Order & Chaos is a novel, interesting, and intriguing application. Being a truly fully-fledged MMORPG on the iPad makes it very endearing to a goblin-loving veteran such as I, but there are some glaring problems with the game to overlook before you can truly enjoy it. A WoW clone until the end, but for the price of admission, and the amount of "I Can't Believe It's Not Azeroth" fun you can have, you might just forgive it.

Sea of Thieves has made enough improvements that I will likely rally the sea dogs I used to sail with back together to complete both adventures and have some fun. With the PS5 release, I can also make some new friends in the game. The biggest hurdle overall to the PS5 release is that this isn’t anything special for anyone who has played this on either a PC or Xbox.

If you're a fan of the newer, more lighthearted Like A Dragon titles and enjoy quirky pirate adventures, then Pirate Yakuza is worth your time. However, if you’re looking for the grittier crime drama of previous Yakuza titles, you might find Pirate Yakuza is too wacky of a departure for the franchise.

If you liked the original Shadowrun Returns campaign you are going to enjoy Dragonfall. It takes everything you liked the first time around and refines it. While your character may be the protagonist of the campaign you are certainly not a hero. This is made abundantly clear in side missions like Loose Ends. You are hired to break into a corporation and kill the last surviving member of a Shadowrun team hired by your employer before he can be tortured and sell your employer down the river. Dragonfall doesn’t waste your time with a brand new tutorial either. Your PDA has all the info you need. While this game is far from perfect, the thing it does the best is capture the feel of what Shadowrun should be and that is a world I want to play in.

While it’s clear that Lost Ark isn’t necessarily an ARPG, but rather a traditional Korean MMORPG with an isometric view, Smilegate is very clearly looking to cater to a specific audience. Lost Ark finds itself focused on a never-ending gear treadmill, and it does an extremely good job at it. Unfortunately, casual players who want to explore an interesting world or want diverse or more dynamic content will likely be let down. And while Lost Ark is fun, the arduous leveling process and repetitive endgame will likely lead to polarizing opinions about it, with most players either loving or hating their experience in the end.

Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 is best experienced for yourself, not spoiled by a friend or watched on a YouTube channel. To fully understand what it's trying to do, you need to hear those voices for yourself, feel that anguish and pain as it happens, and continue to press on through it. It's a powerful game with a powerful message, even if some parts of it aren't as engaging as the rest. Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 requires your patience; if you provide it, you will be rewarded handsomely.

Fire Emblem Engage has a lot of great elements, from its striking visuals to the classic Fire Emblem turn-based strategy gameplay. The story being told, however, does not live up to the bar set by other games in the series, while some battles drag on to the point where I'm fighting off a nap just as hard as I'm fighting the enemy armies. I enjoy the game in spurts, but before long I find myself wondering when I can stop engaging with this Fire Emblem. There's enough here to enjoy Fire Emblem Engage, but only the most dedicated will be able to see this through to the end.

Honestly, I do love the gameplay. But literally everything else tangential to and surrounding the core gameplay experience is a genuine pain. What’s worse, these pain points have been solved so easily by the games Valorant is so clearly inspired. It’s a damn shame that these existing easy solutions were simply ignored. A veteran team with the experience and containing the caliber of talent like Riot should simply know better. I cannot overstate just how much this frustrates me.

Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is a good game and has the potential to be an excellent game with more patches and polish. It could become a very exciting title if the Questline development team eventually adds more depth to character-build mechanics through DLC, item design, or expansions. In its current state, it is a worthwhile experience if you are looking for another open-world RPG with an interesting storyline, lots of interesting areas to explore, and, at times, a spectacular-looking world setting. But don't expect a fully polished and bug-free experience.

In short, ArcheAge does a whole lot of things most MMOs never would dare dream, but the sad truth is that it’s not exceptional at any one thing. And that, unfortunately, makes the grand idea that is ArcheAge a little underwhelming overall.

Far Cry 6 has some explosive action, but in my 25-or-so hours of gameplay the stretches between the most explosive missions bring the experience down. Yara is huge and full of things to explore, but exploration should not mean "walk 1000 in-game meters to get an objective that sends me 2000 meters in the opposite direction. Every character is expertly portrayed--not the least of which is Giancarlo Esposito, whose Anton Castillo ranks right near the top of best Far Cry villains. The world and the people in it are interesting, interesting enough to overcome the monotony, but getting there can certainly be difficult. Far Cry 6 doesn't move the needle at all, but it still holds its own amongst the other shooter games available.

Despite the optimization issues and random difficulty spikes, I do think that Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is ultimately good – it just could have been so much better.

If Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is any indication, the core philosophy of the game still works in 2024. Running around the mall with an array of silly weapons is still brutal fun, the time restrictions of 72 Hour Mode make each decision heavy and important, and the Willamette Parkview Mall has never looked better. However, there's some jank under the hood, a few key improvements are missing, and the story could have used a small adjustment or two for modern times. None of these problems, however, serve as mortal wounds; like the zombies, our enjoyment with DRDR keeps coming back whenever those issues turn up.

The graphics won’t blow you away and it won’t be making too many “best graphics of the year” lists. But it’s a loving tribute and beautifully recreated edition of a much-beloved classic. There’s a lot to like in this remake, and if this is the building block for what’s to come in the franchise, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic.

