Hints of a solid, finished shooter shine in CrossfireX at times, but at the end of the day, all you're getting is a short, average campaign and a multiplayer experience that lacks content and feels torn between two worlds.
After Us features a sprawling, desolate world painstakingly crafted to show the destruction wrought by human greed, but its camera controls and level design make the platforming awkward and often frustrating.
From its distinctive art style to its decently fleshed-out world, Kitaria Fables is as cute as they come and filled with its own personal brand of charm. However, surprisingly engrossing combat and a stable experience don't cover the myriad of strange game design decisions that cause Kitaria Fables to move at glacial pace.
Wizard with a Gun from Devolver Digital and Galvanic Games successfully builds an enthralling apocalyptic world with unique time and magic-based mechanics to power its addictive, roguelite gameplay loop. Some rough performance and visual edges detract from the magic, though.
Layers of Fear (2023) makes full use of Unreal Engine 5 to elevate its visuals, lighting, and environments to all-new heights, reimagines the original Layers of Fear, and features brand-new DLC content to tie the entire story together. Layers of Fear 2 still struggles to compare, however, and scares often fail to land.
Atomic Heart nails the art design and core gameplay loops but loses focus due to its vast array of game mechanics and untailored open-world segments. Inconsistent writing quality and inaccessible game design will likely frustrate many players, but Atomic Heart can still manage to be an incredibly fun adventure.
Saints Row (2022) succeeds at returning to the roots of its predecessors by paring back the outlandish absurdity without losing an ounce of chaos, but sometimes feels as if it's holding on too tightly to a past best left forgotten. Plus, it has a distinct lack of polish.
Weird West's astounding world-building and intriguing singleplayer campaign are worth the cost of entry on their own, but the game's lackluster technical performance and polish are huge negatives that prevent it from achieving greatness.
Shredders is a fun, straightforward dive into the world of snowboarding, with mostly great controls and movements, and plenty of real-world influences. Some rough edges and often poor performance are all that hold this title back.
If you've ever desired to roleplay as a variety of avian creatures with a tendency to pull off sick tricks on four-wheeled boards, then SkateBIRD is basically your only option. This cute indie game successfully delivers a goofy skateboarding experience most of the time, but annoying and plain inconsistent movement as well as some boring level design prevent SkateBIRD from being great.
Capcom's new franchise takes another stab at combining action and strategy game genres, and it does so with great success. This tower-defense-like pits you against varied hordes of enemies across diverse challenge stages dripping with style, and it's a lot of fun to conquer. It can sometimes be frustrating more than invigorating, though.
Botany Manor is a lovely little puzzle game that's relaxing, engaging, beautiful, and approachable. It's a great first game from Balloon Studios with a lot of charm, but it's not perfect, and it's even shorter than I expected. Being a day-one addition to Xbox Game Pass, though, makes it stupendously easy to recommend Botany Manor for an afternoon of fun.
Forza Motorsport (2023) isn't just a new beginning for the legendary simulation racing franchise, it also represents a previously unreached peak for the series. Turn 10 Studios have done an incredible job delivering one of the best core driving experiences of any game, but not everything has been properly rebuilt from the ground up.
Harmony: The Fall of Reverie immediately won me over with its beautiful art design, skillful writing, and high-quality voice acting. While the finished product doesn't quite reach the same level of magic, this is still an incredible choice-based, narrative game of hope, loss, love, and humanity.
Minecraft Legends is a wonderful addition to the expanding Minecraft universe, perfectly encapsulating its character while exploring a new, unique action-strategy genre. Its two halves aren't always perfectly balanced, though, and there are certainly ways the game can improve.
Metal: Hellsinger delivers engrossing rhythm-based shooting fun alongside a genuinely fantastic metal soundtrack. The game is short and lacks environmental variety, but the allure of a bigger high score should keep players returning for more.
Cult of the Lamb isn't always perfectly balanced, but it does expertly blend two opposing game genres into a unique, action-packed occult adventure oozing with personality. This is another shining example of unparalleled indie developer creativity.
The Forgotten City is a fantastic entry in the oft-forgotten mystery-adventure genre, but a handful of flaws slightly detract from the experience.
A game like Senua's Saga: Hellblade II can only be the result of years of passion and talent, captivating you with its unbelievable visuals, impeccable audio design, and powerful thought-provoking narrative. It's a veritable masterpiece, but it's just shy of perfection thanks to an average PC port and some minor criticisms.
Apart from brief moments of frustration, Jusant is a beautiful and relaxing puzzle-adventure game.