Ultimately, the biggest problem with 13 Sentinels is that a chunk of the game is merely good while the majority of it is outstanding. The stories of these kids and their giant robots absolutely consumed me during my playtime, and even now, I'm ruminating over certain plot points, events, and relationships, wondering if I should go back through the archives to see what I've missed. I don't think I'll forget my time in the 13 Sentinels world, and I doubt you will, either.

I'm sure there's a point where, after running through hell enough times, I'll have seen all Hades has to offer, both in its clever and endless fights and its many alluring characters, intimate moments, and rewarding quests. The story does end. But what matters so much more are all the moments between the start and end of a story, and the people who help us see those climactic moments but also stick with us between them. They're the reason we keep trying, and the reason we keep coming back.

I'm sure there's a point where, after running through hell enough times, I'll have seen all Hades has to offer, both in its clever and endless fights and its many alluring characters, intimate moments, and rewarding quests. The story does end. But what matters so much more are all the moments between the start and end of a story, and the people who help us see those climactic moments but also stick with us between them. They're the reason we keep trying, and the reason we keep coming back.

And as a Chinese player, I had come in expecting more from a studio called Just Add Oil Games--a name that's a cheeky reference and a literal translation of the Chinese phrase "jia you," an expression of encouragement and support. But its cast of Road to Guangdong is little more than an ensemble of lifeless, cardboard cutouts of a Chinese family, despite the best efforts of its writer Ooi (who is coincidentally the only member of Chinese descent on her team). In the end, Road to Guangdong doesn't quite live up to its modest ambitions as an intimate driving experience, as it shapes up to be a meandering road trip that simply can't end soon enough.

Taken all together, Mario 3D All-Stars is a worthwhile collection, featuring the best versions of Mario 64, Sunshine, and Galaxy to appear on a Nintendo system. Although the individual games have been sparingly touched up and there's little in the way of ancillary material to pore over, the titles themselves hold up well and are a delight to revisit. Despite their age, the games are still rife with inventive ideas and surprises, which more than makes up for the collection's presentational shortcomings.

Shadows of New York has dramatically increased the quality of its backgrounds from the first game, with more details and animated elements. They look excellent, and while there's a lot of repetition (and many returning locations from the previous game), the strong art and great, distinctive character designs help to keep the game engaging. The soundtrack, composed by Polish artist Resina, really stands out, too. It's equal parts gorgeous and menacing, and the brooding, moody tracks that play under all the game's beautiful images set the tone beautifully. The music is used to great effect, setting the tone and making it easier to picture actions that are being described in the script but not depicted. Every time I loaded the game up, I'd take a moment to enjoy the tremendous main title theme before starting.

Shadows of New York has dramatically increased the quality of its backgrounds from the first game, with more details and animated elements. They look excellent, and while there's a lot of repetition (and many returning locations from the previous game), the strong art and great, distinctive character designs help to keep the game engaging. The soundtrack, composed by Polish artist Resina, really stands out, too. It's equal parts gorgeous and menacing, and the brooding, moody tracks that play under all the game's beautiful images set the tone beautifully. The music is used to great effect, setting the tone and making it easier to picture actions that are being described in the script but not depicted. Every time I loaded the game up, I'd take a moment to enjoy the tremendous main title theme before starting.

Don't go into Shadows of New York expecting a choose-your-own-adventure mystery, no matter how much it looks like one. This is a casual dip into another world, a game with big ideas that it doesn't quite follow through on pursuing, but which remains moderately compelling thanks to some strong writing, interesting characters, and gorgeous art. It's far from the definitive Vampire: The Masquerade experience, but it's worth spending at least one long, dark night with.

Don't go into Shadows of New York expecting a choose-your-own-adventure mystery, no matter how much it looks like one. This is a casual dip into another world, a game with big ideas that it doesn't quite follow through on pursuing, but which remains moderately compelling thanks to some strong writing, interesting characters, and gorgeous art. It's far from the definitive Vampire: The Masquerade experience, but it's worth spending at least one long, dark night with.

Surgeon Simulator 2 likely began its own medical school in protest of being kicked out of the real thing. In creating its own brand of hospital hospitality, there are plenty of laughs to be had. However, hearty chuckles from chucking a heart across a grimy hospital room only last for so long before Surgeon Simulator 2's clumsiness begins to frustrate more than entertain.

Paradise Killer is a singular, exemplary experience. It's a detective game that feels like real detective work in a way few games do, and it makes its extremely complex worldbuilding feel effortless. I put off the final trial for as long as I can not only because I wanted all the evidence I could find, but because I did not want to leave the island or the game. Paradise might have been killed, but when you're deep into untangling the game's conspiracies, it feels very much alive.

Paradise Killer is a singular, exemplary experience. It's a detective game that feels like real detective work in a way few games do, and it makes its extremely complex worldbuilding feel effortless. I put off the final trial for as long as I can not only because I wanted all the evidence I could find, but because I did not want to leave the island or the game. Paradise might have been killed, but when you're deep into untangling the game's conspiracies, it feels very much alive.

