And without VR support for this version, there's no way to even pretend you're really some explorer who uncovered an ancient civilization. You just move like someone ancient.

Pirates isn't a terrible game, but its pedigree means it needed to aim higher. Black Flag's ship combat was extremely refined, but Pirates comes off as a shallow imitator, and will undoubtedly leave players wanting.

Mario Party: Island Tour never seems a natural fit on the 3DS. It feels more like the game has been hammered into shape to fit as well as it can on the platform.

For one of the earliest Nintendo Switch experiences I’ve had with the console, Just Dance 2017 was a disappointing departure. Though its slick and easy to use interface combined with the Switch-centric Tabletop Mode are boons for those looking to dance, there’s little substance here, certainly not enough to recommend shelling out cash for Just Dance Unlimited or even playing this game instead of just turning on the radio and dancing to your own routines.

And maybe that polish will still come. Maybe the glitches will get fixed down the line, maybe the game will get that fresh burst of variety in its missions and enemy types that it needs, maybe it'll get a fresh set of environments. But at this time, The Blackout Club isn't a club worth joining. For now, close your eyes and try to imagine a better game.

To its credit, Steel Seed doesn’t overstay its welcome. You can clear the whole thing in about twelve hours, and nothing here (well, aside from the combat) is bad. It’s just dull. Storm in a Teacup clearly knows how to make games and knows what they’re doing here, but it’s such a mismatch of parts from so many other games that none of them really manage to come together in a coherent way. Steel Seed never finds its identity, which is a shame because Storm in a Teacup is clearly a talented developer who understands how to make games. But Moran was onto something when he said that technique wasn’t as important as conviction. Zoe may be the chosen one destined to save the world, but the game around her never really feels like it's convinced of it — or itself. And if you can’t persuade yourself of the story you’re telling, it’s damn hard to convince anyone else.

Drug Dealer Simulator isn’t an altogether terrible game, but it fails to reach its true potential. The world feels empty most of the time and the game's basic systems get in their own way quite a bit. At the end of the day, what is meant to be a full-fledged simulator experience ends up feeling like a half-finished early access title with plenty of room to improve.

Babylon’s Fall feels like a game that came out a decade ago, both visually and in its gameplay. Combat is clunky and boring most of the time, outside of a few highlights here and there. There’s nothing that encourages players to engage with the live-service elements, despite it being a core tenet of the experience. It’s like someone fed a computer a bunch of information and had it generate an action RPG. Babylon's Fall’s biggest credit is that it’s technically competent; the game isn’t broken or held back by major bugs or issues. It’s a shame, because PlatinumGames has proven itself to be an impressive talented studio. Unfortunately, Babylon's Fall manages to disappoint on just about every front.

If there is a piece of good news here, I feel confident that Asobo will continue to resolve these issues and, given enough time, we'll end up with a Microsoft Flight Simulator that is as stable as 2020 and benefits from all the additional technical improvements. We're not there now though, and now is when folks have spent their money on this product. The '2024' title feels premature; this game needed another 6-12 months of development and testing. It's apparent that it's simply not ready and much more work is required before it is. Flight simmers now have to decide if they want to go back to 2020, like many have, or be the beta testers for 2024 and accept that it'll take time before things are better.

I’ve come to really dig Atelier over the years after kind of avoiding them for a long time (time limits stress me out, I’ll be honest), so much so that I’ve imported the physical trilogy carts for Nintendo Switch and even pre-ordered the special edition for Ryza 2 back when I had the means to do so. I say that to emphasize the weight of my words when I state how much of a step backwards on the series’ evolutionary trajectory this experience feels like. Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian looks and feels cheap (I hate to go there, but it’s unavoidable) to play, and is full of what feel like kitbashed structural systems clumsily molded into a single player game that suffers from its connection to a failed gacha joint. It bums me out to say it, but that’s the vibe.

Kyn is a nice distraction from other games, but don’t expect it to endlessly enthrall you like other RPGs would. However, the scope of the game is well beyond what you’d expect from the two-man team who coded, created, and designed it.

While I dug absolutely every facet of the game's aesthetics and the fact that I was finally able to get more No More Heroes after such a long wait, I didn't quite want it in this format. While it was clear at the start that this wouldn't be a core entry in the series, it's also bereft of much of what makes No More Heroes such an unforgettable and classic game in the first place. Technical issues, strange gameplay decisions, and an overall lackluster series of features make Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes an unworthy placeholder for the next entry in the series.

Ryse: Son of Rome had potential, but Crytek did too little to expand upon its repetitive combat. While I ran through the campaign in about five hours, it honestly felt like 20. And with the formula becoming more and more boring with each by-the-numbers execution, the addition of throwaway collectibles, like vistas and scrolls, couldn't save this game. Ryse doesn't come close to living up to Roman standards.

