OlliOlli World is the kind of game that gets into your head and causes you to push yourself for just one more run or to seek a slightly higher score, and Void Riders continue to scratch that same undeniable itch. Roll7's skating game is full of clever, expertly constructed courses and fun, goofy characters, and Void Riders doesn't skimp on either. It might not bring a huge amount of new things to the game, but just having more great tracks to skate and explore is a worthy addition in its own right.

Pure doesn't blaze many new trails, but this off-road racer still delivers an intense, tricked-out thrill ride.

Mordhau is tough, violent, beautiful, and doesn't pull its punches. Despite an intense learning curve that could be better alleviated with more tutorials or better practice tools, its supreme swordplay and combat mechanics eventually outshine any initial frustration. The scale of battle is overwhelming and chaotic, but there's a definite sense to all the nonsense that, once you uncover it, gives you an incredible rush every time you go toe-to-toe with the enemy--even if you don't come out the other side intact.

This multiplayer-only slice of the Battlefield series packs plenty of thrills into a downloadable package.

Wargroove is a delight to play, and the possibility of an endless supply of content for it is a tantalizing prospect. Chucklefish could have offered up a prettied-up take on Advance Wars with online multiplayer and called it a day. Instead, it's made meaningful improvements that make this both a satisfying answer to starved Advance Wars fans' wishes and a genuinely great experience on its own merits.

Salt and Sanctuary is wholly engrossing from every angle, from its happy marriage of combat and exploration to its ominously gripping art direction.

The combat is fast, frenetic and consistently challenging, although that challenge can sometimes feel impossible without stepping back and grinding out some progress elsewhere, which quickly gets frustrating. Thankfully the core of the game--its combat, trading, and space flight--are all superb and had me launching into the stars for many hours of galactic trading and explosive firefights.

Those qualities are part and parcel of this being an expansion to Dead Cells. It retains its own core identity, so the smaller randomized biomes and lack of shortcuts are just part of its nature. Those don't feel especially reminiscent of Castlevania, but the whole expansion is imbued with Castlevania flavor. Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania is a smart, frenetic fusion of a modern action-roguelike and classic gaming royalty.

Super Meat Boy Forever makes some big mechanical changes but maintains its predecessor's reputation as one of gaming's toughest, most satisfying platforming challenges.

Seeing Reanimal through in one sitting made me feel like I'd accompanied the siblings on their journey, holding their tiny, innocent hands as they uncovered horrors beyond comprehension. The conclusion of Reanimal leaves the door open for further explanation, so the incoming DLC for the game has me genuinely excited. Unfortunately, I am still left with a bunch of questions, and with no release date for the DLC, I'm in a state of purgatory. The imagery and implications linger in my mind much like the siblings' nightmares. While Reanimal is certainly unsettling, it's also quite beautiful. It shines a light on the importance of companionship--while you may face moments of uncertainty, and unsafety, you're not alone. And that's invaluable.

It's still not the most welcoming game for newcomers, stacking systems upon systems upon systems, but for veterans and those willing to put in the effort to learn, there's never been a better time to hop in and entrench yourself in the virtual dugout. Football Manager 2019's tweaks will have you happily settling in for another mammoth play session of juggling egos, pipping your rivals to the signing of a wonderkid, and smashing in a 90th-minute winner to capture a league title in triumphant fashion.

Hitman 2 is a familiar experience, but in the Hitman world, familiarity is an incredible strength.

Streets of Rage 2 stands as one of the most well-crafted beat-'em-ups ever, and it still looks and sounds great and plays beautifully.

Specter of Torment is a finely-crafted 2D platformer that is satisfying in all respects. Simply controlling Specter Knight--flying through the air and slicing through enemies--is a joy in itself, and being able to push your ability to control these skills in overcoming the game's cleverly-designed and challenging levels is always an exhilarating feeling. Specter of Torment is a focussed, polished, and satisfyingly challenging game that's well worth experiencing whether or not you've had the pleasure of playing Shovel Knight.

If you have friends nearby, this is some of the most fun you can have stabbing them through the heart.

