While Star Ocean: The Divine Force may not be the most revolutionary, prettiest, or most action-packed JRPG out there, its fantastic cast of characters and generally fun story do quite a bit to make the game's 40+ hour journey feel quite cozy. Add in the fact that you're guaranteed to get some uniqueness through its two protagonists having their own bespoke story beats that warrant multiple playthroughs and you've got plenty of JRPG to bite into here.
Scorn is an interesting game to play. Lacking any real story to follow, it instead relies on your own curiosity to see it through. You'll be interacting with all sorts of disgusting things, and fighting off horrifying creatures, and if you're the kind of person who can not only stomach the aesthetic, but actually enjoy it, Scorn will undoubtedly be a wonderful experience. For just about everyone else, though, maybe look at a couple of screenshots and trailers and see if you can stomach the aesthetic first.
As Dusk Falls is an incredibly easy game to judge within its opening hours. If, by the time you finish the first chapter, you find yourself liking the characters and wanting to know what happens, As Dusk Falls is great. If it can't grab you by that point, however, there isn't any other reason to keep playing, thanks to its dull gameplay and hit-or-miss art style.
Outriders: Worldslayer continues the base game's trends in every single way possible. Its story is bad, the antagonist is boring, and the zones feel wasted, but none of that matters because Outriders: Worldslayer still has some of the most interesting gameplay systems of any loot game. And most importantly, it's still a lot of fun.
Disgaea 6 Complete doesn't really shake up the original's formula, but it's still a good time. Sure, character models look pretty bland and animate weirdly, but the humour and general atmosphere is still great. The only real problem with Disgaea 6 Complete is the lack of options in character classes.
While it lacks some polish here and there, and its main story leaves a lot to be desired, the pure absurdity behind Metal Max Xeno Reborn helps make it greater than the sum of its parts. The vehicular combat is fun, and the optional boss fights are an all-round great time.
Phantom Fury is quite easily one of the most refined boomer shooters in the market today. It combines classic action movie tropes and 90s shooter gameplay with more modern visual technology and level design, making for a fun rampage across America.
Despite its rather simple combat system, Broken Roads is a fantastic new entry in the RPG genre. It offers up a fresh take on morality systems with its use of a moral compass, and the game's setting alone does an incredible amount of heavy lifting in keeping things interesting.
While WWE 2K24's attempts at celebrating 40 years of WrestleMania with its new Showcase of the Immortals mode fall flat, the game's excellent match types and the great new storylines in the MyRise mode will ensure that fans will have plenty to sink their teeth into.
While Wrath: Aeon of Ruin might give off the impression that it's just another boomer shooter in a market already well-past saturation, it manages to forge its own identity by being a throwback to classics of the genre with a flair of its own. And of course, the incredible level design and gunplay go a long way in making the game incredibly fun. The only real downside is that, for its wild settings and visuals, the weapons never really break the mold of classic shooter archetypes.
The Thaumaturge tells an interesting story and pairs it up with fantastic presentation, and one of the most interesting combat systems in the genre. However, its uneven NPC animations and the lack of combat encounters drag down the experience.
Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance is a strange game that doesn't seem like it would be all that fun at a cursory glance. Dig deeper, however, and you'll find that all of its smaller systems mingle together in a way that brings about one of the more fun and unique real-time strategy games out there. It's also the only one where I've had to count individual bullets on soldiers.
Blood West is an excellent game for fans of stealth games. It makes use of classic design ideas from games as wide ranging as the seminal Thief titles, to more modern ones like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. in order to shape its mechanics and general gameplay loop. The progression system encourages exploration, which is made all the better thanks to excellent level design.
Despite being from a time when console shooters had awkward controls and terrible visuals, Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion has aged really well thanks to this remaster. The campaign is incredibly fun and offers plenty of replay value thanks to its multiple characters.
The Invincible isn't really a game you play for its core gameplay. You play it to experience an interesting story that takes place on an alien planet with technology plucked right from the early 1900s. The game may not have too many action moments, but it definitely does quite well with its fantastic art direction and wonderful audio that sell you on its philosophical aspects.
Lords of the Fallen is an interesting new take on the Soulslike genre. While it isn't trying to reinvent the wheel with fresh new ideas, it instead acts as more of an evolution of the genre, refining ideas and concepts that have been tried and tested by other games. The game features excellent combat and fun exploration, which thankfully are more than enough to detract from its dull storytelling.
COCOON brings together its vibrant visuals, chill vibes, and minimalistic approach to gameplay and storytelling together to create one of the most interesting puzzle games in recent times.
The console release of Gloomhaven continues the trend of making it one of the best board game-to-video game adaptations out there, and there are a lot of deep combat mechanics for players to sink their teeth into. Inconsistencies in the interface and being balanced around multiplayer are the only real downsides to Gloomhaven on the PS5.
Witchfire is a game rife with potential that will hopefully be realized throughout its stint in early access. It has an addictive gameplay loop that makes you attempt at least "one more run" thanks to its fast-paced melding of first-person gunplay and magic. The only real downside right now is the relative lack of content.
30XX carries with it the legacy of the Mega Man X franchise in its aesthetics and general gameplay, but its more modern features like a level editor and its randomly generated levels add more replayability to the game. The core gameplay might seem simple at first, but its superbly designed levels and boss fights will quickly demand that you get familiar with its movement techniques as much as possible if you want to make any sort of progress.