Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is an emotionally gruelling game, an unrelenting assault on the senses filled with brutal depictions of psychological and physical suffering. It makes for gripping storytelling, but it also left me drained.

Thanks to this brisk pace of play, a constant stream of skill points used to unlock new abilities, and a steady deluge of new equipment and armour that you can use, sell, or disassemble for crafting resources, the sense of progression is both real and satisfying. Once I was on the train, I didn’t want to get off. Still, it does feel like a game with unrealized potential. Players have been spoiled for choice over the last year when it comes to visually breathtaking, narratively rich games with huge and interesting open worlds. Rise of the Ronin is on the outskirts of that conversation rather than in the middle of it. Worth considering, especially for fans of historical epics and solid action, but the competition is stiff.

It’s a bit too short and easy to be truly satisfying for experienced gamers. That said, I defy any parent still in possession of an ounce of childhood joy and wonder to have a bad time taking turns playing alongside their kids.

This web of interconnected systems is, in truth, a tad bewildering. But everything just seemed to keep developing and refining itself regardless of whether I knew how or why, so I never felt overwhelmed. I was just sort of along for the ride sometimes, and I didn’t really mind. Because, in the end, I just wanted to spend time with some familiar faces, listen to a new generation of artists cover some of my favourite game music, and see how a world I haven’t visited in decades had changed while I was away. I’m happy to say I had a great time catching up. And I got to stay at some lovely little B&Bs along the way.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong is a fun game skillfully made. But families on a budget (just about all of us these days) would be better served spending their gaming dollars on something a little more substantial.

Thing is, it injects so much dopamine into my little monkey brain that any intellectual qualms I may have are effectively quashed as long as a controller is in my hands. Put more plainly, Nintendo really knows how to make a fabulously fun run-to-the-right game.

Granted, sometimes it feels like Insomniac, in its push to give us more than we could have imagined, almost goes a bit too far. Like the addition of a wingsuit so that Spider-Man can glide through Manhattan’s glass and steel canyons a little more quickly. It’s an innovation likely born from the sheer size of the city, which can take long minutes to traverse by web-slinging alone. It can be useful, but it doesn’t feel very Spidey-ish. I generally preferred swooping up and down, even if it took a little longer. But if that’s the worst complaint one can level at Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Insomniac must be doing something right. And it does nothing to diminish the game’s absolutely lovely energy. Every play session left me feeling upbeat and like all was right with the world. Or at least the world within the game.

Turn 10’s 8th kick at the Forza Motorsport can should have plenty of appeal to gearheads looking for a photorealistic, physically accurate simulation of high speed racing. And since it’s included with Xbox Game Pass, there’s no reason for subscribers not to take it for a test spin.

I suspect the next time we see a $90 Assassin’s Creed it will be something significantly larger in breadth of world and play. Until then, Assassin’s Creed Mirage serves as an excellent stopgap, a historical adventure that proves entertaining and edifying in equal measure while leaving time to enjoy some of the other great games releasing this fall.

All I want in a galaxy exploration adventure is for it to convince the lower levels of my brain that I’m an honest-to-goodness spaceman, the star of an epic and action-packed space saga. Starfield delivers on this, and then some.

Pikmin 4 doesn’t revolutionize Miyamoto’s nearly quarter-century old concept. Instead, in much the same way as the pikmin themselves continue to gradually evolve, it grows the franchise’s ideas and themes slowly and naturally, with a bit of sci-fi whimsy and a feel-good, family-friendly vibe. I’m here for it.

It’s been a banner year for interactive entertainment, but Final Fantasy XVI manages to sit very near the top of the heap. An easy recommendation for fantasy and RPG fans.

I’m sorely tempted to review the 20th instalment in Nintendo Co. Ltd.’s 35-year-old Legend of Zelda franchise by simply giving it a perfect score and issuing a few words along the lines of “just go play this absolute gem of a game.” To give away more robs potential players of the joy of discovering its countless wonders for themselves.

It took a little longer than I’d have liked to really draw me in, but once Star Wars Jedi: Survivor had its hooks in I went happily along for the ride. If Kathleen Kennedy greenlit a Cal Kestis TV series or film, I’d be over the moon. Maybe just with a little less wall-running.

