With its charm and "something for everybody" mentality, TimeSplitters is sure to offer GameCube owners a good number of things to like, though it feels practically irrelevant when compared to the other versions of the game.

This unique puzzle game may not draw you into its orbit for long, but it'll still provide hours of entertainment at an earthbound price.

This prequel is another fun and pleasant mash-up of Final Fantasy sensibilities and Disney tales.

When the book closes on their story, it's hard not to open it up again and begin anew. The trials you overcome endear you to both characters, but the emotions Trico elicits make you want to give it another chance--to be the patient, effective partner it truly deserves.

While its presentation and game modes fall further behind the competition, PES 13 has made improvements where it really counts. There's a fabulously entertaining football game at its heart, one that finally lives up to the high standards of the PES games of old. Sure, it may have given up its pick-up-and-play accessibility to get there, but with such satisfying, thoughtful, and tactical gameplay on offer, it's well worth the effort.

Much of the game is truly a wonder to behold, and while unraveling the story will probably be an interesting incentive for longtime fans of Myst, it's the thrill of being able to fully and freely explore the game's imaginative and remarkably lifelike worlds that often proves to be the biggest incentive for pushing past Myst IV's near-impenetrable puzzle barriers.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed doesn't depend on your nostalgia to be enjoyable. The core of the gameplay, the racing, is fast, fun, and easy to get into.

Even after barreling through the campaign in a couple of days, I still couldn't stop myself from going back for more. Ninja Gaiden 4 is a brutal menagerie of excessive blood spray, gratifying weapons, and gloriously stylish action. It banishes the sour memories of Ninja Gaiden 3 and has me pining for more character-action games, serving as a wistful reminder that games like Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry, and Bayonetta ruled the roost before the recent proliferation of Souls-likes. Every change is meaningful, adding to the rock-solid foundations and evolving the formula to bring out the very best in its phenomenal combat. If Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound and Shinobi: Art of Vengeance weren't enough, then Ninja Gaiden 4 solidifies 2025 as the year of the ninja.

A refreshing, challenging change of pace in a genre that all too often treads the same well-worn, well-loved territory.

Simple controls and a number of newcomer-friendly features make Madden 09 on the Wii a good game for beginners, but there's very little new here for series veterans.

I consistently enjoyed Technobabylon. The puzzles are always meaningful, and the story proves that you can teach the aging dog of cyberpunk some new tricks.

Dragonflight is sprinkled with little moments like these that encourage you to take your time and smell the roses, so to speak. Though there are still plenty of collectathons and kill quests to complete, Dragonflight shines when it reminds you of the unique world you're in and invites you to slow down and immerse yourself in it. It's an expansion about remembering where you've come from, yet embracing what comes next. It's about coming home. Considering the quality on display in Dragonflight and all the changes that have been made to improve the core systems of Blizzard's iconic RPG, I have no doubt more than a few lapsed players that had grown tired of what Azeroth had to offer in recent years will be doing just that.

Mists of Pandaria's glittering forests and engaging activities feel fresh despite the game's reliance on familiar tropes.

Despite my gripes and the number of ways NEO TWEWY almost stunts my enthusiasm for it, I'm glad it exists. I can live with the lulls along the way for the memorable moments the journey gave me. And I can still wish it did more with its storytelling while loving its personalities, extraordinary sense of style, and connections to the original. I can also find value in the age-old question it posits: What good is a place you love without the people who matter most? Many stories have asked and answered this--and maybe the game puts too neat of a bow on it--but I find the way NEO TWEWY answers the question the most satisfying part of the experience.

This collection of 13 pinball tables offers more than enough variety to justify the price that you pay for infinite credits.

Despite the occasional flaw, College Football 26 builds upon its solid foundations to graduate near the top of its class. This is a fantastic football game that revels in the singularity of the college experience, from the pageantry, traditions, and electric atmosphere of each school on game day, through to the recruitment process, and the myriad heated rivalries between its 136 teams. After a hugely successful comeback, EA Sports College Football 26 furthers the series' upward trajectory, making for one of the greatest shows on turf.

