Though that franchise is seemingly dead, Project Motor Racing is here to fill the gap, a spiritual sequel to Project CARS 2 whose main influence is as thinly veiled as its title and whose development team is largely intact. This is a dedicated simulation that puts every emphasis on the distinct feel of each individual car, the in-depth modifications that can completely change how you drive, and the sights and sounds of the racetrack throughout race weekend.

It’s a gorgeous, visually and sonically striking game that offers even deeper car and race customization, which really hums when everything clicks. At the same time, though, its focus on so many small details leaves the broader experience feeling aimless, and at full price, it’s notably content-light at launch and relies heavily on the promise of future content updates and mods, feeling significantly scaled back from its spiritual predecessors.

"The Career mode, where much of the game’s training takes place before sending you into the world of ranked online play, is significantly scaled back."

While arcade racers often leave the car fine-tuning and mid-race adjustments in the dust, Project Motor Racing opts to make them a focal point of the experience, and with the number and detail of options available, this is a game made for the most hardcore motor racing fans.

From your suspension profile to your tire compound, the drivers who optimize their car for the track and conditions are the ones who compete for the championship each weekend, and the new Hadron engine that powers the new handling system gives each car a vivid feel, whether you’re leading the pack at the end of a race or spinning out in practice. I mostly played on a gamepad, where keeping control of your vehicle while competing is at least manageable if a little unpredictable around tight turns, but this game shines on a wheel with phenomenal feedback and truly distinct handling for each car class.

What the detailed optionality comes at the expense of, though, is accessibility. While I hesitate to make direct mode comparisons to Project CARS 2 given the differences in budget and studio size, what’s disheartening in Project Motor Racing is the broad lack of tutorials or guidance.

It might make sense that a hardcore simulation is made for those familiar with these cars and tracks already, but unlike its predecessors, it’s going to feel overwhelming to those who don’t already know what they’re looking for. Aside from a brief introductory tutorial, there are almost no materials to help you learn about which tweaks will have what impact, nor are there recommendations for how to set up your car given track conditions or performance.

Additionally, the Career mode, where much of the game’s training takes place before sending you into the world of ranked online play, is significantly scaled back as well, ultimately landing as a series of individual grand prix weekends strung together loosely with its financial overhang. With a underwhelming career mode, its remarkable limitations in its off-track customization stand out even more.

When you begin, you can choose from an “Authentic” or “Classic” experience, with the only difference being the ability to restart races and the ability to change AI difficulty at the beginning of the Career. Your only real other choice is the sponsorship model, which dictates your income and ranges from the “Rolling Billboard” model that pays you the same amount each race regardless of performance to the “Champion” model that pays nothing unless you win the weekend.

"When the sights, sounds, and feels of a race all come together, Project Motor Racing is truly remarkable."

Those choices are made before you start your first race, so even though you also need to purchase cars and pay entry fees for each race weekend, once you finalize your Career settings, there’s almost no other decision-making to be done afterward. Outside of the Career mode, too, the modes are particularly sparse, only offering quick play, online play, and a handful of time or endurance challenges that promise to have more created by the community. Every mode, from the ranked online to the career, is about funneling you to different forms of races or challenges, but I wish it had some more creativity about how it went about doing that.

Regardless, from that point forward, it’s all about the remarkable on-track experience, a continued strength for the team at Straight4 Studios. Whether you’re practicing, running a race, or spectating, this game looks and sounds absolutely stunning, as different car classes whiz by and tires screech across dynamically-paved tracks.

Each car is intricately recreated both in its performance and its design, and each track is nearly photorealistic to its real-life counterpart, dynamically changing with incredibly impressive weather and timing effects that can make races on the same track feel completely different. Even the music that plays on menus and during setup had me bobbing my head along with it surprised at how much I was consistently enjoying it.

When the sights, sounds, and feels of a race all come together, Project Motor Racing is truly remarkable, especially with higher car classes and at higher difficulties. With so many moving parts, though, it can unfortunately be daunting how much the game expects of you given how little guidance it provides.

Unless you’re in a match with custom rules, penalties are always on, and the only option to change the difficulty is to adjust the computer drivers’ intelligence level. With no ability to rewind, or in some cases to even restart a race, every turn, acceleration, and bump can spell the end for you and your run. Even the online matches, for example, require you to complete 8 laps at Lime Rock Park at just over a minute per lap to even gain access to the league, and that time is no joke.

"Shortcomings aside, Project Motor Racing is a promising start to righting the ship for the racing sim genre."

Without a proper tutorial, or much in the way of recommendations for how to best prepare for a certain race, there’s an inherently unforgiving and aimless structure here that can cause a cycle of failure that might turn new players off before they get the hang of it, even if the payoff is usually worth it. At the same time, the game expects you to put in a significant amount of time and effort to learning its tracks and cars, but it doesn’t offer a heap of content.

With 18 tracks and 70 cars across 13 classes, the roster here is notably smaller than many other games in the genre, including the Project CARS games, even if what it has to offer is done very well. The track listing contains most of the common tracks you’d expect like the Nurburgring and Daytona, and the cars each legitimately feel unique from one another, though I am disappointed we didn’t get to see go-karts again. It’s clear, though, that with this amount of content and a full $70 price tag, this game is made for people who want to go as deep with their car customization and racing styles as possible to optimize their lap and racing times, almost to the point of feeling more like a training simulator for real-life drivers than a racing game at points.

Shortcomings aside, Project Motor Racing is a promising start to righting the ship for the racing sim genre. Experiencing how each individual car handles differently based on different setup tweaks, watching the weather change in real-time, and hitting a turn perfectly feel incredible with the new engine, even if the limited amount of content and guidance kneecaps the appeal to non-hardcore racers.

It’s an experience that can have you jumping from elation to frustration in a moment, for better and for worse. Regardless, if this is the beginning of a new racing sim franchise that can build and expand on this foundation in the same way as the ones that came before it, I’m excited about what the future holds for Project Motor Racing.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

Change the perspective between 1st and 3rd person

Among many gameplay settings in The Outer Worlds 2 is the option to switch between first-person and third-person view. This is becoming a common setting across these types of RPGs, and while I personally continue to play them primarily in first-person, the third-person view here is just as high- quality of an experience, so go with your preference!

Use your Tactical Time Dilation (TTD) Gadget

Returning from the original The Outer Worlds, and harkening back to the V.A.T.S. system from Fallout: New Vegas days, you can slow down time during combat or exploration to get better shots, avoid incoming damage, or sneak your way past some surprisingly fast obstacles. This time it comes in the form of a gadget rather than a diagnosis, but the effect is very much the same and is incredibly helpful in a pinch.

Your TTD isn’t your only gadget, try them all out!

Your Tactical Time Dilation gadget is just one of a handful of gadgets you come across throughout the game. Others include a shield with the Gas-Energy Deflection Apparatus and the ability to see through walls with the N-Ray Scanner. These are not only useful in combat, but they can often be required for solutions to puzzles or to reveal additional areas of exploration throughout the game.

Some perks can have negative effects too

One of the major twists about the role-playing aspect of The Outer Worlds 2 is the new Flaws system, which are individual traits that have both positive and negative aspects to them, such as one that increases your magazine capacity but temporarily decreases base damage any time you run out of ammo. These can have some game-changing attributes for certain playstyles, but make sure you know what the downside is, because these are permanent!