With a bit of good old determination, however, Moon's flaws and frustrations are easily overcome. Despite being almost 25 years old, Moon remains a thoughtful, beautiful experience that has a lot to say about the static nature of video games, how the way stories are presented affects our perceptions of reality, the rewarding nature of kindness and stewardship, and how simply being a part of the world makes us important and valuable. I don't think I'll forget my experience in Moon World anytime soon, and should you embark on this journey and see it through to its conclusion, I doubt you will, either.

Mary-Ann reminds me a lot of Twin Peaks' Laura Palmer, a girl known primarily as a victim. It's only until the movie Fire Walk With Me that we know just how much was going on behind the eyes of that idyllic photograph we saw of her every episode. In Tell Me Why, our clearest, enduring image of Mary-Ann Ronan is the dead woman whose childrens' lives were destroyed after her death. Finding out everything beautiful, intelligent, and loving that was going on behind those eyes is the most powerful thing in Tell Me Why, and matched in how her life created two strong, empathetic children who knew her well and didn't even realize it. There's a lot of empty disengaging space to be filled in in this game, but with a little patience and sympathy, what it does provide you is worth the effort.

Mary-Ann reminds me a lot of Twin Peaks' Laura Palmer, a girl known primarily as a victim. It's only until the movie Fire Walk With Me that we know just how much was going on behind the eyes of that idyllic photograph we saw of her every episode. In Tell Me Why, our clearest, enduring image of Mary-Ann Ronan is the dead woman whose childrens' lives were destroyed after her death. Finding out everything beautiful, intelligent, and loving that was going on behind those eyes is the most powerful thing in Tell Me Why, and matched in how her life created two strong, empathetic children who knew her well and didn't even realize it. There's a lot of empty disengaging space to be filled in in this game, but with a little patience and sympathy, what it does provide you is worth the effort.

On the whole, I've enjoyed my time with Marvel's Avengers, and if Crystal Dynamics can deal with the technical issues plaguing the game, I'm looking forward to spending time mastering the combat styles of all the characters and exploring the expansions of its story the live game has set up. At times, Marvel's Avengers struggles to unify a thoughtful story focus with a more momentum-based, action-heavy live game system--but both have their good qualities. As with Bruce Banner and the Hulk, it'll be worth sticking with Marvel's Avengers to see how it might reconcile the two halves of its personality in the future to make something even better.

No matter how many hours I spent in Star Renegades, every run, every battle, every turn felt like a new captivating puzzle to solve. In my experience, roguelites lose their luster when the runs start to feel the same no matter how you change things up. Even after playing for dozens of hours and having seen the vast majority of what there is to see, I never lost interest in picking apart each battle to dismantle an opponent for a turn, then another one, and another until the battle is finished. The satisfying feeling of living in the moment and conquering it never gets old.

Evergate is remarkably clever. It's a short and sweet treat of a game that constantly invents new ways to interact with the world and to blend game elements together, making for a satisfying test of brainpower and reflexes.

Evergate is remarkably clever. It's a short and sweet treat of a game that constantly invents new ways to interact with the world and to blend game elements together, making for a satisfying test of brainpower and reflexes.

But when The Last Campfire captivates--which it does so often--it's difficult not to sink into its breezy pacing and satisfying puzzle-solving. It never overstays its welcome or stretches puzzle ideas beyond their limits, letting each one leave an impression despite their brevity. The Last Campfire's narrative contextualizes each of these with small anecdotes, letting your imagination fill in the blanks of its world between worlds to the backdrop of its colorful imagery. It's a consistently relaxing and pleasant experience.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Project Cars 3 might not be the sequel you expected from the series, but its shift to a more arcade style of racing is one that makes the series approachable for the first time. It's not a clean cut from its roots, and Project Cars 3 retains just enough of its simulation options to provide enough of a challenge with all of its assists turned off. The transition isn't seamless, with some confounding racing objectives and uneven AI that takes the sting out of some events. But if you're looking for another way to get out on a virtual track, Project Cars 3 is an exhilarating new alternative.

Project Cars 3 might not be the sequel you expected from the series, but its shift to a more arcade style of racing is one that makes the series approachable for the first time. It's not a clean cut from its roots, and Project Cars 3 retains just enough of its simulation options to provide enough of a challenge with all of its assists turned off. The transition isn't seamless, with some confounding racing objectives and uneven AI that takes the sting out of some events. But if you're looking for another way to get out on a virtual track, Project Cars 3 is an exhilarating new alternative.

Project Cars 3 might not be the sequel you expected from the series, but its shift to a more arcade style of racing is one that makes the series approachable for the first time. It's not a clean cut from its roots, and Project Cars 3 retains just enough of its simulation options to provide enough of a challenge with all of its assists turned off. The transition isn't seamless, with some confounding racing objectives and uneven AI that takes the sting out of some events. But if you're looking for another way to get out on a virtual track, Project Cars 3 is an exhilarating new alternative.

In a sense, Crusader Kings 3 is all over the place. It doesn't always work perfectly, and at times it really makes you work for it, but there's something amazing in that any of it works at all. Strategy games can tell interesting stories as their empires rise and fall, but their procedural narratives are rarely as affecting and poignant as they are here.

