Outside the campaign, The Final Shape does mostly well. The Pale Heart is a visually-arresting space to explore, though doesn’t change the Patrol Zone formula in any meaningful way. The addition of the Dread enemy faction and Prismatic subclass add freshness to the sandbox, though don’t offer any evolution to the way you’ll play Destiny 2. The only truly downright awful thing about The Final Shape is that, for $50, there’s still not a whole lot of included content, leaving Destiny 2’s core activities starved for anything fresh. Destiny 2: The Final Shape is, ultimately, more Destiny 2, and it provides a meaningful ending to the 10-year Light and Darkness saga.

As far as the game itself is concerned, God of War Ragnarok could best be described as a safe sequel. Ragnarok focuses primarily on storytelling and big cinematic moments while refusing to take any chances when it comes to combat, exploration or other parts of the gameplay. This refusal to innovate sometimes backfires as there are plenty of moments when the narrative isn't strong enough to carry the rest of the game. God of War Ragnarok is mostly an enjoyable experience, especially when you include Valhalla as part of the package, but the sequel ultimately falls short in several key areas and isn’t nearly as memorable as its predecessor.

Monster Hunter Wilds is a fun experience and has all the staples that make the series so enjoyable. Unfortunately, some choices make it hard to enjoy yourself for a significant amount of time while making your way to the portion of the game that you’re trying to experience.

While it may not fully capitalize on the draw of its main premise, satisfying puzzle design, boss encounters and that simplest pleasure of seeing your character hop into and out of worlds on a whim lends Cocoon well-warranted and ultimately long-lasting charm.

From highly customizable characters to deep and meaningful combat that has been improved over its predecessor, there’s a lot here to like, at least on paper. Unfortunately, this is only when it all comes together properly.

While Mouthwashing has an incredible story and nicely disturbing and surreal visuals that could make it worth checking out, the shallow gameplay sadly hinders it, with dull puzzles, annoying chase bits and repetitive bits weighing it down. The twisted tale of the Tulpar is captivating, but if you're in the mood for a quick horror title, you can likely do better.

Just about every Vita feature is fully utilized and combined they offer a unique and engaging adventure. Unfortunately, the adventure is quite short and the replayablity isn’t there. Once you finish the game and find all the collectibles, the only choices are to start over or move onto the next game.

There are grand moments that will leave you enthralled, from the Knives Out-esque murder mystery to skydiving to one of the tallest buildings in Dubai. The environments are also a highlight as they’re not only a visual treat, but contain an incredible amount of detail that encourage creativity from the player. Unfortunately, there are hang ups that drag the experience down. The focus on the rushed story has taken a toll on at least two missions, while the CG cutscenes are awkwardly done. The decrease of Mission Stories down to between zero and three is a huge blow as they used to offer some of most entertaining ways in getting close to your target. The whole point of the Hitman games is replaying missions over and over again, but after completing one a couple of times, I felt like I experienced everything it had to offer, which isn’t something I had a problem with in the past. There are standout moments, but Hitman 3 just doesn’t have the same charm it did in the last two games, and the limitations only contribute to this. It’s more Hitman, but at the same time less of Hitman.

Yes, basketball fans will likely have a great time playing NBA 2K16 for hours on end, but there are too many small steps back here that can’t be ignored. The good news for fans of sports games is that the first misstep in this great franchise is still a very good game, which speaks to how truly fun its gameplay is.

Dark Moon is a likable if flawed journey through an enjoyably spooky world, and while it may not hold up to a long-term residency, it’s certainly worth a weekend getaway.

It might not be the most essential or comprehensive inclusion for the game, but it’s still great where it counts: pure, adrenaline-drenched, space-blasting fun.

For all its occasional grievances — that don’t add up to too much — it’s the intriguing mystery as much the appeal of its investigative leads across many a conversation where the strengths of The Forgotten City end up standing out most of all.

To this date there has never been a football sim that has handled gameplay the way PES 2017 does. The gameplay, however, isn’t enough alone to save PES from feeling a bit outdated at times. If you’re willing to overlook the lack of official licensing and entry level mode diversity, then the act of playing football in PES 2017 can’t be matched.