Objectives usually have multiple ways to complete them

A hallmark of the modern western RPG is the ability to approach different situations and proceed despite each character’s different skills and backgrounds, and The Outer Worlds 2 takes this to a new level. Most main missions have numerous ways to attack them, including opportunities to talk or shoot your way through any problem, and the more you explore, the more likely you are to stumble across another way to progress.

Side quests and optional objectives can often be instrumental to the main quest

As you look to complete each mission, don’t forget to keep up with your side quests and optional objectives as well. While this is likely familiar to anyone who has played an RPG before, it’s easy to forget about some of the missions lower down on your quest log when you’re in the thick of the main story, but these can often give you resources or information you need to make the next main mission easier.

Side quests can be hidden in terminals, collectible objects, or dead bodies

The Outer Worlds 2 heavily incentivizes you to explore around every nook and cranny across the planets of Arcadia by rewarding you with new content and quests. Frequently as you traverse a planet, you will come across empty shacks, computer terminals, and even dead bodies, and very often these will contain either information for a different quest, a mention of something that can be followed up on nearby, or begin a new side quest altogether.

Tune into the wireless broadcasts for new side quests and lore

It’s easy to overlook, but there are radio stations in Arcadia that play music, advertisements, and in-game commentary accessible from the pause menu. Most of the time these are meant as classic radio background noise, but every once in a while you will receive a notification to turn your radio on and listen to a distress signal or other broadcast. The quests can’t be missed as they will always be there if you miss it the first time, but you’ll definitely want to jump on those quests when they come in.

Your medical inhaler is not an infinite healing device

Your healing device in The Outer Worlds 2 is an inhaler that uses the in-game element of Zyranium to heal you, but don’t expect it to be used infinitely or repeatedly. The medical inhaler can be charged by visiting an AutoDoc or finding charging items in the world, but it doesn’t always recharge automatically. Additionally, with each inhaler use there is an increase in the amount of Zyranium in your system, which is fatal if the meter fully charges, meaning you can’t use your inhaler too frequently.

Melee weapons can be just as powerful as guns, if not more

While guns often get the most attention, The Outer Worlds 2 has an impressive array of melee weapons as well, which can cover everything from standard swords to shock rods or corrosive staffs. Enemies frequently have melee weapons and will rush you, so it’s often helpful to have one or more equipped, especially if you’re prone to needing a reload or running out of ammo. Gun damage and Melee damage are separate skills, so be sure you’re giving both of them a shot.

Perks and skill points work in tandem with each other, but are not the same thing

When you level up in The Outer Worlds 2, you typically will receive two skill points to apply to any skills, and you can unlock an additional perk every second level up. Applying levels to your skills incrementally builds them to increase damage, speech skills, hacking prowess, and more, while perks are individual unlocks that give you stat increases or new abilities, like another weapon slot or a boost to your armor. Perks often have skill requirements to meet before becoming unlockable, but both perks and skill points need to be addressed separately.

Don’t forget about your companion skills

Your companions follow you everywhere around Arcadia, and you don’t want to forget their abilities during combat or exploration. Each companion has a skill tree and an active skill that gives you a boost or performs a special attack on an enemy. Don’t worry about making your companions attack normally during combat, since they will do that automatically, but don’t forget about their special abilities, which can come in handy during major combat sections.

Skill checks can create new solutions

As you progress through The Outer Worlds 2, you will increasingly encounter skill checks that require a certain level of a particular skill to proceed, such as the Lockpicking skill to unlock a certain high-level door, the Science skill to perform experiments at a lab, or the Speech skill to say something smart and insightful. Try to keep up with the skill checks in at least one or two main areas, since these will usually lead to unique solutions or hidden paths that wouldn’t be available otherwise during main quests or throughout Arcadia’s abandoned buildings.

Always look up, down, and around for vents and other hidden areas

Stealth is another possible focus area for your character, and vents, tunnels, and hidden passageways are everywhere around Arcadia. Not only will these let you frequently bypass combat, but they’ll also lead to secret areas, high-level resources, or other quests. If you’re stuck on a quest, or just want to find something new, look all the way around and you might find a secret way!

Look for optional info to make your fights easier

When you’re in a dialogue sequence, you will consistently see options that have various requirements, including skill checks or perks. These locked options often require information you’ve discovered in computer terminals around the environments and will lead to some of the more concrete and interesting outcomes you can get in each scenario. Plus, the game will sometimes require information alongside skill checks for even more impactful options, so it’s always beneficial to have as much information as possible.

Whereas in the original game you traversed the Halcyon star system, this time around you’re in Arcadia, which contains another handful of fully designed and lively planets chock full of opportunities to explore and take on a seemingly endless number of tasks and side quests.

"As a former member of the Earth Directorate, which links Earth with all of its colonies, you are tasked with figuring out what’s going on with the rift, how to fix it, and how to end the war between the two sides."

The game takes place some time after the events of the first game, after Auntie’s Choice, a megacorporation created through a merger of the first game’s major corporations Auntie Cleo’s and Spacer’s Choice, invades Arcadia and creates a rift anomaly that is likely to wipe out all of Arcadia if it’s not dealt with. Auntie’s Choice is attacking the Protectorate, which governs Arcadia, and they’re fighting for control of the planet cluster. As a former member of the Earth Directorate, which links Earth with all of its colonies, you are tasked with figuring out what’s going on with the rift, how to fix it, and how to end the war between the two sides.

Sounds like a tall task, right? Fortunately, as is signature for The Outer Wilds at this point, the game is lighthearted through and through, with virtually every character making some sort of joke or other remark. That rift, for example, is 6-8 years away from impact, so your companion classifies it as “low to medium priority.”

And that’s a good thing, because one of the things the game makes clear is that while you are a special agent for the Earth Directorate, you are also someone whose successes baffle virtually everyone you meet by finding ways to talk or shoot your way out of problems. Lots of characters will address it directly, and I chose to adopt that personality entirely, focusing my upgrades around those skills while avoiding any of the more erudite areas like Science or Leadership.

What The Outer Worlds 2 does as well as any western RPG I’ve played recently is balance giving you the freedom to truly role play to your liking and still giving you new ways to improve or change the game even when you’re deep into the story. There are naturally both skill points and perks, which are very familiar and work in tandem with each other. I aptly focused mainly on the Speech and Guns skills and found perks, which you can select every 2 level upgrades, that unlocked only at certain skill levels for each trait and perfectly fit my play style.

"As you get deeper into the game, you notice that the same sense of freedom and opportunity extends to the story and missions."

On top of that, though, is the addition of Flaws, which are game-changing effects that impact some aspect of gameplay, from your movement speed or damage to your perks and loadout slots, but also have a severe negative side effect. You can accept or reject them when they appear, but if accepted they are permanent for the rest of that save file. I was offered about a dozen of these across my 25 hours through the main story but only accepted two, which made it so that I gained an extra skill point on every level but when using them, I could only add skill points to my lowest non-zero trait, locking all others.

This made it much easier for me to prioritize the couple of key traits I focused on and excel in those areas, but it also seemingly locked me into the play style I had chosen. Among the flaws I didn’t accept were one that increases your crouch speed but causes your knees to pop and alert enemies, and one that decreased my overall base damage but would boost it any time a companion damages an enemy. I was surprised at the variety and frequency the Flaws system offers, as well as the replay value that it adds on top of the inherent opportunities to focus on different skills, perks, and backgrounds.