AWE is the story of expectations not quite meeting reality. It's exciting to see Alan Wake become a full-fledged addition to the Control universe and to catch up on different aspects of Remedy's growing universe. But this feels much more like a taste of what might come in future games than a strong addition to what's been built in Control. AWE is a missed opportunity for Remedy to really embrace Control's deep weirdness, and it's a missed opportunity for it to really expand on the story of Alan Wake after so much waiting. It's the unfortunate side effect of the idea of a shared universe--in teasing the next installment in the growing story, AWE doesn't do much to serve the story it's already in.

With far more technical issues than normal and large chunks of recycled content, Madden NFL 21 feels more like an update than a brand-new game.

Windbound has its moments. Much of the time, it was relaxing enough to zone out and search for crafting materials. But the game is built around finding towers, and that process becomes significantly less fun after the first level. There are only so many times you can search for a tower, no matter how winsome the presentation.

Thousand Threads cannot deliver on its initial promises of small-town intrigue and simmering maleficence--as you uncover the map and meet more of the people living on it, the less the game's world feels like a real place. While I enjoyed the game's atmosphere and sense of discovery when I started, by the end I had lost all interest in the interpersonal disputes of the game's inhabitants, none of whom felt like real people anymore. The strange colonies of Thousand Threads are enjoyable if you're just passing through, but stay more than an hour or two and you'll find that there's not much to do there.

My time in No Straight Roads was torn between true enjoyment and wanting to hurl my controller at the screen. Between camera issues, bugginess, and other weird little problems (especially in multiplayer mode), there’s enough to put a damper on the whole experience. However, The characters, bright futuristic world, imaginative boss battles, and excellent music act as wonderful antidotes. Once I eventually got into the groove, I found a really special and evocative musical experience in No Straight Roads. But I had to work pretty hard to get here. No Straight Roads asks a bit of its fans, but I’m glad I put the effort in and I’d gladly buy the t-shirt.

My time in No Straight Roads was torn between true enjoyment and wanting to hurl my controller at the screen. Between camera issues, bugginess, and other weird little problems (especially in multiplayer mode), there’s enough to put a damper on the whole experience. However, The characters, bright futuristic world, imaginative boss battles, and excellent music act as wonderful antidotes. Once I eventually got into the groove, I found a really special and evocative musical experience in No Straight Roads. But I had to work pretty hard to get here. No Straight Roads asks a bit of its fans, but I’m glad I put the effort in and I’d gladly buy the t-shirt.

With all the bugs ironed out, Next Stop Nowhere would have been a pleasant, albeit inessential, jaunt with some interesting characters and a disappointing lack of consequence. In its current state, it’s a broken, frustrating experience on top of that. As an Apple Arcade exclusive, Next Stop Nowhere isn’t asking for additional payments beyond your subscription, but right now it’s not worth the time you’ll have to invest to finish it. I like Beckett and Serra, and I’d love to be on board with their road trip through space; unfortunately, the game gets a flat tyre midway through that it never replaces.

Despite those unfortunate technical issues, Othercide is still a great tactics game. The variety of classes and abilities make for a wide range of strategies, but no matter your team composition, the Daughters work together beautifully to take down their enemies. Boss fights are by far the most memorable and really showcase the reaction and combo system, but they also feed into the game's unique and engrossing story. While Othercide's maps and missions leave something to be desired, it's still a blast to cut your way through hordes of Others and pull off deadly combos that look cool as hell. With an exceptional story, atmospheric horror visuals, and tense, rewarding combat, Othercide offers a challenge you'll want to rise to, again and again.

It's a game that gives me anxiety about having to upgrade my computer. But it's also a game that gives me a great sense of calm as I cruise through clouds far above the Earth. Microsoft Flight Simulator is a tremendous experience that makes you appreciate natural beauty and man-made ingenuity in equal measures. Being encouraged to dive into the rabbit hole of learning how to operate genuine, complex machines to perform amazing feats of science is giddying, as is being able to journey across a realistic, mostly accurate depiction of our entire, beautiful planet. Microsoft Flight Simulator is a spectacular technical achievement and a deeply inspiring experience filled with glorious possibilities.

Most of the game's foundation is solid. The beat-'em-up combat, the art, and a lot of secondary gameplay is surprising and fun. Though its blend of gameplay variations feels unbalanced at times, and it isn't always the laugh-riot it tries to be, Battletoads is an entertaining little romp.

Randomness is key to battle royale games, but Hyper Scape leans a little too much into it. The game has solid weapons and hero-like Hack abilities, but you're at the mercy of being lucky enough to get what you need to have a higher chance of winning. The battleground doesn't help in this regard, since it's difficult to know where you're going and make a plan about where to loot next without stopping to open the map. At least the individual moments in Hyper Scape are fun. A match could be ruined by the randomness working against you, but that doesn't stop moments like turning into a ball and trying to out bounce three enemy balls any less fun in how ridiculously silly it is.

PGA Tour 2K21 improves on the mostly stellar foundation of The Golf Club series, offering the most realistic and pure golf experience in a game to date. There are still some minor annoyances that can temporarily take you out of the experience, but it offers a closer approximation of the actual PGA Tour schedule and a relaxing, streamlined approach to MyPlayer. For the most part, PGA Tour 2K21 admirably captures the peculiar magic of the game of golf.

