Despite some stumbles in its opening hours, Hades 2 blooms with flexible combat and unforgettable characters.
Silksong can be ruthless, but it's hard to pry yourself away from its haunted little world that never seems to end.
Wildgate is a fresh combination of a ship battler and an FPS that is a better concept than it is a game.
Wuchang brings some fun ideas to soulslike boss fights, but the rest of it is a pale imitation of much better games.
Overwhelming monetization and exceptionally dull third-person hero shooting sour a game that could've been a mech fan's dream.
Elden Ring Nightreign is just as confusing and abrasive as FromSoftware's other games, but there's really nothing else like it.
Vessel of Hatred gives Diablo 4 a beating heart: Compelling characters to root for, creative loot to chase, and fiercely expressive action.
World of Warcraft: The War Within is a huge step up for storyelling in the 20-year-old MMO, but the daily grind threatens to suck the joy out of it.
Black Myth: Wukong blossoms with an eccentric cast of characters and expressive combat all wrapped up in the rich world of its source material.
A masterfully designed expansion to one of the best action RPGs of the last decade that not only complements the base game but expands its thematic and systemic scope even further.
Payday 3 could be one of the slickest co-op shooters around, but it's mired by a grindy progression system and its always-online nature. It needs some time to cook before it's worth digging in.
Diablo 4 is packed with powerful class builds and exciting loot to find, but clouds its most creative aspects with an overly bleak world and restrictive endgame systems.
Redfall's empty open world, flimsy shooting, and siloed systems make for a flat, dull experience.
Despite its gacha systems, Honkai: Star Rail is an impeccable turn-based RPG with a killer visual style
Despite it's killer opening act, Hi-Fi Rush fails to sustain its blend of rhythm and action all the way until the end.
Gotham Knights attempts to differentiate itself from the Arkham series with new characters and a new canon, but spends most of its length poorly imitating what made those games great.
Overwatch 2 revitalizes the stagnant hero shooter, but misunderstands what made it great.
An open world action RPG from FromSoftware that reaches new heights, but spends too much time in the familiar.
Maybe open-world games don't need to boast 175 hours of playtime even while torturing developers with months of crunch. Immortals, and by extension Ubisoft, isn't immune to this problem, but there are pieces here that argue for a shift in the scope of a genre that has historically been more interested in simulating the minute details of a horse's genitalia than caring for the people who worked on them. Immortals makes an impression because it's not a massive game like Assassin's Creed Valhalla, even if it benefits from the many systems and ideas that Ubisoft's open-world games have refined over the years. Its sharpest ideas have just enough time to dig in before the game smacks you back down into an experience you could have anywhere else.
[T]here's a cynicism deep-rooted in Calvino Noir, a heavy darkness you can't escape. Death is always lurking, success is futile. Maybe this is the best representation of noire in games that nobody wanted.