Derek Johnson
Olija has a fun gimmick, great visuals, and is only occasionally let down by levels that don't quite fully make use of its fun, core mechanic.
Cyberpunk 2077 has some seriously major technical problems, but it's worth putting up with them to experience a fantastically down-to-earth story that's accompanied by solid shooting and great music.
Empire of Sin has too many bugs and too many balancing issues to make it worth putting up with its insanely uninspired combat and lacklustre story.
Per Aspera is not only the best city builder to come out in the past decade, but one of the most interesting games to grace computers in a long, long time.
Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War's multiplayer is terrible, its campaign is forgettable and its zombies are okay, which all makes for a game that feels like a much worse iteration of previous installments into the franchise.
Watch Dogs: Legion has some good ideas, but its story is downright terrible and it suffers from so many technical problems that it's hard to recommend the game over a different, more refined, Ubisoft sandbox game.
Partisans 1941 combines fun real-time stealth strategy gameplay with some stupidly enjoyable base-building mechanics for an overall experience that genuinely makes you feel like a leader of a group of guerrilla fighters.
Squad may not be for everyone, but if you're willing to deal with its slow-paced combat and communication-heavy gameplay, it offers an experience that simply cannot be found anywhere else.
Trollhunters: Defenders of Arcadia's gameplay is okay, its visuals are fine and its story is either a mess or passively engaging depending on your level of interest in its source material, which all makes for a game that should be skipped unless you're insanely desperate for another form of media from the Trollhunter universe.
Mafia: Definitive Edition maintains its source material's amazing story, adds some solid gameplay and brings the graphics into the 21st century for an overall experience that's one of the few remakes that is genuinely worth a purchase.
Serious Sam 4's core shooting is as fun as can be, and the writing is on par with Hollywood's best action flicks, but everything else in the game is too dated for the overall experience to be truly enjoyable.
Going Under is a superb dungeon crawler wrapped in some stupidly stylish and silly art that comes packaged with writing that hits a little too close to home for anyone who's ever held a job.
The Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet Of Chaos is the game equivalent of a Netflix knockoff of an HBO show: it's not terrible and it has occasionally fun ideas, but it's still worse than the source material in almost every conceivable way.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning is an immensely enjoyable fantasy RPG that doesn't have as much remastered content as it could, but one that's still well worth a purchase for anyone looking for a change of pace from modern sword and board games.
Microsoft Flight Simulator has enough quality-of-life features to make it well worth a purchase for any virtual pilot, but the ability to fly anywhere on the planet makes for a game that's uncanny and impossible not to recommend to anyone who's remotely interested in the view from above.
Company of Crime's writing and music are both top notch, but its gameplay is so painfully mediocre and tedious that it's hardly worth putting up with when The Holy Grail is still on Netflix.
Willy Morgan and the Curse of Bone Town would've been a decent game if it had come out in the nineties, but as one that chose to be released in 2020, it only serves as a reminder of how far games have come in the past thirty years.
SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE is one of a select few games that forces you to earn the right to feel like a demi-god and one that offers the best gameplay this side of its predecessor.
Golf on Mars is a fun, relaxing and addictive game that engages players just enough to not make them bored, but never forces them to dedicate more of their brain to it than can be expected of something that's best suited to staying on their second screen.
Writing that's worth wincing at does little to drag down a hyper-relaxing and educational diving game. Beyond Blue lets you take a breath in a medium packed with games that try their hardest to make your blood pressure skyrocket.