Despite all of us playing the same game, what we experience in Elden Ring will be unique to each of us, and that is where the crux of its power lies. It is these differing experiences and its powerful emphasis on discovery that make Elden Ring a game that is worth discovering for yourself. Many will appreciate it, few will master it, but all will acknowledge it as a distinctive adventure that is as rewarding as it is dangerous.

Breath of the Wild laid the groundwork for what is possible in a Zelda game, and then Tears of the Kingdom took all of that, broke the rules, and added more to that equation. It’s a game that can be experienced at any pace and is the magnum opus, if not the swan song, of an aging console that proves it can still make masterpieces.

There are games that remind us why we fell in love with video games in the first place. In my opinion, Astro Bot is one of those games. It’s a phenomenally polished title, featuring great audiovisuals and, above all, brilliant gameplay that never gets boring.

In the end Hades 2 is an extremely successful sequel to the cult game. Both the seasoned pros and those new to Supergiant games are going to have a blast with it. Although it's still a roguelike, with all the advantages and disadvantages of the genre, the excellent dialogues and hypnotic music make it worth the effort. The visuals, refined down to the smallest detail, are stunning, and characters such as Dora and Artemis will stay with you long after the game ends. Hades 2 isn't perfect, but it's still ready to take on Clair Obscur, the new Silent Hill, and Silksong.

CD Projekt Red’s free update overhauls the Witcher 3’s graphics, fine-tunes some familiar features, and offers you a nostalgic experience that feels new at times but just as good as you last left it.

God of War Ragnarok is an example of when to not mess with perfection. It features powerful themes we can all somehow relate to and offers a rollercoaster of emotions that keeps you hooked until the end.

A great game, and a really good port. Rejoice, PC gamers, because you can now play one of the best games of previous generation (and according to some, ever) on your fancy, high-speed drives. 2022 couldn't have started better for you.

Resident Evil 4 freaked us out when we were younger, but it still leaves us shaken (in a good way) nearly two decades later while setting the benchmark for what survival horrors and remakes should look like.

Simply put, Sandfall Interactive’s debut game is a masterclass in presentation, storytelling, and gameplay. It’s a game you need to play to experience.

While may stumble at times with balancing the amount of mini-games it throws your way, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth excels in all other areas and feels magnificent when all its pieces click into place.

Paired with the inventiveness of its level design, Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a smorgasbord of fun and whimsy that keeps you happy and entertained no matter how old you are.

With a faster feel, reworked move lists, and a Drive system that rewards aggressive and defensiveness at the same time, Street Fighter 6 revitalizes the series and offers all kinds of players something new to learn and plenty to do.

Shadow of the Erdtree is an expansion that perfectly complements Elden Ring, adding new things, but at the same time sticking to the good old developed recipe. For fans of the genre, there is a great reason to return to the game, just to explore the beautifully created world and face the biggest challenge yet.

FFXIV is currently the best MMORPG available. The main reason is because it’s RPG first, MMO second. The story isn’t just an afterthought, but an integral part of the experience, and everything else revolves around the tale of the Warrior of Light. It’s logical, well-planned, and presented with great, voiced (or not) cut-scenes.

While Forza Horizon 5 launches with a score of "only" 9.0, it has potential for even more. All Playground Games have to do is to eliminate bugs and bring back some missing cars, which could be done in a few months, with several updates. What about a perfect 10/10? It would require a multitude of further improvements to AI and physics. But perhaps Forza Horizon 6 will achieve that. I surely hope so, as this would give us the perfect racing game.

Hollow Knight: Silksong is a flawed masterpiece. To the right player, it can be one of the greatest games of all time. But that’s only if they are able to look past or easily overcome the grueling, unforgiving challenges that come up regularly. From the world design to the music, characters, and animations, this is a monumental achievement, but had I not been working on this review, I would have given up on Silksong a long time ago. That certainly says something about me as a player, but it also says something about the game, too.

Donkey Kong Bananza blends new ideas with the series’ core DNA to create something that's not only incredibly fun, but hard to put down. It’s not just a great Donkey Kong game—it’s a must-have title, and a reason all on its own to pick up a Switch 2.

Split Fiction is another jewel in Hazelight Studio’s ever-growing crown of co-op adventures. This game constantly introduces new mechanics that keep the gameplay fresh, and each new story feels unique, despite continually returning to the same two genres. There are random difficulty spikes that can easily trip up inexperienced players and lead to frustration, but this was some of the most fast-paced, light-hearted fun I’ve had in a long time.

