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.

The GameCube version may be less jaggy than the original PS2 release, but its lack of online multiplayer and somewhat sketchy frame rate keep it from living up to its full potential.

Delta isn't the first instance of Hideo Kojima's beloved classic being updated and re-released, but it is the first complete rebuild of MGS3. It successfully modernizes visuals, tweaks game design, and updates controls so that the game sits comfortably alongside its action game contemporaries. From a content perspective, Konami has played it incredibly safe, using the same voice work and music, and leaving the story completely unaltered--effectively making Delta a one-to-one remake. But I can't fault that, especially when I found myself once again enraptured by Snake's tortuous mission to pull the world out of nuclear danger and fight for survival in a dangerous jungle. The impact of Konami's efforts was such that, for eight hours, I wasn't an adult yearning for the lost feelings that made me love Metal Gear Solid 3; I was the teenager living them for the first time again.

Hollow Knight feels exceptional because so many of its smaller, expertly designed parts fit so well together over an extraordinarily long adventure that could easily have fallen prey to poor pacing.

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.

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.

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

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.

Civ 6 has a few rough edges, but they’re pushed far into the periphery by spectacular strategic depth and intricate interlocking nuances. Any frustrations I experienced were immediately eclipsed by my desire to continue playing. Just one more turn, every turn, forever.

In collecting, battling, and exploring, Sword and Shield cut out the bloat and focus on what makes these pillars of the Pokemon games so captivating in the first place. You're not held back by overly complicated back-end systems or hoops to jump through; from the outset, you can start wandering the Galar region, seeing its new Pokemon, and trying out its new battle strategies with very little in your way. This leaves you free to enjoy what Pokemon is all about, and that makes for an incredibly strong showing for the series' proper debut on Switch.

Elden Ring Nightreign's announcement was a genuine surprise. The details explaining the kind of game it was were even more surprising. This peculiar mix of a From Software RPG spliced with elements of roguelites and battle royales sounds like the kind of experimental concept no game studio would actually devote money to. But here's From Software, tapping into its creativity to put its own weird, bold spin on a thrilling cooperative multiplayer experience. Even if the end result were middling, this is the kind of risk worth celebrating, but doubly so now that it turned out to be such a fantastic, anomalous thing. The part of From Software's collective brain that created oddities like Metal Wolf Chaos and Otogi: Myth of Demons is still very much alive and well.

Call of Duty: Black Ops bears the series' standard superbly, delivering an engrossing campaign and exciting competitive multiplayer.

It's a triumph of real-time strategy design, and the best the Total War series has ever been.

I’ve always thought of the Stories subseries as a commendable yet modest spinoff series, but Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection is anything but modest. It takes Monster Hunter's core loop and successfully translates it into turn-based combat, evolves the monster-taming genre thanks to Habitat Restoration, and does all this while telling a thrilling story with a great presentation. Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection easily stands shoulder to shoulder with some of the best Monster Hunter games.

This superb video game adaptation of baseball knocks authenticity and realism out of the park.

From the speedy exhilaration of soaring high above the streets to the atmospheric thrill of discovering long-forgotten secrets in the tunnels below Gotham, this is an unforgettable adventure that will keep you coming back to the cape and cowl long after you've seen the credits roll.

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

It's an expansive and challenging sequel to one of the best racing games of last year and, at its price, it remains one of the best bargains of the year for the PC.

From the speedy exhilaration of soaring high above the streets to the atmospheric thrill of discovering long-forgotten secrets in the tunnels below Gotham, this is an unforgettable adventure that will keep you coming back to the cape and cowl long after you've seen the credits roll.

It's difficult, in fact, to find much friction in the gameplay of A Colorful Tale that prevents you from experiencing its deeply moving tale, and it's balanced well enough to offer an engrossing adventure with standout puzzle mechanics and satisfying solutions. Chicory: A Colorful Tale is a game about self-exploration, frequently presenting earnest themes that can be challenging to engage with given how relatable they can feel. But it's also an exercise in confronting these insecurities and barriers that prevent you from enjoying what you put out into the world and rediscovering its importance in the process. It's an evocative tale that doesn't rest on its narrative alone, making it one of the best games you can play this year.

Regardless of whether you're getting sucked into the Story mode or competing for high scores in the Challenge mode, Batman: Arkham Asylum does an outstanding job of letting you be Batman. Everything about this game--the impressive visuals, stirring soundtrack, superb voice acting, fiendish puzzles, hard-hitting combat--feels like it has been lovingly crafted by a development team that's both knowledgeable and passionate about the source material.

If you're not ready to commit to the PlayStation 2 yet, and you've grown weary of the levels in "Tony Hawk 2," then Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 is just the ticket.

It's difficult, in fact, to find much friction in the gameplay of A Colorful Tale that prevents you from experiencing its deeply moving tale, and it's balanced well enough to offer an engrossing adventure with standout puzzle mechanics and satisfying solutions. Chicory: A Colorful Tale is a game about self-exploration, frequently presenting earnest themes that can be challenging to engage with given how relatable they can feel. But it's also an exercise in confronting these insecurities and barriers that prevent you from enjoying what you put out into the world and rediscovering its importance in the process. It's an evocative tale that doesn't rest on its narrative alone, making it one of the best games you can play this year.

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

Sea Of Stars is a classic SNES-era turn-based RPG that holds up next to the titans of the era. There are bits and pieces of those classics scattered throughout this game, but Sea Of Stars doesn't just rest on the laurels of its predecessors. There are plenty of new little tweaks to the system that kept me on my toes from beginning to end, from unique combat mechanics to a couple of story beats that sent me through a loop--though not as many as I'd hoped. In a crowded year of big-budget AAA releases, Sea Of Stars has an impeccable sense of craft that helps it stand tall alongside them.

Unlike its listless predecessor, Give No Shelter flies by, ending just as it reaches a critical, shocking apex, stoking anticipation for what's to come in the finale.

Metal Gear Solid 3 returns with a vengeance in this special edition, which significantly improves an already great action adventure game while adding a solid new online mode and some great extras.

There's so much to love about Hollow Knight: Silksong, especially if you were a fan of the first game. This sequel better focuses the narrative with guided exploration and eases the frustrations with the first game's platforming by making the protagonist far more acrobatic. In many respects, that makes it a safe sequel, as much of the game is merely a more polished, approachable, and fulfilling take on what worked well before. But that first game is one of the best metroidvania titles out there, making this sequel equally essential. Hornet's story is more than worth the wait.