Yes, the story of putting together a crew to pull off a heist is great. And yeah, working with and against criminal gangs led by people like Jabba is fun. And I love ND-5 and Nix, too! But what I appreciate the most about Star Wars Outlaws is that finally, after all these years of watching the movies, I can step into the Star Wars universe and just exist in it.

The aging gunslinger known as the Madden franchise is showing some wear and tear, with Madden NFL 25 being the latest example. While I don’t ever expect it to be put out to pasture, it might be time for the old coach to take a year off to revamp its approach.

Black Myth: Wukong is a game trying to please two very specific crowds. Both will end up doing extra homework to get to the goods in Black Myth: Wukong at every turn, and the game is doing itself no favors by leaving pages out of the textbook. It’s left being big and ostentatious for bigness and ostentatiousness’ sake, when the most exquisite things in it are small, quiet, thoughtful and dream-like. It’s a game whose art is at war with itself, which is awful ironic since Sun Wukong’s whole arc in Journey to the West involves letting go of delusions of grandeur beyond his reach, and living a life of service, meaning, and ego-less contemplation. But, again, there’s not much we can say about how the game handles that. It’s a damn shame. There’s not nearly as much worth saying otherwise. But, so be it. Black Myth: Wukong can just be another forgettable also-ran in a crowded genre. There is nothing else gamers need to hear.

What surprised me most in my time with Nobody Wants to Die was its deep lore. The premise of a future without death isn’t just a shallow idea that starts the mystery, it’s a moral and ethical quandary that Critical Hit Games investigates at every turn. In 2329 New York, we hear talk of bodies as literal government property. That’s as horrific an idea as you would imagine, and the game digs into this with further details like drinking and smoking being illegal so as to not ruin a body for its next owner, a subscription fee you must pay to use your body, and the emergence of a new death kink for rich people who can afford to buy poor bodies and take them over just to get killed in for a quick high before returning to their old body. It’s a biting allegory of wealth inequality and how rich people see poor people as a literal commodity to control. Learning more about this world is one of the best parts of Nobody Wants to Die and the flavor text you can find is full of interesting tidbits that only add to your understanding of the crimes at its center. This game came out of nowhere for me, but its tightly paced film noir mystery is built on such a fascinating world that it’s quickly become one of my favorite sleeper hits of 2024.

Arranger is a brisk adventure, but it’s filled with so many clever, perfectly executed ideas that by the time it was over, I was just left wanting more. Jemma’s story might be over by the end, but I’d love to see Furniture & Mattress add new puzzles in future updates because the team has such an immaculate, clever eye for what makes puzzle games so satisfying. Now I’m just waiting for my memory of the game to fade so I can go back and try to solve those puzzles with fresh eyes once more.

It’s that spirit of authenticity and unwavering commitment to a distinctive vision that makes Path of the Goddess so refreshing right now, especially at this level of budget, production, and quality. When so many games feel like they could have been made by anybody for nobody, Path of the Goddess feels like something unique made for people who never knew how much they’d love it. Creative swings like that don’t always work out. Path of the Goddess is one that definitely does.

Despite Hinterberg telling me that I should confront my problems rather than run away from them, I’d happily run back to this game time and time again. The beauty of its rendition of the Alps is hard to overstate, and I was enamored by the mere act of jogging up and down its sumptuous trails. Its top-notch dungeon design only further complements what an absolute joy it was to sink into its world filled with magic. Like the best vacation spots, I can’t wait to be drawn in by Hinterberg’s magnetism again and revel in its luxuries for a long time to come.

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn has its issues, but I think A44 Games has hit upon something special here, creating both an approachable form of soulslike gameplay and a unique, non-conventional fantasy setting that isn’t just another pseudo-European medieval landscape dominated by white men. The game could’ve really reached something greater with an extra five or so hours of gameplay. But what’s on offer here is a low barrier to entry for a genre that is often too eager to delight in your misery.

Even with Lake House on the horizon, I think I’m already itching to go back to Night Springs.

MultiVersus is great. But I wouldn’t feel good about letting my own kid play it. That sucks.

Banana Rumble is fun. I love playing it. I thought I was mostly done playing it until, about 300 words into this review, something unexpected happened: I got The Itch. I’d beaten all the levels, but I wanted to beat them again. I wanted to take a crack at the missions, which I’d largely dismissed as frivolous on my first run. I wanted to go for some records in time attack, especially pre-release, when the sparse competition would all but guarantee me a spot in the top 5. (As of right now, 6:03 a.m. on June 23rd, 2024, I have Giant Bomb’s Dan Ryckert beaten by two seconds on the world 1 leaderboards. Dan, if you’re reading this: your move.) The game works, in all the ways I expect it to. Maybe not in all the ways I want it to, but so what? Banana Rumble doesn’t need to be perfect. It just needs to be good. And for Super Monkey Ball, “perfect” and “good” are very nearly the same thing.