Players swarm to new Fire Emblem games not to see the latest in graphics and mechanics innovations, but rather to enjoy a bit of classic Japanese RPG-style melodrama mixed with captivating tactical combat. And that’s exactly what they get here. The added bit of nostalgia that comes with revisiting past heroes is just the gravy on the side.

The transition to true open world play may not be going as smoothly as we might have hoped, but the technical issues have yet to push me away. In the end, I’m really just here for the weird wildlife, and there’s certainly no shortage of that in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

The transition to true open world play may not be going as smoothly as we might have hoped, but the technical issues have yet to push me away. In the end, I’m really just here for the weird wildlife, and there’s certainly no shortage of that in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

Ragnarök is well worth playing even if some of its callbacks fly over your head. We only get a handful of single-player games each year that deliver such high-calibre storytelling, finely tuned action, and gorgeous graphics in a single package, and Sony’s Dad of War ranks high among them once more.

Bayonetta 3 won’t be for everyone, and that’s OK. There’s room for all sorts of oddities in our modern gaming landscape. And if you’re willing to just sit back and be wowed by a mountain of manic mayhem, chances are you won’t regret the time you spend with Bayonetta in her multiverse of madness.

Gotham Knights isn’t really broken, it simply falls short of what has come before. Superhero games come with lofty expectations these days, and it’s unlikely this entry will meet them for most players. It’s safely skippable for now, but maybe check it out once it arrives on your favourite subscription service.

Splatoon 3 feels complete. The new additions are more significant than what we had in Splatoon 2 at launch. They make it feel like a finished game.

The Last of Us never needed fixing. Everything from combat to crafting has aged remarkably well. Still, it never hurts to polish perfection. And this beautifully enhanced edition works hard to ensure Naughty Dog’s masterpiece will remain my favourite video game for some time to come.

As is, it’s hard to recommend spending $80 on this quirky but erratic crime saga. There’s fun to be had, but best wait for Saints Row to make its way to your subscription service — and maybe receive a few much needed patches in the process.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 earns a modest thumbs up. It’s undeniably huge, delivering good bang for your RPG dollar, and has some interesting ideas on its mind. It’s no Final Fantasy or Zelda, but fans of sophisticated combat and Japanese storytelling should be well served.

As for me, my little family had a pretty good time playing a chapter each night over the course of a week. And while I doubt I’ll play again — I’m fine with how the story turned out for us — I’m pretty sure my mildly OCD daughter is already plotting to go back and fix all the things I made go wrong with my overrides. Who knows? Maybe she’ll find a way to get everyone through this chaotic criminal saga in one piece. But I doubt it.

It’s a party game more than anything else, and one that warmly welcomes just about anyone who can swing an arm. And while the Wii was rife with this sort of casual fare, the Switch could use a few more. That’s why Nintendo Switch Sports earns an easy recommendation for families looking for some straightforward multiplayer fun.

I’m admittedly still a bit lost when it comes to how all of the upgrade systems, subclasses, and secondary objectives and tasks work. And I’m sad that — as usual — I’ll miss out on the new raid mission for lack of being able to schedule a big team of friends to get together for multi-hour play sessions. But perhaps this is just the cost of doing business as a casual Destiny player.

This may have stood a minor chance in the bone dry days of summer, but with so many truly remarkable open world experiences currently on offer at the moment, it’s tough to see why anyone would opt for Elex II.

Gran Turismo 7 is a bit of a throwback to the genre’s early days — and includes some of the series’ old shortcomings — but when it comes to accurate driving physics and sheer, unadulterated love of cars, it’s something close to peerless.

Elden Ring is neither a step forward nor backward for the famed developer, but rather a shift to the side. It’s a different kind of FromSoftware game, one that mixes stampeding mounted combat in a vast world with more intimate, terrifying moments in dark caves and cramped castles. I’m having a grand time with it, make no mistake, but it’s not my favourite FromSoftware game to date.

Simply put, this one is special.

