Need for Speed Unbound is a beautiful street racing game that features a cool soundtrack and welcome cross-platform play, but frustrating car physics and CPU drivers sully the experience.
Featuring gorgeous graphics and wildly inventive stages, Sackboy: A Big Adventure is an underrated gem of a game that's made even better by a wonderful PC port.
PlayStation's PC campaign continues with Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, an excellent port of two of the most critically lauded games from Sony's catalog.
Overwatch 2 is as fun and fast-paced as the original game, but its free-to-play structure sullies the experience a bit.
The Last of Us Part I remakes the beloved 2013 game in stunning detail for the PS5, but it's difficult to recommend at full price with so few changes.
Postal: Brain Damaged delivers a great throwback to classic FPS games from the 90s and early 00s, delivering breakneck gameplay, lots of fun weapons, and for better or worse, its signature edgy wit.
Sonic's beloved, 2D adventures return with a fresh coat of HD paint. However, this otherwise enjoyable collection of Genesis-era games is marred by a few technical issues.
Featuring outstanding cinematic presentation, first-rate voice performances, and superb sound design, Trek to Yomi wraps Akira Kurosawa-like flair around its fun, side-scrolling samurai battles.
Memes aside, Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is an aggressively ridiculous action-RPG with surprisingly deep combat and subpar performance.
Dying Light 2 should appeal to fans of the original game with is terrific graphics and zombie-bashing action, though it suffers from poor pacing, a bland story, and technical issues.
Scarlet Nexus looks and performs really well, especially on next-gen hardware, but its gameplay is noticeably last gen. While it doesn't do anything new, it also doesn't screw up the basics either and should please Xbox fans looking for an anime fix.
Guilty Gear -Strive- will impress longtime fans of the series and has made significant changes to lower the barrier of entry for newcomers, but there might not enough content for some.
Knockout City is a simple concept that feels great to play, both alone and with friends. It's the kind of live service game you dream of - one that's fun and fair, packed to the gills with unlockables, and thanks to its dedicated team, will only get better over time.
Judgment is a great spin-off of Yakuza, and is an excellent starting point for those interested in the series. However, the new detective elements don't go as far as they need to and end up feeling like scene dressing.
Yakuza 6: Song of Life is an excellent conclusion to Kazuma Kiryu's story while also improving and streamling the gameplay and exploration.
While the game's creativity shines in its beat-by-beat gameplay and level design, It Takes Two's selling point - its narrative - feels half-baked.
Valheim works very well in its current state, and it's worth exploring its procedurally generated world. With more updates on the way, Valheim has the potential to be a hit.
The Yakuza Remastered Collection adds three more Yakuza games to Xbox Game Pass, and they all are excellent story-driven action games that can be enjoyed on their own or as a single chapter in the series.
At just $5, Fatal Falls is a must-buy for Dead Cells fans. It adds plenty of new content worth risking it all for, and if you haven't been indoctrinated by Dead Cells, you can net both Fatal Falls and The Bad Seed in The Fatal Seed Bundle, coming soon to Xbox. Just be sure this is the right game for you. It's a fast-paced, action-packed game that's one of the rogue-likes on the Xbox, and it's not afraid to chew you up and spit you out. With that being said, the base game is available on Xbox Gamepass, so curious gamers will be able to dip their toes in the Malaise before committing.
Hitman 3 features some of the most complex and most creative levels in the series history while polishing the gameplay to perfection. Unfortunately, it's held back by some hefty paywalls, uneven mission pacing, and some occasional clunky AI.