If you've already enjoyed World War Z, the first-person mode alone is enough to merit another run. And if you're totally new to World War Z, then this all-inclusive new version is blatantly the best way to play the game that came out of nowhere to earn a place among genre greats.

Sable’s premise is novel, if not entirely new. Its minimalistic gameplay, at times, helps sell a more personable experience. Regrettably, the minimalism cuts both ways as Sable’s barren world betrays the game’s emphasis on exploration.

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.

Lost Judgment is a good follow-up to 2019's excellent Judgment. It's more of the same, but that doesn't matter too much when the core is already great.

If you've got a Nintendo Switch and friend, or four friends, to play Wario's latest foray into madness with, you're in for a whole lot of confusion and fun as the game peels open like a bulb of garlic. There is almost no one I would not recommend WarioWare: Get It Together! to, except maybe my grandmother. And your grandmother, too, probably. Everyone else? It's a heck of a lot of fun, and well-worth adding to and multiplayer Switch library.

Aragami 2 has lots of potential but falls into repetition, some odd story choices, and frustrating online play.

Deathloop takes elements from games like Bioshock and Dishonored, combining them with a Groundhogs Day like timeloop to create the coolest, most stylish, and best game of the year.

Monster Harvest wanted to follow the basic format found in the award-winning Stardew Valley while adding unique monster-catching and RPG mechanics found in Pokémon, and it succeeded in doing so. The issue is that those baseline mechanics from the farming sim genre lack the depth and nuance you'd want to see for Monster Harvest to really be found among the greats, while also failing to capitalize on the new mechanics by making them lackluster and borderline boring.

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.

WRC 10 is a fun and packed experience. If you're a newcomer, you'll need patience. In your early hours, you’ll feel overwhelmed by the game’s lack of aid, and you’ll definitely need to check a YouTube tutorial or two to get going. It’s a more hardcore experience, that's for sure, but even then, its campaign mode pulls you too far away from the central experience. However, once you begin to familiarize yourself with the racer, it offers up an addictive and brutal experience that’ll have you memorizing corners like never before. And there is something here for even those who often dabble in more casual racing games.

Life is Strange: True Colors might feature grown-up characters, but it's evident the franchise itself still has a bit of growing to do. Deck Nine tries and ultimately fails to tell a story of emotional healing at best. At worst, it treats difficult topics with a flippant callousness that suggests it doesn't quite understand how to deal with these emotions to begin with, let alone tell a meaningful story about healing and moving on.

Tales of Arise heralds a brilliant new dawn for the series and is one of the best RPGs of the last generation.

Though it's a relatively short and easy game, The Artful Escape is also a charming, witty spectacle from start to finish in its six or so hours of playtime. I loved Francis' story and the far-away lands he visits on his quest to believe in himself and write his own future. I can foresee some players scoffing at the entire project for its particular brand of humor, but expect it will be adored by drama kids, garage rockers, and general outcasts all over. The Artful Escape plays like a psychedelic jam band session and tells a story like someone spiked Wes Anderson's Darjeeling tea.

Sonic Colors: Ultimate brings new visuals and some new bits and bobs from the original release, but it lacks the punch of some other entries to the series.

Maneater: Truth Quest might not completely deliver on its irreverence this time around, but being a mega still delights.

In full, Lake doesn't quite reach the highs I experienced when I played it in part earlier this year. The story gets in its own way with narrative threads that compete for time and ultimately leave none of them with a satisfying conclusion. While the game is beautiful and its central mail carrier gameplay is as strangely enticing as it seemed all along, it's the people of Providence Oaks I will not miss.

No More Heroes III is just more of the same. This game feels a decade old and like it was made for its most hardcore fans. It has all the same charm, humor, and fun gameplay, but also the same issues, mainly the dreadfully boring open world and repetitive structure. Those who played both of the two previous mainline games will know exactly what to expect here in No More Heroes III. There isn’t much evolution between them and this, and maybe there doesn’t need to be. But I still wish that the game would have matured a bit more along with its audience after all these years.

Sometimes we wake from a dream and wish we could recall its details. Sometimes we're trapped in a nightmare and wish we could wake at all. Nightslink feels like a bit of both.

Axiom Verge 2 is a proper love letter to Metroid. The vast world is challenging and exciting to explore, the power-ups provide intelligent ways to solve puzzles, and the story is involving. It's not perfect though, thanks to the lackluster combat and occasional bouts of frustration.

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.

Garden Story shows what RPGs and top-down adventures can be like. There's depth in its foliage and a charming world at its foundation. It just seems like the dev team tried getting too much from a plant that couldn't produce enough to meet demand, and the result was a watered-down version of the ideal. Still, new seasons bring new opportunities for growth, and I very much hope to see Garden Story sprout again in a new form.

Put simply, Humankind took everything that Civilization 6 got wrong, fixed it, added some new ideas to the genre, and ended up producing the best 4X game I've played since Civilization 5 way back in 2011 — which, according to Steam, is the ninth-most-played game in my entire library at over 400 hours. This is the new standard for 4X historical games. It is an absolute must-play for fans of the genre and has finally knocked Firaxis off its throne as the king of the hill.

Aliens Fireteam Elite already has new story missions lined up for the future, so there’s a distinct possibility the game will be able to hold player interest for a while. If you’ve got bug-hunting buddies to play with, you’ll have a much better time. Single players, however, should probably give it a pass.

Psychonauts 2 is brilliant. It's one of the most creative experiences released in recent years, if not in the last console generation. Sure, it could push platforming boundaries a bit more or distance itself further from the genre's shortcomings, but it's a set of minor annoyances in what's otherwise a sensitive and splendid odyssey.

King's Bounty II is an incredibly mixed bag for me so far, but I have hope that the story might get a bit more interesting. The open-world feels more like window dressing, however, and certainly pales in comparison to some of the other "living and breathing" worlds out there, even if it does look absolutely gorgeous. Still, it's the kind of experience that might pay off in the long run, so I can only wait and see.

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.

12 Minutes is a game about escaping a time loop, which is ironic given that it's so good that I wish I could see it all again for the first time myself.

Road 96 sets out to ask hard questions such as "when is violence the right response to a despotic regime?" and "is voting alone enough to fix a broken system?". But by the end, it never quite manages to answer those questions. While its politics take center stage, it's actually Road 96's interpersonal drama that I came away most fond of.