Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville is a competent team-based shooter, but looking microtransactions and the lack of anything truly new prevent it from being anything more than junk food.
MediEvil 's story, visual design, humor, and charm stand the test of time, but Other Ocean's refusal to upgrade the gameplay and include checkpoints makes it a game that is stuck in the past.
The Surge 2 has great combat, but no areas stand out visually, a forgettable story, and the feeling that you've done all of this before makes Jericho City a place you'd want to visit, not live.
Assetto Sorsa Competizione features incredible driving, fantastic sound design, impressive weather effects, and gorgeous cars and tracks on which to drive them. Unfortunately, its limited career mode, poorly implemented safety rating, spotty AI, and lack of polish keep it from achieving greatness on the track.
The Caligula Effect: Overdose has a great combat system and an entertaining story, but poor visuals, a lack of meaningful choices, repetitive music, and a lackluster social system means this is a high school reunion you probably want to skip.
Monster Energy Supercross 2 recreates the spot admirably and has enough depth to the gameplay to satisfy even the more hardcore fans, but it's held back by bugs, inconsistent production values, and barebones modes that lack variety.
The Sinking City provides a compelling story, gorgeous art, and genuine scares, but
Fortune Island is a decent expansion to Forza Horizon 4 with fun new cars and challenges and some good places to race, but a lack of variety, limited new content, and a samey environment prevent it from being anything more than that.
Vane is an interesting, beautiful, and provocative indie platformer brought down by design inconsistencies and bugs, but fans of the genre will find something to like here.
Mothergunship is a fusion of good ideas and good mechanics let down by some poor design choices and inexcusable bugs, but what's here is a good foundation for Grip Digital to build and improve upon.
Super Mario Party is a conservative return to form that makes the most of its core modes, but you'll need to get some friends in the same room to get the most out of everything it has to offer.
Unfortunately, Matterfall never quite comes together, despite its short runtime
Despite its variety and the occasional innovation, Aven's lack of threat and mediocre story make the game feel undercooked. It's a sold city builder that doesn't do enough with its premise to stand out.
Livelock is a solid twin-stick shooter with interesting character classes, good gameplay, and fun co-op play. The story is unoriginal and bland, and the game is relatively short, but it’s a worthwhile play for fans of the genre, even if it doesn’t do anything to drastically change it.
If you can get past its flaws, Black Desert will reward you with a gorgeous game world and some incredible combat, but poor tutorials, repetitive missions, a messy interface, and the odd set of bugs stop it from being anything more than average.
Ultimately, One Piece Unlimited World Red is a game for the fans. It's let down by repetitive combat and weird design decisions, but those looking to join Luffy and crew on a fun romp through some uncharted waters will find a lot to like here, even if it is a little stretched out.
Thief is an inconsistent game that has just as many failings as it does successes. Fans of the stealth genre will find a lot to like here, but a number of poor design decisions keep it from reaching the heights of its predecessors.
Strike Suit Zero has a lot of things going for it – a cool story, good combat, pretty visuals, and an excellent soundtrack – but it's let down by poor mission design and a frustrating checkpoint system. Those looking for a space combat game will find a lot to like here, but one can't help but wonder how much better the game would have been with more of a focus on tightly paced, frantic battles, and less on the Suit's ability to transform.
Murdered: Soul Suspect has an interesting plot, an intriguing game world, and a lot of cool game ideas, but a host of little problems drag the experience down. Still, fans of a good detective story might want to check it out, provided they can deal with the game's inconsistencies.
Ultimately, how much you vibe with Wrath: Aeon of Ruin will come down to how willing you are to put up with the limitations imposed on you by playing it on a controller, how much you vibe with the save system, and how much you like its level design. There's a very good, incredibly ambitious shooter here if you're willing to overlook some unfortunate flaws, but it's not Quake, and nothing likely ever will be again.