Extremely dated and worsened by a clunky interface and missing content, Phantasy Star Online 2 probably won't have much to offer to modern players who aren't already invested in its world.

All things considered, at $40, it’s hard for me to truly recommend FIA European Truck Racing Championship unless you happen to be a big fan of titles like American Truck Simulator/ European Truck Simulator 2. But, if super-fast racing is more your style, you’re headed down the wrong road in this case.

Moments of stealth-flavored enjoyment in The Blackout Club are often overshadowed by the game's unpolished state, with bugs and repetition robbing the game's mysteries with growing frustration.

I enjoyed a fair amount of what this game had to offer, but the limited, claustrophobic nature of much of the navigation, coupled with slow movement, poor story, and extremely limited enemy types, make it a harder sell.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order certainly tries, but as Yoda pointed out, you either do or do not. For the most part, it does -- but without the grace or precision of a full-fledged Jedi Knight. The apprentice is not yet the master.

Visually excellent but extremely short and packed with repetitive, clunky sword fights, Trek to Yomi doesn't hit all the right notes.

South Park Snow Day is an entertaining, if simple, title that entirely focuses on multiplayer. Fans of the show will lap up the humor, but those planning to go in alone will be disappointed.

Quirky and fun while it lasts, DEEEER Simulator doesn't have nearly enough content to justify its price tag, and little has been added to rationalize the price increase over its Early Access version.

The Complex's potential gets lost amid weird subplots, throwaway characters, and a ton of plot holes. With so few meaningful choices, it's not an experience worth repeating more than once.

We Are Football lays the foundations for future titles to prosper. But as a game, it isn't all that great. The primitive match engine in particular is just not good enough in this day and age. Regardless, there are some good ideas present and it looks far more promising than most of the Football Manager clones that have come and gone. Even if you don't want to wait, it's not like We Are Football is necessarily bad. Some may find the streamlined, faster experience a refreshing change from Football Manager's more complex offerings.

Rise of Industry has significant depth with heavy focus on logistics and supply management. Unfortunately, there's not much else for you to enjoy.

Perhaps with a couple of in-depth quality-of-life updates, Waking can be something special. For now, the reality is its unique narrative is held back by some fundamental design oversights.

An all right farming simulator with charming graphics, fairly rounded mechanics, and a unique and interesting magical angle, but too slow to the selling point.

The Shattering has some big ideas that it simply isn't able to deliver on. There's a distinct lack of narrative cohesion along with pedestrian plotting and boring gameplay. Still, the game does some things that make it worth a bit of attention.

While Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok has some brilliant ideas, it's far from the epic expansion that you'd want it to be. It's hampered by reused mechanics and a story that's woefully disconnected from your main character's arc.

Cleverly designed and rather lovely to look at, though a little slight, and not something that'll keep you occupied for long stints.

When all the profanities have been said and all the odd jobs have been done, Orangeblood is a one-of-a-kind experience that’s equal parts endearing and incoherent. There’s just enough to see, hear, and do to warrant a two-day getaway to New Koza.

The Innsmouth Case is a charming text adventure that brings the seaside town of Innsmouth into the twenty-first century, but leaves the horror behind. In its place is a humorous hunt for story bits that scratches a much different itch than was originally intended.

Repetitive, meandering, and streamlined to a fault, Warhammer: Chaosbane lacks the depth to keep you invested well past the shallow endgame. It's a shame given the rich lore and enemy design.

There are some positives. The missions and map environments can be repetitive, but the layout is acceptable — although I would have preferred it if the developers added more collectibles or items in nooks and crannies. These would be a lot better than just interacting with some inactive servitor or flipping a switch. A few tweaks to the skill trees, additional characters, more enemy types from Lovecraft’s universe, and perhaps even a level/map editor would be welcome inclusions to the game as well.

The Surge 2 isn't a bad game, but it gets some pretty big things wrong. In the end, I had some fun with it, but the broken parrying, awful enemy placement, and bland level layouts made it more of a slog.

Farming Simulator 19's new features do push the series in the right direction, but more needs to be done next time around. The old flaws have to be rooted out so a truly fresh new experience can grow.

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition has the content to keep you entertained for a time. Unfortunately, the visuals and core mechanics are woefully behind 20 years after its initial release. It's a nostalgia trip for fans given the low price, but it's lacking in this new age of strategy games.

