The game has a frankly obscene amount of content to discover, all of it measured and absorbing. Whether the more arcadey difficulty levels will be entertaining enough for casual racing fans is debatable. You'll undoubtedly get the most out of it if you have the patience to approach it as a serious racer and learn to use gears, brakes and progressive throttle.

The PSP version loads a bit more slowly but looks better, and the DS version features lightning-fast loads but tosses in slightly sluggish, clunky touch-controls.

It feels equal parts fresh and classic - although it could indeed be too hyperactive for stout historians.

I'm only a few hours in, but while there's clear potential for this gacha system to become predatory, it hasn't felt at all intrusive. And let's not forget that Genshin Impact is free. You have nothing but a 10GB download to lose. I'm still trying to get over this, because if you focus on the gorgeous world and fun combat and ignore all the gacha stuff, it doesn't feel like a free-to-play game at all. So I suppose that's two more similarities to Breath of the Wild: Genshin Impact is what you make of it, and it is pretty darn fun. [Impressions]

Everything you're doing is building your own connection to Jin, helping to flesh out the human side of the inimitable Ghost of Tsushima through his family, his friends, and new-found (if reluctant) allies. Sucker Punch's ability to weave beautiful narratives that will, ahem, sucker punch you right in the feels is more in the spotlight here than ever, and it's an utter success.

Forget your preconceptions of Bulletstorm as a foul-mouthed big dumb action game. It's an intelligent, nuanced design with fathoms of depth, which marks a return to the importance of player creativity in shooters and simultaneously evolves the concept of interactivity in an FPS world. And with two cleverly complimentary secondary modes, it will have serious legs for a good long while to come.

Two Point Hospital has a terminal case of total brilliance.

Sharp and deeply satisfying combat carries this imaginative, occasionally cringe-worthy tale, but don't bother if you played the 2013 original.

Despite minor complaints, PES 2018 is undoubtedly top-of-the-table where it counts: the pitch. This is PES back on form.

While Doom: The Dark Ages is a solid game, the ways it differs from previous titles are largely to its detriment. Most of what's praiseworthy about the Slayer's 2025 adventures are what's translated from older entries, while new features like the melee focus and mech sequences feel like fumbled missteps the series would be well-advised to forget going forward. Still, the joy of blasting cacodemons with a shotgun is never truly lost, and the over-the-top aesthetic will always elevate the experience.

The lack of campaign is sorely missed in this bold new direction for Call of Duty, but the multiplayer shines like never before.

Ghost of Tsushima is the samurai Assassin's Creed Ubisoft will wish it had made.

A very impressive game. Although there's an initial adjustment period for its controls, each stage is masterfully designed, rewarding exploration and experimentation, plus it's surprisingly deep.

The action is tight, the running time is surprisingly long and the cheerful amorality makes it extremely likable.

The world of LocoRoco is uniquely beautiful, aggressively charming and a lot of fun to explore, and it keeps its load times short. If you've ever wanted a reason to hug your PSP, now's your chance.

The finale takes you an emotional ride filled with tension and heartfelt moments that are hard to forget.

With its visual splendor and gratifying, old-school gameplay, this is a fantastic platformer that makes the most of the 3DS. It may test your patience from time to time, but the satisfaction of conquering every last bonus barrel and KONG letter is ultimately worth it.

Guacamelee 2 is another champion-grade Metroidvania, provided you can handle some corny humor and retreading of old mechanics.

Improves upon its predecessor in almost every way. The combat is deep and satisfying, the exploration and loot elements are incredibly addictive, and the dungeons provide a near perfect amount of challenge and consistency to keep you playing to the end. If you're looking for an expansive adventure with an interesting story, massive world and robust combat, Death has come for you.

N+ may not look like much, but it’s fun and addictive.

The best American football game in a decade, with a career mode which will take over your life – along with fabulous levels of college pageantry and authenticity.

Ultimately, those limited failings will either be seen as quaint by longtime RPG addicts or tolerable by newcomers that will appreciate everything else Shin Megami Tensei IV gets right. It advances the genre in subtle ways, exhibiting once more that JRPGs are alive and well on handhelds. Numbered Shin Megami Tensei entries are few and far between. Thankfully, SMTIV makes the most of it.

An ambitious start for Assassin's Creed on next-gen. The vibrant Caribbean world and bloody piracy shine brightest, while the only sour notes come from contrived series story beats and repetitive missions--both need rethinking for AC5.

In many ways, Halo 3: ODST marks a bold departure from the franchise formula, with story, characters, atmosphere and multiplayer that are refreshingly, surprisingly different. Due to a short campaign and overly familiar gameplay, however, it fails to escape the “expansion pack” label.

Despite occasional frustration though, the more active gameplay of Ghost Trick is a welcome change from the mostly passive adventures of Ace Attorney (a series we also love!).