Perennial issues aside, with Thrones of Britannia and now Troy, the spin-off Saga series has proved adept at delivering a kind of Total War that is more focused, flavourful, and even experimental than the mainline series. In the specific case of Troy, it's not always an unmitigated success; for every dose of granular detail that reveals more strategic options there's another element of graininess that obscures. At its best, though, Troy is a pretty epic series of bloody enjoyable battles that is just about as good as the series has delivered.

Spiritfarer is somehow a game with no risk but all reward. There's no death, no pain, no rush on any task, and yet I don't think I've ever felt this complete. You're allowed to totally take your time, play on your own terms, and even though your tasks are easy, they are incredibly fulfilling. If the game had kept giving me quests, I feel as if I would have kept doing them for eternity, just because I wanted to. All of Spiritfarer's novel mechanical variations kept potentially repetitive actions from ever growing old. Its gleeful little islands got more exciting to explore as new platforming abilities were unlocked. The characters, even small ones with funny little quips of dialogue that you encounter, were friends that I cherished. I absolutely adored existing in Spiritfarer's beautifully animated, compassionate world so much that it genuinely came to feel like home.

Mortal Shell succeeds more often than not at capturing the specific feelings intrinsic to Souls-like games. The twists it adds to From-inspired mechanics do well to help this sort of game become more approachable than most, while maintaining the same air of mystery and foreboding that makes the genre itself so intriguing. Mortal Shell makes for a strong introduction to Souls-likes, a demonstration for new players of what so many have found so interesting about From Software's games and those like them. But Mortal Shell is also a lovingly crafted, weird, and deceptively deep game in its own right that rewards you for wandering its twisted paths and challenging its deadliest foes.

Randomness is key to battle royale games, but Hyper Scape leans a little too much into it. The game has solid weapons and hero-like Hack abilities, but you're at the mercy of being lucky enough to get what you need to have a higher chance of winning. The battleground doesn't help in this regard, since it's difficult to know where you're going and make a plan about where to loot next without stopping to open the map. At least the individual moments in Hyper Scape are fun. A match could be ruined by the randomness working against you, but that doesn't stop moments like turning into a ball and trying to out bounce three enemy balls any less fun in how ridiculously silly it is.

If there's one thing Skater XL excels at, it's that it has a great foundation that shows Easy Day Studios knows how to make quality skateboarding mechanics. Unfortunately, the rest of the experience isn't quite there yet. The uninspired levels, barebones features, and overall unfinished-feeling state makes its 1.0 release look like it's still in Early Access. Its trick system deserves more, and with time, it could grow into a great experience. As it is now, Skater XL lacks spots worth conquering and fails to entice past this initial bail.

Risk of Rain 2 is lo-fi beats to relax to with the bass boosted until the subwoofers catch fire. And explode. And bleed? What begins as a chill loot-shooty time quickly escalates to a frantic fight for your life where everything is burning and there's a big red target on your back. The lack of any strategic layer between the action did leave me feeling burned out. But the additive nature of the game's builds give Risk of Rain 2 the feeling of a pebble skittering along a rocky cliff. When the avalanche begins, enemies would be well advised to get out of your way.

With its short games and easy-to-grasp mechanics, Fall Guys is easily the most approachable and welcoming battle royale yet. Its bursting color and varied game modes do a good job of reeling you in and keeping you hooked, even if a handful feel at odds with the easygoing nature of its premise. It can be disheartening to have a game end prematurely due to uneven team matches and, worse still, when you're forced into one of Fall Guys' unsatisfying finale modes. But neither are enough to derail the fun Fall Guys consistently generates, with its chaotic obstacle courses and earworm soundtrack ensuring you'll be coming back for more.

With its short games and easy-to-grasp mechanics, Fall Guys is easily the most approachable and welcoming battle royale yet. Its bursting color and varied game modes do a good job of reeling you in and keeping you hooked, even if a handful feel at odds with the easygoing nature of its premise. It can be disheartening to have a game end prematurely due to uneven team matches and, worse still, when you're forced into one of Fall Guys' unsatisfying finale modes. But neither are enough to derail the fun Fall Guys consistently generates, with its chaotic obstacle courses and earworm soundtrack ensuring you'll be coming back for more.

Across the board, Skully occasionally shows signs of strong, creative design, but often in isolated, incomplete forms. A cutscene's well-written dialogue gets hamstrung by its animation. A strong platforming sequence feels hollow because its challenge offers little reward. A puzzle takes more time to complete than to solve. Even with those flaws, Skully isn't altogether unpleasant. It lacks the depth and attention to detail to make the act of rolling, running and jumping an act of joy unto itself.

Not only is the game a realization of our anxieties about our current, looming future, it's also a powerful evocation of the corporatist state that threatens to overrun our lives, and a startling statement of resistance against them. For a game that's ostensibly about photography, Umurangi Generation achieves so much more.

At heart it's a checklist of chores. But it's such a wonderfully warm, endlessly charming checklist of chores that when they're all done, I'm not going to want to leave.

