Days Gone offers an emotional rebuttal to apocalyptic nihilism.

Toukiden: Age of Demons is a solid little Monster Hunter tailgater, but it's highly unremarkable. It's simply okay, and it's not even intrigued by the idea of being more than that.

The Elder Scrolls Online is a ton of fun in an outside-the-box sort of way. It can't seem to decide whether it wants to be single player or MMO, so be prepared for some in-between weirdness, but nothing that really detracts much from the experience. Between Guilds, crafting, PvP, and dungeons, it has all of the makings of a solid MMO.

A hardcore experience in just about every sense of the word. If you're looking for a simple hack-and-slash brawler, you'll need to look elsewhere. Strategy is paramount here, and while the skill - or lack thereof - of your teammates can indeed doom you to failure, the rewarding feeling of waging a successful war is well worth it.

A well-crafted, easy-to-play game with an entertaining fantasy bent, Warlock will have you staying up nights taking one more turn to blast King Rrat to kingdom come.

While The Medium’s design stumbles are disappointing, its human characters and gorgeous world are ultimately the things that stuck with me. Once I finally made it to the end of the road, I immediately restarted the campaign to experience all of the narrative breadcrumbs with the newfound clarity of the ending in mind, which is the sign of an effective story. And the game’s day one availability on Xbox Game Pass is just another in a long line of reasons why the service is a must-have. It might not reach the unforgettable highs of James Sutherland’s time in the town of Silent Hill, but The Medium carves out its own corner of the genre that’s worth losing a bit of sleep over.

If you've been dying for a classic Final Fantasy title that's closer in mechanics to Final Fantasy IV than Final Fantasy XIII, you'll enjoy 4 Heroes of Light. If you despise retro RPG conventions, 4 Heroes is not for you unless you really want to morph into a chicken.

Samurai Warriors 4: Empires is fun, but scattered. It's a decent diversion but it's complexity and lack of transparency will keep you from being hooked.

Great addicting roguelike space game where the punishment is balanced perfectly with reward.

If you’re a fan of open-world adventures with punchy combat and charming stories, The Knightling is a solid pick for your next gaming session. It offers a blend of exploration, combat, and platforming, along with memorable characters and a vibrant game world.

I had the same response in general to playing The Sinking City. There’s so much wonderful potential in this game that its flaws are all the more maddening. I wished that it had followed Call of Cthulhu in abandoning combat altogether and just used its larger space and considerably more nuanced investigation system to tell a great story. But it seems I’ll have to keep waiting for the perfect Lovecraft game.

Little Nightmares 3 is not a bad game by any means. As noted, the art and sound design teams both did a splendid job, and I hope to learn more about Low and Alone in the DLC, too. The game just felt somewhat overshadowed by the creativity of its predecessors, offering a decent but oddly familiar experience.

Like all good party games, Fruit Ninja is a bit bland by yourself, but add some friends into the mix and it becomes a goofy good time. You won't spend a lot of time with it when you play, but it'll be a surefire hit at your get-togethers.

Asura's Wrath is a novel idea with some poor implementation. It often feels strained into too many directions, but there is something undeniably fun about certain outrageous moments. There really isn't much else quite like Asura's Wrath.

A polished and satisfying reflex shooter that removes meaningful decisions from the game and trivializes its own greatest technology.

With plenty of missions, new enemies, new weapons, minor enhancements and lost of things that go boom, Crackdown 2 offers hours of satisfying, brainless fun for those who enjoy that sort of thing. Newcomers to the series and die-hard fans alike will find plenty to obsess over.

It's almost as though Ubisoft wasn't confident enough in Liberation's story and gameplay to let it stand on its own. The result is a game that is fun to play, but in spite of itself. It's an Assassin's Creed game through and through, and fans of the franchise will find the key elements very much intact. But brace yourself to deal with useless gimmicks and a patchwork story that ultimately holds Liberation back from greatness.

Demon Gaze is tough as nails, sometimes dishearteningly so, but its overall charm and excellent sense of polish make it impossible to stay away from for long. A truly excellent example of challenging dungeon crawling.

The Cave's offbeat sense of humor is mostly charming, and actually solving the puzzles inside it feels delightfully difficult. However, the severely diminishing returns on its replay value make it more of a momentarily amusing distraction than something you'll be holding onto for years to come.

Despite the unstable camera, Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One is a hilarious action-adventure with a lot of variety between the platforming, environmental puzzles and hack-and-blast action, but unless you're a hardcore Ratchet & Clank fan, you won't get the full experience playing it by yourself.

Hyrule Warriors Legends should have been made a new 3DS exclusive, as the performance issues on the older system make the game nearly unplayable. However, the new characters, and the ability to swap fluidly between playable characters, make the game feel more fresh than a standard port.

Ronin is a remarkably average game. When it works, it's kind of fun, but there just isn't enough here to maintain interest, and it has nothing that we haven't seen before.

This is a retro re-release at its finest. The game feels like its classic counterpart, but it has a number of improvements to make it more palatable to a modern gaming audience.

Blood Bowl 2's dry humor, colorful visuals, explosive brutality, and over-the-top fantasy characters will appeal to die-hard Warhammer fans.

While it's difficult to ignore the surface appeal of an oddball title like Lollipop Chainsaw, what are merely workable mechanics, and some overused humor can't keep the experience afloat.

Halo Wars 2 is the sequel that no-one really asked for, but is a surprisingly solid traditional base-building RTS, and is finally on a platform suited for the genre. The campaign is a little lacking, but several different multiplayer modes and the promise of "six months of regular updates" make up for it.

If Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was as vast and interesting as many seasons of Game of Thrones, think of Wrath of the Druids as the forthcoming House of the Dragon spinoff. It’s not going to change anyone’s minds, but if you were still on board, it’s exciting to return to that world.

On the whole, Code Vein 2 is far from a perfect game, but it is far from a bad one, too. This will not hit the same highs as Elden Ring or Dark Souls; however, perhaps it does not need to. As another in the burgeoning catalog of Soulslikes, it offers unique combat and plenty of panache while owning its imperfections and inspirations alike.