Beenox has managed to take the original Crash Team Racing, and somehow made it better. 20 years ago, this was the kart racer to play, but Mario Kart gradually usurped it and since the early 2000s, Crash has been laid dormant, waiting for its time to seize the throne and become the king of kart racers once more. That time is now, because Crash is back, baby.

While hardcore baseball fans may be turned off by its cutesy style, MLB Power Pros is fun, and that's what matters. Give it a swing.

The Wolf Among Us is a game that exceeds expectations, providing an intriguing, painful, and thought-provoking journey that everyone should experience at least once.

Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth is a pleasing amalgam of first-person dungeon exploration and role-playing elements that injects just enough humor to keep things fresh.

Still madder than a box of frogs, but its magical Disney charms make it worth the long wait.

The story is tightly linear, so it's hard to make your character's tale your own.

Resident Evil 4 taught the industry so much, and in turn we expected RE5 to at least learn from what others have since added to those accomplishments. Instead, it jams the series full of gasoline-enriched testosterone, keeps outdated inventory and control ideas and refuses to admit the franchise is now more action-adventure than survival horror. Don’t let the negatives fool you though – it’s still one of the best balls-to-the-wall co-op excursions you can buy.

Buy it, finish it, love it, because if this takes off we’re going to see a renaissance of new-old games. And if that happens, a whole new batch of gamers will grow up learning why rock-solid gameplay, not tera-flipping flop-bib shaders, make games truly exceptional.

With solidly rebuilt controls only a little marred by a still-fussy camera, LEGO Star Wars II is even better than last years prequel trilogy-based offering. And, as the first LEGO Star Wars was an amazingly entertaining homage to Lucas's genius, this sequel stands atop the original's shoulders as the pinnacle of LEGO Star Wars fun.

Another fast, fun, and technical Capcom fighting experience. The online code seems problematic, but that's hardly enough to sink what's otherwise another top-tier Capcom fighter. It's actually kind of amazing to see a fighter where literally half the cast is basically new.

Nintendo's threequel has flashes of brilliance everywhere.

Mankind Divided is full of great moments, from the lengthy journey across The Throat of Golem City, to the simple pleasure of crouching in a Prague bank, wondering how next to proceed.

Zombies drops you into an intense, expansive world with untold secrets to discover, multiplayer's Pick 10 system and Scorestreaks open up new strategies to exploit, and the single-player campaign warrants repeat visits from its captivating, branching storyline.

Generally well polished and deeply atmospheric, this is Resident Evil amplified and with a brand new set of authentically imperfect controls, but let down a little by occasional low-quality backgrounds.

A good game, though not necessarily a standard bearer for shoot em ups. It's got a unique art style, tinges of Grasshopper's profane quirkiness, and offers some rather challenging wrinkles on the genre formula. Don't believe for a second that "casual friendliness" means putting a controller in the hands of your game-dabbler buddies and expecting them not to either melt down or wave a white flag.

Battlefield 6 offers a carefully-crafted and layered multiplayer that strives to be its least threatening self, with innovation and creativity played down in favor of refining all the proven successes from the military genre. What's there will surprise nobody, but thrives when all those components come together – even if the single player can feel fairly threadbare as part of the package.

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is so close to the original that you probably already know if you'll like it or not. Some controls and visuals have been modernized, but even those built so closely on pre-existing foundations that it doesn't attempt to bring it into the modern conversation. Even so, I can't begrudge a faithful recreation of one of my favorite games ever made.

It's a shame that the multiplayer options don't include a cop pursuit mode, but that's a minor omission in a one-game-fits-all package.

The Wii U Edition's new modes are more "goofy entertainment" than "substantial content." But without them, the game's still great--so you should look at these rowdy wranglings as icing on the Tekken cake. If you skipped TTT2 on other consoles and enjoy 3D arcade punch-ups, this is currently your best Wii U bet.

It's also good that Ring Fit Adventure can scale according to your fitness level. You can easily adjust the difficulty (which seems to be based on the number of reps needed to beat enemies rather than adding in more complex fitness routines) whenever you feel like it, and the game will regularly remind you to have some water, or take a break if you feel like you need it.

For anyone who purchased the game last generation, the hi-def version is definitely worth the worth the price of admission for Medieval Madness alone.

The streamlined, focused structure eliminates potential tedium without dumbing anything down, and the battle system strikes an elegant balance between strategy and fast-paced action. Stunningly beautiful graphics and a pervasively meticulous level of polish throughout only add to the experience.

There are plenty of other features to sink your teeth into, of course, including the return of online dynasties, a nationwide “meta” stats aggregator called Season Showdown, and an updated Road to Glory mode allowing you to take a created high school prospect through a college career. You won’t lack for things to do, that’s for sure.