It may not reinvent the superhero video game format, but Spider-Man 2 refines what came before and gives us an adventure that carefully balances gameplay and storytelling while keeping us entertained even after the credits roll.

There really is a lot to love about Tekken 8, and the great thing is how familiar the game still feels while constantly impressing you with everything that’s new and shiny. This is a new generation of Tekken that is sure to keep you hooked for a very long time.

With over 70 hours of playtime—a lot more if you want to unlock everything the game has to offer—Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a hearty game that gives you a lot to chew on. Play it for yourself and the game will reward you with an emotional story, lovable characters, and a soundtrack that will stick with you longer than it took to see the credits roll.

It was a long road for CD Projekt RED from the botched launch of Cyberpunk 2077 to the game it has become with Phantom Liberty – and although the road was bumpy, the light at the end of the tunnel was real after all. The only expansion this game will receive has a fantastic storyline, plenty of feels, entertainment, joy, and technical bells and whistles.

Dark hallways, screams in the distance, and blood splatters on the wall may not seem inviting, but Dead Space Remake manages to create an alluring adventure throughout your playthrough, even if you played it already 15 years ago.

Sure, it gets weird—sometimes confusingly so—but Death Stranding 2 also delivers a gripping, thoughtful experience full of memorable moments, clever mechanics, and emotional highs. It's strange, beautiful, messy—and it's one of Kojima's best works yet, a truly worthy successor to the original.

Dispatch is one of the most charming, engaging, and well-written games of the year. It might be a comedy, but it doesn’t shy away from difficult subjects. You must take on the role of a mentor to a team of misfit heroes, all while navigating your own demons, not to mention the actual demon on your team. The character arcs and the team's overall arc are so satisfying and effective. I knew early on that this was a game I would play multiple times to see where different decisions would lead me. AdHoc Studio has instantly made a name for itself with this debut game.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the team of veteran beat ‘em up developers made another great beat ‘em up game. Absolum evolves the best parts of classic beat ‘em up action and weaves it with an original story, a compelling world, and roguelike elements. This doesn’t seem like a game that should work as well as it does, but it’s some of the most fun I’ve had with a co-op game this year.

From its music to the new battle enhancements to even how certain characters convey more empathy in their line delivery—Reload is a labor of love that modernizes Persona 3 while still retaining the alluring charm of the original.

Alan Wake 2 proves to be worth the wait. This sequel is an upgrade in nearly every way, and while player influence on the story can feel limited at times, the engaging narrative more than compensates. From the challenging, tense combat to the excellent environmental storytelling, Alan Wake 2 will have no trouble hooking players from start to finish.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 really improves almost every aspect of its already very good predecessor. Looking at the whole thing more calmly, we of course see the flaws, but it's hard to ignore the enormous amount of effort, passion, and heart put into this project.

If it’s been some time since you played the original or if you never played it at all, The Last of Us Part 1 is totally worth its price considering it’s the best way to experience its wonder. Otherwise it just reads like a bestselling book with an updated cover.

Monster Hunter Wilds is a good new addition to this long-running series. It takes some bold steps, and although not all of them are moving it in the right direction, the overall experience was still satisfactory. Monster Hunter keeps evolving as a series, and Capcom proves once again that they are the best in this genre they created over 20 years ago.

What’s so good about this installment of Ratchet and Clank is that it is a true labor of love. There is no other way a game can feel so good, play so well, and take you on an impressive adventure all without that special ingredient to keep it going. The definition of a next-gen title, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart is a must-play that will leave you super satisfied and hungry for another big game like this one.

Horizon Forbidden West is a treasure trove of exploration and has everything the first one had but further expands and improves on it to give fans a more robust experience. Slight tweaks to combat make it more varied, dungeons feature even more puzzles to solve, and its riveting story keeps you hooked until the end. Its somewhat of a cliffhanger ending will leave fans wanting more, but suffice it to say, this is a must-play for any PS5 owner.

The Talos Principle 2 is a powerful puzzle game that builds on its predecessor and effortlessly takes your mind for a ride.

Despite some of its shortcomings in pacing and lack of new content, Thousand-Year Door does a lot of things right and showcases how good this 20-year old game still is. From its classic turn-based system, complex yet lighthearted themes, and beautifully recreated worlds that make the most out of its papery aesthetic, there is plenty to love about this remake.

