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ARC Raiders is simply one of the most polished and accessible third person extraction shooters in recent memory. It has something for everyone, from solo players to teams ready to wreak havoc in the world. With a confident and coherent mashup of systems and a simple, addictive loop, ARC Raiders helps wrap up a notable gaming year in fine fashion.
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Pacific Drive had a unique hook and rightly deserved praise for its fresh take on the survival crafting genre. Whispers of the Woods offers an alternate starting adventure for new players and rich new content for veteran players returning to the game. It doesn’t radically reinvent the base game, but nails the perfect balance of fresh and familiar that makes DLC most effective.
You’ve got excellent combat and no second thing. Maybe you want more out of a Zelda game than fighting with a light layer of story on top. That’s totally fine! But the vibes are immaculate and the gameplay is terribly compelling. If you want an intense action game that really highlights the Zelda of it all, then Age of Imprisonment is exactly what you’re looking for.
FM 26 remains the best management sim available, and it’s easy to lose hours to its deep, endlessly rewarding gameplay loop.
If you have any love for Mortal Kombat, the Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is a must-buy. It’s arguably the best retro game collection of all-time.
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The Jackbox Party Pack 11 is another fantastic set. One of its strengths is that it has three games that are variations of classic Jackbox Games. But that could also be a deterrent for people who own some Jackbox Party Packs already.
Double Dragon Revive isn’t the rebirth fans were hoping for. Its combat impresses with a variety of defensive and environmental mechanics that add real depth to each fight, but other elements drag the experience down.
Thanks to its modular building systems, new juvenile dinosaurs, and engaging campaign, Jurassic World Evolution 3 is the best of the series. It feels like a more flexible and more refined version of a familiar game.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is entertaining but flawed. Excellent writing, a solid narrative, and quality performances are definitely high points. Uninspired quests and underdeveloped RPG elements suck some of the fun and potential replayability from the experience.
NASCAR 25 is impressive in its scope. From Quick Race, Championship, Multiplayer, or Career, the combinations of tracks, cars, and experiences will keep oval racing fans busy for quite a while. While not perfect, NASCAR 25 is an impressive debut entry in the series.
I’ll give Painkiller props for its imaginative weapons, sharp visuals, and visceral combat. It’s a hollow and transitory experience for solo players offline, and you can see what Painkiller has to offer in very short order. As a co-op game, it fares better.
I loved Angry Video Game Nerd 8-Bit. I was worried the gameplay might be a bit simple at first, but the level choice and non-stop gags kept things fresh.
There are a few ways in which The Outer Worlds 2 doesn’t improve on the first game. It’s bigger, deeper, and more complex. The story and characters are more satisfying. Combat has been refined. It takes its time and demands players be patient and engage in all its systems, and overlook some technical issues that pop up somewhat frequently. I can’t imagine a world — Outer or not — in which fans of the original won’t enjoy this new experience.
Setting aside its sometimes sluggish combat controls and a few frustrating mechanics, there’s a lot to enjoy about The Lonesome Guild. With beautiful art and a much-appreciated theme centering on connection and communication, The Lonesome Guild should appeal to fans of puzzle-heavy action RPGs looking for narrative depth.
At its core, Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted is the same game you fell in love with 16 years ago.
PowerWash Simulator 2 takes everything about the previous game and simply makes it better. What was already a captivating, charming, zen-like experience has been made even better with improved graphics, larger stages, and a number of fantastic QOL improvements that the fans had hoped for. New features like the scissorlift and abseiling make for subtle yet engaging improvements to the gameplay.