Green Hell is a survival game set in the Amazon jungle where I played as a man lost trying to figure out what was going on while searching for his lost wife and making sure I didn’t die of dehydration along the way. At the normal settings, the survival aspects of Green Hell were harsh enough to make me wonder whether I would actually finish the story. However, after some tweaking, I was able to enjoy most of the game. Though, in the end, I was left wondering whether the experience was worth it in the end.

There is more than enough variety to keep players coming back and having fun for months, just with the solo and collectible game alone. If you’re an extreme sports fan, Riders Republic is a no-brainer. For MMO fans looking for more than a madcap mass race challenge, I would let the game mature for a few months longer before picking this one up.

There is no question that Van Helsing II is head and shoulders above its predecessor in terms of game play and in the replayability factor that the additional two classes bring to the game. It's a solid entry into the aRPG market and one that fans of the genre are sure to enjoy. It's a fantastic bargain and quite a lot of fun to play.

Zenless Zone Zero achieves the flash and thrill of a modern fighter built for players of all skill levels. The fantastic combat can often get hampered by the pacing of story, and the mismatched feel of the world inside the Hollow and the slow-paced life outside of it. There are a lot of great game modes, some unique characters to collect, an enticing story and a fun arcade diversion that updates some retro classics. It’s obvious from the quality this is a Hoyoverse game. For the introductory price of free this is well worth your time, maybe even more than other Hoyoverse titles that require a higher cost investment. However, Zenless Zone Zero feels like it’s a Hoyoverse game that needs a little more time finding itself.

There are a lot of enjoyable aspects to Immortals Fenyx Rising, but very little feels new. Instead, it’s similar and safe, like I’ve done this all before. And I have but with a different main character and color palette. Its biggest sin is being entirely forgettable once you move on to the next game.

Once you distill it all down I did have fun in Destiny. I just wish the ride would have lasted longer. The endgame grind is not what I was hoping for and has turned me off completely. Bungie has stated repeatedly that the game really starts at 20. If that is true then this game will have a very short shelf life. The grind just is not fun. Hopefully these special events will keep the game fresh and new for most players to drop in and out of and get more value for their dollar.

If you’re looking for something new and fresh in the world of strategy games, this might not be the game for you. But if you’re looking for technical, celestial battles with lots of tiny details to optimize and organize, you might end up falling in love with this behemoth of a game.

Legacy of Romulus is a welcome expansion to Star Trek Online. With a totally original story, a new faction, new ships and the option to start as any faction, STO has been improved significantly.

Let's get one thing straight: I do enjoy playing Dying Light 2 Stay Human. The story is great and warrants additional playthroughs thanks to multiple endings, the combat feels awesome, and there's a ton of stuff to do in this sprawling city (500 hours worth, apparently). It just needs to clean up the technical issues and stop spawning the final boss inside the platform he's standing on, among other things. If that happens, the impact--much like the game itself--will be night and day.

Riding along the Oregon mountain side is pretty fun if you aren’t on chase missions, and there’s nothing more satisfying than the instant stealth kills, watching Deacon dig his knife into the spine of a freaker and pull it straight down. If nothing else, Days Gone is a good game that’ll hold you over while waiting for that next game.

Absolver is a great combat game, and a fantastic blend of genres. It’s just sad that the PVE side of things is so short, because I’d really have enjoyed the game if there was more of an adventure to play through. Still, if you’re an old pro and fan of fighting games then Absolver may very well be worth the buy. It’s unique blend of ARPG and traditional kung-fu mastering is a whole lot of fun.

Although WILD HEARTS puts up a valiant effort to capitalize on the success that Monster Hunter has found in the West these past few years, it still leaves a lot to be desired. The most disappointing aspect is how bogged down it is with technical issues that prevent a seamless online co-op experience. A lot of the joy in hunting monsters is being able to do it with friends. Despite featuring cross-platform play, I preferred to play WILD HEARTS alone rather than be bothered with the slow-downs that I encountered. It shows great promise with their weapon types and the upgrading mechanics, but ultimately WILD HEARTS feels like an unfinished product. I hope that the upcoming content updates can turn that around. In the meantime, I’d look elsewhere for getting that next hunt in.

Dying Light has some issues when compared to its forbears, but it also sets itself apart in some remarkable ways. The parkour really is as good as you’ve heard and is the first bit of innovation we’ve seen in the zombie genre in far too long. The RPG systems definitely allow you to hone your character in a natural fashion, but it would have been nice to see some extra classes for variety. Night play isn’t for me, but I won’t knock it for that. Techland never hid its brutal nature. As a piece of zombie fiction, Dying Light isn’t the most original tale. As a way to experience the undead apocalypse first-hand? It’s hard to beat.

None of us will ever be as questionably cool as neighborhood otaku a**hole Travis Touchdown, nor have a world that sings and flashes to his tune as we dance around swinging a laser katana. Nor will we be flooded by such an incredibly preserved imagination of cool 80’s and 90’s nostalgia. But we can pretend for a few minutes! That’s the fun of a video game like No More Heroes 3, right?