Being a dean isn't always rewarding, but Two Point Campus is a much more involved and rewarding sim than Hospital before it. The balancing act never stops, and it's a wilder ride than ever.

Borderlands is a very entertaining shooter and a rather bland RPG. It rewards dedication with new guns and new things to shoot at, which is all kinds of fun for players who enjoy MMO-style progression. But if its charm and depth hadn’t been abandoned so quickly, it may have been absolutely brilliant.

The expansion also adds Tinkering, which allows you to make new items, and Transmuting, which allows you to add additional features to existing items.

Combat could be better, but Dragon Quest Builders combines RPG structure and freeform creativity to great effect. It's Minecraft for people who hate Minecraft.

Transistor's clever combat and incredible customization makes for an intensely fun strategy game, but the world and story leave much to be desired. Come for the art and wonderful soundtrack, stay for the ability to freeze time and slash up robots.

With Lumines: Electronic Symphony, the series grows and expands in ways that render prior games as more spin-offs than true sequels. It reinvents itself for a new medium and showcases Sony's new handheld, just as its predecessor managed in 2005. Mark our words: you will remember why you loved this game so much.

Splatoon 2’s formula no longer feels original, but it looks great, its controls are tight, and there’s enough variety to give you dozens of hours of multiplayer fun.

Slathered with infectious energy, its innovative alternate-reality heartbreak shooting mechanics are thrilling to play with, and it's a world you won't want to say farewell to after you get your first ending. Resident Evil 4 and Silent Hill can't match this neon-soaked survival horror for its sheer inventiveness.

The only thing “everyday” about this shooter is how often we’re playing it.

Stray is a phenomenal, if compact, feline adventure that captures cats perfectly - even if they do find themselves in a bizarrely beautiful robotic world.

The superhero powers and coop mode alone make Crackdown worth recommending. Next time, throw in some more structure - or at least some more gadgets and toys to wreak havoc with when there is no structure - and you'll have a classic must-buy franchise.

A touching finale for Kazuma Kiryu, Yakuza 6 manages to surprise and delight in equal measure.

Quite simply, there is a sh.t-ton to keep track of. But no matter, these worries fall away the more you play. And soundly beating the crap out of another guy will be a walk in the park.

An amazing little horror game that can be as frustrating as it is brilliant.

We’ll happily play all season long, during which we’ll invent a thousand more reasons to love and hate it all at the same time. No matter what, though, we’d be lying if we said we weren’t a tad disappointed that this year’s version didn’t make the same jump we’d gotten accustomed to the last two years.

Square Enix doesn’t offer much innovation with Final Fantasy XIV: this is a realm reborn, not the MMORPG genre. But the game is expertly prepared, and even if the systems are all familiar, they take place in one of the most enchanting MMORPG settings ever. So eat up. Get your fill. This one’s an enjoyable feast.

Take all this finesse and arcade action online, and MLB '06 gets even better, with tournaments and leader boards to boot. Overall, it's one of the best baseball games ever, on any platform.

New running features makes this the most balanced and enjoyable Madden yet, but a few awkward sights and sounds will remind you that it’s just a game.

Round 3's meaty punching action delivers more bone-crunching thrills than just about any other fighter out there. It won't go easy on you, but once you've risen to its punishing standards, this is pure, addictive, long-haul fun.

A superior collection, Clubhouse Games is one of the best portable solutions for card and board games.

It was risky for the NHL 13 dev team to reach under the hood and modify the core gameplay to the degree they did. It takes time to learn, and the smarter defenders and goaltenders will make scoring extremely difficult at the start. As we've recently seen with other stalwart franchises like FIFA Soccer and Madden NFL, though, getting the fundamentals oh-so-right can make something that's already good spectacular.

Fixes the stumbles of its predecessor, reinvigorates the excitement factor, and has exemplary pacing in its single-player (and co-op) campaign. The Chimera are the most terrifying they've ever been, while you control the most empowering arsenal yet. The multiplayer is as tight as ever, rounding out a complete package of polish, mood, and adrenaline.

Triangle Strategy is a great strategic battler, meshed with devilish politicking and weighty decisions. It’s just a shame the cast of characters never gets a chance to shine just as bright.

Sadly, these striking visuals only serve to exacerbate Winterbottom’s one true issue: some incredibly bland level design.

It could have been much better if only there were more than two modes (deathmatch and team deathmatch) and a couple of maps small enough to play with less than five players, but Prey is still a major blast for shooter fans with strong stomachs.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow reinvigorates the franchise by borrowing from other games, adding its own wonderful magic system, and ratcheting up the epic factor to ludicrous degrees. It's huge in scope, length, and depth, and it's polished with obvious love and passion.

