Astral Chain successfully combines great action, exploration, and puzzles together with a strong narrative. Despite a few problems with pacing and repetition, it's a fun, engaging, and above all original experience.

Crytek have made something that feels truly distinct with Hunt: Showdown. The tense, high stakes PvP action blends well with southern swamp-horror PvE to create a fresh and compelling multiplayer experience, though the extreme lethality of the combat and a current lack of content might leave you hunting for a sale.

Blair Witch, much like the rest of the franchise, is a disappointment. It's not scary, it's rarely interesting and it's not particularly fun to play. It has a solid look, but is lacking in just about every other department. I say this begrudgingly, but you're better off watching the films.

Gears 5 offers a familiar action experience that should satisfy fans who gravitate towards its expanded multiplayer options. And yet, the uneven campaign and lack of significant gameplay innovations mean this latest chapter does little to draw in the uninitiated.

Telling Lies makes great innovative tweaks to its gameplay formula, and offers a high-quality live-action adventure, but it completely fumbles merging these two elements together. A word of advice would be to try your hand at the puzzle and discovery for a while, and then eventually just watch the clips outside the game to enjoy the narrative.

Wreckfest may feature some lackluster racing, but its dynamic vehicle deformation is so dazzling that it almost doesn't matter. Barreling across tracks that gradually fill with automotive debris, or jumping into a demo derby to wreak some havoc yourself, serve to fulfill a destruction-fueled niche that knows no equal on consoles.

The Dark Pictures: Man Of Medan takes a while to get going, but eventually the scares start kicking in, and it’s a lot of fun screaming alongside your friends. This is a game that’s meant to be shared and is a blast to play in groups. A promising start to the horror anthology that will hopefully only get better with subsequent entries.

Guiding a clan of primates through generations as they evolve certainly makes for a unique experience, and there are times when Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey comes together. But a lack of guidance on basic gameplay mechanics, as well as some clumsy controls and unsuccessfully executed ideas, make for a highly uneven game.

With the vast array of wacky mutations and other random elements, you can milk a whole lot of enjoyment out of this $20 adventure. Roguelike aficionados and retro gamers alike should definitely give RAD a look.

Erica offers a very casual take on the adventure game genre with a rather convoluted story, but a great price and solid production values make it a novelty thriller that's worth a look.

Control offers some of the best combat from Remedy, balancing supernatural abilities with a handy service weapon. Its non-linear twisted levels, populated with varied Hiss enemies, make for an appealing supernatural world. With a better protagonist and some fine-tuning, it could have been truly extraordinary.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a long and content-packed experience, which sometimes makes the grind become more pronounced. While I was able to ignore the dull elements for a long time, it eventually weighs the game down.

Presentation and polish aren't its strong suit, but Remnant: From the Ashes features gripping third-person gunplay and simple but satisfying progression that enable enticing entertainment regardless of whether you're playing cooperatively or solo. The visceral variety and delightful design of the environments and enemies elevate Remnant above other Dark Souls doppelgangers.

Lost Orbit: Terminal Velocity is a competent action-scroller that often reaches stellar status. It's a cool little indie with some neat ideas, and definitely worth taking for a spin at $10.

The Great Perhaps is a nice looking adventure game that takes players on an interesting journey with solid dimension-shifting gameplay. Just be wary of the poorly handled mood swings and occasionally annoying design elements.

Exception is a bog-standard platformer that rarely rises above mediocrity. Its saving grace is an excellent presentation and a fire soundtrack that you should check out even if you have no interest in playing the actual game. Otherwise, look elsewhere for your platforming kicks.

Quench is an okay puzzle game that has a few solid mechanics with a noteworthy art style, but its linearity and awkward controls don't help offset the somewhat steep asking price.

Dynamic empire management and deep tactical conquest forge the perfect alliance within the colorful sci-fi worlds of Age of Wonders: Planetfall. With nearly endless replay value, it is one of the most tantalizing turn-based games in years.

Metal Wolf Chaos XD has moments of entertaining mayhem, but they are hidden beneath layers of dated gameplay, nonsensical story, and gated behind a high asking price. Instead of being able to potentially discover a lost classic, mech fans get a rusted out blast from the past.

