That all sounds great, but there's a big caveat if you're looking at Rise as your first venture into the monster hunting grounds: It's still anchored to a ridiculously complex set of overlapping rules and systems, and from moment one it's a game that assaults you at every turn with "helpful" text-based tutorial pop-ups.

There's so much to love in this tremendously well executed game that I absolutely have to recommend. It's cute, fun, and sweet. Plus, what it lacks in heart, you and your player two can provide all on your own. Happy date night, gamers.

I wish the disappointment in a game series I loved as a kid wasn't enough to barrel me over emotionally. But it's just the cherry on top of a year that's proven how absolutely nothing is sacred, no one you love Is safe, and entropy destroys all things that exist in linear time (again, not to be dramatic). Harvest Moon is dead. May she rest in peace after someone finally puts her shambling corpse out of its grotesque, reanimated misery.

The best part is, whenever I took off the Quest 2, I'd be right back in my room. I didn't have to trek back home from some far-off location with a heavy backpack filled with gear; my real hands weren't chalky or bloody like they appeared in the game (they were sweaty though); and I wasn't traumatized from the experience of hanging on for dear life when my stamina was running low. That's the benefit of rock climbing in VR — it's very low risk.

The story's emotional beats are written and executed well enough that I was nonetheless happy to go along for the ride even if some of the pieces didn't make much sense in hindsight. I'd still recommend waiting for a few patches to hit before you jump in, especially if you're planning to play on PC. But despite all the issues, I was invested the whole way through and came away with the feeling that The Medium is a journey worth taking.

I can't speak positively enough about this game. At nearly every turn, Hitman III puts itself out there as the best version of itself. In so many ways it's the same game we've been playing since 2016 (and really since 2000). There aren't many games that can make the same boast: relatively unchanged and better off for it after two whole decades.

Those who play Immortals Fenyx Rising on Switch should be wary of joy-con drift. Drifting is annoying in some games but catastrophic in this one for aforementioned cliff-tripping reasons.

Even with a couple of major missteps, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is a welcome excuse to return to one of the most beloved video game worlds of the last decade and spend some quality time with characters who were already dead by the time Breath of the Wild started. There's an irresistible charm to making Mipha annihilate dozens of monsters at once with a cartoonishly large water tornado.

It's a lovely little puzzle game with a darkly relatable underbelly, driven by a story that distills modern society and the human experience of 2020 into a colorful parable. A video game can't save us from ourselves, but maybe talkin' 'bout those bugsnax can get us part of the way there.

Spider-Man: Miles Morales tweaks the original formula not only to fit its character but to show how stunning and exciting the next generation of games can look like. Far from being a rehash, it iterates on what made Marvel’s Spider-Man great and asks the right questions about how and why Miles Morales is different and important. He’s a new kind of protagonist in big release games, and one other franchises should strive to emulate: an unlikely hero whose perspective adds value simply by being his.

A saving grace for Watch Dogs' London is that you can walk up to and talk to anyone you see, recruit them, and play as them. It's a concept that breaths life into the game, and makes you connect deeper with the story, knowing that peoples' actions can directly affect someone who you could play as and embody. The "legion" part of Watch Dogs: Legion works.

The lack of real differentiation throughout the game makes all of Crash 4 feel stagnant. It’s not doing anything particularly interesting, and when that fact is paired with its sometimes frustrating difficulty, what you end up with is a game that just isn’t particularly enjoyable to play...Sure, it’s pretty to look at, but there needs to be more than that.

For me, Star Wars: Squadrons is hands down the very best space combat sim this series has ever seen. That's not hyperbole; the closest rival here is more than 20 years old. Even if Motive never supports Squadrons past release, what we're playing on day one is everything this X-Wing-loving nerd has ever wanted from a Star Wars game.

It's a shame Nintendo didn't do more to up the 35th anniversary celebration vibes in this collection. As I told you up front, though, Super Mario 3D All-Stars remains a superb collection of gaming classics and a must-own for every Nintendo-loving Switch user.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2's most impressive achievement isn't just bringing back something old, though. It would've been easy to polish up grandpa's skateboarding game and put it out for $40 as a hollow appeal to nostalgia. All of the new enhancements, from fresh young skaters to fully appropriate new music, form a genuine fountain of youth for the franchise that open worlds and motion controls never could. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 doesn't have to pretend it's a Superman. It's already there.

