Guilty Gear Strive is a whole new level of beast. It represents the most visually gorgeous, the most full-featured, and the most technically sound that modern 2D fighting games have to offer, and anything that hopes to compete with it has quite the work cut out for it.

Ghostrunner will set your adrenaline racing and won’t let up until you’ve mastered its systems. And when you do reach that zen-like moment of precision and elegance, dancing on the edge of a blade between life and death, you’ll ask yourself, “Can I do better?” And that’s when Ghostrunner will have you, truly and deeply.

While playing, I am reminded of the feelings I got from Minecraft, Euro Truck Simulator, Portal, and SimCity 2000. Simultaneously relaxing, infuriating, perplexing, and rewarding, SnowRunner is on my shortlist for game of the year. If I could show this to my six-year-old self, he would give birth to a litter of puppies on the spot due to sheer excitement. If you need a path cleared, a load hauled, or a vehicle rescued, I am the man you call. 9/10 38-inch Super Swamper TSLs

What I can say, however, is it is the best representation of the Uncharted series we have seen to date, and you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you didn’t experience it firsthand.

The anime aesthetic may be a turn off for some players, but those people would be doing themselves a disservice. Scarlet Nexus is a game worth experiencing. It's a game that took me by total surprise and a world I hope to explore more in the future.

Cadence of Hyrule is a brilliant but short adventure that expertly blends the Legend of Zelda series with the intensity of a rhythm-based game. The characters are great, drawing off iconic people from the Zelda series, while also feeling refreshing in the minds of the players.

I really like what Hazelight Studios has done with their handle on co-op gaming in Split Fiction. It doesn’t necessarily feel like a drastic evolution from It Takes Two the way that game was from A Way Out, but it refines what Hazelight does best and straps it to an interesting duo of characters with wide imaginations that create equally compelling worlds for us to explore.

It's never ceased to bring me smiles. It's consistent happiness. Fall Guys is why I play games, and if my biggest complaint is that I can't get more people in on the fun, that's a pretty good sign for its future.

After playing every game in the Forza series, I can say without any hesitation that this is, by far, the best Forza game to date.

Under Night In-Birth 2 Sys:Celes is a great addition to what we had that improves upon previous games in pretty much all the right ways. The new characters are fun, the new attacks for existing characters make new gameplans fun to learn, and there is a nice variety of online and offline modes in which to explore them and hone your game. I wish the music, story, and online lobbies gave me more, but UNI2 hits the right notes where it counts and delivers as a fantastic bastion of 2D animated fighting game goodness.

In spite of some growing pains, Marvel Snap is fantastic and a marvelous first effort from the folks at Second Dinner. Like Marvel itself, it should be fun to see how it grows going forward.

It can be very difficult to take these games that are focused on complex system management and add a nice layer of humanity to it all, offering a reason beyond simple efficiencies and problem-solving for people to engage, but 11 Bit Studios does it well and has once again succeeded with The Alters.

F1 2020 offers a fantastic experience for Formula 1 fanatics. The MYTEAM mode is anything but a tacked-on bullet point and will likely be the most popular way to enjoy the game offline. It encompasses the entire Formula 1 team experience, save for the political red tape, dubious origins of financial backing, and the countless euro-trash orgies the top drivers are certainly participating in after making podiums.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses does a great job of bringing the series to the Nintendo Switch. The graphics are fantastic, bringing the heroes to life with stunning artwork and visuals. Performance is smooth in both docked and handheld mode, allowing you to enjoy Fire Emblem in its traditional portable form, or from the comfort of your favorite spot on the couch.

An excellent addition to the Witcher 3 universe. The new enemies, redesigned UI, and exceptionally well-crafted new land to explore are all pluses in my book. The main questline introduced for the expansion is intriguing, and gives much more insight into the world that Geralt has spent his life adventuring through. In the final moments CDPR brings everything together to really help the player’s impact on the world feel more real, and it’s something that very few developers have ever managed to really accomplish.