Blud may not play perfectly, but this seven-hour vampire-killing adventure is such a visual treat that I rarely cared when a boss crushed me or the menu bugged out and I had to reload it. If you can put up with a bit of jank, Blud is worth playing on a big TV screen with some friends, preferably folks who grew up loving late ‘90s animated cartoons. Just be prepared for people going “Oh wow!” a lot as you run around town and save the world with a pink field hockey stick.

If this year’s satiric but more aggressive New York Times Simulator is a less subtle game about the risks, responsibilities, and struggles of modern-day journalism, then Times & Galaxy takes the spoonful of sugar approach with sharp and funny writing that makes it endlessly entertaining—even if it stings a bit.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is nothing short of magnificent. It is both an expansion to and a distillation of what makes the original game so special, offering you a chance to try out new weapons and builds while learning far more about the Lands Between than you might have expected. It will delight you in one breath and devastate you the next, forcing you to question your approach, to fortify your spirit.

Still Wakes the Deep isn’t the most riveting interactive journey. The monsters are easy to hide from (though plenty scary), and the puzzles and platforming quickly come to feel tired. But Still Wakes does deal with compelling emotional material that rewards you for your time spent with it. It’s the kind of game I’d like to play again and see what new things I get out of it. But it’s also a testament to why I like this genre, the poorly-named “walking simulator,” so much. When I’m not focused on the reactive challenges of a more fast-paced game that demands constant input response, I’m instead offered the challenge of navigating the puzzles of my own thoughts. You know, where the real horror and dread lies.

Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip will likely take you less than four hours to complete, though if you try to do and collect everything it might take closer to six. Either way, you’re in for an awesome and funny open-world comedy game that actually made me laugh a lot and which is a dream to play. It might not be Hit And Run 2, but it’s a damn fine game on its own.

Senua’s enduring compassion and dedication through a rage-inducing journey of pain left a significant impression on me. Despite dealing with a fantastical world, Hellblade II is often, hauntingly, all too real.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is an amalgamation of influences living alongside one another in the same way the hotel in which it is set seems to hold so many times at once. It’s a reflection of the game’s biggest questions. What is the point of creating and consuming art? Is it a curse, or a gift? That’s the big mystery at the heart of Lorelia and the Laser Eyes. The answer is up to interpretation, but as it exists within such a carefully crafted maze of twisting puzzles and story beats, I can only assume this kind of gift for creating art is just that, a gift. And we, the players, are its lucky recipients. At least that’s my perception of it, and that’s about as close to the truth as I’ll get.

There’s no doubt in my mind that Animal Well is one of the best games of the year. It’s also one I’ll never forget.

The way Crow Country deploys these mechanics leaves it feeling like a shadow of its inspirations. While it has all the signifiers of classic survival horror it’s all lacking depth. The visual style, the most unique aspect of the game in how it merges and plays with its inspirations, is the star of the show here. Sadly that can’t make up for the game’s mechanics, which present the survival horror genre’s core pillars without executing them properly. That being the game offers a peculiar experience for fans of the genre, who are the most likely people to pick up Crow Country. It won’t live up to its inspirations but it will still trigger that nostalgic response just enough to make it an enjoyable ride through a simplified—even theme park-ified—version of survival horror.

While I’m sure post-launch patches will spare most folks these headaches, it feels worth mentioning, on the off chance that it isn’t all resolved by the time ACT launches, that it’s definitely coming in a little rough, especially on consoles.

Despite all this, I still had a great time with Stellar Blade. It’s a game of dichotomies, one that’s both fun and frustrating, but in this sort of middle rut it finds a way to tell a captivating story about transhumanism at the end of the world and how even robots feel things. The platforming might suck and Eve might be unwieldy to control at times, but the stylish action makes up for the more tedious elements. It isn’t perfect, but in its best moments, Stellar Blade is still pretty stellar.

