As painful as the end of a run can be, “Dead Cells’” steady introduction of new mechanics made it easy for me to pine for one more go. In my view, that’s the hallmark of a successful arcade experience.
"Mario Tennis Aces" is the first sports game since, well, "Mario Kart 8" that's captivated me.
Though there are times when Lone must dash frantically about the vehicle to keep things chugging along, "FAR: Lone Sails" leaves a lasting impression of tranquility.
"Vampyr" is a game with one foot in the grave and one on solid ground. Though the game's combat feels rooted in the past, learning its citizens' secrets and uncovering their social networks makes for an alluring proposition in our age of oversharing.
Like quality junk food, the game was not exactly fulfilling but it was a bingeable experience.
'Forgotton Anne' is an incredibly beautiful adventure
At its core this retro game is about our individual and collective difficulty with embracing different forms of forward thinking. It has the austerity and the warmth of a low-fi song about our not-so-charming inadequacies.
When I turned away sick refugees and lost children and pulled my engineers away from medical rounds so they could labor in the mines with blue-collar workers I could only admire how skillfully the game teased out my latent ruthlessness.
A more nuanced Kratos makes the new 'God of War' a mighty success
To my surprise, I still enjoy Far Cry's particular blend of lush environments, fluid combat, and crazy happenings — like hunting a wolverine, then stumbling into a firefight full of exploding vehicles, or crashing a helicopter into an airplane and nabbing a trophy in the process ("Squash and Run").
'A Way Out' presents a way forward for shared video game experiences
"Moss" creates another model for a successful VR game.
I suspect one of the reasons many have hailed "Shadow of the Colossus" as a work of art is because it left them feeling pensive.
A touching, brilliantly-designed indie game
'Accounting +' is pure VR fun
As someone who has played too many gun toting dudes, I'm delighted to see a game built around a dynamic young woman who can get a junkyard truck running, act as an emergency stand-in for Ariel in the "Tempest," and solve a mystery, all while growing up. I look forward to seeing where the series goes next.
A rare combination of accessible but strange and intuitive but mind-bending
'Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus' delivers the year's best first-person shooter, single-player campaign
In "Assassin's Creed Origins," history and the amusement park intermix and the result is thoroughly transporting.
This is one of the closest things to the fountain of youth that I expect to come across.