Pragmata is a fantastic new IP that effortlessly blends its unique combat and emotional character building into one of the year’s best stories. Even if you aren’t a parent, the game’s beautiful narrative will grab its hooks into you. This is easily one of Capcom’s best original IPs in years, and is a game sci-fi fans shouldn’t miss out on. More importantly though, Pragmata is just a ton of fun. The game’s real-time hacking mechanic is a killer feature that I hope more studio’s take inspiration from.

StarVaders is an interesting and engaging take on deckbuilding roguelikes. I know we’ve been getting a lot of these recently, but this is a game that stands near the top of the genre and is a worthwhile addition to your library. [Highly Recommended]

I like how funny the writing is, especially for the battle droids, who are filled with seemingly endless one-liners mulling over their cursed existence. I like how naturalistic the platforming is, as the game makes a genuine attempt to hide its exploration tells in the environment, rather than spilling yellow paint everywhere. And I always like parrying an enemy four times in a row, breaking their stamina, and going to town with a goddamn glowing energy sword.

As fun as it is to be Miles, to be the geeky black superhero I have always wanted to exist, the game cannot reconcile the differences between its New York and the one I see outside my window. That failure would be understandable, but what is unforgivable is that it does not even make the attempt.

Crisp and colorful with an energetic EDM soundtrack, Arkanoid vs. Space Invaders is a fizzy, addictive treat—like a bag of cola bottles but with slightly more nutritional value, and all for roughly the price of a London pint.

Maybe it’s not shocking that Tunic took me away from Elden Ring. One has you running around as a cute fox trying to save the world, even if you don’t know why. The other has you running around, potentially with a cute fox mask on, trying to save the world, even if you don’t know why. What they have in common is rewarding players for curiosity. Each game goes about it in a different way, but the conclusion is the same: the reward is worth the effort.

A bonkers survival sim where watching things fall apart is half the fun.

At this point, I don’t want anyone telling me what this system can’t do. I’ve seen it. I’ve played it. And Cyberpunk 2077 remains one of the best games of the last 10 years. From its main story with Keanu Reeves’ incredible performance, to its fleshed-out side stories, to Idris Elba’s performance in “Phantom Liberty.” Every piece of this game is special. And now, I can take it with me wherever I go. [Best In Its Class]

I still want to explore that world, and maybe as I do more Adventures and Lost Sectors I'll be able to do so, but in its main campaign Destiny 2 is stubbornly, resolutely avoidant of its own themes and contradictions. It stirs from its complacency just a bit at the start, only to rock itself back to sleep listening to the percussive rhythms of combat.

It's the perfect game to kind of zone out with (especially in the literal Zone challenges, which are abstract, light-shifting exercises in going fast and not hitting barriers), to enjoy the music and visuals and feel your way around the game, via time trial, or traditional race (full of deadly power-ups and just a taste of Mario Kart-style shenanigans), or any number of challenges in the solo modes.

Importantly, picking a difficulty is not a binary and permanent choice. You can swap between these modes at any time, for any reason, within the same save. Nothing changes except how the game handles health and currency distribution. (You get plenty of coins. It’s fine.) When you finish a stage on the easier mode, the game doesn’t brand it with an “easy” tag, like a badge of shame that you need to overcome another time. You beat the level! Hooray! This is fantastic, because it means my daughter and I can make progress in different ways.

Moss is a terrific example of what happens when VR, as a medium, begins to find its own language of expression, both in art and design. It’s a game that, when asked for words to describe it, magic comes to mind.

What elevates Outer Wilds is how it confronts this tension between practicality and contemplation. Your exploration rarely feels heroic. In fact, it is often melancholic. There are moments of shout-worthy victory, sure. But as you piece together the history of your little star system, it becomes clear that there are no easy answers.

I'm here to tell you Kingdom Battle is a hell of a game, a strategy RPG with more in common with Fire Emblem than XCOM, one that wraps a satisfying turn-based combat game—featuring surprising depth to its systems and mechanics—in the approachable accessibility that's come to define modern Nintendo games...I'm as shocked as you are, but more than 10 hours later, I can't put the game down.

It’s a good racing game, but it’s a great game about being an F1 driver, and all the intangibles that they have to put on the balance sheet.

Another terrific cover shooter, but sadly let down by the tired open world elements that are shoehorned into it.

It has depth if you want to find it, but you can also mash away for hours and still do some pretty sweet combos. You could climb the ranked ladder, contesting the world’s best, or just wander the map of Libra of Soul, finding more fights and challenges. Soulcalibur VI is like fighting game comfort food for me, and really, I’m just happy to have a good one around again.

There is a distinctly nostalgic feeling to playing Wargroove. It reminds me of the Game Boy Advance, and my first brushes with Advance Wars, a series that made turn-based strategy both accessible and difficult.

While I do wish that you could try to escape from your pursuers, rather than it being an insta-fail, Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream is an excellent addition to the stealth genre. If you’ve been craving something new, don’t overlook this one. It’s far too good to ignore. [Best in Class]

So many video games frustratingly outstay their welcome, dragging out once-novel ideas in service of hitting an arbitrary amount of gameplay time, because the too-ravenous gaming audience frequently correlates game length with quality. It's refreshing, then, when a game is careful and deliberate about its ideas, and exits stage left when it's exhausted them, leaving you simultaneously desperate for more but buzzing over the limited time spent in that world.

As the credits rolled on Resident Evil Village, I was struck by just how much of the back quarter of the game felt like a desperate attempt to work Ethan Winters and his arc into the greater Resident Evil narrative. This, much more than its action emphasis, is what is frustrating about Village. For the second game in a row, Resident Evil has shown that it has outgrown its conventions, that it can create fresh horrors in new places. And still, everything must come crashing to a halt so that the curtain can be pulled back on the same threadbare wizard we've seen for 25 years.

Thimbleweed Park's puzzles are just fine as they are...By which I mean they are enjoyably frustrating, comfortably confusing—echoes of the point-and-click past. Mercifully, they're articulated in such a fashion that, again, once you begin to acknowledge the mechanics made available to you, key amongst them character swapping on the fly, they begin to sing. And they really are like songs, after a fashion, constituents of an arrangement fractured by design, until such a time that a third party, the player, can piece them back together and drink in the singular melodies.

The gameplay is a classic point-and-click adventure, but Mick Carter talks to you throughout in that neo-noir style. Graphically, The Drifter stands out with its incredibly detailed pixel art style. It’s perfect for this story and style of play because it makes you pay attention to every aspect of the environment to solve a puzzle. [Highly Recommended]

Ever listened to an album and let your imagination wander? That's what Sayonara Wild Hearts is like...All I want to do, even as I write this, is play Sayonara Wild Hearts again, and I don’t ever play games again.

An uncomfortable and fascinating exploration of confession and forged intimacy.

A genuinely eerie and disorienting shooter that is sometimes overstuffed with ideas and gags.

It’s a game where so many individual components feel really good, but it’s all dropped into outdated structure.

Satisfying. It feels good to look at, it feels good to play, and it functions as a justification for Sony's experiments with DualSense. Whether those experiments pan out is somewhat out of Sony's hands, but Astro's Playroom offers a roadmap for how other developers could take advantage of it. If no one else does—well, at least we'll have Astro's Playroom. And Astro's Playroom is pretty damn good.