My overall impression after 25 hours is that Marvel's Avengers is a fun but flawed game with a lot of good ideas. It still feels as though the story campaign and the live-game missions are pretty divorced from one another, and I miss the moments when it was just me using my skills to take down a tough boss, rather than just watching as Taskmaster or Abomination get absolutely mobbed by me and three other superheroes. But there's a lot of depth in the combat Marvel's Avengers offers as you unlock more and more of a character's skill tree, and especially when you get a decent team that works together, there are quite a few opportunities to feel super.

Horizon Zero Dawn remains a visually enticing game with rich natural environments and snow-capped mountains to trek through, all of which can look better than they did on PS4 and PS4 Pro if you have the right PC specs. Given the density of certain towns or villages, or chaos of some combat scenarios, frame rate can take a considerable dip, making it a fairly demanding game, but it may also noticeably stutter occasionally, making for some inconsistent performance. (I've used a Core i7-7700K, RTX 2080, and 16GB of RAM at ultrawide 2560x1080 resolution using maximum settings and TAA, and had dips to around 35-40 FPS in those intense moments.)

Like the crab combatants themselves, Fight Crab feels like it smashed its ridiculous concept into a clunky, physics-based fighting system with gusto and didn't let up until something kind of worked. And a lot of the time, it does work. There's magic here--it's impossible not to be charmed by the silly, uproarious dynamic of watching two crabs having a knife fight. It's sloppy and ugly at times, but so is life. Fight Crab taught me that sometimes you just need to stop, take a minute to appreciate the beauty that lies within those colliding carapaces, and let yourself smile.

Grounded has the foundation needed to turn into a great survival game, but it has a long way to go yet. The titular term comes from aviation--when a pilot finds themselves, for whatever reason, unable to fly, they are Grounded. It's a pretty apt name for the current state of Obsidian's foray into the co-op survival genre. But like a balsa wood airplane, Grounded sits at the outstretched tension point of a strong rubber band. It is pure, unadulterated potential energy, and all we can do is sit back and wait to see if that rubber band snaps or if the game achieves take off. I think it's gonna fly. [Early Access Score = 60]

Making a good retro-style game is hard--balancing old-fashioned play mechanics with newer advancements in game design is a tough tightrope to walk. But Panzer Paladin manages that balancing act with few slip-ups, delivering solid platforming action, fierce weapon duels, epic boss fights, and a cool weapon-sacrifice mechanic, all dressed up in an immensely charming classic-robot-anime wrapping. While it might have its brief moments of annoyance, the amazing globe-trotting, alien-smashing adventure of Flame and Grit proves to be a delight from beginning to end.

While its setting and story are initially intriguing, the experience of playing the game becomes painful over time. Enemies are plentiful and tough to avoid, and the tools that you do have at your disposal are frequently hampered by extreme item scarcity. The complete removal of UI or any helpful visual cues makes stealth encounters a chore. The moments of satisfying key-hunting are bogged down by a world that is a frustrating bore to explore. In retrospect, I wish I could stay in the "before" times, on the other side of that grand reopening banner. At least then, I was optimistic about what awaited inside.

Destroy All Humans certainly shows its age in places. The stealth missions are rudimentary, the boss fights are tedious, and some poor audio work won't let you forget that this is a game from 15 years ago. However, its core loop of causing destruction and mayhem, laying waste to humans and cities, still feels satisfying. Destroy All Humans often feels like the PS2 game it is, but a fresh coat of paint and updated controls definitely make this remake enjoyable to play through today.

When it's letting you live out its proposed reverse-horror fantasy, Carrion is at its best. It excels at making you feel empowered as an evolving lab experiment gone wrong, giving you ample opportunities to flex your death-dealing tentacles and tear enemies limb from limb. While giving you numerous tools to wreak havoc, it also uses them in smart ways to find a good balance between its gory combat and problem-solving. Carrion falters when it requires too much fine precision from you with a control scheme that doesn't allow for it, and is at its lowest when you're not playing as its headlining monster at all. These are disappointing distractions, but Carrion's main event is still a bloody great time.

When it's letting you live out its proposed reverse-horror fantasy, Carrion is at its best. It excels at making you feel empowered as an evolving lab experiment gone wrong, giving you ample opportunities to flex your death-dealing tentacles and tear enemies limb from limb. While giving you numerous tools to wreak havoc, it also uses them in smart ways to find a good balance between its gory combat and problem-solving. Carrion falters when it requires too much fine precision from you with a control scheme that doesn't allow for it, and is at its lowest when you're not playing as its headlining monster at all. These are disappointing distractions, but Carrion's main event is still a bloody great time.

When it's letting you live out its proposed reverse-horror fantasy, Carrion is at its best. It excels at making you feel empowered as an evolving lab experiment gone wrong, giving you ample opportunities to flex your death-dealing tentacles and tear enemies limb from limb. While giving you numerous tools to wreak havoc, it also uses them in smart ways to find a good balance between its gory combat and problem-solving. Carrion falters when it requires too much fine precision from you with a control scheme that doesn't allow for it, and is at its lowest when you're not playing as its headlining monster at all. These are disappointing distractions, but Carrion's main event is still a bloody great time.