Guilty Gear has always been a stylized series, but it’s a fighting game with a lot of depth that rewards those who practice and learn all of its unique quirks and techniques. Strive makes some smart changes that simplify some past techniques without sacrificing the soul of what makes it so much fun to play. Serious fighting game fans will appreciate its complexity and promising netcode, and everyone else will enjoy its vivid cast and rewarding, flashy combo system.

Pikmin 4 is the best the series has produced so far. It brings with it elements that have worked before to give us a complete package that keeps the magic of Pikmin alive.

You may not hear a playful theme song when you ride a Chocobo, but the spirit of the series lives on in how Final Fantasy XVI weaves both combat and story to create an exciting experience that is hard to put down.

I’m going to watch closely what happens with GT7 after the release, and I’ll be happy to hop back in once Polyphony Digital figures out the fans’ complaints and addresses them properly. Gran Turismo 7 has potential to become a truly great game one day, but it’ll require hard work from the devs.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle from MachineGames studio is a true love letter to fans of the original film trilogy. (But it's not without flaws).

It feels sometimes like Deathloop couldn’t decide what it really wanted to be. Stealth game? Bullet opera? Retro-cool ‘60s spy romp? Mind-melting time travel story? When it tries to be all of these things at once, it ends up not being very much of anything. I liked the core concept but after twenty hours I didn’t feel like I knew more about how an island could get stuck living the same day over and over than I did at the outset.

From characters you may have forgotten about, to clever lines that pull the story together, to even more challenging puzzles that keep you invested in figuring them out, Return to Monkey Island is a treasure trove of fun. For fans that have waited so long for this sequel, the wait has been worth it as the game not only closes the chapter on a classic series but it also lets you revisit a past that is unique to every player.

The story and character models are something I can live with. Unless someone is a purist, then the game will certainly make them lose interest very quickly. In my opinion, however, the biggest sins of Silent Hill 2 are the extensive exploration, which eventually becomes tiresome, and the untapped potential of combat.

With over 60 hours of gameplay, and much more if you aim to complete every mission and uncover every corner of Mira, there's always something to keep you engaged. Despite its narrative shortcomings, it’s a world that’s easy to lose yourself in—whether it’s your first adventure or a return trip.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the team of veteran beat ‘em up developers made another great beat ‘em up game. Absolum evolves the best parts of classic beat ‘em up action and weaves it with an original story, a compelling world, and roguelike elements. This doesn’t seem like a game that should work as well as it does, but it’s some of the most fun I’ve had with a co-op game this year.

Blizzard really catered both to those who enjoy single-player experiences, and those eager for some good old multiplayer fun. Seriously, break the piggy bank and go buy this game. Because Blizzard, apparently, did it again – they remembered how to make great games that we will be playing for months on end. Maybe even years.

Monster Hunter Rise remains a stellar title on the PC, hardly losing any ground from the greatness it already achieved earlier this year on the Nintendo Switch. The game looks better than ever now that powerful hardware improves the graphics, giving everything from the monsters to the environments a nice polish. Unfortunately, however, the new format doesn’t always take the various kinds of players into account. Veteran players will likely grow tired of skipping through the tutorials again, and any player not set up with the right controls will be missing out somewhat. Anyone who has been patient enough to wait, or doesn’t own a Nintendo Switch, will be happy to have an overall superior version.

Mario Kart World launches the Switch 2 era with style and ambition. With future updates likely on the horizon, World is already a celebration of everything that makes the series great—and a promising look at where it’s headed next.

The Prince of Persia returns after a 14-year hiatus. This is a return in glory and splendor, accompanied by the... crackle of broken gamepads. It's almost hard to believe Ubisoft suddenly pulled off such a good game.

Bayonetta 3 is truly eye candy for your senses and is what all sequels should aspire to be. Fans are sure to eat it all up, and newcomers will be left hungry for the next one.

At its core, Ghost of Yotei is another tale of revenge, but it’s the way it frames that theme—through Atsu’s humanity, the land of Ezo, and the people within it—that makes the experience truly worthwhile.

After many long years, Silent Hill has received its most exceptional installment, reintroducing the series to the Premier League of horror and regaining its reputation as the pinnacle of virtual terror.