Both Rhok’zan and Stardust are flawed characters with trauma relating to the idea of giving and receiving romantic love. The threat of something so big engulfing their identity causes both to sometimes cower away and distract themselves from the possibility of a deeper love by leaning into suggestive humor. But the game gives them a path toward happiness that breaks a cycle of trauma. A lesser game wouldn’t be able to reach this cathartic conclusion, but because Date to Die For balances its many influences so well, it pulls it off. It’s not a good horror game or a good dating sim. It’s a great version of something else that is all its own.

Tales of Kenzera never challenged me to a point where I felt I needed to give up—but it got close, forcing me to stay level-headed and focused during times of emotional strife. When I’d take a break from playing to grab some more coffee, or step outside to greet the UPS person, I’d feel lighter, as if I had just finished a particularly helpful therapy session.

Harold Halibut shoots for the moon, and (despite missing its target) lands amongst the stars. In an industry that progressively takes fewer and fewer risks, it is a breath of fresh air to see Slow Bros. take such a big swing. I hope this game encourages more developers to push visual and artistic boundaries in the future. Even if Harold Halibut isn’t for me, I have to respect its vision.

Open Roads has no metaphorical light switches and doesn’t allow for so much player freedom or personal expression. With such a strong duo as Tess and Opal leading the game, Open Roads may have been better served as a straight visual novel. But the focus on them also makes picking up objects to unravel the mystery feel lacking. This is a story for the player to witness, not unravel through interaction themselves.

Coming in at an immensely satisfying runtime of about four hours, Pepper Grinder is ultimately a wonderful little platformer to spend an evening or afternoon on. Even now, I (who almost never revisits a game, let alone one I’m reviewing) have booted it back up to dive into one of its bite-sized levels because of how great it feels to just move in it. To dig. To drill. I’m not likely to tackle one of Pepper Grinder’s action-focused levels again, save for the grand finale maybe, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot it doesn’t get right. I just wish there was more of what worked to go around.

I don’t care that much of the open-world glut is flavorless and unsatisfying. I don’t care that the story is largely delivered through dolls whose bodies ignore the writing behind them. I don’t care that my decisions don’t always matter. I’m here for everything Rise of the Ronin is serving because I’m still having a great time with Team Ninja’s latest game. I’m enjoying the combat, which is approachable, deep, and varied. I’m enjoying the setting, which is inspired by IRL events I’ve studied for years. I’m enjoying the characters, all of whom are three-dimensional and memorable. (I’ve teared up a few times when some of my fave characters died.) Hell, I’m even enjoying the uninspired side content simply because I get to swing my sword. For better and worse, Rise of the Ronin is Team Ninja’s “Greatest Hits” RPG. There might be a dud or two in the tracklist, but on the whole, this record—I mean, game—bangs.

Crucially, my experience with the game is incomplete, and everyone else’s will be, too. It’s built for replayability, but it’s also built for collective mapping and interpretation. I can’t begin to comprehend on my own how many variables and alternative outcomes are at play here, especially given the game’s intentionally restrictive save options (one save slot, limited manual saving; when you make a decision, you need to stand by it). One particular mechanic I don’t believe I saw at all: “dragonsplague,” a disease pawns can contract as they pass through various game worlds that, supposedly, has cataclysmic effects if left unattended. I still don’t know what dragonsplague does, because I played Dragon’s Dogma 2 pre-release, and not many of the available pawns were player-made. (Big ups, though, to the few people who did hire Skroat. He and I both appreciated it.)

This is not a game that is trying to be a narrative masterpiece; it is trying to be a mechanical marvel, and it accomplishes the latter in spades. The endlessly inventive and incredibly well-designed tactical systems at play in Unicorn Overlord make it a thrilling challenge to tackle. It isn’t just a game that longtime fans of Vanillaware should pay attention to, it’s for anybody wanting to play the next great tactics RPG. Unicorn Overlord is the game you’ve been waiting for.

Unfortunately, the open-ocean vibes don’t last long enough to sustain the utter lack of anything else to do.

Rebirth is sure to be a more divisive and debated game than Remake was. But in this deep sea of an RPG, I was thrilled by the action and the tactics, brought to emotional highs and lows through its characters, and found myself with an even greater love of FF7, the original and this return, than I thought was possible.

Nothing sucks more than spending 20 minutes completing a tough mission on an alien world only to get killed by a console crash...That said, I still think Helldivers 2 is a special game. So many shooters strive for realism, but leave out things like friendly fire or managing ammo out of fear that it might annoy players. The devs and this game aren’t here to make you heroes, instead, Helldivers 2 says: “Combat is hard. War is brutal. And you will die.” But it makes sure to give you all the tools, options, and weapons you’ll need to succeed in its hellish battles. You can become a hero in Helldivers 2. You can, I’ve done it. You just got to be prepared to fuck up a few times and laugh about it. Oh, and having some friends around helps, too.

