Even with the challenges, there isn't a lot of replay value in Wayward Manor. Going through the experience once is plenty. By the end of it, players end up giving the house exactly what it wants. Leaving it alone to rot, empty and forgotten.

The difference between a good or bad NHL game is often tiny. For the most part, moving the experience forward in any meaningful way is enough to get me to buy in. Maybe that’s a massive improvement to gameplay and AI, or a new mode that becomes a staple of the series. These wins are often enough to make the longstanding bugs or omissions tolerable. Problems arise when what’s on offer as the year’s shiny distraction falls flat. In NHL 22, improved visuals are there but are buggy at any given moment. Superstar X-Factor Abilities are cool but alone are not enough. NHL 22 doesn’t feel like the next leap forward for video game hockey. It barely feels like meaningful DLC.

WWE 2K22 is the definition of a mixed bag. There are clearly areas where the team at Visual Concepts made positive progress with the franchise, particularly in wrestler AI and animations. Many of the marquee talents look fantastic and there is a lot to do within the game. Sadly, most of the modes are half-baked and the series is still suffering from bugs or problems it has carried for far too long. With WWE 2K22 seemingly refusing to make use of the power afforded to it by the new consoles or PCs, what do the fans who buy the game every year have to look forward to? Visual Concepts achieved its goal of surpassing WWE 2K20. The problem is that being better than awful isn’t gonna cut the mustard any longer.

What holds Way of the Hunter back is that most of it doesn’t feel fully realized or polished. Performance is an issue, bugs are an issue, accessibility is an issue and, in many cases, the quality of the game’s systems are an issue. While I suspect things will improve over time, Way of the Hunter is a long way from where my expectations lie.

Madden NFL 24 also carries over a handful of bugs and visual glitches that were present not only last Madden, but the game that came before it. Bugs like the one where both teams appear frozen on the field during the cinematic view between plays, or where the camera isn’t showing the players despite them being at the line of scrimmage. It feels like such a slap in the face to the player and makes a strong argument that this franchise is long overdue for a reckoning. The real Madden heads out there will likely find Madden NFL 24 tolerable, but as a die-hard football fan, it sucks that we’re still doomed to this annual mediocrity.

Bus Simulator 18 is not a game changer and to be honest, it’s not the most rewarding experience I’ve ever had in front of my PC. Still, it has solid driving mechanics, some detailed buses, and a gameplay loop that is strangely relaxing.

Ultimately my time with Broken Roads didn’t light up any of the parts of my brain that video games typically do on some level or another. There’s some promise at first with its distinct, all-encompassing cultural flavor. But the scenario holding up the setting only struggled to capture my interest. Combat was a similar vibe, feeling like doing chores in the middle of reading a middle of the road novel in a crowded genre. While cool on paper the morality system did more harm than good, overloading the dialogue and getting in the way of character and personality. Nothing in Broken Roads felt bad or, well, broken. But whenever I played it, unless I was chuckling at the slang translator doing something weird I was always thinking of other things I would rather be doing.

Knight Squad suffers from a couple of problems, but overall, it's good for what it is. It's a way to get friends together to slash them to ribbons and, barring that, it's a quick way to kill some time in the online space.

Deathbound, like many other Soulslike games before it, brings a few neat ideas to the table. While they are certainly nice to sample and play around with, a lot of the surrounding elements are sluggish and bland. It’s still great to see developers have a go at joining the pantheon of games in the genre, but Deathbound didn’t leave me wanting to come back for more.

Grow Home gets high points for creativity and providing a relaxing, almost meditative, experience. Except, the game is designed around a mechanic that's often more tedious than fun, and uses a robot that's prone to random spasms and collapses. Still, it's a nice distraction from action games.

Furi's beautiful art and interesting ideas are somewhat undermined by obtuse story and janky mechanics.

Getting through Satellite Reign can be a painful and slow process until you can amass enough tech, skill and firepower to repel waves of soldiers. It wants to be a game that gives you different choices, but the stealth gameplay wears thin so quickly that the game just gets boring.

Strayed Lights is ultimately frustrating because there’s a brilliant game lurking somewhere here. Upon finishing the game, I understood the story to be about conquering corruptive behavior and going on a spiritual journey inward, but it’s let down by subpar platforming and gameplay. I would even argue that the game might not have needed combat at all and could have worked better as an explorative adventure instead. Perhaps Embers might consider this for its next project.