As you get deeper into the game, you notice that the same sense of freedom and opportunity extends to the story and missions. One very early mission, for example, requires you to cross a large ravine, but there is hostile security guarding the only bridge that traverses it and seemingly no other way to cross. Your options, then, can be to help the security with something they need, help a different faction that can tell you another way across, or go in guns blazing and get there by force.

"Over the course of those dozens of hours, these choices add up in a meaningful way."

While the late-game missions don’t give you quite as much freedom, the game does an incredible job at giving you the opportunity to feel like you’ve laid the groundwork yourself and gone through multiple steps to achieve your goals, especially because it’s almost always possible, if not the most elegant approach, to shoot your way through things.

Over the course of those dozens of hours, these choices add up in a meaningful way. The story is adeptly told if not revolutionary, but it serves more as a playground for the decisions and  themes it’s portraying. Your ultimate goal surrounding the rift and settling the war doesn’t change, but along the way you can side with either or both sides and create those branching paths that change characters’ or factions’ opinions of you and alter the course of the in-game world. Auntie’s Choice, for example, is the classic corporate overlord that has become comically large and monopolistically powerful, and the Protectorate is the existing tyrannical government of Arcadia.

Clearly neither is a great option, but the game is very explicit about what choices are being made and how it will affect the story. The only drawback is that this game can get unwieldy with some of its terms and lore, especially given how many characters talk about things in a sarcastic or joking tone, and the Codex is woefully inadequate compared to the Active Time Lore that other games have started to implement.

While the story itself is familiar, the characters are all well-written and well-voiced, especially in the latter half of the game. Dialogue choices are everywhere, including a major increase in the skill checks and perk-required options that are truly punishing if you cannot complete them.

"When you’re out in the world, gunplay and exploration are king."

There are frequently dialogue options that require information you’ve discovered in terminals or through other conversations that can completely de-escalate a conflict or change someone’s opinions, and it’s one of the more rewarding aspects of the game to successfully talk your way through a conflict without violence. With that said, I’m also intrigued by the paths and choices I missed and am excited to return for another playthrough to see how things play out in another path, especially with some of the completely opposite skills or traits selected.

When you’re out in the world, gunplay and exploration are king, and they are both drastically improved over the first game. Guns are weighty and satisfying to use with a significantly larger variety of weapon types, ammo types, and general weapon feel, and you’re inevitably going to find a couple of weapons that stick, like my shock cannon and my trusty revolver.

Gunplay works in coordination with your gadgets, which include the returning Tactical Time Dilation Gadget as well as new ones like the N-Ray vision goggles that let you see through walls and the Deflection Apparatus that puts up a temporary shield around you. The gadgets aren’t game-changing and definitely still feel like a vestige of the Fallout days, but as a wrinkle in an otherwise expansive game, these give you another reason to try everything out and feel what sticks.

Outside of combat, your exploration rounds out the experience soundly. Environments are large, beautiful, and aesthetically diverse, from the bright plants and colors of Eden to the dark and mysterious land of Praetor. There are certainly occasions where stray houses will just have a few coins and a chest, but more frequently this time, there are tons of side quests and other rewards lying around.

"I never found myself bored while trekking or even backtracking through any of the planets."

You can walk into a house to find a note that mentions a potential quest, which you can then take to a town and have a full questline open up, or sometimes you’ll find scripted events happening that are either funny in themselves or lead to another entire quest. I never found myself bored while trekking or even backtracking through any of the planets because I was always on the lookout for something new and interesting, and it felt like the game always delivered.

The Outer Worlds 2 is a landmark sequel and It takes everything from many of the hallmarks of other games in the genre, and improves virtually everything across the board. Though some improvements are more incremental, but things like the Flaws system and the expansive dialogue options, as well as the much improved gunplay, feel like major steps forward.

Arcadia features some beautiful, open landscapes and some of the funniest, most interesting characters we’ve seen in some time, and the combat and exploration are some of the best in the genre. It’s among the best western RPGs in the past few years and firmly places the franchise as one of the best in the business.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox Series X.

Of course, developer Arrowhead Studios delivered on that challenge and then some, and the game has now broken sales records for PlayStation. Now on Xbox, Helldivers 2 represents a landmark moment for PlayStation Studios games published on Microsoft’s platform, and it remains one of the industry’s premier live service multiplayer games for its endlessly satisfying combat and quick but impactful mission structure.

"Those moments of chaos and confusion make for some of Helldivers 2’s most memorable moments, though."

If you’re new to Super Earth, Helldivers 2 is an online-only shooter where you and up to 3 other Helldivers in your squad drop onto various planets throughout the galaxy to fight enemy factions and complete missions for the sake of spreading Managed Democracy and repelling the galaxy-wide invasion from the major enemy factions.

After a quick but worthwhile tutorial where you’re introduced to basic mechanics as well as the game’s relentless tongue-in-cheek tone and hilarious propaganda, you’re dropped right into the Galactic War as a reinforcement for Super Earth. And you’ll do that over and over again, not just because your Helldiver will die many times in the name of Liberty (although that will happen too), but also because the game gets its hooks in you quickly and never lets go.

Each mission you complete for Super Earth is a small part in a larger Galactic War against the enemy factions of the Terminids, Automatons, and Illuminate. Missions of you doing things like finding and killing a certain number or type of enemies, destroying specific buildings, and erecting the Super Earth flag in key enemy territory, and they all end with an extraction sequence that requires you to defend your ship’s landing area. While they may sound complicated, limits missions usually to 40 minutes and guides you well with the mini-map, allows you to focus on getting to your target location and finding enemies to kill.

And there definitely are a lot of enemies to kill, both in number and in type. Across each planet, there are larger community-wide events going on that each mission contributes to, adding just a little bit of progress in the war against bugs and machines.

As you look across the galaxy at ongoing campaigns and future missions, you can see over time how much progress the community has made, and it gives an overarching weight to every mission that feels like progress even if you didn’t perform as well as others in your squad. While these do feel like the closest thing to a true narrative campaign that Helldivers 2 has, they allow you to see overarching progression without taking you away from helldiving for too long.

"Your ship comes in handy between missions as well, allowing you to travel between planets and prepare for your next mission."

It’s understandable that they’d want to keep you in the action, because being on the ground spreading Managed Democracy is where this game really shines. There are tons of different enemy types that you can fight within each faction that build in size and power over time. From grunt-like Terminid Scavengers to mech-like Automaton Hulks, you and your squad have a lot to fight across every mission, but you also have a lot of weapons to use against them.

For starters, gunplay feels great. It’s simple and responsive without feeling too easy, and expressive enemy animations make every shot feel extra weighty. On top of a trove of different guns and explosives you can unlock, you can also use your ship to provide different Stratagems for you in battle. Alongside universal needs like Reinforce and Resupply, you can also choose additional Stratagems for each mission that allow for new weapons, deployable mechs and turrets, or direct airstrikes on certain areas. The sheer number of possibilities with different weapons and Stratagems make every mission feel different and chaotic, where there can be explosions and gunfire coming from every angle and you get split up from your squadmates.

Those moments of chaos and confusion make for some of Helldivers 2’s most memorable moments, though. The environments are beautiful and diverse, allowing for tons of creativity with weapons and strategies, and it’s always just as fun to see what’s happening as it is to play it. Plus, friendly fire is on, and the game does a great job at making you feel powerful yet expendable, so it can often be beneficial to create chaos that may very well kill you or a teammate.