No matter all this griping, nothing should take away from the most important thing: that this preserves three vitally important games from gaming history—in their original form—for at least another few years. The new art and controls can be switched off, meaning you’ve got those classic games on your latest console, and that’s not to be sniffed at. Every other aspect, however: sniff away.

Some of the worst guns in video games either fire slow-moving projectiles or have annoying arcs you have to contend with when aiming. Foamstars bravely asks: What if we combined the worst parts of the worst guns into one gun, and gave everyone in the game versions of that bad weapon? The answer is a shooter that feels like crap. [Impressions]

In the end, Suicide Squad is just…okay. Fine. Not amazing. Not a trainwreck. Folks wanting this game to be a complete disaster will be disappointed to discover a totally fine shooter that only succumbs to live-service corruption at the end. And for folks wanting something they can play for years, well, I hope you like shooting purple crystals over and over...Suicide Squad is a poster child for the kind of games that live between great and awful. While that might be enough for some, I can’t imagine the devs who worked hard on Suicide Squad (or publisher WB, who footed the bill for the game) wanted it all to end with what amounts to a shrug emoji. Yet, here we are. At least the shotguns are cool.

That knack of managing to evoke emotion with so many established storytelling conventions is what makes Granblue Fantasy Relink feel special. In a landscape full of attempts to rekindle nostalgia or capture the essence of yesteryear’s most memorable games, Cygames did one better. Relink isn’t interested in trying to recapture those feelings. It reminds me why they were special to begin with.

Reload is the best version of this story, and only makes me appreciate the bold steps it took even more.

Its story will be most rewarding to those who have played previous Yakuza games, but it tells a self-contained narrative that is usually pretty good about getting you up to speed on past events. And even when the story does dip into its own lore and history too much, which will undoubtedly satisfy long-time fans of the series, Infinite Wealth makes for an excellent introduction to these characters and gives you reasons to be invested in them in the here and now, with an entertaining tale that manages to stay fresh over the course of its many hours of gameplay.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is an exceptional Metroidvania that’s as accessible as it is punishing. It’s an impressive accomplishment, one that exemplifies how approachable doesn’t mean dumbed down. I’ve certainly had my fair share of frustrations during my multiple hours with it, but I’ve also come away from The Lost Crown feeling more excited about the genre than I have been in a long time.

The Last of Us Part II Remastered is the best way to play this truly excellent game, with sky-high stakes, stunning visuals, rewarding exploration, and phenomenally varied and thrilling combat. But to get the most out of it, you’ll probably need to have a stronger stomach than I do.

Valhalla knows the parts of Ragnarök fans are jonesing to revisit a year later. Though I adore the 2018 reboot, Ragnarök devotes so much time to watching its world expand and collapse that I lost sight of why I was happy to see this dissection of Kratos’ divisive character. I imagine plenty of people will feel Valhalla lets him off too easily. But this expansion does feel like the follow-up to his story that was missing between the reboot and Ragnarök, and confirmation Santa Monica Studio still gets what made its new take on Kratos compelling in the first place.

The Indigo Disk may have some great concepts, but ultimately, the game still feels like a concept that hasn’t been fully realized. It has all the features of a great evolution of Pokémon’s design and narratives, buried by a game barely holding together.

Tactica examines the inherent dangers in fighting for a better world. But even as it paints a picture of the tortuous, insurmountable weight we all carry on our backs, Tactica believes it’s not only worth carrying, it is the responsibility of those who can drag that weight toward progress for those who can’t.

And the whole game is endlessly beautiful. Brilliant design choices have led to a game conceived with a 1950/60s retrofuturistic aesthetic, complete with rayguns, clunky robots and Mid-Century Modern furniture. Set against boldly colorful vistas, there isn’t a single moment where this game doesn’t look like the tattered paperback cover of a classic sci-fi novel...If only it were slightly smoother, slightly shorter, and less buggy.

And sure, it doesn’t always succeed. Its unwavering commitment to the RoboCop power fantasy limits its narrative at times and it suffers from bugs and pacing issues. But it mostly comes together to create a game that, thanks to its slower, more methodical combat, feels unique and different from most other shooters released in the last few years. So while it won’t win awards for being the best, it certainly won’t be forgotten anytime soon.

