Forge of the Chaos Dwarfs is a must-buy DLC for any fans of strategy games looking to challenge themselves, but the difficulty and higher price tag should be noted.
Motive Studios delivers a remake that isn't just a faithful adaption of Dead Space for the modern age, but a love letter to the entire franchise. New narrative tweaks, the addition of a talking protagonist, and open exploration across the ship add up to a stellar horror experience.
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide has a deeply satisfying core loop, with amazingly faithful art direction and audio. There's a wide variety of optimization and server problems right now however, so the technical side of the experience may vary wildly.
Striking Distance Studios' debut title is a horror game that delivers a high-quality experience all the way through. It won't sway anyone new to scares and frights, but fans of the genre should make this a priority.
INTERIOR/NIGHT's debut drama swings boldly, and it hits far more often than it misses. If you're looking for a choose-your-own-adventure story that isn't afraid to take some risks, give it a shot.
The newest expansion for ZeniMax Online Studios' role-playing experience provides a great experience unlike anything in the game so far. There's plenty to do and enjoy, even if it doesn't explore certain political aspects as heavily as it could have.
New features, factions, and gameplay options make Total War: Warhammer 3 a must-play strategy game. Lacking blood at launch was expected, but still disappointing.
Call of Duty: Vanguard's campaign and multiplayer are serviceable enough, but nothing exceptional for the series, while Zombies is disappointingly limited in scope and ideas.
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.
With its striking art direction, haunting soundtrack and focus on exploration, Sable is a great journey about understanding yourself. Frequent stuttering and some bugs bring the experience down though.
The final DLC for Doom Eternal was worth the wait, providing some gorgeous new locations and challenging fights worthy of concluding the Slayer's saga. However, they won't let you pilot the big mechs, and that's disappointing.
If you liked the main campaign of Gears 5, then Gears 5: Hivebusters brings even more to enjoy. Fast action is offset by surprisingly introspective character development, all in a jaw-droppingly gorgeous jungle setting.
The campaign brings enjoyable new mechanics to the formula but multiplayer and Zombies both fall short of expectations and needed performance, with weaker gunplay and an unstable framerate respectively.
Little Hope delivers solid scares and weaves a clever tale that, unfortunately, collapses in on itself.
Smart and much-needed changes bring Age of Empires III to a new level, providing a quality strategy experience newcomers and lifelong fans are both likely to enjoy.
XCOM: Chimera Squad is worth taking a look at given its low price, but veterans may not be happy with some of the many, many changes Firaxis is playing with.
While a couple of things could've been tweaked to provide a longer experience, Capcom provides a fantastic survival horror remake that carefully balances the action with the terror. You will fear Nemesis.
Creative Assembly delivers one of the best DLC packs for the Total War: Warhammer series yet.
Compulsion's storytelling has evolved over the life of this game and now in these DLC packs, the immersive sim elements and gameplay design have seen similar improvements. While there's room to grow, as the sun sets on Wellington Wells for the last time, I'm looking forward to whatever is next for Compulsion as a part of Xbox Game Studios.
If you absolutely love these types of games, or you're really, really eager for something new, then it's still worth checking out, especially since it's only $20 USD. If you're a little more hesitant, I'd wait, at least until some of these issues are possibly fixed in a patch. Afterparty is included in Xbox Game Pass, so if you intend to play on Xbox, you do have another option.