Ubisoft created an instant classic with Immortals Fenyx Rising, and I'm eager to see where the franchise goes from here. Its breathtaking art style and landscapes are complemented by fun combat and thoughtful puzzles. While the story itself isn't anything special, the humor imbued within each conversation makes it memorable.

Don't Nod has carefully crafted a heartwarming tale of ghost hunting lovers that breaks down the need for human connection and forces us to grapple with hypocrisy, sacrifices, and the pain of loss. Despite its heavy subject matter, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden still manages to just be a fun action RPG experience, though its message will continue to haunt me long after the console is shut off.

A Plague Tale: Innocence is a superb stealth adventure with excellent gameplay, gorgeous presentation, and a fantastic story that shows how the worst of what the world can throw at humanity can bring out the worst of it.

Antab's GRIDD: Retroenhanced is a solid rail shooter with slick retro-esque visuals and a catchy synthwave soundtrack from Dream Fiend. Rail shooters are slightly limited compared to traditional shmups and twin-stick shooters, but they certainly provide a feel all their own. GRIDD could benefit from a bit more content and polish. Still, it should easily appeal to fans of rail shooters like Starfox and Panzer Dragoon.

Sniper Elite's fourth installment propels the series into the big leagues for the first time, and Rebellion deserves every shred of praise.

In the end, I think you'll love this game if you're a tactics fan and you enjoy some casual strategy focus on the side. If you're a massive strategy fan, though, this game will likely disappoint you.

Despite the performance issues, Subnautica is definitely a title that you shouldn't sleep on. The open world exploration and survival mechanics are on point, and the world is massive, deep, and rich in detail; it's just a shame that it's being held back a little bit by problems with how it runs.

Ultimately, Black Myth: Wukong is a very solid action RPG, complete with thrilling cinematic boss fights, diverse, gorgeously rendered locales, a rich combat system replete with build options, and a well-told story. However, it holds itself back with bland level design and disappointing enemy variety, along with a superfluous gear system and a few noteworthy performance issues.

A game like Senua's Saga: Hellblade II can only be the result of years of passion and talent, captivating you with its unbelievable visuals, impeccable audio design, and powerful thought-provoking narrative. It's a veritable masterpiece, but it's just shy of perfection thanks to an average PC port and some minor criticisms.

Modern Warfare is an excellent addition to the Call of Duty franchise. The story felt like a serialized TV show, and most of the multiplayer action is fun. There are few places where the game falls, but not enough for me not to recommend it.

Despite some issues with polish in the late-game cinematics and an underdeveloped progression system, Gears Tactics remains an incredibly fun first-effort in what could easily evolve to be a core part of the Gears of War universe. It was awesome seeing the Locust again from another perspective, complete with one of the better villains we've seen from the franchise in recent years. The combat is bloody and visceral, rewarding thoughtful aggression and reactive play, as you'll respond to various types of threats, including a few new ones from Ukkon's genetically-enhanced monster menagerie. Gears Tactics is tied together nicely with some epic set-pieces, stunning, well-optimized visuals, and hey, it's on Xbox Game Pass for PC, which in some ways makes it a no-brainer to at least try. While I think this one could have done a lot more to evolve its macro-level progression layer, the minute-to-minute combat is some of the best I've experienced in the genre.

MLB The Show 22 continues to improve in small, key ways, and with major changes to some of the biggest modes in the game, it's another great entry in the series.

Garden Warfare 2 makes up for most of its predecessor's shortcomings. With Solo Quests, solo and split-screen support for more modes, new characters, and the expansive Backyard Battlegrounds hub world, this sequel feels like the full-sized game that fans always wanted.

Pac-Man 256 is an excellent take on Pac-Man that nearly rivals the Pac-Man Championship Edition games in quality. It looks and plays great, with cool power-ups, several fun visual themes to choose from, and high-quality co-op.

Darksiders: Warmastered Edition is a facelifted update on a last-gen hack-and-slash favorite. While the updated graphics to add to the flair of the game, it's repetitive and simplistic gameplay may be a turn off for some gamers. If you enjoyed the original on Xbox 360, then this is a great game to play for nostalgia value.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy isn't a serious experience, but it'll definitely get you thinking about the cases. It's a phenomenal puzzle game, and given the fact that the Xbox One port is this polished, I can't recommend it enough. You're getting hours and hours worth of content that will keep you coming back for more.

Alan Wake Remastered compiles a polished compilation of the original game and its DLC. A few more extras would've been nice but this is the best way to play through Remedy's horror adventure.

Amnesia: Rebirth is a wildly ambitious horror title that seeks to be standalone and to answer a lot of of questions posed in The Dark Descent. It's gruesome in its style and tragic in its story, and whether the pain will be worth it is up to you.

As both a solid local multiplayer twin-stick shooter and a Roguelike game, NeuroVoider is a good buy at $13.99.

Its puzzles are both simple and clever, opening it up to a wider audience, but switching between characters in order to use different abilities tends to be more frustrating than not.

On one hand I loved Virginia — it was quirky and weird; and on the other, I just felt frustrated that I still didn't know what it was all about by the end of multiple plays. There isn't even much to say negatively about it -- it plays fine, if not the camera by default is a little over-sensitive, but this is easily remedied.

NBA 2K23 is a step up for the NBA 2K series as far as gameplay and in-game elements go, and the new additions to modes like MyNBA and MyTeam help the game modes feel less stale as a whole. However, the game's incredibly heavy reliance on microtransactions continues to hold back what is otherwise an incredible sports game.

Avowed takes us back to the world of Eora from Pillars of Eternity, and The Living Lands is the most eccentric, colorful, and wild adventure yet. Obsidian Entertainment has done a wonderful job capturing the "magic" of RPGs like Skyrim that makes exploring every crevice fun, and immersing yourself in this world is stupendously easy. You can still find the limits of this more focused RPG, though, and performance isn't flawless, even on Xbox Series X.

The only thing you could possibly want that's not found here is more story. Besides the intro, ending, and new shopkeepers' dialog, there really isn't any narrative. It's just one big world filled with exploration, challenges, and platforming goodness. The goal of this remake is to let players jump between new and old at any time, so extra cinematics would gum up the work anyway.

Remnant 2 delivers a well-deserved sequel that delivers on making every aspect of the original game all the better. While the story is serviceable at best, and performance issues hold it back from being truly legendary, it's an absolute must for fans of the genre.

The Artful Escape has been in the works since around 2015, and the effort shows. The game is precise in what it wants to portray and doesn't overstay its welcome. It tells a contained story about one guy, his famous uncle, and the whole of the cosmos, and does it well. It's also a story about the power of music, the art of creating, and the journey to becoming your true self. You can take what you want from it, make it one of your best comfort games if you want, but at the very least, it's a cool game to look at. It'll look great as one of the best Xbox games joining Xbox Game Pass this month.

While Valfaris is in many ways an excellent game, it's held back by some significant design flaws and technical problems.

Dragon's Dogma is a role-playing game that deserves to be appreciated. With so much content and depth, Dark Arisen is just as impressive as ever in the gameplay department. Few would've expected a Japanese developer like Capcom to release a "Western-style" action-RPG that could hold its own against the Elder Scrolls and Witcher series, but that's exactly what happened.