

There is no question Lake is rather ordinary, but it’s precisely that ordinariness that lets it shine despite its flaws. Delivering mail and driving around the same familiar streets can easily get monotonous, and a few design choices ruin some of the relaxation that comes from the job, but it makes up for it in the unique interactions between Meredith and other characters. Their outcomes may not be groundbreaking, but it serves to tell a story about the normalcy of life and the choices we make to find happiness in what we are doing.

As it is, Immortals of Aveum is fun but short-lived and doesn’t offer anything that hasn’t been done before. It’s not perfect nor is it bad, but like its protagonist, the game is more of a jack of all trades than a master of one.

A step backwards from what was an enjoyable experience with Outbreak. At least then your operators fitted into the rough categories of soldier, medic, or heavy. Extraction is a mess by comparison, with operator abilities, gadgets, and guns never coalescing into something that makes any real sense gameplay-wise. The whole thing is a missed opportunity.

While there are things that work in its favor, Outcast: A New Beginning ultimately feels like any other open-world game you could play this year or have played years ago. It retains the charm of the original and further explores the world of the Talan in unique and odd ways, but how you go about doing that doesn’t feel as revolutionary as it did back in 1999.

Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water arrives just in time to celebrate Halloween as well as the series’ 20th anniversary. Unfortunately, a combination of clunky gameplay, impractical character decisions, and overused text exposition hold this game back from where it could be. Using the camera obscura to excorcise ghosts is tense and exciting, and the exploration isn’t half bad, but it’s not enough to tip the scales in the right direction.

The Callisto Protocol prevails at setting the mood and making you feel like you are part of the action, but it comes up short when delivering an experience that keeps your attention longer than the initial jump scare.

Little Nightmares III is a darkly beautiful follow-up that captures the series’ eerie charm but plays it too safe, offering an experience that feels more familiar than frightening.

Steelrising is the latest game from developer Spiders, and while the premise of a robot army thwarting the French Revolution is certainly attention-grabbing, it doesn’t manage to consistently maintain that excitement. The character designs and environment are well done, but where Steelrising stumbles is the clunky movement and shallow RPG mechanics that fail to keep progression and combat exciting throughout. As a souls-like game, Steelrising is following in the footsteps of some highly regarded modern games, but it doesn’t quite live up to the standards that those games set.

At its best, War Mongrels is a smart and challenging RTT game that really exercises your logic skills and makes you take a minute to gather your thoughts before acting on them – otherwise you die. And you will die often as you explore all of its fun features exploit your surroundings and character abilities. Sadly, this RTT game also tends to take advantage of your patience with its messy controls, irksome voice acting, and bugs that can lead to frustrating moments that make you want to stop playing. It’s rewarding when it works in your favor, but its rough edges will surely turn the fun into a struggle.

Astria Ascending holds modern JRPGs to a new standard. The sprites and environments are beautifully hand-drawn and the characters are rich with nuance and passion. But where the game really shines is its incredibly deep combat and progression system that will have you excitedly strategizing between dungeons. Some small technical issues do hold it back from being perfect, however, the issues pale in comparison to the majority of the game.

The answer is, sadly, too much. Sniper Elite delivers up some satisfying VR x-ray sniper kills, but once the novelty of that wears off, grinding through the rest of the campaign ends up being a bit of a chore. With no villains, real story, or any actual history to absorb, the game drifts through a seven-and-a-half-hour campaign of fight enemies, complete objective x, rinse, and repeat. This is such a shame when there was so much potential to really innovate in VR – but that seems to be the last thing Rebellion set their sights on.

It teaches us that just because we aren’t saving the world from invasion or conquering some magical kingdom, our choices, no matter how trivial or mundane we think they may be in the moment, are actually quite powerful as they can truly shape the life we are given.

While its combat system leaves much to be desired, Dustborn is filled with a variety of fun elements focused on opening up to the people around you that truly helps the game blossom into a powerful experience. Once your trip is over you will definitely miss those you got to know, but you will be thankful you got on the bus in the first place.

If you are new to skateboarding, chances are Session: Skate Sim will frustrate you more than impress you, but if you live for the board, it will provide you with an unrivaled simulator worth playing.

