The Winters' Expansion doesn't add content to Resident Evil Village so much as it seasons it. There's some fun to be had here, but as a whole, it's a little insubstantial.

Dice Legacy is just too shallow and too reminiscent of other, better games. It's just far too simplistic to have any kind of real replayability, and since your first playthrough will be done in four or five hours at most, that leaves little to play for. Sure, the game does try to extend its replay value by offering different starting conditions and rule restrictions to try to get you to play it again, but it's the same meta every time with no real variation. There's no shortage of good roguelikes out there. Crack those open instead. You'll have a lot more fun that way.

Lords of the Fallen is a satisfying action RPG and a remarkable soft reboot of a franchise that nobody thought had a future. There’s so much more soul here than the 2014 original, along with plenty of depth for those who want to engage deeply with its systems. This includes the fully malleable customization, in which classes can equip any gear once the stat requirements are met, essentially morphing mid-playthrough. It’s unfortunate that a genuinely great game is sullied by a severe lack of polish.

Last Stop feels like a more palatable follow-up to Variable State's ponderous premiere, but one that is made without sacrificing all of the burgeoningly signature weirdness of the small team. Though the story takes risks, it manages to rein them in a bit, as not to drown its players in metaphor, something the team once seemed happy to do in 2016. Questions go unanswered and some mysteries are once again meant to idle in the player's mind, but in all, Last Stop is more popcorny than I expected but no less entertaining.

Starship Troopers: Terran Command tries to capture the campiness and action-packed thrills of the movie, but it falters just like the invasion of Klendathu.

Cruis’n Blast shoves players kicking and screaming to the time when the Dreamcast was king, racing was purely about things blowing up for no reason, and unicorns had great engine noises. And I love it for that.

The '90s are back, sort of, in a comic book/urban fantasy mash-up that provides some co-op fun but can't quite live up to the rest of its genre.

Maneater's deep combat and deeper oceans provide just the type of blissful escapism we need right now.

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is a fun little title for fans of Action-RPGs with not much roleplaying to speak of. It’s far from perfect, but with a runtime of 15 to 20 hours, being a pleasant diversion is enough to earn its keep.

Even if you thought you were "done" with Assassin's Creed Valhalla already, Wrath of the Druids has more than enough elements to drag you back in. It may not break a lot of new ground, but raiding monasteries, making terrible decisions, double-crossing friend and foe, and partaking in more drinking contests is good fun and a well-made complement to an already great game.

Madden 22 tries its best to improve with some updates to its gameplay, The Yard, and Franchise Mode that feel like a step in the right direction. However, rehashing of old systems and ideas, a continued push towards microtransaction-laden content, and bugs getting worse and worse means that this iteration will need extra time to really grow as a program.

While the bones of a great battle royale are here, there’s just not enough meat on ‘em at present.

Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge is a uniquely fun farming sim fueled by heart, a message of conservation, and a whole lot of frogs.

Maquette is a realistic, empathetic portrayal of two people falling in love and what comes next. If it was only that, it would make a great audio drama, or with some tweaking, a touching movie or book. But it's a game, and despite the awe-inspiring first impression it delivers, the cagey puzzle logic can leave you more hopeless than the central pair's prospects for longevity.

The presentation of Blue Fire is clean and elegant. It’s clear a lot of care and love has gone into the lore, writing, music, and overall design of the game. But sadly, the actual mechanical parts don’t quite hang together. There are a lot of interesting ideas at work, but they just can't elevate Blue Fire above a curiosity. Coupled with the bugs, I’m hesitant to recommend it to anyone but the most ardent of platforming fans.

Atomic Heart does many things well. It capably takes what games like Bioshock did before and puts a unique spin on it. The guns and powers are fun to use, fighting rampaging robots is a blast, and the setting of an alternate-history 1950’s Russia is fresh and interesting. The protagonist, unfortunately, is a deluge of awful dialogue, and the attitudes for female-presenting characters are concerning. Mix in slogging through open-world segments of infinitely respawning enemies, and you have a good game that is a few better choices away from being great.

Kunio takes on ancient China in this mash-up of Romance of the Three Kingdoms and River City Ransom. Are these two great tastes that work together in any way at all?

A unique direction for the Digimon franchise comes with growing pains and flashes of greatness in equal measure.

While Mario Golf: Super Rush isn't the deepest experience, the arcade gameplay and modes on offer allow it to stay on par.

Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythmic Adventure Pack is a novelty game, and like most novelties, it's shallow with short-lived appeal. It doesn't offer enough variety in songs to make an easy recommendation, and it certainly falls short with its adventure modes. There are better rhythm games on Nintendo Switch for the same price or less.

Visually, The Callisto Protocol is one of the only games for the PS5 and Xbox Series X that feels like a next-generation game. But that ambition has clearly come at a cost. For all its bells and whistles, The Callisto Protocol isn't doing much of anything new with its story or design. It's not just a Dead Space imitator, but it does manage to take a lot of the ideas from earlier action horror games and execute them half as well. Alongside myriad factors and the fact that New Game Plus and Hardcore modes — staple features of the genre — aren't coming until next year is evidence that The Callisto Protocol should have been given more time to have a smoother, fully-featured launch.

Enjoyed hacking a way at poor, helpless souls in the first game? Then check in and see how the evolution fairs in the sequel.

Whether you love Italian folklore, architecture, music, or just want to explore a new souls-like, Enotria: The Last Song, is a title you’ll want to pick up. It features easy to pick up combat mechanics, a spin on parrying, and a fully detailed world filled with foes to defeat.

Killer Klowns is a faithful adaptation, but nostalgia cannot compensate for lacking features that other asymmetrical horrors do better.

Madden 21 takes a few shots down field but ultimately plays it safe — and in some ways, too safe.

One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 is not only one of the best One Piece games but possibly one of the best Musou games around.

The game feels like a regression from Supermassive's previous work. The Quarry was a refreshing return to form for Supermassive, but The Devil in Me and the overall lackluster quality of the rest of The Dark Pictures Anthology make me think that this IP may be out of ideas.

For me, Outcast: A New Beginning was really a tug-of-war between “it’s fun,” and “it’s driving me crazy.” While some features stood out to me, like the jetpack and weapon modules, they really couldn’t make up for the lackluster characters, a map that was just too big, and bugs that ruin the experience. Fans of the franchise may want to give it a try to compare to the classic experience as it’s undoubtedly a step up in terms of mechanics. However, it’s not necessarily something I would want to play again myself, which lowers my rating for the game overall, and honestly, restricts me from recommending it to others.