James Davenport
- Metroid Prime
- VVVVVV
Light performance problems and a poor loot box system can't quite distract from Forza Motorsport 7's accommodating difficulty, stunning beauty, and lavish racing options.
Lovely Planet Arcade is a fast, challenging deconstruction of old school FPS design that can be frustrating, but makes up for it with heaps of charm.
Stealth and pursuit haven't changed much in Outlast 2, but it excels as a beautiful, brutal journey through extreme spiritual anxieties.
Monster Hunter: World's thrilling fights with fantastic beasts never get old, even if they require tiresome item management during downtime.
A stylish mix of bullet hell and deft swordplay, Furi is only held back by rare bugs and poorly designed difficulty spikes.
Red Dead Redemption 2's stark, slow depiction of America's fading frontier is a monumental work straining against stubborn mission design and stability problems.
Jesse's telekinesis joins Half-Life 2's juiced gravity gun in the videogame physics toy hall of fame.
There are few games quite as curious and beautiful as Abzû, and fewer of its kind on the PC. It’s a short, dense journey filled with intense wonder and inherent beauty, and every inch is worth seeing.
Despite a drab multiplayer mode and limited level creation tools, Doom is a cheeky and fulfilling return to pared-down acrobatic gunplay.
Aquatic Adventure distills the Metroidvania into its most essential parts and says something meaningful with it.
Rainbow Six Siege is a pretty dopey military FPS at first glance, but insists players learn to work together with minimal error. Further, it invites a maddening cycle of thought—it makes me think about how I'm thinking the more I play. We were constantly disrupting our own habits.
Cruelty Squad celebrates feeling bad in surprising ways, all of them fun.
Apex Legends is a quiet revolution in how we communicate in games, and an excellent team-based battle royale I can recommend to anyone, caveat-free.
Doom Eternal is a ceaseless, panicked nightmare that pushes you to point and click with more skill and style than ever before.
Sprawling level design, thrilling combat, and masterful indirect storytelling make Dark Souls 3 the best Dark Souls yet.