Together, Make and Break showcase the strengths and weaknesses of Rock of Ages 3 overall. At its best, it's a thrilling and often hilarious ride through an imaginative and surreal landscape. At its worst, its formula is too rigid, its challenges too rote, and it can feel like your frustration with its idiosyncrasies could boil over at any moment. Thankfully, in such times, the bite-size structure comes to the rescue, and you can roll into something new.

Rocket Arena's approach to being a more approachable shooter, from its colorful, whimsical characters to its forgiving rocket launcher mechanics, makes it easy to appreciate at first glance. Its frenetic mix of explosive-based shooting and easy-to-understand character abilities let you start having fun fast, but its lack of depth and uninteresting modes don't maintain the momentum. Rocket Arena undermines its main rocket-jumping hook by making the strategy meaningless amongst its other mechanics, and its shooting grows stale in the process. There's limited fun to be had with its frenetic and fast shooting action, but it's lacking strong lasting appeal.

The actual gameplay aspects of Necrobarista aren't all that satisfying, but the game more than makes up for that by leaning into the "novel" part of the visual novel genre and crafting a bittersweet story about accepting death, learning to grieve, and moving on. That isn't to say the game slouches on the "visual" part either--its 3D cinematic style adds plenty of unspoken characterization and also better sells the witty writing with some excellent comedic timing. I can't help but feel like all the characters I fell in love with got to go on an awesome journey while I just had to sit there and watch, but the overall themes and storybeats still hit pretty hard as a passive observer.

All of my save files display playtimes that do not match up at all to how long I actually played the game. Often choosing to interact with a person or object would mean that Robert would turn around and walk away, very slowly, with control taken away from me until he reached an arbitrary destination. Textures frequently popped in late, lagging behind camera angle changes in cutscenes--the game is poorly optimized, which can impact its ability to sell the grandiosity of Union City.

Despite being in early access, Ooblets has a well-established identity. It's a charming-looking game with characters and items with names that are all cheeky puns, and its relaxing gameplay loops leave you feeling good because you're bettering the living conditions of both yourself and the townsfolk. It's a very positive game, and I'll no doubt lose a lot more time to it once it leaves early access. In its current form, it's got some annoying bugs, and since it's not finished, there's not much reason to stick around once you've accomplished the initial set of tasks that the mayor sets out for you. But what's there is already a pretty substantial game. The card-based dance battles are adorable, it's fun to build new decks and try out different strategies, and there's such a deep satisfaction in transforming your modest beginnings into a beautiful farm. I want there to be more, but what's already here is pretty good. [Early Access score = 70]

Despite being in early access, Ooblets has a well-established identity. It's a charming-looking game with characters and items with names that are all cheeky puns, and its relaxing gameplay loops leave you feeling good because you're bettering the living conditions of both yourself and the townsfolk. It's a very positive game, and I'll no doubt lose a lot more time to it once it leaves early access. In its current form, it's got some annoying bugs, and since it's not finished, there's not much reason to stick around once you've accomplished the initial set of tasks that the mayor sets out for you. But what's there is already a pretty substantial game. The card-based dance battles are adorable, it's fun to build new decks and try out different strategies, and there's such a deep satisfaction in transforming your modest beginnings into a beautiful farm. I want there to be more, but what's already here is pretty good. [Early Access score = 70]

Superliminal is a great puzzle experience, full of smart ideas that are richly realized. The game's playful use of the first-person camera and clever perspective manipulation puzzles take video game tropes and mechanics most players will be familiar with and wring something truly fresh out of them. Superliminal achieves its clear central aim--it offers up some genuinely fresh perspectives on what first-person puzzle games can do.

Superliminal is a great puzzle experience, full of smart ideas that are richly realized. The game's playful use of the first-person camera and clever perspective manipulation puzzles take video game tropes and mechanics most players will be familiar with and wring something truly fresh out of them. Superliminal achieves its clear central aim--it offers up some genuinely fresh perspectives on what first-person puzzle games can do.

Superliminal is a great puzzle experience, full of smart ideas that are richly realized. The game's playful use of the first-person camera and clever perspective manipulation puzzles take video game tropes and mechanics most players will be familiar with and wring something truly fresh out of them. Superliminal achieves its clear central aim--it offers up some genuinely fresh perspectives on what first-person puzzle games can do.

It's still a classic Castlevania homage at heart, but it has an eccentricity that feels right at home alongside the giant kitty-cats of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. When a game seems to be having this much fun at its own expense, it's hard not to join in.

Through action sequences and heavy weather hikes, the frame rate is consistently in the high 90 FPS to 110 FPS. This is a proper PC port that looks stunning and runs smooth. If you're in the mood for a different style of gaming experience, one that's often relaxing and sometimes incredibly tense, Death Stranding is worth playing.

With a newfound combat system that steals the show and offers a novel take on turn-based combat, its winking, nodding, and adventuring shine all the brighter. Its world and characters might not be the series' best, but it's still able to consistently throw left turns, good gags, and smart surprises at you. Each piece of The Origami King elegantly fits into its whole, taking its irreverent flair to new heights. The Paper Mario series has recently shown that being clever and being smart are two different things, but thankfully, it's once again managed to be both.