Wake remains a fascinating protagonist, prickly and sometimes unlikeable, which only makes him feel more human and authentic. Saga holds her own, balancing Wake’s ego and attitude out with warmth, though she is not without her own demons to overcome. But it’s all the strange, personal, uncompromising moments in the story that really make the game sing with a distinct and singular creative energy. In a review of the new film All of Us Strangers, my friend, the film critic Walter Chaw, observes that art actually becomes more deeply relatable and more universal as it becomes more personal. “The miracle of being human,” he writes, “is the more you flay your chest, lay it bare to muscle, then sinew, then bone, exposing your heart fluttering there in its cage, the more familiar your humiliation becomes. The only universal is the personal.”

Gaiden plays the familiar hits in a compact package that’s a delightful way to wile away a rainy weekend. If you’ve left previous games in the series unfinished due to the hefty time investment required, this is a great way to get back into the swing of things, even if all the lore-dumping might leave you feeling like you’ve taken one too many bicycles to the head.

Wonder is a gorgeous, cartoonish jolt of creativity and silliness that makes me smile each time I play it. I genuinely felt better after a few hours of Super Mario Bros. Wonder. It made me feel like a little kid again. Anything was possible in each of its courses, and by the end I had seen things I never expected to see in a Mario game. The feeling of playing Wonder didn’t cure my illness, but if I could bottle it and save it for a rainy day, I’d do it in a heartbeat.

I’m impressed. Still, I think I’ll always want World of Horror to more widely embrace the minimalism it practices in moments so eloquently. I understand that ambient horror. I can live with it.

Whatever lack of satisfaction I walked away from Spider-Man 2 with ultimately paled in comparison to the joy of flying over its cityscapes and being able to pretend, however briefly, that I was a member of its bright metropolis where every challenge can eventually be overcome, at least with the help of a suit, super powers, and a perfectly timed *thwip*. The game surrounding it could be much worse and I’d still come running back each time. Fortunately, it is as good as it’s ever been, and in plenty of ways, even better. Being Spider-Man never gets old.

Detective Pikachu Returns isn’t setting up a sequel, and while I’m glad to have some closure, I am sad to leave Ryme City. Sometimes I get tired of sending Pokémon out for battle to knock each other out, and I just want to go on adventures with Pikachu by my side. Detective Pikachu Returns is imperfect, but lets me revisit the Pokémon world I’d most like to live in. I hope, even if this is the end of Tim and Pikachu’s story, it’s not the end of The Pokémon Company doing interesting, off-the-wall adventure games that can look at this universe in fresh ways.

In a perfect world, we’d get one of these every few years, between bigger installments like Valhalla. After playing Mirage, I’d really, really love to live in that perfect world.

In Starfield, many might see a time-tested, signature charm. Others might see a time-worn, laborious monotony. These are fair perspectives. A game this large is hard to distill into one set of strengths or one set of weaknesses. As in other Bethesda games before it, you’ll likely have to make your own fun here, but in giving us not just a swath of post-apocalyptic terrain or a fantasy realm but an entire galaxy to explore this time, Starfield makes all the flaws and shortcomings of its patchwork world all the more glaring.

The thing I loved most about playing Cocoon is how often I found answers without even seeking them. It’s so keen to share its secrets with you that it works harder at creating the illusion of being lost or stuck than it does at actually trying to stump the player or leave them feeling stranded. Like a complex sequence of sleight-of-hand coin tricks, its overwhelming layers are only there to disorient you long enough that you feel surprised and delighted when the object is revealed again. And Cocoon’s tricks are ones I won’t soon forget.

El Paso, Elsewhere is both a badass shooter and a study of how people handle toxic relationships. It walks that tightrope and sticks the landing so strongly that I ended the game and immediately wanted to play it again. And I probably will, because James needs me to help him once again save himself and the world.

Mortal Kombat 1 is truly a fighting game that anyone can enjoy, even if you just button-mash endlessly. And while I wish it did more to reinvent the blood-soaked wheel, MK1 is still a worthwhile package that will please most fighting game fans, pros and casuals alike.

Lies of P isn’t as fine-tuned or as intricate as a Dark Souls, but Neowiz Games and Round8 Studio have gotten pretty damn close here. If you told me this was a FromSoft game, I’d totally believe you. It wears its inspirations on its robot arms with dignity, and although it isn’t wholly original, the game is still a work of impressive atmosphere and design. At the very least, it can fill that Bloodborne-shaped hole that grows with each passing day.

