Ye know, the sea is beautiful, and sailing in a crew is a delight, filled with sea shanties and barrels of grog. But alone, it’s a life fraught with peril, and while those who like to wander might be fine with it I need a bit more…guidance in me life, I s’pose. More camaraderie. More reward. I risked me life on those waters day in and day out, but I didn’t get as much as I wanted. In a word? Fine. It be fine.

It’s just hard not to recommend Borderlands: The Handsome Collection. There’s so much content. It received a proper current-gen graphical upgrade and there is tons of both DLC and normal content included. I have a few problems with The Pre-Sequel, but that’s it.

Slightly Mad Studios gave Project CARS the face lift it needed with over 500 improvements and bug fixes, a new fleet of vehicles and new locations to choose from. The learning curve is still quite steep and not all of the problems are ironed out, but this is a much better title and will provide both beginners and veterans with a new challenge and level of enjoyment that should last for many hours on end.

Steamworld Dig is a fun game, but it’s pretty short and can get repetitive after a while. My first playthrough clocked in at just under four hours and most of the game is mining, going back to town to cash out and upgrade, and repeat. That said though, Steamworld Dig is still a good game, and ten dollars is a decent price for it, but just take note that more expert level gamers might be disappointed in how short the game can be.

Madragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree provides the perfect blend of Souls-like and Metroidvania. An engaging story and satisfying combat will keep you coming back even though there are going to be things that annoy you and force you to step away from time to time. In the end, there is an excellent adventure to be found here and I look forward to more like it from this development team.

Fans of Nintendo's long-running Advance War series will feel right at home with this new PS Vita game. It's a solid strategy game that is hurt by a lack of polish and a repetitive design. But even with the problems, the online multiplayer mode makes Desert Ashes worth buying.

Ageless is bright, colorful, and sounds great, but is just a bit clunky. The game gives off a Celeste-vibe, which is a good thing, but it can take some time to get used to the age mechanics and the precise aiming required for a lot of the puzzles.

The depth of this game makes it a pretty solid addition to the Vita library, even if it does come off a little heavy handed about some life lessons.

I may not be the hugest fan of the series but the original three Phoenix Wright games still stand up remarkably well. With a fresh coat of 3D graphics and a budget price of $30, this trilogy is a great way to relive your favorite series, and a perfect entry point for people new to Phoenix Wright.

The Surge isn’t interested in creating variation in its gameplay mechanics, or exploring more diverse settings or ideas, or creating compelling characters. It washes over you, but it’s a refined wash, and the foundation for a great game to come. The Surge is a good thing, and I’m glad it exists as another answer to the Souls-esque games coming out – its dull, but refined sci-fi action makes the game feel like a first step, if only a step, in the right direction.

While the game suffers in performance in docked mode, the pleasures gained in handheld mode more than make up for it. Even with the technical issues, this is a fine collection, and well worth the investment of both time and money.

In the end, Arkham Knight proves to be an excellent new chapter in the Arkham franchise. The story is absolutely fantastic, as is most of the gameplay, just prepare to be inundated with constant tank battles.

The Wii U version has a couple advantages, letting you play with some novel motion controls, and of course enabling the entire game on the GamePad. For $7.99, it’s not a bad little entry in the Wii U’s burgeoning digital catalog.

Hard to learn and tough to play well, this game will attract only the hardest-core RTS player, the kind who cares about realistic combat and deep strategy. This is a game that will repay effort with success, but many will find it too much effort for not enough payoff.

It might not be the scariest game out there, but The Evil Within brings the scary and the tension. Unfortunately it trips over its feet in key places.

It is what it is: An enjoyable time in Middle-earth as all of the favorite characters from the nine members of the Fellowship. The standard issues with LEGO games are there, but with a deep amount of gameplay, numerous characters to choose from, and the feeling of actually watching or reading the trilogy means plenty of fun for those looking for a break from the gory versions of hack-and-slash games.

A TBS with a sense of humor doesn't come along every day. Don't mistake light-hearted for light-headed, however - “Warlock 2: The Exiled” is a solid, if limited, game. It can provide hours of fun in an attractive package without overwhelming the player with detail.

