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.

I want to be clear: despite all of the technical issues Slime Heroes has, I think it’s a good game if you’re playing alone. I have high hopes for the co-op once it’s fixed. It’s charming and cute and playing with the spell system is a good time, and it has the ebb and flow of combat that makes Souls-likes fun. If you’re looking for a kinder, gentler Souls-like, Slime Heroes is the game for you. It just feels unfinished. I hope Pancake Games gets to fix it, because this is a hero’s journey you should be able to take together because… y’know, that’s kind of the point. Nobody saves the world alone.

Carmen Sandiego is a fun romp through a genre that I had figured was lost to mobile marketplaces and predatory YouTube channels. If I was a kid, I bet I would absolutely love it. It’s not much of a challenge in terms of knowing things, but it does use historical and geographical education as a backdrop for a fun mystery-solving loop that tests your deduction skills just as much as your ability to soak up facts. I do wish there was a little more friction when it came to identifying the criminals, and the loop itself does run out of ideas pretty quickly. The minigames don’t add a whole lot aside from vibes, but the writing itself is often a hoot. At the end of the day, I really enjoyed this unexpected blast from the past, and appreciated how committed to the originals it ended up being. If you’re a parent looking for something of substance for your kid for a real video game machine that isn’t some app trying to needle your wallet in exchange for low-rent Sesame Street lessons, Carmen Sandiego might just be the ticket.

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.

Like Fights before it, Knights in Tight Spaces is the kind of game where it's easy to lose track of time. The story will have you reaching for the Skip button by the time you go on your 10th or 20th run, but there's nothing repetitive about the formula, especially as battles get more intense with tougher foes. It turns out that even when the clock is dialed back a few dozen centuries, close quarters fighting is still a grand old time.

PGA Tour 2K25 places plenty of pressure on EA Sports PGA Tour to step up its game. The two-year hiatus has given 2K’s latest effort, with its solid gameplay and improved graphics, a slight edge over its rival. It’s disappointing that a couple of the new mechanics in MyCareer don’t go far enough, and the microtransaction shenanigans with the equipment and locked skill trees have been shoehorned in unnecessarily. Still, the game is sitting at the top of the leaderboard when it comes to golf sims and is looking back at EA to see if it can catch up or be left in the sand trap.

If it wasn’t for the tortuous combat I probably would’ve loved Omega 6: The Triangle Stars. It’s weird, it’s funny as heck, and it has ample Nintendo charm despite not being a Nintendo game. It almost feels like the team at WarioWare, Inc. made a whole game instead of a sketchy microgame. But for as much as I enjoyed exploring the world, meeting the goofy characters, and solving puzzles while uncovering the story, the overbearing presence of the worst rock, paper, scissors gauntlet ever made clouded the whole thing. I figured combat would be a silly minigame I’d run into on occasion, but instead it was a massive, unavoidable part of the equation. If Omega 6 was a pure visual novel I would’ve loved it. It’s still neat, but now I just want to read the manga when it comes out in English later this year and never look back.

Two Point Museum is, for me, the best amalgam of Two Point Studios' business management and mechanics yet. The road to five-star museums is paved with fun challenges and customization that will likely have empty spaces looking like your personal dream attraction hours in. Even when I reached one-star at Wailon Lodge, I was so proud of the haunted house maze of supernatural fascinations that I couldn’t help but stare at my work for a while before moving to the next thing. This game may have a few frustrations in waiting and free design, but it’s also full of warm moments to be proud of what you put together as the visitors enjoy your assembly, and that’s exactly what I want out of a Two Point game.

Monster Hunter Wilds moves the franchise forward from previous games, yet it tends to step into some of the same traps that both World and Rise did. Those issues, however, are dwarfed by an addictive gameplay loop that will keep players engaged for hundreds of hours. When you factor in the game-changing Seikret, and the ease of which players can launch into hunts, Monster Hunter Wilds is a must-play for series fans.

Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog is a remarkable tribute to PC-98 visual novels and hard sci-fi anime of a specific vintage. The visuals are pitch-perfect with multiple settings that offer different vibes, and the soundtrack is a complex beast of speaker-straining chiptunes that enhances the mood even further. But this is a severe case of style over substance, and the storytelling does not deliver on the promises being made by Gun-Dog’s immaculate presentation. I had a decent time but walked away massively disappointed, feeling like I had been tricked into watching a Disney Star Wars spinoff by someone promising the next Armored Trooper VOTOMS. I’d be totally willing to check out what’s next from this team, but with massively tempered expectations.

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii won’t take up as much of your time as Yakuza 6 or Infinite Wealth, but it’s most certainly a fun and exciting way to pass the time with our favorite Mad Dog of Shimano while we wait for RGG’s next big thing.

If anything these minor glitches are a testament to this game’s release being something of a minor miracle. Without going too much into the details, Aftterlove’s creative director, Mohammad Fahmi, tragically passed away in 2022. It is thanks to the teams at Pikselnesia and Fellow Traveller that the game was seen through to release. I can’t imagine a more beautiful tribute to a developer who is only ever spoken of in the highest terms by his peers than Afterlove EP — a game that understands that even if things will never be ok again, we can still keep living.

Avowed delivers where it matters: an interesting world with memorable companions and a rich combat system that rewards experimentation. Pillars of Eternity fans will feast on the various nods and references to the beloved CRPGs, but newcomers to Eora will still find plenty to enjoy with Obsidian Entertainment’s latest RPG.

There isn’t a whole lot more to Rift of the NecroDancer, but that isn’t a problem at all. It’s a clever core concept that doesn’t wear out its welcome with additional complications or gimmicks, opting instead to deliver the best experience possible based on that core. It’s a ton of fun to play for long or short sessions, and holds the door wide open for the community to take over for further shenanigans. As a follow-up to Crypt of the NecroDancer, it’s a very different kind of experience, but one that’s delivered with the same kind of creative energy that made the first game such a hoot.

If you can’t tell by now, I’m deeply in love with this game. I just don’t want to give away too much yet. But I believe it tells an important story about the made-up, easily digestible realities behind the complicated, horrible events in our day-to-day lives. About social media white knight justice as a feel-good spectator sport and how we treat tragedies, culprits, and their victims in our always-online world. This game couldn’t have come out at a better time. In light of recent events, perpetrated by the convenient realities many of us love to escape into, it is important to remember that the convenient truths that most of us can live with always have innocent victims we're not aware of until looking for them. But I guess there’s no Urban Myth Dissolution Center for that.

Ultimately I enjoyed my time with Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To, due to its colorful visuals, relaxing soundtrack from Meltycanon, and familiar puzzle gameplay. But the overall experience feels just a little too breezy to make a lasting impact. The writing is cute but shallow, and the puzzle action feels like it’s barely interested in being there. The vibes are pleasant, but I feel like I’m left wanting for more substance. A little more pizazz to the gameplay or depth to the storytelling, and we’d have something special here.

When it comes down to it, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a brilliant and astounding experience by a developer that has shown itself to be a leader in the open-world genre. Henry makes for such a pleasant protagonist that you can’t help but love him, and the journey you go on across medieval Bohemia is equal parts complex and deeply absorbing. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 shines bright among its peers, even with its dints and dents.

Despite my gripes, the biggest compliment that I can give Civilization 7 is to say that this review is inconvenient. Any time I’m talking, writing, or thinking about the game, I want to play it. I’ve been writing this for hours, and those are precious hours where I could be growing my Ming empire and slapping the other leaders around. Civ 7 is an absolute banger.

I hope this doesn’t read too negatively, but the build I played had all the makings of a great game but was held back by small technical issues here and there that just kept piling up. If you’re intro Metroidvanias with tight combat, there is a lot to love here but unless you can forgive some jank, I recommend at least waiting for a couple more patches before you dive into this one.

We’ve probably made life measurably worse for ourselves by building systems that feed on labor and thrive on diminishing returns. But while playing by the rules and struggling to get by is painful, there is still something innately precious about living and building what you can with the hand you’re dealt. That’s what I felt Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector was trying to communicate over the time I spent with it. It’s a conversation about selfness as much as it is a cool sci-fi video game about machines and dice. It challenges you with harsh conditions and constant dread while telling you a story about what work does to a body, practically forcing you to reflect on your own history. It doesn’t reward you with hope or simple optimism, but it does offer validation. In this case, that might be better.