Sadly, this does mean is that the game is almost always more fun to play with friends than solo because there’s more of a chance to create those types of chaotic memories, and while the game’s performance has definitely improved over the last year and a half, it still has a tendency to stutter when chaos ensues with a full squad. But at the end of the day, whether solo or together, Managed Democracy always comes out ahead, and it’s that feeling that you have a slight edge in battle and that anything could happen that keeps you coming back for one more mission.

Your ship comes in handy between missions as well, allowing you to travel between planets and prepare for your next mission. It’s customizable and expandable over time to allow for more Stratagems and weapons, and you’re often sent reminders and other humorous propaganda from Super Earth. It would be easy to make a game about an ongoing invasion by enemy forces trying to destroy democracy feel dreadful and overwhelming, but this keeps it light and fun across the board.

"Helldivers 2 continues to build on its unexpected success with its launch on Xbox, and it’s a better time than ever to jump into the Galactic War and spread Managed Democracy."

Where much of the weapon and cosmetic diversity comes in, though, is in the Warbonds: the in-game battle passes that unlock both new types of weapons and special armor, emotes, and capes. While Helldivers 2 originally launched with just 2, there are now 17 by my count, which typically cost 1,000 Super Credits, save for the lone free Warbond and the “Legendary” Halo ODST crossover that costs 1,500 Super Credits.

There are some opportunities to gather Super Credits in the free Warbond and across other channels, but you can also buy exactly 1,000 Super Credits in the store for $10, on top of the $40 price tag. These luckily aren’t pay-to-win bundles and certainly focus more on cosmetics than weapons, but it’s definitely disheartening to see what is at this point the majority of content locked behind unnecessary microtransactions.

Helldivers 2 continues to build on its unexpected success with its launch on Xbox, and it’s a better time than ever to jump into the Galactic War and spread Managed Democracy. Even though it may be an overwhelming amount of content for solo players and newcomers, especially with its Warbonds, this is the type of multiplayer shooter that makes me want to continue progressing long past the point where I unlock every Stratagem or without purchasing a new battle pass.

It makes every mission quick and to the point, and the chaos that happens within the mission that you and your squad create for yourselves is always enjoyable, especially combined with the over-the-top propaganda coming from Super Earth. Helldivers 2 makes it as fun as possible to send in bombs and rain down bullets on hordes of bugs and robots, and it’s about time we get back to the Galactic War and continue fighting for Liberty.

This game was reviewed on Xbox Series X.

With the updated “Out of Bounds” MyCareer mode and some significant gameplay improvements, 2K26 has made some great steps forward and streamlined many of its systems, though it’s hard to ignore the pervasive microtransactions that feel built into every mode.

"Rival players in particular frequently appear right before the game in which you face them, forcing you to frequently prioritize outplaying them over winning the game."

2K’s MyCareer always holds the bulk of new content, and it returns this time to having a scripted narrative in the “Out of Bounds” mode. 2K has always had beautiful visuals and high production value stories being told, and this is no different, taking the player-character, who you can name but is always referred to as “MP,” through a season of high school club basketball and a season of European league basketball.

MP is an outspoken content creator documenting his path toward his dream of playing in the NBA, and the short-form videos he creates throughout the story give a surprisingly well-written snapshot of his psyche along the way, especially as he makes a few key decisions, including where to play club ball and which European team to sign with. Aside from those choices, though, the narrative is a linear sequence of a handful of games in each season, attempting to outplay your competition to show that you belong at the next level.

Where Out of Bounds excels, though, is in how it tries to weave the narrative and gameplay together between games with fully written and voiced cutscenes that show MP’s life off the court in ways that make 2K26’s MyCareer feel special and uniquely memorable for the first time in years. The narrative isn’t groundbreaking, especially for a 2K story, but it more than ever links what happens in the cutscenes to your goals, outcomes, and restrictions for each game.

MP spends most of his time with his parents or agent trying to navigate life as an up-and-coming basketball and social media star, but it’s a memorable larger set of characters that includes rival players, coaches, and media figures that make this story click. Rival players in particular frequently appear right before the game in which you face them, forcing you to frequently prioritize outplaying them over winning the game, and it culminates in surprisingly genuine scenes when you see each of your rivals at the European league All-Star Game.

"There’s virtually every type of basketball you could hope to play here, whether it’s pickup, competitive, or professional, and I appreciate how much there is to offer across each type of playstyle."

At the same time, Out of Bounds often gets more right in theory than in execution. It frequently falls into the classic 2K trap of rushing the story to get to the next game as quickly as possible, which amplifies the inevitable narrative tension in MP chasing his dream that we all know he’s going to achieve at the end.

When he does achieve that, though, it feels like he’s earned it, and as I’ve continued to play into his NBA career with the Wizards, it’s very rewarding to see occasional follow-up cutscenes with his parents, agent, or documentary crew as he looks to become the GOAT. Plus, I’m looking forward to replaying the story with a new player build and a new MP to make different choices.

NBA 2K26 cleverly builds its MyCareer into its online social platform with The Park. If you exit the arena for the MyCareer mode, you can take your MP and enter this year’s version of The Park, which is more efficiently laid out than ever, giving you access to the casual courts, competitive online play, and a litany of branded cosmetics shops.

There’s virtually every type of basketball you could hope to play here, whether it’s pickup, competitive, or professional, and I appreciate how much there is to offer across each type of playstyle. It further embraces the mindset of giving you as many modes and opportunities to play as possible and allowing you to pick which ones you prefer, and it’s often fun enough to just skateboard around The Park for some idle people watching.

"Every player, whether in MyCareer, MyTeam, MyNBA, or The W, can be customized with individual cosmetic items, badges, and perks, and these can all make the possession-to-possession gameplay of 2K diversified and enjoyable, depending on their performance."

Of course, the other major mode 2K has to offer each year is MyTeam, the card collecting team builder, though the biggest change this year is the inclusion of current and former WNBA players. As with past years, the main appeal of MyTeam is to collect cards and build your team, and there are dozens of different modes through which to play with your team, from individual games and missions to season-long challenges.

While that remains true, there’s very little here that caters to anyone who isn’t already interested in MyTeam from past years. While 2K is known for its litany of modes, from the more specialized MyCareer and MyTeam to traditional MyGM and MyNBA modes, it’s disappointing that these two modes hold the vast majority of this year’s updates, as the only notable update elsewhere is the limited “Offseason Scenarios” MyGM option.

Regardless of mode, the on-the-court gameplay feels like it’s taken a step forward in 2K26, whether you’re a 60-something-overall benchwarmer or a 90-something-overall superstar. First and foremost is the improved shot timing, which goes back to basics with a universal “Green or Miss” meter to more accurately mimic the actual act of shooting with consistent timing and a green zone that grows and shrinks with how open and balanced you are.

Combined with tangibly smoother shooting and dribbling animations, playmaking and scoring are as rewarding as they’ve been in recent years. Each play has an added weight that I haven’t felt in 2K in years, further improved by the GOAT mode abilities and other in-game changes that integrate a player’s streakiness and confidence. Every player, whether in MyCareer, MyTeam, MyNBA, or The W, can be customized with individual cosmetic items, badges, and perks, and these can all make the possession-to-possession gameplay of 2K diversified and enjoyable, depending on their performance.

What’s apparent with NBA 2K26, though, is how all of these cosmetics and micro-upgrades feed a system of microtransactions that actively detract from the gameplay. With 2K’s VC currency, you can purchase stat upgrades, new card packs in MyTeam, or cosmetics for your MP, and it’s approaching a stereotypical free-to-play pace with how comically slowly you gain VC compared to how quickly you can purchase it.

