Temtem has a lot of content to crawl through and it makes for a great MMO. Even if it’s not the most charming monster collecting game, it’s certainly one of the best I’ve seen from a western developer yet.

Though my thoughts on Silver Star Story aren’t necessarily the best, LUNAR 2: Eternal Blue does a lot of heavy lifting as the remaster work does for me. Both games’ Remastered modes have had a lot of care put into them to make them look good on modern display, as best as you can get when working with native code really. LUNAR Remastered Collection is a set of games I think can be enjoyed by anybody, particularly those who have a love for old-school, adventure-focused anime and JRPGs alike.

An incredible, nigh-on herculean effort from a very small team, developers Microbird Games have made something very special in Dungeons of Hinterberg. In my 20 or so hours exploring, I found a successful medley of genres with enjoyable combat and a variety of gameplay mechanics resulting in something uniquely memorable. Throw in a whole heap of imaginative puzzling and level design, great characters, and a surprisingly engaging plot to boot, and I can’t help but give this vacation spot very high marks indeed. I thoroughly enjoyed my ‘slay’.

Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed is an excellent remaster of one of the Wii’s best games. It fixes its shortcomings, adds to it with quality-of-life changes, and most importantly makes it available to all on modern platforms. Rebrushed does a good job being both a 3D platformer and a narrative driven-adventure title, sprinkled in with a lot of love for old Disney animation—a fun, unique adventure game for all.

Indika is an odd, wonderful title. Mixing 3D photo-realistic art with 2D-pixel graphics makes some bold choices. Excellent writing and voice acting help carry mediocre gameplay and created an experience I will never forget.

Priced at $30 and only lasting two or three hours I wouldn’t normally recommend the game unless it was something unique and special. As a father of two, this story hit me in a way that few others have, though. If you’re looking for a game that is gorgeous, heartbreaking, and that tackles the most serious issue our and future generations will face then Endling – Extinction is Forever deserves your attention.

Them’s Fightin’ Herds is a fantastic value for its price. Boasting great network play and a solid amount of offline content with more story mode updates and a season pass of new characters on the way. I love the art direction and the characters, who are voiced by some awesome talent and have bits and pieces of personality from the show it took inspiration from, but still having enough to differentiate themselves by game mechanics and aesthetics. Oh, and I love the music—just the right amount of synth and instrumentation that match their stages really well.

It’s a comprehensive and entertaining package. The story is a bit basic overall but features well-written, snappy dialogue. Combat is solid and making your ultimate gear setup never got old, and the graphics are gorgeous. Despite their flaming red hair, these twins are full of (Young) Soul(s).

As the credits rolled, I found myself reflecting on companionship and what shared experiences mean to me personally. How many games can do that to a player?

Darkest Dungeon 2 is a beautiful, great-sounding, difficult, and addictive roguelike. If you’re into the genre then it’s an easy recommendation on whatever platform you prefer. It works great with a controller and can last 100+ hours if you want to see everything.

Overall the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection is a great kit of two very fun adventure titles. Alongside new quality-of-life features and development documents on characters and environments, this collection finally completes the series’ transition to modern platforms and brings an untranslated game westward for the first time. Highly recommended for Ace Attorney fans who’ve never played these games before.

UFC 5 is fun to play, looks great, has a ton of fighters, though the career mode is a glorified tutorial. If you love the sport this seems like the best one yet, and should be well worth checking out.

The First Berserker: Khazan wears its inspiration on its sleeve and lives up to those past titles. It’s a gorgeous, brutal action-focused Soulslike that brings the DFO universe into an incredibly dark place. At least at launch, this is one of the hardest games I have played recently. I blasted through Elden Ring and its DLC with far less of an issue than I did here. It’s Sekiro levels of ‘git gud’ and god damn if it isn’t fun doing so.

It’s fair to say I really enjoyed Keeper. It stuck it’s hooks into me and didn’t let go, right up until the moment I rolled credits. I laughed, I gasped in shock, and I beamed as brilliantly as a lighthouse. Double Fine have made a lovely game here, one that throws in the sorts of surprises that only this medium can achieve.

