Shattered: Tale of the Forgotten King is inspired by the beloved Dark Souls series. It has all the trappings you look for all while dolled up in a gorgeous aesthetic and massive open world. However, its world lacks rewarding exploration, and its combat, while mostly enjoyable, lacks any sort of weight. There is a good game here, but you do have to spend a good deal of frustration to find it.
Trek to Yomi largely succeeds with a truly brutal and satisfying combat system that unfortunately takes a while to find its stride. The direction to depict its era is well met with gorgeous backdrops that elevate the game to honor its inspirations even if its occasionally far too pulled back camera, lackluster villain, and forgettable cast sadly disappoint.
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is a joyous blast that is constantly fun to play. The shooting mechanics and spells are incredibly satisfying, with storytelling that is years ahead of whatever Borderlands 3 tried doing. Still, it does feel a bit too safe, lacks innovation, and my playthrough was littered with bugs, and not the kind that explode when you shoot them.
Road 96 sees you in the roles of six missing teens, each heading north to a border that might end in their freedom, or hauled away to a labor camp. Along the journey, you’ll either get picked up by a deranged cab driver or a pair of bumbling criminals always talking about that next big score. Your choices will dictate the path around you as well as shape its world and the characters that you’ll come to rely on.
Forgotten Land may not have the budget that Nintendo gives to their flagship titles such as Mario or The Legend of Zelda, but that doesn’t stop Kirby and the Forgotten Land from being one of Nintendo’s best in years. With the new Mouthful Mode, Kirby will take the forms of Cars, Pylons, Staircases, and more, all in an effort to say the Waddle Dee’s from the forces of evil.
As a partial retelling of the first Final Fantasy, you’ll join Jack on his quest to rid the world of Chaos. As you hack and slash through themed environments based on Final Fantasy games of the past, you’ll take part in combat via a series of over two dozen jobs, complete with a wide variety of weapons and gear. While combat satisfies greatly, the story, characters, and visuals sadly do not.
Weird West, an occult flavored CRPG, is definitely worth playing, but it does suffer from some growing pains of creating a new property and controlling how much repetition there is in its environments and combat systems. That said, the story, characters, and world are all interesting, and often engaging and while the game could be a bit weirder, it still offers a fun time for about 20 hours.
Elden Ring will go down as FromSoftware’s most successful entry and its most played to completion as well. While there is no direct easy mode, the sheer flexibility of its open world, and how you engage with it, can certainly make the game more accessible. While Elden Ring is full of challenge and intrigue, its vast open-world is the first in years where I felt a true sense of discovery.
KOF XV feels like a greatest hits of the series, featuring a wealth of past favorites, and is a gorgeous game to boot. Its fighting systems are deep enough for the hardcore player yet friendly enough for newcomers, which is sadly not shared with its nonsensical story. Despite its great presentation and gameplay, it lacks staying power in its few modes, which hopefully will see some love via various DLC additions later on.
Horizon Forbidden West is a damn impressive adventure with stunning visuals, a solid story, and a presentation that is often unrivaled. However, the game is also plagued by several technical problems, a map that has already labeled where all the fun is, and a collection of activities that can often feel like filler.
Shadow Warrior 3 certainly lacks the depth of its predecessor but does in some ways make up for it with its fast-paced action and focus on delivering a gory and mobility-centric experience. With a satisfying grappling hook and the ability to wall-run and rip apart enemies for new weaponry, Lo Wang’s newest adventure is a flawed but enjoyable action-shooter.
Elex II fits well into the eurojank conversation, offering a world and gameplay approach that fits well in that classification. It’s not a technical marvel or visually stunning, but it is an incredibly fun adventure to those who set certain expectations on what it’s going to offer. As you form alliances in an effort to combat an alien threat, Jax will use his numerous powers to save Magalan.
Monark, a horror-aesthetic JPRG by some of the creative minds of the Shin Megami Tensei series, is certainly an interesting game that does more right than it does wrong. While it has a largely enjoyable narrative, punctuated with a solid overall cast and deep combat system, it can often feel undermined by an incredibly poor progression system that brings the grind to the forefront of the experience.
The walking simulator has often resulted in some fantastic gaming experiences. From Dead Esther, Gone Home, to the more horror-influenced Amnesia series. While The Dead Tree of Ranchiuna is certainly a fit for the genre, it lacks any significant offering in anything that resembles a satisfying experience.
Chorus tells the story of Nara, an ex-disciple of a cult called The Circle, and responsible for the destruction of Namika Prime. Stricken with guilt over the atrocities she committed in their name, she flees to the far side of the galaxy, hoping to atone for her sins far away from her former Master.
Rainbow Six: Extraction has all the trappings of a traditional Rainbox Six game, but throws us a curveball with the inclusion of Aliens. While the game initially has Left 4 Dead vibes, the stealth nature of its early game certainly works in its favor, leading up to its intense action-packed endgame that tests your teamwork as much as your skills with a gun.
As you travel this strange world in the hopes of a big payday, vacuum arm’d Rani, will encounter a long-lost secret that will cause her to dive deep into the planet’s mystery. While The Gunk certainly sounds exciting, and can often be enjoyable, the execution of its mechanics and upgrade systems are shallow at best, making it out to be a game that will largely be forgotten.
Halo Infinite is going to mean something different to a lot of people. It’s also the first of the series to release on a subscription service, let alone having the entirety of its multiplayer available free to play. The long-awaited return of the Master Chief is also structured in an open world, giving you a vastness that the series has only hinted at before.
