Devil May Cry 5 is a firework. If you’re the one with the lighter, then setting the explosion off is a simple as flicking your finger. If you’re watching someone else, it’s more than enough to enjoy the bright colors and noise. Players looking to get dazzled will find themselves spellbound, while those who dig deeper will find a rewarding and expressive combat system. It’s a little superficial, but that comes with the territory. And while Devil May Cry 5 doesn’t completely redefine the series, it hones the gameplay to a sharp edge that will please diehards and newbies alike.

Stormblood’s epic narrative, gorgeous new locales, spectacular battles and some fresh gameplay mechanics make a great game even better.

Even when I was on familiar ground—”safe” in my disguise, surrounded by pretentious and gullible targets, armed with all my secret gadgets and intel—I felt aware of who 47 actually is: lonely and out of place, with few friends and little control over his life. Whatever humanity he might have is twisted up in the machinations of power and capital that he’s both part of and fights against. “Who will you be without a score to settle?” Lucas Grey asks him early in the game, and it’s a question I often turned over as Hitman 3 played out. Essentially, he’d be no one—but then he’s always been that, really; all the rest of his identity is just make believe. Narratively and structurally, Hitman 3 strips its own make believe away, leaving the series’ core darkness on display.

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

2K’s MyCareer modes have always been far from perfect. My old reviews are testament to that: they’ve been things I’ve loved in spite of their glaring problems, as much for their effort as their execution. In 2K18, though, there’s so little to love that all we’re left with is the basketball (which you can enjoy in other modes), Brands™ and a mountain of problems. [MyCareer Mode Only]

Final Fantasy VII Remake is not what I expected. It’s a grand, ambitious, beautiful experiment, a bold new take on a game that millions of people remember fondly. It sometimes feels shackled by the weight of two decades worth of expectations, but it handles those restraints with aplomb. I certainly can’t wait to see what’s next. As a great man named Barret Wallace once said: There ain’t no getting off this train we on.

I came into Astral Chain expecting a nice action game with a pleasant anime aesthetic, a a scoop of ice cream with a cherry on top. Platinum Games gave me a giant sundae piled high with whipped cream and sliced fruit and chocolate sauce. And nuts. Pecans. Love those pecans. What I wanted is there, and it’s good. There’s just so much more, and I love it all.

I never thought I’d say this about Guilty Gear, but Strive’s visuals are just too much to handle sometimes. [Impressions]

For 20 years now, Pokémon games have presented fantasies where people live, battle, and grow alongside powerful monsters. In Pokémon Sun and Moon, that wistful reverie invites you take a holiday, leave your worries behind, and grab yourself a lei. As it happens with all good vacations, Pokémon found itself again.

I’m shocked by how different my life is now from when the first act came out. Parts of it remind me of who and where I was when I first played them, and it’s hard not to look at the game as a whole without also remembering that stuff.

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.

For now, I’ll say Housemarque’s “house style” of tough-as-nails roguelike dipped in symbolism has managed to capture lightning in a bottle twice, and in a PlayStation ecosystem where Sony threatens to homogenize all its output, this studio maintaining what makes it distinct in the company’s catalog is just as challenging a feat as anything you’ll face in the game itself. Saros is a prickly, demanding game whose hours of physical and mental carnage will make it difficult to parse for some, but I keep diving back in and finding new philosophical and mechanical challenges to overcome each time.

Link’s Awakening is a beautiful recreation of a legendary game, but it doesn’t have much to offer to players who already know the ins and outs of Koholint Island. For newcomers, or people who played Link’s Awakening two decades ago and can’t remember exactly how to finish the trading quest or track down that damn singing frog, this is a worthy remake and a must-play Zelda game.

Immortality, the latest from Her Story creator Sam Barlow, is a game that functions like a movie. Its excitement lies within clever or opulent shots, lines delivered with pleasurable believability, and an alluring plot. But it has a real bad attitude about art.

As a playground for one of the most idiosyncratic superheroes of all time, Marvel’s Spider-Man is sheer bliss. It’s a sandbox platformer first and foremost, and a damn good one. Throughout playing the game I was constantly hounded by the question of whether this—sublime superhero traversal in a gorgeous, idealized version of New York—were enough. After countless hours later spent cleaning up every last icon on the map, I’m convinced they are.

