I'm going to tell you something that I can't easily explain: When I advance the quest, I'm having fun. I barely know why, in the same way that it's difficult to explain why paying off a mortgage in Animal Crossing is fun.
This takes place in the span of maybe 10 minutes, and it's emblematic of the stunning, baffling, audacious amount of variety in Saints Row: The Third Remastered.
Gears, as a franchise, suddenly feels balanced in a way that it hasn’t in the past. I looked around. I paused. I tried to take it all in.
Gears 5 is personal, like its predecessor, and insistent in focusing on its characters. It’s thoughtful, and unafraid to stop the action in favor of slower story beats and sections focused on exploration. And those are the parts that I enjoyed the most.
Behold, one of 2019’s best and weirdest games
Sekiro meets me with just as much effort and enthusiasm as I’ve put into it. It lets me know I’m capable and skilled, and that I can figure it out.
Star Wars Battlefront 2 is made up of many different parts that are pretty good, but the whole is consistently undermined by poor choices in the game's multiplayer economy. No aspect of Battlefront 2 is beyond redemption, but it's hard to fall in love with any part of it, either. It's mostly a disjointed, sporadically fun collection of modes set in familiar Star Wars scenes. Because players have no idea what is really being sold to them, or when, you have a big-name launch that gets in the way of itself more than it creates fun.
Battlefront trades complexity for accessibility
Feist's smart design ideas are hampered by its difficulty
Crown of the Old Iron King rewards players who accept its difficulty and required effort
Roundabout is a goofy game that requires serious skill
Aside from a few frustrations, Crown of the Sunken King is Dark Souls at its best
Pushmo World offers a constant trickle of "A-ha!" moments