IGN

• PC
• 6 / 10
• États-Unis

I want to give Still Wakes the Deep all the credit it deserves for its fantastic art, dialogue, voiceover work, and setting. But it's frustrating to play with its nearly on-rails structure that actively scoffs at the idea of exploration. And as much as I wanted to be freaked out by it, I almost never was, trying as I might to set the mood as best as possible. It's the kind of game where I think watching someone else play through it and playing it yourself would be nearly identical experiences, and that doesn't make it easy for me to recommend.

• SWITCH
• PC
• PS5
• PS4
• XONE
• XSX/S
• 8 / 10
• États-Unis

I was more than happy to revisit Shin Megami Tensei V, one of my favorite games of 2021, through this definitive version. Vengeance doesn't necessarily make drastic improvements per se, but I enjoyed the new twists, content, and quality of life upgrades it does bring all the same. And while the storyline and route exclusive to Vengeance are a bit better than the original, their appeal as a returning player is really just in how they shake things up at certain points. Don’t get it twisted, though – there’s never been a better time to play this hard-nosed RPG, if not for its satisfying turn-based combat, then for its masterful execution of a uniquely demonic world. There’s a certain attitude that comes through vividly in its art style, character design, and music that you just don’t get in other games. So, if you're simply looking for more SMT or have yet to experience Atlus’ devilish RPG series, Vengeance is absolutely worth seeing through.

• PC
• PS4
• PS5
• XONE
• XSX/S
• 9 / 10
• États-Unis

Destiny 2’s potential was clear from the first time I blasted my way through The Red War seven years ago, but Bungie never actually realized much of that potential until The Final Shape. This finale expansion’s story largely succeeds at delivering a satisfying ending, the raid is brutal and epic, the Prismatic subclasses breathe fresh life into combat, and the new enemy faction adds some much-needed variety to the things you’ll spend hours shooting in the face. None of that makes Destiny’s avalanche of confusing RPG systems, currencies, and storylines any easier to digest – but for the first time in a long while, I can wholeheartedly recommend pushing through that darkness, because there’s now a bright and beaming light at the end of the tunnel.

• PC
• IOS
• ANDROID
• 7 / 10
• États-Unis

Wuthering Waves combo-heavy action, mobility, and monster taming enhance combat and exploration enough to respectably distinguish it from competitors. Its combat is polished and sophisticated, rewarding reactivity and pushing me to carefully consider my builds and teams. On top of that, the Echo equipment system ties your character progression into the environment in a way that encourages exploration, which can be satisfying despite the repetitive process of fighting overworld mobs. Unfortunately, the story is a bland, exposition-heavy slog, with dull writing and voice acting that rarely kept me interested. But while the quests may not be what’s pulling me along, I’m still looking forward to checking back in with the next major update to see how Wuthering Waves evolves.

• PC
• PS4
• XONE
• PS5
• XSX/S
• 7 / 10
• États-Unis

In isolation, F1 24 remains a slick, deep, and marvellous motorsports experience. If you’re a racing gamer who’s just getting into F1 (or an F1 fan who’s just getting into gaming) it’s terrific stuff, packed with options, assists, and various other tweakable toggles to make it hugely approachable to F1 fans of all skill levels. However, if you’re a returning player of F1 23, and F1 22, and so on, it’s hard to deem F1 24 essential. Despite its refurbished career mode and handling overhaul, it’s basically a neck and neck finish with the last few years’ versions. And when you have a head start, that’s kind of a loss.

• PC
• PS5
• XSX/S
• PS4
• XONE
• 7 / 10
• États-Unis

Killer Klowns From Outer Space: The Game is as silly and entertaining as the movie that spawned it, and that makes for a surprisingly compelling asymmetrical multiplayer game to boot. The back-and-forth between the wacky, murderous Klowns and the whiny teens is a blast no matter which side of the equation you find yourself on, and unlockable classes and abilities add some much needed variety… for a little bit, at least. After a handful of hours, once you’ve tried out all the human and Klown options and learned the layouts of the small number of maps, that competitive loop can get pretty stale. Here’s hoping developer Illfonic has some tricks up their baggy, checkered sleeves and can deliver updates to keep the clown car chugging along beyond that, but for now Killer Klowns makes for at least a dozen hours of really enjoyable hijinks.