WWE 2K23 continues the series’ upwards trajectory. It’s a massive package full of different things to do. The roster is enormous, the microtransactions seem egregious in familiar “yearly sports title ways”, and the in-ring action almost nails riding the line between sports sim and scripted tv show. There is a love of the genre on display here and for any major or minor fan of sports entertainment, this year’s entry is worth checking out.

Cursed to Golf is charming, smart, sounds and plays great, and is full of heart. It mashes up a side-scrolling arcade golf game with roguelike mechanics in a fresh and exciting way. At only $20 US at launch, I think it’s well worth a purchase if anything you’ve seen here has you intrigued. This is one curse that’s well worth the cost.

Although there were aspects of this game that I had a hard time vibing with, overall, I think this is a fun game if you’re in the mood for some 90’s 90s-style survival horror. And maybe if I was simply in the mood for this type of game, I would have enjoyed it more. It certainly isn’t a bad game, and I hope no one has that takeaway from my review. I think anyone who likes this style of game should absolutely check it out!

Yakuza Kiwami 3 is a mostly competent remake of an original that needed an update. The combat and upgrade changes are welcome, though those in the ending and its attempt to justify the expansion are not. If you’re a longtime fan of the series, there may be enough here to drive you mad. If you’re a lesser fan like me or brand new to it all, there’s enough fun to be had here that it’s worth checking out.

Mediterranea Inferno is an excellent contemporary visual novel that will connect to you even through its eccentricities. A gorgeous presentation along with a mash of personal struggle grounded in Italian culture and LGBT-positive themes.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins is a brilliant reboot of the series. Playing as a central character instead of hopping between classic heroes works. It looks damned good most of the time, sounds great, and features an excellent mix of group and single-fighter combat. For those new or returning to the series you’ll find dozens of hours of combative bliss.

I enjoyed my time with Discounty quite a bit, in part thanks to the pacing of the game’s narrative beats and because I can run a store from the comfort of my home. The town of Blomkest is in desperate need of a hero, and it’s got to be you that shines a light on the smog encroaching upon this secluded bit of land.

It's not all that unique, with games like BPM: Bullets Per Minute already "inventing" some of these concepts, but the quality is undeniable, and FPS fans should not skip this one for sure. Especially since it's launching day one into Xbox Game Pass.

Top-tier movement and combat elevate a decent story into something worth your time.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is an epic ass-kicking time. Featuring ridiculously cool characters, stunning music, and a deeply engaging combat system, this one is an easy recommendation for purchase or downloading on Game Pass.

Gamers who have been craving more mascot platformers should definitely give the Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series a shot. It’s a great little time capsule to a period where this was one of the dominant genres in gaming, in a franchise that I feel never got the recognition it truly deserved.

Without a doubt, this is the best Dark Anthology game so far and a true climax to season one. Not only fans of the series but fans of the genre will love playing this. The acting, visual detail, sound design and writing could not be bettered here. Series mechanics have not only been improved but also extended delivering an extra level of depth to a fantastic experience. In short developer, Supermassive Games has delivered a horror classic that will keep players on the edge of their seats for hours.

Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 – Turbocharged is an extremely safe, but ultimately very fun sequel. The new story mode doesn’t change the formula, but the new game modes, the tons of content and customization on top of an improved core gameplay make this an exhilarating racer for young and old.

Despite a handful of bizarre small changes from the original games, Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy is still quite a riot. Naughty Dog’s iconic “on-rails” 3D platformers, remade from the ground up by Vicarious Visions, is still a lot of fun, with the main character’s iconic spins making for what is still a quite fresh experience that differentiates itself from other titles in the genre. With tons of content and a massive amount of extremely hard challenges to aim for in the search of that elusive 100% completion (and beyond), this is one of those platformers that could keep you coming back for a while – making this a great addition to Game Pass (also on PC and cloud – the first Activision-published game to be playable via cloud on Game Pass).