Leon Lockhart

Star Fox is a gorgeous and solid remake that brings this classic arcade shooter into the present.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is a beautiful, charming, and frequently brilliant action RPG that earns its inspirations. If Team Asano and Claytechworks get to make a sequel with this engine and the rough edges get smoothed out, they'll have something even more special.

Rise of the Tomb Raider is the strongest entry in the Survivor trilogy, and nothing about this port changes that judgment. But the question is whether the Switch 2 is the right place to experience it. For first-timers, the case is straightforward: the price is reasonable, the DLC bundle is...

Serpent's Gaze is one of the more interesting indie soulslike debuts I've come across recently. The overall idea is great, but I’d like to see smoother combat and some sort of meta progression. This game is far from being ready though, so I’d keep this on a watchlist rather than...

Luna Abyss is a confident and atmospheric debut held back by technical hiccups and balancing issues. But the world design and the combat puzzles are undeniably praiseworthy.

Saros is one of PlayStation’s finest action games and a strong candidate for 2026 Game of the Year conversations come December.

If you bounced off Diablo IV at launch, this is a reasonable time to come back, ideally a week or two from now once the servers have settled. The PlayStation 5 edition, specifically, is an excellent port other than the lack of meaningful DualSense integration. If you liked the base...

Ereban: Shadow Legacy Console Edition is a great port that translates wonderfully to the PS5 controller. Check it out if you haven't already!

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake is easily one of the most terrifying horror games on the market. The Camera Obscura remains one of the coolest combat systems in gaming, but the movement and combat pacing still feel weirdly stuck in the early 2000s.

This is the best Monster Hunter Stories game to date. Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection outclasses Wings of Ruin in narrative depth, visual fidelity, combat complexity, and world design. The game has a high learning curve, but once you get a hang of it, it holds its own in...

Nioh 3 is Team Ninja firing on all cylinders. Combat hits harder and feels more varied than anything else in the genre right now. This is the action RPG to beat this year. 

This isn't a perfect entry point to the series. If you've never played an Octopath game before, start with the second one. But if you've already experienced both previous entries and want more of this specific flavor of JRPG, Octopath Traveler 0 offers enough new ideas and refined systems. Square...