Despite fumbles with its new melee combat and difficulty balancing, Control Resonant's storytelling, world, and bizarre quests kept me eager to explore its distorted New York.
Simon Ordell’s journey through the Scottish town of St. Amelia in 1996 is not without its shortcomings, but the experience is an affecting one buoyed by the first-person perspective.
Building on the already-great remake of the first game, Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter masterfully updates the gameplay and timeless story, adding up to what is now the Trails series’ defining entry, and one of the best RPGs of the year.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is unlikely to receive any nominations for its storytelling, but it's a crowd-pleasing continuation of the joyful experience of its predecessor.
The goofy angle and unexpected production values help Darwin feel different, but frequent design annoyances and over reliance on bland stealth gameplay prevent it from rising to the top.
Bungie’s excellent audio design and gunplay, paired with increasingly complicated level design borrowing from over a decade of expertise designing Destiny raids coalesce into something special. Marathon is proof Bungie is still at the top of its game.
Much like a perennial contender, even when it’s not the best the franchise has looked, MLB The Show 26 is once again lined up for another winning season.
Crimson Desert is a beautiful, exploration-rich open-world game that’s a clear technological achievement, hampered by a cornucopia of little frustrations and a stark lack of narrative depth.
Fatal Frame II is frightening with its near-constant jump scares, oppressive atmosphere, difficult enemies, and arguably too much darkness. But more so than fear, the emotion I frequently grappled with was frustration.
Tribute has become skilled at creating visually nostalgic beat ‘em ups, and its return to the Scott Pilgrim franchise is no exception. It is, however, light on surprises or mechanical innovation.
Despite minor complaints, Pokémon Pokopia sticks out as one of the best examples of a third-party developer using the Pokémon license to the fullest extent possible.
Controlling Kratos, fighting, and exploring just isn’t particularly fun on a basic level. A just below perfunctory genre experience alongside characters and in a setting I admit I like spending time with.
Nioh 3's consistently rewarding approach to open-world design, combined with its entertaining Ninja gameplay style, cements it as the best entry in the franchise.