I’ve gone on too long at this point, but I kind of want to just keep gushing! Yars Rising looks like a bunch of wacky stuff that shouldn’t work. Yet when it comes together it’s a blast for nearly its entire runtime. It’s WayForward at its most self-indulgent, but that turns out to be a great gaming experience that extends into a sweet, clever, little love letter to Atari’s classic library in a way that feels fresh and unique. The way Yars' Revenge, as the core of this concept, is woven throughout what from the outside seems like a totally unrelated kind of game is a constant source of dopamine. And while the stealth is kind of a dud, the action and exploration on the Metroidvania side is top notch, especially with all the neat and unusual powers you get to play with. Yars Rising is a big surprise, and one of the most memorable games I’ve played in 2024.

Each character is fun to explore, the music will stay in your head long after you stop playing, and even if the game feels a bit short, there are plenty of reasons to go back. Simply put, this might just be the ultimate intersection of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fandom and beat ’em up arcade style. Not just a slice of pizza, it’s the whole dang pie.

Devil May Cry 5 is an excellent action game. It's an even better Devil May Cry, perhaps the best the series has seen just yet. It's aesthetically pleasing in ways I never thought possible for the series, and chock-full of love for the fans, oozing out of every pore.

The Wolf Among Us is a winner for its pacing, its character work, its story, and the manner in which it makes the player think without being overly heavy-handed about it.

Super Mario RPG is a beautiful reimagining of an all-time classic. For as many jumps as Mario has made in the RPG world in the decades since his Super Nintendo days, this game is proof that there's still no adventure quite like the first.

Death Stranding 2 will probably be divisive to players, partially because of the length of its journey (I clocked 100+ hours at an exploratory pace), and partially because it doesn’t solve every issue that speckled the shine of the first. Travel and delivery can still feel awkward and frustrating, but you have so many options for everything that the only thing really holding you back is not exploring them. Meanwhile, Kojima’s writing is still long-winded, and sometimes inappropriately paced, but the overall message, the compelling forces that drive it, and the ultimate conclusion left me breathless by the time the credits rolled. If you care enough to start the journey, I implore you to finish it. It truly is worth the trip.

Hellblade 2 left me wanting to keep taking another step forward, wanting Senua to succeed, and yet fearing what horrors awaited her next. It’s not for the faint of heart, but it might be one of the most beautifully designed games of 2024.

Housemarque reminds audiences that it’s got the chops to be one of the premier-tier game developers with Returnal. The game is wholly difficult with a roster of powerful enemies and bosses to overcome, but also gives the player everything they need in order to succeed. The game just gets better and better as you go on, as recognizing patterns and learning to adapt is endlessly rewarding. Despite some issues with RNG, it’s hard to knock this creepy sci-fi adventure. Returnal is a must-play PS5 exclusive for any roguelike fan itching for their latest challenge.

Stray is a must-play for cat lovers, or anyone who just appreciates a stellar game.

2024 has been a year so full of RPGs I can’t begin to imagine ever being able to finish all of them. Coming across Harold Halibut in the middle of so many massive, complicated adventures was a breath of fresh air. Just being able to slow down, soak in all the impressive minutia of a world built entirely by hand in an art studio, and wonder about what it was like to construct and digitize, felt like a release. I was able to let go a bit of having control over every piece of a game, and still have a story in front of me that was thoughtful and engaging enough to sit with me well after the credits rolled. Even the parts that felt rough around the edges were refreshing, as they enhanced the very human feelings that are so clearly front and center here. Harold Halibut is the kind of game I discovered by accident, but one I’m grateful to have come across in that way.

Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted packs in everything fans loved about the original game, plus lots more. It’s a deep strategy game for older players and a whimsical introduction to tower defense gameplay for younger demographics. All of that, plus a price point of only $20, make Replanted a must-buy, and the ultimate version of a classic I’ll be revisiting again and again.

Tropico 6 is the best game I've played all year.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown shows that this long-running franchise still has plenty of life left in it. The main narrative is sharp, with interesting twists and reveals about the universe at large. It’s only surpassed by the combat, which challenged me in all the right ways. The future of Prince of Persia may be uncertain, but Ubisoft just gave itself one hell of a blueprint with The Lost Crown.