Art's Dream, the long-awaited story mode of sorts for Dreams, does a neat job demonstrating the possibilities of Media Molecule's game. Similarly, the collaborative nature of Dreams' players' creations factor into a welcome online ecosystem. For all that Dreams has to offer creatively, and for all the litany of levels and their enjoyable experiences, I'm yet to see a level that will stay with me after I'm done playing it. Dreams is fantastically experimentative, and it's obvious that the near-limitless creation tools provide a platform on which the community can build far into the future, but to judge this package as whole right now, it's not the wider product that leaves a lasting impression.

Horizon Zero Dawn is disappointing. It has a story that I struggled to care about (complete with massive expository dumps—yay), a bland protagonist, and overtly repetitive and constraining missions that worked against its open world sensibilities. When Horizon Zero Dawn hit its rare strides—from its gloomy Cauldrons to traveling across its sprawling vistas—it only made me wish the rest of the game were as worthwhile.

I can't begin to guess whether or not a few more months in the oven would've translated into a steady framerate, a longer list of new Pokémon, and a functional import option. But I do know that Pokémon X and Y are, by some of the series' own standards, incomplete in their current form. Given the choice between a delayed game and a disappointing one, there's no question which D word I'd pick.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake sets out to fully re-imagine a classic RPG with improved combat and an expanded story. Unfortunately, it's hurt by weak side quests and a surplus of padding, and its biggest change is bound to be controversial. It's one of the most coherent and enjoyable Final Fantasy releases in years, but it's also likely to be one of the most divisive.

Despite the nagging feeling that something's missing, Pokémon X and Y make some huge leaps forward for both the competitive and casual crowds. I just wish these games felt as complete as their predecessors.

By far the best-looking World of Warcraft expansion yet, and it's filled with quality content. However, the character and stat overhaul has left the gameplay feeling a little too simple and rote.

The gameplay in particular holds up very nicely, and proves that the original was well ahead of its time. Unfortunately, it's held back a bit by its clumsy interface, and formations are currently quite broken, which will hurt its standing with long-time fans.

It has merit, and its best qualities still manage to shine through on the small screen, but it's definitely not the optimal way to enjoy one of the more celebrated RPGs of the last generation.

Fun but flawed, Rogue Legacy falls somewhat short of its lofty aspirations. But you can't fault the developers for aiming high.

A weird hybrid of downward-scrolling shoot 'em up and platformer, Downwell is a challenging, but highly addictive arcade game that's a great test of your concentration and reflexes. Its gameplay does lack variety, but when played in short bursts, it's a lot of fun.

Nioh 2 crafts its tough experience with precise, delicious Team Ninja combat. On top of that is an entire mass of additional systems that offer players a way forward if your skills aren't top-notch. When those systems come together, Nioh 2 can make you feel powerful, but it does feel like a mess of numbers and bonuses thrown your way at times. You're surprisingly versatile, but you're also forced into a lot of management. A bit of trimming would've led to a near-perfect experience, rather than just a great one.

Yakuza Kiwami 2 won't make those who haven't clicked with the series yet a believer, but for fans, it's well worth the journey if you don't mind retreading some familiar ground. While the slow middle and Majima side campaign are disappointing, Kiwami 2 is still another solid entry in the Yakuza canon.

Far Cry 4 certainly features a lot to love, but Ubi's continued buffet-style approach to content has the game wearing out its welcome far earlier than it should. Still, if you're willing to adopt a pick-and-choose approach to its unbelievable amount of stuff to do, you should have a good time—just don't expect to digest everything it has to offer.

Pyre's strengths lie in a lot of things: it's beautiful visuals, amazing score, multi-branching tale, gameplay that somehow marries the best of sports games and tactical RPGs. But it's wrapped in an expansive story that doesn't quite earn its keep over its many hours, and fails to flesh out the endearing characters you meet and spend time with all along the way. In the end though, Pyre's a quest worth taking if ou're up for the challenge and the inevitble dread you'll feel when you lose sometimes.

Ni No Kuni 2 is a sweet-tempered and attractive RPG with a strong castle-building mechanic, but it's dragged down by a jarringly ugly overworld, mandatory fetch quests, and a lot of padding. It's a pleasant throwback for fans of the genre, but it ultimately fails to meet the high bar set by other big-budget JRPGs.

