While it doesn't do much to distinguish itself as the first Castlevania on the DS, the updated look, excellent music, and added controls help to refine the series even further. The bottom line is: Whether you're familiar with the series or not, you can't go wrong with Dawn of Sorrow.

The Final Shape often goes above and beyond those improvements and great ideas. With elements like Dual Destiny, it has raised the bar on the best that Destiny 2 can be. With Salvation's Edge and Excision, it sticks the landing on its 10-year narrative. And with additional story missions and character beats waiting after you complete the campaign, it sets up a future for Destiny 2 that seems just as engaging and fascinating as what has come before--if not more so, thanks to everything Bungie has learned throughout that journey. The future of Destiny 2 has perhaps never been less clear, but if Bungie can maintain the excellence of design and the clarity of focus of The Final Shape, that future has never, ever, been more exciting.

An enthusiastic and ambitious project that is worthy of any oval lover's attention. Minor blemishes aside, it is easily the finest stock car sim available and quite possibly the best racing game to date.

Korsun Pocket is an excellent game, is compelling and addictive for anyone interested in deep strategy games, and is easily the best 2D wargame for the PC to date.

A vast oddity, integrating real-time strategy and action elements with the exploratory playability of an adventure title into one game. It may take up eons of play time to finally solve, but one thing's for sure: you will become absorbed in the Star Control universe that unfurls before you.

It's rare when a game comes along that really kicks your ass. 3D Realm's full version of Duke Nukem 3D is just that kind of posterior pummeler. With its free-flowing 3D action, over-the-top weapons, and ruthlessly attitudinal protagonist, Duke Nukem will have PC gamers worldwide rubbing their rumps with spine-tingling glee.

A great game... Any fan of basketball who isn't necessarily sold on the complexities of your average NBA simulation will find plenty to love here.

The ghosts of those original 2D Sonic titles are exorcised in the game's amazing pace, heart-pounding platform jumping action, and in the unyielding barrage of creatively designed levels.

L.A. Noire's absorbing investigations and intoxicating sense of style make it an unforgettable journey through the seamy side of the City of Angels.

It's impressive stuff. It Takes Two is the best 3D platformer I've played since Super Mario Odyssey, and like that game, it has a flair for variety. You may ride a frog or fly a plane with wings made from Cody's boxers or hack-and-slash through a Diablo-style castle. Despite the downright wild amount of things to do, It Takes Two manages to handle every mechanic well. This is the second release from Hazelight, and while A Way Out had plenty of fans, it seems that it may just take two to make a thing go quite this right.

It's no surprise that Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 is still a spectacular game. The near-perfect recreation of two of gaming's most beloved titles has been improved upon in some smart ways, utilizing the power of both the PS5 and Xbox Series X to push the image quality, resolution, and frame rate to new heights. And if the PS5 ever gets an update to add VRR support, the Performance mode will shine just as bright as it does on the Xbox Series X.

The first Death Stranding was eerily prescient. Releasing in 2019, it was impossible to divorce it from the COVID-19 pandemic that followed a year later, the parallels between preppers living in bunkers and people struggling to find ways to connect with others reflecting a period of quarantine and uncertainty about the future. By contrast, Death Stranding 2 is less precise and clear about what it wants to say; it seems committed to making you ponder many things at once, inviting different takeaways. Its story touches on topics like the increasing harms of climate change, how our everyday actions are being automated with each passing day, the damaging presence of guns, the clash between governments and privately owned entities, and the importance of helping others in any way we can. If the sequel is prescient of anything, it is that fixation on the past binds us to repeat history, no matter how much we try to pretend otherwise.

Crytek almost delivers a knockout blow. Far Cry isn't just a stunning technical accomplishment. It's quite possibly the best single-player first-person shooter experience for the PC since "Half-Life."

Bastion holds up remarkably well four years later, even as the acclaimed games of the latter day tend to lose their luster once the initial novelty wears off. At its best, this re-release proves that Bastion is worthy of its name. It's a bastion of good game design and innovative narration, and I suspect that another four years from now, it will hold up just as well.

An incredibly atmospheric and disturbingly gruesome deep-space adventure that will haunt your dreams and leave you begging for more.

Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course is worth the long wait. Ms. Chalice gives players a brand-new way to approach each boss, and each of the new boss fights is an imaginative triumph, from both a visual and gameplay perspective. The new parry-focused fights add a twist to the Cuphead platforming formula that feels right at home while offering something new to the experience. Even the already-great main campaign is improved thanks to Ms. Chalice and a trio of new weapons that shake things up for Cuphead and Mugman. Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course adds more than a cherry on top; it changes the recipe to create a game that's more scrumptious than before.