The Show 17 is fundamentally sound, but doesn’t move the sports genre forward. It will appease longtime fans that flock to it year after year, but until the series does something remarkably different, it’ll fall short of being able to stand out of the pack. This year’s version of The Show does a lackluster job of making it seem like anything more than a yearly roster update built upon the same foundation of last year’s game and that is by far the heaviest critique that can be handed down to any yearly sports title.

An actual campaign, a good amount of Strikes, the Crucible and a plethora of side activities ensure that Destiny 2 will remain in your console’s disc-drive for a long time. In other aspects, however, Destiny 2 feels more of an expansion than it does a sequel.

If you're willing to put up with an obnoxious camera and an awkward control scheme, you'll find a portable title that sometimes brushes against greatness and regularly proves that size sometimes doesn't matter after all. [Apr 2007, p.55]

Anyone interested in narrative-focused games needs to check If Found… out. While there are some stumbling points here and there, the act of playing and experiencing the artistry is top notch. This is a game much closer to a dream than a visual novel. If Found… is the latest release from developer DREAMFEEL and will be many people’s introduction to them. It makes an incredible impression and cements this studio as one to watch. Hopefully this release inspires others to create their own games to share their unique experiences with the world.

There either isn’t enough focus on the story to engage you or the racing focus is held back by the unattainable challenges and grind that comes with progressing. My Team is largely the same and if you paid more for the legendary drivers, you’ll be selecting one of those seven as a teammate at a time and won’t be using them in any other mode. The removal of Classic Mode and the ability to race as a current F1 driver in any mode outside of Grand Prix is disheartening and the fact that this information wasn’t made readily available to potential buyers isn’t good. Hopefully the issues with the AI can be patched as the actual racing and car physics are still excellent. There was a lot of opportunity for F1 2021, and on top of three circuits on this year’s calendar not being readily available for launch, there’s a lot left on the table for the current generation premiere of the series.

Bowser Jr’s Journey is easy to overlook and it’s a shame it wasn’t a more thought-out experience that could have been enjoyable given a good shake up instead of just being a glorified mobile title. There’s a lot of things done right here, but also some missed opportunities that could have been better executed overall. Anyone who wants to dive back into the Mario & Luigi RPG series will likely enjoy their time with Bowser’s Inside Story, but it’s an extremely relaxed experience that won’t be too memorable outside lots of chortles along the way.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is the epitome of the phrase, one step forward, two steps back. I hate comparing it to Human Revolution as it was something special, but Mankind Divided feels like an underwhelming, repackaged experience.

Super Bomberman Collection is a pack filled with fun games from the Super Nintendo era that are still just as fun today as they were back in the day. Filled with variety, they can be a strong option to recapture the magic once again. The collection itself ends up a little lackluster, though, with online multiplayer not being part of the pack by default and the basic additions that don’t even allow for complete remapping. In the end, it feels like more effort could have been put into celebrating such a classic IP.

Whirlight: No Time to Trip is point-and-click that oozes passion and charm in its world, characters, narrative and gameplay. Its main issue is that it falls for the biggest and most common trapping of its genre: the ingenuity of its interactions come at the cost of some solutions being less intuitive than would be ideal. The result is a game that can be just as frustrating as it is whimsical.

Disgaea 7 is a remarkable SRPG with an unremarkable story that gives you little reason to move past Alliance of Vengeance.

When it works, Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty is a beautiful, quirky, and devious puzzle platformer that deserves a spot alongside the likes of LIMBO, Another World and the original Abe’s Oddysee in the gaming canon. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work nearly often enough.

Her Story is a tough act to follow, and unfortunately, Telling Lies does not hit the same emotional highs that Barlow’s previous game did. Opting to use the same barebones video player both does not make sense for this storyline and introduces an annoyance that players are forced to deal with. The story is still intriguing, but not to a binge-worthy degree. Telling Lies is worth playing for Her Story fans, but can’t quite hit those same high notes despite its best efforts.

