This is basically an open-world first-person shooter that’s visibly inspired by and using a lot of the toys from survival horror, and it doesn’t quite manage that fusion with grace. However, Ghostwire is charming, interesting, and creepy enough that I’ve enjoyed my time with it.

WWE 2K22 is a fantastic game and one of the better offerings in the 2K era of the long-running franchise. The core gameplay isn’t quite as solid as it was in 2K19, but that’s something that can be improved upon later in some ways with things like a patch at least being able to do things like address locking in carry holds. The planned post-launch content map showcases a lot of legendary characters throughout WWE history and the launch DLC with the multi-era Undertaker and NWO content is excellent and makes recreating some of WCW’s most memorable feuds a breeze.

Like the original, GRID Legends aims to not only offer many kinds of racing, but do them at a fairly high level. That is a lofty goal, but one that is largely achieved albeit with a few odd sacrifices. The exciting on-track action is undercut by only the story mode having a bumping soundtrack, and that’s just a bizarre move that I don’t recall saying in a modern-day racer. Franchise fatigue is a real thing and the GRID reboot was hurt by being a series of races with no framework, while everything in GRID Legends has a sense of purpose to it that helps keep a “one more race” mentality throughout each play session. It’s an outstanding racing game and one that fans of the genre should pick up.

As a whole, Horizon Forbidden West tops the original game even if it doesn’t reinvent the wheel in quite the same way. Much like how The Last of Us 2 had a lot to live up to and struggled to do so, but was a superior game technically, the same holds true here. The gameplay here is more exciting as is the moment-to-moment storytelling. The pacing is faster and with that comes a bit less time for the story to breathe at points. However, it’s still a great story overall and one that keeps the player engaged from start to finish. Forbidden West is a fantastic looking, sounding and playing experience that benefits from the addition of motion controls in way that few AAA-level games have showcased before. If you enjoyed the original game, be sure to pick up the sequel – although newcomers can enjoy the action just as much, as the story can be easy to get lost in without knowing the cast and the world.

Dark Souls fans rejoice! Elden Ring is exactly the game you have been hoping it would be, I think, and it is created in grand style. I feel pretty frustrated that the keyboard controls are either so broken or so poorly laid out that I just couldn’t figure them out, and I spent a lot of time trying to (and where some things lie in the menu system are crazy counterintuitive), and I installed it on two different machines to see if it was a hardware problem (note: didn’t help). Elden Ring actually made me want to go back and play Skyrim again, because it always seemed to me that GUI was very well laid out and just made sense. But for you gamepad guys, sharpen up your sword and get in there. You have blood to spill (a lot of which may be your own).

Overall, Gran Turismo 7 is the greatest entry in the series to date and the perfect gateway game for those who are lapsed fans of the series. It takes everything the series has done right while cutting back greatly on things that have bogged it down over the years and outside of the lootboxes, feels like about as perfect an entry in the series as one could imagine. The completely restructured career mode makes for a far more fun and engaging experience and the menu overhaul makes everything so much easier to do. It looks great, plays near-perfectly, and is the exact kind of game I always wanted from the series. Simply put, Gran Turismo 7 is a must-buy for racing fans.

For now, though, I’d give Dying Light 2 a strong recommendation. You do need to put up with its first rough couple of hours before it really comes together, and it’s got some sore spots here and there, but it’s a solid, well-designed, surprisingly optimistic zombie game. I’ve enjoyed my time with it so far.

I can say that the decision to switch classes for specialists has met with a metric crapton of criticism on the interwebs, and in that I’m in agreement with the masses – thus far, about 20 hours in, all the specialists play the same to me, though I think most people will gravitate towards either the wingsuit or the grappling hook as being the most fun to play with. I suspect more content is coming – at least more maps, but hopefully more modes, and maybe some AI opponents for single player opportunities – in which case this game may grow into something good (but you’ll have to buy the year one pass to get it). But as it stands, at the price it stands at, I can’t recommend it.