FIFA 12 is the definitive football game: challenging, addictive, and with more excellent features than ever before.

Dishonored's engrossing world and intoxicating interplay of supernatural powers make it a game you'll want to play more than once.

For almost a decade, Capcom has been refining Resident Evil, finding ways to modernize the storied franchise and to maintain what has made it so beloved. With Requiem, Capcom has dialed in Resident Evil maybe as far as it can. The result is a game that leans too hard on past successes and nostalgia, and so doesn't show its fans any new ideas. But it knows its hits backward and forward, and it plays them near-perfectly.

A wonderful and worthy strategy game with a layer of campy charm that makes the stone-faced seriousness of the game's characters all the more endearing. It's also remarkably accessible, thanks to a great interface that feels comfortable whether you're using a keyboard and mouse or have a controller in your hand.

Whether you possess a storied history with the series or come with a clean slate, Mass Effect 3 expertly entangles you in its universe and inspires you to care about its future.

In many ways, Rise of Nations is better than the strategy games that have come before it. It's smarter. It's more challenging. It gives you more to do.

Though NASCAR Racing 2003 Season isn't quite a revolutionary game, it is nevertheless a worthy finale for the series.

If you don't like Descent at least a little bit, make no mistake, there is something wrong with you. Descent II's huge replay value and absolutely insane network play should ensure its popularity for a long time.

Improves in almost every conceivable way on its predecessors and reestablishes the series as the premier example of the play style it single-handedly pioneered.

Like its predecessors, Curse has all the makings of a classic: great gameplay, fantastic graphics and music, challenging puzzles, a complex plot, and hilarious dialogue.

Start playing NHL Eastside Hockey Manager 2007 now, and you might not come up for air until after the real hockey season ends next spring.

This is the definitive version of 2007's best role-playing game.

One of the most entertaining games I've ever played. With its unique camera angles, storyline, graphics, sound effects, and music, RE 2 seems more like a product out of Hollywood than the video game industry.

It's simply the best and most addictive baseball game available this year... Spectacular.

Isn't terribly different from the original Burnout--it just makes significantly better use of all the elements that the game does well, from its blistering sense of speed to its hilariously destructive crashes.

Apex Legends is a mix of smart shooter ideas that makes for a competitive, team-based game that gets at all the best parts of battle royale while addressing a lot of the weaknesses. Respawn's intense focus on team play makes Apex more than just a worthy addition to the genre; it's an indicator of where battle royale should go in the future.

Norco's beautiful, evocative, and contemplative storytelling takes you on a fascinating journey that will occupy your thoughts for weeks and months after the credits roll. It earns its place alongside games like Kentucky Route Zero and Disco Elysium, effectively depicting the Southern Gothic genre with a mystifying adventure that's built on sublime writing and a poetic exploration of societal issues, environmental catastrophe, and what it means to be human. It's not always captivating from a gameplay perspective, but this is a negligible flaw in the grand scheme of things. Games like Norco don't appear very often. It's one to treasure.

Rez Infinite continues to be a magical experience, and the PC version proves to be the best version of the game yet thanks to new control schemes and native support for 4K capable monitors.

Battlefield 3 may not offer much beyond the multiplayer, but there are so many ways to contribute and feel like a powerful soldier that after hours and hours of playing, all you'll want to do is play more.

For now, as long as you can find skilled teammates and aren't getting pestered by the game's technical problems, Battlefield 1942 can be, quite appropriately, a real blast.

Dead Space 2's thrilling campaign, intense multiplayer, and great bonus material make it an outstanding game and a worthy follow-up to its superb predecessor.

Limbo contains the wonderful aesthetics and crafty puzzles from the previous versions, but the atmosphere isn't quite as striking on a smaller screen.

Media Molecule has devised something really special with Dreams, placing a hefty toolset in players' hands where the only limitations are your skills, imagination, and time. There's nothing else quite like it, and it feels like a culmination of everything the studio has been working towards since the first LittleBigPlanet. The presentation is too charming, the tutorials too informative, active, and engaging, while playing and finding other people's creations is a breeze...It's a stunning achievement that encourages limitless creative expression, a place where people can come together, collaborate, and explore each other's imaginations. It's a tool for the fools who dream, and one of the most innovative releases in years.

And while the fruit of its efforts may not be the miracle this genre needs for a complete revival, it's just about as good as shooters get.

This is an extensive (20-plus hours) game that by the very nature of its complexity invites replay. It is true that many of its individual elements don't withstand close inspection. But those elements add up to an impressive and absorbing adventure that invites you to improvise.