In the end, I found Carrion to be an enormously frustrating experience. The pieces are there for an amazing game. I had some incredible moments while playing, and would even go as far as recommending this as a worthwhile use of a more patient player's time, despite the issues.

Without the benefit of being part of an extant franchise, Ghost of Tsushima shines as a carefully crafted, excellent standalone game that made me notice things about games I rarely pick up on — the way the protagonist breathes, the colors of dawns and dusks, the subtle animations of love and hatred. When I think about Tsushima, I think of something gemlike and precious, faceted without being showy and ultimately more valuable than it looks. When I finished my first playthrough, my heart broke until I remembered I could simply play again.

Rocket Arena is enjoyable enough, just relatively average overall. It’s the type of game you’d mindlessly play for a few hours when unmotivated to do anything else, before loading up Overwatch for a better rocket feel. It's still fun to jump in with friends — but maybe only for an evening or two.

Despite those minor annoyances, Clubhouse Games is a welcome $40 distraction from the crumbling world outside. This isn't some branded cash grab like that lovably crummy old Mario game I told you about earlier. It's confidently modest new packaging for games that are older than any of us and will surely outlive us, too. Clubhouse Games knows exactly what it needs to be and doesn't aspire to much else. We could probably all learn from that.

Minecraft Dungeons doesn't do much to change the game, and it stumbles in ways that threaten to push away longtime fans of the genre. But it's a compelling and entertaining mash-up that's hard to put down once you get into the groove.

With a few concessions to modern game design, Streets of Rage 4 could be a fun and rewarding experience. As is, it feels like a dated game only meant for people who played the old games in the '90s. If Streets of Rage 4 proves anything, it's that the beat 'em up genre died out for a reason.

The world feels stuck and gloomy and I don't want to lean into that. I want to be transported somewhere fun and exhilarating. I want to drive fast cars or pilot planes at top speed, or adventure across huge landscapes with swords and magic and mythical monsters, or run and jump through engaging platformers. I don't want to have my movement limited to three actions per round. I don't want to slog through brown and grey apocalyptic levels. I don't want to be confined to this game. Gears Tactics isn't giving me anything I want right now. It's not you, Gears Tactics, it's me.

Remake is a great introduction to a genre-defining classic, allowing players with more modern tastes to learn the story and meet famous characters without having to endure archaic ‘90s graphics and gameplay. It will probably prompt a few newcomers to check out the original as well.

The game is relaxing and soothing. That's it's strong suit and it nails it completely, making it easy to sink hours and hours into in a single day...It is without a doubt the best entry in the series yet.

The challenge is something that Ori and the Will of the Wisps nails perfectly. Whether it's a boss battle, a chase sequence, a puzzle, or a section that's hard to navigate through, Will of the Wisps doesn't shy away from the difficulty.

Wattam is impossible to describe, yet it's imbued with an unmistakable and universal humanity.

Here's what I can say about Darksiders Genesis, the new game from Airship Syndicate: It's serviceable. Not great, but not bad.

Star Wars as a whole has a long history of under-delivering when it comes to video games, but that's definitely not the case here. Yes there are frustrations. But more than that, there are lightsabers and Stormtroopers and wild displays of Force power. Fallen Order is a Star Wars game I didn't even know I wanted, but it's here now and I'm so glad it's real.

Death Stranding builds a complex and surreal world, and it's hard not to marvel at the way it all comes together.

Modern Warfare's campaign trades on the same kinds of gratuitous thrills as its predecessors, but the grim reality of 2019's actual battlefields and terror attacks is a poor fit for the Call of Duty theme park ride.

The Outer Worlds is a Fallout game wearing a fake mustache.

It's a great combination of really well-done elements and worth checking out if you find yourself in need of a funa ction platformer.

A normal shooter game wouldn't really do John Wick justice. John Wick Hex captures the kind of tactical thinking that the Keanu Reeves action hero requires to be the deadly boogieman he's known to be, and also works as a fun and inventive puzzle/action game.

The remake of Link’s Awakening on the Nintendo Switch is so much better than the original.

Untitled Goose Game is inherently funny, but the comedy can be kind of subtle. Really, the entire game is a sandbox for causing mischief. There's no dialogue and minimal story, but the "try anything" sandbox factor means you end up creating your own little punchlines.

