Whether it’s the complimentary add-on of its voyage through the environment — and the way the game makes one’s trip a pleasant scurry from one city region to the next — or the ample ways the game adds-to, subtracts-from and so easily flips former rules/conventions on their head, The Pedestrian taps terrifically into the many joys, frustrations and epiphanies that this genre of video game is so good at carving out. Clever, confident and a fine debut for Skookum Arts, The Pedestrian has established a clear high bar — marking itself down as this year’s first must-play for puzzle enthusiasts far and wide.

Persona 3 Portable is still a fantastic entry, kicking off the subseries that ended up surpassing the mainline Shin Megami Tensei titles. It features a solid cast of characters, a remarkable storyline and an addictive combat system -- even though it hasn’t aged as well as we had hoped. Whether you’re a returning or Persona-curious gamer, this is a phenomenal value.

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.

From top to bottom, SuperChargers is clearly a labor of love and fully deserves the countless hours that people of all ages will be addicted to it.

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is a delightful experience, and acts as a reminder that sometimes a simple change of perspective is all you need to succeed.

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, by no means a flawless entry in the nearly three decade-old franchise, may well be the closest the series has gotten to somehow finding a happy medium between past legacy and contemporary appeal. Robust, entertaining and perilously engaging, while it may still find itself tainted by contemporary RPG standards in its character cast-listing or adamancy in offering “more” for the pure sake of it, Fire Emblem’s own “remake” phase in the end pays off in ways both clear and subtle alike. Ways that will appeal to either end of the fanbase spectrum. Its core gameplay and the many grid-based maps may not have evolved as much (perhaps less so here), but it’s everything going on around the combat that makes Shadows of Valentia a game you’ll look to beyond the avid necessity of leveling up your units. An interesting detour if nothing else, Nintendo would be wise to look at Echoes’ many entertaining and delightful offerings when the series, inevitably, makes its long-awaited return on home consoles.

If there is one way to best describe the experience that Episode 5: Polarized has to offer, then it can easily be done through the word that Dontnod Entertainment specifically chose to feature in the title of the fifth and final episode for Life Is Strange. It will no doubt polarize people on whether or not they believe it’s a satisfying (or fulfilling) conclusion to what has been such a spectacular title.

Combining the tried and true RPG elements of the series with exciting new 2D gameplay, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team is a joy to play.

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.

The massive catalog of puzzles is incredibly enticing and the visuals give it a unique beauty.

Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault is a standalone title in the venerable franchise that is wholeheartedly worth exploring.

While the season two debut failed to capitalize on the suspenseful tactics Telltale Games was able to integrate in the first season, Episode 2 has fixed that. It’s still a bit shorter than what we’ve grown accustomed to and the zombies feel tacked on rather than an actual story driven threat, but the hour and a half long episode is able to convince us that the drama within the group of survivors is much deeper than first expected.

Not only is Episode 3 of Tales from the Borderlands a fantastic entry into a fantastic series, but it sets the stage for a thrilling final two episodes.

Rune Factory 4 is boundless fun that’s a great time to replay after beating to try new things and experiment with different things each time, marry new partners and perhaps take on a harder challenge along the way. Anyone looking for that farming itch with a dash of adventuring should absolutely play Rune Factory 4 Special.

A feature-rich (at times astonishingly so) package of content — major, minor and entirely optional alike — Nihon Falcom have proven once again with Trails into Reverie why they remain one of the best and most renowned RPG developers still going. The story of Reverie may find itself branching out into three routes, but that holds no sway when it comes to presenting a familiar brand of quality. In a narrative that’s as much intriguing in its larger story beats as it is surprisingly effective in its accompanying smaller ones alongside. Add to this a combat system that’s still as fun to work out and tinker with, a wealth of customization potential and generally the kind of design philosophy that’s both ridiculously over-the-top yet thoughtfully engaging all the same, The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie serves as both a culmination as much a proud celebration of the series’ grand accomplishments.