It's so unbelievably good that it almost feels like it was brought back in time, because most all of today's action games (on the Xbox or otherwise) just aren't in the same league.

No Time Left provides a fulfilling sense of closure to this first series of Walking Dead episodes, even while it strays from the story and characters that were developed in the earlier episodes.

A must for anyone with even a passing interest in football. It might very well be the finest game in the venerable history of the EA Sports series.

If you've stuck with THQ through its early WCW games and WWF Wrestlemania 2000, No Mercy may not be fresh enough to hold your attention.

Though it suffers from a curious lack of evolution in terms of some of its central aspects, most notably its racing AI, when GT4 works to its strengths, it delivers like few games of this console generation.

Dragon Age: Inquisition is a wonderful game and a lengthy pilgrimage to a magical world with vital thematic ties to one we already know.

Stellar presentation and vocal harmonies help make The Beatles: Rock Band something special in the world of music games.

No GBA owner should be without it, and anyone getting their hands on a new GBA for the first time should make playing Advance Wars 2 one of their first orders of business.

Deep, accessible, and visually stunning, Infinity Blade II sets the standard for iOS gaming.

If you have any interest whatsoever in off-road racing you'd do well to take this beautiful and thrilling game for a spin.

It's impressive stuff. It Takes Two is the best 3D platformer I've played since Super Mario Odyssey, and like that game, it has a flair for variety. You may ride a frog or fly a plane with wings made from Cody's boxers or hack-and-slash through a Diablo-style castle. Despite the downright wild amount of things to do, It Takes Two manages to handle every mechanic well. This is the second release from Hazelight, and while A Way Out had plenty of fans, it seems that it may just take two to make a thing go quite this right.

Delivers a wonderfully evocative method of storytelling as you gain glimpses into the lives of each person on board at vital moments along the Obra Dinn's journey and piece together who they were, what they had to deal, what motivated them, and how they responded when tragedy struck. You may only see them in scratchy monochrome stills and hear them in brief snatches of urgent conversation, if at all, but if you're paying attention then you should feel like you know (almost) every one of these sixty people intimately by the end of the game.

Between the beautiful presentation, the innovative gameplay, and the excellent single-player and multiplayer modes, Lumines may very well be the greatest Tetris-style puzzle game since Tetris itself.

L.A. Noire's absorbing investigations and intoxicating sense of style make it an unforgettable journey through the seamy side of the City of Angels.

The game just can't decide what it wants to be. The story tries to be epic in its scope and appeal to an older audience, but the game is extremely easy and the story's premise is thin and the ending disappointing. The core gameplay of shooting and platforming is as solid as ever, but it's diluted by too many uninteresting minigames and unnecessary gameplay mechanics.

Completely different from Double Agent for the Xbox 360, this version features its own exciting stealth-action campaign, plus a solid new multiplayer mode and some great cooperative missions.

Because it nails so much about that original Tony Hawk experience, it's really hard to be mad at Pro Skater 1 + 2 for any of its downsides. The load times aren't enough to keep you away from the plethora of satisfying combos, and the lack of level goals for every skater isn't enough to keep you from jumping back in with a new character. Playing through the newly remade levels is immensely enjoyable, and that on its own is enough to call Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 a success. However, smart additions and an engaging challenge system make it an experience that's more than just a brief skate through Tony Hawk's past.

While experienced players might blow through the game quickly, New Super Mario Bros. is still completely awesome and absolutely necessary.

A much prettier, somewhat smarter but less-compelling game than the original.

With stellar presentation, great looks and sound, and deep, diverse gameplay, Peace Walker is an essential experience that raises the bar for portable games.

Battlefield 1 is just an introduction to one of the deadliest world events in history, but it is an outstanding, feature-rich package in both its emotional stories and strong multiplayer.

To answer your two questions: Yes, this is a solid port of Virtua Fighter 5, and yes, the online play works just fine.

The way the game tosses its huge slew of often hilarious minigames at you gives it the frenetic, unstoppable pace of a Tetris-like puzzle game, and in the end, it all comes together in a nearly magical fashion.

Virtually every aspect of the real NBA game is accurately represented and well implemented to provide a roundball experience that is second to none.

The Orange Box is one of the greatest values in gaming history, because it's jam-packed with a variety of world-class content.

A role-playing masterpiece that delivers in all of the ways that really matter. While perhaps a little behind in the technology curve, Grandia's innovation, atmosphere, and story make it one of the most noteworthy RPGs in recent memory.

The tweaks to the AI and the small additions like the two-minute drill and coach-specific playbooks are more than enough reason for fans of the series to pick this year's iteration up.

