Remnant 2 is exactly what you want from a sequel, such is the way it expands and improves upon the first game's ideas. It's not likely to blow you away, but the core gameplay loop--built on rewarding combat, an ever-expanding repertoire of skills and abilities, and the randomness of its procedural generation--latches on and refuses to let go. The final realm is disappointing because of an artificial difficulty spike, and the story is still lackluster and easy to ignore, but those looking for a solid and malleable shooter won't go far wrong with Remnant 2.

That story, like most of Pikmin 4, is gentle and unobtrusive. It's all just very agreeable and sweet, and there's a certain gratification that comes from directing your little army of plant-people to gather treasures like fruits and Game Boy Advance cartridges. The more Pikmin 4 leans into fashioning itself after a more traditional game, with competition and fail-states, the more prone it is to getting in its own way. Sometimes, it's enough to simply have a relaxing activity.

Despite an unsatisfying narrative, the bulk of Viewfinder is spent solving a variety of unique puzzles, and it's here where it never falters. The numerous ways in which Viewfinder manages to stretch its core idea consistently kept me entranced, providing a deeply satisfying loop of deciphering a conundrum and constructing a solution that could be distinct to my playthrough. Given how Viewfinder quickly empowers you with the tools to create your own solutions while challenging you to push your understanding of its world, it's pleasantly surprising how frictionless the entire experience is, never once devolving into tedium or frustration. Viewfinder finds elegance in simplicity but doesn't trade this for straightforward solutions, making it one of the best puzzle games you can play today.

Oxenfree II is a strong sequel to the original game. A particular secondary character and antagonist drag the experience down a bit but the overall storyline is a satisfying foray into an adult woman's tenuous grasp on reality and her ultimate decision to cut through the static and strive for something better with the help of the friendships forged whilst speaking over a simple walkie-talkie.

But even though it's not quite as good as Danganronpa's dizzying roller-coaster highs, Rain Code is a solid detective adventure that entertains and engages for the majority of its runtime. It's got an intriguing concept, enjoyable dialogue, an interesting and plenty of bold, outlandish strangeness to hold a player's interest. I, for one, certainly hope this isn't the last we see of Shinigami's sublime snark.

It's disappointing that Aliens: Dark Descent gets so much right about its setting, only to falter in each of the more critical areas that are meant to hold your attention. Its detail-oriented focus in presenting a richly authentics and atmospheric setting will be welcomed by anyone familiar with the franchise. Smaller mechanics that put emphasis on the terror that Xenomorphs exude add a suitable layer of tension to both exploration and combat, making each more distinct than their initial make-up would suggest. But it's a squad that rarely feels like a personable unit of people that you desperately want to keep alive, fighting for a cause in a narrative that is so easy to tune out well before the halfway point. There's a lot of good in this attempt to make Aliens something fresh and interesting again, and that might be enough to encourage you to see it through. But there's also just enough to potentially derail you entirely.

Back in 2003, A Wonderful Life offered a refreshing and sentimental take on the farming sim genre. However, even then, it felt a bit empty when compared to what many other simulation games were doing. While Marvelous added greater inclusivity, clarity, and additional events and dialogue, it doesn't keep this 2023 remake from feeling empty and stuck in the past.

Crash Team Rumble demonstrates developer Toys For Bob's continued understanding of the Crash series by looking, sounding, and feeling like a Crash game even as the finer details are so new and unfamiliar for the team. The sports-like aspect of each match is delivered very well, offering more depth than initially meets the eye. A slew of strategies can result in victory, and cohesive teamplay is the fast track to success, making every victory feel earned and so much more rewarding. The game's matchmaking and metagame aspects leave a lot to be desired, but the hope is these can be fixed in time, so long as the buy-in doesn't scare away any potential for a thriving community.

AEW Fight Forever, much like the company it represents, is a cocky young upstart trying to take the crown from a titan. Also much like its source material, its first outing is a decent foundation for what its future could provide. The roster is a good primer on the current AEW lineup, there are enough match types to keep things fresh for a while, and Road To Elite is an irreverent look at the life of a wrestler that made me smile. There are some bumps in this road--particularly the lack of trios matches and the disappointing entrances--but those are all things which can be fixed in future installments. If AEW truly plans to Fight Forever in the video game world, then they've thrown an effective first punch.