Total War: Warhammer 3 is the crowning achievement of the trilogy, and a game that will likely stay with us for years to come. It’s certainly not the end of the franchise, and even if it is the last entry in the sub-series, the conclusion couldn’t have been better.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake on PC is the same great game known from consoles, reviving the spirit of the original from 1997... But which, at the same time, suffers from bad decisions of the developers who chose to ignore the specifics of the PC platform, while charging quite a prohibitive sum for it. This simply shouldn't be happening.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 will belong to a fairly specific audience. The game requires a significant amount of time to truly enjoy it. You can't simply play it for a moment because you'll feel like you haven't made any progress. At the same time, it's great that such a title appeared – in times when AAA titles are bland and safe a different approach is needed. We needed a game to demonstrate that things can be done differently.

Five years after the original, the Mario + Rabbids series finally has a sequel. No one could have expected such a strange crossover to have such engaging tactical combat and enjoyable RPG mechanics, but with this series, it’s hard to know what to expect. Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope follows in the footsteps of its predecessor by being one of the weirdest games out there, but also incredibly fun.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is simply delightful and is how every top-down Zelda game should feel like. It’s not huge in the scale of Tears of the Kingdom in size or depth, but it still manages to give you plenty of hours of fun, exploration, and wonder that make it an influential entry in the Legend of Zelda series.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is a worthy successor and features more of everything, improves on what Fallen Order was lacking in, and gives us a new game that’s as much a joy to play as it is to watch it unfold.

With hundreds of hours of gameplay, various quests to complete, and thousands of planets to survey and explore, Starfield capitalizes on everything that has worked for Bethesda in the past, giving us an experience that feels like a giant leap in greatness.

Levels in Shredder’s Revenge may be simple and straightforward, but its combat system is fast-paced, easy to pull off, and lets you feel like a badass with each bo, nunchuck, sai, or sword you swing. Even if you have never playing a Turtles game in life or are too young to even remember that catchy opening theme song, chances are you will enjoy this love letter to a classic series that can still clearly kick butt.

Doom: The Dark Ages is a great game, a fantastic demon slaughter festival, but not exactly the best Doom, excluding visual aspects - at least in my personal opinion. There's too much plot, dialogue, side characters, cut-scenes, too much trying to make this campaign feel like Halo and Call of Duty. On the other hand, such an approach may appeal more to people who are unfamiliar with the beginnings of the series, not emotionally attached to the franchise since the 90s. I would cut out the plot, flying on the dragon, make firearms more effective instead of using parrying, and boost the sound effects. The rest is a great mix of dark fantasy with science fiction and a piece of good, strictly single-player gameplay, just like in the good old days!

11 bit studios’ game should appeal not only to building and planning enthusiasts but also to people who appreciate a serious narrative and a more profound treatment of the factions and characters present in the game. If the campaign isn't enough for us, we have an extra game mode available with fewer restrictions and less hand-holding. Most people will probably find this sufficient for the premiere.

Death’s Door may be a game about death but it very much thrives thanks to its smart level design and rewarding combat system. You definitely feel accomplished after completing a dungeon or beating a boss – and that feeling follows you until the end. Sure to become one of your favorite games this year, Death’s Door is a spectacle to behold and a joy to play.

The Alters delivers a gripping, existential survival experience that explores identity, regret, and self-acceptance in a way few games attempt. It's a little longer than it needs to be, but its story, systems, and emotional weight make it hard to forget.

True to its roots, Forgotten Land is a very friendly, lighthearted, and immensely delightful experience filled with the brand of exploration and discovery the series is known for. A little more variety in the selection of abilities and boss battles would have taken it to the next level, but it still manages to offer fans fresh concepts that elevate it to a new level and scale the series has never seen before.

For Anno fans, it's a must-have. For new players, this is a great chance to dive into the series - the fascinating ancient Rome setting and the deep mechanics make it totally worth pushing through the initial learning curve. Anno 117: Pax Romana will be consuming my time for weeks, months, maybe even years to come.

There are a lot of great qualities of Shin Megami Tensei V that make it one of the best RPGs on the Switch by far. Its intricate battle system, fun demon fusion mechanics, and enhanced presentation will lure fans and newcomers alike but its pacing, difficulty, and lack of a gripping story may make you put down the game for a bit before picking it back up. It’s a game that needs to be savored slowly to fully taste its potential. Otherwise it may leave you with a bad taste in your mouth.