Banished reinforces the human drama with its brutal difficulty and negative feedback loops. It's fertile soil for some of the most remarkable emergent storytelling around.

Realistic golf-swing controls and a host of exclusive party games make Tiger Woods 09 on the Wii a great golfing experience.

A great Formula 1 game...On the other hand, it is another one in EA Sports' long-running F1 franchise, and it doesn't offer a whole lot of reasons for those who bought F1 2001 to pick this one up.

Black Ops 4 isn't short on content, and its three main modes are substantial. Multiplayer introduces more tactical mechanics without forcing you into them, and it largely strikes a good balance. Zombies has multiple deep, secret-filled maps to explore, though its returning characters don't hold up and prove distracting. Finally, Blackout pushes Call of Duty in an entirely new direction, making use of aspects from both multiplayer and Zombies for a take on the battle royale genre that stands on its own.

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe has taken me on a rollercoaster of emotions--I'll be scratching my head in confusion one moment and then staring at my TV dumbfounded, my mouth agape in incredulous bemusement the next. As far as I can tell, there's no unifying mystery to solve here; nor is there any sort of indistinguishable moral lesson that the game is asking me to uncover. What is there, however, is an attractive lure for a thought-provoking experience about video games, and how our reception of them has evolved.

Oxenfree is more than a ghost story with a Freaks and Geeks-like coating. It's a tale of coping with loss, broken relationships, and the inflexibility with which teenagers deal with sudden change, all layered under an alarming paranormal encounter. I left Oxenfree feeling hollow and strained, emotionally spent yet excited to play again and uncover more of the mystery. It doesn't hammer you with platitudes about friendship and loss, but hands you a knot to untangle that rewards you at every success with an emotional gut punch. It doesn't ask you any big questions, and certainly isn't easy in relenting its answers; Oxenfree just is what it is, a big little game about the all-too-human inability to let go of what hurts us.

Before Your Eyes understands that experiencing our lives, of storing memories which become precious, is often tied to what we see: the people and the paths stretching out before us. Instead of feeling like a gimmick, Before Your Eyes feels refreshingly natural. Unusual control schemes often make me long for the familiarity of a controller. Sure, I can speak to my Nintendogs using the microphone on the DS, but sometimes I don’t want to yell at my shih tzu on a Delta flight. Before Your Eyes manages to do the opposite. Its unique mechanic matches its narrative so perfectly, that you won’t want to play it any other way.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 is a comprehensive reboot of the series, offering improved gameplay and a host of great new features.

This first-person action game hits you like a sledgehammer with its astounding, stunningly creepy presentation, but it sacrifices opportunities for more shocks and surprises by settling for repetition.

Performance on our machine (featuring a RTX 3080 Ti, AMD Ryzen 5600X, and 32GB of DDR4-3200 RAM) was great, with the game defaulting to its highest preset and maintaining close to 100fps at 1440p. There's support for both FSR (handy for Intel and AMD GPUs) as well as Nvidia's proprietary DLSS, which improved performance as expected when active. Each of the game's lush environments was packed with details, although that shouldn't be surprising given how handsome it already is on PS5. There aren't any PC-exclusive visual features, such as ray tracing, so don't expect a drastic improvement such as the one Spider-Man Remastered received on that front.

That's what makes Echoes of the Eye unmissable if you couldn't get enough of Outer Wilds. It manages to push you in new, challenging directions with puzzles that scratch the same part of your brain that the original did while not relying on the same tricks. It's a feat that shows the depth of design prowess Mobius Digital first flexed in its debut title, but stumbles slightly when it tries to redefine its means of progression in the final third. These are the weakest moments in all Outer Wilds, but they aren't enough to sully what this fantastic expansion adds to an adventure that still stands as captivating and engrossing.

While the initial learning curve is daunting, this is one of those games that opens up dramatically the more that you play it, so the time commitment is worthwhile whether you're a laidback dogfighter or a hardcore simmer.

It looks better, it sounds better, it plays better, and it's ultimately more enjoyable than the original.