It's a great online experience, and it's a lot of fun to play a hidden gem from the past.

Persona 3 does the franchise proud. The only "problem" that might make someone think twice about jumping in is the focus on character interaction over combat, but if that isn't a problem for you, you'll enjoy Persona 3 a lot.

Paranormasight: The Mermaid's Curse is a sequel that is firing on all cylinders. While not as overtly horrific as the first game, it nonetheless shows that the developers have a clear understanding of what did and didn't work in The Seven Mysteries and still have plenty of ideas about how to make things compelling. An excellent game for those who've played the original and those who are new to the series, The Mermaid's Curse is well worth a shot.

After all this time, our opinion of The Flame in the Flood hasn't changed. The presentation is beautiful, and the approach to survival remains unique because of the lack of a permanent home. The lack of combat means you can't make it on brute strength alone, and the many roguelike elements ensure that every playthrough is just as tough as the last. The Flame in the Flood remains one of the better survival games on the platform today.

Not exceedingly pretty, nor does it find itself being extremely innovative on the inside. What it does do is present an extremely tight story – the second half of a story, even, that manages to maintain the level presented by the original after throwing a World Series-grade curveball right into the player's mouth.

Overall, Thronebreaker is a revolutionary game within the CCG genre, and I hope other companies take note. With a 40-hour story to support an engaging card game, there's nothing else quite like it, and its unique nature is to its overall benefit. It's made me realize how much I can and do enjoy card games when they're done right.

The Talos Principle can easily be called the next big puzzle game in the same vein as Portal.

Instead of brainstorming about fun things and pulling a few ideas out of a hat, the developers seem to have taken the entire hat, created an MMO around it, and also given you the option to dye and customize the hat. I imagine this feeling will lessen when I reach the endgame, but that's a whole new kettle of worms.

t's been over a decade since Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective came out, and the game remains as charming and delightful as the day it was released. The HD remake does a fantastic job of updating the title for modern displays without losing the style that made it so engrossing in the first place. When the biggest flaw is that I wish there was more of it, that says a lot about its quality. It's weird, it's silly, and it has the best darn Pomeranian in video games. If you like the Ace Attorney games or colorful puzzle titles, you owe it to yourself to give Ghost Trick a try. Now if we could just get a sequel ....

Bastion is a solid action-RPG that is put over the edge by its unique and entrancing concept.

Disc Room runs with its easy-to-understand premise almost perfectly, so everyone can easily figure out the basics. The accessibility means that the initial ending can be seen by those who aren't deterred by constant failure. The puzzles related to some of the challenges are brain-teasers, and the simple analog stick and one-button controls are very responsive, providing more incentive for players to dig deeper into the game after the credits roll. Give Disc Room a try, unless you don't enjoy the evasive nature of bullet hell shooters.

As much as I enjoyed Bayonetta 3, Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon feels like the game that the team wanted to make. There's a level of raw love and care in this game that I associate with Platinum's best, and it made me smile as much as Wonderful 101 and Okami did. It's good enough that I can recommend it to people who aren't fans of the Bayonetta franchise. While it has a lot of story and gameplay callbacks, it stands well enough on its own merits that it can easily be enjoyed by those who couldn't get into Bayonetta.

TwistedPixel's impassioned effort succeeds because they overlooked few details in production, properly balanced gameplay even though it means you won't see much of The Gunstringer at Major League Gaming events, and, most importantly, kept their ambitions for the game within the scope of Kinect's limitations.

The way the missions unfold within the VR exercise really gives you a sense that you're playing a game that isn't Fallout, yet it's using the exact same engine.

All told, Fight Night Round 4 is a solid game, and it's more than just a rebranding of the franchise.

I really enjoyed this game, as evidenced by the 40 hours I spent playing it in the first 5 days I had it.

Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir takes a good game and makes it incrementally better. The tweaks to the overall title, including better inventory management and more emphasis on combat, opens it up to those who weren't enamored with the original. The option is there for those who want to play it as it was originally intended. It provides lots of gameplay time, which is something of a rarity in console titles nowadays, though there will be a few who take offense to the fact that a good chunk of content is recycled a few times. It does all this with a presentation that still manages to impress after all these years.

To put it bluntly, Zack and Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure is one of the best games out for the Wii, and any gamers who own Nintendo's new system owe it to themselves to at least give this title a try, if not a buy.

If you love James Bond movies, or Austin Powers, or any of those great gadgets-girls-and-guns flicks, this game will put you right there in the mix. If you like games that have intellect rooming side-by-side with action, you’ll think your fingers off here...This game could be described as "crack on a CD!"

Whereas Shank and Shank 2 seemed to succeed on brute force, Mark of the Ninja feels like a more nuanced affair. All of the Klei hallmarks are here, and the polish has been turned up to 11. A few minor issues aside, there is much to like here.

It may be short, but it is fun and challenging enough that you'll end up replaying it over and over, especially with the addition of challenges and Downloadable Content. Mega Man 9 isn't just a cheap attempt to cash in on nostalgia … it is a new Mega Man game, and one can only hope that Capcom's inevitable future attempts at 8-bit revivals are even half as successful.

Octopath Traveler II is a case of, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Almost everything is very similar to the first game, but there's more content, and the features are smoother. There are a number of areas where the developers clearly had more confidence than they had in the original Octopath. I loved the first game, and I found the second to be a more enjoyable experience in pretty much every way. It's a charming, delightful, and incredibly fun JRPG experience that fans of old-school RPGs should relish.

Steamworld Heist 2 is a full-on sequel to the first title. Overall, it's better in every way that matters: more weapons, more skills, more enemy types, more gameplay, and a lot of adjustments that make the game more fun to play. Only the new world map feels more like a lateral move than an actual upgrade, but it doesn't get in the way of the quality of the rest of the game. Steamworld's streak of excellent titles continues, and it makes me excited to see what the development team comes up with next.

Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town is the ideal Story of Seasons experience. It may lack some of the unique ideas from later games in the franchise, but it captures the fun of farming simulators. It can be repetitive and too easy to earn money, but you'll hours spending hours exploring mines and perfecting your crops. Additionally, the Switch version retains the portability of the original GBA title, so FoMT is an excellent Story of Seasons experience for newcomers and long-term fans alike.

FIFA Soccer 12 is rich with fathoms of deep features, and the well-designed improvements to both presentation and gameplay make it a worthy upgrade for owners of last year's edition.

Combining the best elements of arcade-style gaming, Velocity 2X feels like a game with the soul of the '90s and the tech of the current generation. As the saying goes, Velocity 2X is easy to learn and difficult to master.

Untitled Goose Game is a gem that hits all the right marks. There's some real appeal in using an otherwise innocuous animal sowing chaos in a sleepy village, and it helps that the results aren't violent at all. The game's short length keeps the experience from wearing thin, but there's enough here to keep you busy. With a pleasant presentation, Untitled Goose Game is a title where you'll both cherish the initial experience and enjoy showing it off to friends to see their reactions.

Overall, Divinity: Original Sin II is still an excellent RPG experience that uses intuitive mechanics and player choice to an incredible degree to make every encounter challenging and interesting. Divinity II is a beast of an RPG that does many different things incredibly well. It's not perfect from a technical standpoint, and fights and leveling can be frustrating at times, but these are minor quibbles when compared to all of the good stuff that's in the game and works well. If you're in the market for a new RPG with interesting storytelling and an appropriate amount of freedom, make Divinity II your next adventure.