So Age of Empires IV is well put together and polished to high hell. I wish that something new had been done to bring the RTS genre that has been sitting more or less idle for a decade or so into the modern era, but you can’t have everything, and I suspect that more stuff like a map editor will be added in the future. Beyond that, with the recently released AOE2 Definitive Edition, that title, now 22 years old and $30 cheaper, already comes with a map editor that AOE4 lacks, and roughly a trillion player-made maps, and is probably the better bargain for your gaming dollar, especially if somehow you never got around to playing it previously.

Forza Horizon 5 takes an already-amazing series and makes it better with a grander scale, but also an increase in quality. Even in its earliest days, it’s clear that the game will have a longer shelf life than prior entries thanks to the revamping of user-generated content adding more kinds of gameplay to the mix. Having things like obstacle courses thrown in helps evoke a bit of Project Gotham Racing, while the increase in NPCs and overall world-building makes for a better overall experience. Forza Horizon 5 is a more back-to-basics game in the sense that it puts the player on an ascendable ladder and doesn’t feel aimless like the prior two games – which in hindsight, were a bit unwieldy with regards to giving the player a set path to actually enjoy its many offerings. Forza Horizon 5 is the best entry in the series yet and should only get better as time goes on and more content is added.

Overall, Riders Republic is a fantastic game and the most addictive extreme sports game on the market outside of maybe the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 remake. The variety of sports enables the experience to remain fresh, while those wanting a greater challenge can enjoy more events faster by stepping their game up and going for a more all-encompassing experience with more tricks and tougher difficulty. Cross-generation buyers will be in for a far better experience on the PS5 thanks to the SSD speeding things up and making for a much smoother experience, but the PS4 version is impressive given the tech. If it wasn’t for the SSD’s speed, the feeling of both versions’ races would be quite similar and you can’t go wrong with any version.

On the whole, I really like B4B. I’d like to see the difficulty spikes addressed and some expanded PvP choices, both of which I think can and will be pretty easily added and fixed. I’m also hoping that more people start playing it, as most of the runs I’ve joined have at least one BOT in it and is often nothing but BOTs (and when I’m playing with nothing but BOTs, why do I have to wait for online server space to play it?). The BOTs are competent shooters, and use their player advantages pretty well, but have zero ability with regards to the additional level objectives – they won’t plant explosives or carry supplies, and they tend to hang near you, which is good from a survival perspective, but doesn’t help in finding weapon and healing caches. But for a team that plays well together, and I’m hoping to get my crew to move over from L4D, it’s a fine zombie run and gun.

I applaud Arkane for switching up the Dishonored stealth/action formula here, and for addressing a few of the issues Dishonored had. Deathloop just feels too limited by comparison, though, and too repetitive by half besides. I know a lot of people who really like it, but it fell pretty flat for me.

Overall, Sonic Colors Ultimate is a must-buy for anyone who loved the original release – or who missed it and always wanted to try it out. On the PS4 and PS5, it plays wonderfully and our time netted zero issues either visually or with crashes. Some have reported issues on the Switch version and it seems like it would be best to wait for that one to get fixed-up before buying. However, if you’re playing on PlayStation and Xbox hardware, you’re in great shape to enjoy one of Sonic’s finest adventures ever and his best 3D outing in history.

As great as Marvel’s Avengers was, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy takes the framework of combat there and fine-tunes it.

With graphical refinements that create a better-looking experience, the PS5 version of Final Fantasy VII Remake is the best way to experience the core game, while Intermission is a finely-tuned side story. Yuffie is completely unlike any other character in the main adventure, and will make for a lot of fun to use when she takes on a bigger overall role in future entries of Remake. Anyone who held off until now to get the game will be happy to see just how much more of Midgar’s world is showcased in Remake versus the original release in ’97, and those wanting a faster-paced gameplay experience will love the action-centric take on FF VII’s ATB system. It’s a must-buy for long-time fans of the series and PS4 owners of the original full-on Remake release can upgrade to the PS5 version for free, with Intermission only costing $20.

