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.

Fall Guys is incredibly fun and joyful around almost every colorful corner, and with the inclusion of seasons that will update the game with new costumes and new maps, this is certainly a fun platform for improvement. The pudgy and yet agile characters are bursting with charm and seeing a mass rush of 60 of them trying to cram themselves through a tiny opening is downright hysterical.

Going into Ghost of Tsushima, I wasn’t sure what to expect from it. Given the titles that Sucker Punch has worked on before, and the much smaller team size when compared to other Sony first-party studios, I was a bit hesitant if they would be able to pull it off. After wrapping credits on Ghost of Tsushima, I can firmly say not only did they pull it off, but it’s easily one of my favorite first-party games for the console.

Destroy All Humans! joins a growing list of remakes and remasters that are set on capitalizing on your nostalgia, and given the properties that THQ Nordic bought up upon its resurrection, we’re likely not going to see a stop to them anytime soon. Nearly every publisher across the industry is keen on revamping and applying a new coat of paint to an old classic.

The roughly three-hour experience features a wealth of interesting characters, gorgeous storybook visuals, and some entertaining boss encounters as you attempt to track down your girlfriend Wren after you’ve awakened from a coma. While the game is largely an engaging experience, a floaty jump does give way to a few bouts of frustration.

Maneater sees you, as a rampaging bull shark, ripping through boats, flopping up on shore to gobble up those unfortunate enough to get in the way, as well as contending with an obsessive shark hunter who will stop at nothing to gut you open. It’s chaotic, often buggy, filled with repetitive open-world busywork, but still grants an overally enjoyable experience nonetheless.

With a slick presentation and solid use of its antagonist, The Coma 2 is a solid horror game at a budget price. Its roughly 10-hour journey entertains with an interesting story, characters, and a richly detailed world. While I received a code to try out this game, it led me to immediately purchase the original game to dive more into the backstory of what happened before.