Gears 5 survives on its solid cover shooting gameplay and a campaign that isn't afraid to pose difficult questions about problematic topics. But the largely stagnant Horde mode and general mess of an Escape mode really pull the sequel back from being a bold step forward.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla's vision of ninth-century England is a beautiful place to explore, populated with a great cast of characters who make up for the bland new protagonist, Eivor. Nevertheless, the tired overarching story of Templars and Assassins, and a design ethos that overstuffs the setting with side activities, add unnecessary bloat and distractions to the experience. Valhalla's a solid action-adventure game that does well to capture the turmoil of its historical era, but it's weighed down by the increasingly ponderous legacy of the series it represents.

A week or so removed from playing Gris, I don’t know what I’ll remember it for, if at all. Gris feels like it almost belongs in a museum, with crowds marveling at its art and sound for a few minutes, before moving on to something else. There are moments of beautiful brilliance in Gris, all of which are dragged down by a decidedly average platforming game.

Shovel Knight: King of Cards revisits the formula one last time with new maps and bosses, as well as a brand new card game. It's ambitious, but it's also the least essential of the major Shovel Knight episodes. If you own Treasure Trove, play Shovel of Hope and Specter of Torment first, then circle back to King of Cards if you still want more.

Advanced Warfare executes the formula competently while adding a handful of bells and whistles like mechs, laser cannons, and double jumps; but Sledgehammer Games seems reluctant to really cut loose and push the setting to its fullest potential, making Advanced Warfare a solid but ultimately unexciting entry in the series.

I've consistently defended FIFA as the most well-rounded sports sim. But the series has felt like it's been standing still this generation, and that is felt more acutely than ever in FIFA 16. As always, it has its strengths, and the FUT Draft is a strong addition, but it's not enough to break the feeling of staleness that has descended upon the once undisputed king of sports games.

We’ve seen our characters in a perpetual state of ‘fight or flight’ the entire series, barely pausing to catch their breath before hitting the road again. I don’t feel like I know these characters, which makes it all the more difficult to care about them when the entire world is collapsing in on itself.

Death Stranding might be Kojima's boldest game to date. It may also be his most tedious. Either way, its originality outweighs its sometimes exhausting structure and poor pacing... but only just. Maybe not a game I would recommend to everyone, but certainly one of the most interesting games of 2019.

There's a lot to love in Mortal Kombat 11. It's a fantastic fighter with a roster of 25 varied characters, tons of customization options, beautiful graphics, and one of the best story modes in a fighting game. It's a shame that modes like the Krypt and Towers of Time inject annoyance and tedium into what was an excellent experience. The progression is complex and obtuse, when it should be easy and straightforward. MK 11 could been an all-time best, but it's just a contender.

Battlefield 4's below average campaign is once again disappoints, but the excellent Conquest mode and large-scale combat is enough to carry the series for another year. Pretty much status quo for EA's top multiplayer shooter.

Madden NFL 15 is an enjoyable football game on the surface, but its dragged down by a thousand little issues, including a poor interface, odd glitches, the inability to skip certain cutscenes, and more. As nice as it is to see it take a step forward in terms of accessibility, it still has a ways to go before catching up with the likes of FIFA and NBA 2K.

A lovely game with a delightful story, this platform puzzler has very high audio-visual appeal. It's also really fun to play - although it does have areas where poor camera choices and slightly awkward controls can make the proceedings frustrating.

If you were a fan of the first Overcooked, I can guarantee you'll find something to love here. With more characters, levels, gimmicks (even if some are on the annoying side), and recipes to dive into (for some reason, Overcooked 2 is really into sushi and dim sum), Overcooked 2 will likely replace the original game in your party game rotation. Just be prepared for a couple of headaches along the way, and some wrecked friendships in your wake.

Paradise Killer drips with endearing style and charm, but can't quite make its finale match up to its opening hours. Discovering intrigue and mystery is compelling at the start, but the good gets lost in its collectible busywork. Paradise Killer is a good option for virtual detective fanatics in need of new mysteries, but it lacks the staying power of other modern mystery giants.

