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Arizona Sunshine 2 might not be the groundbreaking landmark the first game was, but improved gunplay, a fun companion, and rapid-fire jokes make this a ride well worth taking. Often tense, always fun, and sometimes emotionally impactful, Arizona Sunshine feels like big-budget entertainment. Just play by yourself the first time so your friend doesn't chatter through all the good stuff.
Sanabi is a secret masterpiece. I don't know why it's a secret, but it is. It's a platforming clinic, with extremely tight controls, and the story hit me in the center of my heart. You'll probably play it one more time to speed run it, but I wont. Some games are better left one and done. This is one of those games. Unbelievable.
Without a ton of bells and whistles, Pickleball One delivers a streamlined Pickleball experience that feels great. Pickleball One will teach you how to play Pickleball, train you to get better at it, and allow you to take those skills to the community that has gathered around the game. It ain't fancy, but it certainly gets the job done.
Lego Bricktales VR pulls of an amazing trick, allowing you to play with gorgeous Lego sets floating around in your own home through the magic of mixed reality. Detailed and beautiful, while still being a fun and challenging game, I can't think of a better way to show off VR to stubborn non-believers. The potential of what is on display here is limitless.
Despite minor complaints about the story's pacing, the overall experience of Persona 5 Tactica is rewarding. Engaging combat dynamics and a strategic depth that is hidden at the game's slower-than-I-wanted start kept me invested in the tactical twists. Persona 5 Tactica successfully delivers a compelling inter-quel that stands on its own within the beloved franchise. Persona 5 Tactica is a solid, enjoyable tactics game that still feels like a Persona game despite not being a true RPG. It successfully blends the Persona universe with a tactical RPG gameplay style. This one can be enjoyed by Persona 5 fans and tactics fans alike.
Forest Grove is very short and a little rough around the edges but it's a decent mystery story that kept me interested throughout and made me want to keep playing to find every piece of evidence I could to complete the story.
I enjoyed Astral Ascent when it was in Early Access and I still enjoy it after it's official release. Multiple characters, spells, and abilities along with procedurally generated areas and some fun and interesting boss fights against the Zodiacs give Astral Ascent plenty of replayability. If these kinds of games are up your alley, you'll get plenty of gameplay out of Astral Ascent.
Can torturing prisoners in a secret underground laboratory be kinda boring? The Kindeman Remedy shows that it can. Essentially a time management game, The Kindeman Remedy has players putting an evil doctor and his nun assistant through the paces of dark experiments in a way that ends up feeling a lot like a repetitive day of work. Some cheap kicks to be had from the not-so-violent violence, but the shock value is short-lived. Not a prison I would want to spend any significant amount of time in.
Teardown is one of the most fun games I have played this year. The combination of destructible environments and timed heists never gets old. Not quite mindless, Teardown is still a great way to turn your brain off and just blow stuff up. It is packed with so much content that you likely won't get bored of anytime soon.
Slay the Princess is my first visual novel in my roughly thirty-five years as a gamer and I enjoyed every minute of it. With so many dialogue options to choose from, no two runs of the story are the same, and even when you get to the story's finale there are still a few different ways it can ultimately end. The voice acting and soundtrack ties everything together beautifully and for someone who never got into visual novels, I can't recommend this one enough. If you're looking for a psychological horror story with quite a bit of comedic dialogue thrown in, then definitely prepare to Slay the Princess…that kind of came out weird.
Jusant is one of my favorite gaming experiences of 2023. The rock-climbing gameplay is simple yet extremely satisfying to play, and it's masterfully interwoven with the narrative and lore of the world. It's a surprisingly quaint, emotional story that packs a punch despite having zero spoken dialogue, which is a testament to the narrative chops of Don't Nod. I still find myself thinking about Jusant days after staring a meditative hole through its ending credits.
Though not as groundbreaking as the original, the VR remake of The 7th Guest is still a pretty good time. Delivering a corny/spooky story and a big pile of cleverly designed puzzles, this is a fun VR reinterpretation of the classic, with just enough crossover with the original to elicit pleased gasps from fans. While the VR implementation struggles at times, those issues don't completely hamper the overall sense of fun and mystery.
Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged has improved and expanded every aspect of the original game, and smoothed out some of the difficulty spikes that entranced/enraged me the first time around. Though the new story is mostly kid stuff, the actual racing is still challenging and wildly exciting. Crushingly good graphics, fun mechanics, and the obsessive collection of amazing toys once again combine to create a fantastic must-play racer.
I haven't much negative to say about Paleo Pines. I don't love it, but I do like it a lot. The retail price of $29.99 is more than fair considering what you get – you get a lot of bang for your buck. I was able to overlook the basic visuals to see the magic behind them. While the farming elements feel basic, the dinos make this game stand out from the crowd. Collecting and taking care of them is worthwhile and feels rewarding in the long run.
A stunning achievement both technically and narratively, Spider-Man 2 makes every moment of gameplay feel epic while still delivering a great story with a ton of heart. The creators at Insomniac know and love these characters, and that care manifests both in the quieter moments and in the jaw-dropping cinematic action scenes. Thrilling, gut-wrenching, and visually spectacular, this is among the best representations of Spider-Man in any media. An absolute no-brainer for every PlayStation 5 owner, Spider-Man 2 shows what your system is truly capable of.
An incredible detailed and large game, Baldur's Gate 3 is a joy for RPG fans and fans of the pen and paper game as well.
Everything you wanted to know about Karateka, but was afraid to ask, is here. Digital Eclipse has done it again. The bonus reimagined games are cool too. Go save the girl, and shoot down some alien bats. If this is the first in the series, I'm ready to get kicked in the face, multiple times.
Bang-On Balls gets our highest recommendation, with no caveats. The worlds are huge, the game is beautiful, the action is fun, the secrets are deep. With a ton of interesting activities, intriguing puzzles, and cool stuff to collect, Bang-On Balls feels like developer Exit Plan threw in everything, including the kitchen sink. This is new benchmark for action-exploration-bouncing-combat-platformer games.
Mirage is the ultimate Assassin's Creed comfort food for those who've been longing for a return to the classic stealth formula. It's not going to blow you away, but it's well done, and the nostalgia you'll feel playing it will remind you of why you enjoy the series in the first place. Ultimately, Basim and Baghdad coalesce to create a tantalizing vision of what the future of Assassin's Creed could be – a reincarnation of what it once was.
Mortal Kombat 1 gets the gameplay part right but I can't shake the feeling that this game was released way too early. While you do get a full story mode and Invasions mode there are so many small problems that really take away from what should be the best game NetherRealm has made yet.