• PC
• XSX/S
• PS5
• 7 / 10
• États-Unis

XDefiant joins the free-to-play shooter crowd as a respectable competitive FPS built around various Ubisoft franchises, but little makes it really stand out. Its shooting mechanics generally feel great, and even dying doesn’t kill the momentum since you're dropped right back into the action within a few seconds. Some of its issues, like weapon balance, are relatively minor elements that we can expect Ubisoft to adjust over time. Tougher to solve, however, is the clash between its main ideas: fast time-to-kill makes a lot of its class abilities feel difficult to make the most of because you’re usually dead before you can use them. It’s also lacking a defining mode, leaning on samey point-capture ideas and tried-and-true but tired concepts like Payload and Kill Confirmed. On the other hand, excellent maps keep things interesting longer than they otherwise would be, so hopefully it’ll have the time it needs to carve out its own niche.

• XSX/S
• 8 / 10
• États-Unis

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II delivers a spellbinding adventure packed with cinematic spectacle and story surprises that maintains a surging sense of forward momentum and never wastes a second of its slender run time. Its combat manages to feel consistently intimidating and immediate despite its mechanical simplicity, and its perspective-based puzzles regularly scratch cerebral itches even though they largely rehash or rework concepts from Senua’s previous story. A journey as brutal as it is beautiful delivered with hardware-pushing visuals and persistently absorbing audio, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is another Viking-worthy feast for the senses that meets the high bar set by its predecessor, even if it never really manages to clear it.

• SWITCH
• 9 / 10
• États-Unis

Paper Mario has finally returned to its RPG roots with an amazingly loyal and visually dazzling remake of The Thousand-Year Door. Everything fans have been begging Nintendo to bring back is here, including a delightfully varied turn-based battle system with satisfying real-time elements and unique, lovable party members who are essential to both the story and gameplay. Rogueport and its surrounding areas are bursting with personality thanks to writing that’s just as sharp and funny today as it was in 2004. It also introduces a host of modern improvements that streamline (but don’t eliminate) the original’s backtracking issues, easily making this the best way to experience Mario’s quest to gather the Crystal Stars. There’s a reason The Thousand-Year Door has been considered one of the greatest Nintendo games for the last 20 years, and this brilliant remake ensures it will maintain that reputation for at least a thousand more.

• PC
• 7 / 10
• États-Unis

Little Kitty, Big City is an undeniably cozy and mechanically minimal game tailor-made for cat lovers. Its small but inviting sandbox can provide a few hours of ticking objectives off a list before any repetition sets in, allowing this feline adventure to stretch its exploratory legs before wearing out its welcome. Its graphics are cute and delightful, especially for people who just like to watch their pets leap into boxes or trot along when they realize they are not supposed to be in the kitchen. What’s missing are a few layers of polish on its movement and camera controls, which can make climbing around this city more frustrating than it needs to be. And while the campaign may be brief, being a street-level cat discovering the world a few blocks at a time easily holds up across it.

• PC
• 9 / 10
• États-Unis

When all the pieces fall into place, 1000xResist paints a beautifully messy, often cruel, but brutally honest picture of who we are. It’s an invitation to see a deeply personal and mature reflection of the Asian diaspora, dissecting the immigrant experience to show something much greater than simple representation. It’s profound without ever being pretentious, unapologetically sentimental without excess, and bittersweet in intimate moments without losing sight of its radical politics. While all that is a testament to its impeccable writing, its artistic vision creates a striking sense of place for its characters to become more than just their functions. 1000xResist is a revolution in storytelling, forged by the things that have shaped our lives, and in turn, one that shows us what it takes to shape our future.

• PC
• SWITCH
• PS5
• 9 / 10
• États-Unis

Animal Well is a veritable feast of brain teasers that’s far more concerned with twisting your mind into knots than any grueling platforming challenges. It’s lovely to look at thanks to gorgeous pixel art and dynamic lighting, and an excellent use of haptics and well-tuned physics systems make it fun to touch, too. Animal Well’s steadily unlocked toybox of tools thoroughly rewards play, curiosity, and experimentation for hours upon hours after the credits roll. Though that late-game maze of mind-teasers might grate once in a while if you’re reluctant to ask for help, the massive onion of Animal Well’s secrets remains dense, clever, and thrilling even when you’ve peeled back as many layers as you think you possibly can… and then peeled a few more beyond that.

