Civ VI is undoubtedly a better game with the addition of Rise and Fall - especially when you are struggling to hold everything together through a Dark Age. However, I do not think this expansion brings it to a place where all of its core ideas have really gelled yet.
Reforged is an uninspiring remaster, but Warcraft 3 itself is still a great game nearly two decades later.
Anno 2205 is an engaging and strategic city builder with a forgettable story and too little motivation beyond profit.
There’s not much that’s outright wrong with Master of Orion, but there’s not much memorable or endearing about it either. It’s built on a moderately successful but bland execution of the inside-the-box space 4X formula. The moments when its flair for leader characterization and an enjoyably complex combat engine take center stage are the only times anything about it really stands out. There’s definitely enough game here that I wouldn’t turn anyone away from giving it a spin, but I also can’t say you’d be missing anything special by skipping it.
Rising Tide's great new diplomacy and artifacts can't quite fix Civ: Beyond Earth's replayability problems.
The core of Episode 5: Don't Stop Believin' provides a thrilling and fulfilling resolution to the season arc with a couple interesting surprises in store. I just wish it hadn't been immersed in this flimsy, fake crisis of the Guardians breaking up and getting back together that was never fully realized, and ended up dragging the whole season down. Flaws and all, however, Guardians of the Galaxy is, overall, one of the stronger stories Telltale has put out. This has become the version of the Guardians team I see in my head first when I think about them. I'd be thrilled to hear we might get to join them on the Milano for a second season.
LEGO Worlds is commendable for its environmental diversity and the power of its creative tools to build anything you can dream of or manipulate every castle, hillside, and forest in sight. Unfortunately, fiddly menus, a pretty terrible combat system, and at times clunky and unfriendly construction controls weigh down on the wonder of finding and creating. Despite all this, I still find myself drawn back into it to discover what more the designers have hidden in the world-generation code, as coming across a massive ruined castle or an active volcano for the first time is always a treat - and an inspiration for what I want to build next.
Tropico 6 stands out as an in-depth city-builder with a strong personality, but its economic systems are unwieldy.
Stellaris: Console Edition brings Paradox's grand 4X strategy to consoles remarkably effectively, but it's a few lightyears behind in important updates.
It's Left 4 Dead with aliens down to the very core, but a flattering rendition of the formula that's worth playing with friends.
Interesting classes, engaging melee gameplay, and an exciting arena mode have the wind taken out of their sails by deserted servers.
Space Hulk: Tactics is a wonderfully challenging, asymmetrical tactics game in spite of its poor PC controls.
Grey Goo oozes with enjoyment for old-school
More often than not, Ancestors Legacy showed me a good time watching my berserkers, Teutonic knights, and Slavic tribesmen hack their way through forests, marshes, and the occasional open field. The weakness in the core infantry combat, which tilts a bit too much away from quick, tactical thinking and into correctly guessing how the enemy line will be arranged, was the main issue that kept me from really coming to love it. Historical inaccuracies aside, though, it scratched my itch for a traditional RTS in a way that will probably keep me coming back.
The first Total War Saga game tries a lot of new things, succeeding at about half of them. It improves on a few areas historical Total War games have struggled with, but at the same time falls back into some bad, old habits that other games in the series were able to rise above. The overall tapestry reads as more than competent, and I could watch hardened huskarls with their massive axes crash into a Saxon shield wall all day. But there are too many blemishes for me to place it alongside some of its truly great peers like Attila and Warhammer.
When I'm having a good time in ARK, I'm having a really good time. The problem is that those moments are usually one part to every nine parts menial grinding and crafting - especially at the later tech tiers. Having to repeat so much work after failing an attempt at a boss feels far too punishing, and some really dumb dinosaurs can take a lot of the challenge and sense of danger out of the many primal locations. Even with all of those quirks, however, I'm still hungry to play more after the 60 hours I've spent so far. There aren't a lot of survival games that have legitimately held my attention that long.
Once you break free from the tactics-focused mindset of most RTS games, Ashes of the Singularity is a challenging, engrossing, and cerebral exercise in strategy that has me mentally iterating on army compositions, build timings, and board deployment schemes even when I’m not playing it. The campaign comes across as an unwanted stepchild beside the strong multiplayer, and the terrain art is dull and uninspired, yet Oxide has delivered on the promise of bringing back capital-S Strategy to the RTS space. This is a warzone where the shrewd general looking at the bigger picture will triumph over the fast-thinking ace with lightning hotkeys.
The catchy song that plays over Pit People's ending credits (and has been stuck in my head for the last several days) proclaims: “And it all makes sense now!” That might be overstating things, since its tactical battles never played out the way I expected due to each character having a mind of their own when it comes to what to actually attack or heal. But pit People's weird world has a special, quirky way of being amusing no matter what you're doing. I enjoyed it mostly in small doses, as the bright colors, twisted sense of humor, and goofy, energetic soundtrack can get to be a little much sometimes.
Blood Bowl 2 is a smashy, satisfying, goofy tactical melee that leaves just a bit too much up to the six-sided dice.
At its roughest edges, The Bard's Tale IV shows its retro revival roots in some not so positive ways. It may not be special enough for me to easily overlook these technical shortcomings entirely, but it's an RPG that's brimming with enjoyable, challenging fights, elaborate and entertaining puzzles, and plenty of visual and musical flair. And that was more than enough to keep me humming along contentedly to its tune more often than not.