If you ever enjoyed the original, or just like the idea of a psychic-themed 3D platformer, I'm sure that you'll like Psychonauts 2 and find plenty of laughs along the way.

One of the great things about the game is that you can keep on playing it until you get through the storylines of all of the main characters. The game is replayable to the point where you can experiment with different kinds of pro-revolutionary or pro-moderate behaviors. But it doesn’t judge you on the choices you make. It only makes clear that your choices matter, and your road to hell can be paved with good intentions.

Thankfully, the story is entertaining. It features a large cast of likable characters, including the eccentric-but-brilliant Herlock Sholmes. You play as Ryunosuke Naruhodo, a Japanese student who travels to Britain to become a lawyer, and it is fun watching him go from a meek, uncertain character to a determined, competent lawyer. I just wish it would get on with it sometimes. Dialogue drives these games, I know, but sometimes characters seem to chat forever before I’m allowed to do anything meaningful myself.

Ideally, the game would have some sort of asynchronous multiplayer system that I could compete in so I could compare my performance to my friends whenever they get around to playing. The 3DS game had tournaments that worked that way, but this does not. I want to call that omission baffling, but it’s not. Nintendo did not make this game for me. And that is leaving me wondering if I’m ever going to pick it up again. I suspect that I will not even though I still liked it while I was playing it. Or, at least, I won’t pick it up again until my young kids are old enough to care about a golf video game so I have someone to play with.

Dark Alliance feels like many D&D adventures: Sometimes, you gotta slog through some combat in order to learn more about the world and enjoy a good story.

I love Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart because it is a fun and beautiful adventure. It's not about setting you loose to stumble across objectives and side activities across an open-world map. And I love those kinds of games.

I also dig just how much control Tactical Adventures gives you over Solasta’s rules. You have several ways to deal with encumbrance, levels of attack and damage roll modifiers, and skill check rolls. If you want to play and experience the systems and story but not worry about missing skill checks in conversations, you can do that. You can ditch spell concentration rules. Or you can make the AI more merciless, giving them better tactics in combat.

Resident Evil: Village is going to make fans of the franchise happy, especially ones who aren't cowards like me. But even if you also find yourself shying away from the horror genre, I'd encourage you to screw your courage to the sticking place and consider a look at Capcom's latest survival horror stunner.

This lack of variety in the style of play makes every run feel samey, and they begin to blur together. That leads to a roteness that made me want to put down the game when I was struggling with the difficulty. I like challenging games, but roguelites need to walk a fine line between familiarity and routine. Familiarity is the warm embrace of something that feels like home. Routine is boredom, and it is poison for a game like this.

Balan Wonderworld is a $60 game, but I wouldn’t recommend it for even $10. It oscillates between boring and infuriating. The most fun I had with it was when I got costumes that made it feel almost on par with a mediocre Sega Dreamcast platformer in terms of capabilities. The kindest thing I can say about the game is that it does make for an entertaining livestream. I broadcasted my play on Twitch, and my audience seemed to really enjoy watching me suffer. So I guess this is a great one for all those fans of masochism out there. Let’s call it The Room of video games.

It’s not always a perfect combination. A few of the latter puzzles feel needlessly complicated, requiring you to place the objects at pixel-perfect angles to trigger the next area. But that doesn’t take away from how remarkable the game is. Like Portal before it, Maquette redefines what puzzle games are capable of, and I don’t think I’ll be forgetting about these characters any time soon.

I struggle to think of another co-op puzzle game that's better. Maybe Portal 2? Even if that's true, It Takes Two belongs on that same tier.

Much to my surprise, I like Monster Hunter Rise for Switch even more than World.

You can play a lot of 3D Mario games on your Switch. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury is just as good as any of them. It contains makes the Wii U game feel better than you remember, and the bonus campaign makes the package one of the best ports Nintendo has brought to the Switch. It’s reshaped my thoughts on 3D World. This is one of the best Mario games ever made.

I'm not sure if you should call Persona 5 Strikers a spinoff or a sequel. Honestly, it feels more like the latter. But if you want to call it a spinoff, it's the best one that the Persona series has offered yet.

When I think of games from Spiders, Cyanide, Piranha Bytes, or Reality Pump, I appreciate how often ambition overcomes limited resources. Their games (such as Gothic, Two Worlds, Greedfall, Of Orcs & Men) may have glitches and fall short of triple-A standards, but they tend to be fun, have good stories, and mechanics and systems that I enjoy interacting with. Werewolf: The Apocalypse has most of these. I enjoyed taking on an evil corporation, learning more about how the Garou fit into The World of Darkness, and tearing my foes about. I won’t hide from that. But just don’t ask me to hide from Endron’s guards again.

Hitman is a world made up entirely of Chekhov's guns, and it's a blast finding out how to get Agent 47 into position to pull the trigger.

I was concerned about Shadowlands and Blizzard development in the COVID era. All those complex systems made a real mess on beta servers near the original game launch date in October. But other than some balance issues — and that core problem with covenant choices — the extra month of development time after the release date delay really gave Blizzard a chance to paint on some polish. The end result stands as one of the very best expansions the game’s ever had.

Not everything about the game is great. There are boring parts, where you’ll wonder why you’re searching for that final clue. While the West Virginia setting is beautiful, the human animations aren’t perfect, and the action is pretty slow. Critics of “walking simulator” games should stay away, especially if all you want from a game is action. If you’re a fan of Dontnod games, however, this one is worth picking up.

I think that Cyberpunk 2077 delivers the big-budget gaming thrills that many people are looking for. But it falls short in a few key areas for me, and a lot of that comes as a byproduct of its ambition.

Empire of Sin has its bugs and some rough cinematic moments. But Romero Games pulled this project off with a team of just 30 people. For a game of its ambition, that seems like a small team. It’s pretty much an indie project, or perhaps “double-A,” compared to other games that are more polished but have hundreds of developers — or even more — working on them. What I also liked was that the game feels smart. I felt like I was playing against other crime bosses who were figuring out how to outthink me or double-cross me. And that’s what you want in a gangster game.

Its attempts at humor may flop, but Immortals succeeds at being a fun and engaging Breath of the Wild clone.

If you’re a seasoned Souls-like fan, then it’s worth picking up a PS5 just for Demon’s Souls. If not, I still recommend having your passport stamped in Boletaria, but know what you’re getting into beforehand and proceed with caution … and plenty of Moon Grass.

I don’t think it’s as good as last year’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, which was so disturbing and thoughtful and had an excellent and long single-player campaign.

As cute and clever as its creatures are, the puzzles just aren't deep or interesting enough. Still, I don't dislike Bugsnax.

I'm not sure if a Sony home console has ever had a better PlayStation launch game than Spider-Man: Miles Morales. This certainly beats Knack and Killzone: Whatever the Subtitle Was on PlayStation 4.

Aside from wishing it was longer, Astro's Playroom is an easy recommendation. I mean, if you have a PS5, you have this game anyway. Just play It.

I’m thrilled that I had another great excuse to play through it. And I’m really hoping this is paving the way for a Pikmin 4. Even if you bounced off of Pikmin, I think Nintendo has ironed out a lot of the wrinkles that acted as a barrier for this franchise. The controls are solid and friendly. Even the camera never really causes frustrations. Give this game a shot. It’s worth it. I’m giving Pikmin 3 Deluxe 4 stars.