Odd as it may sound to recommend a game moreso on its story, Ninja Theory’s latest is an interesting, if flawed, entrant.

Those who want the best Runner 2 experience, however, should seek it out elsewhere. If you only have a Vita to play with, though, then this is still a mighty fine way to get your dose of Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien.

As it stands Splatoon 3 feels more like a delayed expansion than a brand new experience, but for those who just wanted more of the same old Splatoon, this will offer up more inking and splatting for them to partake in.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered is a solid remaster that enhances the original game with beautiful new visuals and a little bit of extra multiplayer content, but Raven Software may have stuck to the original a little too much. A few tweaks would have gone a long way to fixing some balancing issues, but for those looking for a blast from the past, this works just fine.

Gradius Origins offers enough fun for players looking for something simple yet challenging, or who are just in it for the sake of nostalgia. If you love the series, can forgive the missing games and need to have Salamander III, Gradius Origins might be worth owning if you’re okay with the price tag. If not, you might want to wait until you find it on sale. As for curious new players, if you don’t mind a little repetitiveness, then Gradius Origins might be worth it. If the idea of doing the same thing again and again sounds like it’ll get dull, then this collection might not be for you.

Destiny 2 has its share of issues, a lot of them to be frank, but it’s still an entertaining adventure that the developers have properly improved. The shooting mechanics are some of the best in the business, and the art team has done an amazing job in bringing this futuristic universe to realization. With that said, it’s not a monumental leap, feeling less like a sequel and more like an overloaded expansion. That’s not to mention the worlds, while beautiful, are less memorable than most of what the original game had to offer. Thankfully, Bungie and Activision have outdone themselves with the PC port. While the graphics are primarily sharper and more defined, the 60 FPS frame rate is the real game changer, ensuring you’ll never want to go back to another 30 FPS shooter. The keyboard and mouse controls also add a level of precision you couldn’t find on consoles, making this the go-to version to get. In the end, the PC release will give players a decent idea what console players have been talking about over the last three years, for better or for worse.

Age of Mythology: Retold eliminates the need to play the original titles as it takes everything from both of those games, modernizes it and brings the experience to 2024. While it lacks the polish of Age of Empires IV, the game remains extremely fun thanks to the mythological units and God Powers that can be recharged and used multiple times. This aspect adds more depth that may have not been there for some players for AOE4. The gameplay aspect does still feel like a RTS from 2002, but the campaign, skirmish and the option of PVE multiplayer will supply a ton of hours to dive into Retold.

When Fresh Tracks isn't getting in its own way and letting you read the course, it can be a good time as you plot the best line through snow and jump, slash, lean and avoid everything it can throw at you. Learning to charge up the magic sword with well-timed slashes and the best way to use its magic, whether that be healing or offensive, adds extra strategy through the journey. Each level is also well-designed, with a variety of challenges that repeat and vary at a good pace before a new set of obstacles show up requiring a different approach. The woods, fields, caves, rivers and castles are beautiful landscapes to travel through, and there's decent mythology revealed through the story-songs and godly info-dumps. It's a pretty but hectic journey through the tunes of a snowy fantasy world, skiing through everything its wilderness can throw at you to defeat the music of the gods.

At its core, the overall gameday feel and experience is largely unchanged. There are enough mild changes here to sway your eyes enough away from that aspect.

Moomintroll: Winter's Warmth is an interesting way to dive into the world of Moomin, offering a simple but fairly competent adventure that doubles down as something akin to a coming of age story. Unfortunately, what could have been a fantastic adventure is dragged down slightly by the way quests are presented as repetitive chores. Nonetheless, it’s still a curious adventure, especially for fans of the original universe or those curious about its rendition of a world reminiscent of a fairy tail.

Even with a phenomenal world, though, the story feels boilerplate and can be downright frustrating at times, having nonsensical, poorly-established events. The combat can also be aggravating as the AI has a hard time properly comprehending their surroundings and failing to stick to a given role. It doesn’t help there’s a strong RNG element to obtaining Blades, meaning you could be stuck with a bad hand for quite some time. Still, with all of these complaints, it’s hard to put it down. With an absurd amount of content, there’s no denying there’s an addicting and alluring quality to Xenoblade Chronicles 2, which makes it all the more disappointing it turned out the way it did. It had the potential to be one of the best RPGs of the year, but instead it ends up being just above average.

