ZTGD

This series was one of the best transitions from 2D to 3D I ever experienced. The music is simply breathtaking at times. The score moves seamlessly with the gameplay. Players can also discover branching paths in stages and there is just a lot here to unpack.

This is easily the best racing game of the year and it simply looks gorgeous. There is little to fault outside of a lack of evolution and I am sure when all is said and done I will likely invest another 50-60 hours in the game.

The Eternal Cylinder is a fever dream of a title that satisfies a lot of my tastes: exploration, puzzles, survival, lots of different abilities, truly alien landscapes, geometric shapes that desire uniformity through destruction of all of life, and hoarding.

The art style was cutesy, the combat was simple, the puzzles never overly challenging, and the story content was very warm and fuzzy and they were perfect for me. It was a breath of fresh air I didn’t know I needed, and this is easily one of those perfect games where a parent and child can sit down together and have a great time while learning some of the great golden rules of friendship and acceptance.

This is one game that I recommend whole-heartedly for anyone looking for a good psychological horror game that focuses more on exploration and puzzles than full-on combat. Don’t sleep on this one. It’s pretty great.

Lost Judgement is a step up from the original in almost every way with improved pacing, a more polished combat engine and a laundry list of fun side activities to get lost in. If not for the pedestrian detective elements, this could’ve been a new classic in the genre, and despite its notable flaws, it is still a story well worth experiencing.

It is worth playing and realize that these are problems I found with the game; other people haven’t had the same issues. However, to anyone who has never played a Metroid game before, I don’t think this is the place to start. I think it feels too different from the rest of the series (neither a good or bad thing) and the moments in the story that hit really well only do so because of everything that has happened before in previous titles.

There were some slight frame drops in combat but nothing that destroyed the game (which is great news for those who checked out PP during early access), the game has come quite a long way since launch from what I’ve heard, and the final product is a solid one.

All in all, EDF World Brothers is good, but it is also just EDF with a new coat of paint and I don’t need one every year or two. I want these titles to be special and had I not had an EDF title in the last five years (let alone two) I think World Brothers would have been more exciting to play.

Age of Empires 4 is the perfect mix of old and new and I really think the legions of fans who’ve been waiting ever so patiently for 16 years for a new entry in this storied franchise will find much to love here.