Nailing my simple sequence reminded me of something else: that feeling you get when you beat a difficult boss after trying and failing over and over. You know, like in action games like Dark Souls or the more recent Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice — games that require you to master their systems and controls in order to progress past their unrelenting enemies. Once you do master them, at least for the moment, that feeling of success is electric...That feeling was my main takeaway from my hour-and-a-half in the room with Session. That and the passion I felt from developers Houde and Da Silva. [Early Access Impressions]

At the end of Gears 4, Kait receives her grandmother's necklace from her dying mother. On that necklace is a Locust Horde symbol, and clearly there's some sort of strange connection between Kait and the Locust Horde. The way Gears 5 explores this is brilliant. It's inventive, it's surprising, and the method of delivery is wrapped up in a scary and enticing series of events that is delightfully gripping.

It's a bad sign when an indie movie made 20 years ago with a $60,000 budget remains endlessly more immersive than a video game made in 2019.

Man of Medan in particular is unique among horror games in giving you, the player, a ton of agency in shaping the story’s eventual outcome. You can’t dictate every single beat — where’s the thrill in that? — but you’re role-playing all of the potential victims. So when you sit down to play, find a way to live inside the story and just let the horror wash over you.

If you’re not into all the side cases, you can skip a lot of them and still have a good time, but you'll risk missing out on some nice upgrades and fun combat scenarios and puzzles.

Traditional definitions of "fun" don't apply, and so following some kind of guide to "win" is missing the whole point. Ancestors is constantly challenging you to mess around, and to derive pleasure from the thrill of fresh neurons snapping into existence. You're immersed in the chaos of a pre-human world from the very first moment, and the biggest wins to be had are those you create for yourself.

The mechanics are the straightforward stuff of third-person shooters with some bonus abilities thrown in. It's well-made and fun to play, no question. But that's not what tugs you to keep playing. Like the twisted and overlapping spaces of the Oldest House, Control's layered mystery and HOLY SH.T!! reveals are its biggest assets and its greatest successes.

The Church in the Darkness does a great job of delivering a sticky stealth and exploration experience that also gets your brain moving. It's not quite as replayable as it first seems, however. The seemingly large pool of possible endings isn't as diverse an assortment as it seems, and there's not a ton of variation in the evidence you gather.

Almost from the word go, it became painfully obvious that Wolfenstein Youngblood would not be the lady power fantasy I'd always dreamed of. And some design hitches with the open world and co-op make it difficult to see the new entry as anything more than a lukewarm experiment.

It takes a lot of brain power to keep these relationships going and win battles. But there's no way I'm stopping now.

Seeing what other people create on their blank Mario canvases is also a nice way to get inspired for your own creations, to see how different ideas can be implemented, and possibly most importantly, see what kinds of things don’t work at all.

Wizards Unite may evolve to become the biggest, best, and most spectacular AR game we Muggles have ever seen...But on the other hand, there are more problems to be tackled here than the Whomping Willow has branches, some of them more daunting than others.

My Friend Pedro is one of the most exciting and well-executed Switch indies released to date, and easily one of the strongest options in 2019 so far. It leaves the first impression of a fun game that doesn't require a whole lot of thought, but the deeper you go the more it establishes itself as a standout.

The pairing of The Legend of Zelda and Crypt of the Necrodancer was a mash-up I never expected, but it's a compelling experience that manages to succeed in every possible way.

Sony's VR headset has done much to help deliver this new kind of video gaming to a mainstream audience. But I'm sorry to report that Blood & Truth is a terrible fit for this platform. On the one hand, it's a brilliantly crafted VR excursion into Hollywood-style action that takes good advantage of the tech's capabilities. But PSVR hardware is the worst possible showcase for this kind of experience.

The playground is very real in this game. You're meant to have more toys to mess with than the story's length can realistically justify. That feels like the whole point. Rage 2 left me wanting in the best way, and I can't wait to see what's next.

BOXBOY! + BOXGIRL! is a delightful, unique puzzle game worth checking out. With the most lovable boxes in gaming history and the brainteasing powers of a New York Times Sunday crossword, only a square would miss out on this release.

Days Gone seems like an accurate reflection of how things would go after an actual, IRL zombie apocalypse: clumsy, violent, and filled with failure.

It's an absolute joy, and one you can share with up to three other friends online or at your side (though I sadly didn't get to try co-op yet). There are plenty of games that do ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove's basic schtick, but the charming world, outlandish characters, and weird-but-cool presents system deliver an amusing and surprisingly sticky twist. Just so long as you can get down with the funk.

The real issue is the lack of purpose. Why does this game exist? What kind of experience is it trying to deliver? It may not be Destiny, but Anthem is a similar breed of online game and it needs fans to hop on board. BioWare's never going to build up any kind of deeply invested community if it can't give that community something to reach for.