So, is there any reason to play Bright Memory: Infinite? Unless you’re curious about what can a single person achieve in the video games industry (at least in terms of development alone; Zeng Xiancheng had help from the publisher, composer, etc.) – there isn’t. Otherwise, you should pick any other shooter, especially Shadow Warrior, if mixing guns and swords sounds good to you.

The Precinct looks the part and briefly plays it, too. Its early hours make you feel like a genuine cop, but it quickly becomes clear that the game lacks the structure and depth to sustain its premise.

Detective Pikachu Returns is a fun albeit flawed game designed for children to enjoy with a family member next to them. Its core gameplay does get repetitive the more you play it, but what brings it all together and keeps you engaged is its story and themes that give it depth despite taking place in a game that looks too simple to even make an impact.

Know by heart feels personal, that’s for sure. Ice-Pick Lodge told us an interesting story, set in an even more interesting place and time. I just wish they built an interesting game around it as well.

Vampire: Swansong starts off by thrusting you right into a mystery that involves deceit, politics, and betrayal, and continues to unfurl through the course of levels that incorporate conversations, puzzles, and lots of exploration. Fans of Telltale and Hitman games will appreciate Swansong’s approach to discovery, but its lore-heavy storyline and questionable design choices can alienate others.

If you enjoyed Syberia in 2002, this is the best way to experience it again. If you’ve never heard of Syberia before this, it might not hit the same way. There is a compelling story, world, and cast of characters at the heart of Syberia - Remastered, however, it’s hard to recommend to everyone. Not all modern players will have the patience to get through Kate Walker’s clunky movement, the puzzles that will have you repetitively running back and forth, and the easy-to-miss objects and interactions that will frustrate you and slow you down. This is certainly the ultimate way to play Syberia now, but I’m not sure everyone will want to.

The latest Black Ops 7 not only pales in comparison to Battlefield 6, but it also doesn't measure up to the previous Call of Duty games.

Visually, Elex 2 is uninspiring and lacks a competent UI to make its plethora of quests enjoyable to keep track of and complete. Its visuals are also severely lacking for a game where its whole world is filled with interesting people to meet and various locations to explore. Once you get past this initial shock, however, you will realize Elex 2 is a solid RPG with a unique story that grows on you over time.

While some things work beautifully for the game considering its inspirations, Scars Above fails to catch up them due to its limitations in design and gameplay. It’s an ambitious game, for sure, and while its combat is fun and story strings you along, you will wish that it was more polished and more of a challenge.

Hammerting has grown a lot since its time on Early Access and recently got some updates prior to its release. Yet while it has all the makings of an engaging sim, a handful of glitches and odd gameplay choices mar its potential. Right now, the game is sure to give you hours of colony-building fun, but it needs more fine-tuning for it to feel truly fulfilling.

As someone who is not entrenched in one of the many live-service shooter games on the market right now, FBC: Firebreak felt like the multiplayer experience built for me. It has all the weird quirkiness that Remedy has been known for, with clever character classes that synergize well and the kinds of missions you would never see anywhere else. But somehow, when I jump into the game, it doesn’t feel right. The Oldest House is swarming with enemies, but somehow still feels somewhat empty. The missions feel repetitive and even tedious at times. Hopefully, Remedy can learn from this and turn this game into something great, or use the feedback for the next attempt at multiplayer.

If you can forgive a pretty forgettable combat system you’ll have a pretty decent fantasy romp with King’s Bounty II.

Project Motor Racing feels like a game in the very early stages of Early Access, rather than a title ready for its 1.0 release.

The new Alone in the Dark is just the right game for fans of games full of suspense, who are tired of annoying jump-scares. So if you value the captivating atmosphere over adrenaline surges in similar titles, you will really enjoy this reboot.

When your squad is working together, Battlefield 2042 feels amazing. If you go at it alone or if your team ditches you along the way, the game feels too big to make you feel like you’re making an impact. As impressive as it looks, this shooter needs some love to polish off its rough edges and it needs a dedicated community of players to help its Portal mode achieve its true potential.

Is Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 a worthy successor to the first game? Yes and no. It is an interesting game with many good features, but it is also riddled with problems and strange gameplay solutions.

Saints Row left me wanting more. Even the radio stations you can listen to and the track selection felt small in comparison to how bombastic of a soundtrack its past games had. While its side missions checked the open-world box of giving you something to do to keep you busy during or after you finish the story, most of them felt repetitive and only some truly captured the fun the games are known for thanks to some clever writing and line delivery.