I both love and hate this game. The bulk of the package is so good that it's tempting to forgive its unbalanced difficulty. But alas, the combat comprises the majority of the game, putting Shadows of Valentia's more obnoxious qualities front and center. It's worth checking out, but be ready to be immensely frustrated.

Life is Strange comes to its ultimate conclusion by asking players what's more important: one person or an entire town? This is an emotionally strong episode that's unfortunately padded out by sequences that justify its overall running time and reinforce that you're playing a game. Life is Strange was great as a whole, but there are missteps in this episode.

It's a quality game, but you can actually feel your soul leaving your body the dozenth time that stupid star sprite guy floats out to reiterate some basic point he just made two minutes prior.

Samurai Shodown captures the spirit of the older games, veering towards a mix of older and newer series entries. In terms of single-player, but it's a a far cry from Mortal Kombat 11 or even what recent games like Dead or Alive 6 have offered. On the multiplayer side, it offers a solid core, but not much else. It's nice to see SamSho back in the spotlight, but we wish it had a little more to keep us playing beyond just fighting other players.

The new additions to Catherine: Full Body are mostly a win, with sharper graphics, more complex puzzles (and better hand-holding for players intimidated by them), and more background on Katherine in particular. Where it lacks though is in the new romance route, which is awkwardly shoehorned in and feels too separated from the rest of the story. Still, for Catherine fans, Full Body has enough nightmare-inducing goodness to make it worth another round 'til last call.

While not the best game in either series, Puyo Puyo Tetris is still a great combination of two puzzle classics. Sometimes going together like peanut butter and jelly, other times more like peanut butter, and uh, something that doesn't go with peanut butter. All in all, a worthwhile addition to the slowly growing Switch library (or PS4 library, if spontaneous on-the-go multiplayer is not your jam).

Anno 1800 is a city-builder that caters to new players. It's gorgeous, has a campaign that's a huge tutorial, and players don't have to worry about sim aspects like traffic and power distribution. While there have been improvements to the Anno formula, some mechanics are simply not explained and the user interface is lacking for a game built so heavily around trade and economics. It's a good game for sure, but it needs some tweaks to make it fantastic.

An arcade perfect collection of twelve titles across Street Fighter's grand history. Unfortunately, it's missing some of the bells and whistles of their console counterparts and online play is a bit rough. Despite those problems, local play is a winner and the Museum is packed with content showing a real love for the franchise's history. If you know what you're getting into, Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection is a great compilation, just not a perfect one.

While the environment isn't as impressive as Morrowind or Summerset, Zenimax Online's storytelling is still impressive and entertaining. Unfortunately, the combat mechanics need a little more punch and the addition of dragons ends up be less impactful than advertised. It's a good expansion, but feels like a step down from the previous few.

DariusBurst Chronicles Saviours perfectly replicates the original arcade experience, and delivers a ton of old-school-feeling shoot 'em up content in the process. However, despite looking and sounding excellent, the action doesn't vary much, meaning that it will likely only appeal to hardcore fans of the series.

The PlayStation 4 version kicks the game up to 1080p and improves the graphics a bit, but it's not a big enough change to justify buying a PS4 on its own.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare steps it up in the pure game-feel department; its guns, its movement, its action: it all feels the best it's ever been. Even with thrilling new modes like Gunfight and the Counter-Strike-like Cyber Attack, the maps and Spec Ops end up disappointing. The campaign itself remains a return to form for the staple Call of Duty campaign, for better or worse. Modern Warfare as a whole ends up feeling like it has the foundation for something better than it is right now, and in the months to come, it very well might be. But for now, it's just merely almost there.

Capybara has designed a devastatingly complex game that manages to feel wholly intuitive and approachable in practice; I just wish it explored more of its potential. If ever a game begged for a sequel to fully realize a great concept, Super T.I.M.E. Force is it.

There's no denying that breaking down an arrogant witness, and ultimately winning a case in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney feel fantastic. Fitting in the right pieces of evidence to find contradictions is extremely satisfying, I just wish there was more depth, and a little more nuance, to both the witnesses you're breaking down, and the game at large.

A good game somewhat overshadowed by all the irritating nonsense we've come to expect from mobile gaming over the past few years.