After an iffy PS4 entry, Rift Apart delivers the full-on next generation experience for series fans and newcomers alike. It’s the best showcase game the PS5 has had yet and makes the on-board SSD shine in ways that truly impress when you take a step back to soak in just what’s happening in real-time.

Look, Mass Effect Legendary Edition isn’t bad. It’s good. It’s as good as a revamping of the original series all delivered in one sleek package can be. I’m just not sure who has been asking for that.

As it stands now, Biomutant is a flawed, but super-fun game that is well-worth picking up as long as you come into it with an open-mind and are prepared for an experience that may not top the charts visually, but offers a fun blend of combat that can’t be found anywhere else.

A game with a fundamentally really messed up economy in a lot of ways (money, trust, gas, ammunition, motorcycle repair – none of it works right) wrapped around a so-so open world zombie combat sandbox. I think more than anything else, it makes me want to play more Dying Light.

The game’s blend of an original Metroid-style progression system with a rogue-lite and a bit of Alien thrown in with the unknown nature of the world makes Returnal a compelling experience at all times. It looks and sounds great and controls like a dream – although it would be nice if gyroscopic aiming was added in later on for a bit more intuitive control.

Whenever I decide to try and play Outriders, I enjoy it, but it is a visible crapshoot whether it’ll crash or disconnect on me before I have the chance to do anything fun. Other players have reported losing their entire inventories or having consistent fatal errors. The game flat-out doesn’t feel complete. Again, though, I have cleared the story campaign, so Outriders has a few things going for it. I’d like to see a sequel that addresses some of this, by getting rid of the always-online functionality, ditching some of the petty annoyances like how fast travel works between zones, and generally getting the game to a place where it doesn’t crash every hour or so. As it stands, it’s good, but obnoxious, and might be better after a few solid patches.

Overall, I have mixed feelings about Evil Genius 2. It does a nice enough job of modernizing the original game, and it has far more replay value than the original game had (with four evil geniuses and three islands to choose from, where each choice changes the way you play the game). But the 60+ hour campaign is a slow slog, and it wears out its welcome so thoroughly that you might not even care about replay value by the time you finally grind your way through it. I could see Evil Genius 2 getting better after patching and DLC, but it’s tough to see how Revolution can possibly fix the campaign. And so Evil Genius 2 is a coin flip for me. Get it if you loved the original game, or if base-building / tower defense games are your cup of tea. Wait for patches and a sale otherwise.

The Groundhog Day of tile-based fantasy RPGs, Loop Hero is a unique, highly addictive and well-crafted roguelike that will have you saying, “just one more loop.” If this mix of genres intrigues you, I highly recommend you check the game out.

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury is one of the best values on the Switch. It goes above and beyond the usual port jobs to create a whole new experience – one that fits the platform perfectly. You can easily lose hours playing stages to completion or kick back for five minutes and play a single stage in portable mode and have a blast. This is a very versatile adventure and one that all past and present fans of Mario should pick up.

Overall, this is a fascinating disappointment. Earthblood is the bones of several good ideas, awkwardly welded together and thrown out into the world. It feels more like Cyanide had a stealth/action game lying around that they decided on a whim to staple a lot of the Werewolf license onto, and while it does do some justice to its source material, it’s not really much fun.

Medium is definitely the most ambitious project of Bloober Team, albeit it cannot completely avoid the moniker of an “AA” production. The visuals of both the real and metaphysical worlds are of high quality, the story keeps the interest high and the music is the glue that holds firmly together the whole experience. If only it tried to offer more depth in its overly simplistic environmental puzzles and gameplay in general.

If you’re a fan of older adventure games, like Syberia or Still Life, The Medium was made almost specifically for you. If you’re an old-school survival horror fan who doesn’t think the genre’s done better than Silent Hill 2 in 20 years, The Medium is very much in your wheelhouse. If you’re not in either of those categories, I’m not sure if you’d get past the first 20 minutes. For me, it’s a 90%, because I’ll be thinking about this one for a while, but I can’t give it more than an extremely qualified recommendation.