While March Madness 2004 does a good job at capturing the feel of college basketball, a general lack of polish keeps it just a little short of greatness.

Focuses on the up-tempo aspects of the sport of basketball as opposed to the half-court set, and the result is plenty of fast breaks, quick passes, and few shot clock violations.

NASCAR Thunder 2002 on the Xbox is the most visually appealing stock car racing game on the market, and its gameplay will appeal to a wide range of racing fans.

Bloody, brutal, and hard to put down.

This debut episode from The Wolf Among Us crafts an excellent illusion that usually veils the systematic gears that click and whir whenever you veer down a particular path. More impressively, it nails its atmosphere.

The quintessential Sonic experience is made even better thanks to the inclusion of achievements and a strong, competitive multiplayer component.

Though its balance is a little questionable at times, Metal Arms has quietly come onto the scene to offer one of the most visceral and most satisfying shooting experiences in quite a while.

Sony's flagship baseball franchise has never been better.

EA Sports continues to experiment with its FIFA football series, creating a more challenging and slower-paced game for the 2008 outing.

This kart racer has excellent creation tools and sharing capabilities, and thanks to great online integration, is both fun and easy to play with friends.

It may be derivative, but King's Bounty: Armored Princess is still an outstanding strategy role-playing game.

After feeling like the series was treading water for the past couple of years, MLB The Show 23 sees Sony San Diego introduce some significant additions to its baseball sim. Road to the Show has still been neglected, but incremental gameplay improvements slightly enhance the on-field action, and Franchise has received a long-overdue shot in the arm with its expanded scouting system. The new seasonal structure to Diamond Dynasty should also make for a more interesting mode throughout the course of the year, and Storylines: The Negro Leagues is worth the price of admission alone. It may not move the needle in every area, but MLB The Show 23 is another deep sports title that will keep you busy long into October and beyond.

Altogether, Sonic Racing CrossWorlds is a solid package. The single-player modes, meta-goals like collecting gear and vehicle parts, and wealth of customization options to experiment with different play styles, make it easy to recommend for players who like their kart racing with a little more mechanical complexity. Even with slightly underwhelming online offerings, it's easy to see how Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds has plenty of road ahead of it.

The settings of Crown of the Old Iron King are both fantastical and relatable, but nowhere near practical. Gigantic suits of armor hang inexplicably under elevator platforms, hinting that humans10 times normal size once protected Drangleic.

It's when you circumvent Far Cry 4's major thematic flaws, inconsistent missions, and incessant nagging that you find the game you came looking for, breathing easy and enjoying the mountains that rise in the distance and the valleys that stretch beneath you.

Enslaved is an affecting adventure that makes strong use of its characters and story to create a believable world.

This is how it feels to play Octopath Traveler 0: a seemingly endless pattern of ever-deeper combat challenges and strategic wrinkles, slowly revealing themselves to you over and over through dozens of hours. I've seen credits, in a sense, but there's still so much more to do and explore. It feels like a game that could go on forever. I just might let it.

Gears 5 is very much a return of those best elements of Gears of War, but with a focus on making the game feel somewhat more adaptive to your particular ways of playing. Whether you want campaign or co-op, Competitive or Quickplay, there's an option for you in Gears 5, and plenty of stuff to reward you for time spent and skill gained. Gears 5 might suffer from some of the same storytelling missteps as its predecessors, and it might not venture far out of the past, but the new ideas it brings to the series are all good reasons for fans to return.

While its lack of challenge may lull fans, its ease of use will delight newcomers and draw in anyone who appreciates a touch of magic.

Halo Wars is a fun strategy outing for fans of the universe, but it feels simplistic and short alongside other games in the genre.

The new levels are fun and addictive, and the gameplay is as hypnotic as ever. Just be ready to be challenged, because while it looks innocuous enough, Encore puts up a good fight.

When it really gets going, it's an exhilarating game of modern combat, albeit one that's also weighed down with some bugs and gameplay issues.

More content and clever courses make Pacific Rift everything you'd want in a Motorstorm sequel.

It's rare that a prequel truly works, where a story can captivate despite the audience knowing what's coming and where the path will lead. Life Is Strange: Before The Storm is one of those exceptional stories because it draws you in on its own terms. The only problem: You know it's building you up just to break your heart.

But even with its flaws, Gnosia remains a fascinating and engrossing experience. Its short gameplay loop makes for a unique presentation different from other visual novel and adventure games, and adds a hard-to-resist “just one more game!” quality that keeps you eager to find out what will happen on the next go-around. The varied roles and options also make each attempt a unique experience, and even when the game isn't fully cooperative in giving you the event scenes you want to see, it's still a fun time to try to eke out a victory over either the humans or the Gnosia--or possibly both. If you're looking for a different spin on social deduction games, Gnosia is one time loop you'll be eager to get sucked up in.

The newest Walking Dead episode is enjoyably tense, but a more formulaic script and a greater focus on action make Around Every Corner weaker than its predecessors.

Although those willing to grind for everything will eventually get rewarded, the system of VC still comes off as exploitative. But there's a lot of fun to be had in NBA 2K19 despite its flaws, especially if you have a strong love for the sport.

SSX is a terrific evolution of the series that delivers extreme snowboarding thrills like no game before it.