We’ve got a classic and reverent Halo experience that embraces modern ideas where it makes sense. Perhaps I’m showing my age, but this is pretty much just what I want in a Halo game — or at least it will be with the eventual addition of a co-operative campaign mode and some multiplayer tweaks. Add in the fact that it’s included with Xbox Game Pass when it launches on December 8 — bringing millions of subscribers into the fold from day one — and Halo Infinite is clearly going to be the game to play on Xbox platforms for the foreseeable future.

There’s a sense of unfettered joy in everything here. It’s a game that just wants to be fun. For everyone. It aims for every moment you spend with it — be it five minutes or five hours — to be a frustration-free, jaw-dropping, reward-filled delight. And in this endeavour it succeeds marvellously. If there was ever a racing game that needs to be in every Xbox owner’s library, Forza Horizon 5 is it.

If all you’re after is a lot of shooting and exploding and collecting set within a stunning tropical milieu, you’ll find it here. Have at it. If, on the other hand, you’d like a little more in the way of innovative play and nuanced commentary, best keep hunting.

So to experience all the good of Deathloop you need also suck it up and suffer a bit of bad. Nothing too stinky, just enough to make you intermittently wrinkle your nose. But it’s worth it. Arkane’s newest isn’t perfect, but I suspect it will end up one of the most memorable games of 2021 simply because it’s so unlike everything out there at the moment. In a season of sequels and various licensed properties, it’s a treat to get to play something as original and unexpected as this.

All in all, though, Rift Apart makes for an exceptionally easy recommendation. It’s fun for gamers of all ages and genders, absolutely crammed with action, laugh-out-loud funny in parts, and — I can’t stress this enough — looks the way we all imagined the next generation of console games should. I think I speak for PlayStation 5 gamers everywhere when I say we’ll happily take a few more like this.

I don’t see Returnal becoming another Uncharted-style mega-franchise for Sony. It’s just too punishing and quirky to nab a massive audience. That said, it’s a well-produced and polished play that doesn’t really feel like anything else out there at the moment. If you’re not afraid of a challenge, it may be worth adding to your PlayStation playlist.

I don’t know how much longer this pandemic will go on, but I’m happy to have New Pokemon Snap as one more weapon in my arsenal to combat lockdown boredom, alleviate my creative listlessness, and encourage a little more socially distanced friendship and community.

Fantasian draws clear inspiration from mid-numbered Final Fantasy games. From its orthodox structure — players are put in control of a party of heroes who explore towns, dungeons, and an overworld map, with turn-based battle occurring at random intervals — to its sci-fi-cum-fantasy vibe, which includes grand airships, imaginative monsters, and even glowing save crystals, anyone who played a turn-of-the-century Japanese role-playing game is going to experience some welcome nostalgia here — especially when Uematsu’s signature battle music and themes kick in.

What Bravely Default II ends up giving us is a nicely polished traditional role-playing game that gently shifts a few of the genre’s defining bars a centimetre or two higher while safely ducking under others. Fans of the form will find it warm and comforting, but I don’t expect it will win over many converts.

The sad truth is that Cyberpunk 2077 is awash with problems. Which makes it all the more miraculous that we were compelled to plod through its litany of tribulations simply to keep experiencing the story, characters, and world that CDProjekt Red has created. Clear away the grit and there remains something special here that’s bound to light up the imaginations of cyberpunk fans. A better option for console players, however, would be to wait for the next-generation versions, which will likely (or should that be hopefully?) look and perform better, and could benefit from whatever retrofits and patches CDProjekt Red sees fit to release based on player feedback in the coming months.

Whether you think of Immortals Fenyx Rising as a Breath of the Wild set within Greek mythology, a kid-friendly Assassin’s Creed, or something all its own (likely because you haven’t played either of those other games), the plain fact is that it is eminently playable. There’s never a shortage of things to do, and doing these things is generally a lot of fun. And at the end of the day, that’s pretty much all most folks want out of an open world adventure.

It’s jam-packed with funny, heartwarming, wholesome scenes and dialogue. And it’s a pleasure to play. Swiftly and effortlessly swinging through corridors of New York skyscrapers is exhilarating, and the combat choreography is stunningly cinematic. If it weren’t for the repetitive nature of some side activities — such as tracking down loot stashes and saving civilians — it would earn must-have status. As is, it’s still the best game to show off PlayStation 5’s potential to players of all ages — especially if you want to have a terrific time in the process.