"However, as has become routine with each 2K game, the entire package, as polished and expansive as it is, requires a significant investment of either time or money in the form of microtransactions."

Of course, you are technically able to progress without purchasing any VC, but alongside the barrage of advertisements that continues to increase year over year, it begs the question whether 2K26 is worth the $70 entry fee on top of the financial or time investment needed to get to a competitive place with your players or teams.

The NBA 2K franchise is an unstoppable force in the sports gaming world, and each year’s entry seems to only move the needle up or down a few degrees. From a gameplay perspective, NBA 2K26 is a significant step forward with its smooth and simplistic style that feels as good as ever, and the attempts to streamline and expand MyCareer with the Out of Bounds mode are a major step forward and a great sign of things to come for the mode.

However, as has become routine with each 2K game, the entire package, as polished and expansive as it is, requires a significant investment of either time or money in the form of microtransactions; if you can overlook that, though that may be a tall task, this is 2K at its smoothest and most streamlined in years.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStatiom 5.

It proved to have a deep, rich setting powered by cinematic visuals and standout performances across the main cast, complemented by a masterful character action gameplay system that encourages experimentation, rewards precision, and provides spectacular feedback. Now, two years on from launch, Final Fantasy XVI finally makes the transition to Xbox after a shadow drop at the Xbox Games Showcase, and while the game itself is largely unchanged in its transition, coming to a new platform just means that more people can now play a genre-defining character action game.

"Two years on from launch, Final Fantasy XVI finally makes the transition to Xbox after a shadow drop at the Xbox Games Showcase."

In keeping with the genre’s tradition, Final Fantasy XVI’s main campaign is a grand fantasy epic with many thematic parallels to real-world issues. Here, in the kingdom of Valisthea, magic is supplied by towering mothercrystals and harnessed by so-called Bearers, who have largely been enslaved across the kingdom to use their magic for political purposes.

As the mothercrystals’ power dwindles, causing Blight to grow across Valisthea, a kingdom-wide battle for power, magic, and freedom ensues. Valisthea and its regions, shine thanks to its different leaders, and conflicts. Rulers make brash and questionable decisions rooted in their own flaws, and you are exposed to countless of this world’s most powerful people and get to experience why they make their decisions and how they reckon with them as they watch the consequences unfold.

Complicating the setting further is the existence of Eikons, massive magical beings that harness standard elemental powers, including Eikons of Fire, Wind, Lightning, and so on. These Eikons live inside of individual people, known as Dominants, who can summon these Eikons and harness their power for their own sake.

Many political or royal leaders in this world are Dominants, and the game begins on the night of the death of the Phoenix, the Eikon of Fire whose dominant, Joshua Rosfield, is the son of royalty in the country of Rosaria and the brother of the playable character, Clive Rosfield, as played by Ben Starr. Clive, who is originally only a Bearer, is enslaved after this incident until finding freedom 13 years later, where he discovers another Eikon of Fire and his ability to harness the power of multiple Eikons.

"Rarely does Final Fantasy XVI feel like it’s dragging out its runtime."

Thematically, the game covers issues like systemic oppression, racism, and power imbalances, and while it isn’t always the most subversive or tactful on the more difficult topics, the sheer ambition of its scale and the consistency in its performances make it one of the most impressive video game settings in recent memory. It constantly hits you with gut punches of revelations or major new events, and it somehow makes everything feel approachable and understandable.

Rarely does Final Fantasy XVI feel like it’s dragging out its runtime, because even when you are on smaller, lower-stakes main missions, you’re finding new opportunities to meet interesting characters, like Cid or Jill, or explore beautiful and often-decrepit landscapes. And when things do start to ramp up, the game finds ways to consistently raise the stakes visually, which culminates in an incredibly memorable third act that contains some of the most stunning gaming moments in recent memory.  

Even if a bit long-winded, the setting is well-paced and well-told, and it gives you ample resources to understand the lore and plot in this world. Its main innovation is Active Time Lore, which allows you to pause the game at almost any point in the world or in cutscenes to learn about the main characters or settings in the scene.

Additionally, when you go back to the Hideaway that acts as your home base, you can see fully-detailed descriptions of past events before and during the game to either fill in your understanding of the lore or get back up to speed if you missed something. It’s a small but revelatory addition that games have already started to mirror in the years since and still should serve as the model for how games can recount their lore. If you do want more than the main campaign, too, you can also explore around Valisthea and take on side quests or bounties in ways similar to other games, though with less freedom than in, say, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. While these give you a chance to continue exploring or battling, these often come across as relatively run-of-the-mill, with content that usually doesn’t amount to more than fetch quests or bounties that feel like they were relegated away from the main campaign.

"The most effective part of Final Fantasy XVI’s battle system is how it rewards you for finding new ways to string together attacks or other moves to ensure there’s never a dull moment."

Where Final Fantasy XVI foundationally differs from its counterparts is in its combat, basically its impressive real-time character action system. As Clive, you have traditional sword attacks and ranged magic attacks, but your ability to harness multiple Eikons allows you to equip special abilities from up to three Eikons at a time, giving you an arsenal of powerful attacks that can focus on one enemy or take down groups of them at a time.

The most effective part of Final Fantasy XVI’s battle system is how it rewards you for finding new ways to string together attacks or other moves to ensure there’s never a dull moment. More so than many other games with class- or job-based gameplay systems, I found myself looking actively for ways to make my Eikon abilities better interact with each other, finding the most optimal combinations of abilities to make sure I’m maximizing damage and not having to wait for too many abilities to cool down at once. You can also power up your standard attacks, dodge, or use one of a handful of movement abilities that allow you to keep moving and acting even while your attacks are cooling down or you’re waiting for the best moment to strike.

Empowering this is the stagger mechanic, which XVI brings over from past games in the genre. Staggered enemies are susceptible to all-out attacks from you and your allies, and a multiplier builds to increase the damage of any attacks on enemies until they get back up. Getting enemies into this state is inevitable and vital, so it naturally encourages you to master your arsenal and know the correct sequencing of attacks to maximize damage. Over the course of 40 hours, not only does it never get old to learn new attacks and figure out your favorites, but it becomes an almost musical experience when you execute everything perfectly.

While Final Fantasy XVI’s combat may lack the depth seen in some other games, it makes up for it with stunning visuals and satisfying feedback that set it apart from similar titles. Every attack, from the swing of a sword to the most powerful Eikon attack, feels incredibly satisfying to hit, with beautiful visual flair and surprisingly effective controller feedback.

When you reach the latter half of the game and the stakes truly ramp up, the visuals only further amplify how fun and effective the combat feels, especially as you reach some of the major boss battles that are the stars of the show. Without spoiling anything, boss battles are often brilliant and epic at massive physical scale, and the game does a phenomenal job at keeping you aware of what’s going on and engaged in the conflict. It doesn’t step in for scripted moments too frequently, and even when it does, I can usually forgive the QTEs for how slick and stylish they look.

"The best part about Final Fantasy XVI being on Xbox is that more people can now play a genre-defining character action game."

The only real drawback of the transition to a character action system is that combat can sometimes be too easy on standard difficulty. Once you get the hang of it, it’s not overly difficult to perform precision dodges, which negate all damage, and there are a few moments where the game takes over to emphasize the spectacle. Additionally, the fact that your potions and consumables fully replenish at each respawn means that death often feels like a reward, and it meant that I rarely had to fight a boss more than twice. Of course, higher difficulties and New Game + are available for those who want it, though, and they offer new reasons to come back and play through the game again.               