Almost everything that has been added to this year's game detracts from the overall experience. Once you're in and racing and customizing your cars, it's a lot of fun, but there are too many obstacles standing between you and the best parts of the game.

The captivating PSP version of this classic PC strategy game captures all the charming fun of being a pirate of the Caribbean.

By using an intuitive control scheme similar to Electronic Arts' own "Battle for Middle-earth 2," Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars proves that strategy has a big role to play on consoles. If you have an Xbox 360 and even the remotest interest in earth-shattering explosions or campy science fiction, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy.

The graphics, the audio, the events (and everything else) are identical in both games, but only now, players control a farm girl instead of a farm boy and court future husbands instead of future wives.

Even with an imperfect roster and a selection of modes that doesn't compare to the comprehensiveness of Forza 6 at launch, Forza Motorsport 7 is still a feature-rich and competition-diverse bundle of racing events that keep you coming back for more. The ability to control the weather to create rich, painterly cloudy backdrops goes a long way in making up for the lack of zombie modes and the Toyota MR2.

THUG2 hangs on to the great gameplay of the previous games, makes a few minor tweaks, and wraps it all up in a new Bam Margera-centric package.

Even if you have a previous version, the new features in version 8 more than justify the upgrade price.

The most beautiful Final Fantasy game yet is an imperfect but still impressive saga that will touch your heart.

Midnight Club is fast, beautiful, and way too hard.

Despite echoing the design of early 2D Sonic games, Freedom Planet manages to create its own take on the formula that's well worth playing. For a game that emphasizes tightly-paced stage design and challenging boss fights, it's disappointing that the game's story never reaches the same heights. But if you have any vested interest in Sonic-like games or 2D action-platformers, you'd be remiss not to add this one to your queue--just make sure to play in Classic Mode.

A stirring tale that walks a fine line between the human and the supernatural. As the layers begin to peel back, what you'll find is a story told with a level of cleverness and elegance rarely seen in games. It confirms the feeling you had from the first breathtaking view; when you enter into Red Creek Valley, you're in for something special.

New aircraft, new missions, and new multiplayer racing modes make Acceleration a worthy addition for any Flight Simulation X fanatic.

Blood Dragon isn't just an homage to great memories, however, but a terrific game in its own right.

It's derivative, it's violent, and definitely tasteless at times - but it's almost always fun...If you like 3D shooters, give Blood a try. You might find that being totally evil - at least in a game - can feel pretty "damn" good.

The PlayStation 2 version of Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 is the most fully-featured version of the game, but it still suffers from a broken online mode.

Etrian Odyssey II's brutality and grinding is initially off-putting, but push on and you're in for an intense, rewarding experiences.

Duelyst overlaps enough with similar games in the genre that stepping into it doesn't feel like starting from scratch, but it still manages to distinguish itself with some clever additions. While it still has its faults, those faults never overpowered the satisfying feeling of executing a perfect play. Even if you're still devoted to your competitive card game of choice, Duelyst is definitely worth a look.

Red Alert 3 is a raucously fun strategy game that overcomes its issues with both style and substance.

Bottom line: You can't find a pool sim that looks and plays as much like the real thing as Virtual Pool 3 does.

It was intended to be a bundle of new content, new furnishings, and a few new options that would make your sims' lives even more exciting, and in that regard, it succeeds.

Seems to lack flair... But the game does have numerous upgrades, superb ball physics, and deep gameplay options.

Fun for a short while, and at least you'll have some great sightseeing ahead of you before the game starts to lose its interest.

Though it's not as versatile or accessible as your land-based action sports games, Kelly Slater does the subject matter right by including responsive control, consistently good visuals, and a distinct sense of style.

While March Madness 2004 does a good job at capturing the feel of college basketball, a general lack of polish keeps it just a little short of greatness.

