The Resident Evil 2 remake has been anticipated for years, and Capcom has impressively lived up to expectations....Gorgeous, gory, and bloody scary, Resident Evil 2 is back, and it’s juicier than ever.

It doesn’t quite have the variety and spark of Mario Odyssey, though it does offer a lot of the same rewarding collectathon structure. Unlike most of the ground beneath DK’s feet, it’s really solid stuff.

I always liked Shovel Knight, but I never loved it. Not until it came to Switch.

I'm notoriously lacking in patience, but Animal Crossing has always had a charm to it that allowed me to tolerate its time wasting bollocks. Considering New Horizons wants you to work just to get to Animal Crossing's usual brand of time wasting bollocks has eliminated that tolerance.

Overwatch is a beautiful game. In dedicating itself to one strong, singular style of game rather than attempting to check too many boxes with heaps of modes and features, Blizzard has crafted a finely tuned and instantly playable production. It is a game of exceptional vision, a vision realized with utmost self-assurance. This game knows what it is, and doesn’t try to be anything else.

Spider-Man 2 continues the high level of slickly presented entertainment seen with Insomniac’s first jaunt to Manhattan. Playing as the Spider-Men is yet to be anything other than beautiful, both figuratively and literally. Great as it may be, it's held back by some dodgy writing that fumbles its payoffs and dips too often into waffle. Between those moments of deflation, however, there is a truly gorgeous and absorbing game packed with delightful action where simply moving feels good.

The “remastering” is of highly questionable value and the extra content is weak. No Return is a cheaply recycled and tawdry take on roguelite gameplay, while the Lost Levels were lost for a reason. Worse, such additions hammer a final nail into the coffin of this game’s creative ambition, definitively invalidating an already flimsy story with the kind of combat-focused experiences that communicate only one thing to the player - violent videogames are cool.

It's a From Software instant classic, a game of stealth, brutal combat, and punishing difficulty. I also don't like it... Sekiro is a very good game that's absolutely not for me.

It works extremely well on the New 3DS, with the system’s rubber clit working surprisingly well in manipulating the camera.

Dark Souls III is, in many ways, a balancing of past accomplishments. The detailed yet obfuscating narrative of Dark Souls, the convenient travel system of Dark Souls II, a dash of the speed found in Bloodborne, and the rock solid backbone of strenuous, fulfilling challenge that runs throughout the entire series...Any player who’s been through this mill is prepared to die, but once more, that fantastic beacon of hope urging players to press forward and overcome each obstacle is shining as bright as ever. Because that’s what Dark Souls is all about – perishing, persevering, and prevailing. No game series comes close to doing what Dark Souls does, and Dark Souls III has done it again. It’s an undead favorite.

Titanfall 2 is everything Titanfall should have been – storified, robust, and sufficiently multiplatform. The real series starts here, and I’m surprised at how nothing at all feels phoned in or tacked-on.

On PS4, the experience is further hampered, with slowdown in multiple locations for a game that can only handle an fps of 30 at peak. The upside is that, at least in my experience, these dips in performance occur in strangely unpopulated areas, meaning you should have a solid framerate when it comes to combat. Make no mistake, however, that console versions are inescapably inferior.

This is exactly the kind of adorable, sweet natured, and engrossing experience Pokémon should always strive for. It’s completely revitalized the series’ waning magic and I’m unbelievably happy it exists.

Thank Goodness You're Here! rolls around in its Britishness to an almost obscene degree, but more than that it is simply… stupid. Majestically, gloriously stupid. It’s a wildly entertaining little adventure that revels in its own ludicrous indulgences. It delightedly broadcasts a sense of humor that some may find puerile and unappealing while others will find it puerile and very appealing...Thank goodness I’m in the latter camp.

Everything good about Dead Space 2023’s basic gameplay, combat, and narrative is a result of what Dead Space 2008 built. Most of what this remake adds is either less appealing artistic alterations or side content that generally amounts to unnecessary padding, and quite frankly I’d have been more interested in a remaster than a glitchy new take that’s less enjoyable and costs more. When you add the repulsive context of EA benefiting from a series it once destroyed right down to the developer, you get a game that leaves a sour bloody taste, even if it’s an acceptable mimicry of its predecessor...Dead Space 2008 is fifteen quid on digital storefronts.

More than even the remakes, Resident Evil 9 celebrates the series’ legacy in its full breadth, and does so exquisitely.

With its excellent ping system and fun combat, Apex has had me pretty bloody gripped.

Technically it's impressive, and the people producing content for it are talented as heck... sometimes. Unfortunately, for those looking to play the games rather than make them, Dreams is hard to stick with. The best projects are in "early access" for want of a better term, and they're surrounded by baffling memes, half-baked nonsense, and bids for YouTuber attention. Oh, and tons of copyright infringement. Dreams is amazing, but I'm not very interested in playing more of it.

I adored the first Alan Wake, and I’ve either loved or liked every Remedy game since then. This is the first time I’ve felt so displeased by the studio’s work I’ve actually been angry about it. The pompous writing, the shoehorned mechanics that push a tiresome narrative conceit over the quality of the narrative itself, the archaic combat, the amount of time it spends doing almost nothing, Alan Wake 2 is fucking insufferable most of the time...It’s impossible to tell where the stylistically bad writing of the title character ends and the inadvertently bad game of Alan Wake 2 begins. The difference, at this point, matters not.

It’s reverent without being mawkish, exciting without being tacky, and robust with content despite all the usual trappings of a big-budget EA product. War is hell… but Battlefield 1 is pretty damn lovely.

Horizon: Zero Dawn is just brilliant. I speak as a critic who has played more "open sandbox" games than any one human should and has grown so very weary of them. I should have gotten sick of this thing in an hour, but I've been glued to it for days and days and I don't want it to end. I love existing in this world - a world of desperate survival but of growing culture and a sense of hope. A world of giant metal animals that promise some breathtaking fights.

A great game that would have been almost perfect if Capcom had gouged out the first thirty hours and put a plug in the pernicious verbal diarrhoea of a quest board masquerading as an NPC.

While it didn’t bring literal tears to my eyes, there are moments that certainly feel like a kick to the soul thanks to impeccable writing and direction.

Crafting is intuitive, navigation is quick, and the sheer scale of what can be done is deceptively vast. Trying the intricate work of some of Course World’s most talented designers will showcase in seconds just what can be done. It’s an encouraging thing, and that’s something this game does so well – it encourages, inspiring its users to keep making bigger and better things.

It’s the Watership Down of videogames, and I can only mean that as twisted compliment.

Few games are able to showcase the power of the medium like Nier: Automata...If history forgets this game, then f.ck history.

Feels like a tiresome retread – enjoyable enough when it sticks to the old script, but frustrating in its disappointment when it does attempt anything new. With a rushed story, colorless characters, and total misuse of a whole new playable character, the best I can say is that I didn’t hate it. I didn’t particularly like it, but I didn’t hate it. Dishonored deserves more than that.

Devil May Cry 5 is the consummate "return to form" package, Capcom's unapologetic comeback for Dante, Nero, and a mysterious Adam Driver lookalike called V. Sidestepping the DmC reboot, this is the Devil May Cry fans know and love. Not a step has been lost. DMCV is everything fans want, and everything the rest of the world needs...It's the best Devil May Cry game.