It was a fun game about a bald man who shoots guns at the floor to do Mario Things while Satan says mean words at him from a distance. It is never more or less than exactly that. I had a great time for around three or four hours, and will probably never think about it again. But that’s okay, because I don’t think Shotgun Cop Man intended to reach beyond that outcome. Shotgun Cop Man simply is, and I respect that about him.

Twisted Pixel Games and Oculus have created a wonderfully immersive and polished VR experience with Defector. Your journey will leave you wanting more so much so that you’re almost bound to go back for seconds. The graphics, sound design, voice acting, and freedom of movement are a great representation of what VR gaming can be today, and everyone should give it a try.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 retains much of the formula that made the original games the best of their genre. It has a massive roster of comic book favorites, a slew of recognizable locations, some well-designed boss battles, and an intricately crafted storyline that touches upon every cornerstone of the Marvel pantheon. What holds it back from true greatness is a wretched camera and a few missteps with the dialogue system. Outside of that, this is a fine return for one of Marvel's great gaming franchises. Ultimate Alliance is still the best it is at what it does and what it does is very nice.

If you pride yourself in your Gears of War multiplayer skills, Gears of War Ultimate Edition will scratch your competitive itch. Just remember this is Gears of War, so there are some things you won’t be able to do like tag a grenade on a surface to create makeshift mine or stun an opponent by jumping over an obstacle they’re hiding behind.

Frozenheim is quite a test of strategic resource management and combat tactics as you raise your settlement, make it self-sufficient, and defend it from outside forces. I really enjoyed the ability to diversify through clan types and the maps are just plain beautiful at all ends. Some resources are far more unwieldy than others, and players will likely find frustration learning how to keep the things they constantly need in check. However, for everything on offer, Frozenheim is a solid arrangement of primitive economics and warfare and should scratch an itch for anyone looking to enjoy a solid strategy experience, either solo or with friendly opponents.

I was thoroughly impressed with Knockout City. Velan Studios has created a dodgeball game that has solid mechanics and is really easy to pick up. The skill ceiling is also incredibly high, making room for some really competitive gameplay. With a plan to heavily support and add on to the game over time, Knockout City is a welcomed addition to the sports game pantheon.

In a lot of ways for someone like me, Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince is weirdly validating for a video game product you purchase. This series has been living in relative obscurity for decades, either going unlocalized entirely or simply being seen as a niche within a niche destined for handheld gamers looking for more Pokemon. But there’s so much meat, life, and ambition in this one. It’s a console game, it’s got a story it wants to tell, it has ideas beyond “catch slimes, win tournaments”. I hope this is the direction Dragon Quest Monsters keep moving in. It’s no Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, but what is?

Bastion certainly wasn’t a fluke. Transistor cements Supergiant Games as one of the sharpest, most stylish, and unique small developers. Though some of its flourishes aren’t quite as fresh the second time around, Transistor speaks with a unique creative identity, mostly successfully refreshes solid RPG mechanics, and tells a poignant story worth experiencing.

Despite its faults, Void Bastards is still deeply enjoyable. The humor and the art style alone are enough to make this a must-have, but the combat and vast array of weapons and upgrades makes Void Bastards an experience you should not skip.

When it comes to preserving history, this is about as good as it can get from an official source. Between backwards compatibility and being on a platform like Steam, there are fewer ways that even a licensing deal expiration can get in the way of playing this collection in the coming years. And in the meantime, having these games on current platforms makes them more playable than ever, although not having cross-platform play is a big bummer. And for even deeper diving and appreciation, the museum content is as top-notch as we’ve come to expect from Capcom’s recent slate of classic collections. “When’s Marvel?” finally has a suitable answer.

WWE 2K25 is a banner year for the franchise. It’s easily the most refined entry yet, bursting with ways to play and the series’ largest roster to date, which is sure to please virtually everyone no matter which era of wrestling you prefer. (And if your favorite character is missing, you’ll be able to expand the roster once fans start uploading their custom creations.) The Island is hit or miss, but the rest of the package is sure to tide wrestling fans over until 2026.

Square Enix may be taking its signature Final Fantasy series to new places, but Bravely Default shows that they still know what makes a good, traditional JRPG.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is a solid entry in the long-running franchise, and a return to form for one of the most iconic titles in first-person shooters. The campaign goes big on thrilling espionage and exciting set pieces, though it does feel quite tone-deaf at times. Multiplayer is more of the arcade-feel that became synonymous with games like Black Ops 2, and will likely only get better once Season 1 kicks off and adds Warzone integration in December. Zombies doesn’t disappoint, as it once again proves to be the best alternate mode in Call of Duty. Treyarch reminds CoD fans that they’ve still got it with Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.

