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.