The fundamental flaw of Mind Control Delete is that it's adding complication to a game premise that works largely because of its simplicity. That complexity hasn't ruined Mind Control Delete. There's still a ton of enjoyment to be had, and there's still nothing else quite like it out there. But without a doubt, it's fun that expires a lot faster than the original.

The game hits a lot of fantastic cinematic highs, and those ultimately lift it above the trappings of its familiar open-world quest design and all the innate weaknesses that come with it--but those imperfections and dull edges are definitely still there. Ghost of Tsushima is at its best when you're riding your horse and taking in the beautiful world on your own terms, armed with a sword and a screenshot button, allowing the environmental cues and your own curiosity to guide you. It's not quite a Criterion classic, but a lot of the time it sure looks like one.

Desperados 3 is a superb package. It's a clever, cunning game of stealth and tactical thinking that, thanks to a generous quick-save system and wealth of informative visual cues, entices you to tinker with all the toys it has on offer and fully explore the possibility spaces of its elaborate levels. There's no need for a do-over here; Desperados 3 is a dead-eye shot on the very first try.

Like Owlboy and Iconoclasts before it, CrossCode is the latest in a long line of longer-gestating labors of love that emerge with varying degrees of cohesion. The best thing that can be said about CrossCode is it doesn't feel at all dated or clunky on the other end of a prolonged development time. The biggest knock against it is that CrossCode can and often does wind up feeling both bloated and inspired simultaneously.

It’s clear that the act of flying is Iron Man VR's driving force. Every story mission ends with a score and ranking, pushing you to replay and improve, and each map has multiple types of optional time trials for anyone who just wants to spend more time in the armor. Unfortunately, there aren't that many ways to take advantage of those unique controls. Aside from a single chase sequence and a story-heavy "horror ride" level, there is very little variation in the gameplay. With only a handful of weapons and enemy types, even the unique controls cannot stave off the redundancy. You'll also replay many levels more than once over the course of the story, intensifying the feeling that you've seen and done everything the game has to offer long before the credits roll.

Death Come True is an enjoyable but all-too-brief trip into a disturbing live-action mystery world that is a blast while it lasts. Unfortunately, when everything ends and the credits roll, you're left longing to spend more time with the characters and world you just experienced. Death Come True's throwback gameplay definitely scratches an itch, but it ultimately leaves you wanting for more.

Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town feels closer to a remaster than a remake, with the majority of in-game mechanics feeling antiquated by modern standards. Shallow systems combined with inflated upgrade prices makes progress a slow trudge, with the rewards rarely feeling worth it. Interacting with the people of Mineral Town offers a nice, romantic look at small-town farm life, but the rest of the game fails to sell it.

If you can get past its performance, there are glimpses of a good story here, and moments that make it a worthy installment in the Francis Zach Morgan saga. But, ultimately, Deadly Premonition 2 lacks the emotional resonance found in the first game. It's a different brew of coffee from your favorite roaster, but one that's more bitter than you probably hoped for.

There isn't much to do in Ninjala, and what content is present almost requires a battle pass to be fully enjoyed. But what we have so far is a solid foundation. The battle fundamentals are well-designed and unique, and the visual flair is absolutely bursting with personality.

Mr. Driller Drill Land is the kind of game you can play for 10 minutes on a lunch break or for an entire afternoon. It's the sort of game where you'll be in a groove… only to screw up a section catastrophically and ruin a run. But you'll only be bitter about it for a minute before eagerly diving back in to try again. If you've never played Mr. Driller--or if it's been a while since you and Susumu went excavating together--Mr. Driller Drill Land is one relic that deserves a spot in your gaming museum.

Despite being one-note on a gameplay level, Fe's world, with its lush environments and wistful score, compels you to explore. Establishing fleeting connections with the creatures around you is both charming and a little sad, and learning the truth about the enemy machines is even more tragic. By the end, the most important thing you've learned is how to connect with nature, not just by singing with animals but by understanding the world around you.

After playing the game for more than twice that amount of time, I never achieved a winning run, but there's not much left to see or conquer. The game's NPCs say the same exact lines at the start of every run. It becomes a drag to re-run facsimiles of the same levels again and again: They're similar enough that it feels like you have them memorized, even if the details change. When you spend too long in Purgatory, it starts to look a lot like hell.

DLC is new to the main-series Pokemon games, and it's certainly a great alternative to replaying the same game a year or two later when the souped-up rerelease comes out. But like the traditional third or "Ultra" version, The Isle of Armor does refine much of the experience we had in vanilla Sword and Shield, with a more interesting Wild Area to explore and some small quality-of-life tweaks that further the progress Gen 8 has made in that regard. It doesn't totally change up the game, to be sure, but The Isle of Armor is definitely a delight.

Remasters, ports, and remakes are nice because they make games more accessible to new audiences, and the ones that excel understand that some features from the game’s era are antiquated and should be updated or removed. SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated flops like a fish out of water when it comes to this. It’s a game so focused on emulating and embellishing the original that it doesn’t know the parts of itself that are fun and the parts that aren’t. It lost sight of the basic elements that make a collectible platformer enjoyable. This game doesn’t promote curious or keen gameplay, the movement isn’t smooth, and gathering collectibles never feels rewarding. Ultimately, the game winds up being an unpleasant nostalgia trip that nobody should pack their bags for.