Wolfenstein: Youngblood is an adequate shooter, buried under a glut of unnecessary RPG elements and an obnoxious focus on cooperative play. Fans should look to the other games in the series to quench their thirst for straightforward Nazi killing.

Tetris Effect reflects the classic puzzle game through a particle filled kaleidoscope, putting players into a mesmerizing trance with its unique presentation, alongside classic gameplay. Its price point might jolt you back to reality, though.

The simple synergy-focused combat can be fun with some friends, but Ultimate Alliance 3's padded plot proves pernicious for its diverse cast of wretchedly one-note characters. Add to that a campaign that's poorly paced and painfully inconsistent performance, and you're left with a repetitive and unexpectedly plain package that doesn't adequately justify the revival of a franchise.

While a few finicky mechanics and a lack of content outside the campaign keep this from getting a universal recommendation, $20 still gets you a memorable experience and offers a deliciously fun twist on the sidescrolling shooter formula.

Super Mario Maker 2 is a perfectly fine way to pass the time, though you'll quickly begin to see the seams. As far as game-maker tools go, it's probably the easiest to use - but that doesn't mean it's the most entertaining or diverse.

Etherborn is a creative and occasionally maddening puzzler that will test your brainpower. However, there's not a ton of content here, and the backing narration often comes across as pretentious nonsense.

Painfully plain mechanics and an inadequate narrative render SolSeraph insufficient entertainment for nearly anyone. ActRaiser fans will find its flaws indefensible, and anyone else who manages to stumble upon it will fail to be captivated by the excruciatingly repetitive tower defense and tiresome action platforming.

Sea of Solitude dives into a broad range of mental issues and treats them carefully enough to be both educational and emotional. It’s just a pity that the bland gameplay drowns out some of its best parts.

Traffix is nice little game that takes a seemingly straightforward puzzle concept and makes a fun experience out of it.

Establishing and expanding a colony while defending against increasingly difficult hordes of infected makes for a very engrossing experience in They Are Billions, though some questionable design choices make shambling through the lengthy Singleplayer campaign a bit of a slog at times.

Nitro-Fueled gives Crash Team Racing a much-needed visual facelift while keeping the first-rate kart racing mechanics intact. The small amount of single player content doesn't give you much to do by yourself, but the healthy helping of multiplayer modes and unforgiving AI provide plenty of reasons to keep you coming back.

The Sinking City is a decent adaptation of Lovecraft’s work, meshing dark themes with a variety of great investigations that culminate into tricky decisions. If the combat was less clunky and the world more polished, it would have beckoned all to its desolate shore.

While an exciting sim on its own, F1 2019 does the bare minimum to qualify as a brand new outing. There are no breakthroughs this year, so unless you're a hardcore fan, those just looking for a great F1 racing experience can safely pit stop to last year's version.

Mushroom Crusher Extreme is an amusing, albeit sometimes frustrating, isometric retro romp. It offers some thrills for those willing to overcome the somewhat clunky mechanics, and repetitive grinding needed to tap into all of its content.

While it's crammed full of fan-service alongside good core combat and exploration, Ritual of the Night's technical instability and some discomforting design decisions keep it from rivaling its influences. It was clearly made for the fans, so those without an already-established fondness may find it hard to enjoy.

Despite being a spinoff game, Judgment does everything that merits it standing on its two feet. An engrossing narrative, great characters, and a wealth of side content make for a thrilling adventure - despite some niggling story beats and under-utilized mechanics.

Repetition and a general lack of polish crushes Warhammer: Chaosbane before it has a chance to put up a fight. Although the game has decent visuals and competent action, it is just too stagnant, with the same basic enemies filling poorly-randomized levels.

Three Kingdoms represents a return to form for the historical side of the Total War series, with an emphasis on much improved diplomacy and inner-faction politics, alongside a fantastic setting working in the favour of this massive strategy sequel - even if the real time battles mostly feel very familiar.

Draugen is a frustratingly creative attempt from Red Thread Games that some will appreciate, while others brush it aside without much thought.