Ultimately, Zombie Army 4: Dead War has the same feel as any later-day entry into a horror franchise does. It has delved all the way into the realm of schlock, completely unapologetic for its own existence. There’s something almost admirable about that, but the magic isn’t quite there. That said, if you and your buds are looking for a decent way to pass 10 or so hours, there are certainly worse choices than this. The shooting is among the best around and the X-ray shots are endlessly entertaining. I just wish there were more here to hold my attention past a single playthrough.

MythForce looks stunning and perfectly encapsulates the look and feel of 80s action cartoons. Unfortunately, its repetitive gameplay loop, frustrating stamina mechanic, and unrewarding progression system spoil what could've been an exceptional game.

Thymesia has some refreshing ideas to set it apart among a packed field of Souls-like games. Sadly, many of these mechanics don't mesh well with the action or are completely useless. Exploration also feels generally unrewarding.

Though it has all of the hallmarks of a solid remake, Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX likely sticks a bit too close to the subject matter to resonate with a modern audience. Don't let the lush visuals fool you. It's unapologetically brutal design, combined with control issues and unexplained mechanics galore, all make for an uneven and unrecommendable experience.

Destroy All Humans! has excellent visuals and is fun for a couple of hours. But it's so redundant, uninspired, and devoid of any real energy that I can't recommend it to anyone that doesn't already love the original.

Not particularly offensive, but too repetitive, poorly written, and dull to inspire much admiration. Hindsight 20/20 has some nifty ideas, but they're not enough to act as a lifesaver.

Charming and adorable with a lot of potential for a unique Minecraft style Real Time Strategy, but falls very short of being a fulfilling experience.

Backpack Hero offers some neat adventures worth experiencing, but you'll have to grapple with a persistently irritating interface and other rough edges to find them all.

Harvest Island has a great story for you to get wrapped up in, but the gameplay doesn't quite cut it and it fails on both promised themes.

A confused identity mixed in with its awkward transition to simcade makes Project CARS 3 one of the least satisfying racing games I've played in years. There may be potential for its more arcade focused design to be developed upon but Slightly Mad Studios is certainly not there yet.

Ary and the Secret of Seasons has some good qualities. However, they're almost always in danger of being trampled by the game's consistent lack of polish and stream of bugs.

Intuitive controls and great presentation provide some promise, but Matchpoint - Tennis Championships fails to deliver beyond that point. It's too easy to master, and there's just not enough in the game to keep players entertained beyond the first few hours of gameplay.

Although not awful, NASCAR Heat 5 feels like a rehashed version of its already underwhelming predecessor. The small quality of life improvements do not make up for its disappointing lack of any meaningful innovation.

Port Royale 4 might have quirks that are interesting at a glance such as automated trade routes and a vast map. Looking closer, you'll realize that its core mechanics are cumbersome and unintuitive, its naval battles are plainly uninteresting, and there's not a whole lot that would seem enticing. It lacks all the dynamism despite a time period known for swashbuckling excitement.

As much as I wanted Night Book to be good, not even FMV can salvage this otherwise lackluster experience. Despite solid acting performances from the entire cast, it isn't enough to elevate this paint-by-numbers slog to the next level. It's probably best to leave this tome on the shelf where it belongs.

A 9/10 game let down by a shoddy port to PC.

Necromunda: Underhive Wars has an engaging sandbox filled with a trove of missions and operations, as well as gang customization. Unfortunately, its linear campaign leaves a lot to be desired, and its own combat mechanics remain egregiously flawed and underwhelming no matter the content you attempt to tackle.

Rise of the Third Power squanders its potential and ultimately falls into mediocrity, with inconsistent art and sound direction and uninteresting turn-based mechanics. There's lots of good in this game, but it's not enough to outweigh the more disappointing shortfalls.

Choo-Choo Charles is undoubtedly an amusing concept. But it feels more like a semi-polished tech demo than a retail experience, which isn't helped by the awful enemy logic.

Unparalleled presentation and atmosphere spoiled by unwieldly combat and clumsy level design. The most memorable moments happen when your hands are off the controls.

While the characters and voice actors add a lot of life into the group of characters present in Wild Bastards, the gameplay falls short of making it a game I would want to return to.

RICO: London can be good fun at times, but it's also janky, unpolished, and frustrating. Also, the co-op's broken. That doesn't help.

Violent, ridiculous, and occasionally fun, Wanted: Dead misses a lot of its marks but is still worth a look for the devoted.

Padded, mediocre, and tripped up by horribly dated AI and unreliable game mechanics, Aragami 2 is the kind of stealth game that you may want to just sneak past.

MechWarrior 5 is lengthy and complex but extremely tedious and often obnoxious. What could have been a very enjoyable experience is dragged down by bad movement, menus, and pacing.

