For a mobile port, EVE Echoes is an incredible experience, it brings together many of the aspects of its desktop brethren while stripping moldings some of the more autonomic systems for the casual mobile gamer. It’s a game with so much variety, pilots could get lost warping from one system to the next and yet, that complexity provides a ton to discover.

Yakuza Kiwami 2 has a funny magnetism that I haven’t experienced in a long time. It’s not a game that I felt pressured to make progress in or play, because I enjoyed every second. For me, Yakuza Kiwami 2 is a fantastic standalone game since I had no prior experience with the series. I think it says a lot for a game to be able to hold its own without relying on nostalgia of previous titles, and Yakuza Kiwami 2 can definitely stand on its own two feet.

When A Plague Tale: Innocence was released in 2019, it quickly became my favorite game of the year. It was dark and emotional while combining puzzles and combat in a way that separated it from other games released at the time. Therefore, it should be no surprise that I found A Plague Tale: Requiem to be absolutely brilliant. It expands on and surpasses everything that the original did well. The only difference is the competition is a bit stiffer and it has to settle for my second favorite game of the year.

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.

I generally don’t determine where an expansion ranks compared to the other expansions until it’s finished. So much of our time is spent outside of the launch period, and quite a few expansions that have started off promising have languished. That said, Midnight might be the best World of Warcraft expansion to date. I’ve played them all. I have never experienced this level of things I can do, while also feeling the freedom that if I don’t want to do something, that is also fine. It’s amazing. Midnight isn’t perfect; there have been some bugs and hiccups here and there. In the realm of MMOs, though, that has been remarkably light, and Blizzard has been consistently patching things up. No surprise, I love it. Now, I’m off to hop back in the game.

I enjoyed the 40 hour ride through the The Outer Worlds, even though it was sometimes a bumpy one. Still, with the interesting world that was built here, it feels like there was left a lot of untapped potential on the road. Flaws similar to the Fallout series – namely a main story that is little more than a frame holding together the sandbox that the rest of the game is and correspondingly flat characters – prevent it from earning a place in the hall of fame of roleplaying-shooters next to Mass Effect.

We’ll save our thoughts on the overall multiplayer experience and progression for our full review, but early thoughts right the same from our previews: Battlefield 6’s multiplayer really is a standout. Hopefully servers hold and that experience carries over to the real thing.

Child of Light is a beautifully rendered, fun, and fairly engrossing RPG that every fan of the genre should try. It does enough different to stand out from the pack, and I’m talking about more than its artistic styling. It won’t drain forty plus hours of your free time, but for $15? Yeah, this one’s worth the three Starbucks coffees it’ll cost you and won’t leave a bad taste in your mouth in the process.

Dragonflight has been the revitalization that World of Warcraft sorely needed after Shadowlands. Yes, there are some issues that still could use some work, but that’s the nature of MMO development, especially when you change things up to such a degree as this expansion did. I’m also heartened to see them willing to make big adjustments like they have planned in 10.0.5. I honestly thought Guardians were going to have to suck it up until 10.1, at the least for a talent tree rework. If they can keep this up and regularly deliver content and adjustments, Dragonflight could be the best expansion World of Warcraft has ever done.

For me, Mists is an excellent World of Warcraft expansion. However, in terms of MMOs in general it does not bring the thunder that a WoW expansion used too. If you are a veteran WoW player than Mists has a lot to offer in terms of game play and especially content. If you are a hardened MMO vet looking for something new this is not the game for you any more.

Don’t expect the latest port of this Ys title to change the way you think about the modern RPGs. It definitely lacks some of the complexity that you might take for granted in recent Ys installments. Despite this, I couldn’t stop coming back to the tower for just one more try. Ys Origin is utterly addictive in all the best ways.

Counterplay Games, developer of Duelyst, manages to pick up players from competing games easily by offering similar accessibility, means of progression and game modes that made Hearthstone so successful.

Both a fantastic port and still a fantastic game.

All in all, Ace Attorney Investigations Collection serves its included games better than any previous bundle in franchise history. The updated graphics still impress, but the way they improve the free-roaming investigation sections is notable. The mechanics are easily mapped to a console controller – to the point where I played most of the dialogue-heavy scenes one-handed with an Xbox controller. Plus, seeing Prosecutor's Gambit finally available in the West is worthy of celebration all by itself.