While the overall game loop of Two Point Museum is a thrilling experience and will keep you hooked for many hours, the execution falls flat throughout the campaign. The tasks asked of you can be frustrating as they sometimes rely upon luck, and while most of the tutorials are great towards the beginning, the lack of explanation about the financial side of Two Point Museum is disappointing.

A satisfying streak of action-platforming madness together with some great world-building; the intentions and executions may not always come across fulfilled or impactful, but Katana Zero at least is a game that will attract on its narrative substance, as much its dynamic pixel-art style.

Mortal Kombat 1 is a victory with most of its story, gameplay and presentation; it’s just nowhere near a flawless victory.

Perhaps with future content updates and tweaking, Free Lives can elevate Broforce from the good game it is to the great game it can be.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is not a perfect game and the tech issues in particular are fair grounds for complaints. Even with its faults, however, the positives greatly outweighs its flaws, though some old school Assassin’s Creed fans may be in an uproar over some of the more drastic changes to the traditional formula. Despite its issues, this is a worthwhile odyssey to embark on.

For all of Odin Sphere's innovations, few manage to have a meaningful impact upon gameplay, and the experience fails to gel into a cohesive whole as a result. [July 2007, p.56]

While you may have to be prepared for a slow start and a grind, there’s fun to be found in Crown Trick, thanks to its unique turn-based take on roguelike dungeon crawlers, its enjoyable and deep mechanics, and the vibrant world of the Nightmare Realm. Whether you’re a patient player, a strategy buff or just someone looking for something different, NEXT Studios have something for you that might not be an absolute dream, but will be an interesting little fantasy.

Despite some of the issues with the game, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is a solid arena fighting game that has tons of action and content available to players on day one and is worth a shot for fans and newcomers alike.

OFF is an interesting RPG that exemplifies the unique, creative side of many experiences conceived over the years on RPG Maker. Its style isn’t something that will please everyone, and it feels like the gameplay is relatively uninspired even with the facelift. Nonetheless, it’s still the kind of experience worth checking out, especially for those looking for a thought-provoking, weird new RPG.

Klei Entertainment has once again proven themselves to be at the forefront of creating endless replay value, all while wrecking backlogs near and far.

For some people and maybe even for you, WipeOut Pulse is worth the effort involved and then some.

While the content is short sighted with Chivalry 2, the improvements over its predecessor make it a much better experience. As of today, developer Torn Banner Studios has promised that the content in the game will double. The combat is fun and the draw to keep playing is to level up each subclass, while the archer provides a good change of pace. This is an excellent title to play a couple of rounds and come back to at another date. Those that want to grind and get skilled have the chance to do this. For PC players, the keyboard and mouse combo works well with the combat mechanics. As more and more content comes to the game including gameplay improvements, the experience should only improve. Either way, it’s hard to put the game down.

Dark Souls III: The Ringed City isn’t the swan song that we hoped it would be, but it’s still an enticing adventure for hardcore fans. The problem lies within city itself, which is a bit of a formulaic mess that fails to capture what made the series great. The first half of the DLC has an excellent setup that will leave players wanting more, especially with callbacks to Dark Souls II, but city portion is structurally boring. It’s still intertwining in on itself, but it feels like the developers had a checklist of all their favorite areas and design tropes that needed to be in this short experience, lessening their importance. No one area feels fleshed out enough to be memorable. Regardless, the bosses are a decent showpiece, especially if you can find the secret one, and the new enemies are a welcome addition. It may be only a few hours long, but The Ringed City still a worthy addition to the Dark Souls universe.

Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions is a solid reboot of a series that’s been gone far too long, and even if all of its experiments on the old formula don’t work, enough of them do to make it a game worth chasing as many high scores as you can manage.

