Doom Eternal kicks ass. It's smarter than it looks, faster than it looks, and somehow even more fun than it looks. A triumph—except for the platforming.
Tetris Effect is gorgeous, and I only wish it cost less so that people wouldn't see $40 for a Tetris game and scoff. It's not that it doesn't deserve $40. Quite the contrary. It's merely difficult to convince people.
As someone who’s already sold on VR, I think Alyx is a hell of a good time. I put in four or five hours straight on Saturday (thanks to Dramamine) and few VR games manage to hold my attention that long. But I don’t think it’s the revolutionary new experience that people might expect, particularly people who owned a Vive or a Rift and have been living in this future for a while.
Resident Evil 2 ($60 on Humble) is more than just a remake. It’s proof there’s room for Resident Evil in the modern horror landscape—and without compromising the core of the series the way Resident Evil VII did
Into the Breach provides the same satisfaction on a smaller scale. It’s turn-based tactics distilled, a bite-sized version that still manages to have deep and complicated combat systems to discover within its otherwise-limited scope. Turns out, that’s exactly what I want.
OlliOlli 2: Welcome to Olliwood is the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 of side-scrolling skateboarding games. And yes, that's a good thing.
Nearly impossible to purchase for over a decade, you can now play Grim Fandango and understand why it's one of the best adventure games ever made.
Far Cry 4 is a fantastic thrill ride, but it's going to feel awfully familiar to fans.
Dragon Age: Inquisition has some utterly amazing moments, but they're padded out by a fair amount of ho-hum filler.
Alien: Isolation has its issues, but by-and-large it's the best stealth game of the year and a stunning tribute to Ridley Scott's universe.
Defense Grid proves it's still the best tower defense series on the market, but that's mainly because everyone else stopped trying.
The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 is a reminder that while Telltale may have usurped the adventure genre, great traditional point-and-clicks can still be made.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is all about the journey, and the journey here is spectacular both visually and narratively. This game is something special.
This War of Mine conveys some horrific truths about civilian life during warfare, and it does so in a way that only video games can accomplish.
Harmonix's rhythm-based shoot-em-up A City Sleeps is nightmarishly difficult, but that shouldn't stop you from playing.
Tony Hawk who? This skateboarding game turns America's favorite extreme sport into a puzzler, with excellent results.
Starships condenses Sid Meier's knack for turn-based strategy into a short, two-to-five hour burst of board game-esque tactics that's as satisfying as it is approachable.
Cities: Skylines somehow lives up to the unfair expectations heaped upon it, presenting one of the best city builders in years.
Just Cause 3 embraces the series' dumb thrills to create a ridiculous sandbox orgy of wingsuits, tethers, and explosions.
Rainbow Six Siege is, to me, an indicator that maybe we don't always need new genres of games as much as we need to reexamine our approach to old ones. It's not that anything Siege does is particularly new—tactical play (Counter-Strike, Arma, et cetera) mixed with a bit of destruction physics (Battlefield, Red Faction). But by taking these two aspects and expanding them to a scope supported by current hardware, Ubisoft has created a compelling game that feels unique.