Engage continues the series trend of mashing up tactics and RPG elements, but while the latter falls flat and feels out of place, it excels in the former. And if my biggest qualms are with the game’s least Fire Emblem-y parts, I consider that a solid entry in the series.

I still haven’t made up my mind if I’m going to be returning to “World of Warcraft” any time soon, whether it is to see how “Dragonflight” evolves from here or to try out future expansions. But after all these years, I’m glad I returned to witness the start of a new journey for a group that spent decades in stasis. Seeing the Dracthyr regaining control of their fate gave me hope that the next time I visit Azeroth, the people behind this world might have freed themselves from their historic shackles.

Dwarf Fortress is a storytelling engine as much as it is a game, spitting out associations and facts and details that you can shape into a coherent and specific narrative. This is also what we do to our own lives, personifying random events so that they feel significant rather than a matter of chance. Life isn’t usually a satisfying narrative. It isn’t so much that “Dwarf Fortress” is a perfect simulacrum of life, but that it shines a bright light on the human tendency to look for meaning in everything. I care about my dwarves because the stories I make up about their lives are also the ones I make up about my own.

The overarching problem, I think, is that the game rarely sets up its horror. The best horror films and games ramp up the tension — and release it with a scare. But a neighbor coming up to you and catching you while you attempt to solve a puzzle mostly just feels random. There’s no setup — just surprise from something you couldn’t possibly foresee. More often than not, as I hid in closets from my pursuers, I felt frustrated rather than scared. I either wanted to continue what I was doing before, or for the pursuers to find me just to get it over with.

This uneven mix of humor and design keeps High on Life from ever feeling like a natural combination of video game and traditional comedy, even if there are plenty of moments where glimpses of some better blend of the two elements appears. What’s here is worthwhile for audiences curious about the concept of a comedy shooter, but it’s too uneven and stiflingly desperate to please to recommend beyond that.

Striking Distance’s debut is a swing and a miss, but The Callisto Protocol ends on a cliffhanger. If the studio decides to revisit the series with a sequel, I’m hoping the second outing will be better than the first.

Need for Speed Unbound handily straddles the line between realism and fun, making it one of the best racing experiences of the year.

From a narrative standpoint, it’s tough to tie up all of a story’s threads when any one of them can end at any time, and “The Devil in Me” exhibits the usual flaws of that approach. Characters tend to be awkwardly sidelined, and motivations don’t quite coalesce. Even the hulking murderer who can kill every character begins to feel a little inept when we spend so much time dodging his killing blows.

Aside from the perspiration provided by an initial landing at a crowded point of interest, or the jaw-clenching moments of the final circle, the pace of play is deliberate, allowing players to think, look around and take advantage of the battleground in clever and effective ways.

There are funnier games out there, from the refined comedic diction of “Untitled Goose Game” to the sardonic humor of “Portal.” But it’s the thrill of discovering ludicrous scenes, and the delight of digging into every crook and cranny in search of more absurd secrets to unearth, that elevates “Goat Simulator 3” above the one-note joke of the original game. Take a long walk along a quiet street, or hitch a ride on a moving van toward the next city. Perhaps you’ll spot the sigil of Baphomet, or meet a clandestine group of occult worshipers, hidden behind the dense foliage of bushes and low-hanging trees. Drag a scarecrow into a satanic circle or two, and see what unfolds; it’s usually an unexpected treat.

Somerville reminded me of the qualities that I cherish in adventure games, particularly their ability to plunge one into the unexpected. I appreciated how its mechanics sidestep the usual weaponry that goes along with science-fiction games. (A gun-toting, super-soldier shows up at one point, but things don’t end well for them.) “Somerville” effortlessly pulled me in from moment to moment because I was eager to discover the next audiovisual flourish around the corner. There is a sequence toward the end where the man revisits places that is particularly captivating for the way in which it makes the familiar strange. That said, I was a little disappointed with the final scene in the game, which struck me as an overly familiar allusion to the ending of Tarkovsky’s film “Solaris.” But that aside, “Somerville” is the best adventure game I’ve played since “Little Nightmares 2.”

The core mechanics and the gameplay loop are satisfying enough to keep you coming back. The Pokémon designs of the ones you can get in the Paldea region are great and varied...But the pacing and graphical disappointments keep “Scarlet” and “Violet” from being the best open-world games we know the series is capable of producing. One thing that Game Freak really needs to correct before they take another stab at the next major Pokémon game is this graphical stuff, like the frame rate issues and the draw distance and just basic things that you need for players to actively engage with the world you’ve created.

I think this is a really good step forward for the series and I love how much the series has been growing, how they’ve been incorporating more modern features and becoming more accessible for players. I still had a ton of fun playing. Really, the biggest knocks against it would be the repetitiveness of some challenges and the graphical issues.

There’s something dedicated Sonic fans see in “Frontiers” that others simply don’t, and it’s not just nostalgia.