While I'm not 100% in love with the game due to bugs and difficulty swings, Cyberpunk 2077 is still a solid pickup simply for its story and incredible world. Make sure your system is prepared for it and you'll get a good experience.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars is enjoyable but rather easy, even in later stages.

It is amazing what results when a developer, such as Media Molecule, truly “gets” the system that they are working with. This is easily going to be one of the marquee titles for the Vita this holiday season and possibly for the system’s entire lifespan.

Your level of enjoyment will hinge on how often you can play this game with friends. When there are plenty of people around this game is a blast. Playing it solo can still be a lot of fun, but it feels like some of the magic is lost.

Do you like ABBA? Do you like singing along with ABBA songs? Then you will love Let’s Sing Presents ABBA, which is really just the same Let’s Sing game we’ve been playing for years, this time with ABBA songs. Personally, I’ve been having a blast with this one, as the track list is deep, the songs are catchy, and the singing – as always – is bad. Nothing revolutionary, but good times all around.

Dead Island 2 is a fun FPS action romp that succeeds at making you feel like a zombie-slaying god. It’s not going to set the gaming world on fire, and yes, there are some issues, but slaughtering my way across LA never got old.

South of Midnight has a good story, and is a good action adventure game. It may get a little repetitive at times, but the story keeps you in enough to keep playing. I gave it all the time I could, and maybe it deserves another playthrough, since I walked away asking more questions then I started with. I only need to hear the music once though, I guarantee.

It’s truly a blessing that Thunderful Games has brought Wavetale over to all modern platforms after Google put Stadia in the tomb. Wavetale tells a heartfelt narrative filled with beautiful visuals and a soothing soundtrack in an open world experience that’s short and sweet.

A good game marred by bugs and lack of documentation. Once it is fixed it should be back on top but it does not justify a higher score.

Portal Pinball is definitely an excellent addition to the Zen Pinball 2 lineup, but that is based purely on its solid pinball mechanics and roots. The Portal aspect comes across as nothing more than cosmetic, which seems like a lost opportunity.

Pharoah is a throwback in the best possible way. Harkening back to a time when city management games were actually manageable, Pharoah will still present players with a good amount of challenge. There is a ton of game here to enjoy, and it continuously pushes the player to find unique ways to solve interesting problems. It is worth mentioning that there may be a gators hiding in the Nile right out of the gate upon release, but one can expect those to be cleaned up in short order; there is nothing here that should stop prospective players from starting their own Egyptian empires. Fun and addictive.

The team behind Exploding Kittens VR has certainly built a fun and unique way to experience the popular card game. It is an absolute blast in multiplayer with friends. But in the end, your enjoyment of this application will entirely depend on your enjoyment of the game it is based on. There are a few bells and whistles - and the bot-based practice mode is a nice way to learn the game - but unless you are actively playing with humans, you are going to run out of steam pretty quickly.

With an atypical amount of polish and a variety of satisfying road work to complete, Road Maintenance Simulator 2 is a surprisingly good simulator. It features an excellent blend of precision versus peacefulness that is sometimes difficult for games in the genre to nail down, which makes it an easy one to recommend.

When it's on, it's damn fun. Single player is ok but playing co-op with three others is a blast.. when the lag is minimized.

DC Super Hero Girls: Teen Power successfully translates the beloved animated TV show into the video game space. While the game might feel a bit fluffy for adults, playing with kids is a blast. With reasonably well-done combat and a ton of side activities, Teen Power is a meatier (and more fun) experience than one might assume—an absolute win for a licensed game.

Fans of the Tony Hawk brand of skateboarding will be happy to know that this Nintendo DS port is not just a scaled down console game, it's easily the best version of the game on the market.

Tandem: A Tale of Shadows is a fun and clever puzzle game, but the story falls quite a bit flat with a pretty dark ending. The puzzles themselves are enjoyable with needing to switch between Emma's and Fenton's perspectives a nice mechanic. The story though is just there and while puzzle games don't need stories to be enjoyable, if you're going to have one at least flesh things out a bit. If you don't mind a story that covers just the bare essentials needed to have a story, Tandem's puzzles are pretty enjoyable and I'd recommend checking the game out at some point.