Sunderfolk is the debut game from Secret Door and Dreamhaven. It expertly facilitates a TTRPG experience for a group of four players, using phones as controllers. It perfectly balances accessibility and depth, making it easy for new players to jump in and tactical veterans to find a challenge. The few weeks I’ve had Sunderfolk for review have been some of the most fun multiplayer experiences I’ve had in years. I look forward to playing a lot more.

It may not shake things up too much, but the shining force behind Super Mario RPG is that it showcases all the great aspects of the original and now lets a whole new audience enjoy it for themselves.

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is very exciting and addictive with its fast-paced action and challenging gameplay. I really missed a fun action game with a cool retro pixel-art style like this.

Splatoon 3’s quality-of-life touches improve the general flow of the game, and its plethora of modes will give everyone something to enjoy. While it doesn’t offer any revolutionary features or modes that will take it to the next level, its refinements and addicting multiplayer are good enough to make it the best game in the series so far.

Red Dead Redemption is an amazing experience and is one of those games that defined a generation of open-world titles where movie-level storytelling weaved into the action you got to control. The game is sure showing its age with each port that is released but it also gives players that may not have been around back then another chance to explore its world. If you’ve already played it, you won’t miss anything, but if you were looking for an excuse to see what the hype was all about, wait for a sale first.

Hogwarts Legacy has everything a Potter fan would want from a game in the series and still manages to feel inclusive, robust, and immersive due in part to its beautiful presentation. It may not be a groundbreaking take into the open-world genre and may feature a few questionable design choices, but it is sure to make anyone, fan or not, fall in love with the series all over again.

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is a stunning, faithful remake that beautifully preserves the 2004 classic, but its reluctance to add anything new makes it feel more like a remaster than a reimagining.

The specific humor and signature atmosphere of the British studio's productions, eye-catching graphics – it's all here. Regardless of whether you want to focus primarily on individual students (it will become more and more challenging with time), or mainly on the development of infrastructure, the game will yield hours of quality fun, and you will not get bored for a long time.

At its core, Stray is a beautiful game of exploration that can be finished at your own pace. Its gameplay constitutes a calming experience that makes typically mundane activities such as jumping on ledges, walking around corners, and even just meowing, feel powerful. Ultimately, the emotional connections you build throughout your adventure are a testament that you should never underestimate an unassuming cat as it could very well be destined for greatness.

Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp may not win any awards for its story or online offerings, but at its core are two games that offer you a classic RTS experience that continues to hit hard 22 years later.

Pokemon Legends Arceus outshines the open-world concept of Sword and Shield and revisits the natural elements of the series and their environment first introduced in Pokemon Snap. Not everyone will appreciate the departure from the main series, however, and the lack of battles, missing multiplayer, and small number of Pokemon make for a very different experience that leaves you wanting more. The ideas and potential are definitely there, and if this is just a small sampling of what Game Freak can do with the series — we can’t wait for more.

As is, Chivalry 2 features an immersive Team Objective mode that highlights all the best parts of this online multiplayer. The other two modes are okay in moderation and require you to do more button mashing than the precise motions you thought the game wanted you to perform all along. If you can get past some of its blander parts and focus on the joys of mastering swordplay, Chivalry 2 can be a lot of fun despite its weak spots.

Jurassic World Evolution 3 is just a small evolution of ideas from the previous installment. It may not be much, but it still allows you to create the Jurassic Park of your dreams. It's a must-have for dinosaur fans, but not necessarily for fans of tycoons and complex economics.

While Pro Skater 4’s shift away from its open-world structure may disappoint fans of the original, and the soundtrack misses some iconic tracks, there’s no denying Iron Galaxy put in the work to make both games feel cohesive. In the end, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 offers two more chances for players to relive their skating heyday while offering a new generation a piece of history through a modern lens.

A Plague Tale deals with the subjects of lost people amid plague and war – subjects that have become part of our daily lives in recent years and months. It does this by placing the characters in a story told through the prism of fantasy, which allows it to avoid moralizing. Perhaps A Plague Tale is the most up-to-date and relevant critique on our reality in video games. And at the same time, the sequel – forgetting about the context – is just a great sequel and a really good game.

Offering a great balance of battling and managing, Cult of the Lamb offers you the best of both worlds and provides you with enough of each genre to make it an engaging experience. Its colony management elements may not be as intricate as you would hope, but it does offer a good amount of customization and freedom to shape your cult how you want.