Metro Exodus is a solid conclusion for a cult series that made its name in rough charm. The open world and stealth systems of the conclusion to the trilogy are largely missteps, but it’s when Metro Exodus returns to its horrific roots, with a bunch of caring comrades, that the game fires on all cylinders.

Rime is a beautiful, beautiful game that manages to feel remarkably empty, even in the face of its earnest attempts. The aesthetic that breathes life into the island of Rime feels a bit too familiar, but it doesn't dampen its vast, ever-photographable horizons. Nonetheless, Rime is a light third-person adventure game with quiet puzzle solving, in a year where we haven't had much of those, which alone makes it a worthwhile respite.

NHL 19 takes some interesting risks with World of Chel while bringing badly-needed improvements to the gameplay. Its modes are customarily solid, but the faster, tighter action on the ice is what makes it possible to recommend NHL 19 to newcomers and lapsed hockey fans alike.

Grim's lack of availability may have helped it achieve sainthood, so its baffling puzzles may comes as a shock to many. If you can tolerate frustration, though, Schafer's final LucasArts production provides one of the best adventure game stories ever crafted—just be sure to keep an FAQ nearby.

Madden 19 is a solid, if occasionally ragged, follow-up to last year's big transition to Frostbite. The improvements to the animation and franchise mode stand out, but Longshot: Homecoming feels like a step back from last year's ambitious introduction. The multitude of interesting but mostly subtle updates ultimately make this an entry that is primarily geared toward hardcore fans of the series.

The charming dungeon crawler builds itself around the chaos of dice. Choose one of six characters, each with their own unique skills and way utilize your rolls of the six-sided die. Combat is rather fun, the artwork feels like a pop-up book, and the electronic soundtrack will have you tapping your foot. Despite the characters and additional modes though, it doesn't feel like Dicey Dungeons expands upon its early hours of play enough. Still, it's an enjoyable roguelite dungeon crawler.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order comes painfully close to being the best action game of the year, but it ultimately falls short due to pacing problems and a host of technical issues. Still, this is the first step into a larger world for a franchise that has persistently struggled since its acquisition by EA.

Dungeon of the Endless is an intriguing mix of roguelike dungeon crawler and tower defense. Grab a crew of heroes, defend them with room modules, explore a lost dungeon, and find your way to the end. Like most roguelikes, success in the game is still heavily based on luck, but there's still a lot to love in Dungeon of the Endless.

Project Diva Mega Mix is a welcome return to Nintendo's portable platform for the rhythm game series. While it doesn't scale well to portable and its Joy-Con motion control mode is a dud, the main mode remains as brutally satisfying as ever. Whether a diehard Miku fan or just a rhythm game enthusiast, Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Mega Mix is yet another great entry in the series.

Best with four people and disastrous alone, Payday 2 is a co-op shooter that isn't without its faults. How much you relish the experience is going to be dependent on whether or not you can get the right mix of people involved and if such things are as much your Kryptonite as they are mine.

Valiant Hearts works from a novel concept, and is loaded with brilliant ideas — hell, it's great just to see a war from the perspective of a country other than America—but Ubisoft's lack of self-control ultimately makes it less impactful than it should have been. It's still a worthwhile experience, though it could have been so much better if Valiant Hearts left us wanting more.

Think of it like a Telltale adventure with a much better presentation. If you're looking for a deeper, more interactive title, this isn't it, but it does its best to make your choices feel meaningful. And once you've played Until Dawn, comparing your story with your friends' is pretty satisfying.

PES is what it is: a hardcore alternative to FIFA designed to appeal to true soccer simulation nuts. Secure in this identity, PES 2019 has achieved a level of quality that eluded the series back in the bad old days of the late 2000s. But alas, the next step remains elusive.

Graphically, Resident Evil 4 Ultimate HD Edition stands as the best port of Capcom's 2005 hit. It brings together all of the content found in earlier versions with new textures, all presented in 1080p (or above) and 60 FPS if your PC is strong enough. Unfortunately, Resident Evil 4's controller or mouse/keyboard options are a step back from the superior Wii Edition controls.