The game abandons some of its mechanics too quickly and the ending will leave you scratching your head, but when it comes down to it, you can count on Metrico.

Immortals Fenyx Rising is cheerful fun, offering a fresh take on Greek mythology that is cartoonish but with just enough humanity to keep it grounded. While the game plays like a open world epic, every mechanic in Immortals is tied to well-designed puzzles. Though the actions you take become repetitive, the story and writing keep things lively enough to see Immortals Fenyx Rising through to the end.

Despite a few rare difficult moments with finicky controls and timed puzzles, Helheim Hassle is well worth a look. The humor is lively, surprising, and wickedly funny, while never feeling mean. The majority of the puzzles are engaging and fun. Helheim Hassle is a good-natured good time.

While more limited in scope than the mainline Dying Light titles, this side-quel ups the fun factor by giving the player a way to blow off steam with the addition of superpowers. Lighter in tone and with more room to breathe, Dying Light: The Beast puts just enough spin on the franchise's formula to keep from feeling like a retread. It turns out that the ability to stomp around and clear a room in 30 seconds was just what Dying Light needed.

While selecting individual cases from the full game leaves the player with a disjointed and incomplete story, enough of the 1940's ambiance and the rough and tumble crime fighting of that era is included to offer up a compelling preview of what will hopefully become LA Noire 2: VR. There is some work to do on some of the mechanics, most notably the way in which weapons are handled, but this weakness is easily offset by the compelling, immersive world and some of the action sequences that occur in it.

I was very pleased with the simplistic, fun-to-play nature of Super Mega Baseball 2. The game plays very well with only a few shortcomings and does so for a small amount of bucks. You will not see Mike Trout hitting a home run, but you can have Tony Stark stealing home.

Orcs Must Die! 3 contains a ton of the tower defense/shooting hybrid gameplay that fans love – all delivered in a very polished package. The new war-sized levels deliver a massive jolt of fun, and there is plenty of content here to keeps players busy for quite a while. Though progression feels a little unbalanced in single player, perseverance or grinding will eventually overcome obstacles.

As it turns out, Creed: Rise to Glory – Championship Edition is a killer VR fitness app disguised as a fun boxing game. If you’re looking for a sparring partner for some simple boxing fun, to blow off some steam in the ring, or even for a decent cardio workout, then look no further.

Deracine is one of the better experiences on the PSVR with a compelling story and some interesting gameplay. It feels like a complete experience from start to finish and has an interesting world that begs to be explored further.

Even if it is a bit one-note, 101 Ways to Die is an irreverent puzzle game whose sheer fun potential outweighs its frustrations.

Gift of Parthax is a pretty decent top-down arena brawler. While the keyboard and mouse controls can be a bit clunky and a lot of the game can just make you feel like you’re going through the paces battle after battle, there is a good amount of strategy involved with what spells to take into a battle, what runes to place in them, and how to deal with the enemies you encounter. While the fights early on may seem a bit slow in their pacing, Gift of Parthax is an enjoyable game if you give it a chance.

The campaign could have been so much better, but while throwaway characters and lackluster scenes hurt the single-player product, there is no denying that Treyarch did a solid job with the multiplayer options. Killing zombies will become your favorite pastime and a great change up from all those online deathmatches you'll have against players around the world. It isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it's still a good time.

Smelter is a game that's a mix of platforming and real-time strategy, though it's the platforming that shines more. The controls are tight and the challenge is pretty fair though it can ramp up quite a bit later on. Plus the Trials are a great way to test your skills and help unlock new abilities. The RTS segments aren't bad but they feel a little too simplified with no major consequences.

It's a slightly frustrating, fascinating trip back to a world like you've never seen, and I think the $20 asking price is well worth that alone.