I can’t make heads or tails of Eternal Strands. If we talk about polish, art direction, music, and combat I think it is a great title that will entertain for quite some time. But once all was said and done, I struggled to remember anything aside from a few cool combat encounters. The progression system aside from spells is a little uninspired, and the story outside of its charming cast isn’t much to write home about either. If you want to know if this game is for you or not, I highly suggest you give the demo a go. If you like what the game is putting down after completing that, I think you’ll enjoy it. If you don’t, I doubt the rest of the game will make you fall in love with it either. While I’m walking away from Eternal Strands with my hunger sated, I would’ve liked more adventurous appetizers and a dessert alongside the filling main course.

Sniper Elite: Resistance is very much worth your time if you have any interest in sniping, exploring maps in occupied France, or feeling like an action hero from WWII movies. The shooting mechanics, both at long-range and in close quarters, are fun and satisfying. There's nothing quite like using the sound of the thunderstorm to mask your sniper shots, or landing several silenced headshots from your pistol in a row. Gathering collectibles, unlocking attachments for your weapons, and finding new and interesting ways to tackle each objective gives Sniper Elite: Resistance a lot of replay value. Add in co-op mode, the Invasion mode, and all-out multiplayer, plus DLC and a season pass, and you'll be spending many hours behind enemy lines. If you're like me, it may just be the best time you've had in a stealth action game since Splinter Cell.

As someone who plays a lot of games, it is very rare to question “Why am I doing this?” “Why am I getting platinum trophies?” “Why am I levelling up every sub-class?” “Why am I prestiging?” We do it because it's fun, or satisfying, or because it will reward us in some way. Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap had me questioning those rewards and that satisfaction in a very fundamental way. I have leveled up characters, beat hidden bosses, and gotten golden gun skins… But to what end though? So I can do it again? So I can move the boulder ever slightly further up the mountain before it slides back down again? For most games, we do it because the answer is, “It's fun.”...Simply put, the act of playing Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap is not fun enough to abate that existential question from rattling around your head while you play.

Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders is about chilling out, chasing personal bests, and enjoying the bone-crunching hits that ensue. Ironically, that means this game is at its best when it isn't so lonely. Grab some friends and hit the slopes, but maybe wait for a few patches first.

To put it simply, if this was one of those retro re-releases that are basically fancy emulators with additional screen filters and save states, maybe online play as a treat, Star Wars: Episode 1: Jedi Power Battles (whew) probably would’ve been alright. Instead, we have this bizarre Frankenmaster that looks and sounds like the end result of someone playing with a PlayStation emulator for the first time and pushing the sliders all the way up. Preservation is important, even for games that aren’t “classics.” This isn't the preservation you've been looking for.

It's not a game for everyone, and unless you’re into the franchise or are looking for a more casual extraction shooter experience with science fiction flavor, it won’t turn you into a believer in either.

Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero is a clumsy-feeling game, but its scatterbrained energy comes from an admirable place of bucking standardized gameplay conventions in a genre that doesn’t budge often. The first game had some interesting ideas back 20 years ago, and those ideas are streamlined and expanded upon, without losing that experimental feeling. Its systems are as grindy as they are weird though, and the writing mostly being on the happy-go-lucky side isn’t going out of its way to yank you along. Instead it wants you to relax and tackle things at a slower pace, which feels good until it starts exposing problems. Anyone who loved the original (greetings, fellow 30 or 40-something RPG dork) will probably have fun here, although the rounded edges may be disappointing. For anyone else, I’d say go for it if you’re specifically looking for something new and novel. Come in prepared to be overwhelmed at first; if you make it over the hump there’s a solid adventure on the other side. It's a perfect use case for a demo, and sure enough there is one.

I’ve played another game from this developer, Summer in Mara, and I can see the rich world-building the team is developing across all of its titles as characters from Chibig’s other games made guest appearances in this one. I’m not sure everyone will have the appetite for the fetch quest, back and forth nature of Mika and the Witch’s Mountain, but I found the map size to be appropriate to balance that out. While it may need a little more time brewing in the cauldron, Mika and the Witch’s Mountain was a fun ride and just goes to show that Chibig is one developer worth keeping an eye on.