Mario Party Jamboree is one of the strongest titles the series has seen in a long time simply because it brings back everything that has made its best-selling games successful and offers you enough new modes, features, and content to keep it feeling fresh and exciting.

Battlefield 6 may not be a perfect game, but it is definitely the best game in the series in a long time, and it's hard to describe just how good it feels to play Battlefield again.

Crossworlds has a really unique concept, combined with an arcade style, great dynamics, and solid gameplay, making it a strong competitor to Nintendo's Mario Kart.

Assassin's Creed: Shadows is a game full of contrasts. On one hand, it offers solid stealth mechanics and a great combat system, but on the other, it features a lackluster storyline and generic exploration. If you're a fan of the series, you'll likely find something to enjoy here, but if you weren't convinced from the start, the combat and stealth may not be enough to win you over.

Picking up this latest installment of GTA 5 can only mean you either haven’t played the game yet or want to start it over on a faster, more powerful console. Either choice is fine and means you will be in for a real treat as this is the definitive way to experience its 30-some hour story by far. GTA 5’s graphical improvements and even current gen features like haptic controls somewhat update the game to today’s standards, but it does show its age and makes the case that this should be the last time it gets released again.

Because of its size and range of missions from serious to stupid, Pirate Yakuzain Hawaii feels like a “Best of” album from past Like a Dragon games. Its odd marriage of pirates and yakuza works and gives you a game that doesn’t take itself too seriously but knows how to impress a crowd.

Ghostrunner 2 is as exciting, hectic, challenging and satisfying as the original. It occasionally fails with some of the new ideas and for certain players, the degree of similarity between the prequel and sequel might be too great to warrant a purchase. However, it still is an incredibly satisfying and pretty slasher.

These small flaws aside, True Colors is tugs at your heartstrings and doesn’t let go until its credits roll. It’s a wholesome game that covers some deep subject matter, but gives it to you in a way that makes for an enjoyable viewing and gaming experience. Fans of the series will love how familiar it feels to the other games, but everyone will appreciate how mature its themes are that continue to emphasize the uniqueness and unexpectedness life can bring – superpowers in hand or not.

Darkest Dungeon II continues the legacy of the original game as a brutally dark and difficult roguelite turn-based RPG. Much like the characters in the game, riding out in a hopeless effort to stave off the apocalypse, the player will find themself pushing forward despite certain defeat, with only a weak promise that next time it will be a little easier. It’s impressive that such a relentlessly challenging game can still have the player coming back for more.

Faithfully recreating some of the most famous moments in the series, Sparking Zero is the one Dragon Ball game that offers you tons of content to really enjoy all the aspects of the series. Battles are faster than ever, the roster is huge, and there are even ways you can reinvent or reimagine your own scenarios for your favorite characters to experience. It’s a fighter at its core, but it also offers fans the tools to make it the Dragon Ball game they have always dreamed of.

Replaying the same level over and over again to grind out XP you need to advance isn’t a challenge, it’s poor design. Randomly making your enemies invincible to spice up the difficulty isn’t a challenge, it’s poor design. I could go on, but I think this review is becoming like one of Sifu’s levels – endlessly repeating itself.

Personally, I just think this is a piece of a very well-made game. This is not your perfect title, but it certainly is an extremely successful continuation of the legend from 1999. If you are fans of Jagged Alliance 2 and were quietly counting on a modernized version of the game, part three will definitely meet your expectations.

Skyward Sword HD certainly has its quirks, and it’s not perfect, but for fans of the series it is a faithful and well-improved remaster that will remind you how much you enjoy the older Legend of Zelda games. If all you’re looking forward to is the next Breath of the Wild, it could be worth taking a look, because there are a lot of great experiences and potential additions that might find their way into the next game. Not to mention that a more story-focused game might give you more of an appreciation for the hidden corners in Breath of the Wild.

Wings of Ruin’s strengths are easily noticeable and will keep you playing it for weeks. Its story may not be groundbreaking, but what it offers is crafted with love and is geared to both fans and newcomers to the series. It’s definitely not your average Monster Hunter game, but its mix of RPG and Pokemon-like elements make it its own kind of wonderful.

Almost every element of the new Age of Empires made me remember how much fun RTS games used to be back in the day. I've played the remastered trilogy in recent years, but Relic's fresh approach has kept me up several nights trying to win potentially impossible battles against three enemies at once. And it's probably that enjoyment and the ability to lose myself in my favorite game that matters most to me.