Wave Break is a blast of a skateboarding game – once you get through its nearly impenetrable shield of difficulty. With tons of moves to learn and master, and some deep and dense levels to explore, Wave Break offers a variety of gameplay options to keep things fresh. Just remember to explore the game's modes on your own, because Wave Break isn't interested in explaining things to you.

There is no getting around the fact that Zen is the best in the business when it comes to creating (and recreating) pinball tables in the digital space. The new Pinball FX is a solid package with several new ways to play your tables. That said, this is a platform, not a game, and your experience will vary depending on your level of investment in tables. New modes and interfaces are nice, but the game still aches a bit from what could have been.

Catherine is certainly a fun and challenging game, both in its gameplay and story and character elements. In some of these moments it succeeds, in others, it fumbles, and falls flat on its face. But that doesn't mean it's unimportant, as it is good to learn from mistakes made previously in order to improve at a later point in time.

All in all, Concursion is a fairly solid game, but there are some issues here and there. The graphics and animation are so-so, the difficulty curve can be steep and times, and the bosses can be pretty tedious. Overall though, if you’re into classic gaming genres I’d at least give the demo a shot before picking up the full game.

Obsidian set out to make a Fallout game, but didn’t think we’d mind if they actually made it a Firefly game along the way. So now we have an anti-capitalist Firefly mired in labor issues but elevated by rapidfire gunplay, peppered with chuckles from a tryhard sense of humor.

A Rogue Escape gives players just enough information to get started on their escape in an alien mech, and then allows them to fiddle and fuss their way to a fast and un-triumphant death. With tactile controls and fun reveals, the game slowly unfolds like the very best escape rooms. Bring your thinking cap and patience.

The Pit: Infinity has a lot of good ideas and a solid sci-fi roguelike foundation, but it’s stymied by early repetition and a few odd design decisions. For $19.99 it’s not a bad deal, but I hope its developers continue to work on it as it could still be so much more.

Strip out all of the blood and gore from the Hitman franchise and what is left is truly a thinking man’s game. The developers certainly understand what the true charm of the series is and it is highlighted in this puzzle-take on the franchise.

As it is now, Ashes of the Singularity is a solid RTS game that will only get better with age. The game delivers large scale battles but falls a bit short in the personality department.

While there isn't a Karkland or Wake Island classic map in the mix, two of the three maps are actually pretty solid and feature some strong game play if you can get the game to run.

War, the Game has stripped away the deep complexity typical of the real-time strategy game and left the player with a simple-to-learn, hard-to-master global dominance game that allows the armchair general to concentrate far more on the actual strategic planning and implementation of battle than on the logistics that support them.

Seraph has a very solid foundation but lacks the level variation and art variety to get truly addictive. That said, the combat is thrilling and the scaling difficulty is creative. If you can get this one on sale, I’d definitely pull the trigger.

The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners is a great game. It's just that maybe it's not a great game for you. Maybe, like me, you don't have your VR legs enough to enjoy it. Maybe you want a little bit more from the PC hardware you have to run it on and won't accept the compromises this game makes. Maybe you just have TWD fatigue. If those things don't stand in your way, then what is on offer is an incredible and immersive experience. A well-developed virtual playground to craft and battle your way through a rich world and story that is only let down by an implementation that just screams compromise to make way for a PSVR release.

Wonky translations aside, both Chaos;Head NoAH and Chaos;Child are filled with great characters, fantastic murder mystery whodunit stories and some twists that blew my mind. These games certainly won't be for everyone though. If you can stomach the disturbing subject matter of the games I highly recommend giving them a shot, especially if you are a fan of Steins;Gate or Robotics;Notes. It's finally great that the entire Science Adventure series is now available to play in preparation of the next game Anonymous;Code releasing next year.

Beautiful in every way, Herdling is a short and sweet adventure that will pull at your heartstrings.

As long as you know what you’re getting into thematically, graphically, and gameplay-wise, you’ll enjoy your time spent with Tales of Symphonia and ToS: A New Dawn.