It grows repetitive, but the dodging, blocking, parrying, slashing combat — while a bit overly complicated at times — should prove challenging and gratifying enough to keep fans of this sort of game moving forward. The slightly gaudy next-gen visual spectacle is just gravy.

This one definitely won’t be for all tastes, but players with a penchant for Japanese culture and a love of tactical combat are bound to find a little slice of criminal soap opera heaven in Yakuza: Like a Dragon.

The franchise’s famous environment traversal mechanics — essentially parkour — are similarly streamlined yet no less satisfying, thanks largely to the undeniable compulsion the game instills in players to keep moving to see what lies beyond the next ridge or river. Exploration is a driving force.And, of course, it looks phenomenal and runs smooth as an oil slick on next-generation hardware. Players looking for a substantial game that shows off the graphical capabilities of their new systems that will keep them busy well into next year won’t be disappointed in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

It may not be as deep or sophisticated as many other modern racers, but Dirt 5 is nonetheless an entertaining outlet for engine revving on Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5.

It doesn’t take a lot of risks. You’ll run around a little hub world choosing visiting shops and choosing levels filled with various running and jumping challenges, plus some signature Sackboy moves involving tugging, pushing and hanging onto stuff. But it’s well executed and wonderfully easy to just sit down and play for 20 minutes here or there. Plus, the action is set to a buoyant soundtrack filled with music that perfectly matches the family-friendly hijinks. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself humming these tunes long after you stop playing.

Demon’s Souls isn’t likely to convert many new players to this kind of game design, but fans of gruelling but gratifying game experiences are in for a treat.

The problem, unfortunately, is that something feels missing without a true hero character with a deep backstory and lots of personal demons and vendettas to drive the narrative forward.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War does very more-of-the-same in places — it’s the franchise’s 17th instalment, after all — but when a formula has been so fine-tuned, it’s hard to expect the developers to monkey around with it too much.

This new Xbox edition keeps everything that made the original one of the best puzzlers in years (except the VR part, which it turns out is pretty unnecessary) and adds a heaping helping of multiplayer to the mix.

Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit is, in other words, an entertaining toy that can spark the imaginations of Mario fans young and old, but it’s not necessarily a great game. Proceed accordingly.

This is exactly the sort of game we, as a society, need right now: authentic, inclusive, edifying, engaging, and, in the end, hopeful. Tell Me Why is one of the best and most memorable games of the year, and it helps lay a foundation for the growth of minority presence in games with wider audiences.

PGA Tour 2K21 delivers an excellent simulation of my favourite physical pastime, and I expect I’ll continue to come back to it whenever I’m blocked from the real thing by weather, winter, or a pandemic. However, I’m also anxious for this new series to blossom into a more polished and full-featured golf experience. And, given HB Studios’ provenance, I can’t help but hope one day to see a Canadian course or two (perhaps Inverness’ famed Cabot Cliffs?) make the official course roster.

Needless to say, Paper Mario: The Origami King doesn’t have the general appeal of a traditional Mario game. It’s smart, creative, and rarely less than lovely to look at, but its combination of odd combat mechanics and sporadically subversive wit are bound to reinforce the franchise’s status as distinctively niche within the Marioverse.

Tsushima's geography is rivetingly beautiful, from bamboo forests and heaving mountains to picturesque waterfalls and seas of swaying pampas grass composed of thousands of gently moving blades each of which will catch the moonlight on a clear night. I could almost feel the chill of thunderstorms as they came crashing in and the heat of the sun as it rose above the horizon in a dazzling blaze of light.

The Last of Us Part II manages the striking feat of imbuing video game violence with meaning. Its combat is thrilling and darkly addictive, but this is a story about how violence changes people and rarely solves anything. The consequences of killing are made abundantly clear over and over again until, by the end, we simply no longer wanted to fight. I wanted to put down the controller as though it was a gun for which I no longer had desire to use. That's a neat trick, Naughty Dog. And one hell of an encore.

Gears Tactics has established itself as a serious presence in the turn-based strategy space. With a flavour very much its own, and the exceptional production quality for which the Gears games are known, it’s something close to an essential play for fans of tactical combat.

