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New Tales from the Borderlands, as a spiritual successor to Telltale's series, is a cavalcade of peaks and valleys. It expands on the franchise's complex lore with a terrifically produced five-episode stint that will, for most, be a one-and-done experience that sadly fails to iterate on or improve the tired formula these types of games all rode into the ground.
Gotham Knights is both something different and something familiar for Batman fans. While the new role-playing elements create some pacing issues throughout the story, the breadth of abilities and ease of progression stop the experience from being as tedious as it could have been.
Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection on PC performs admirably. While it doesn't quite offer the slew of visual options in the Spider-man Remastered PC port, there's still enough here to tinker with to get the best balance between performance and visual fidelity. Ultimately, this is the best way to play both A Thief's End and The Lost Legacy.
While Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope is a markedly different game than Kingdom Battle, it's a more than worthy sequel that successfully steps into its own space within the realm of turn-based strategy. It's undoubtedly one of the best games on the Switch, and one of the best showings from Ubisoft in recent years.
This long awaited follow up to Asobo Studio's cult hit doesn't come without grievances, but A Plague Tale: Requiem a rock-solid adventure that's grim and gorgeous in equal measure. Smart iteration on established mechanics and pitch-perfect pacing lead the way to a journey across some breathtaking locales that ups the ante in nearly every way by its shocking conclusion.
Scorn successfully leverages an intense atmosphere with striking artistic direction to offer a horror journey like no other. While combat can get in the way of an otherwise strong offering, and the story takes a back seat to everything else, Scorn is a unique horror experience and a great debut.
Hardspace Shipbreaker is a sci-fi-inspired sim that puts you in the role of someone that spends their time working in low orbit pulling apart and salvaging old spaceships. And with all great sims, the premise is only a part of the appeal with the end result delivering pure low-orbit job immersion.
No More Heroes III is one of my favourites in the series so far. A streamlined structure, some fantastic writing, and direction from Goichi Suda and some of the tightest combat the series has ever seen make No More Heroes III one of the best. The latest ports rectify most of the performance problems seen in last year's Switch debut, remedying some minor blemishes on an otherwise remarkable artistic achievement. This is, without a doubt, the best way to experience No More Heroes III.
While Overwatch 2 is still a good time, and an improvement over the original, it feels like less of a sequel and more of an update. There's some solid changes to the foundations of Overwatch, but a noticeable lack of new content, archaic game modes, and balancing issues leave something to be desired.
Auteur designer Yoko Taro successfully blends his oddball knack for storytelling, defying typical video game conventions in doing so. This leads to an unforgettable story, but how it's told and demands repeat playthroughs is bound to be lost on some part of NieR: Automata's audience. Regardless, NieR: Automata blends intense action and RPG components into an atmosphere and game that's well worth experiencing, even on the Nintendo Switch.
This year's FIFA is a comprehensive package for football fans thanks to HyperMotion 2, big reworks to FIFA Ultimate Team and the introduction of the FA Women’s Super League and the French Division 1 Feminine.
In a genre that's markedly saturated, Grounded stands tall. Dripping with charm, its unique setting and premise give it ample space to impress players who think they've seen it all.
When it comes to pure fan service, there won't be many better this year than Return to Monkey Island. It feels like the true sequel to LeChuck's Revenge and it feels as though its clever, self-referential wit is a product of Gilbert's return. As sad and nostalgic as parts of Guybrush's newest tale can be, I had a wonderful time revisiting familiar people and places in yet another golden-age adventure.
Refinements to core aspects of NBA 2K23's gameplay make for some of the most fluid and enjoyable action seen in some years, and it's all capped off with the excellent Jordan Challenge. It's not perfect by any means, but this year's NBA 2K is certainly a big step up from previous entries.
Wayward Strand offers up a uniquely Australian take on the narrative adventure game with a gorgeous art direction and moving portrayal of hard-working people in a harsh system. Despite a couple of pacing issues and an unforgiven save system, Wayward Strand is an approachable and hugely enjoyable little world to explore and find some catharsis in.
Metal Hellsinger's rhythm-driven gameplay is something special, though it's marred by an uninteresting story and repetitive design.
Though the alternate history setting allows Steelrising to immediately separate itself from the bloated Souls-like genre in an aesthetic sense, its shortcomings prevent it from standing out in a way that truly matters. Some elements work well, and the accessibility options are very welcome; just don't go in expecting Spiders to have reinvented the automaton.
Stripping away the flash with a bigger focus on the core basics, Madden NFL 23 feels like a breath of fresh air. It's still a series lacking an identity right now, but this year's entry is the course correction the series has desperately needed.
While more iterative than it is innovative, Splatoon 3 is without a doubt the best entry in the series yet. Despite lacking new multiplayer modes at launch, there's a clear commitment to content and quality, with each aspect of the package being pushed to its logical extreme through smart and meaningful additions. This is the most feature-complete and tightly designed Splatoon to date, and you'd be missing out if you choose to pass it up.
I suspect that people with fondness for the original Pac-Man World, or even just this specific era of platforming games will be the ones who get the most from RePac. It's a style of game that has been out of fashion for a while, but it's simplicity could still hold some appeal. When you can get lovingly re-created versions of the standard-setting Crash Bandicoot series for the price of this though, the value proposition for a remaster of one fairly short and unremarkable game is hard to swallow. One for the fans.