Tales of Arise is a huge leap forward for the series. Combat is incredibly fun and fluid, the story is fantastic despite a lackluster finale, and the characters are as charming as ever. It's not only one of the best Tales games, but one of the best the PS5 has to offer.
Sonic Colors is still a great game, but Ultimate is lackluster at best. It's glitchy, visually inconsistent, and has some abysmal mixing that makes it impossible to hear the excellent soundtrack, let alone the new remixes.
Quake is a seminal shooter that helped define the genre, but it's definitely starting to show its age. It's well worth experiencing the campaign, but its design and enemy placement can occasionally feel unfair. Just as well, the multiplayer is difficult to get into if you're not already familiar with it.
Recompile brings a lot of great ideas to the table, but none of them work well together in their implementation. While it presents an interesting story, you'd have to wade through the immensely frustrating gameplay to get there.
Marvel's Avengers: War for Wakanda introduces fantastically designed new areas with a dash of puzzles and platforming to mix things up. While the combat still has a long way to go before it remains interesting, this expansion is worth checking out for Black Panther's skills.
The Heavensward Stone & Steel and The Scars of War art books are a must have for any Final Fantasy XIV fanatics. The art is gorgeous and detailed, and while the latter book doesn't have as much artist commentary as I would like, both give detail into each artist's process.
CrossCode: A New Home wraps up the story nicely while setting up for a possible sequel. The new content is largely fun, but a few massive difficulty spikes sour the experience. Still, it's well worth the time if you enjoyed the game's charming cast of characters.
The Siege of Paris is a very enjoyable step up from Wrath of the Druids and leaves you wanting more, in a good way. If this is indeed the final big expansion for Valhalla, it's a high note to end on. While I'm not a fan of the infinite content machines the developers seem intent on shoving into every game, the story content is excellent, Paris and the surrounding countryside are gorgeous, and the new gameplay additions mix things up enough to feel worthy of a paid DLC.
Song of Farca is a great adventure game with some neat, cyberpunk twists. Each case will leave you wondering if you made the right choices until the credits roll. Before you meet the game's well written cast of characters though, check if the game breaking glitches have been fixed.
NEO: The World Ends With You captures everything that made the original special and surpasses it in every way. With a great story and incredibly addicting combat, players joining the Reaper's Game will be hooked from start to finish and beyond.
Unbound: Worlds Apart is a pretty standard puzzle platformer with its difficulty firmly planted in repeated trial and error. Despite gorgeous visuals, there's not much interesting to see here.
Skyward Sword HD is definitely the best version of the game with vastly improved visuals and new control options, but I can't help but feel it's lacking as a Zelda rerelease. There's no new content, and I doubt the changes are enough to win over those who have problems with the game's overall design. It certainly didn't need to be a good game in its own right, but the lack of accessibility options and only somewhat reduced dialogue makes it difficult to justify the price.
World's End Club is an excellent story with some abysmal platforming tying it together. While story sections greatly outnumber gameplay sections, these stand out as a sore spot that may put off some players.
Prepare to die quite a bit, especially early on as you get used to how everything works. The game certainly rewards mastery of its systems, as you’ll need to use every trick up your sleeves to survive some of the bosses here. It’s been a while since I haven’t just breezed through an RPG, so this is very refreshing. It presents just the right amount of challenge to make you consider your every action, actually use items, and equip yourself with gear that tailors to your specific playstyle. This game is firing on all cylinders so far, and I can’t wait to share my full review with you soon after I finish the game.
Yupitergrad is an intensely fun, if too difficult, Russian Spider-Man simulator that will have you speedily swinging through obstacles with grace. That is, if you can get past the nauseating motion sickness.
Game Builder Garage is a great way to learn the basics of game programming through an easy to use visual language. The tutorials may be overbearing for some, holding your hand through each step, but the engine is surprisingly robust and will let you create whatever you want. However, there is no active sharing or receiving interface in the game itself which is incredibly frustrating and limits learning opportunities.
Scarlet Nexus is an absolute blast from the start and only gets better as you progress. The characters are charming, the story has nice twists and turns, and the combat is simple to understand but hard to master. While it certainly has flaws, this is a must play for action game fans.
Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind has an excellent murder mystery plot that is sadly obscured by frustrating and arbitrary road blocks. The visuals, writing, and soundtrack are excellent, but actually getting to those will take a lot of patience.
Chicory: A Colorful Tale is a delightful experience that, while confronting some of the darker parts of creativity, will simply make you feel good. The world is cute and fun to explore, puzzles are a joy to solve, and coloring in the Picnic Province is relaxing.
The plot will instantly grab your attention and never let go. As I said before, the game starts by showing you the world ending stakes, but it quickly starts to focus on the more personal story of siblings trying to save their mom. Make no mistake, Daryon and Selene are on this journey for their family, saving the world is just a bonus. Along with this central hook come a ton of wrinkles in the plot that all tie together nicely, like the politics of each region, the corruption (because of course) present in the religious Sanctorium, and much more I won’t spoil here. Edge of Eternity fires on all cylinders, and I can’t wait to play even more. Check back soon for our full review.