PCInvasion

Kakarot is mediocre as a game, but excellent as a Dragon Ball experience. The combat is just okay, the world is mostly empty, and the game has too much fluff, but as a longtime fan I enjoyed myself a lot.

Frostpunk: The Last Autumn has a promising concept and setting, but it fails to do enough differently to justify the toil. If these are the people you're trying to save, you might as well let the world freeze over.

Total War: Three Kingdoms - Mandate of Heaven presents a massive conflict and an evolving sandbox campaign, with several features and events to keep you entertained. Sadly, it's also bogged down by its reliance on older concepts that lack strategic depth, glaring bugs, as well as missed opportunities. Though you could expect to log in the extra hours, it becomes repetitious to a fault once the rebellion has been quashed.

It might have some problems with its difficulty curve, performance, and the way it's being sold, but Lightmatter is a very solid puzzle game that offers a decent amount of playtime, some very good puzzles, and a great story.

When all the profanities have been said and all the odd jobs have been done, Orangeblood is a one-of-a-kind experience that’s equal parts endearing and incoherent. There’s just enough to see, hear, and do to warrant a two-day getaway to New Koza.

Iceborne adds a lot to the game and should keep players busy for a long time. The performance will hopefully improve and the price tag is high, but there's a lot more Monster Hunter to see with this expansion. Plus, you basically have no choice but to buy this if you're already deeply invested.

“Charming”, “lively”, and “whimsical” are all traits that can be attributed to any Keita Takahashi work. Wattam’s visuals, score, and outlandish scenarios are unrivaled in how they contribute to that trademark whimsical, childlike aesthetic. But while the game does an incredible job making players feel welcome, it’s woefully apparent that it offers little in the way of gameplay to keep them engaged beyond the short story.

Paranoia feels like someone got hold of the license and then either couldn’t figure out what to do with it or had a lot of nice ideas that were then horribly constrained by budget and time. Were it budget-priced or still in Early Access, it might be forgivable. But as a full, major release? It’s too short, too annoying, and too uninteresting to recommend to anyone – even the most ardent of Paranoia fans.

Underwhelming due to a lack of meaningful content, and with a threadbare story that doesn't even bother tying up loose ends from the previous season, Destiny 2: Season of Dawn hardly brings the holiday cheer. Instead, it just brings the yawns while waiting for the next content drop in 2020.

It's rare to find a game that does this much right so often. With a huge amount of content, an entertaining story, and interesting, varied gameplay, Dragon Quest Builders 2 is really an unmissable title for anyone with even a passing interest in games about building.

The new Road to the Black Sea expansion for Euro Truck Simulator 2 offers a huge amount of gorgeous new scenery to explore. It's a great buy for both newcomers and veterans.

Frog Detective 2 makes up for a lack of complexity and length with its dopey, surreal humor and charming visual aesthetic. An evening well spent.

Vampire: the Masquerade - Coteries of New York is a well-written interactive story in the World of Darkness that fans of the franchise will enjoy. While mostly a good read, it's let down by repetitive visuals, bugs, and relatively shallow choices. Players used to approaching Vampire as an RPG should temper their expectations.

There were times when I simply didn’t want to keep playing, as tracking down parts and getting my limbs blown off while awkwardly circle-strafing around spongy enemies just made the game annoying. Granted, there are easily dozens of hours of content here for enthusiasts who don’t mind the game’s problems. But most everyone else will likely find themselves bored and aggravated by MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries.

Interrogation: You will be deceived uses its detective story and a compelling cast of characters as a jumping-off point to explore morality and social issues. Even if it sometimes gets a bit lost in the philosophical weeds at the expense of its narrative, the core gameplay of conversation puzzles and resource management is solid and the noir atmosphere absorbing.

Mosaic is the plight of the office worker reimagined for the not-to-distant dystopian future. The tedium, the soullessness, the loneliness — it's all here, presented with sleek, stylish art and simple, effective mechanics. But, the burden of virtual corporate slavery is perhaps too much to bear; the game is prone to frequent bouts of monotony that pull players out of the experience.

Halo: Reach has an engaging campaign and numerous multiplayer game modes to keep you pre-occupied. Unfortunately, various issues abound from technical woes and lack of options, to matchmaking problems, and it's hardly what you'd expect from the flagship FPS franchise's arrival on PCs. Like the protagonist's namesake, this effort is more of a "six" unless we see more patches down the line.

This game fails at almost everything it sets out to do. With janky animations, embarrassing story, awful combat mechanics, and horrible enemy layouts and AI, there's just not much positive to say about it.

Darksiders Genesis may be a new look for the series, but it doesn't sacrifice the glorious chaos fans have come to love. Gorgeous visuals, weighty combat, and a surprising amount of replayability make Darksiders Genesis something everyone can enjoy.

Phoenix Point is an engrossing project that has many a flaw and rough edge. You’d think, by the length of this article, that the game is bloody amazing. And in many ways, it is, in that it tries to be both the old X-COM game (rather than XCOM) while also being different and unique. However, it lacks polish in basically every area of the game. And when that’s done (patches do wonders), we can see if the gameplay can win over the lack of immersive story.

Although Arise: A Simple Story has its share of flaws, the experience is well worth the time. The graphics are beautiful, the levels are incredibly creative, and the musical score is deeply moving. Taken together, Arise is an excellent first effort from a new game development studio. If this is Piccolo’s first go at making a video game, I can’t wait to see what they do next. Arise tells a simple, yet moving story with beautiful graphics and incredible musical score. However, its gameplay sometimes tends to work against itself, despite its intuitive controls.

BattleTech: Heavy Metal DLC could stand to have more exciting content, so that it isn't overshadowed by the accompanying free update.

Shenmue III had to noticeably cut some corners, but is a true sequel with some new tricks up its sleeve. Newcomers will likely not really get what the fuss is about, but this is a very enjoyable game that I think will be appreciated more as time goes by.

Lost Ember departs from typical video game fighting and puzzle-solving to tell a heartfelt story through the eyes of its animal protagonist. Thanks to its stunning art direction and obvious love for its subject matter, it offers a genuine emotional payoff despite having some elements that still feel undercooked.

Although it isn't perfect, Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts manages to hit its mark. With a simple yet effective campaign presentation, massive locations and stunning visuals, and the thoroughly engaging gameplay that keeps you coming back for more due to a user-friendly progression system, it's the best Ghost Warrior title to date.