Episode 4: Dark Room shows how far Dontnod has continued to push the limits of Life Is Strange, with every choice made, regardless of how significant it might be, having a real meaning behind it.

It may be a game whose focus is entirely singular, but what Boomerang X may lack in density, it makes up for with a fast-but-tactile style of gameplay that rarely gets old.

A breath of fresh air in a stagnant, overpopulated marketplace of gritty shooters.

Marvel Cosmic Invasion is a great beat’em up that shows significant love towards the Marvel universe, its stories and the lively worlds it presents. It has a great variety of playable options, each with significant differences to their movesets, and the attention to detail in its stages is remarkable. For anyone who loves the genre or Marvel itself, it’s an easy recommendation and guaranteed fun.

While the third season will be unlikely to re-entice those who fell off after the second season, those who yearn for the emotional scenes and depressing themes of Clementine’s journey will find plenty to appreciate in the first two episodes of A New Frontier thanks to Telltale’s high-quality storytelling skills and presentation.

While many will feel it's one or two chapters short of a truly fleshed-out and fully-realized vision, Children of the Sun's short but lavish flair for the hyper-violent is one of both visual and audible delight throughout. With what might be one of the most interesting and quick-to-convince takes on shooter mechanics in many a year, developer Rene Rother's knack for the look and feel of such an onslaught allows both art-style and gameplay alike to boldly glisten. As divisive the in-game graphics and general presentation might wind up being. But it's in no small part thanks to composer Aidan Baker's treatment of sound on top that only emboldens Rother's vision more so as one of both depth and replayability. An easy-to-understand pitch that comes with just as easy a recommendation, Children of the Sun is a blistering but brilliant take on shooting as a puzzle to be solved.

In the end, don't think about what you're not getting in Overlord: what you are getting is a hilarious, complex, unique experience. It's an absolute must-have for PC gamers. [Sept 2007, p.66]

Firewatch is one of those games that you need to take a step back and think about after it’s over. This tense four-hour adventure might lead you to believe it’s going places it never goes, and while some might wish for a grander tale loaded with conspiracy, what’s actually there stands on its own as wonderful. A touching human story sprinkled with player agency, Firewatch succeeds in causing players to consider what it truly means to be alone.

Considering the efforts passionate fans went through to see this franchise have another entry, it comes off as surprising and unfortunate that Wayforward did not decide to take more risks by adding new characters and mechanics. By taking the product as what it is and not what it should be, however, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero ends up as one of this year’s strongest platformers, packed to the brim with secrets, clever writing and a stellar soundtrack.

Little Nightmares has its flaws and iffy moments, but when it’s at its best, it creates a tense, nightmarish, action-packed world filled with surreal scenery that contains some classic puzzle design and a host of gleefully creepy characters to chase you all throughout it. It may not break any new ground in the small child/scary world sub-genre, but it still makes for one impressive entry into this world of dark games nonetheless, thanks to The Maw and the unique, twisted visuals it contains. It may be an absolutely horrifying feast that you witness at every turn, but it’s one that’s worth taking a bite out of.

Reigns: Her Majesty is a terrific sequel that manages to top the original thanks to a few fun additions that add more strategy, a colorful cast that keeps things light-hearted, and an improved and captivating story that makes great use of its premise. And all of this is without having to sacrifice any of the innovative management gameplay that made the original a hit. It’s a quirky and enjoyable game that can easily eat of a good chunk of time before you know it, so long live this particular queen indeed!

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.

Darkest Dungeon II brings fresh ideas to an already stellar series.

Despite the absence of Max and Chloe, Sean and Daniel rise to the occasion and create a lasting impression by the end of the opener. Players will feel invested in their relationship and experience a touching narrative that will captivate them from start to finish. Episode 1: Roads is undoubtedly the best opener in episodic gaming to date and also Dontnod’s finest hour with the Life Is Strange series so far.

The atmosphere, music and overall writing of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice are spot on. While there are a lot of callbacks to previous games, it never feels like they are there just for nostalgic purposes, yet the experience seems reminiscent of the original trilogy in the best of ways. The game is not recommended to those who have never played the Ace Attorney series.