The best part about Final Fantasy XVI being on Xbox is that more people can now play a genre-defining character action game. While it differs from its counterparts in its gameplay, it brings a masterful character action system to the table that creates remarkably enjoyable and satisfying gameplay that encourages you to keep trying new things and ensure there’s never a dull moment.

Its setting, too, is an ambitious, thoughtful tale about human rights and systemic societal issues that gives players a huge slate of dark fantasy lore and world-building and sprinkles in some of the genre’s idiosyncrasies on top. It’s all pulled together by an incredible visual spectacle that constantly engages you and continues to one-up itself at every turn and amplifies every moment. Whether you’re a fan of the genre or of action games in general, Final Fantasy XVI embodies the best of its influences and remains a strong recommendation as one of the best action games of the generation.

This game was reviewed on Xbox Series X.

While it doesn’t always stray from its influences and is littered with technical issues big and small that frequently took me out of the experience, The Fall of Avalon brings its perilous world to life beautifully, with an impactful story and an expansive open world that show incredible potential for this world and genre.

"The main campaign consists of a dozen or so missions, but it encourages you to explore and get stronger on your own between missions, both explicitly and by the fact that you will likely get pummeled by the first enemy you see in the next mission."

But while the franchise is new to games, its systems are heavily inspired by existing, successful games, and it wears its influences squarely on its sleeve. The most notable is The Elder Scrolls, as the opening sequence could have been picked directly from a Scrolls game. You awaken as an unnamed prisoner in a jail cell you meet a mysterious figure who helps you escape and find out that you are a chosen one. In this case, you happen to house part of the soul of the long-dead King Arthur, and it’s your quest to collect the remainder of his soul from across the world of Avalon. It’s from here that you’re sent out into the open world to continue along that quest while finding tons of side quests, bounties, and errands to complete in the meantime.

Narratively, The Fall of Avalon’s biggest strength is its characters, all of whom are well-written and well-acted. Your ability to talk to King Arthur and hear his perspectives gives a unique spin on a relatively familiar story, and most other characters, from Merlin to a generic shopkeep, will leave you with a memorable one-liner or story. The cast brings you deeper into the world and makes you want to learn more about what’s familiar in this version of the story and what’s changed, and even with the traditional deadpan stares these NPCs can have, they bring key moments to life. The visuals are less enticing and look somewhat dated, although cutscenes are

"From a gameplay perspective, The Fall of Avalon is an unbridled western RPG that’s most similar to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. "

There are a few shocking moments that were direct results of my decisions, and it’s clear where you can have a major impact on the outcome of the world and its characters, such as a moment where I had to decide whether or not to carry about an assassination. By the end, the campaign isn’t revolutionary, especially for a game in this genre, but there are some exciting moments and a lot of potential replayability that I’m excited to explore.

From a gameplay perspective, The Fall of Avalon is an unbridled western RPG that’s most similar to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. You allocate points to various attributes, such as Strength, Endurance, and Dexterity, and your playstyle determines progress for the underlying stats, such as one-handed and two-handed weapons, light and heavy armor, and agility. There’s a ton to explore and find across the maps, particularly with caves and other dungeons scattered around the world, which give you better weapons, stronger magic, and new quests.

You have a full suite of swords, bows, armor, magic, and other equipment, as well as your special abilities from King Arthur, and the game offers decent flexibility in making each different weapon feel satisfying and throwing different types of enemies at you that test your skills in different ways. both in the story and in the game. It features a full day-night cycle, and some nights become what’s called the Wyrdnight, meaning that a dangerous fog known as the Wyrd comes over the town and summons strong demons that you can either fight or avoid.

Combat feels mostly satisfying, though it’s not always intuitive how to defeat certain enemies, and there are definitely moments where the game’s inherent wonkiness makes it more difficult to tell when an enemy is attacking. I always felt rewarded for exploring or going off the beaten path, though, and the game’s more forgiving encumbrance system and economy made it so that I always felt able to find new and improved gear.

With all of this, this game often feels like a tighter version of a western RPG, but it takes influences elsewhere as well. Primarily, The Fall of Avalon may isn’t impossibly long at 25 hours or so to finish, but its structure gives you much more freedom in your progression.

The main campaign consists of a dozen or so missions, but it encourages you to explore and get stronger on your own between missions, both explicitly and by the fact that you will likely get pummeled by the first enemy you see in the next mission. The difficulty spikes can be sudden, but the fact that there aren’t too many main quests means that they encourage you to explore and see the world at your own pace in order to level up through side quests or dungeons. The overall difficulty ramps up as you approach the end as well, and particular fights can be frustrating, but I never felt like any part of gameplay was unfair.

"Unfortunately, what did mar my experience, and what matched the Elder Scrolls tradition, was the slew of technical issues I encountered playing on PS5."

A day-one patch reportedly has smoothed out some of these issues, but it’s disappointing to see a game in Early Access for so long come out with these types of issues. Technical issues aside, Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon puts the AA spin on the classic formula of The Elder Scrolls, with its own twists and unique aspects. There is so much to do across the world of Avalon to learn about the dark history of King Arthur and everyone that surrounded him, and the overall narrative is surprisingly engaging for this setting. The freedom offered in gameplay is a refreshing touch that allows you freedom to see and explore the world and fight some terrifying enemies. While technical issues plague the experience, what’s underneath is an incredibly ambitious and generally well-executed transition into games for the Tainted Grail franchise, and it’s an exciting vision for what this franchise and genre can be. 

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

For all intents and purposes, Madden has been streamlined into three modes: Franchise, Ultimate Team, and Superstar. The three modes are broadly the same as they’ve always been, but they finally feel both mutually exclusive and exhaustive of the foundational modes I’d like to see in an NFL game. No more confusion about where various content lies; rather, it’s purely a franchise manager, deck-based team builder, and create-a-player, respectively. It’s definitely disappointing to see modes like The Yard still absent, but it’s certainly a refreshing change of pace to see the franchise rethink how different types of football gameplay are presented.

"Sure, it’s still the same old game, but with upgrades in key spots and a refined presentation that make minute-to-minute action feel as modern as it ever has, this version of Madden is a lot like a team with a high overall draft pick: rejuvenated, forward-looking, and ready to continue improving for years to come."

Of the three main modes, Franchise has finally and noticeably been reworked and despite some quirks, definitely feels more consistent and enjoyable over a longer period of time than past entries. The weekly off-the-field activities have become more prominent and important, as your actions as coach and general manager have more concrete, direct impacts on the field. You may be asked by a disgruntled player to receive a certain number of touches in the next game, or you may be asked by the press how you reacted to your team’s performance in the last game. Both of these can have positive and negative effects based on how you respond and how you play the next game. Even longer-term decisions can have an impact, such as that same player asking for a season touch total or your fans asking you to trade for an upgrade at a certain position.

On top of the off-field upgrades, the use of ubiquitous minigames throughout Franchise and the rest of this year’s Madden make the on-field gameplay more diverse. Though they don’t have huge impacts on player progression, short passing drills with the quarterback or tackling drills with a defender allow you opportunities to show your skills in non-game environments. I appreciate how many minigames are offered and how much freedom you have to play as many or as few as you’d like, giving you freedom to truly take control of progression or leave it to the computer.  With these, alongside familiar but refreshed and slightly faster menus and navigation, Franchise feels like it’s finally taken multiple steps forward. I’d still like to see it perform a bit more smoothly and provide more complex sets of decisions off the field, but I can say I thoroughly enjoyed my Franchise this year and plan to return to it over the coming months.