It’s not the worst way to spend your time and money, but there are also much better local multiplayer games you could be playing instead.

Madden NFL 17 isn’t leaps and bounds ahead of what EA Tiburon was able to accomplish last year, but it builds on a very solid foundation with only a few hiccups and annoyances to speak of.

It’s cute, approachable by all, and most of all its addicting and creative gameplay can get its hooks in you pretty deep if you let it.

The phrase, “doesn’t do anything particularly new,” is apt to describe Borderlands 3. It’s more Borderlands and that’s just fine for fans of the franchise. Gearbox has done an excellent job crafting an experience fans will feel familiar with.

Sure, it does falter due to the frequently repetitive side quests that damage the pacing, but it remains an absolute joy. Gears Tactics offers a different pace for Gears fans, but at the same time, the same amount of gratifying combat they’ve come to expect.

Simulacra might not be perfect, but it highlights that the found phone horror concept is one that has a significant amount of potential. For anyone looking to venture into uncharted territory with horror, Simulacra is a choice that brings a fresh, exciting new experience compared with many other titles on the market. It has a well-constructed story and demonstrates that branching narratives are built for horror titles. Kaigan Games has only scraped the surface of found phone horror, though. Should they choose to return with another installment and be able to improve on some of the notable flaws, it could end up making the real impact that it’s looking for with found phone horror on the mobile market. For now, however, Simulacra is a must-own title for any horror enthusiast. Even if it’s only for a single playthrough, it’s enough to make any player want to talk to their friend about this found phone horror title they’ve discovered.

If Death Stranding wasn’t so padded out it could have been something special; instead, we’re left with a repetitive letdown that’s far more enjoyable to watch than play.

The problem is that. at press time, Castle Crashers is as glitchy as it gets. [Fall 2008, p.54]

Mortal Kombat 11 provides a solid if unremarkable cast of characters to choose from and plenty of ways to customize them. It’s just a pity that much of the activities and rewards revolve so heavily around grinding and microtransactions.

Super Mario Party Jamboree is something of a mixed experience. Its main mode, while offering a truly solid selection of fun minigames and interesting boards, suffers from a frustratingly slow rate of play. Unless it's addressed in a future update, most players are probably going to eventually get tired of everything taking longer than it should. Most of the side modes are “take it or leave it” affairs as well, but Koopathlon, Toad’s Item Factory and especially Bowser’s Kaboom Squad are together good enough to make up for that. Fans with friends to play it with will feel satisfied with Super Mario Party Jamboree, but those who don’t probably need not rush to pick this one up.

There are so many games in the zeitgeist that focus on offering the most realistic or the most refined and polished experience on the market, but often this can be to the detriment of fun. Tiny Terry's Turbo Trip knows this all too well, focusing solely on bringing the fun factor. It's a love letter to successful mascot platformers of old while offering some much-needed fan service to the kid-friendly GTA-clone sub-genre that gave us The Simpsons Hit and Run and Lego City Undercover. It's not a game that's going to change your life, but it's a wonderful, action-packed romp that just might make a lazy afternoon a little more memorable.

For anyone who has their Wii up and running online, you should definitely take the plunge, because the game's strengths will outweigh its flaws. If you can only play this game offline, however, then unless you're a masochist (or someone psychotic like me, who actually managed to get to the final stage of F-Zero GX’s crazy-hard Story Mode) pass on this; in fact, I'd go so far as to advise you to run in the other direction.

Solas 128 is an intricate sprawling mass of puzzles, slowly building in intricacy from managing a single beam to untangling multiple colors and filters with only a handful of reflectors. The initial “guide the beam to the exit” eventually changes to “guide the color to the place to activate the trigger to get to the area while keeping an eye on three possible exits, all of which will be used eventually but in what order?” Meanwhile the neon-vector art style keeps the screen looking great even as the minutes tick by, and while the repetition of the soundtrack doesn’t fare so well in the long run, the steady beat of the synthwave music keeps the brain flowing along in a puzzley trance. There’s a lot to untangle in the depths of a corrupted machine, but when fixed maybe it can finally function again good as new.

