Christopher Livingston
One of the best open world games to come along in ages.
The resource management is deep, but the city itself never quite feels like a city.
A challenging and inventive set of mysteries to solve tied together with a brilliant storyline.
A peaceful and utterly charming adventure that left me wishing for more.
A choppy start leads to a compelling survival experience in Raft.
A delightful update that fills the original game with even more humorous and thoughtful rabbit holes to get lost in.
A underwhelming story but a massive, exciting sandbox of parkour and kinetic combat.
A beautiful and engrossing detective game packed with mysteries, puzzles, and intrigue.
This modern remake of the classic puzzle game doesn't stop it from feeling out of date.
An intriguing mystery adventure with outstanding writing and performances.
Valheim might be the rare exception. The game as a whole is not complete, but the parts that are there do feel complete, if that makes sense. I can see the areas in which I'd like it to grow, but Valheim feels refined and satisfying as it is right now. I've put 70 hours into it so far, and I fully expect to at least double that, and it's a $20 game. No matter what happens in Early Access, it's hard not to feel like I've already gotten my money's worth.
Playing as anyone works great in Legion—once you've finally found the right group of anyones.
In a genre overstuffed with guns and grenades, this cute and cuddly battle royale stands out.
Like Hooper said, sharks just swim and eat, and that's unfortunately not enough to fill even a short action-RPG like Maneater.
The excellent franchise mode adds loads of depth and decision making, and on-field play is livelier than ever.
With old friends, new enemies, and an exciting story, revisiting City 17 in VR is a thrill in Half-Life: Alyx.
Another strong (yet stressful) management sim from Frontier Developments.
A novel premise wrapped in an awkward and repetitive survival slog.
A few rough edges don't stop Outward from being a gem of an RPG.
It's Far Cry 5 again, on a smaller scale and with a post-apocalyptic paint job.