The Surge does a lot of things well, and has some pleasant and unique twists on the usual conventions of this relatively young genre. The problem is that it gets a lot of the basics and balance painfully wrong, resulting in an experience that’s a little dull, repeatedly infuriating, and frustrated by poor design decisions. It doesn’t do enough wrong to make it an outright bad game, but it’s one that should be approached with caution even by ardent fans of the genre.

The Occupation tries to present itself as a political thriller emphasizing stealth. Sadly, it has neither the thrills nor the mechanics to manage either.

Spacebase Startopia has cutesy and cartoony xenos milling around, but that’s all it has going for it. From questionable mission objectives and monotonous micromanagement, to audio hiccups, technical woes, and a lack of direction, it’s a simulation of the doldrums of alien life.

From its sub-par gameplay mechanics to the lazy presentation, the whole package seems best-fit for the bargain bin. If you want a more authentic racing experience, I’d highly recommend playing the NASCAR races in Forza Motorsport 7. They’re just one of many racing disciplines represented in that game, yet it offers a far more impressive experience than that of Heat 3. Otherwise, I can only suggest picking this up on a deep sale, if at all.

Although it often looks cool and has some strong level design, Those Who Remain is tedious, and loaded with boring item hunts and frustrating "stealth" sections.

I know that great VR games are few and far between, but Budget Cuts 2 is far from worth it. It’s sad to see a great first outing followed up by what feels like a cash grab sequel. Cut the money you would have spent on this from your budget.

SNOW has some charm to it, but it's brought down by large and small issues such as weighty controls, frustrating design choices, and technical glitches.

There’s the shell of a great game here. One that’s bizarre and genuinely interesting. But while We Happy Few‘s aesthetic design colorful worldbuilding are uniformly successful, they’re crushed under the weight of clumsy gameplay and unnecessary systems.

This second, short, episode in Telltale’s latest Walking Dead series continues to be a fairly engaging study of Michonne’s character, but struggles to generate much attachment to the other players in its familiar tale of capture-and-pursuit.

Superliminal seems like a great game at first. The perspective mechanics on display make a fantastic first impression, but the game's design falters as it goes on. The weakness of the puzzles and unevenness of the overall game drag it down in the end.

Chorus is a game that works in the sense that it doesn't crash your desktop, but it's just an ambulatory shell with mere vestiges of soul left in it.

Conceptually promising, but more of an empty, shoddy mimic than anything else. Fans of the base game have already seen everything this has to offer.

Damsel misses the mark in many ways, but really isn't all that bad. It's more of a glaring missed opportunity than anything else.

Siege Survival: Gloria Victis has several mechanics and concepts that look good on paper. Unfortunately, general clunkiness when it comes to the UI and controls, as well as a lack of attachment to your characters, lead to a rather uninspired romp. Once you're finished with a single playthrough, there's barely anything that's interesting to look forward to.

Overkill's The Walking Dead is an ambitious online multiplayer experience. It nails the aesthetic of The Walking Dead universe. However, it struggles in almost every other department. Bugs and game-halting instances have been very apparent in the near 20 hours spent with it.

Mafia 3 occasionally shows off the fantastic game it could've been, but most of the time, it just leaves you with an impression of - and a longing for - the game that it isn't.

Diluvion has an interesting art style but the repetitive gameplay, along with sometimes irritating navigation, checkpoints and controls, may put some players off.

Overpass’s unique physics system and emphasis on balance might be enough to win over the most dedicated of off-road racing fans, but its shallow progression systems and monotonous gameplay loop greatly limit its appeal.

It’s a solid distillation of pro cycling, but not engaging enough to justify playing so many stage races in succession.

Aquatico is a city builder that barely tries to innovate anything, and anything new is immediately overshadowed by how bland and mediocre the rest of it is.

Even ignoring the many technical issues, this isn't a particularly inspiring start to Telltale's newest series. There's plenty of time for it to improve, but I'd hold off and see how the next few episodes go before taking the plunge on the series.

Not a good reason for seasoned explorers to head back to the Commonwealth, but it adds a fair bit for anyone who's still got an active game going. Pricey for what it is, though.

The Last Faith fails to make waves in a market already far too saturated to make space for something that doesn't bring innovation. Beautiful design, both in sound and scene, is let down by predictable gameplay.

Hellbound has really good movement and the texture quality looks nice, but it's insanely short, the level design is mediocre, and there's nothing here that FPS fans haven't seen done better for decades.