While not a lot has changed in terms of ways to play MLB The Show 23, the experience on the field is much improved. The time spent on the audio aspect and the focus on better replicating a television broadcast are this game’s specialty. The lack of updated rule changes, however, is a weird gaff. The modes remain the same for the most part outside of the inclusion of the Negro League stories. This is hampered by tying progression down to the Challenge Mode, which has been historically frustrating. Spreading the game across multiple outdated platforms and also tying this to Game Pass is hurting the progression of the series as it has become visually dated. This isn’t a big deal if you’re already paying for Game Pass, but paying $70 for a dated-looking game where a good bit of it is unchanged and previous Diamond Dynasty progression is reset is a hard ask. MLB The Show 23 is still a solid game of baseball, but it has been a solid game of baseball for years and being stuck on one platform no longer offers an excuse for attracting new players.

Though not quite matching the Everest-high peak of its contemporaries, Creepy Castle delivers enough charm and quirkiness to leave a satisfying impression. Satisfying enough to look past the aspect ratio, put it that way.

If you do any type of eSports racing or are a long time fan of racing in general, Circuit Superstars is worth a look. If you enjoyed the classic games of racing’s past such as RC Pro Am and the like, then this will be right up your alley. While the Grand Prix is fine for single player, it’s going to take devoted effort to learn the game and the tracks. It lacks the hook and appeal of Mario Kart, which makes Circuit Superstars less inviting to spend hours on learning everything. This is a fun racing game to play with friends with the same light-hearted approach the developers had when creating the game. For $19.99, this is a great good option to have in your arsenal when friends come over.

When all is said and done, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a solid experience. It's flashy, pretty and entertaining, standing out through the combat and environments. It no longer feels like this sprawling world that we explore and save from the brink of destruction, but rather a small pocket that needs constant supervision. This is a more on-the-rails experience when compared to any of the past Dragon Age games. Considering the struggles that Bioware has undergone since Dragon Age: Inquisition, however, it's still awesome that we received a game of this quality. It doesn’t share much in terms of style and gameplay, but we do see characters we love again in a beautiful world and fun combat. It isn’t the most mind-blowing entry to the series and does play it safe, but it's still a good game. The combat and soundtrack are solid, the environments are gorgeous and the game is still filled with a ton of world-building.

With more fine-tuning and content, Lethal League could have been a home run. Sadly, it balks the opportunity.

Ninja Gaiden 4 is a frustratingly good time. On one hand, the combat can be entertaining, with highly engaging move sets and combos. On the other hand, the story, pacing, mission structure and some enemy designs leave a lot to be desired.

Nidhogg is a polarizing game. Experiencing it the way it’s meant to be played (via local multiplayer) is a fantastically fun event. Without that, it’s easy to pick at the ways in which the game feels small.

Call of the Sea could benefit from having more substance, but otherwise it’s a solid adventure game that manages to put a unique spin on the traditional Lovecraftian adventure. Norah’s journey is a memorable one, thinks to some terrific dialogue and a breathtaking, surreal island full of fantastical mystery. It may not be the most challenging graphic adventure game, but it’s still one that players might want to take a look at sometime. After all, after so many sheer descents into madness, why not set out to find a welcome change of pace?

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a decent game that delivers a good narrative, a set of great protagonists and strong gameplay, but never fully commits to melding the best aspects of both eras into a truly great package.

While Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley captivates with its enchanting art, heartfelt music and unique characters, it sometimes needs to deliver a more consistently-engaging gameplay experience. For enthusiasts of the Moomin universe, the game offers a delightful dive into a world filled with nostalgia and charm. Yet its appeal might extend less broadly due to the technical issues, alongside a gameplay loop that some may find monotonous, which detracts from its potential. The dedication to accessibility and the depth of emotional narrative are commendable, showcasing the developers' commitment to creating an inclusive and engaging experience. For the game to truly resonate with a broader audience, however, addressing the technical issues and refining the gameplay mechanics would be essential steps forward. Ultimately, Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley stands as a testament to the power of storytelling and art in video games, even as it navigates the complexities of delivering a seamless interactive experience.