Phantom Liberty is a succinct summation of the best parts of Cyberpunk 2077 and all the strife it took to reach this point. It reflects on V’s story in a new, insightful way, and it’s maddening that it’s as good as it is, because I feel like I just got here. There aren’t many games that’ve made me feel such a push and pull, so maybe it’s fitting to watch it self-destruct in a spectacular explosion just as it course corrects. Much like V, my time in Night City is limited. I better make the most of it.

Scarlet and Violet already showed major signs of technical stress, and the bulging seams are even more apparent in The Teal Mask. As much as I enjoyed this DLC, it remains disappointing that some of Pokémon’s best stuff is being dragged down by a game engine that feels like it’s just a slight breeze away from falling apart.

Ultimately, those final moments are the ones I leave Eternights thinking about. Where often the game feels like it’s struggling to execute its own ideas, it’s clear that it at least has ideas. It gets in its own way with what feel like expected genre pressures to undermine itself, but it knows the emotions it wants the player to feel, and they aren’t as superfluous as the gags at characters’ expense it throws out along the way. It makes me hopeful about what this studio might make in the future, because while Eternights may be imperfect, it’s clearly made by a team that wants to create moments like this game’s finale, ideally supported by games that are fully deserving of them. It just needs to work on ironing out all the wrinkles that held this game back.

With dialogue this unsexy, it feels like Phoenix Labs added dating elements to its game because that’s what you do in a game like Stardew Valley, and that’s what women like...I’m ready to move on from that.

I can neither value nor reject what I’ve done here. I put Fort Solis down confused and disengaged, with half a mind on my email notifications...I wanted to go to space. But I’m left, like usual, with earthly disappointment.

The central fantasy of every FromSoftware game is pretty much the same—that through close observation and relentless practice you too can bootstrap your way to greatness, slay the dragon, save the kingdom, or solve the puzzle to unlock the mysteries of the universe. In many of the Soulsborne games this means mastering the violent gauntlet ahead of you. In Armored Core VI it means changing yourself until that death march becomes a cakewalk instead. It’s a game about having faith in yourself, even when no one else does, and becoming an ass-kicking mech pilot in the process, not because it will save the world, but because it’s cool as shit.

I’m enamored by Stray Gods’ writing and art, but the thing that makes it unique is the worst part about it. Whenever I was enjoying the writing, acting, or art, the music would kick in and I’d mutter “oh, okay, here we go again” until it was time to pick my choices and direct the song one way or another. It’s such a cool idea, but the foundation is so shaky that I sometimes wish it was just a standard adventure game so its best parts could shine through. It wouldn’t have been as eye-catching or original without its gimmick, but it would’ve been a better game.

I’m only hoping that future added content and skilled players will help Texas become, as macabre as this is, a bit more fun. Dying and reviving under a searing, neon sun is a rare opportunity; from the safety of my console, I’d like to enjoy it.

This is still mostly the same old game. And selling that old game for $50, with no 60fps option or visual enhancements, feels silly. Sure, it comes with Undead Nightmare—which is great and still a spooky joy to play in 2023—but the math probably won’t make sense for most folks.

Nothing can ever truly recapture the freedom that imagination brings to a tabletop game. But Baldur’s Gate 3 is proof that Larian Studios knows how to capture that spirit and develop in pursuit of that feeling.

Like the sandy ruins filling its world, the best parts of Atlas Fallen feel buried beneath the same open-world junk you’ve already done in a bunch of other games.

It might be for kids who need to be taught good sleeping habits by way of Pikachu tracking their rest. But inevitably, there will be people, even my age, who find Pokémon Sleep’s long-winded way of tracking sleep helpful, soothing, and even fun. I just think the raw utility of a sleep-tracking app is easier to achieve elsewhere.

I tend to avoid seriously talking to people about my OCD, too, especially in times where it’s been as physically and emotionally isolating as it is for Emily. Because of how personal it is, I don’t thirst for OCD representation in games, or in any media at all, really, but playing Homebody has been surprisingly cathartic. It’s an autopsy of the run-of-the-mill terror I’ve learned to live with and let go.

Although Venba’s gameplay boils down to practice making perfect, its cooking puzzles and narrative also work together to perfectly illustrate the trials Venba’s family is facing. By pulling you into this process, it builds a bridge of empathy for players like myself, helping us relate to the loss that comes with growing apart from one’s family and the love that keeps you tethered to them while you forge your own path. Pairing that all too relatable human experience with the making of a bounty of delicious meals I’d like to try my hand at IRL is just the icing on the puttu.