It may fall short in some respects, but it should be celebrated for its most stunning moments and the characters who embody them. FFXVI succeeds and earns its place within the Final Fantasy pantheon as one of the great entries, and does so on its own terms.

For those who never played the original Layers of Fear games, this reimagined package is definitely a better first experience than the old versions, simply on account of looking better and adding the neat framing narrative of The Writer's Story. But for horror enthusiasts already well-versed in the series, its MO remains as smoke and mirrors. There are no real terrors lurking in the shadows just out of reach. There is only the suggestion of some, and like the many tortured artists at the center of its saga, they are left unfulfilled.

With reasons to return to the game after hitting the credits, Amnesia: The Bunker is the longest-lasting game in the series so far. And thanks to incredible atmosphere, opportunities for player creativity, and an inventory metagame that makes each success or failure entirely your own, Amnesia: The Bunker is proof that Frictional has still got it. This is a team that continues to refine the horror genre, and though I've found each of their games intriguing in different ways, they haven't scared me the way this one does in a long time.

Diablo IV, at this time, cannot escape comparison to the past of the franchise it belongs to, but it's thankfully a game that has been crafted with a strong awareness of what made each one either revered or reviled. It represents a measured approach to combining the many elements from previous entries that worked into a system that feels like the new standard-bearer for action role-playing. Coupled with a new benchmark for storytelling in the franchise, and a solid narrative foundation for any potential new adventures, it's easy to see Diablo IV as something I'll regularly check-in on for a long time to come.

I can't get enough of Street Fighter 6. It's been my last thought when I go to bed and my first thought when I wake up. It has a beautifully constructed fighting system, but also offers modes that take the game very seriously and, in other cases, not seriously at all. There are some small issues with performance in World Tour, but none of those are enough to derail the overall package. With the releases of new Tekken and Mortal Kombat games, it very much feels like we're in a new golden era for the fighting game genre. Thankfully, Street Fighter 6 steps into the arena looking good and fighting fit.

Much like Gollum's quest for the One Ring, my quest to complete The Lord of the Rings: Gollum was full of endless setbacks, impossible odds, and ever-increasing levels of madness. And, like Gollum, my journey was doomed from the start. So if the developers' main goal was to really put you in the shoes of such a pitiful, unloveable character faced with constant pain and suffering at every turn, they were at least successful at that.

Humanity is a charming, engaging, and inviting puzzle adventure of a breed that seems all too rare nowadays. Its constantly-evolving gameplay, unique premise, and striking audiovisual landscape make for a game that's easy to get sucked into for long periods of time. Even better, when you finish the main game, you can dive into the various user-created levels folks all over the globe are already crafting--or try your own hand at creation. Creation is something humanity excels at, after all.

Developer Wishfully clearly has an eye for the cinematic, charting a planetary voyage that's both suspenseful and heartfelt. Planet of Lana is about the bond between a young girl and her loyal companion, and also our own relationship with nature and our planet. It falters at times, miring through occasional tedium, but the strong connection it cultivates between its characters carries it forward as you delve into a variety of engaging puzzles and a gorgeous art style that breathes its strange but familiar world to life. Planet of Lana might not be the very best game released this year, but it will persevere as one of the most memorable.

Whatever the future holds, Lego 2K Drive is already a complete package--a raucous arcade racer that marries elements of open-world racing and kart racing and wraps it all in a bright, playful Lego package. It has enough real racing bona fides to satisfy adults, but the most pleasant surprise is how its combination of humor, explosive action, and robust building tools will make you feel like a kid again.

The surreal world design of After Us' dystopian world carries the game, encouraging you to keep going even when the momentum-driven platforming and creative puzzles give way to tedious combat. Gaia isn't all that compelling a protagonist, but the stories she uncovers--whether they're of the Earth's final animals or the Devourers who killed them--make up for it, inviting you to delve deeper into the dark of After Us' dying world and uncover exactly how it all fell apart.