Playing it after experiencing Forza Motorsport 5 makes it feel like, well, going back a console generation. The mechanics and features are as impressive as ever, but now that we’ve seen what cars can look like on the current generation of consoles, it’s hard going back. Still, it’s hard to fault the game for being released too late and it remains another thoughtful, expertly crafted racing experience. - See more at: http://www.hardcoregamer.com/2013/12/06/review-gran-turismo-6/64753/#sthash.bsOa86kF.dpuf

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.

Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth is not a perfect game in the overarching landscape that is video games today. For the platform, though, it’s one of the best. Barring the one technical issue experienced during play, it makes use of the hardware as much or as (almost) little as the player wants. The story is expansive and filled with great moments of the cast of three of the best RPGs ever made interacting with each other (check out Kanji trying to hug Morgana). Sure to keep the 3DS clean of dust for some time, Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth is the perfect farewell for Nintendo’s handheld, and one that will appeal to fans of the series and old school dungeon crawlers alike.

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.

While SnowRunner has a few quirks here and there, overall it’s a fantastic game of exploration and brute-force driving. The maps are beautifully designed, seeming much bigger than they actually are and filled with gorgeous scenery and plenty of goals to track down. The slow pace of the driving takes a bit of getting used to, but fans of the series have already made that leap and those who haven’t yet will find that struggling out of the mire or navigating the ice floes in a river gives its own sense of satisfaction.

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.

Rollerdrome effortlessly combines thrilling speed and adrenaline-inducing combat to create an exciting mashup of genres that will appeal to sports and action fans alike. The surface-level story, needy challenges and lack of environmental variety hinders the game from becoming something special, but in the heat of the moment, Roll7’s latest creation makes it nearly impossible to not pull off epic bits of slow-motion, high-flying carnage that will leave you wanting more. By rewarding players for taking advantage of enemy weaknesses and performing last-second dodges, Rollerdrome creates a satisfying and engaging gameplay experience that will have you returning to the arena for one more round again and again.

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.

An ambitious closer spanning nearly two decades of characters, storytelling and world-building, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV is both a fitting send-off and a satisfying reflection of what has made Trails such a fascinating saga to invest in.

It's a massive game filled with a lengthy single player campaign and a long-lasting multiplayer component that can be played day-by-day or minute-by-minute. Patience is a virtue as Skulls of the Shogun was worth waiting for.

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

Despite the fact that it is incredibly short, Form is one of those games that must be played by any aficionado of virtual reality. Through smart design and a superlative look, this it is one of those titles that can really show off how the medium can surpass gaming on a monitor. It’s immersive, engaging and beautiful, setting a new standard for virtual reality and visual design.

On PS3, MLB 14: The Show is an excellent game; it’s just not much of an improvement over last year’s entry

Bravely Second is without question another memorable, worthwhile and undeniably essential play for anyone striving to get their latest RPG fix.

This is a work of speculative fiction that allows the player to speculate for themselves, starting from a similar place each time but potentially reaching vastly different conclusions. It’s also a tightly-designed, well-balanced 4X game that is sure to consume many gamers’ free time in the coming months and years.

Marvel’s Midnight Suns pulls all its different elements together to create a memorable tactical RPG. The combat is the main event and its execution resulted in every battle being an enjoyable event, whether it was taking on a nefarious supervillain or relieving Hydra of the ownership of a valuable artifact. Outside of battle, life in the Abbey is full of activities and social interaction with other super heroes that greatly flesh out its RPG elements. The dialogue trees aren’t the most in depth ever created, but they’re fleshed out enough where they help the world feel alive and worth saving from Lilith. The end result is a game that isn’t just a must play for superhero fans, but one that should be experienced by RPG fans in general.

Freedom Planet 2 takes everything that worked about the original's quick pace and diverse playable cast and improves upon it. The samey-feeling character play has been completely revamped allowing every playthrough to feel different, while keeping enough familiar elements across each character to make each runthrough rewarding. The gameplay has been tightened up while the blend of story mixed in with gameplay has been improved in terms of pacing and acting. The graphics have remained outstainding, but received a visual overhaul in terms of detail level that nicely improves upon the first.