Mediatonic's Murder By Numbers combines visual novel storytelling with picross puzzling, and it makes the pairing feel just right. Now and then a huge grid to solve may slow your roll as you're edging closer to a big reveal in a case, but the puzzles themselves are always satisfying regardless. With four lengthy chapters, catchy music, and several charming characters in its cast, Murder By Numbers is an easy recommendation for anyone who likes either mysteries or picross, and you'll be eager for more of both once you're finished.

Resident Evil 3 finally repositions its place as not just a true sequel to Resident Evil 2, but as a bridge to Resident Evil 4, both in action and plot. While it streamlines the formula of Resident Evil 2 into something more linear, it's still the best way to dodge through Raccoon City with Jill and Carlos, even with Nemesis always on your tail and the occasional clunkiness here and there. With a breezy runtime, Resident Evil 3 is well worth revisiting. Just maybe not Resident Evil Resistance.

River City Girls is as bubbly as the pop song that soundtracks its intro cinematic would lead you to believe. With all-around excellent art direction, you'll be hard-pressed to find a game this year with more style and confidence than River City Girls. While the first few hours are a slog as you level up and learn the ropes, once your moveset grows bigger, any encounter is a blast full of combos, and yes, dabbing. Just be sure to bring a friend along for the ride, as it's much harder to brave alone.

Overland is a strange mix of stellar art direction, smart and simple design matched with often arbitrary difficulty. Even when I felt like I was playing at my smartest, it was easy to slip up in a single move and ruin a whole run, no matter if I spent 20 minutes or over an hour on it. The more I played, the more bored I got with the procedurally generated cycle. Surprises grew commonplace; fuel gathering grew tedious rather than just tense. And yet, I still found myself driven to rev up the engine another time at the end of a run and give it another go. Overland is bound to be a probable cult favorite among tactics enthusiasts, but as for recommending it for other curious eyes, I can't say I fully can.

What you're left with is a game that many players will get around 10-15 hours out of before being shut out behind a vicious skill wall. Until that point, every player will run into some amazing moments that beg to be shared with friends. Heat Signature is a machine for watercooler talk. And if you're up to the challenge, there's a mountain waiting to be surpassed here. I just wish there were a few tweaks that would allow Heat Signature's fun to continue on for everyone, not just the highest skilled folks among us.

BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle is a solid fighter.

Othercide mixes a mid-2000s Hot Topic aesthetic with tightly-designed tactics that work very well, even if it largely runs out of new ideas after the first few hours. It's more a proof-of-concept than anything, but it's smart and entertaining while it lasts.

Detroit: Become Human is still marred by some of the issues that plague previous Quantic Dream games. Rough, ham-fisted writing and story pacing that's thrown off at times by the playable sections. I'm also pretty sure that most folks are going to get one of the more unsatisfying endings their first time around. But I like the characters, which more than I could say for the last two games. And when I finished the game, I wanted to jump back in and try out some other choices. Quantic Dream is getting better, even if Detroit: Become Human not on par with some of the better visual novels out there.

A Way Out is a fun ride BECAUSE of its co-op shenanigans. While the story is nothing to marvel over, its characters blossom beyond their bare opening descriptions, making seeing their journey together through worthwhile. Plus, it's a good exercise in working together with someone, whether it's a loved one, a colleague, or a friend. You'll really hate (or love) them by the time the game is through. If nothing else, A Way Out will be remembered as a great excuse to test the strengths and weaknesses of all your relationships.

Vanquish is a fun, dumb game that feels good to play when you get into a zone. If you're a fan of Escape From New York or other B-grade action films, Vanquish will appeal to you as well. While I wish that Vanquish would let me fully indulge in the many joys the game has to offer, budget and time added roadblocks to the experience. For 20 dollars, I can certainly recommend this to new players or true fans of the original. But if you didn't like Vanquish the first go-around, there's not a lot here other than a prettier looking version of the same game from the previous generation consoles.

While Wooly World is mostly Yoshi's Island in a fuzzier package, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Its arts and crafts makeover may be mostly superficial, but by working with the parts of one of the world's greatest platformers, developer Good-Feel makes their recycling worthwhile.