The simplicity and the gambling factor of the DMW are what make the gameplay so appealing. It’s fast, easy, addictive and perfectly suited to a portable experience.

In spite of lifting nearly every gameplay element from other, often better games, Darksiders still succeeds at bringing these disparate threads together into a brutally satisfying whole. It’s also a blast to explore even at its low points, and if the idea of a Zelda with a more “mature” bent and better combat catches your interest, you’ll want to check this out.

Silky smooth gameplay, solid controls, a stellar single-player campaign, and a fully realized online component all combine to deliver a Hall of Fame experience.

The gameplay feels more like an action game jammed into a horror story. It's a good action game, but it never quite feels like it belongs. Don't let the moments of monolithic combat or the lack of terror throw you off, though. The strengths of Alan Wake's narrative outweighs shortcomings that need to be mentioned, but can't ruin the experience.

Pac-Man Championship Edition is awesome, but just doesn't feel like a full game. It feels like a bonus mode to a more full-featured title.

Moonlighter manages to perfectly balance the best bits of Stardew Valley, Dark Souls and Binding of Isaac for a game that just keeps you coming back for more.

The amount of content is staggering, the art direction is stunning for a PS2 game, the oddball cast is likable and this might be the first RPG we've ever played in which the gameplay was way more interesting than the story. The flat, formulaic plot and mostly monotone voice acting drag it down a little, but overall Rogue Galaxy is a stellar effort.

A huge improvement over its flawed predecessor, InFamous 2 injects more variety, personality and explosive fun into the first game's promising formula, while removing or fine-tuning its most irritating problems.

If you don't have the nurturing gene or the attention span to keep a virtual animal alive, steer clear - but if you're looking for something that's totally nonviolent and uses all your DS's whistles and bells, Nintendogs is it.

If any one aspect deserves a special shout-out, it's TTT2's music, which is primarily phenomenal. You know that awesome African safari stage from Super Street Fighter IV, with the amazingly catchy melody? Imagine if every other stage had such a mesmeric, enthralling score, and you've got TTT2's soundtrack in a nutshell.

When you get right down to it, Outland cannibalizes a lot of tried-and-true gaming elements and turns them into something entirely new and exciting. The magical realm you explore is visually captivating, overflowing with elegance and mystery. More importantly, it serves up some damn good gaming.

If you’ve already bought into the Zero Escape series’ charming kind of malice, there’s simply no question that you’ll enjoy this, too. If you find yourself curious about rescuing people from certain doom by solving puzzles, I strongly encourage you to at least start with Virtue’s Last Reward, and preferably go back to 999 and enjoy the entire blood-soaked journey.

Going solo will end fast (maybe a couple of hours), but grab up to 12 people and you've got the definite Wii party experience.

All in all World at War delivers. It isn’t a revolution in Call of Duty gaming, but neither is it a step backwards, like some have claimed. Right now, it’s the best WWII shooter we’ve played, largely because it’s got a solid (if unoriginal) single player, some spectacular multiplayer, and oh yeah: because it’s brutal as hell.

The Champions League expands FIFA’s exhaustive selection of licences – but thanks to lessons learned last year there’s plenty to love out on the pitch, too.

Mortal Kombat X has tons of polish, unique mechanics, and the genre's best story mode, but it doesn't do enough to keep players invested if they weren't already planning on it.

Like the rest of the Layton series, it's hard to imagine anyone who likes to use his or her brain not enjoying Professor Layton and the Last Specter. If you liked any of the other games in the Professor Layton series – nay, if you've ever enjoyed one brain teaser in your whole life – The Last Specter will undoubtedly delight.

If you don't have the nurturing gene or the attention span to keep a virtual animal alive, steer clear - but if you're looking for something that's totally nonviolent and uses all your DS's whistles and bells, Nintendogs is it.

With a focus on the fundamentals and an eye for simulation-style football, Madden NFL 16 maintains the franchise’s upward trajectory. Football fans have a solid title in their hands this season.

This adventure has such a vibrant world, exhilarating gameplay systems, and a delightful narrative that it deserves a spot in every Vita owner's library. It's the kind of game that wouldn't exist on any other platform, and honestly, it's so perfect for the medium that it wouldn't need to.

The new features are strong, but some of the progress made by Pokemon X&Y has also been undone.

Made for those who have devoured the whole of Horizon: Zero Dawn, this DLC isn’t just about upping your game. It’s a rich expansion of Aloy’s world, with flashes of comedic brilliance and narrative depth.

It's a short ride, but like any quality roller coaster, it'll rattle your senses and challenge your reflexes. On DS, Dragon Sword has no equal, no fitting comparison, and for that we applaud Team Ninja.

Perhaps due to its simple style Rhythm Heaven Fever is launching at a value price, but it's bursting with addictive content you'll want to experience over and over again.