Forza Horizon 5 is the culmination of all of Playground Games' efforts to perfect its craft, and the result is the best open-world racing game you can play. It combines the most beloved parts of Forza Horizon 3 and 4 into one ultimate racer.
The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe expertly expands the original critically acclaimed narrative adventure with hours of brilliantly written new content and a lot more of Kevan Brighting's incredible narration. Even if you played the original, you shouldn't miss this updated version.
Pentiment's gameplay — or lack thereof — may deter some would-be players, but those who become invested in its lovingly crafted world set in distant past, emotional and human narrative, and gripping murder conspiracy are guaranteed to fall in love.
Grounded concluded its early access tenure with one final update to pull everything together and add hours of fresh new content, resulting in one of the best games of 2022. Grounded is bound to inspire other titles in the survival genre for years to come.
The morbid, danger-laden adventure of siblings Amicia and Hugo continues with A Plague Tale: Requiem, a dark, beautiful sequel resplendent with expanded gameplay and swarms of deadly plague-riddled rats.
From beginning to end, Hi-Fi RUSH is a rhythmic thrill ride replete with stunning art design, fantastically fun gameplay, and a surprisingly evocative narrative of friendship and determination.
COCOON captured my interest from its first reveal trailer, and now it's one of my favorite games of the year. This unique, beautiful, mysterious puzzle-adventure game enraptures you from the first few seconds of gameplay, and keeps you entranced for its short runtime with fascinating world design, genuinely clever and engaging puzzles, and some of best visuals in gaming this year.
Apart from brief moments of frustration, Jusant is a beautiful and relaxing puzzle-adventure game.
A game like Senua's Saga: Hellblade II can only be the result of years of passion and talent, captivating you with its unbelievable visuals, impeccable audio design, and powerful thought-provoking narrative. It's a veritable masterpiece, but it's just shy of perfection thanks to an average PC port and some minor criticisms.
Neva cements Nomada Studio as a master of color and art design, with phenomenal visuals and animations that make the powerful, emotional narrative even more impactful. Neva also dramatically improves gameplay versus GRIS with satisfying combat and platforming. My only major grip is that the journey is simply over too soon.
With the credits rolling as I write this verdict, Metaphor: ReFantazio has cemented itself as the best game I've played this year so far. While the long periods of time with no gameplay and the divisive art style may not be to everyone's taste, Metaphor: ReFantazio makes a compelling argument for the "game of the year" title with its evocative and passionately crafted narrative, loveable and believable characters, incredible RPG, combat, and social simulation elements, and an art design that truly brings to life this unique world.
The first Citizen Sleeper used beautiful, haunting lines of prose to thread together a deep, engrossing world, and its sequel builds on that with refined gameplay and more locations to explore. It's almost the perfect sequel to one of my favorite Xbox Game Pass titles, but a wider world does mean a little less depth as well.
The Forgotten City is a fantastic entry in the oft-forgotten mystery-adventure genre, but a handful of flaws slightly detract from the experience.
Cult of the Lamb isn't always perfectly balanced, but it does expertly blend two opposing game genres into a unique, action-packed occult adventure oozing with personality. This is another shining example of unparalleled indie developer creativity.
Metal: Hellsinger delivers engrossing rhythm-based shooting fun alongside a genuinely fantastic metal soundtrack. The game is short and lacks environmental variety, but the allure of a bigger high score should keep players returning for more.
Minecraft Legends is a wonderful addition to the expanding Minecraft universe, perfectly encapsulating its character while exploring a new, unique action-strategy genre. Its two halves aren't always perfectly balanced, though, and there are certainly ways the game can improve.
Harmony: The Fall of Reverie immediately won me over with its beautiful art design, skillful writing, and high-quality voice acting. While the finished product doesn't quite reach the same level of magic, this is still an incredible choice-based, narrative game of hope, loss, love, and humanity.
Forza Motorsport (2023) isn't just a new beginning for the legendary simulation racing franchise, it also represents a previously unreached peak for the series. Turn 10 Studios have done an incredible job delivering one of the best core driving experiences of any game, but not everything has been properly rebuilt from the ground up.
Botany Manor is a lovely little puzzle game that's relaxing, engaging, beautiful, and approachable. It's a great first game from Balloon Studios with a lot of charm, but it's not perfect, and it's even shorter than I expected. Being a day-one addition to Xbox Game Pass, though, makes it stupendously easy to recommend Botany Manor for an afternoon of fun.
Capcom's new franchise takes another stab at combining action and strategy game genres, and it does so with great success. This tower-defense-like pits you against varied hordes of enemies across diverse challenge stages dripping with style, and it's a lot of fun to conquer. It can sometimes be frustrating more than invigorating, though.