Despite these faults, Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun is an extremely fun game with a contagious reverence for classic '90s shooters and the Warhammer universe at large. Its entire arsenal of flesh-combusting weapons is a joy to use, and its simple gameplay loop is kept fresh by a steady supply of new armaments and enemy types to squash under the almighty boot of the Imperium. It's not trying to revolutionize the genre and that's perfectly fine; it's the type of game to hire avid Warhammer fan Rahul Kohli (Gears of War 5, Midnight Mass) to voice its protagonist, only to make him exceptionally easy to miss unless you stumble upon the "Taunt" button. There aren't any gameplay advantages to hitting this button, but you do get to hear Kohli relish in delivering some Space Marine-appropriate lines as he nails the angry, regal tone. That's almost worth the price of admission alone.

The Last Case of Benedict Fox is one of my favorite flavors of metroidvania: the kind that keeps you guessing all the way up to the end on what's exactly going on. In the first half of the game, it goes too far in terms of setting up its mystery but the narrative payoff in the latter half partially makes up for it. This is the type of game where having a trusty notebook on hand is a good idea because the world design and cryptic story--though wonderful--aren't going to do much to guide you beyond hinting at a potential path forward. The combat and platforming don't quite match the game's intriguing story and wonderful Lovecraftian-inspired art direction, but the game does include ways for you to transform the experience of playing the game to make it more approachable.

Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a canvas for your own creativity, a book to write your own stories, a world to create your own legends. It gives you back as much as you put into it, and beckons you to soar, burrow, engineer, solve, adventure, and explore.

Ultimately, Redfall is a game that should not have been released yet. Its litany of bugs hampers the gameplay loop of exploring its world with friends, and that loop itself feels compromised by elements that are poorly executed and ill-suited to the team implementing them. I can't pretend to know whether Arkane chose to make a loot shooter or was assigned to make a loot-shooter, but I can tell you what it feels like: one of the best game studios in the world suddenly made toothless.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is a superb Star Wars game that gets into the nitty-gritty of the struggle of what it takes for a Jedi Knight to begin the journey toward the rank of Master.

Riot Games's decision to widen the scope of its marquee franchise has yielded another success in The Mageseeker: A League Of Legends Story. The pixel art and soundtrack build a beautiful world, while the story--though slow to truly kick off--is riveting once it hits that turning point. There are some issues that hold the experience back, particularly its uneven level designs and the aforementioned slow start to the story. The fluid combat and incredible boss battles, however, make up for those shortcomings, and raise The Mageseeker up to be another effective expansion of the League of Legends lore.

Horizon: Burning Shores lays even more groundwork for the future of the franchise than Forbidden West, which had already signaled a clear direction for the next entry. It does this in a tight, engaging little package that reignited my love for the world and its characters without feeling burdened by it. While much of Burning Shores feels familiar, it's a sweet, condensed experience that captures what makes Horizon games great. After feeling more exhausted than excited at the end of Forbidden West, I'm glad for the reminder.

There's a lot of good in Minecraft Legends. The absurdity of the game is delightful at times and the tower-defense elements in both the story campaign and the first Lost Legends challenge are a taste of how the combat system can excel in the right scenario. But the story campaign's regular gameplay loop of tracking down enemy bases and overthrowing them can become tedious, especially in battles when there's a huge field of Nether between you and your foe. Gathering resources, while enjoyably quick and easy, feels so impersonal as well, making it difficult to appreciate the vibrant world you're slowly chiseling away in your war with the Piglins. The pieces to a good game are here; they just aren't yet built into a structure sound enough for me to want to spend a lot of time in it.

What makes Advance War 1+2: Re-Boot Camp an exciting prospect today is the same as what made the games compelling when they were first released: fun and approachable strategic gameplay that is built on a solid foundation. While the first title certainly shows its age in the latter stages, the moments of magic that earned Advance Wars a passionate fan base are still there. If turn-based tactical combat is your thing, there is plenty to sink your teeth into here.