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.

Terraria was utterly fantastic on PC, and has made a near-perfect jump to console.

Ultimately, though, Lost Winds is a wonderful little game, and a great promise of what’s to come.

In short: come for Balthier, stay for the solid gameplay. It's a win-win situation. [Dec 2007, p.63]

For those who didn’t enjoy Skyward Sword because of the motion controls, it’s worth picking up to experience the title in a much more enjoyable control scheme. This isn’t even to mention the overall fantastic gameplay, characters and story that make it well worth getting for those reasons along. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD is not only the best way to enjoy this title, but hopefully will be remembered more fondly thanks to welcome adjustments and improvements that make an already wonderful entry in the long-running series even more wonderful.

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

Whether or not Atlas Mugged hits as hard as Zer0 Sum is irrelevant; the fact that this series is shaping up to be something brilliant is the more important point here.

For fans of the first title this one is a must-have to dive into so much more, while those interested for the very first time need not worry as nothing will be missed by picking up this sequel as the first entry. Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin is an absolute joy with near endless amounts of fun to sink many hours into.

While Signalis won’t be leading to a full-on fifth-gen survival horror renaissance, if only because some of the genre’s past sins still linger, it still delivers an enjoyable adventure that perfectly captures the feel of the classic era while also doubling down on more detailed cosmic horrors and twisted visuals, capped off with some sturdy combat and impressive puzzle design. Those in the mood for a quick yet quality-filled horror game should check out Signalis, as it delivers welcome sci-fi scares.

The Outer Worlds 2 is an entertaining game that’s incredibly fun to play through. There may be flaws, as most RPGs possess, but they don’t trigger any ill will. There’s plenty of polish that shows how much the team has advanced in bringing this game to another level that the first title lacked.

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.

Don’t be fooled by the somewhat goofy exterior of Tentacular, as what lies beneath its surface is a crafty and unique physics puzzler with a wicked sense of humor and a well-done story that cleverly has you work with the limitations of your massive kaiju body. While it would have been nice to have more ways to interact with the island, a nice variety of challenges and tools to experiment with ensure that you’re never going to be bored. It’s an odd VR experience, but one worth looking at (as long as you can handle some of the NPC behavior).

Keeper is an unusual game and one clearly made for a specific audience. This is the type of game specifically created for those who can stop, smell the flowers and let the experience of walking itself entertain them. The game might have an incredibly strange concept, but Double Fine knocked it out of the park with Keeper, and it deserves to stand alongside the other great games by this developer.

Ultros is already a solid, extremely fun metroidvania game when played straight, with nice combat, an interesting story and a gorgeous world filled with intrigue and a great use of organic life as a major theme. But it's when the game focuses on exploration and the possibility of greater secrets that it becomes something truly special, showcasing clever puzzle design that ramps up the challenge even further, also highlighting its innovative gardening mechanics in the process. It's easy to get sucked into Ultros for long periods of time or even multiple playthroughs, and it's all time well spent.

As much as we’d love to go into greater detail about what exactly makes Stories Untold such a successful adventure game, it really is the type of experience you need to check out first-hand. What starts out as a simple ode to classic ’80s games peels away its layers ever so slightly as you progress, until your jaw drops quite a bit upon the reveal as to what’s at the core of it all. It’s a quick ride, one that should be over in about three hours at most, but a ride that will leave quite the impression on you nonetheless thanks to its twists and turns all wrapped in the guise of a campy cult television series. It’s easily a notable sleeper hit for both horror and sci-fi fans, and so it’s definitely recommended that you check it out ASAP. You know, before any spoilers start to leak out. Seriously, sorry we couldn’t say more, but man, that finale…

Shovel Knight Dig finds our spade-wielding hero heading in another new direction, and while this trip goes downward, they manage to strike gold here as well. Addictive gameplay, gorgeous graphics and impressive levels that play host to a lot of unique challenges all get mixed together in order to create another winning action game worth checking out for fans and newcomers alike. It truly is another gem that’s been dug up here.

