Payday 3 introduces a few changes to its decade-old arcade heist formula, and yet still feels very much like a product of a bygone era. Returning fans will find many missing features and lack of content to grumble about, while newcomers were turned away with unplayable servers during launch week, and it's hard to tell if either group will be back.
After a couple of unsuccessful outings, The Crew franchise finally finds itself on solid ground with Motorfest. It has to borrow a lot ideas to get there, and still has plenty of oil leaks to deal with, but at least there's finally some enjoyable arcade racing to be had.
Goodbye Volcano High hits a few promising notes, put intended, with its good musical numbers, decent dialogue and nice art. However, notable issues and inconsistencies with the main story plus a few minor technical quirks keep this fantasy tale from reaching its full potential.
Immortals of Aveum may have an interesting premise, but with a dull story, repetitive gameplay, and poor technical performance, this full priced first person shooter lacks magic.
Baldur's Gate 3 is a great cRPG that manages to meet the lofty expectations of the franchise name. With excellent writing, engaging story, flexible player choice and compelling mechanics, even its minor second-half stumbles can't prevent the game from getting some of the highest rolls in the genre.
Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is a novel attempt at offering something new to the video game space. But while it has a strong cast and a well-realized setting, the uneven songs, lack of meaningful player choice and a dull narrative bring down the curtain too soon.
Although the core mechanic is not unique anymore, Pikmin 4 proves that it can still be fun and engaging to control your little army through a variety of nicely designed levels thanks to a few tweaks to the series formula.
Exoprimal offers some initially fun and chaotic multiplayer action, but it delays new enemies and objectives for far too long, and without a good reason. The dino enemies and the PVPVE systems don't end up being particularly interesting either, and given the high asking price, it's probably better to get your action fix elsewhere, at least for now.
Invector: Rhythm Galaxy squanders the rare advantage of an officially licensed soundtrack with some strange design choices and unbalanced difficulty that may repel newcomers, while being far too similar to its predecessor to attract returning fans.
Final Fantasy XVI continues to push the series into a new direction. While it has a well-realized setting, good characters, satisfying combat, and excellent cinematic large scale battles, the slow pacing, lackluster RPG elements and barebones optional content grind the excitement to a halt too often.
Harmony: The Fall of Reverie may have an original setting and good art style, but its uneven pacing and arbitrary gamification of player choice removes much engagement from the narrative.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum offers a bleak and lackluster adaptation of Middle-earth, with one of its more divisive characters in the spotlight. Whatever potential the game had is buried under dull, generic gameplay, a variety of technical issues, and low quality visuals.
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun is a decent entry into the retro-shooter genre that will appeal most to fans of the WH40k universe, while everyone else should probably choose a different, better game to fulfill their classic action itch.
Planet of Lana has a great visual style that should help it stand out in a universe full of 2D puzzle platformers, even as its gameplay and story are easily forgotten.
We. The Refugees: Ticket to Europe is a game with a message that never finds its footing. The inconsistent writing quality is too much of a hurdle for this text-based adventure to overcome.
Minecraft Legends may look and feel like an authentic spinoff, but with fiddly controls, contrived and repetitive gameplay design, in addition lackluster AI, it's only worth delving into for younger audiences and staunch Minecraft fans.
Road 96: Mile 0 certainly takes risks - both in narrative and gameplay - but unfortunately it does not pay off. The trippy skating segments are amusing, but are probably not what traditional adventure fans wanted from this prequel.
Despite its generic name, Storyteller should hopefully grab the attention of puzzle fans with its charming presentation and engaging design.
Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon is a well-made metroidvania spinoff, with solid - if not particularly imaginative or complex - gameplay. Targeting a younger audience through easy gameplay and a fairy tale aesthetic places it in an awkward spot within the rest of the franchise.
Terraformers may not be greater than the sum of its parts, but its unique mix of mechanics and low asking price should help spark curiosity in fans of strategy games and card based roguelikes.