For 20 years now, Pokémon games have presented fantasies where people live, battle, and grow alongside powerful monsters. In Pokémon Sun and Moon, that wistful reverie invites you take a holiday, leave your worries behind, and grab yourself a lei. As it happens with all good vacations, Pokémon found itself again.

Psychonauts 2 isn’t about gunning down the big boss at the end and cheering over their dead body. It’s about understanding that even the biggest asshole is still a person, and deep down they may just need some help. We all need some help sometimes. The key is asking for it. Today, in 2021, it’s easy to look around and see people who seem cruel and evil, and to assume they are lost souls, not worth saving. Psychonauts 2 says otherwise. It says that everyone can change. I’m not sure I fully believe that, but I’ll be damned if that’s not one hell of a hopeful message.

Doom Eternal’s philosophy is simple: make the most intense experience possible. That mostly works out. Combat, while occasionally busy, is sure to satisfy even the most voracious of shooter-mavens. The ripping and tearing is as good as it has ever been. There are a few sticking points— a shaky story that’s hard to engage with, the few moments when style trumps substance, a glitch here and there—but there’s no denying that the highs are among the highest you can experience in any first-person shooter. Crank up the difficulty, throw your elbows around, and embrace the chaos. From the deepest diehards to fresh-faced demon slayers, there’s something for everyone to enjoy. Blood, guts, music, mayhem. You might get the occasional bloody nose or interrupted by an unwanted tutorial pop-up, but there’s nothing else like it.

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.

Neva prioritizes a meditation on life and loss that too often feels half-baked and pales in comparison to Gris’ execution of the same themes. Much of Neva feels propped up by its predecessor to cover its weaknesses, with familiar themes and the same platforming (flaws and all) from Gris encouraging fans of that game to not look too closely at this game’s faults. Ultimately, when Neva attempts a final narrative twist that fully leans away from the initially compelling and original themes of its story, it’s too much of a shift too late in the game, and only serves to undermine the few unique choices this experience attempts. At least it’s short.

It takes a great foundation and turns it into a game that, after ten hours with a near-final version, I think I might love even more than the first.

I’ve also been won over on the idea of these half-sequels. Warhammer 2 might have a lot in common with the first game, but everything it has done to set itself apart is big and fresh and daring, making this a game that’s worthy of its own place in the spotlight.

If you can get over having to rebuy the game again and not being able to transfer over old saves, Ultimate Edition on next-gen consoles is the best way to play Control outside of a solidly powerful PC. If you didn’t like Control back when it first came out, because it was too hard or you didn’t find the world engaging, this new port won’t change your mind. But if you bounced off the old game due to long load times or performance problems, this might be the best time to jump back in.

If you’re simply seeking a solid if slightly overlong action-RPG about flawed people looking to sand down their rough edges, Tales of Arise is exactly that. Just know that it comes with some rough edges of its own.

I’m still pretty early in HI-Fi Rush, but there’s something kind of magical about every fight feeling like it could be choreographed on a piece of sheet music. It excels in style and humor, has some great musical picks, and despite being a rhythm game, it doesn’t lose sight of the depth and skill that you need to play an action game. I’m excited to keep going and see where Chai’s silly story takes me. [Impressions]

You’ll need a powerful enough rig to get the best of the best visually speaking—4K 60fps with ray tracing set to max will have to wait for a patch—but even at lower tiers the game looks amazing. [Impressions]

I do know this: As a longtime Halo devotee, it is so, so good to be back to a Halo that genuinely feels like a Halo. I’ve been playing these games for, f.ck, man, two decades now. Time was, somewhere in the era before (and momentarily after) Halo 5, I could picture myself hitting a point where I was take-it-or-leave-it on the series. Now? Absolutely not.

I’m still chipping away at runs and cracking the foundations of Absolum’s world, but my short few hours or so with it have been more than enough to keep me banging my head against its stone gates. It is one of the most rewarding spins on both the beat-em-up and roguelike genres I’ve played all year. [Impressions]