It may not do a whole lot new, but what it does is done so with aplomb and grace. WildStar is at once similar to and unlike any other game in the market. It pulls from worlds gone by, while forging new mechanics all its own.

It specifically brings both a unique new PVEVP mode as well as a diverse cast of characters with unique traits and skills. All of these things put together really to offer a gaming experience that can keep gamers interested for quite some time. If you’re on PS4 or PC I would recommend trying out Orcs Must Die! Unchained.

Victoria 3 is a game that has captivated me now for weeks. I love the level of granular detail Paradox Games allow me to dive into, and Victoria 3 has this in droves. But my favorite parts of Paradox Games are the alternate history playthroughs. I found myself talking to friends and family about the quirks of the countries in my playthrough as if it were real geopolitical news. Every second in Vicky 3 I was hooked, sometimes finding myself sitting at my desk for hours into the night, losing track of the time yet never getting tired of the simulation. I craved more. And for me, that is high praise. As someone for who it takes quite a bit to really hook me, Victoria 3 certainly has in a big way. In fact, I think I’ll start my next campaign right now.

While appealing to players of the first game or longtime fans of the genre as a whole, new players will also find much to like about Torment, most notably the experience of playing a game that isn’t funneled down a pre-determined avenue of “discovery”, but one that rewards exploration, time and diligence to NPCs and locations and much more. If you love cRPGs or finely crafted, complex stories and interactions, Torment: Tides of Numenera is the game for you.

Overall, End of Dragons feels like ArenaNet has taken all the lessons of both Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire and honed their newest expansion into the best of both. The few areas where things aren't quite there, they are working hard at fixing them in the right way, which will be best over the long term, rather than quick kneejerk solutions. This is the perfect capstone to the story they have been telling for the last ten years, and this expansion makes me excited to see where they will go from here.

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.

I greatly enjoyed my time playing Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. The combat feels great, even though it can get repetitive, and the lightsaber gameplay is some of the best there has ever been in a Star Wars game... There are so many aspects of Jedi: Fallen Order that I loved, and I hope we get to see more from Respawn in the future. For now, I think this is the Star Wars game we’ve been looking for.

Bottom line, the game might be a bit easy for die-hard action RPGers but that makes it an exceptional choice for younger gamers. Dragon Quest enthusiasts will find a spin-off here that is a nice nod to the Dragon Quest series as the references to other Dragon Quest games are abundant! There are also many features that should keep you busy for a while. Highly recommended, especially to any Dragon Quest fan!

Even as horrible as I am at the combat it is impossible to deny the melee fighting is a welcome reprieve from the usual first-person shooter or Diablo-esque hack-n-slash combat.

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.

Everspace 2 lets me live out the outer space-related dreams of my youth thanks to its open space exploration and well-designed spacecraft combat. Moving from a roguelike to an open-world exploration game is a tall task, but Rockfish nailed it here. Flying around space is exhilarating, fighting against enemy ships is a rush, and the story keeps me guessing. There are a few issues throughout, namely with the disorienting nature of the ship's movement, but once you're used to it the game simply sings. I have a feeling I will be traveling in the dark reaches of space for hours and hours to come.

From what we've played so far, Marathon feels like a modern love letter to the classic games from Bungie’s past, while keeping their sights on the future. While the learning curve is steep, the community the game is building is already growing strong.

The dozen or so hours of Convergence: A League Of Legends Story accomplished what it's set out to do: It told me a great story set within the League of Legends universe, and it did so with fun gameplay and a cool world to explore. Ekko is a fantastic character, and his time-bending kit is a lot of fun to mess around with while running, jumping, and climbing through the world of Zaun. However, the game plays it safe a lot of the time, which I feel holds it back from its true potential. I enjoyed Convergence, it is worthy of the franchise from which it was born, but it won't be the first game I think of when I look at the library Riot is building.

The magic of the franchise is still there and I emotionally connected with this game the same now as I did with some of the other great entries at different points through my life. I may have ended up skipping a few along the way but XV definitely brought the allure and luster back. This really is a Final Fantasy for both new and old hats to the franchise alike.