One of the few points of pleasure for me in each battle was the soundtrack. Instead of dramatic horns and violins, Arcadian Atlas’ jazz-infused soundtrack by composer Moritz P.G. Katz is dominated by saxophones and guitars. The standard combat music in particular is so oddly unexpected but catchy, I still found it playing inside my head days later. I wish I could say the rest of my time with the game felt as memorable.

Gameplay mechanics like this make Hello Kitty Island Adventure feel, occasionally, ridiculous, but no more than any other Animal Crossing offspring where you get to put talking animals in a sundress. My few hours with Island Adventure have been promising, and entertainingly instant-gratification. It so far seems simple and relaxing, a summer without any heatwaves, but with a cartoon dog that has a butthole.

Dave The Diver very much deserves the enormous success it’s received in its first month, selling over a million copies, and hopefully making developers Mintrocket enormously rich. They’ve created something really special, an RPG-meets-Diner Dash-meets gentle SCUBA sim, that manages to feel utterly crammed to the gills with things to do, yet joyfully relaxing to play.

While Oxenfree II: Lost Signals isn’t an overhaul compared to its predecessor, it didn’t need to be. It tells an excellent story with a cast of well-developed characters, and the smaller changes are what help define the sequel. Better pacing, smoother controls, and more interesting gameplay ideas make it a worthy follow-up to the supernatural coming-of-age story that first graced our hearts seven years ago.

Rain Code’s cases aren’t quite as elaborate as its predecessor’s, but they each had satisfying mysteries and an explosive human element at their core. Even when I would feel skeptical about a reveal, Rain Code would quickly point to a clue I’d long forgotten that tied things together. Some solutions might have felt farfetched, but within the world it established, these cases felt airtight and satisfying to solve, even when the conclusion was devastating to watch unfold.

There’s meaning in Tears of the Kingdom giving us a world that’s so full of life, where everyone’s and everything’s fate is interlinked, where you’re encouraged to play in the childlike sense, to use your imagination, to create and experiment and just see what happens.

For all it invests in big-scale brawls between Dominants, the game also leans into quieter human connections. Many of the side quests are almost too simple: Go to this place marked on the map, listen to somebody talk, kill some bandits, get a bunch of bloody hides as a reward. But there are so many exceptional vocal performances and well-written arcs that you can’t help but come to love this world as much as Clive does. Show up for the kaiju fights, but stay for the tender series of quests exploring the complicated and noble backstory of your hideout’s resident blacksmith.

I am impressed with Bloober’s ground-up transformation of its series into a compact nightmare with white rats. The game is a show of strength, despite fans’ reservations for the studio’s upcoming Silent Hill 2 remake, and I admire a game that cares about art as deeply as its characters do. I only wish that it weren’t so annoying about it.

If you’re the type who loves a grind and enjoys the prospect of wailing on a bunch of civilians to make numbers go up, this mode has that. If you want to play through some really fun stories featuring your favorite Street Fighter heroes and villains, that’s one of World Tour’s biggest draws. But if you’re interested in a tight, satisfying fighting game experience, World Tour isn’t quite that, and it sucks because a mode geared toward people who don’t want to be FGC experts shouldn’t so often feel frustrating and insurmountable for reasons that go beyond how fighting games typically play. I wonder if World Tour will put more casual fans off at least as much as it draws them in.

It’s really a shame that such a lovely and fun open-world sandbox is tied to stuff like a season pass, premium currencies, and expensive in-game purchases. Perhaps 2K will tweak some levers to make it easier to earn and unlock new cars—which would be nice—but until then the specter of greed will always be there, nagging at me as I build, smash, and race.

All the problems Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has are clearly and unsurprisingly tied to its ridiculous scope. There’s stuff piled on top of stuff, and not all of it feels substantial, fully baked, or in some cases functional. But the foundation Respawn laid in Fallen Order is still here, and everything about Survivor that’s connected really shines. The characters are more fleshed out and their conflicts are compelling and relatable. The level design is appreciably authored in that way that makes “Metroidvania” a stupid-looking word that means so much. And when it comes to combat, there are so many different ways to brutalize droids and Stormtroopers, the combo video community will feast for years to come. It’s a hearty stew, even if you still have to watch the sodium.

Through its skillful environmental design and indulgent combat, Dead Island 2 is one of the best, most disgusting playgrounds I’ve ever played in.

