Sure, The Division 2 isn’t perfect. Those hoping for an in-depth and engaging story will find themselves extremely disappointed in the meager offering on hand here. But, if you can overlook that, you’ll find an amazing experience beneath that is just teeming with engaging content. Considering how easy it is to sink 60+ hours into the game and still have activities to complete, I’m confident in saying that Massive Entertainment has earned themselves a giant gold star.

Beat Cop serves well as a Police sim, although that aspect of the game grows stale as time goes on. The story can be janky and oddly paced at times, but overall tells a fascinating cop story with some neat revelations. The pixel art style fits the 80’s theme of Beat Cop and really nails the retro vibe that the devs are shooting for. Beat Cop works just as well on console as it did on PC, but there’s still some room to improve.

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 game is a tight package that hits all the right notes when things are working well, though it can possibly push you into madness if you falter. 8/10 dismembered arms.

Dead or Alive 6 has complex, satisfying combat and enough variety to keep players of all skill levels happy. It has great graphics, it's stylish, and it's packed with bonuses. It's also full of what still feels like unintentional humor, which somehow makes the experience more of a spectacle. Sadly, the unimpressive online infrastructure and convoluted character customization serve as two big blots that mar the overall experience.

Like Destiny, like No Man's Sky, like Fallout 76, like The Elder Scrolls Online, Anthem could be a great game by next year. But that doesn't make it a good game now. Right now, Anthem is not good. And given what's come out of BioWare in the past and the kinds of lasting, impactful experiences that the gaming world knows BioWare is capable of delivering, that's truly sad.

Where Trials Rising falls off is with its presentation. While the tracks are all unique in appearance and boast expert level design, the visuals on PC felt dated. I’m not looking for realism, but I was disappointed to find low-quality textures and an overall lack of polish. Console players might not share that view, but it was noticeable in my experience.

Apex Legends is the battle royale game players have been waiting for. It nails the movement and terrain traversal while ensuring weapons feel meaty and responsive. Even the inclusion of light hero shooter features melds surprisingly well with the battle royale genre. Respawn Entertainment has set a new gold standard for what players should expect from their battle royale experiences.

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.

There’s a time and place for games like Crackdown 3. It’s not bad by any means, it’s even quantifiably good and enjoyable. However, while games can be lauded for not following trends, there’s a difference between carving your own path and simply not innovating. You will have a blast playing Crackdown 3, but it won’t stay with you after the credits roll and even the 1,000 orbs to collect might not keep you playing. Much like the old friend, perhaps our lives don’t gel as well as they used to, maybe Crackdown is better left as a cherished memory.

Ubisoft brought many of their strengths to the table in Far Cry New Dawn. The gunplay, sights and sounds, and environmental storytelling were great. I’m not sure the light RPG approach worked and would have loved to see more consistency throughout the narrative and from the characters that presented it. Far Cry New Dawn did provide me with a sense of closure in Hope County, and the highs outweighed the lows, but ultimately it left me craving a more complete experience.

What this game is really about is fan service and I must admit that it succeeds in offering folks up a hefty chunk in that department. Jump Force knows that it’s really for the Shonen Jump fans and if you are a fan there’s plenty to like here. One would probably be better off focusing on the core fighting game aspects though.

It provides an experience that is generally therapeutic and almost never stressful. It’s not a perfect game, but it’s the kind of game that could be perfect for certain situations or groups of gamers looking for their next adventure.

There’s a lot on offer here, and while it does lose itself in the grind sometimes, the sheer amount of content here more than makes up for the negatives that you’ll encounter, especially if you’re a fan of the games that inspired it.

It's not just a great Kingdom Hearts game, it may very well be a game that gets revisited in December.

Despite its deceptively intriguing prologue, Vane quickly goes from a journey of discovery to a laborious chore, mainly due to the abundance of technical issues and a lack of a decent save system.

Pikuniku is a fun puzzle game based in a fascinating dystopian world. It’s look and feel gives it a charming aesthetic that draws you in, and its solid controls coupled with balanced puzzles makes you stay a while.

Maybe it’s because I grew up having my mind blown by Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World, but side-scrolling Mario games have always had a place in my heart. While I wouldn’t put this latest entry on the same pedestal, this is still a very solid game with a lot of what we’ve all come to love about the series thrown into a melting pot. I don’t think Nintendo would ever put out a “bad” Mario, honestly. There’s plenty here to keep fans and next of kin busy and entertained for quite some time.

Don't labor under the delusion that, if you played the original Resident Evil 2, that you should skip this one for some reason. There’s no excuse of “I’ve already played the original, so I don’t need to grab this one.” You couldn’t be more wrong if that’s your line of thinking. From top to bottom, this is already an early contender for Game of the Year 2019, and one of the greatest reasons ever to be a survival horror fan.

Aftercharge isn’t starting out perfect, but thankfully we live in an age where patches and updates continue to shape an experience well after launch. All that’s needed to grow is an interesting and polished foundation to start with and Aftercharge certainly has that with a lot of charm to boot.

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.

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.

Bury Me, My Love is an ambitious game with a great premise. I just wish it didn't feel so disingenuous so much of the time.

Boobs Saga is a confusing mess of poor controls, bad voice acting, terrible combat, and awful English text and dialogue. It's a shame, because it seems otherwise it could shape up to be a serviceable lewd adventure. [Early Access Score = 40]

It's really only good for mindless entertainment. I guess the same can be said of most YouTube channels, too.

It's an odd thing for a video game to bank so heavily on its aesthetics, but in the case of Desert Child, the plan works. This isn't a dense game, nor is it necessarily a complex game; instead, it's a simple title that suits retro gaming enthusiasts with good visuals, good music, amusing interactions, and a series of high-speed races.

Even with it’s inherited flaws, this is still one of the best installments yet for the series. EDF 5 makes no apologies for what it is and is more accessible than its predecessors. The game has just the right blend of cheesiness and action-packed gameplay that makes for a cult hit.

We've seen Gris before, back when it was sold in the wrapper of Limbo, Journey, or Ori and the Blind Forest. It's the same old platformer that's being turned around yet again for a new audience with new gimmickry that, while functional, simply brings little to the table. It's easy to fall in love with, at least superficially, until you examine it even closer. It looks great, it's smooth, and you sure can jump a lot – but it's unsatisfying in so many ways that make it difficult to recommend over more competent and feature-rich games in the genre. After all, you know the old adage: beauty is only skin-deep.