I thought I was good at Tetris, but Tetris 99 showed me my true self: just decent at Tetris.

Crackdown 3 is basically a can of Pringles in video game form: rapidly consumed, only vaguely satisfying, and completely forgotten within minutes.

In a departure from the last two games of the series, Metro Exodus sends players into the great outdoors of post-apocalyptic Russia where, unfortunately, the formula that worked for the last two games falls apart...If only Metro Exodus had a little more Metro and a little less Exodus.

Absolutely everyone who was alive to play the other games is different now, and that's not a bad thing. I love the idea of this game being able to float me back into a time where I could cheer for Mickey Mouse without feeling silly and cry because Naminé was lonely. That feeling alone is worth the box price on Kingdom Hearts III.

Respawn essentially reinvented the wheel here, creating a system of communication that effectively negates the need for verbal comms. Competing shooters would do well to take note. [Early impressions]

The Hong Kong Massacre exists to let you strategically gun down armies of bad guys and look cool while doing it. What it lacks in originality it more than makes up for in stylishly bloody good times.

While Vane alone may not be worth its $25 price tag, the lesson it can teach about the art form of game creation and its essential ingredients absolutely is.

Every inch of the Resident Evil 2 remake is engrossing. It’s a masterclass in environmental design and atmosphere. It blends action, puzzles, and story into a well-balanced and fun concoction. All of that together makes RE2 an early game of the year contender for 2019. There’s just one thing I can’t get out of my head. The Resident Evil 2 remake almost broke me.

From what I've played over a couple dozen hours, the game seems airtight. No bugs. No annoyances. No character that seems wildly overpowered. Of course, I'm not a professional Smash player so I can't look at it from that critical lens, but it feels good to me...In my experience as a casual-yet-passionate player, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is exceptional in every way.

Try as it might, Just Cause 4 does not live up to its predecessors. In a game that's built around normally fun elements like chaos, destruction, and revolution, Just Cause 4 ends up getting in its own way far too often with extraneous menu-based systems, a wild camera and controls, and (on PC) a litany of performance issues and inexplicable game crashes. It's a disappointment, to be frank, and made me want to give up and play Just Cause 2 instead.

This sequel makes both the first game and John Marston's overall story better and more meaningful. Red Dead Redemption 2 is at once a startling evolution of the Rockstar Games formula and everything a fan could hope for from a Red Dead Redemption sequel.

Capitalizing on the franchise's best assets and tiptoeing around its flaws, Shadow of the Tomb Raider takes the latest imagining of our girl Lara out in style. From incredible graphics to artfully designed gameplay, Shadow of the Tomb Raider does not disappoint.

The weirder your tastes run, the more you'll find to love here. Good comedy is a rarity in video games, and the simple-yet-engaging puzzles are crucial to sewing this ridiculous story together. Donut County makes you laugh, loudly and repeatedly. That's all it really needs.

The idea of being a vampire stalking the streets of early 20th century London seemed like such a cool idea, but the game's poor execution on almost all fronts is egregious. Vampyr has almost no good qualities, and any that you can squeeze out of it are far outweighed by the negative qualities.

"Remember this is not just a story. This is our future," she says ominously...The aggrandizement of this statement sets the tone for the rest of the game, with its ham-fisted dialogue, questionable optics, and juvenile desperation to be taken as Serious Art About Social Commentary. It’s the first hint at how profoundly, confidently ignorant Quantic Dream is about how the future, history, society, oppression, and even human beings work.

The shortcomings do little to mar the overall experience, and most only become evident after you've spent 30 or 40 hours in this dazzling world. God of War is a special game. It's the sort of experience that people are going to be talking about for months to come, with a story that hits you right in the feels and smooth, beautifully staged gameplay that clicks immediately like a familiar, old friend.

The world is beautiful and rich with promise. There's plenty of room to grow...But there's already a rock-solid foundation here. Sea of Thieves sets out to deliver a particular experience, and it nails that perfectly.

The right memories are allowed to linger. This is more than just a Shadow of the Colossus remake; it's a definitive take, the game as it was always meant to be in our heads.

I enjoyed Prey. It’s tough, even frustratingly so, at first. But as the game opens up and rewards your commitment to it, you get to play out the fantasies of a horror scenario centered on big moral questions. It’s easy to get consumed by its mysteries, and get wrapped up in the guesswork/detective work of exploring those mysteries to their ends.