The continued issues with online play (least on Nintendo’s platform) as well as Ghost Town’s wilful dismissing of a properly-adapted single-player alternative will only go to dwindle the potential audience once more. An audience whom might not see much significant change from what is still essentially an unaltered recipe from previous, but will still find immense joy in partaking in when part of a group. Which is a shame, given how well-realized Overcooked 2‘s core, emergent style of play truly is.

There’s a lot to love with Paradise Killer. From the cool cast of characters, to the open-ended nature of the investigation, players will find it easy to dive in. The vaporwave visual design may not be to everyone’s tastes, but those who enjoy it will love the world on display. The biggest disappointments are that there’s not more to the world exploration aspect. It’s also a shame that the open world nature of the gameplay does not carry over into the anticlimactic trials. Even so, it’s worth taking a vacation on Paradise Island. Paradise Killer is a bold first release from Kaizen Game Works and we’re looking forward to see what they create next.

Arizona Sunshine brings clear blue skies and a breath of fresh air to the zombie genre, and while it’s not a revolution, the game shows there’s still a little life left in blasting an undead horde into a splattery mess.

Let’s be clear here: a tightly-crafted, bug free game that does exactly what it wants to do, Ghostrunner deserves an audience. The appeal might not be universal, but the art and style behind the game cannot be ignored. It really is good, despite a personal distaste for how it handles certain elements. If a killcam is implemented to help the player learn their mistakes, then this title becomes an easy recommendation. Until then, check out the demo; it’s a good representation of what the game is. Anyone who enjoys that will have a blast with Ghostrunner. In the meantime, I’ll be applying salve to my now-wounded ego.

Lords of Shadow has incredible production values and an astonishing length for a character action title, but not only is it far too late to the party, but dapened by uninspiring combat.

Temirana: The Lucky Princess and the Tragic Knights is a solid otome game with flaws that keep it from shining as bright as it should. The visual novel features a compelling plot, a curious fantasy setting and solid audiovisual aspects. It may not be among the best Otomate titles, but fans of the genre are likely to enjoy Cecilia’s story.

Helldivers is at first a fresh, rewarding, challenging experience that stands up to any other game in terms of quality.

Despite a slow start, Witch on the Holy Night does earn its reading time. It takes well-established character paradigms and works them in fun ways. The limited animations punctuate and accent the words, creating vivid action scenes with color choices that pop. This is a title for kicking back and relaxing, as there isn’t anything happening on the gameplay front. As long as it’s understood that the first couple of hours need to be processed before it gets good, this is one of the better visual novels to come out in recent years. A patch fixing up the text is almost required, but a forgiving reader will find a lot to enjoy here. Witch on the Holy Night is mostly a tale of action, but it mixes in creepy shots and relatable humor, making for a fun, but flawed, romp.

Those hoping Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma was going to be Devil May Cry meets Animal Crossing will sadly be disappointed. Experienced hack-and-slash and dungeon-crawling players will probably want to play at a higher difficulty, but if you love city management sims, you’ll have an enjoyable time building and decorating your villages. Though there are quite a few mechanics players have to learn, they’re easy to remember once the game fully sets you loose and lets you do your own thing. All in all, Guardians of Azuma falls into the category of a cozy video game. It’s not too hard, so players will be able to sit back and have a stress-free experience.

Fate/Samurai Remnant is an enjoyable entry in the Fate universe. Its heavy emphasis on storytelling may be longwinded at times, but it does lead to a more interesting experience. The story is a compelling one which can keep the player interested in learning what the Waxing Moon Ritual is and who are the true identities of the warrior spirit Servants. The enjoyable gameplay complements the narrative, though pacing issues and repetition can sometimes hold the the experience back from reaching true greatness. But even with these criticisms, Fate/Samurai Remnant is still a good time and likely to provide many hours of enjoyment to fans of Fate and Omega Force’s other games.