Overall, Valorant has a strong foundation in its gameplay, and of course, that's the most significant part for an FPS of this style to succeed. Although it doesn't break new ground, the dynamic of sharp gunplay and Agent abilities would make Counter-Strike and Overwatch proud. Valorant easily captures the competitive highs of a good, intense match at the risk of pigeonholing you in a bad one. But outside of the standard demolition-style mode and the modified Spike Rush, it's quite barebones. It is important to note that these types of games are always evolving. Regardless, Valorant's in a good state--it's not great, but it certainly can be.

Skelattack moves quickly toward its conclusion, with the adventure to stave off the invasion winding down in about four hours. There's nothing wrong with short games that can be played in an afternoon or two, but what's here never becomes a fully realized experience. The length wouldn't be a problem if Skelattack delivered a fully realized experience, but it fails to do so. Skelattack has flashes of excitement and delight, and there's no denying that it feels good in motion, but lackluster level design and inconsequential combat let its sound platforming down. Unlike the inhabitants of Aftervale, Skelattack lacks soul.

The game isn't without its charms in the moment, but when its inspirations are so readily available, it doesn't really have much to offer against the real deal.

It's a hard game to stomach, in part because so much of who Ellie is and what she does is beyond your control. She is deeply complicated and flawed, and her selfishness hurts a lot of people. At times, the pain you inflict feels so senseless that it can leave you numb. It's all messy and bleak and made me profoundly sad for myriad reasons, but the more I reflect on it, the more I appreciate the story and characters at its core. I wanted almost none of it to happen the way it did, and that's what's both beautiful and devastating about it.

When Disintegration works, it really works. You're shooting guns, you're calling advances and retreats, ordering missile strikes. You really get the sense that you're in the thick of it, the heart of a battle. Both the excitement and stress it induces are testaments to how thoroughly the gameplay draws you in. There are elements around the periphery of the experience that could have been better tuned, but they do not detract from what makes it work.

XCOM 2 Collection forces you to strategize on a tactical battlefield skewed in favor of your opponents, and that handicap is what makes it so enjoyable. However, the performance limitations on the Switch add an artificial challenge to your encounters that frustrates in a different, unwelcome way. It's lovely to be able to play one of the strategy genre's highlights on the go, but it's going to take a fair bit more work for this port to be as great as its legacy deserves.

Combat performance, visual grandeur, and longer load times aside, however, this is still the same game as it exists on other platforms. The memorable characters who inhabit the world and their interesting stories of living under a bizarre dystopia of corporate oppression are still here. The companions you pick up along the way are still as endearing and fleshed out as they are in other versions. The game's layered, branching, and interweaving questlines are still intact, and are a fascinating thing to slowly pull apart as you continue your journey. The beauty of The Outer Worlds is that you don't need to be the galaxy's most competent gunslinger in order to get the most out of it. If you have the means to play it on another platform, do so. But if you don't, there's still a great, modern RPG underneath the exterior.

Really, the comic book presentation of Liberated makes the gameplay portions feel like an afterthought, shoehorning some weak gunplay into a tale that's really more about political intrigue and moral quandaries of balancing safety against the preservation of personal freedoms. The best parts of Liberated are the character beats in the comic panels, and the worst are the moments when you have to shoot a bunch of dopey, stilted bad guys in order to get back to more comics. It's nice to look at, but Liberated's uninspired levels and often-frustrating design make it feel more like a cage.

But the Friendships, new stages, and new finishers are freely available for owners of Mortal Kombat 11, and the only content exclusive to Aftermath are the additional story chapters and three new characters. Though that's a very welcome decision--free is good--it makes Aftermath less compelling when considered specifically on its own terms. Mortal Kombat 11 remains one of the best fighting games of this console generation, and the recent free update makes it better. Aftermath introduces a couple of great characters, and the expanded story definitely has its highs, but it's not essential to your enjoyment of an already superb game.

Its enticing characters and their occasionally exhilarating abilities are undermined by the unsatisfying third-person shooting underpinning them. The game's three modes all attempt to stretch the already inflexible mechanics of each character in ways that make each one feel underwhelming, in spite of their more interesting ideas. Most of all, Crucible just doesn't play host to the coordinated teamwork it demands for balanced matches, forcing you to look elsewhere or gamble with the chance of being matched with players that complement your character choices. It's a game that fights itself at every turn, and ultimately is little more than a curious distraction from other players in this space rather than a true competitor for your attention.

There are some really cool ideas at the heart of Resolutiion. You can sense the thought and care put into transposing philosophical thought into something that’s both playable and insightful. Unfortunately, the portion of the game that engages with those ideas is far too obscured and distant from the core story most players will see. It is still an interesting visual and, to a point, intellectual piece--wrestling with those ideas and their meaning can be its own reward. It's clear there's more to the experience, but so much of it is so out of reach, which diminishes Resolutiion’s impact.