It's a shame there are still some hiccups that prevent this from truly soaring, and the online inconsistencies are downright crushing when you want to show off your skills to the world. But the core mechanics are so well realized and the presentation so lifelike that it's hard to keep away once you get sucked into the tantalizing ebb and flow of an NBA game.

Guerilla Games has delivered one of the best open-world games of this generation.

It's a shame there are still some hiccups that prevent this from truly soaring, and the online inconsistencies are downright crushing when you want to show off your skills to the world. But the core mechanics are so well realized and the presentation so lifelike that it's hard to keep away once you get sucked into the tantalizing ebb and flow of an NBA game.

NetherRealm has delivered a fighting game that can be enjoyed by new players and pros alike in ways that go beyond pure competition. It's a bar that every fighting game should meet, but one that has up until now seemed out of reach.

While Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 still stumbles in some aspects of its portrayal of 15th-century Bohemia, the shadow that lingered over the first game has mostly dissipated. This is a massively improved sequel in every other area, with better combat, quest design, and none of the technical issues that plagued the original. Not everyone will vibe with its slow-paced and oftentimes tedious approach, but those willing to meet it on its own terms will find a compelling open-world RPG that relishes in player agency and the consequences of your actions.

Regardless of how you derive your enjoyment, Minecraft: PlayStation 4 Edition has countless hours of it, whether you explore its lands alone or alongside some good friends.

Dark Souls is an extraordinary role-playing game that transports you to an awesome and menacing world you may never forget.

It's a fairly short game, and it's missing the console versions' bonus features, but it's truly excellent for as long as it lasts.

All of The Last of Us Part I's improvements taken by themselves may seem minor, but together they make one of the most memorable games of the PS3 era even better. In some ways, the two parts of The Last of Us are now better aligned, making transitioning between them much smoother. However, in other ways, the years of progress in game design and development are all too apparent. But while some of the level design may not have aged all that well, the vivid cast of characters and remarkable story are more poignant than ever.

Anyone looking for a fast-action basketball game that isn't afraid to tinker with Midway's stock formula will definitely find a lot to like in NBA Street.

Playing Railroad Tycoon II is an emotional experience bringing back memories of Lionel trains and Christmas mornings long past and staring at Lionel catalogs and dreaming.

If you are planning on buying only one basketball game this year, ESPN NBA Basketball is the one to get.

Visually astonishing from the moment you turn it on... A great fighting game with its share of flaws.

Quite simply, the most well-rounded, feature-rich game of tennis to be found anywhere, on any system.

Even if EA Sports had left every other aspect of the game identical to Tiger Woods 2003, the staggering number of new, playable courses alone makes 2004 worthwhile.

The GameCube version of NHL 2K3 is hurt somewhat by its lack of online support, but if you don't have an Xbox, then don't let that dissuade you from picking up this otherwise excellent game.

One of the most popular, most successful, and best looking games for Microsoft's Xbox is now on the GameCube, and in some respects it's better than the original.

While it was already a fantastic package on the outset, this new update makes it even better than before. If you missed Sonic Mania the first time around, now is the perfect time to catch up.

Burnout Paradise includes all the fast-driving, hard-wrecking action you'd expect from a Burnout game, but with a fantastic new open-world design that gives it its own stand-alone flavor.

The high-speed gameplay that has always characterized the Wipeout series is still incredibly engaging, and the visuals simply impress, both on an artistic and a technical level. Wipeout Pure is a joy to look at.

Stellar presentation and vocal harmonies help make The Beatles: Rock Band something special in the world of music games.

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.

Everything that Chosen brings--from the elite soldiers to the deeper connections between your squads--feels like a living part of the XCOM universe. If you like your deep strategy and brutal turn-based tactics alongside brilliant interplay between camp and emergent drama, there is none better.

The fact that your decisions stick with you after walking away from the game is a testament to the great storytelling on hand. Fallout 4 is an argument for substance over style, and an excellent addition to the revered open-world series.

Achieves that rare quality of having something for nearly all strategy gamers, and most will find a lot to like in it, for a very long time.

More planes, better graphics, and more options than ever before right out of the box, but the game will likely reach its full potential only if it receives great support from its player community.

FirePower is what Combat Flight Simulator 3 should have been in the first place, and it is a must-have expansion for current or potential owners of that sim.

The game seems dead set on making new players comfortable--but this inadvertently sucks out a lot of the challenge.

Above all, R4 is incredibly fun to play. Unlocking the cars (more than 300 in all, though most are basic variations on a few common themes) quickly becomes an obsession, and the Jogcon adds a ton of depth to the game's control.

While it's not the most beautiful hockey video game, NHL 2001 comes through where it counts - the gameplay.