Focuses on the up-tempo aspects of the sport of basketball as opposed to the half-court set, and the result is plenty of fast breaks, quick passes, and few shot clock violations.

NASCAR Thunder 2002 on the Xbox is the most visually appealing stock car racing game on the market, and its gameplay will appeal to a wide range of racing fans.

Bloody, brutal, and hard to put down.

This debut episode from The Wolf Among Us crafts an excellent illusion that usually veils the systematic gears that click and whir whenever you veer down a particular path. More impressively, it nails its atmosphere.

The quintessential Sonic experience is made even better thanks to the inclusion of achievements and a strong, competitive multiplayer component.

Though its balance is a little questionable at times, Metal Arms has quietly come onto the scene to offer one of the most visceral and most satisfying shooting experiences in quite a while.

Sony's flagship baseball franchise has never been better.

EA Sports continues to experiment with its FIFA football series, creating a more challenging and slower-paced game for the 2008 outing.

This kart racer has excellent creation tools and sharing capabilities, and thanks to great online integration, is both fun and easy to play with friends.

It may be derivative, but King's Bounty: Armored Princess is still an outstanding strategy role-playing game.

After feeling like the series was treading water for the past couple of years, MLB The Show 23 sees Sony San Diego introduce some significant additions to its baseball sim. Road to the Show has still been neglected, but incremental gameplay improvements slightly enhance the on-field action, and Franchise has received a long-overdue shot in the arm with its expanded scouting system. The new seasonal structure to Diamond Dynasty should also make for a more interesting mode throughout the course of the year, and Storylines: The Negro Leagues is worth the price of admission alone. It may not move the needle in every area, but MLB The Show 23 is another deep sports title that will keep you busy long into October and beyond.

Altogether, Sonic Racing CrossWorlds is a solid package. The single-player modes, meta-goals like collecting gear and vehicle parts, and wealth of customization options to experiment with different play styles, make it easy to recommend for players who like their kart racing with a little more mechanical complexity. Even with slightly underwhelming online offerings, it's easy to see how Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds has plenty of road ahead of it.

The settings of Crown of the Old Iron King are both fantastical and relatable, but nowhere near practical. Gigantic suits of armor hang inexplicably under elevator platforms, hinting that humans10 times normal size once protected Drangleic.

It's when you circumvent Far Cry 4's major thematic flaws, inconsistent missions, and incessant nagging that you find the game you came looking for, breathing easy and enjoying the mountains that rise in the distance and the valleys that stretch beneath you.

Enslaved is an affecting adventure that makes strong use of its characters and story to create a believable world.

This is how it feels to play Octopath Traveler 0: a seemingly endless pattern of ever-deeper combat challenges and strategic wrinkles, slowly revealing themselves to you over and over through dozens of hours. I've seen credits, in a sense, but there's still so much more to do and explore. It feels like a game that could go on forever. I just might let it.

Gears 5 is very much a return of those best elements of Gears of War, but with a focus on making the game feel somewhat more adaptive to your particular ways of playing. Whether you want campaign or co-op, Competitive or Quickplay, there's an option for you in Gears 5, and plenty of stuff to reward you for time spent and skill gained. Gears 5 might suffer from some of the same storytelling missteps as its predecessors, and it might not venture far out of the past, but the new ideas it brings to the series are all good reasons for fans to return.

While its lack of challenge may lull fans, its ease of use will delight newcomers and draw in anyone who appreciates a touch of magic.

Halo Wars is a fun strategy outing for fans of the universe, but it feels simplistic and short alongside other games in the genre.

The new levels are fun and addictive, and the gameplay is as hypnotic as ever. Just be ready to be challenged, because while it looks innocuous enough, Encore puts up a good fight.

When it really gets going, it's an exhilarating game of modern combat, albeit one that's also weighed down with some bugs and gameplay issues.

More content and clever courses make Pacific Rift everything you'd want in a Motorstorm sequel.