Gundam Extreme Vs. Maxi Boost On brings the venerable arcade series to PlayStation 4 with a huge roster mobile suits, an expanded single-player component, and plenty of cosmetic unlockables. It feels like an odd anachronism in this day and age, but its strengths as a multiplayer game are real, even if it suffers a bit from its poor camera. If you like Gundam even a little bit, you owe it to yourself to at least give this game a shot.

Battlefield's traditional strengths remain firmly in place amid DICE's return to World War II: great graphics, audio, and a scope that few other games can equal. But it's a thinner package than usual, and the decision to hold important modes like Firestorm until 2019 feels like a crucial misstep. Battlefield 5 is a good shooter as it is, but we wouldn't blame you if you decided to wait until it's had some time to mature.

EA Canada has worked diligently to bring back almost all of the features that were missing last year, with Be a Pro and EASHL being notably improved. The presentation has also received a really nice bump, and the gameplay on the ice is smoother and more exciting than ever.

Indie games in the Metroidvania genre are pretty common, but Kunai manages to stands out with exceptionally fluid combat, a wonderful Game Boy Color aesthetic, and swinging around on your kunai. The swinging mechanic is the star of the show here, even if the design of your limited arsenal shows some clear thought went into making every weapon meaningful. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to figure out where you're supposed to go at times, backtracking in Kunai is a bit of a pain, and the level design doesn't offer as many branching paths as its competition. But it's worth playing through the game's short runtime and this is a great foundation for a sequel.

NBA 2K20's presentation is unparalleled, but beneath its shiny exterior are continued problems with its online infrastructure and some pretty odious microtransactions. The latter are a bit less punishing than last year, but the former is worse than ever, and it affects almost every aspect of the game. These elements, which seemingly come up every year, unfortunately overshadow what should be an amazing sports sim.

Life Is Strange 2 has a better core relationship at the heart of its game, but it fails them with the episodic adventure's at times boring, formulaic episode structure; something its predecessor did not suffer from. Some of the story beats are preachy and unearned. Where Life Is Strange 2 hits its stride is more a technical feat: in how its core relationship between brothers Sean and Daniel becomes a game mechanic in itself, and how all the choices you make shape Daniel as he grows up.

Does beauty alone justify a game? Can the novelty of swimming through majestic oceans teeming with life overcome an otherwise fairly by-the-numbers experience that never quite achieves the creative heights it so earnestly aspires to? I suppose that's down to the player, but as much as I wanted to love Abzû, the end result fell just short of brilliance. It's worth playing for the incredible presentation, but don't expect something profoundly new here.

Episode One: Awake of Before the Storm is a surprisingly promising entry for the short three-episode series. There's the right amount of callbacks to the series that made so many fans fall in love with Chloe and Max in the first place. While I still wish the dialogue wasn't as teenager cringe-y in a not-realistic way, there's far more of it this time around that plain isn't. Hell, even Chloe's eventual over-usage of "hell" is explained in a tongue-in-cheek nod to the future. For everyone who was worried about Before the Storm's authenticity under the reigns of a new developer: don't be.

Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX is, without question, the best version of Kingdom Hearts to date. But it also serves as an excellent reminder that the things we love aren't always built to last.

Despite an uneven final episode, the bond between Chloe and Rachel cements the surprising prequel, sometimes even soaring above the heights of the original game. It still has all the faults of Life Is Strange as a series, but its domestic focus helps it resonate even greater than its successor. If Rachel Amber is the Laura Palmer of Life Is Strange, then Before the Storm is her much-deserved Fire Walk With Me.

It's a shame that Namco-Bandai didn't decide to pair Symphonia with a Tales game much more worthy of the re-release treatment, because Tales of the New World is disposable at best. But if you still want to play one of the best installments of the series, and don't feel like digging out old hardware, Chronicles could be an ideal opportunity to revisit Tales' finest hour.

A bold experiment in marrying passive and interactive elements to create a narrative game, Quantum Break almost succeeds. It looks utterly stunning, and it's fun to play, but overall the game doesn't quite gel with its TV show-style episodes to elevate its experience into something new. What we're left with is an enjoyable game and a half-decent TV show that coexist together, but don't feel like they're fundamentally entwined.