Goodbye Volcano High is a terrifically-crafted slice of high school drama that succeeds thanks to the strength of its lovable cast of characters, amazing music and a sweet story about perseverance in the face of uncertainty, be it the possibility of your best friends moving on or the possible end of the world. It’s one to recommend, and while it may not be this year’s greatest visual novel (if only because the genre has a lot of heavy hitters this year), it is one that does indeed cap off the summer gaming season with a bang.

Catan is strategic, fun, and lets you screw over your friends, making it a perfect online party game. [July 2007, p.68]

When creating a business sim that attempts to capture the subject matter, a fine line needs to be walked. It can’t get too deep in the weeds of minutia without offering real explanations, nor can it make those explanations boring. On the other hand, it can’t make it too simple, as the subject matter is a huge draw to a specific audience. Planet Zoo pulls off the act and manages to be a great time for it. Plus, people will accidentally learn about the subject matter without ever feeling like they are playing a dreaded “educational” game. There are myriad technical issues that keep the title from being perfect and some of them are biggies. Based on Frontier Developments’ track record, these will be smoothed out in the coming weeks and months. Once this is done, Planet Zoo is arguably the best of this type of game to date.

The new features, updates and overall expansion of scope in Far Cry 5 help separate it from other titles, but even though this is arguably the best entry since Far Cry 3, it might be too similar for people burnt out on the franchise.

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.

Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom Prince’s Edition brings a great game with all its DLC content to Switch. Like every Switch port there are concessions to be made with this version. The graphic quality does take a noticeable hit, and while the DLC content isn’t incredible, it does help make up for the technical concessions. Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom is a great RPG and should be played be all fans of the genre. The main selling point for Prince’s Edition is the portability factor. But while the visuals and performance is better on other platforms, Ni No Kuni II performs well enough on the Switch where it’s a viable platform to experience this game.

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.

Less a case of reinvention for reinventions’ sake, it’s the mix of familiar genre staples with a widened focus on smaller details that ends up with Gunbrella proving to be a brief, yet highly-satisfying entrant for action-platformer fans. In looking towards those minute moments — from NPC dialogue to pixel art and even the music that accompanies your travels — Doinksoft successfully broaden not just the studio’s palette of aesthetics and gameplay mechanics alike, but so too an understanding on how to build out a world to engage with. A pitch that may not be striving to be the most complex or densest of takes, but whose free-flowing approach to combat and presentation alike is well appreciated. A fitting step forward from the black-and-white, feline stylings of previous, Gunbrella‘s ballistic-fueled ballet of fluid movement and subtle details alike marks this down as one more success for the Doinksoft team.

Age of Empires IV makes up for the misstep of the third game while providing fans of the first two with everything they could have hoped for in a 2021 version. Hours will go by and you won’t even know it, which is the way RTS titles should be.

A must-buy fighting game compilation. For anyone who has enjoyed the franchise before, it puts a large percentage of the franchise’s highest-quality games in one collection and it’s a great way to catch up and see what all the fuss was about for newcomers. As great as it is, the collection could have easily been better simply by including more versions of franchise-favorites like Alpha 2 to provide a more all-encompassing experience.

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair is the definitive Danganronpa experience.

The Pathless is an enjoyable adventure to a serene island filled with satisfying puzzles, mesmeric traversal and gripping boss showdowns. Some small frustrations, including unnecessary stealth sequences and little reason to deviate from the main objective, hold the game back, but the polished moment-to-moment gameplay combined with the inspired soundtrack make for a pleasing and fun experience that’s easy to recommend to fans of open world and puzzle games.

It’s true that the single player portion is a let down considering the massive amount of potential that peeks through, but the high-quality multiplayer manages to make up the difference. The only real question is in how quick and efficiently the final glitches can be resolved. Even with these present, the title is well worth a player’s time. Once the wrinkles get ironed out, the Battlefield V will be required playing for anyone with even a passing interest in throwing down online.

