What Happened has some neat ideas for the way it handles mental health, but poor gameplay design and a narrative that overstays its welcome made me want to give up halfway through.
Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme Vs. Maxiboost On knocks it out of the park in terms of content, presentation, and playability.
Death end re;Quest 2 nails a lot of things: narrative, aesthetics, soundtrack, and character growth are all fantastic. It falters in narrative delivery, visual design, and difficulty spikes. It’s a commendable gothic JRPG from Idea Factory that does interesting things even if not all of them work.
Drake Hollow is great fun with faster paced gameplay than most survival games.
Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions is the anime FIFA I never knew I wanted but now can’t live without.
Activision knocks another remaster out of the park with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2, an incredible re-release for the twentieth anniversary.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning might be worth it for those that never got around to the original. It's hard to recommend to returning players as a bare-bones remaster.
Fight Crab is one of those games you have to see to believe. But after the charm wears off, you'll be wondering why you're still playing it.
Watch Dogs: Legion isn’t a bad game; it’s just not a great one either. I’m still intending to go back through and finish sweeping up the tech points that I’ve missed so far and recruiting the most random NPCs I can find, but it definitely feels like a step backward from Watch Dogs 2.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla builds upon what made Odyssey and Origins great, and it removes a good amount of terrible side quests.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon is almost a soft reboot of an aging franchise. It takes the long-running series in a new direction that works really well as a first outing.
Umihara Kawase Bazooka is a unique, weird little game that manages to overstay its welcome even with the light content included. How this game got priced at $30 is beyond me.
Bright Memory for Xbox Series X|S is an extremely unoptimized and poorly polished launch title. However, the future looks bright for the game. The foundation for something truly special is there.
Spirit of the North Enhanced Edition takes cues from other adventure games like Journey, but it doesn’t offer the same level of replayability. However, it does have a super cute fox.
Observer: System Redux is more of a definitive edition than a full remake. Despite some segments falling flat, it's a tightly-wound narrative that is one of Bloober Team's finest.
WRC 9 is a mighty good time and a great entry point for someone who might not be as familiar with the franchise or racing sims.
Teratopia struggles with basic gameplay design from combat to platforming. For an action-adventure platformer, that’s always a bad sign.
Days Gone on Steam is a very competent port with lots of options to tailor to your PC. It’s a great game but still suffers from pacing issues, especially early on.
Outriders isn’t the best game or even the most fun game I’ve ever played, but it is a damn good time. In a world where looter-shooters are often incredibly grindy, Outriders never quite made it feel like it was a grind. It’s a competent, flashy shooter whose campaign overstays its welcome near the end, but it’s a blast to play with friends, who can drop in and out of games at any time.
Biomutant doesn't revolutionize action RPGs, but it's a title that will be worth playing after a few more updates or a price drop.