Pokken Tournament tries its best to cater to a more casual fighting crowd, but in its efforts to do so rapidly becomes mundane after repeated playthroughs.

A great “demo” for fans of the film series who want to check out Forza Horizon 2 while also getting a dose of the film franchise they love so much. The game does a great job of giving players a taste of the Horizon 2 experience as I was able to complete the main story in approximately 3 hours.

Modern Warfare 2 cherry-picks gameplay mechanics from other genres and incorporates them into the game under the guise of innovation. The enjoyable moments of the campaign are tarnished by unnecessary limitations, technical problems, and pacing issues. While its solid gunplay, movie-quality visuals, and exceptionally acted characters are among its most redeeming qualities, the campaign relies heavily on the nostalgia of its predecessors without creating any truly iconic moments of its own. I still recall what it was like to experience the original 2009 Modern Warfare 2’s satisfying gut-punch of a finale. Unfortunately, this year’s campaign did not end on nearly as satisfying or memorable a note.

There’s a fun and challenging experience down in the depths of Below, especially in the very lowest levels. Unfortunately, the cumbersome design will turn players away and keep the game’s treasures hidden forever.

Fe's charm is in its concept and its songs, as I learned new songs with different pitches and tones, and learned to communicate with new wildlife. It also has flashes of visual brilliance, thanks to its use of soothing water color landscapes. But a humdrum story, lack of direction, and inconsistent controls didn't leave me wanting an encore.

There’s a lot of potential scattered around Agents of Mayhem but not enough of it is realized. The shooting and abilities are fun, the characters are interesting and could develop followings individually, but everything is hindered by a half-baked open world. No matter how fun the shooting is, the in-between moments are consistently a chore. If this was intended to spring a new series of games to life, the initial effort spits and sputters on the launch pad.

In an effort to adopt the stylings of other popular, open-world racers, Need For Speed: Payback presents some fun ideas with poor execution. It also misses an opportunity to elevate an NFS staple with a tacked-on, linear version of Pursuit that annoys while simultaneously reminding me of the absence of a Burnout game on the market.

Considering I’ve already written 2000 words on a game with no gameplay that lasted less than two hours, I would say I’ve probably seen enough. Did I learn anything about myself? Would I have enjoyed it more if these people were gay terminators as part of a weird government social experiment? Probably, yeah.

If you have kids interested in things like fantasy storytelling and adventure games, but titles like the recent Legend of Zelda feel like too much for them, Ravenlok is an easy suggestion. And if you’re just looking for something breezy that’s visually enticing but not much of an investment otherwise, you can do a lot worse than this. It may be a little monotonous and unambitious, but the adventure is over well before it can overstay its welcome. Ravenlok feels like a nice piece of fluff that’s polished and genre-heavy enough to be fun, but won’t address any cravings for the next big game in your stack.

Bard’s Tale IV started off on the right foot, but proved to be [a] boring installment in a franchise that probably would’ve been better off staying in the 80’s.

Star Wars: Battlefront II is a pretty good game and you’re going to get it if you’re a fan of Star Wars, no matter what anyone says. I’m just thankful that the game is an improvement over the first attempt and is incredibly fun solo, or with friends online. The loot crates diminish its value greatly, and it’s a shame EA forces them down your throat as part of the core gameplay, but the game looks gorgeous and is enjoyable to play.

At the end of the day, this is an inferior version of Left 4 Dead 2 that lacks the style, charm, gore, and engaging characters it tries to reproduce. That said, there is a decent foundation here and there are worse ways you could spend a weekend with some buddies.

As it stands now, Road to Eden feels less like a full release and more like an extended demo.

I'll say this much, if you try and play Metamorphosis as a substitute for a book report, you'll probably fail your English class. But as a game that's inspired by Kafka's classic tale, this is not bad at all. The platforming is competent, the puzzles can get creative, and the characters are often interesting. The downside is that the performance lag can't be ignored and sucks a lot of the fun out of this game. The other thing worth noting is that this is a very brief adventure. Even novices should have little trouble getting through the full story in anything more than four to five hours.

For what it is, Disney Villains: Cursed Cafe is fine. It's a simple visual novel that gives some extra flair to some tried-and-true Disney baddies. I certainly had a good chat with more than a few of them, but it wasn't something that could hold my attention for very long and was made worse if I felt like I made a mistake and had to blow another 5-10 minutes to redo the day. Some people are made for the daily grind of potionista work, but maybe I'm just not one of them.