It feels like there were some very specific ideas the creators of Graven wanted to communicate. But while those ideas sometimes weave together with the game’s dark fantasy, old-school shooter style to form some immaculate vibes, that’s about as deep as it gets. The game seems confused about whether or not it wants to be an awesome action game, a thoughtful explorative puzzler, or some kind of mutant Soulslike gimmick. It sputters across the finish line not really achieving anything but a cool look, undermined constantly by boredom. It’s a shame, because Graven has a hell of a vibe. But there’s simply too much bonkin’ and not enough bangin’.

Crimson Desert is an exercise in excess, and it is worse for it. If you believe more is always better and are so enraptured by “world big” that you are willing to overlook substantial, glaring flaws (and there are many), you’ll love Crimson Desert. Perhaps the most damning thing I can say about Crimson Desert is that it is an enormous game with a ton of content, and I spent most of my time with it wishing I was doing anything else.

The game is less welcoming to new players as its predecessors, and the Main Game campaign mode feels disjointed with uninspired and annoying boss battles. I wanted to like this game, as I am a huge fan of the franchise, but this banana does not pass the smell test.

I feel sad more than anything, because buried underneath the live service slop, there's real potential for a good Suicide Squad game in here. The boss battles show the game's potential. Now imagine more varied missions, different enemy types, and a more interesting gameplay loop that makes the most of this license. Above all else, imagine a better Rocksteady game. Instead of being trendsetters, like with the Arkham series, this studio is now reduced to being trend followers. And I thought the DCEU was bad.

I have to wonder what happened to this project over its lengthy development cycle that took it from a promising spin-off of one of Ubisoft’s most beloved games to what will undoubtedly be remembered as one of 2024’s more underwhelming big-budget releases. It’s not entirely disposable, but it’s far from the treasure it promised to be.

All of this took a promising franchise introduction and just left a bad taste in my mouth. I genuinely enjoyed a lot of aspects of ReCore--the world, the nail-biting platforming challenges, the smart and fast-paced combat. But it comes with so many issues and reservations that it becomes hard to recommend.

There are things I respect about Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon. Its soundtrack, for one, is uniformly pretty good, and the game’s ambition is undeniable, but I can’t really say I enjoyed much of my time playing it, moment to moment. Occasional striking vistas and questlines can’t make up for a world that feels pretty inauthentic in its representation of a fictionalized version of Celtic culture, and the way you are forced to constantly wander it to complete straightforward missions makes it a space that is hard to enjoy exploring. And while there are interesting roleplaying narrative beats, that is rarely reflected in gameplay that railroads you into one of two playstyles.

While Kirby Fighters 2 is fun for a night with a co-op partner, there's little entertainment beyond that. There are better Kirby games out there. Try those instead.

Despite one-third of the game getting a passing grade, the rest falls short of meeting even the lowest of expectations. Clinging to the coattails of its predecessor, the reboot fails to capture the essence of what made the original Modern Warfare games so iconic. From its lame excuse for a campaign to its redundant multiplayer, finding redeeming qualities in Modern Warfare 3 has been nothing short of challenging. The game amounts to little more than half-baked expansion disguised as a full-fledged title, and the whole thing feels like a slap in the face to consumers. The most disappointing part is that it doesn’t even matter how much we can see through the ruse, because profits will always speak louder in the end. While there still may be new MM3 content on the horizon, it will likely arrive too late to make a difference.

Wolfenstein: Youngblood feels like a short co-op experience stretched out over a barebones RPG skeleton. It doesn’t feel comfortable in its own skin. It’s too thin in some parts while being bloated and lumpy in others. Whatever it is, I don’t really want to touch it. Ultimately, it’s just a disappointing sidestep in an otherwise fantastic franchise.

The Crush House feels like a victim of its own confidence. It’s so self-sure of its premise and big-brained twist that it fails to dig a little deeper under the surface to actually justify any of it. The gameplay itself is incredibly shallow and dull when it isn’t being a frustrating exercise in dice-rolling. The characters are basically all the same person and interact with each other the same ways, repeating the same small set of possible events over and over. Your involvement in the whole equation is to sit there and watch, and hope the emojis and numbers on the screen are doing the good thing instead of irritating you. The payoff is just as shallow as the gameplay, making the whole subversive twist as commentary gimmick a bust.

Battletoads gets very experimental and it's often to its detriment, feeling like it's more focused on being a D-tier Cartoon Network show than a video game.

Resident Evil 0 HD should easily cater to fans of the series, but without the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia, I came away more frustrated than impressed.

It continues to baffle me as to why Stubbs got this modern re-release. The story is fine, but clever narratives can only take a game so far. Nothing about this game feels like it belongs in 2021, whether it's the repetitive gameplay or the dated graphics. Like Stubbs' character in this specific story, this game should be approached as a curiosity and nothing more.

2064: Read Only Memories is a great game for anyone who agrees 100% with what its heavy-handed, politically-charged plot forces down your throat without question. However, like a political conversation on social media, 2064 is long-winded, overly aggressive in its message, ill-presented, and accomplishes nothing.