Outside of a few flaws, True Colors is the peak of the Life is Strange series to date.

Unbound: Worlds Apart is a refreshingly original platformer, as its portal mechanic makes for some genuinely creative and challenging puzzles. The platforming is also bolstered by this same portal mechanic. The game is also quite gorgeous, thanks to its hand drawn art style. The way that the portals reveal another side of the world worked to make exploring that much more exciting. Alien Pixel Studios’ Unbound: Worlds Apart is an impressive outing from the indie developer and one of my favorites of the year so far.

The entire investigation was worth it and this is an origin worth exploring for any fan of mysteries or the great Sherlock Holmes.

Deck 13 has produced a game that offers genre fans a lot to like. The story and setting is a welcome departure from the swords and sorcery that typically dominate similar titles. Most sci-fi games rely on gunfights or boring intergalactic diplomacy to handle conflict, while The Surge 2 presents medieval violence as a path to enlightenment. I can dig that. Uneven pacing, some visual issues, and inconsistent performance serve to prevent the experience from reaching its full potential, but the foundation is solid.

The title does a phenominal job of tracking the player's movements, bridges the gap between a video game and its player through the use of a highly-interactive medium, and can make the player really feel like they're in control of the music better than any other music game ever.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection has a handful of quirks and legacy issues, but those don't diminish the achievement. It's a stellar collection of some of the best games of the last few generations, with options galore and clever ideas like Playlists to breathe new life into old content.

Perfect Tides: Station to Station is more somber than wistful, more grounded than nostalgic, and more realistic than fanciful. The 2003 setting feels circumstantial rather than deliberate as a storytelling device, and the autobiographical piece of it bleeds from every word of text. It’s not entirely a downer and has plenty of humor, personality, and hopefulness. But it’s not trying to make you feel good about looking back at the past and being a fun game. This is a story about what it’s like to be on your own for the first time, and everything that comes with that. The unforeseen complications, the relationships, the learning. You’ll be reminded of the things you regret in your own life just as much, if not more than, the things you look back on fondly. You might laugh, you might cringe a little, both on behalf of Mara and yourself. Above all, it’s a good reminder that you’ve always struggled, and you’re still here to reflect. And that’s pretty cool.

In an industry where many games are about completing a checklist of objectives, Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey doesn’t tell players what to do, it asks what they’re capable of.

Metro Exodus is best when it follows the classic Metro formula, painting the world with tension as you dive deeper into the darkness of the world. While the game does suffer with a bit of an identity crisis at times, at the end of it all, the tension and fear that is peppered throughout more than makes the journey worth the trouble as players get their first look at a much bigger world and the dangers that lie within it.

Majora's Mask 3D is just as much an oddity as it was fourteen years ago. While some aspects of it haven't aged well, Nintendo has made enough smart changes to make this remaster worth a second look for those like me who left the original undone. It's nicely presented, shows some real growth of the seeds planted in Ocarina, and is easily among the most unique games in the franchise.

It's a friendly introduction for people like me, a flexible platform for hardcore players, and all-around the best version of Planeswalkers yet. Wizards of the Coast and developer Stainless Games have made a great showpiece for an enduring classic of a card game.

Legend of Legacy was fun and intriguing on the 3DS, but on the Switch it feels like a no-brainer. The frame rate issues and visual imperfections are gone, making the art and character designs stand out even more. The music, composed by Masashi Hamauzu for all you Final Fantasy XIII degenerates out there, is a home run. If this is the kind of game you can gel with, a hardcore dungeon-crawler with strange rules and light storytelling, don’t miss it. If some of these ideas sound neat, but other parts are scary, try out Alliance Alive instead. This team had something special going for sure, and it brings me hope for these kinds of passion projects to see them reappear on different platforms.

Lies of P is more than just a wooden facsimile of a soulsborne game. It gets the foundational stuff right and tweaks it just enough in combat and exploration to make things more interesting.

There’s still work to be done, but Cities Skylines 2 is an impressive improvement over the original. Its systems work together seamlessly, and you have more control over how your city develops without it feeling overwhelming or intimidating. It's a shame some features like green building are gone, but I'm looking forward to seeing how Colossal Order keeps building Skylines 2 in the future.

I’ve lost a lot of time to Metal Slug Tactics during this review period, and I’ll lose countless more as the year goes on. It’s a game for sickos, and I love it for that. But more importantly, it nails the run-and-gun feel of Metal Slug, and somehow transforms that into a tactics game, and that’s a hell of an accomplishment. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got an itch, and the only salve is another run.