This new Collection — on Xbox One, PS4, and PC — is great for a bunch of reasons: a new rewind feature that lets you perfect speedrun strats or just cheat your way to the end; Time Trials and Boss Rush modes that offer new ways to engage with each game; and an assortment of digitized relics that give you a peek behind the scenes.

The most frustrating thing about Mass Effect: Andromeda is how much of a regression it represents after the successes of Dragon Age: Inquisition. That was a larger and more involved game by almost every measure....Andromeda's story may be about blazing a trail into an entirely new galaxy, but it feels slimmed down by comparison. There are fewer spaces to explore in general — less than 10 in all — and three of them are different shades of "desert planet." The locations themselves are gorgeous, but they are too few in number.

That's what makes this Zelda so special. For all that's familiar in the world and its inhabitants, the mechanics and the abilities they empower, there's one critical difference: Breath of the Wild sets you free. We've marched off to free Hyrule from Ganon's clutches time and time again, but this is the first Zelda game in which you can really, truly lose yourself.

This is a game where, a full 32 hours after starting, with all the key mysteries uncovered... I still felt like I'd only scratched the surface. That's a rare thing in video games. But that's Horizon: Zero Dawn.

Sniper Elite 4 is an excellent game in many ways, even if it does little to separate itself from its 2014 predecessor. Nazis have always made great video game baddies, and in this one you get to make their heads, lungs, hearts, and other bits explode in slow, bloody motion.

It's a minor miracle that Capcom was able to bounce back from the atrocity that was Resident Evil 6 with a taut, uncompromising horror story that borrows the best bits of the series while pushing forward in welcome new directions. There might be a number in the title, but don't let that throw you...Whatever your relationship is to the series, Resident Evil 7 is sensational video game horror.

Ultimately, Gravity Rush 2's biggest problem may be explained away as an ungainly leap from handheld game to console game. Instead of creating larger and more elaborate challenges around the game's wonderful core mechanics, Japan Studio stuffed this sequel full of undercooked odds and ends.

I finished The Last Guardian with no small amount of hatred in my heart for its lousy execution. But even with all that baggage, I found myself forgiving of its frustrations...Blame Trico. Thank Trico. That creature is so infuriatingly easy to love. The Last Guardian gives you so many reasons to dislike it, and one, impossibly endearing reason to love it...Don't understand? Try raising a puppy. Then you will.

The opening episodes of The Walking Dead: Season 3 force you to think very carefully about the links between Javi and the people around him. All of those choices you make lead up to an explosive revelation that shatters Javi's perspective and sets the stage for the assuredly grim happenings to come.

Choice has been the great strength of every recent Telltale game, but it's especially powerful in a story about a beloved character that's been interpreted and explored in dozens of different ways over the past 75 years.

It doesn't have an Important Message to deliver and it's not openly political or overbearing about driving home underlying themes. It's just an expertly crafted story that — through clever design and eye-catching art — propels you from one terrible discovery to the next.

Uncharted 4 lives up to the legacy the series has earned for itself, but it fails to evolve much beyond that. Naughty Dog proved with The Last of Us that satisfying gameplay could capably co-exist with a complex plotline. This is a step back from that.

If you're a fan of the Dark Souls series, this game will give you another simply great 50-60 hours, though you may end up finally having your fill.

It's not a resounding success, but top-notch writing, great voice performances and beautiful, lo-fi settings keep you invested in 'Oxenfree' throughout its long and arduous night.

Firewatch does some clever things with the central mystery to toy with the expectations of people accustomed to playing video games, but it never delivers strongly enough on that idea — or any other. As strong as the two characters at the heart of the game are, this is a story that struggles to find its voice.

Far Cry Primal starts off strong, throwing you into a hostile, untamed world and letting you flail until you figure things out. But it's too unfocused, too patchwork in the later stages and too much of a step away from the things that make Far Cry great...Yes, it's thrilling to tame a cave bear then ride it into battle while spitting fiery arrows in all directions. This is a fun adventure that'll keep you occupied for 20 hours or more. But Far Cry Primal is also, inescapably, a lesser entry in a series that's continually raised the bar for itself with each successive release.

There's no question that The Division is an enormous accomplishment. The multiplayer technology behind the game is peerless, a perfect game to play with friends online. And even though the core gameplay may not stand out in a major way, The Dark Zone certainly does, offering a tense, thoughtful experience with plenty of expansion potential.