• PC
• 9 / 10
• États-Unis

V Rising has been nicely polished up during its dark slumber in Early Access, allowing it to fully rise to the occasion with its excellent boss design and challenging ARPG combat. Keeping the killing rays of the sun and your dwindling blood supply as ongoing concerns is effective and evocative in selling the vampire fantasy, as is the ability to craft the sprawling, spooky estates of my nightmares. And the huge amount of customization available when setting up your own private server practically eliminates the need to do chores that are timed to real-world days in a way that only really makes sense for playing with a larger clan and having those timers going even when you're not online. Arise, ye children of the night, and sink your teeth into one of the best ARPGs – and one of the best vampire games, in general – of this moonlit age.

• SWITCH
• 4 / 10
• États-Unis

My time with Endless Ocean Luminous was endlessly frustrating. Rather than providing a relaxing, undersea escape, Luminous’ repetitive tasks and uninspiring environments are boring and forgettable from the start. The ridiculous, random requirements to advance the story feel inconvenient in multiplayer and nearly impossible if you’re playing alone, and the story I was rewarded with is so brief and shallow that it fails to make any impression at all. I’ve always been mesmerized by the ocean, but Luminous turns the deep blue into something deeply monotonous.

• PS5
• 7 / 10
• États-Unis

Stellar Blade stands out as a gorgeous and well-crafted action game with very impressive strengths and very clear weaknesses. Both its story and characters lack substance, and some of its RPG elements are poorly implemented, like dull sidequests that very often require you to retrace your steps through previous levels with very little done to make the return trip feel unique or rewarding. But its action picks up most of that slack thanks to the rock solid fundamentals of its Sekiro-inspired combat system, a deep well of hideous monstrosities to sharpen your sword against, and plenty of hidden goodies that do a great job of incentivizing exploration throughout.

• PS5
• 6 / 10
• États-Unis

I'm happy to see Sand Land get a second wind with an open-world action game, and it can sometimes adapt the series in impressive ways. But while there is the potential of an interesting expansion of the manga here, it doesn’t manage to replicate what Toriyama's panels were able to illustrate so effectively. Beneath some ho-hum dialogue and stilted cutscenes is a fun story with its heart in the right place, and Beelzebub and friends at least have the charisma to carry you through to the end alongside a quirky set of supporting characters and villains. Dialing in on vehicular combat and exploration pays off to both maintain the spirit of the original work and deliver some high points, but the quests themselves fall into repetition. Thus, Sand Land suffers the same fate we’ve seen in many other game adaptations of anime and manga – competent in several respects with a few moments of brilliance, but for the most part, a simply okay adventure that can only occasionally capture what makes the source material special.

• PC
• PS5
• XSX/S
• SWITCH
• XONE
• 8 / 10
• États-Unis

Another Crab’s Treasure is one of my favorite soulslikes in quite some time. It borrows a lot from the usual genre playbook, but adds a colorful, irresistibly charming, and wholly unique veneer that makes it all feel brand spanking new. The story is well-written and filled with memorable moments and characters, the shell-swapping mechanic is unique and adorable as heck, and the unrelentingly cheerful mood is like finding land after years adrift in an angsty sea of Bloodborne imitators. Its combat isn’t the deepest ocean around and it has a bit of jank here and there, but Another Crab’s Treasure is so clever and wonderfully ridiculous that it’s absolutely worth your time.

• XSX/S
• 7 / 10
• États-Unis

TopSpin 2K25’s chunky career mode may occasionally be marred by periods of grind amidst its Grand Slams, its licensed player roster is a little slight compared to its impressive stable of stadiums, and its implementation of virtual currency attributes bafflingly unrealistic values to goods and services as though they were appraised by a kindergartner with no understanding of money. In spite of these drawbacks, though, TopSpin 2K25 is an absolute blast on court, and one that I’m struggling to put down. Claiming this is the best tennis simulation since Top Spin 4 may be a bit of a backhanded compliment since there haven't exactly been any other genuine serve-and-volley contenders released in recent years, but there’s little doubt that despite its rough edges this is still the most enjoyable way to get a realistic rally going in your own home without building an actual court in your backyard.