Azure Striker Gunvolt looked like a second coming of Mega Man Zero. It's not, and that's no bad thing; it works on its own terms. However, between a lack of variety and some wild variances in difficulty, you get the impression that IntiCreates needed considerably more time and budget to invest in Gunvolt.

Arms has a lot to love, and unfortunately, a lot to forget too. After a year of planned updates, I imagine the Arms we see a year from now will be a drastically different game. A fuller one, at that. In the meantime, though, while it has potential with layers of depth, the core game simply doesn't have enough variety among its many arms and fighters to keep the experience feeling fresh for long.

NHL 17 has some real strengths, but it still feels like it hasn't quite made it out of the previous generation. The gameplay is strong but increasingly dated; the feature set feels haphazard, and there are lots of niggling quality-of-life issues. It feels more and more like the series is stuck in a rut, and it's hard to say where EA Canada should take it next. For now, NHL 17 is another decent outing, but the next step remains elusive.

There's scope for additions and improvements in future updates, of course, but right now Eldritch feels more like a game with a lot of potential than the next big thing in roguelike-inspired games -- a game worth playing, for sure, but one which could perhaps use a bit more time in the otherworldly oven.

While the core game has changed very little since its original appearance on Wii U a little more than a year ago, Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World giveth, and it taketh away. If you don't mind the visual downgrade and the loss of cooperative play, you'll probably enjoy the new additions on tap here (most of which, unsurprisingly, revolve around Yoshi's canine companion Poochy). At its heart, this is the best follow-up to Yoshi's Island to date, so it's absolutely worth your time if you missed it on Wii U.

XCOM: Chimera Squad retains much of what makes XCOM such a special tactics series, in the process adding in some genuine improvements to its already excellent formula. But these improvements are undermined by some strange art choices, as well as a general reluctance to maximize some of its bolder changes. All in all, an interesting experiment, but one that still has a ways to go before reaching its full potential.

While it still carries some common adventure game problems, Kathy Rain acts as a nice update to the genre that still looks like a product of the '90s. Adventure game veterans and newcomers should find a lot to love with this one.

NHL 20 isn't a huge update over last year's version, and its graphics continue to lag behind the competition. Still, it brings with it plenty of solid refinements, and its franchise mode continues to stand out as a strength. Returning players may be disappointed by this year's features, but if you're a hockey fan who hasn't picked up the series in a while, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Aviary Attorney might look like nothing more than a silly riff on Ace Attorney, but thankfully, there's a lot more to it than that. The era-appropriate illustrations and music set the perfect atmosphere, while the short cases with multiple endings provide a great incentive to jump back in and shoot for happier resolutions. Aviary Attorney doesn't quite hit the heights of Capcom's own series, but it's still a fine way to kill an afternoon.

Destiny feels like it wasn't ready, but it was shipped anyway. It tantalizes with glimpses of brilliance, but then confounds with clunky design decisions and baffling oversights.

I liked Tacoma though, even with its fumbles. I felt more engaged watching (and rewinding, pausing, fast-forwarding) how things played out than I had in a lot of games like it. That's likely because it's the rare game where the player is in direct control of what, when, and how they see everything.

While its overly long story mode amounts to a tragic waste of resources, Persona 4: Dancing All Night's strongest qualities can be found in just how well the series' pop art aesthetic meshes with the rhythm game genre. This might not be the most complex or inspired take on rhythm games to date, but DAN certainly knows how to have a good time.

Master x Master is a damned good time. It's not the best at any one thing, but it offers such a variety that you can't help but find something to enjoy.

If you pick up Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition, know that you're essentially getting a prettier version of a 2008 experience. That may sound extremely obvious, but, over the last seven years, character action games have changed greatly, making some of DMC4's choices feel absolutely dated.

Sadly, Strider falls somewhat short of the original. Despite its failings, though, it manages to be the best Strider game that old coin-op. With a little more polish and creativity, this could be the start of something great.

This debut episode of the final season of Telltale’s The Walking Dead is impressive, if a little formulaic.

Pokken Tournament is fun for a bit, but I'm not convinced that it has any staying power as a fighting game. It's further hurt by its thin single-player mode and limited roster, which hurts its potential with casual fans. As attractive and faithful to the license as it is, it has plenty of room for improvement. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a sequel.