While the game itself is charming enough, its presentation, level design, and overall feel certainly make it feel very different than that of what we’ve had in the past. While I still certainly prefer the original to this modern adaptation, I still feel it earns its place in the series as a decent enough to often enjoyable entry.

Watch Dogs: Legion is impressive. It doesn’t always hit the mark with variety to its missions, but the gameplay itself, combined with the ability to recruit literally anyone, makes for a very engaging and sometimes unique experience. London itself is a joy to explore, an ever-sprawling location that honestly doesn’t get enough love in video games.

Observer: System Redux is a very impressive remake that does much to make the original game even better. The story and characters have been expanded upon, and the new quests feel right at home and have some interesting twists that make the world here even more interesting.

Given that the horror landscape has changed and evolved so much over the years, with many often taking a page out of the original’s handbook, Rebirth simply doesn’t do enough to warrant the same level of impact, often feeling like just another entry in the series.

Left alone with your brother on your birthday, Clea ventures out into the dark hallways of her home, tasked with wondering what has happened to her parents, and her nanny, Florine. Clea is a paper-doll style horror game with stunning visuals, a decent enough story, but its gameplay is sadly not as good as it could be.

Maid of Sker is loosely based on actual events, a story made popular through author R.D. Blackmore’s 1872 novel of the same name. While the game has some fantastic audio and video work to create a moody and downright eerie atmosphere, the save system and lack of being able to hide when discovered does run counter to the pacing and feel of the game.

Cloudpunk is certainly a visually striking game, there is no doubt about that. Its colorful and neon-lit city, taking place during a dark and rainy evening, just pops out at you, begging for you to just ignore your quests and just explore. While the story and characters are more than capable of adding to this gorgeous release, there is a strong degree of repetition and poor design work that does hold the game back.

Trails of Cold Steel IV is the fourth and final entry in the Cold Steel arc, bringing together characters from the previous two sagas, in an effort to save the world. With much of Class VII separated from the group, and their teacher missing, New Class VII must band together, save their allies, and rely on new friends to stop the evil that has cursed this land.

Genshin Impact is fun, and well put together, and just because you recognize some of the many pieces it’s constructed from, doesn’t discount how engaging and great the game feels, and the vast world it offers to explore. For a free to play game. the content you’re given access to is massive, allowing you to push through everything it has to offer without spending a single cent.

Mafia: Definitive Edition is a remake that does a lot of things right, but stumbles when it comes to being a full-blown modernization. Its rebuilt visuals and overhaul of the script, all come together to offer up a truly engaging experience. But as good as the game looks, its dated gameplay drags down the experience with a bevy of instant fail mechanics, a clunky combat system, and a lack of variety or personality to its large rebuilt world.

Hades is a blast to play from minute one, an action packed Rogue-like that rewards you constantly, and it feels like it never lets up on what you’re able to dig into. Every run is a joy, every death means I get to see my friends back at home, and then I would head back out there to push through to the end, to allow Zagreus to, well, you’ll have to see it for yourself.

Kingdoms of Amalur is the latest remaster from THQ Nordic. While it doesn’t have the same rebuilt visuals as some of their more recent remasters, the boosted resolution and framerate do make it the best looking version of the game. Sadly, the game is also loaded with a bevy of glitches and bugs that hurt the overall product. It’s not a terribly well crafted remaster, but the game is still as fun as its ever been.

The Suicide of Rachel Foster can certainly deal with some intense topics through its roughly 3 hour length. Nicole, a character you’ll get to know all too well, has lived with the knowledge that her father had an affair with a very young girl, a young woman who couldn’t take the pressure in her life and thus committed suicide. Or, at least, that is the official story. As Nicole heads out to the hotel once owned by her family, she’ll uncover a mystery to the truth, even if she desperately doesn’t want to know it.

While the finished game is far more functional, it’s still littered with numerous bugs, crashing at least once or twice a day for myself, and a game that is lacking in polish across the board. Now, that said, I’ve certainly found enjoyment across both its single-player campaign and its online offerings, but there are a lot of caveats that have to be addressed as the game is certainly lacking in its current form

Naruto showed us what an authentic and satisfying anime adaption can be like in video game form with Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 4, a game I still consider to be one of the best anime to game adaptions so far. It captured the anime perfectly and made the action and combat feel exactly how it needed to. It’s a shame that Fairy Tail, which is just as much of an explosive and high energy series as Naruto, didn’t get this type of game.

Battletoads is an interesting property in that while there hasn’t been a main series game in some 26 years, it still has a fairly loyal following. Being hailed as one of the most difficult games ever made, not to mention a property initially designed to compete with the popularity of the TMNT; Rash, Pimple, and Zitz haven’t exactly been given their due. While much of this new game works extremely well, its focus on providing too many types of gameplay novelties wears thin and is the poster child for tonal whiplash.

Mortal Shell, despite being a pretty shameless Dark Souls clone, shouldn’t be overlooked. The dozen or so hours you’ll invest into the game across its gorgeous but few areas are teaming with weighted combat, fierce encounters, and an unforgiving lust for your demise. For a game developed by a small team of just 15 people, it certainly has the promise to be considered one of the better takes on the Souls formula.

While the game is set in the biggest environments the series has seen thus far, the game feels drastically too ambitious for its own good, as this large scale adventure is plagued by incredibly poor texturing, constant pop-up, and significant framerate drops. These issues and more are everywhere, and while the game has seen a patch or two since release, the game at its core suffers from an over-written narrative, inconsistent pacing, and some bizarre choices that have several of its advertised features locked behind a dozen hours of progress. While there is a good game buried deep in here, it’s one that sometimes isn’t worth pursuing.

When Fast and Furious: Crossroads was first shown off at the Video Game Awards last fall, the game looked awful, featuring extremely bad visuals and gameplay that didn’t look inspiring in the slightest. Cut to release and it’s exactly how you think it was going to be. Was Bandai Namco aware of this? Well, think about how well this game was advertised and you’ll have your answer.

While the JRPG genre has seen a wide range of franchises spawning several decades, it’s rare for them to tell a connected story from game to game, often reinventing themselves with each iteration, rarely ever returning to them. The Trails series can then be looked as something of an oddity as it spans almost a dozen games, all connected and often intertwining with one another.