The new features in Dark Avatar elevate the already superb Galactic Civilizations II to the title of undisputed best turn-based space strategy game on the PC.

It's surprising that so many small annoyances and glitches made their way into a game of such general high quality. Still, most players will be able to look past them and enjoy Mass Effect for what it is: A terrific role-playing game with great production values and fun, exciting action.

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. Miss out on this one and the joke's on you.

A first-person shooter has finally arrived that's so stylish, so ingenious, so well written, so well acted, and otherwise so great that this review won't have to include the expression "it's no Half-Life" - except for right there.

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Like a new car, Forza Motorsport 4 doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it does refine and improve upon what came before it. Tat's no small achievement given how truly special Forza 3 was.

The (thankfully) isolated cinematic sequences showing the interactions of the S.T.A.R.S. team members... are filled to the vomit-line with some of the most hokey, badly-translated, drama-killing, god-awful voice acting ever burned onto a disc. Oh well.

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.

A thrilling testament to how great PC gaming can be. It packs unmatched gameplay, impressive visuals, and endless replayability in one exquisite package. And it's, by far, the most fun that we've had with a PC game this year.

In many ways, Madden 2005 is just a bit too much like last year's Madden for comfort--but it's still a truly excellent game of football all around.

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.

Robust and challenging single-player modes, strong online multiplayer, and gorgeous visuals make this a must-have for any fighter fan.

In fact, Fallout 3 is leaner and meaner than Bethesda's previous efforts, less expansive but more intense, while still offering immense replay value and quite a few thrills along the way.

Batman: Arkham City's irresistible world, joyous movement, rewarding combat, and varied side quests make it an exceptional adventure game.

It's clearly the best traditional computer role-playing game of the year and is bound to be an all-time favorite for many of its inevitable fans.

From the taut Versus competition to the two great cooperative modes, Gears of War 3 delivers immensely entertaining experiences on both sides of The Locust War. But the real triumph is the campaign, a masterpiece of exciting gameplay and emotional storytelling that stands head and shoulders above its predecessors.

Simply put, once you get into Neverwinter Nights, you'll likely have no need or desire to play another role-playing game for a long time--or any other game for that matter.

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.

It improves on almost everything that worked well in the first game, and it also fixes that game's problems...a rousing success on every level.

Just a really great action game in the same vein as classics like "Symphony of the Night" and "Super Metroid" before it, and it stands tall among the GBA's best action games, including "Circle of the Moon" and last year's "Metroid Fusion."

This is a beautiful, haunting, and memorable game, a worthy follow-up to Limbo. Its puzzles, although rarely difficult, are engaging complements to the story. The real achievement of this game, though, is the way that it crafts its narrative: detailed environments convey the bizarre world that you travel through; introspective moments are filled with minimalist sound design and just the barest touches of music; and the things you must do to complete your journey force you to confront the realities of humanity, freedom, and existence.

A bit on the easy side. The platform-jumping sections aren't too tough, the puzzles not too complex, and the bosses fairly simple to beat.

Incredible storytelling, great characters, and exciting battles are just a few of the things that make this fantasy role-playing game so extraordinary.

Featuring some of the best graphics seen on the system, a rich quest, and classic RPG gameplay, Golden Sun is a throwback to some of the SNES' best.

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.

Fueled by smooth platforming, striking visuals, wacky situations, and infectious beats, Rayman Legends is a nifty platformer that exudes unabashed delight.

When you factor in the voice talent involved, the visual splendor on offer, and the sheer scale of the whole game, it really feels like Clair Obscur is punching above its weight, considering the comparatively small size of the team at Sandfall. This is a supremely confident game that reinterprets familiar mechanics with an imaginative eye. Its combat is a consistent delight, delivering thrills with thoughtful strategy and reactive action in equal measure, complementing a heartfelt story of shared grief and camaraderie. There are minor pitfalls in relation to its narrow exploration and some quality-of-life issues, but these missteps aren't enough to significantly detract from a game with all the makings of an RPG classic.

Disco Elysium is a mad, sprawling detective story where the real case you've got to crack isn't who killed the man strung up on a tree in the middle of town--though that in itself, replete with dozens of unexpected yet intertwined mysteries and wild excursions into the ridiculous, is engrossing enough to sustain the game. Rather, it’s an investigation of ideas, of the way we think, of power and privilege, and of how all of us are shaped, with varying degrees of autonomy, by the society we find ourselves in.