Team Sonic Racing offers a hopeful glimpse at how compelling a team-based kart racer can be. However, inadequate AI, limited loot box progression, and a poorly-polished multiplayer suite make this seem more like a stepping stone that'll hopefully lead to something more well-realized.

RAGE 2 held plenty of potential, but even considering how great the combat is, falls well short of that goal. The sequel is hampered by the same issues that cropped up in the original. The campaign is a non-factor and the open-world needed more life in it. Third time's the charm?

Having a high-concept idea is all well and good, but it doesn't matter what kind of story you tell, or the world you create, if the act of playing the game is so unpleasant. While occasionally putting the pieces together, often Observation left me bored and frustrated.

Diverse movie scenes, twisted dynamic levels, and a handful of good scares help make Layers of Fear 2 a fine piece of horror gaming. Better story pacing and a clearer start might have seen it outperform the competition.

Alt-Frequencies has a unique hook in its gameplay and story, with plenty of potential, but it skews towards being an all-too-brief mobile game rather than a full fledged adventure puzzle.

Koral's ambition to bring awareness to the problems faced by marine life largely falls flat. While it looks nice, the formulaic and repetitive gameplay means this title fails to stand out in a sea of similar indie releases.

Imperator: Rome has some rough edges and it's not quite up to par with the excellent games Paradox usually churns out, but at the same time, it is still a challenging and rewarding experience that's bound to keep you engaged for long stretches.

A Plague Tale: Innocence is legitimately captivating in its atmospheric depiction of the plague-stricken and war-torn France of the Middle Ages. The mechanics rarely shine and the plot has a fair share of contrivances, but there are plenty of outstanding sequences that put this unique setting to excellent use.

SpellKeeper feels a bit like the fidget spinner equivalent of a puzzler. It's an almost calming experience to distract your mind with, and while it verges on overly-simplistic at times, it still somehow manages to feel satisfying and rewarding.

Mordhau's incredibly satisfying melee combat and slapstick ultra-violence make for a riotously good time on the medieval battlefield, though a lack of maps for the best mode and lingering technical issues are cracks in the armor of this otherwise thrilling multiplayer slasher.

Simple puzzles and bland chases prevent Close to the Sun from living up to its numerous inspirations. While the game has a decent retro style and an intriguing horror narrative, it never makes the player a true participant.

Fade to Silence is an unremarkable and slow slog for survival through a wintry post-apocalypse. Technical problems, underdeveloped gameplay systems, and a confused tone erode away most of the enjoyment in a setting that showed potential.

Anno 1800 offers up a compelling blend of city building and strategy in the industrial era, with a smooth learning curve and fantastically flexible and replayable sandbox mode that will have you starting and re-starting your trading empire as the hours sail by.

Outside of the excellent co-op play, World War Z is a mixed bag of issues. With no story to get invested in, the progression system is a total drag and there's little here you haven't seen done better before. However, as long as you have friends willing to join in, this shooter can be an intensely enjoyable time.

Days Gone is a fairly typical open world post apocalyptic survival title that offers a few memorable mechanics and story beats, but is eventually consumed by genre clichés. Poor technical performance further hinders its chances of survival, but perhaps with time that wound will heal.

At first it seems that Heaven’s Vault is an absolute treasure and you can just marvel at the creative ideas that Inkle Studio came up with. But in between all those moments when I loved the game, some of the gameplay mechanics made my eyes glaze over and the experience would lose its luster.

Tropico 6 sees the long running strategy game series continue its leisurely Caribbean life and embodies the definition of not rocking the cruise boat. Newcomers should enjoy their visit to the sunny archipelago, while returning fans will be appeased by the various tweaks to the formula.

Katana ZERO proves that the Hotline Miami formula still works as a side-scroller, but mechanical missteps and narrative blunders hamper the game's otherwise excellent combat and enticing story.

Operencia: The Stolen Sun proves ambitious for an indie project, and one that offers a wealth of satisfying content for the asking price. Its methodical, sluggish nature may not be for everyone, but those who accept it as a rough-around-the-edges retro dungeon crawler, should get a kick out of it.

Weedcraft Inc is a fairly typical management game at its core, but one that feels limited in scope and yet with too many busywork mechanics. It also offers little insight on the real world issues.