Sand Land immediately caught my attention due to its ties to Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball and character designs in the Dragon Quest series. With a manga, anime, and now a video game adaptation, Sand Land has quietly become a full-fledged franchise, seemingly over night. Despite its simple premise—a search for water in a desert wasteland—Sand Land offers a mix of action RPG, vehicle combat, and stealth gameplay that’s just plain fun. The game stays faithful to its source material while offering surprising depth and variety in gameplay mechanics. Despite some challenges with the stealth sections, Sand Land provides a fun and engaging experience and retains the nostalgic charm of its origins in Toriyama's work.

While not a huge fan of Dragon Ball in general, I can say that I’m a fan of Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 on the Switch. It does have its flaws. Namely with the camera and some of the training. Plus the combat can get repetitive as you mash out the same combos, at least in the early going. But I can definitely say that I found a Dragon Ball game that I can enjoy coming back to from time to time.

Aerena is perfect for those who love strategy games.

Enjoyable once you learn the controls, but it feels like it was more geared towards multiplayer. The ammo capacity and mod restrictions force you to think strategically about what to take on each mission which can be both good and bad depending on how you look at it.

A great way to celebrate Rockford’s thirty year trek through the caves. While the game looks like it belongs on a mobile device (which makes sense given this was originally released on iOS and Android) and the controls could be a bit tighter, the game offers up plenty of challenge even within the early worlds. Fans of arcade-style puzzle games will definitely want to dig into this one.

With choices between flat or VR, solo or co-op, and Explore vs. Engage, Downward Spiral: Horus Station can be tailored to the player's preference. I found the solo VR mode to be an amazing VR experience that amply demonstrated the incredible immersion value of VR in a spooky, broken space station. The Engage mode, which translates to you get shot a lot when playing, was not as compelling - the shooting aspects weren't all that good and served only to detract from the somber, creepy mood.

The Long Journey Home is a roguelike sci-fi survival simulator fueled on hope and hopelessness. Bring them home, commander. But be ready to die a hundred deaths before that ever happens.

You'd think after all the years of playing survival horror games I'd be ready for just about anything, it's good to have my survival skills thrown in to question every now and again, and thanks to ZombiU it'll keep me sharp for when the real thing goes down. It's too bad some design choices keep this game from being a truly stellar launch title.

While a ton of infrastructure, a cool social hub, and a fun leveling system really help sell this package, Just Dance VR phones it in on the dances themselves, culling material from much older games and rendering it in 3D. A neat experience, but it could have been earth-moving.

Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth is enjoyable both on the go or on your console, either way you're going to be transported back to a time where you had shouting matches over which Digimon could beat which Pokemon. The story and gameplay are a bit same-y to other properties out there, but its easy to look past considering how much fun it is.

The Banner Saga 2 is like moving through a still-life painting of swords and spears and ice and hunger. A few thoughtful gameplay tweaks make things a little bit better for players, and a whole lot worse for characters.

Daylight offers a short, but ultimately terrifying experience. The procedurally generated levels offers a unique twist on subsequent playthroughs, and the excellent sound design and powerful visuals really sell what Zombie Studios was going for here.

An intensely fun multiplayer game that is accessible and fun for everyone. Not perfect, but that's what sequels are for.

The newest Super Monkey Ball game isn't lacking for much. With a ton of remastered levels, modes, minigames, and unlockable prizes, this enormous package could keep a fan busy for the rest of their life - if they don't mind high blood pressure. The only thing more pervasive than the mountain of content is the franchise's usual blistering difficulty. Fun, frustrating, and rewarding, this is a great collection.

Battlefield 6 completed the main objective: make a great multiplayer suite. But it failed the side objective: make a great singeplayer campaign. Still, Battlefield players are here for one thing. I know it, you know it, Battlefield Studios knows it – we all know it. And there’s no denying that they’ve nailed the most important part.

More software than game, Art Academy: Home Studio is an enjoyable experience with infinite replayability. Regardless of your artistic skill, it will teach you a thing or two and give you a nice creative outlet to express yourself with its expansive toolset.

Leo's Fortune is very, very short, but the small amount of content that is there is focused, charming, and wrapped in an absolutely gorgeous package.