It's rare that a prequel truly works, where a story can captivate despite the audience knowing what's coming and where the path will lead. Life Is Strange: Before The Storm is one of those exceptional stories because it draws you in on its own terms. The only problem: You know it's building you up just to break your heart.

But even with its flaws, Gnosia remains a fascinating and engrossing experience. Its short gameplay loop makes for a unique presentation different from other visual novel and adventure games, and adds a hard-to-resist “just one more game!” quality that keeps you eager to find out what will happen on the next go-around. The varied roles and options also make each attempt a unique experience, and even when the game isn't fully cooperative in giving you the event scenes you want to see, it's still a fun time to try to eke out a victory over either the humans or the Gnosia--or possibly both. If you're looking for a different spin on social deduction games, Gnosia is one time loop you'll be eager to get sucked up in.

The newest Walking Dead episode is enjoyably tense, but a more formulaic script and a greater focus on action make Around Every Corner weaker than its predecessors.

Although those willing to grind for everything will eventually get rewarded, the system of VC still comes off as exploitative. But there's a lot of fun to be had in NBA 2K19 despite its flaws, especially if you have a strong love for the sport.

SSX is a terrific evolution of the series that delivers extreme snowboarding thrills like no game before it.

Riot Games's decision to widen the scope of its marquee franchise has yielded another success in The Mageseeker: A League Of Legends Story. The pixel art and soundtrack build a beautiful world, while the story--though slow to truly kick off--is riveting once it hits that turning point. There are some issues that hold the experience back, particularly its uneven level designs and the aforementioned slow start to the story. The fluid combat and incredible boss battles, however, make up for those shortcomings, and raise The Mageseeker up to be another effective expansion of the League of Legends lore.

The thrill of learning in Loop Hero is the driving force of its procedural gameplay, with each small discovery and minute change in approach producing outcomes you might not have imagined. Its opening hours are a punishing hurdle to overcome, but once you've found the rhythm of Loop Hero, you won't want to break from its beat.

The Veilguard is a mostly sound game that works when you're playing as a class that can take advantage of its combat. I haven't run into any glitches or game-breaking bugs. No side quest feels too obtrusive or too fetch quest-y. And now that I've distanced myself from the mage, each combat encounter is snappy and avoids feeling too tedious or frustrating. The Veilguard feels like BioWare making a good BioWare game again, and that in itself makes me extraordinarily happy.

Cyber Shadow is a solid retro throwback with a few things that drag it down. The feeling of becoming more powerful and being able to take down huge enemy threats with your wits and skills is very rewarding, and the levels when you can use your abilities more freely to overcome challenges are quite fun. It's the trial-and-error areas littered with cheap deaths, demanding exact precision over long and frustrating stretches, that hamper the experience. Still, if you're looking for an old-school-styled ninja game that will test your skills (and sometimes your patience), Cyber Shadow is a worthy contender.

It's clearly stated on the box that it isn't suitable for inexperienced players, while those who are experienced enough to explore the new lands it has to offer will certainly find these areas to be extremely challenging and rewarding.

What's so remarkable about B-17 is that it manages to be even more immersive for the player than even the most sophisticated dynamic-campaign-driven single-seater flight simulation.

The game's arcade feel may discourage those looking for an off-road racing sim, but most everyone else will find it to be a fun pick up and play game.

Fans of the first film will definitely want to pick this one up, but those who enjoy action games in general will also find a lot to like here, in spite of the game's short length.

The perfect game for role-playing fans sick of repetitive hack-and-slash gameplay. It's also the perfect game for real-time strategy fans sick of repetitive base building and tank rushing.

The brash trivia franchise returns to the stage for a very successful new outing.

Fans of the first Suikoden game will love the sequel - it improves on everything that had made the first game memorable. Suikoden II brings nothing new to the genre, but it executes well enough that no one will really care.

Improves upon the previous release in every conceivable way.

