Miranda Sanchez
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's varied gameplay modes and excellent gunplay suggest the series is headed in a promising direction.
My Time at Portia's many parts don't always shine on their own, but together they make for a pleasant building adventure.
Powerful friends and new mechanics make for a delightful return to the Kanto region in Pokemon: Let's Go, Pikachu and Eevee.
Black Ops 4 has a few rough edges, but any of its three modes make for an enjoyable shooter experience that feel distinct and personalized.
Stardew Valley is a beautiful, fun game that, when all of its parts are pulled together, make for a wonderful countryside adventure.
The War Machine is an uneven DLC with a great new multiplayer map and Zombies chapter but unfortunate issues elsewhere.
Detective Pikachu offers a bold take on the iconic Pokemon, which succeeds thanks to Pika Prompts that build Pikachu beyond detective stereotypes. Even though I figured out cases far before their end, each one utilized the world of Pokemon to its fullest, and ultimately offered a unique Pokemon experience that I hope we see done again soon.
The Resistance DLC adds needed map variety to multiplayer and introduces another fun Nazi Zombies map. The tighter, dense map Valkyrie gives the new Resistance Division a chance to shine with plenty of close combat opportunities, while Anthropoid offers snipers space to work their magic. Even though Operation Intercept is a new map for the wonderful War Mode, it feels like a known quantity with its repeated objectives from previous operations. On the other hand, the new Zombies map Darkest Shore has plenty of challenging (if sometimes convoluted) puzzles to uncover.
The Sims 4 on console includes all the free feature updates from the PC version, and while they are good new additions that should have been included with The Sims 4 to begin with, they don't make up for the performance issues. Most of the problems are minor annoyances, but because save and menu bugs have been so frequent, this version of The Sims 4 is a generally unreliable experience, which is unfortunate since it is a genuinely fun game. And while it is disappointing that the console version is missing some community features from the PC version, I'm glad that at least cheats work.
Call of Duty: WW2's offers a fast-paced and fun World War II experience with its new multiplayer mode and return to Nazi Zombies.