MLB The Show 19 isn't a standout, but it does offer another strong outing from the baseball franchise. If you bought last year's game, this isn't an essential pick-up, but if you've skipped a year or two, or are a newcomer to the series, it's a good pick-up.

Yoshi's Crafted World delights with indelible charm and endless collectibles. It doesn't effectively utilize its arts & crafts aesthetic that's brimming with potential, but collecting all the game's goodies provides an enjoyable romp which is more than worthy of the lovable dinosaur mascot.

Generation Zero is an amalgamation of ideas, some of them pretty decent, but none executed with any great level of confidence. Despite the surprisingly strong atmosphere, gameplay annoyances and serious technical issues prevent it from having a chance to survive.

Though Washington D.C. lacks the memorable atmosphere of snow-bound New York, and you probably won’t care about the plot or characters, The Division 2 is a significantly more robust game at launch. It offers another incredibly detailed open world and a myriad of small tweaks and additions, with a promising future ahead.

With more interaction and better player choice, The Walking Dead: The Final Season might have transcended its predecessors. But as it stands, Clem’s adequate goodbye is aided by strong characters, long episodes, and apt nostalgia.

Fantastic combat, stunning locales, and effortless traversal make Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice a thoroughly enjoyable change of pace for From Software. Though with some imperfections, it's still a uniquely bold statement from a studio that's proven their proficiency at establishing successful IP's.

Although Golf Peaks could have benefited from there being more content included, it's still a solid puzzler that is more than worth the cost of admission. Its delightful presentation, calming presence and pick-up appeal make it perfect to take on the go.

Devil May Cry 5 is an action title worth playing, filled with bombastic action, over-the-top character moments, and fun mechanics. It’s a game that forgoes any sense of nuance and relies on simply overloading your senses, and often succeeds at doing just that.

Sci-Fi tropes aside, Hazardous Space runs with a unique blend of gameplay elements, which work to a degree, but feels shallow or unrealized in certain areas. Should provide short bursts of entertaining RPG gameplay, at least for the roguelike enthusiasts.

Freeform investigation with multiple outcomes is scarcely as good as it is in The Occupation, so it’s disappointing to see it paired with clunky stealth and an unwillingness to give players enough time to find the game’s best-kept secrets.

Dead or Alive 6 serves up great fighting mechanics, solid offline mode variety, and looks good while doing it. If you're a fan of the series, it's well worth checking out, even as this latest entry stumbles in the online arenas and the disappointing approach to customization.

Anthem manages to offer up moments of fun, with occasionally chaotic action, Javelin gameplay variety and freeform traversal. But an overly convoluted and forgettable story, underwhelming RPG elements and outdated design choices make for a rough introduction to this brave new world.

Trials Rising offers up a great set of tracks with a good difficulty curve and the most fleshed out multiplayer options the series has ever had, though forced grinding to unlock later tracks in the campaign and intermittent performance problems create the kind of barriers you didn't want to see.

Degrees of Separation is definitely not great, but it's not exactly bad either. Instead, it's something potentially worse: forgettable. An intriguing premise is wasted on dull gameplay that never rises above simply being serviceable.

Mashing up unique aesthetics and gameplay doesn't always yield a perfect result, and Ape Out tries to fit together two disparate ideas without successfully navigating the challenges of such an endeavor. Too many elements just don't work at a fundamental level, making it an uneven effort at best.

With excellent vehicle handling, DiRT Rally 2.0 finds itself in a strong position. It also has superb visuals and brutal simulation aspects. Apart from AI issues and track repetition, it should please most rally fans.

Tannenberg is more accessible and has a greater fun factor than you might expect from a realism-driven World War 1 shooter, thanks to a great central game mode and consistently exciting and satisfying gameplay. Though you’ll need to be on board with bolt-action rifles and accept that you are going to die a lot.

Jump Force is an exercise in wasted potential, which is a real shame considering the strong roster of characters and engaging worlds they all hail from. The combat is lackluster and repetitive, despite being punctuated by flashy iconic special moves. Heavy grind and boring mission structure turn saving the world into a chore.