No masquerade this; the first expansion to Neverwinter Nights 2 inherits the family jewels, lines up a commendable dramatis personae, and simply continues to ladle up what D&D fans grab their bowls and spoons for -- although there’s no room at the table for newcomers.

Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze is a master class in the art form of 2D platformers, but it’s way too difficult for its own good and this makes the inherent flaws and limitations of the genre all the more obvious.

Ace Combat Horizon Legacy Plus is exactly what you want from the series: Ace Combat on the go. This new version isn't essential if you have the original 2011 release, but if you've never bought the game, the new Amiibo support and other features make the Plus edition the one to own.

While the execution misses in a few areas, Magrunner is a fun game that's worth your time if you're looking for an action-puzzle game.

Elex II ignores current game design ethos and rages to its own weird beat. Weird, fun, tough, and unpredictably funny, Elex II is feels like a DIY punk-rock open world game, janky and awesome all at the same time. Steer clear if you insist on perfection in your games, but if you are willing to go for the ride and appreciate the flaws instead of being bothered by them, you’ll find a deep and fun adventure unlike anything else on the market.

It's violent, it's lewd, it's offensive, it's Duke Nukem and it's amazing. Hail to the king, baby!

Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is going to be a tough sell for those who aren't familiar with the franchise. It's got a lot of questionable design decisions and feels like a more bare bones experience than past games of the series. But it's Fatal Frame, these games only come along in a blue moon these days, so savor them while they still exist.

Samurai Warriors 4 Empires is a nice change of pace for those who want more to the Warriors franchise than just hack and slash. Not that the hacking and slashing isn't fun, but the addition of the strategy elements makes it and even better game and one that is a blast to play.

Transformers Devastation is the definition of a fan-service game. An excellent combat system layered over sights and sounds that take children of the '80s back to their youth creates a memorable experience for Transformers fans. The only sad thing is that it never really goes deeper than that.

I didn’t know what to expect with Ghostwire: Tokyo at first. It uniquely meshes aspects of horror and action with the deep mythos of Japanese folklore. The game absolutely crushes it in terms of visual and technical performance, utilizing every feature of next-gen on the PlayStation 5. However, its disappointing narrative and repetitive open world features hold it back from being truly amazing.

While a good game, it would have been nice to see some more complex puzzles around the mid-way point to up the challenge a bit more.

Cake Bash is an extremely polished four-player collection of minigames and competitions that is perfect for families as well as more experience players. This is the sort of game that is meticulously designed so that anyone can pick up a controller and enjoy it. Though the amount of content in the game feels light, the amount of entertainment to be gained from this package far outweighs the asking price.

Street Fighter Alpha Anthology isn’t going to make a believer out of you if you already hate the series, but it is a welcome addition to the library of any fighting game fan.

Missile Command: Recharged is the upgrade you didn't think you needed. It's new missions and graphical polish is a very nice touch. I'd dare say this is one of the first tower defense/bullet hell games, and Atari never skimps on delivering the "hell" part of that equation. With snappy controls, and a cool soundtrack, Missile Command: Recharged will keep you on your toes, for as long as it wants to.

Zombie Driver was good as an Xbox Live Arcade game, and even better on the Xbox One.

Ashwalkers promises a dreary trek across low-poly wastelands—and it delivers. It also seems to promise a tale rife with moral dilemmas and unassailable camaraderie—which it doesn't hit hard enough. The biggest dilemmas are often too big to comprehend on a human scale. And the human interactions left me cold and calculating when they should’ve had me digging in my heart of hearts for the answers.

Despite being physically hampered by the experience of playing the game, I could clearly see what the makers were going for here and I think they largely hit those notes well. I feel like this game has the potential to be a distinctly polarizing experience. Those that really get into it have the option to obsess over perfect, clean runs that lie within reach of those dedicated enough to perfect them; while those that don't are welcome to just put down the controller after a dozen hours of trial and error to completion. Don't give up on the first few failed attempts because the payoff when it all comes together is rewarding regardless of whether it took you ten tries or a hundred, and maybe even more so if the latter.