Amazing visuals and stellar atmosphere notwithstanding, The Callisto Protocol is held back by a cumbersome combat system, technical woes, and other odd design decisions.

Acceptable, but could have been so much better. Dirty Bomb is hampered by free-to-play nagging, small maps, and too many uninspiring matches.

Tannenberg has authenticity in spades. Sadly, middling animations, unreliable AI, and uninspiring combat sully what could've been a remarkable experience.

An open, responsive football title with a lot of individual player freedom, but one that also has dodgy keepers, absent fouls, and the usual iffy online environment. The PC community may bring it up to scratch, but at release it’s an ugly port that does a disservice to the game within.

Space Crew is a reasonable introduction to the Crew series, but it tones down the entertaining chaos and difficulty a bit too much.

Light and simple isn't a bad thing, but Rogue Wizards is too light and too simple, and a tad too slow for its scaled-down design to feel deliciously more-ish. While it's not bad, it didn't leave any real lasting impression barring a mental sigh at what could've been.

Riot: Civil Unrest attempts to depict complex socio-political upheavals in an extremely unengaging and unintuitive manner, to the point that these events lose their impact in video game form.

Frostpunk: The Last Autumn has a promising concept and setting, but it fails to do enough differently to justify the toil. If these are the people you're trying to save, you might as well let the world freeze over.

Two of the three games are still pretty great, but this is one of the most brazenly offensive cash grab releases I've seen in recent memory.

Boring, pointless, and jammed with grating characters and obnoxious story beats, The Good Life doesn't live up to its name.

Elderborn is almost a good game. It's got most of the ingredients that would require, such as strong visuals, tight gameplay, and varied enemies. But the placement of those enemies is so terrible and ill-conceived that it basically ruins the entire game. That along with a third act that feels like the game just gives up do a whole lot to damage what could have been a very compelling experience.

The most impressive piece to Dangerous Driving is its aesthetic design. Each map is vibrant and awash color and the sound design has noticeable polish. However, the rest of the game feels rather shallow, especially for a spiritual successor to the Burnout series.

Grip: Combat Racing is a fast-paced experience that is sometimes hindered by its own level design. Online matches and game optimization are where it truly shines. The campaign mode, though, becomes more of a chore than something to celebrate.

Too many of the old adventure game stumbling blocks (inconsistent progression, unclear or obfuscating clues, unmarked dead ends) prevent this homage to Murakami’s short stories ever hitting the stride its aesthetics deserve.

Arslan aims to pepper a re-telling of its anime source material with familiar Warriors-style battles, and that, for better or worse, is what it does. But this release lacks some of the absurd character flair, goofy thrash-rock soundtrack, and (dare I say) depth of the mainstream series.

Firewalk Studios' debut sci-fi shooter makes an incredibly rough landing with too little to set it apart in a highly competitive genre.

An uneven slab of Mars adventuring, The Technomancer carefully straddles the line between never really being good while never falling into being bad.

Visions of Mana is an incredibly hand-holdy, laid-back adventure game where you can't go two minutes without watching a short film.

Devil's Hunt's weighty combat and at times beautiful visuals are plagued with inconsistency, and lack the level of polish of the titles it borrows from. The result is an unfulfilling teen drama whose flashes of brilliance aren't near enough to justify it's $35 price tag.

With a few technical issues, a disconnected story, a very short new campaign, and an unbelievably nonsensical final boss encounter, Mutant Year Zero: Seed of Evil is a disappointing expansion to a once-promising game.

Even with some refreshing concepts related to investigations, Gamedec stumbles owing to uninteresting plot points, bland characterization, unclear systems, and pesky bugs.

The penultimate episode of Telltale’s Game of Thrones may be A Nest of Vipers, but, though it’s consistently well-performed and presented throughout, this is looking like another series where the implied player agency lacks any real bite.

Anthem offers near unlimited potential, with certain features, taken separately, representing a marvel in design. Combined together and it proves to have a lot of style but very little substance.

VR Sports is aiming for the Wii Sports audience, and while most of the sports are okay, it’s let down by some quirks due to the way the mechanics work with the VR kit. It’s also not that visually impressive compared to other titles we have seen. Fortunately, the game is pretty cheap at the moment and it might be fine for some family fun – and it does at least offer a wide selection of sports in one package.

Fleeing from Cell, Frieza, or Majin Buu's sadistic assaults has its moments of brilliance. But the often tedious exploration, subpar combat system, and intrusive gacha mechanics keep the game from being anything more than a curiosity.

Assemble with Care is quaint and contemplative but is short and lacks the challenge necessary to keep mature gamers engaged.