Ravva And The Cyclops Curse is yet another reminder that an old formula can still be both fun and interesting, if the execution is up to snuff and a few bits of innovation are sprinkled in. Those who enjoy a bite-sized platforming experience should find much to like about this little indie.

New Dawn is more Far Cry for those who have extinguished all their other options, but its new additions aren't fleshed out quite enough to captivate newcomers looking for a substantial open world experience, or entice deserters that have grown tired of the franchise formula.

Crackdown 3 offers occasional glimpses of fun, but it's far too bogged down by outdated mechanics, bugs, and disappointing multiplayer to be worth anywhere near the full asking price.

With its razor-sharp gunplay, slick movement, ping system, and great combat arena, Apex Legends takes the Battle Royale genre to the next rung on the ladder and challenges its competitors to do better.

Metro Exodus is a more than worthy successor to Last Light, successfully introducing open levels to break up the more linear sequences, while also retaining the unique look, feel and incredible atmosphere that made the previous games so memorable.

Considering its length, My Memory Of Us is a tad overpriced, but the game itself proves a charming magnificent puzzler that tugs at both your brain and your heart strings.

The Hong Kong Massacre is obsessed with fist-pumping, high-octane action and is a great offering for action fans that enjoy the likes of Hotline Miami. The first two hours are largely spent finding the game’s wavelength, but the pulsing energy of the design helps propel you along. Before long, you’ll be swan diving through windows and lighting up rooms with gunfire in pure action bliss.

Rainswept delivers an engaging and often touching story, but its dated visuals, lack of worthwhile gameplay and disappointing conclusion leave it in a somewhat muddy puddle.

Kingdom Hearts III may not be the tour de force that fans have been craving for so many years, but it's brimming with beauty, variety, and setpieces that effectively utilize a fantastic combat system.

PC Building Simulator is one of the better entries in the genre, with nice touches of authenticity and attention to detail. It's too limited and simplistic to replicate the experience of putting a rig together yourself, but it does a good enough job to get you started in the right direction.

It's apparent that Forever Forest is a port of a mobile game. With randomly generated biomes, there's plenty of gameplay for those who seek it, but much of it proves too mundane, shallow, and repetitive.

Resident Evil 2 is certainly propped up by being a remake of an already excellent game, but it doesn’t simply lean on that legacy. There’s so much great work being done to revitalize the experience for a modern audience, and those efforts deserve to be experienced. Nostalgic fans already got their preorders, but for newcomers - you need to summon your courage, turn off all the lights, and let this game fill you with dread - because it’s worth it.

The actual interactive component of The Grand Tour Game is really quite poor, with awful handling and dated presentation making the races and challenges vastly inferior to the segments they attempt to replace, in between clips from the show you've already seen.

Though not without a little turbulence from the convoluted story and uneven difficulty, Ace Combat 7 delivers a fun and polished arcade flight experience that should entertain newcomers and veteran pilots alike.

Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes can be engaging and stylish when it wants to be. However, it rarely wants to be either of those things, and is instead content to be a bland, boring slog that never gets out of first gear.

Vane is the kind of game where you can see what the developers were going for. It has moments where the vision comes together and perhaps you've turned a corner, but all too quickly it goes back to its old, disappointing ways.

Pikuniku offers a few amusing moments, but its underwhelming presentation and simplistic gameplay make for an easily forgettable experience.

Ashen is a Souls-like that succeeds despite its lack of originality. The simplified progression, tracked quest objectives, and a persistent companion make it a great way to get into this challenging sub-genre.

Both a faithful spiritual sequel and a fresh adventure, Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom is an excellent platformer with some truly gorgeous visuals.

The best multiplayer game on Switch, and the richest, strongest entry in the Smash series, at least in terms of sheer content. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate should prove to be a near endlessly entertaining go-to for friends who want a fun, enduring party game.

Insurgency: Sandstorm sees New World Interactive successfully transfer their particular brand of hardcore tactical shooter to a modern game engine with just a few technical hitches, though you’ll need to be content with a familiar Middle Eastern setting and somewhat limited set of maps and game modes.

If you're in the mood for a lighthearted adventure with some simple but enjoyable gameplay, GRIS is certainly up to the task.