Bearing in mind what's still to come, 30XX is nonetheless off to an excellent start. It's already a thoroughly enjoyable homage to the likes of Mega Man or Turrican, with tight controls and polished character design securing the foundation and a roadmap to version 1.0 promising a steady supply of new content. I wouldn't hesitate to start your run now, no matter what the Bureau of Encouragement might say to the contrary. [Early Access Provisional Score = 70]

An almost perfect translation of the arcade original.

It's with--and against--others that the game hacks into your pleasure centers, so while Sam Fisher may not be the man you remember, Splinter Cell: Blacklist has too many sweet adventures in store for you to miss them.

Its diverse roster is packed with a wide range of personalities and fighting styles, bolstered by a raucous attitude that begs to be taken seriously while simultaneously mocking its more peculiar whims in the process. Tekken fans will find their next favorite game--one that's the product of decade's worth of refinement. And while some of this depth will be lost or out of reach for newcomers, there's enough fun to be had outside of hardcore competition to keep players from all walks of gaming thoroughly entertained.

An astonishing and moving postapocalyptic journey.

The on-field action is as exciting as ever, but off-the-field problems drag NCAA Football 12 down to the turf.

The parts may seem commonplace, but Puzzle Quest's blend of RPG and puzzle-game convention makes for something refreshingly unique and dangerously addictive.

While the game does deliver on its promises of being a charming, challenging action game with a rogue's gallery of robots to scrap, it makes a few puzzling choices that keep it from true greatness.

The saying "They don't make 'em like they used to" is totally applicable to video games, and Ninja Five-0 is a great throwback to how they used to make 'em.

Despite a smattering of minor complaints, Captain Toad stands as a pint-sized version of Nintendo's stellar first party pedigree. It's among the best Mario spin-offs around and a delightful iteration on old ideas.

Madden 18 marks an unusually large shakeup in a series that, due to its annualized releases, rarely features much more than small, iterative changes.

To play Botanicula is to peer through a microscope at hidden world and feel like you've made the greatest of discoveries: one of a place that's so overflowing with imagination and so full of wonder that only a person with a heart of stone would fail to be taken in by its charms.

Outrun 2006 Coast 2 Coast offers a fun, accessible experience to racing fans who just want to jam on the accelerator and go.

A chilling story and satisfying puzzles work hand in hand to make Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors a deeply absorbing adventure.

Despite an unsatisfying narrative, the bulk of Viewfinder is spent solving a variety of unique puzzles, and it's here where it never falters. The numerous ways in which Viewfinder manages to stretch its core idea consistently kept me entranced, providing a deeply satisfying loop of deciphering a conundrum and constructing a solution that could be distinct to my playthrough. Given how Viewfinder quickly empowers you with the tools to create your own solutions while challenging you to push your understanding of its world, it's pleasantly surprising how frictionless the entire experience is, never once devolving into tedium or frustration. Viewfinder finds elegance in simplicity but doesn't trade this for straightforward solutions, making it one of the best puzzle games you can play today.

Many games often aspire to deliver more, sometimes bartering in dizzying excesses--be it in high-octane action or through big, sweeping narratives that thrust you into a heroic position. But it's the diminutive tales and everyday experiences of A Short Hike that give the game its comforting, even pastoral allure. It's about seeking quiet communion with nature even as you make your umpteenth hike towards the peak, or finding contentment in stumbling upon tinier, quaint scenes. It proposes that even the smallest and most mundane of vignettes can be as enthralling as grandiose universes and narratives of more ambitious games. As I embark on yet another leisurely trek after ascending the summit of Hawk Peak, I can't help but heartily agree.

College Hoops 2K7 is a very good college basketball game, but its value is somewhat lessened by the fact that it follows "College Hoops 2K6" by just eight months.

As the game itself states within the blog of a gone-but-not-forgotten ally from Episode 1, "It's not a happy ending, but maybe it can be a hopeful one."

A stimulating ride that throws everything at you at once--in a good way.