That it’s not a very good game, and one that desperately needed a lot more development before this seemingly premature release, will matter almost not at all. It’s stunningly pretty, it lets you make friends with the Creepers, and the cutscenes are brilliant. And it matches those new pyjamas. Should they ever finish Minecraft Legends, allowing you to instantly gather your spawned troops from anywhere, fixing the atrocious UI, giving your units some vestiges of pathfinding, and hugely increasing the mission variation, I think it could be a great place.

When I go back and replay Resident Evil 4 again one day in the not-too-distant future, I think it will be this new version that I’ll return to instead of the original. And I truly can’t think of higher praise to lay upon the remake than that.

But as someone prone to bouts of climate doom every time I read anything about carbon levels and ice sheets, Terra Nil was the ultimate form of video game escapism. A little diversion, no matter how unrealistic it is, that rather than asking us to live through the planet’s destruction let us try and recover from one instead.

Lightfall is definitely a slow burn. I can’t recommend it to people who aren’t already invested in the game in some way, unlike The Witch Queen, which was arguably the best shooter campaign of 2022...But I think, or at least I’m hopeful, that it will bear more fruit over the long run. Season of Defiance is already off to a really strong start compared to other expansion-adjacent seasons, quality of life is improving, a lot of the currencies and grinding is getting streamlined, and there’s room to tie up a lot of interesting loose ends before The Final Shape. [Ethan Gach]

Don’t get it twisted, this is still a very hard Soulslike.

In one delightful moment, my historical knowledge was used to mislead me, as the game both conformed to and subverted my expectations of what I expected a character to do based on her actions in actual history. Games often reward players for knowing their lore, and it was exhilarating to be punished for it. I’m not saying that you need to have a dozen Japanese history tabs open like I currently do. But playing the game while knowing the history gives you a unique experience.

It may have taken 17 years and one disappointing sequel along the way, but Relic are to be commended here for somehow managing to take tactical perfection and redefining it not just for old veterans, but for a whole new generation of armchair generals as well.

Remastered’s graphics look great, and while the game continues to, for the most part, translate well as an expansive, engaging shooter, I’m most struck by how the game allows Samus to be a person. Not a woman with her baggage, sexualized and discarded like a Grand Theft Auto: Vice City sex worker from the same year, and not relegated to the background the way 2023’s Dead Space does to its female characters.

The whole game is a tremendously satisfying experience. From the wonderful alien design, to the slow-burning storyline and its blank-faced staring astronaut, to the satisfying array of weapons, and perhaps most importantly, to the way the statues crumble when you hit them, this is something utterly solid, and eternally compelling. And unless my rig proves a fluke, finally a console-to-PC port to celebrate on day one.

But more than anything, I disliked Season’s belief in its own profundity. Its mysticism felt like cod-Buddhist leftovers, while its nonchalant efficacy of prayer undermined its attempts at agnostic universalism, all crushed under the weight of the sheer banality of all your actions being delivered as if creating a vital tome of historical significance.

I’ve always believed that mobile games are an approachable gateway for new fans to enjoy an otherwise esoteric IP, and Engage streamlines the gameplay in all the right ways. Unfortunately, though, the story falls short of what I’ve come to expect from any Fire Emblem game, and I’m still struggling to understand why. With Fates, the poor writing could be attributed to its sheer character bloat, but Engage has a reasonably normal-sized cast. The watered-down stories felt like an intentional appeal to capture new audiences. But at some point, I want to move on from the appetizer to the main course. With its disposable conversations, shallow handling of themes, and incohesive visual design, Engage is the chicken wing, rather than a full chicken dinner.

15 years later, we have more compelling protagonists to choose from, and even more interesting space zombies, like those in Dead Space creator Glen Schofield’s The Callisto Protocol, which is also mired by repetitive bosses, but at least looks and sounds incredible. The Dead Space remake accomplishes what it set out to do, it makes an old game compatible for modern consoles. But that’s all it does. 2008’s lightning stays in its bottle.

Assuming you don’t collect or do everything in every world, Cosmic Shake is about 10 hours long, which is similar to 2020’s remake. And while it crams a lot of good jokes and pretty levels into that runtime, it leaves a lot out, too, with the lack of multiple playable characters the most disappointing excision. I also found Cosmic Shake to be a bit less stable than Battle, though its technical issues never made it unplayable. Still, even if it isn’t quite the sequel I wanted to 2020’s amazing remake, I’m still very happy to get another colorful, fun, and light-hearted Spongebob action platformer in 2023.

Forspoken deserves better than what shipped on January 24. The strength of its story and protagonist do outpace its many problems, but much like Frey’s early struggles in seeing her own greatness, it’s clouded by unfortunate circumstances.