Ultimately, we can talk about a flop. I'm playing an underdeveloped and thoughtless game, requiring boring, time-consuming tasks. Messy, both in terms of the script and gameplay. This poses further problems – because moving the plot requires wandering around the locations aimlessly, and we cannot direct the attack at the right enemy when in combat. However, if someone has a lot of patience and understanding and would like to spend many hours looking for secrets and delving into philosophical topics, they can give Broken Roads a chance. Nevertheless, I warn you, even after forgiving shortcomings, I would not see potential for anything good here.

The new Painkiller is not a good game. This is not a title that almost succeeded or has untapped potential that modders will fix. This is a short production, poorly made and ill-conceived at almost every level.

As Blightbound emerges from its year in Steam Early Access one can’t help but think that it might be doing so a bit too early. Lingering issues with the pretty visual elements overlapping each other, uneven party balance, repetitive loot with lackluster stats, AI/single player issues, and a bare-bones leveling design suggest that this game could do with more fundamental development work before taking the main stage. With its creative art and engaging voice talent, there is definite potential here for a terrific dungeon crawler, but the overall elements just have not entirely come together as of yet.

It's a pity, because Matchpoint has potential to be a solid average – meanwhile, it's just a poor game, full of flaws, clones and boredom. My trainings in the real world seem more interesting.

I am a bit disappointed with Tales of the Shire. The idea was great, but the execution just didn’t capture the magic of Tolkien’s world.

Dolmen gives you an average experience that invites you into a mysterious world but is plagued with hitbox issues, linear hallways, and bland design choices that bog it down. It does have some redeeming RPG qualities, but you will often find yourself fighting with the game more than with the enemy in front of you.

Hokko Life, from developer Wonderscope, is another game in the farming and life simulator genre. As is expected players can plant trees and flowers, catch butterflies, go fishing, interact with fellow residents, etc. While Hokko Life does manage to capture a much more laid-back and pressure-less atmosphere than some other games, it is still difficult for it to step out of the shadow of a particularly popular game in the same genre.

Away: The Survival Series sounds great on paper, as its nature documentary format gives it a charming quality you wouldn’t expect to work. And yet it does, to some extent. At the same time, its execution could still use a lot of work, leading to an adventure that tries to impress, but misses the mark due to some technical shortcomings that mar the experience. Its soundtrack, narration, and surprisingly detailed world make it worth checking out, but you probably won’t stick around for the next episode if things stay the way they are.

Just like the typo in its title, Postal 4 was either a mistake or a poor attempt at being deliberately bad. There is nothing redeemable about this game except maybe the colorful static cutscenes you see that pop up at the start and end of your day. Save yourself the pain and avoid this at all costs.

Succubus seems to be a step up from Agony in many ways. It stands to reason then that Madmind’s next game, whatever that may be, will be significantly better. I hope that’s’ the case because there’s obviously talent in this studio… it just needs to harnessed in the right direction to make something truly engaging and memorable on the next go ‘round.

The TV set melted and the PS4 is a pile of smoking ash after the encounter with Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon. This game in every respect reminds me of face-melting red-hot metal.

Indeed, in my humble opinion, AC Mirage is a good candidate for one of the worst installments of Ubisoft's Assassin's series. The whole thing is rather embarrassing, disappointing, and synthetic in a bad way; forced. However, I must praise the creators for a quite successful combination of old and new gameplay formulas.

So is Lightyear Frontier worth checking out? Definitely yes, although you must remember that the game has its limitations. However, if you need a casual title, where the most fun will be provided in short sessions, you've come to the right place. [Early Access Score = 65]

Hyper Light Breaker is ambitious. It’s the first time Heart Machine is creating a multiplayer game and their unique approach to the rogue-lite genre is worth tracking. However, if they waited a little longer, and added more content, this early access launch would not have been so rough. [Early Access Review]

Overall, inZOI is a really good life sim. With potential to be one of the best. It's not there yet, but that's a matter of time. And Krafton actually listens to the community, so I have no doubts this game will be a gem in its final form. [Early Access Score = 75]

Wartorn is a beautiful, challenging RTS-roguelike hybrid that rewards strategy but suffers from bugs and steep difficulty. [Early Access Provisional Score = 80]