The other key mode that’s seen meaningful upgrades is Superstar, the player builder that allows you to create a player in one of five positions across offense or defense, get drafted, and lead or support your team in their quest for a Super Bowl. Taking cues from games like MLB The Show, your Superstar can be upgraded across multiple different modes, including Showdown against online opponents and The League as an offline, classic player builder mode. While playing and upgrading your Superstar, you will have decisions to make and questions to answer that determine certain player boosts for the coming game, but you also have Quests that provide longer-term goals and rewards for your accomplishments, like getting a certain number of passing yards in a game or touchdowns in a season. It can definitely take a bit to get used to, as my highly-ranked quarterback prospect was top 5 in both passing yards and interceptions in his rookie year, but the progression opportunities and wider range of gameplay possibilities make Superstar a great create-a-player mode, about as much as you can expect for a mode like this without a true story.

"On top of the off-field upgrades, the use of ubiquitous minigames throughout Franchise and the rest of this year’s Madden make the on-field gameplay more diverse."

Finally, Ultimate Team has seen fewer upgrades over past installments and, given the improvements in other modes this year, really sticks out as a broadly underdeveloped mode littered with unnecessary microtransactions. Progression continues to move at as slow a pace as exists within Madden, encouraging you to purchase in-game currency with real money to expedite the process, but the actual game tends to be less fun than the other modes, as you begin with and will have to use subpar players for an extended period of time. In addition, while the overall game has more polish than past years, the vast majority of the technical bugs I encountered were in Ultimate Team, particularly one recurring bug where my quarterback would be subbed in on defense and repeatedly called for offsides. Overall, if you’ve played an Ultimate Team in the past, this one will be no different, but the mode is itching for an overhaul like the ones the rest of the modes have been given.

Regardless of your mode, the on-field gameplay feels refined from last year and overall feels about as good as a recent football game has felt. The new “Boom Tech” makes a real difference in how ball handlers are controlled and tackled. Especially as skills improve, the ability to juke and break tackles, or alternatively to lay out opponents with a well-timed hit stick, feels fantastic to perform. Someone like Christian McCaffery, a sure outlier but a great showcase of the best of the best, can turn on a dime and stay on his feet through contact in ways unheard of in past games or with most other players, and in the end zone can use his new signature celebration to cap it all off.

Madden prides itself on its presentation, too, and this year has one of the largest jumps in presentation in a long while. Of course, menus are slightly refined with the streamlined modes, but visuals look truly gorgeous on the PS5. Character models can certainly feel wonky or occasionally unrepresentative of their real-life counterparts, but gameday atmospheres are undeniable, and the work to bring true-to-life stadiums into the game is apparent. Plus, there are two new broadcasting duos, including the great Mike Tirico and Greg Olsen, plus the first female play-by-play announcer in the series in Kate Scott. All three teams are fantastic with seemingly more analysis than normal, and while there are the expected lines that play at the wrong moments, the three broadcast duos successfully translate their real-world expertise and quality commentary into game form, often making you forget it’s not a real-life football game.

"Regardless of your mode, the on-field gameplay feels refined from last year and overall feels about as good as a recent football game has felt."

Madden NFL 25 surprised me. With so many mediocre or underwhelming entries in recent years, it’s hard to have high expectations for a Madden game, but like a high draft pick, this year’s entry gives the franchise some hope for continued improvements in coming years. The streamlined approach to modes makes it much easier to ground yourself in just a couple of places for the most refined gameplay, and while Ultimate Team still has a long way to go, Franchise and Superstar feel like they’re headed in the right direction. The additional inclusion of the “Boom Tech” ball carrier adjustments and the phenomenal new broadcast duos make on-field gameplay that much better as well. While it’s not a perfect game and there are still certainly major changes needed to improve various features or remove microtransactions altogether, Madden NFL 25 has put a lot of effort to improve some of the most-needed systems and modes in Madden, and this could very well be the start of a new era for the franchise.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

Set in 2072 aboard the Citadel space station, System Shock’s premise feels familiar today. You are a nameless hacker trying to breach the shady TriOptimum Corporation who suddenly gets sent to and trapped inside the Citadel. You quickly come to find out that the ship is helmed by a proprietary AI named SHODAN, and your first task is to remove the ethical guards inside SHODAN’s code. For reasons likely even more understandable today than when this game first released, this plan goes awry, and SHODAN soon turns on you and human civilization, forcing you to try to stop SHODAN and get off the ship.

"It retains some of the awkward from the original, like in its melee combat and difficulty spikes, but System Shock remains one of the more important games ever released, and it’s a pretty great experience on its own merits, too."

That’s about as much as the game will give you directly, as it’s much more interested in letting you find out the details of the ship and its residents on your own through exploration. This is one of the game’s strongest aspects, and it’s the reason System Shock was so influential to games like Half-Life and Prey. While you will run into the occasional cutscene or scripted sequence, the majority of the storytelling is done through audio logs, messages, and environmental storytelling, and they do a phenomenal job at setting a clear, ominous tone throughout. Audio logs frequently lie next to dead bodies and explain how that person met their fate, while the environments paint a consistent horrifying picture of a spaceship designed through class warfare and overrun by greed and humanoid monsters.

It’s this exploration that takes up the majority of your time in System Shock, and while my full playthrough took about 15 hours to complete, it easily could have doubled that if I had been even more thorough. This is because the ship is absolutely enormous and teeming with detail. Across 10 main floors and a few side areas, every single area you experience has an almost overwhelming number of locked doors, crawlspaces, and branching paths, though they’re not always the most intuitively laid-out spaces. Like the games that drew inspiration from System Shock, as well as other immersive sims, there are key cards, switches, and codes hidden around each section that are important and sometimes necessary to open new pathways elsewhere, unlocking anything from rooms containing new guns to mandatory new areas. It’s among the more rewarding experiences here to explore an area thoroughly and find a key that unlocks a section in a completely separate area.

You’ll have to do a lot of backtracking and searching around, too, because System Shock isn’t exactly generous with its direction. There are no objective markers, no ways to make notes on the mini-map, and very few direct references even to the next step on the critical path. That’s all to funnel you toward the true goal of liberating the space station entirely. You can beat the game with a certain amount still left to do, but to see everything, you’ll need to meticulously kill every robot, destroy every camera and CPU node, and stop the creation of enemies on each floor.

"Traversing the environments holds up as well as anything in System Shock, but the game does show its age elsewhere, particularly in combat."

Traversing the environments holds up as well as anything in System Shock, but the game does show its age elsewhere, particularly in combat. The original game was difficult, and the remake holds true to that. It can be infuriatingly difficult if you’re not prepared, as you can go up against groups of charging humanoids or aggressive security bots, all of whose only goal is to ensure your demise. It can be rewarding when you finally overcome a tricky area, but it just as quickly can devolve into finding ways to cheese a fight to your advantage rather than face it head on. It’s also hurt by tricky respawn systems, which can frequently send you to other floors when you come back to life. The Citadel is so intricately and tightly laid out that backtracking usually doesn’t take too long, but it can get frustrating to hear the elevator music time after time on the way back to the same fight.