Sometimes all a person wants is a way to forget about the rest of the world while mindlessly ripping mancubuses to bloody shreds. In this modest ambition, and others, Doom Eternal succeeds sparklingly.

It’s a blissfully lighthearted and colourful game filled with charm, humour — I giggled aloud the first time I caught a black bass, described in-game as “the most metal of all fish” — and a much needed sense of normalcy that comes at a time when we could all use a little pick-me-up.

I won’t judge anyone who gives this one a whirl and simply decides its not their cup of tea. I suspect it’s a little akin to bungee-jumping, high-stakes investing, or alcohol — some folks just don’t have a taste for it. But for a handful of players looking to test themselves and the limits of their perseverance, Nioh 2 is probably going to be a nice slice of video game heaven.

I can’t deny that I had plenty of fun taking in this authentic new Star Wars story, but I get the sense that an extra six or twelve months of development could have given us a more polished and less derivative experience.

In the end, it might not be what we do in Death Stranding so much as the ideas that underlie the experience that make it so engaging, and make us so willing to overlook the elements that don’t quite work. Its grand — and timely — vision of how to unify a broken country; its take on killing only as a last resort; even its commentary on our culture’s growing reliance on having the world delivered to our doors. Kojima has given us lots to chew on.

In a medium overloaded with huge and hyper-violent experiences, it’s an absolute delight to encounter a game like Luigi’s Mansion 3, a small but painstakingly architected adventure that engages us with its creativity, innovation and individuality.

My recommendation: Play the campaign, then wait a few days before diving into multiplayer. This might be the best way to avoid cross-contamination and get the most out of these two deeply incongruent gaming experiences.

It might be the perfect remake.

The resounding theme of Gears 5 seems to be marrying old with new. There’s never any mistaking it for something other than a Gears game, thanks to its polished cover-based combat mechanics, gleefully gory action, and 4K, HDR-enhanced graphics that raise the bar of what we can expect from an Xbox One game. But it’s also trying to grow the Gears experience by focusing on new characters, altering the flow of the campaign, and adding daring new multiplayer modes.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses does a laudable job of bringing Intelligent Systems’ strategy series to Nintendo’s hybrid console, and I’m likely going to be playing for months to come. The ability to take command of three different houses, each with their own roster of students, adds plenty of replay value. Still, I’m going to keep my Game Boy Advance Micro loaded with a copy of Fire Emblem handy for those days when I want to feel what it’s like to really risk the deaths of beloved heroes in battle.

These levels are clearly designed to make us think about how to make our own levels rather than deliver the sort of flowing, satisfying play found in Mario’s best games. Some deliver lessons so short that they can literally be completed in just a few seconds.

A special kind of frustration swells up from playing a game that delivers pristine action mechanics set within a creatively vapid world.

Running across a horde of freaks in Days Gone is a helluva thing.

Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 has stuck its landing. Like other games of its ilk, it could do with learning a lesson or two from its competitors, but it has arrived playable, polished, and with so much stuff to do that most players probably won’t even reach its sizeable endgame — which, at this point, I’ve only read about — for weeks, if not longer. I’m not ready to give it a numbered score, but I do feel comfortable saying this is one loot shooter you can dive into with confidence on day one. [Review in Progress]

BioWare has created a sufficient foundation of story and play mechanics. Now it just needs to figure out a way to properly meld and symbiotically grow both elements.

Problem is, even the spectacular action grows tedious in short order thanks to lazy mission design. It seems nearly everything we do is based on simple math. Kill X number of bad guys to make them retreat. Blow up Y number of power sources to unlock a door. Destroy Z number of this type of facility in order to draw out the next boss. It’s about as basic as it gets.

This is Far Cry reduced to its core elements, both good and bad.

2019’s Resident Evil 2 captures the vibe of the original perfectly, thanks largely to outstanding production values...Its visual design stands toe-to-toe with any contemporary work, with fantastic character models, dramatic motion capture performances and extraordinarily detailed and refined environment design. Just about everything is worth looking at a second or third time, either to catch a potential game clue or simply to appreciate its beauty.

