Dying Light: The Beast may have begun life as a DLC, but it's released as a full-fledged game that can proudly stand on its own.

There's a ton of excellent shooting arcade action in Under Defeat HD, and it's absolutely worth seeing what Dreamcast importers got to play 6 years ago.

In DarkMaus, Daniel Wright has created a focused, challenging experience that successfully translates the core tenants of Dark Souls — careful approach to combat, high level of initial difficulty, wise use of resources and character development — into a game that looks deceptively innocent and benign.

It’s as much environment as level, alien and weird but also beautiful, and that remains true for every stage and scene from the weird J-pop beginning all the way through the end of Paper Beast‘s deteriorating digital world.

Mamorukun Curse! is an exciting, frenetic time, especially for those waiting for localization of the popular Japanese shooter. It’s a hefty price tag to be sure, but it serves up hours of challenging fun and plenty of unlockables for those skilled enough to look for even more to do after the game has been completed. If you’re looking for a new shooter to add to your collection, you could do far worse than this.

Sword of the Stars: The Pit — Mind Games is incredibly difficult — sometimes unfairly so — but along with that comes fun.

Race the Sun is very close to a perfect pick-up-and-play game, except for the bit where it’s very hard not to keep playing once you’ve started. A quick break easily turns into one more attempt, trying to plot a different course over the cluttered plains, maximizing Tri collection while minimizing the risk of turning into a cloud of debris.

Neon Abyss is a highly playable action-roguelike with a huge number of perks and weapons to take on the ever-growing horde of monsters that show up in each room. The powerup progression in a run is almost always satisfying, assuming it doesn’t take too long for the random drops to start piling up in a helpful way, and while sometimes the chaos can become unreadable it’s usually due to becoming trigger-happy on entering a new room.

Atelier Rorona Plus is a charming, lighthearted JRPG that’s more open-ended than most of its brethren. It can be a little on the repetitive side, but there’s just enough variety to make it a delight in short bursts.

The inability to roast anything on two legs from an overpowering distance away aside, Divinity 2 is a solid RPG if you are looking for a nice real-time romp though a fleshed out fantasy world.

DOOM VFR is an outstanding, but limited, game. The lack of arcade and multiplayer content hurts the overall package, but it does its sole purpose of replicating the campaign in VR incredibly well. The fat has been trimmed from it resulting in an all killer, no filler approach that keeps the tension and action levels at a high point that exceeds even the base campaign from the reboot. Anyone who enjoyed that and wants to play it in VR should do so if they have a Vive or a PlayStation VR.

After a few submissive years, Konami has put forth a game that caters to soccer fans with superb flexibility for creative expression, fluid gameplay and astoundingly intelligent AI.

Moss is an exceptionally thoughtful, beautiful and unique experience. It’s deceptively simple, but surprisingly deep in unexpected ways. While $29.99 USD is a steep asking price for an experience that feels unfinished, if you have a PlayStation VR and are dying to try out something fresh, you’d be remiss not to give Moss a go. It’s a game that wouldn’t feel right without VR, yet doesn’t rely on the technology as a lazy gimmick in lieu of proper game design. We haven’t seen the last of our little pal Quill and something tells us that her next adventure will take virtual reality to new heights.

It feels like a dream seeing Bayonetta on PC, and thankfully, it’s no nightmare. While the frame rate is locked during cutscenes, everything else about the optimization has been done near perfect. Maxed out at 1080p60 is an easily achievable feat, even for older hardware, and the graphical enhancements only shed light on how well the visual aesthetics hold up so many years later. The controls are also done well for keyboard and mouse, so with the option of a gamepad, this is undoubtedly the best version of Bayonetta yet. As for the game itself, the story isn’t for everyone, especially considering how extraordinary deranged it is, and there are a couple of unforgiving combat scenarios. Fortunately, Bayonetta is still an alluring adventure that will hold a smile on your face until the credits roll.

Episode.02 improves on Episode.01 in basically every way possible. It reunites us with characters who have grown over the past four years into truly intriguing protagonists, rather than one dimensional annoyances.

Packed with solid gameplay and a small learning curve, Blue Estate breathes new life into the dying rail shooter genre.

If you loved Germinator, you’ll enjoy this, but it’s difficult to recommend a purchase for anybody who still has a lot of levels left to play that game.

In short, Pac-Man Museum is the best representation of what has been a truly illustrious video game career.

Overall, Affordable Space Adventures is a journey well worth embarking on, especially with a few friends.

Aside from a puzzle sequence that completely breaks up the flow of the entire expansion, every inch of Far Harbor is oozing with the detail and love that make Fallout 4 such an impressive feat.

Collecting the cards from any TCG series is fantastic and rewarding, but realistically not everyone can afford to participate in such a hobby. Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution gives players a way to access over 9000 cards by simply playing and earning them as they go along. No micro-transactions or DLC keep them locked behind a wall; it’s all wrapped up in one package. Those who love the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG will be happy to know this is an amazing experience for as simple and straight-forward as it is. It’s hard to stop playing when there’s so many cards waiting to be unlocked, a variety of modes and near endless decks that can be made. There’s no better time to duel than with the current best digital take on the TCG that is Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution.

Like Hat Girl herself, A Hat in Time excels in this unapologetically confident stride it takes and is tonally all the better for it. With some interesting (at times funny) set-pieces thrown in for good measure, A Hat in Time is one of the better examples of the genre’s recent revival.

After three commendable HD ports, Sanzaru Games has done a perfect job capturing the essence of Sucker Punch’s original trilogy. Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time features not only the addictive gameplay the series is known for, but the humorous and charming tone it’s loved for.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2+ is an excellent game that makes the transition to the Vita quite well.

All of this should prove without a doubt that Journal is a video game that will work for some people, while others simply won’t see the point.

Panache Digital Games has created a truly immersive, lush environment that’s thrilling to explore and traverse. Utilizing our natural instincts for discovery is truly the most ingenious aspect of the game, as it rewards us for problem solving in ways that already come naturally to us. It’s such a gratifying experience to see our hominids start out with no understanding of the world, to then become fairly self-sustaining creatures thanks to education and discovery. More than anything, Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey shows us what amazing creatures we truly are and how far we’ve come as a species. Understanding our past is the gateway to our future.

More Than a Feeling takes two steps forward and one step back, as the team at Telltale finally demonstrate their sense of direction for the season ahead in the most humorous and intriguing episode this far. The lack of diverse environments makes the gameplay seem less subtly formulaic than other Telltale titles, but the significant plot improvements bodes well for the remainder of the season.

Despite a few small details holding it back, Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander is one of those titles that cannot be recommended enough to fans of 4X games, JRPGs or space-based science fiction. So much attention to detail was poured into the game, with enough moving parts working together, that it feels like a sprawling epic rather than the indie title that its low-fi graphics might imply.