The game’s name refers to the reappearance of an element in a painting that an artist had painted over. As much as characters in “Pentiment” might fight to maintain the status quo or to turn away from history and heartbreak, they’re no match for the forces that send humanity hurtling forward. While I initially started “Pentiment” hoping for a riveting distraction, what I ended up with was a game about uncovering history and past trauma. In many ways, it is more admirable, brutal and perhaps healing to just face these problems head on.

Popular entertainment these days is obsessed with lore to a fault. Disney’s Marvel and Star Wars franchises have entire councils of people devoted to keeping lore straight across these stories. Even 2022′s biggest game, “Elden Ring,” was essentially a story all about lore. Despite tapping into well-mined Norse mythology, “Ragnarok” is focused squarely on seeing and hearing its characters. Like Kratos, you will actually like spending time with them. The memories of these people will stay with you long after the credits roll. By the end, you will believe that even a god of war can earn himself some peace.

As enjoyable as Modern Warfare II is — and it is certainly enjoyable on the whole — the moments when the story prompts uncomfortable real-world questions about the game’s intentions shatter its illusion of immersive entertainment. In those moments, I forget about whatever it is that Capt. Price and Co. are tasked with doing and just wonder what people were thinking when they made the decision to include whatever cringeworthy moment I just witnessed. As Infinity Ward plunges ahead with this story — teasing an upcoming Russian attack during a mid-credits cutscene that includes a nod to the airport massacre from the original Modern Warfare 2 — they’d do well to devote a little more scrutiny to such decisions. [Campaign Review]

For some players, Signalis will summon to mind the halcyon days of playing the original PS1 version of “Resident Evil 2” in the late ’90s, or even its miraculously faithful replica on the Nintendo 64. Signalis is itself something of a faithful replica, an acolyte in thrall to an old — and supposedly antiquated — master. But the game finds the classic survival horror genre in fine health.

New Tales from the Borderlands” takes a lot of what made Telltale’s gameplay unique and either keeps it the same or improves on it.

Though pandemic fiction may seem like the last thing audiences need right now, the catharsis “Requiem” provides is a valuable salve. It reminds us that others, today and in the past, feel or have felt our same confusion, fear and grief. In this, it makes an argument not for hiding the toll of so much pain away in the shadows, secreting bodies in dark passageways, but of bringing everything out into the light of day so we can try to hear what notes of hope sing through the darkness.

Scorn is an art house experience. I’m sure that other reviewers will plumb “Scorn” for its hidden high-minded commentary on the human condition, but for me, the appeal of the game is how it made me feel rather than think. I felt a constant, humming anxiety for simply existing in its macabre world. I was never particularly scared of anything I encountered; like the playable creature, I just wanted out.

At its core, PGA Tour 2K23 remains a good, solid golf game that has benefited greatly from a lack of competition. I’m not too bothered by not being able to play St. Andrews at the moment because I simply don’t have that option unless I want to dig out “Rory McIlroy PGA Tour” on PS4. But when EA returns to the field, will the most enjoyable parts of “2K23” still hold up? Or will the appeal of those courses I badly miss pull me back to EA?

Modestly priced at $40, Nier: Automata offers dozens of hours of content in a port that sees sensible compromise (blurrier textures, a capped framerate) while retaining what makes the experience an opera of spectacle and mood. Its launch this week further strengthens the deep quality of the Nintendo Switch’s growing library, and it is immediately one of the best titles you could own on the platform.

Overwatch 2’s launch issues are still awful. Like most of you, dear readers, I didn’t get an advance copy of the game or any special connection privileges. I was with all of you in the trenches, dealing with the constant error messages and inexhaustible queues. The game’s new battle pass system remains questionable and concerning...But I am very pleased with the core gameplay changes and where the game is headed. Game development is a group effort, and although Kaplan is deeply missed, I see these changes as evidence that Team 4 is still capable of magic, and eager to prove it.

In a way, it’s the FPS genre that grants players a kind of agency that rhythm games haven’t — the freedom and exhilaration of performance. You can execute kills to the beat of your internal pulse, with the act of shooting bodies and popping heads forming a pleasing rhythm. That’s why playing “Metal: Hellsinger” can almost feel like you’re holding the drumsticks yourself, as you blaze through demon hordes with a percussive flow of your own.

[“Return to Monkey Island” is] a wonderful, heartfelt adventure game that made me laugh all the way through.

Some writers have described “Immortality” as being about burnout or auteurism (the final few scenes can be read as evidence for that theory). But that’s not quite right, akin to saying Star Wars is about space. Artistry does not grant privileged access to decency or good nature. That is what the game is, not what it is about. It’s text, not subtext. For so long as “Immortality” uses that as a starting point to probe further, it is a high water mark for gaming in 2022. When the characters are allowed to be people — not vampires nor aliens nor angels but people who are tired, embarrassed, horny, funny, naive, voyeuristic, creepy and more — each frame’s richness is its own reward.

What Temtem has achieved is remarkable. After two years of being dubbed a copycat, its long-awaited launch may yet inspire copycats of its own.