Necrobarista may have changed since it was first seen, but the end result is still an engrossing visual novel that succeeds thanks to a cast of memorable and fun characters, a stylish and cool presentation, and a well-crafted story that hits all the right notes, providing a terrific tale of having to move on that has room for bits of both laughter and tears in your coffee. Despite a few hiccups along the way, it’s an adventure that was both worth the wait and visiting the Terminal for.

The majority of this review may carry a negative, disappointed tone, but allow me to stress that Ninja Gaiden II is not a bad game, nor is it a broken one. It's actually one of the best that the Xbox 360 has to offer, and easily worth your money.

The Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy is a title that everyone who loves a great well-written story should have and one that current fans can still enjoy returning to once more.

This is a developer that understands and loves their source material, which very evidently comes out in their work. Consequently, Shadowrun: Dragonfall is another home run for the up-and-coming studio.

Relic has taken everything that makes the first two games great and made sufficient additions to help Company of Heroes 3 succeed in this renaissance of RTS titles. While the visuals are improved and more detailed effects are there, the overall look still feels dated and the lacking performance hampers the experience. Having two campaigns is an awesome direction and while one is more streamlined than the other, the Italian Campaign revolutionizes the way to do a single player campaign for an RTS. The AI in skirmish is downright frustrating and the trouble with online multiplayer is unfortunate. What makes Company of Heroes 3 great is the growth within the actual gameplay and the subtle details experienced along the way.

Exactly what fans of the series have come to expect, whilst still providing one or two interesting deviations in gameplay along the way, Like A Dragon: Ishin! fuses familiar traits with a delightfully-versatile combat system to great effect. Those worried that a game both spin-off in nature and far-flung from the series’ present day roots would feel too isolated should take comfort from the fact this year’s remake of a pre-0 entrant remains quintessentially Yakuza in all the right ways. And while the take on style-switching, combo-chasing combat this time round is admittedly imperfect and far from the most fluid system to engage with, some occasional scuffs and rough edges aren’t enough to deter Like A Dragon: Ishin! from coming away as one more worthwhile and thoroughly-entertaining spin-off in the Yakuza series.

Stellar Blade delivers masterclass gameplay, spectacular visuals and a compelling universe. It no doubt will draw comparisons to Nier and its successor, but what Shift Up has done is improved upon the formula greatly in creating one of the best action games of the year.

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.

It might not have the unbridled thrills of World of Warplanes nor does it possess the immediacy of World of Tanks, but World of Warships manages to fill a special spot for action gamers.

At 1000 points, Rage of the Gladiator brings just enough content and old-fashioned fun to warrant adding it to your WiiWare library.

Held back by one too many erroneous factors unfortunate that may be, SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech is still by far Image & Form’s most fascinating and mechanically-impressive entry in the series to date.

This is basically five standalone games wrapped into one deep package. While it will have DLC released for it, there’s enough content out of the box to keep players busy until the next Call of Duty and probably some time after that. The campaign is perfectly paced and entertaining throughout, the multiplayer is rich with customization and Zombies is refreshingly challenging. The only real black mark is a story teetering on the on the brink of pretension, but the existentialism of it is undeniably fascinating.

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.

Atlas Reactor is a fun game for people who love blasting the hell out of their friends. The large variety of Freelancers, both in appearance and play style, present the opportunity to try out several different strategies and help keep things interesting.

There’s something incredibly satisfying about creating a map and feeling as though the exploration is just as important as the combat when every little thing matters.

Despite its low price tag, the vague roadmap and bare bones nature of Fall Guys is hard to ignore, raising some sustainability questions as the game aims to remain relevant in a crowded market in the weeks and months to come. But for now, Fall Guys is easily one of the most widely accessible and consistently amusing massive multiplayer games of this year, as the race for the next crown continues to remain just as thrilling after hours of matches.

There’s never a moment that pushes the boundaries of the console, but it feels like a 2015 PS4 title through and through. The main issue with this release is the fact that there’s not a whole lot of value here.