I can’t recommend Fallout 76 to more than a handful of people. A niche few will still be drawn to it, perhaps out of curiosity, a completionist’s need to devour all things Fallout, or, like me, a morbid desire to simulate life after the end of the world. For everyone else, hold onto the hope that Bethesda learns a lesson from this failed experiment.

In creating a scoundrel of our choosing, we might actually end up learning a little bit about ourselves.

It might lack the spit and polish seen in some other shooters, but Battlefield V delivers a visceral thrill unique to the series. Its adrenaline-filled, large-scale battles give rise to memorable moments simply not seen in other games, and these moments are augmented by the faithful Second World War setting. Those looking for an alternative to the twitch-driven combat of other popular shooters will find it here.

The game is a fascinating study of a conflicted man who knows right from wrong, but doesn't always allow this knowledge to inform his decisions...He's a classic antihero: A bad man seemingly headed for tragedy who we nonetheless like, root for, and want to see make better choices.

It looks great, plays beautifully, can be surprisingly challenging, and puts a fresh and fun spin on toys that come to life inside games.

It’s smaller, but it’s also undeniably bolder and more focused than any of its recent predecessors. And for a series known for its more is more philosophy, that’s no small feat.

The modes and minigames are quite good, but I think the need to use Joy-Cons rather than traditional controllers could prove a little frustrating for people who only have two Joy-Cons and prefer using a bigger gamepad.

Intimidatingly epic.

It incorporates elements of arcade driving, simulation racing, storytelling, exploration, discovery, collection and even role-playing in ways that few other racing franchises have even tried and none can match. If there's space for just one racing game on your shelf, Forza Horizon 4 is probably the one it ought to be.

On the subject of breathtaking scenery, Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a showcase for what an Xbox One can do.

Effortlessly yet cinematically swinging from the Battery through the Village and Central Park and up to Harlem is itself worth the price of admission. And now that Insomniac has all the mechanical fundamentals firmly in place, one can hope that the inevitable sequel will give this talented studio the confidence to take a few more risks and create a truly inimitable superhero game.

If Mario Tennis Aces is a herald of what’s to come in sports games for Nintendo Switch, then fans of golf, baseball, soccer, and other sports have reason to get excited.

The man behind interactive storytelling triumphs Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls has brought us what is perhaps his most fully formed and satisfying story yet, a work that examines the concept of machine intelligence with nearly as much insight and sympathy as Isaac Asimov's finest novels about robots and just as much style as Alex Garland's Ex Machina.

It might be the closest the game industry has yet come to imagining the mix of tension and monotony of routine life in a world of undead.

Even if no one in your family gets into the Toy-Con Garage, the Nintendo Labo Toy-Con Variety Kit should still provide plenty of fun. My family was amazed while making these ingenious, multifaceted models and delighted as we watched them come to life with a little digital magic.

Kratos is no longer seeking revenge, but rather redemption. He feels multidimensional for the first time. As a dad, I sometimes found myself rooting for and even identifying with him on a gut level, especially as I watched him make some obvious parenting mistakes.

But if you’re looking for an insight or two into the sociopolitical troubles currently haunting the country in which Far Cry 5 is set, best not to get your hopes up.

Sea of Thieves is wholly dedicated to keeping players on equal footing. Someone who’s been playing for a day can crew up with someone who’s been playing for months, and neither will have an inherent advantage — save, of course, the latter’s experience with the game. It’s a bold move meant to keep the entire community playing together, and early indications suggest it works.

The most interesting thing about Dragon Quest Builders isn’t what it takes from Minecraft but instead how it fills in some of the gaps that have existed since that game’s inception. Namely, storytelling, quests, and building guidance

I can see myself continuing to play on and off for months to come, getting better and trying new tactics all the while. And that, if nothing else, earns Monster Hunter: World an enthusiastic recommendation for anyone interested in the idea of seeing if they have what it takes to combat roaring, furry, fire-spewing bird dinosaurs.

Movement is painfully slow. I must have spent nearly a quarter of my time walking at a snail’s pace down dark and empty hallways with nothing to do except brace myself for the occasional startle courtesy of a cheap jump scare destined to go unexplained.