Anuchard presents some interesting concepts, but is executed sloppily. While combat is extremely simple, level design is lackluster, and most puzzles are too easy, the final hour or so holds a lot of promise.
Road 96 is a politically charged piece of interactive art. Its themes of opposing fascism are depressingly relevant and conveyed through charming and funny characters. While the voice acting leaves a lot to be desired, this is a trip well worth taking over and over.
ANNO: Mutationem had a lot of promise, but ended up spread far too thin. Both the exploration and combat lack any sort of depth, the story is nonsensical, and the sprite work looks ugly in motion.
Moss Book II is a game very deserving of your attention. Its novel use of VR as a medium is fascinating and helps to tell a heartfelt story with you and the adorable Quill at its center. It's bigger and better than the first in many ways, but is greatly held back by small yet consistent and progress blocking bugs.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land is an excellent first foray into 3D for the pink puffball. There's so much to see and do on this adorable adventure it's hard to focus on just one thing for long, and it'll keep fans new and old entertained for some time.
Stranger of Paradise is a good game, but it had the potential to be a great game. Its self seriousness backfires to a genuinely endearing degree, but also leaves the story poorly fleshed out and possibly hard to follow. The combat may be fun, fluid, and visceral, but issues with the PC version should make players look to other platforms.
Tiny Tina's Wonderlands presents a fresh take on Borderlands, retaining the core of the series while adding some fun new twists both in its setting and gameplay.
Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream presents an immediately engaging gameplay hook. The story is interesting and can get new players caught up fairly quickly, though the character designs can leave a lot to be desired. Battles and alchemy are a ton of fun, but the game does have trouble explaining all of its systems effectively.
Paradise Killer is now the perfect murder mystery. With some visual and performance issues taken care of and the addition of new secrets to uncover as well as some gorgeous Ray Tracing, there's never been a better time to breathe life back into paradise.
Triangle Strategy boasts a deep story with an involved battle system that remains fun throughout and approachable to those who might not have a strategic head. The cutscenes can be overly long and choices don't have as big of an impact as they should, but it's still a great strategy game that you can really sink your teeth into.
While it stumbles greatly in execution, Assassin's Creed Valhalla - Dawn of Ragnarök reignites the magic of the main game with a vast realm to explore and myriad secrets to discover using the new Hugr powers. It's still a ton of fun, just don't expect the story to be all that coherent.
While it can be complete chaos most of the time, Chocobo GP is still a fun and charming kart racer at its heart. There's enough charm here to combat the frustration and bland tracks, and the multiple modes will keep you interested.
Gran Turismo 7 is an excellent racing simulator for those looking for a more realistic experience or to learn more about cars. There's a ton of things to do, cars to collect, and tracks to master with the game's great driving model. While you can feel the sheer passion the developers have for the subject, it does come with some flaws like very slow and tedious progression gates and persistent microtransaction prompts.
Final Fantasy VI is still a classic and one of the best in the franchise, now with orchestrated music and redone pixel art. It still retains the issues of the rest of the Pixel Remasters, but does have a bit of extra visual spice on top to make them hurt less.
Elden Ring is the culmination of all the Souls entries up to this point, creating a near perfect gameplay experience filled to the brim with incredible boss fights, gorgeous graphics, and an insanely large world to explore. A variety of new ideas, including crafting and the addition of the spirit horse Torrent, help bring a new level of immersion to the proceedings while simultaneously helping Elden Ring feel like a unique entry in the Souls genre. With gameplay tailored for players who want to experience the world solo as well as those who wish to play nearly the entire game in co-op, Elden Ring is a masterclass in design. Minor gripes about a couple of boss fights and the sheer density of the world to explore leaving many areas potentially undiscovered aside, Elden Ring is a nearly flawless experience which old and new fans of the Souls series will enjoy.
Pathologic 2: The Marble Nest isn't as engaging gameplay wise as the base game, but it's still a very interesting microcosm of the game's themes and a fascinating glimpse into what the Bachelor's full campaign might look like.
Sucker for Love: First Date is a gut busting romp through relationships with several eldritch abominations. While this visual novel has a few rough edges, it is a must play for fans of comedy games.
You can still clearly see the 3DS roots in Rune Factory 4 Special's PC port, but it's still a fantastic game worth enjoying if you haven't already played it. It does have some keyboard input issues, particularly with name entry, and some aspects were clearly not intended to be viewed at a high resolution, however it does put forward enough effort to work on PC that makes it a decent platform to play on.
Kingdom Hearts on Switch could have been excellent, but instead of actually giving at the very least 1.5 + 2.5 the love and care they deserve they've all been shoved into the cloud. On top of dealing with input lag, dips in visual quality, and the occasional stutter many of these games look and run a lot worse compared to their PS4 or even PS3 counterparts. But hey…it's portable. Kinda.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus still has some lingering flaws from the series' rough transition to 3D, but is still an incredibly fun time from start to finish. Catching and battling Pokémon hasn't been this fun in over a decade, and despite the wealth of things to do in Hisui I'm still hungry for more.