Combat is also a bit underwhelming because it feels so true to the original, for better and for worse. Melee combat feels airy, like you’re swinging at air and watching performers collapse spectacularly, and aiming with weapons can be just a bit imprecise. Combine that with the energy system, which operates like a stamina bar but has to be recharged at specific stations, and you can have moments where you feel like a badass mowing down enemies with an energy rapier quickly turn into backpedaling and hoping for the best while you frantically search for a recharge or another ammo pack. Cyberspace terminals, too, can feel great at points but inconsistent, as your ship is a bit too slow to deal with some of the significant difficulty spikes, especially given the lack of any way to upgrade or improve your ship.

With a remake, there are also certain quality of life improvements that come as needed updates for the modern era, though Nightdive could have gone a bit further in bringing a classic forward. The visuals are largely gorgeous, as the graphics have been fully overhauled and meet today’s standards. Each floor has a uniquely ominous feel, pedaled by harsh neon lighting and distinct spaceship textures. Each new area is a delightful visual surprise, especially in some later-game areas that take you to entirely new places. Controls and inventory management, though, feel like more of a hassle than they should, especially on console. The controls themselves on console are easy to understand, largely updated to match the traditions of newer immersive sims, but using the D-pad to scroll through your inventory bar certainly makes for some easy mistakes in high-leverage moments.

"While there have been countless immersive sims in the wake of System Shock, Nightdive Studios’ remake of the 30-year-old classic proves why it was so influential in the first place."

While there have been countless immersive sims in the wake of System Shock, Nightdive Studios’ remake of the 30-year-old classic proves why it was so influential in the first place. With an increasingly relevant and terrifying story, including an iconic villain in SHODAN, System Shock laid the foundation for how this type of story can be told. It has some of the best environmental storytelling and intricate level design in any game regardless of setting or when it was released, and it parlays that perfectly with a curiosity to learn more and a motivation to save humanity from a malevolent AI. It still carries some of its age in its inventory management and unabashed difficulty, but its influence is evident and undeniable. While there have been countless games benefitting from its influence, System Shock is a classic for a reason, and Nightdive Studios has done a beautiful job at updating it for the modern day and making it accessible to anyone curious about the history of the genre or one of its most important games of all time.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

Having had the MotoGP license for over a decade, alongside having developed the aforementioned Ride franchise, Milestone has pinned down the core motorcycle racing gameplay at the core of MotoGP 24. For years, it has been a tight, satisfying racing structure that lets you achieve the highest highs of motorcycle racing while having to overcome the inevitable lows of crashing, taking turns too quickly, and ultimately losing races. MotoGP 24 keeps the foundation that has been set through years of tweaking and refining the gameplay, and broadly it feels very similar to past games. The name of the game, like in real-life MotoGP races, is balancing speed with precise turns, ensuring that you outpace your fellow racers on straightaways without losing any ground by taking sharp turns too quickly. This is a concept that has been the franchise’s strong suit for multiple years, and this year’s entry continues that strength.

"MotoGP 24 keeps the foundation that has been set through years of tweaking and refining the gameplay, and broadly it feels very similar to past games."

On the track, racing feels smooth and steady with some new tweaks primarily aimed at allowing players more freedom in how difficult they want their experience to be. You can immediately choose difficulty levels from Simplified all the way up to Pro, and these options have material effects on your requirements for success. A Simplified experience feels almost trivial if you’ve played the game before, as it controls much of your movement and automatically brakes as you approach turns, and as you move up the difficulty ladder, you receive less automatic help from the game, forcing you to accelerate, brake, and turn on your own. For a race that can be boiled down to just a few key pieces, it’s good to have this level of flexibility in how much control you truly have, and while seasoned players of past games will likely jump straight to higher difficulties, new players will more easily settle in with a bit more help.

On top of the difficulty options, a major new feature for this year’s entry is adaptive difficulty, a feature similar to Forza’s “Drivatars” that reads your riding style and dynamically changes how AI racers perform, both in their riding styles and their overall challenge level. While this is an interesting system, it isn’t as impactful as the game makes it seem. Playing through multiple seasons of the Career, the main single player mode, I never felt like the other racers were ever getting noticeably better, even after I started winning or placing in virtually every race. Once I nailed down some of the tenets of performing well in these races, like braking before turns and accelerating out of them, the game became consistently easier, and I expected the adaptive difficulty to play more of a role in my experience. With that said, it’s an intriguing addition that will likely be refined in coming entries, and I’m excited about how this feature could look in future years.

Outside of the races themselves, another area where the MotoGP series really shines is its presentation, and this year’s entry takes another step forward in that regard. Visually, the game is as beautiful as ever, with varied, photorealistic tracks and a wide range of factors that can affect races, like weather and time of day. Even when racing on the same track, racing on a bright, sunny day or a rainy evening can completely change both how the race looks and how it plays. Raindrops glimmer on the camera and the track, and it’s much more difficult to make a tight turn when it’s raining than when the track is clear. When the skies clear, the game literally shines, and the hyper-realistic textures, as well as the refined sound design, take center stage. For any MotoGP fan, it’s almost worth the price of entry alone to see the 20-plus tracks in all of their on-track glory.

"Raindrops glimmer on the camera and the track, and it’s much more difficult to make a tight turn when it’s raining than when the track is clear. When the skies clear, the game literally shines, and the hyper-realistic textures, as well as the refined sound design, take center stage. For any MotoGP fan, it’s almost worth the price of entry alone to see the 20-plus tracks in all of their on-track glory."

Unfortunately, the majority of the improvements to this year’s game don’t revolve around the game’s content, as the various modes are broadly consistent with past years. The aforementioned Career mode is the centerpiece here, and it feels very similar to other Career modes in past MotoGP games. You begin as a newcomer to the MotoGP scene and work to develop your bike and win races, championships, and ultimately, the season title. You can opt for the full season or a shortened season, but both consist of playing through the practice rounds, qualifying sessions, and the race at each track for each Grand Prix. If you’ve played a MotoGP Career in the past, you will feel right at home here. The biggest changes come off the track, as you can now impact your relationship with your teammates and rivals, as well as more realistically see transfer rumors between teams.

Overall, the Career mode feels like it has only incrementally changed. It’s nice to have some further detail in the off-track relationships, but it’s hard not to compare this with games like F1 or even NBA 2K and MLB The Show, all of which have had more depth in their Career modes over the years and frequently include actual stories surrounding your character. While you’re greeted in your debut season here with some special remarks about your youth and inexperience, over time the campaign becomes solely about racing, racing, and more racing. It’s a streamlined approach, but it’s no more than a glorified sequence of Grand Prix where I would’ve loved to see some more detail in the presentation.

The rest of the content is relatively limited as well. You can, of course, quick play any track or set up your own championship with any combination of tracks. The multiplayer has taken a step forward as well, as you can now play local splitscreen on top of the expected online races, an appreciated addition to bring back a beloved feature from racing games of the past. Otherwise, though, there’s very little that changes how you actually interact with the game; instead, it’s merely a handful of modes that bring you to the same challenge of simply winning races.

"MotoGP 24’s sareer mode is slightly improved with some off-track refinements, and the additions to the difficulty options."

MotoGP 24’s sareer mode is slightly improved with some off-track refinements, and the additions to the difficulty options make it an easier sell for newcomers to the franchise, but few other improvements mean this is a game that’s better for players who have been away from the franchise for a couple of years. Come for the racing and stay for the beautiful visuals, but don’t expect any major updates over previous games.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.