Marathon is a shooter that gets better the more you play and the training wheels come off. Near the twenty-hour mark, there's a moment when the game opens up and everything starts clicking. The gunplay feels fantastic, the maps start getting good, your squad knows which Runner Shells to pick, the loot is fantastic and the risk-reward loop gets you. Getting to that feeling not only takes way too long, however, but is also offset by poor starting maps, grindy objectives and no narrative to really push you through those opening hours. Marathon is also held back by confusing decisions made by Bungie. Locking Cryo Archive behind arbitrary walls like making it only available on weekends, having poor options for solos and no permanent options for duos and only being able to play one contract per run are all choices that limit Marathon. It's unfortunate, because Marathon can be quite fun to play when everything eventually clicks. Bungie has built a good foundation with Marathon, but it's not quite the clean start it should have been.

With Catherine: Full Body, it feels like Atlus was trying to find an acceptable midpoint between remake and remaster. As a remake, its success depends entirely on whether or not players choose to follow Rin’s route. If they do, then the story changes at least feel justified, even if one doesn’t actually like where that story thread goes. If they don’t choose Rin, though, then the whole exercise winds up feeling entirely pointless. As a remaster, however, Catherine: Full Body is successful. The game looks and sounds great, its new remix mode offers refreshing challenges to player both old and new alike, the new safety mode makes seeing all the endings easier than ever, and the addition of a fully-featured online multiplayer is sure to keep die-hard block-stackers happy for a good long while. New players and serious fans likely won’t regret picking up Catherine: Full Body on release, but everyone else would likely be better-off waiting for a sale.

I enjoyed MadWorld when it was fresh, but it’s so sad that I can’t enjoy it more just as I’ve gotten to know it.

There are moments of brilliance spread across the campaign, but with it comes a frustratingly disheartening story.

Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen for PC is a gem among the RPG genre, despite it being flawed in places.

While gameplay at the core is functional and multilayered, most won’t find themselves excited to play over and over again.

Mutant Blobs Attack is a clever and stylish game, and while the its full potential is never entirely displayed, you’d be hard-pressed to find a game that makes mass destruction this adorable.

Wasteland 2 Kickstarter backers will get what they paid for plus a few glitches they didn’t.

Galactic Civilizations III is good (and I love the cutscenes which really build up the universe), it’s just not good enough to stand out in such a crowded market, particularly due to its endgame and micromanagement problems.

Short and sweet but in no way significantly dented by its own strict vision and run-time, Exo One‘s picturesque voyage through one far-flung planet to the next, though not without fault, is more engaging and novel than it is mildly indulgent.

Anyone who enjoys racing games and owns a Switch does not have many options for games right now beyond FAST RMX. Fortunately, it should provide players with at least a dozen hours of gameplay as they work their way from the novice cups to more advanced races. Online and local multiplayer also adds some additional fun into the mix. There’s not much else to the experience, however, and some may wish that the game were a more “pure” arcade racer rather than one with additional gameplay aspects layered on top of simply racing super fast.

Fans will be satisfied with how the tale running through Steins;Gate 0 is told with a narrative that rarely stands still in the present without coming off confusing. That said, the original’s degree of tension and regret over gameplay decisions are lost a little here and because of it, 0 — despite its successful transitioning, coming off more like a second half to a much grander tale as opposed to a totally sectioned-off story — often finds comfort in retreating to old techniques and former narrative inclusions to fill in the rare instances of figurative gaps.

Gonner is a single gameplay mechanic away from being a fantastic run & gun roguelike, and if you don’t mind passing up a set of options, that problem can be ignored. It has a wonderful aesthetic, blending cute and cartoon-creepy, rendered in a unique art style that does a wonderful job of tying all the elements together.

The game is not without some salvageable bursts of satisfaction, of which there are plenty to just about counter its middling level design and uneventful narrative alike. It’s for that reason why Sifu is spared from any less graceful a status than that of being inconsistent, rather than wholly underwhelming.

Score-chasers, 16-bit enthusiasts, arcade-game aficionados and Sega addicts all need apply for this one; anyone outside of those groups may not get as much from it, but even still there’s fun to be had.