It’s a tale as old as sports: an established star has an off year, and people begin to wonder if this is the beginning of their long slide into mediocrity. Then, they come roaring back with a season for the ages, putting all doubts to rest as to who sits at the pinnacle of the sport. After having somewhat of a down year of its own in 2022, MLB The Show 23 has returned to claim its crown as the undisputed king of simulation baseball with a long list of upgrades, gameplay shakeups, and an incredible new mode that redefines what the sports genre is capable of.

The most signifiant addition to MLB The Show 23 is the Negro Leagues mode, a dedicated single-player story focused on the legends of a league that ran parallel to the MLB from 1920 to 1948...

After the calamitous debut of Diablo 3 way back in 2012, it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous about the upcoming launch of Diablo 4 this June. But after more than a decade of gradual improvement that has transformed Diablo 3 into the fantastic game it is today, the first beta weekend of Diablo 4 has reassured me that Blizzard has been making good use of those hard-learned lessons for its sequel. Even though this beta weekend only included a level-capped Act 1 and three of the classes, so far it has exceeded my expectations in almost every way...

Over three years after its initial release, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners remains one of my favorite VR games, holding its ground next to the likes of Half-Life: Alyx and Gran Turismo 7 VR. That’s why it was such a major disappointment when its long-awaited sequel, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners – Chapter 2: Retribution, was released as a Meta Quest 2 exclusive back in December. It came with a slurry of bugs and performance issues that left such a middling taste in my mouth that I genuinely wondered whether it was even intended as a sequel to begin with, especially given the lack of a proper PC VR version at the time. Fast forward three months and we now have a PC re-release, plus a PlayStation VR2 version that visually blows everything about the original Quest 2 release out of...

“Even Stronger” is the perfect tagline for WWE 2K23. Last year’s reinvention laid a solid foundation, and every aspect of it has been refined for the better this year. Combat is flexible without becoming burdensome, and the MyRise campaign mode focuses on telling more focused stories without compromising its open-ended gameplay. MyGM is more user friendly and lets you invite a larger number friends to get in on the action, too. Even the 2K Showcase, which has maybe the most glaring inconsistencies of all the modes, subverts expectations in creative ways. The pickings are slim for full sim-style pro-grappling alternatives, but WWE’s flagship game has never been more deserving of its spot at the head of the wrestling game table.

2K wrestling games have been largely hit or miss whe...

In light of the high-quality remakes of Resident Evil 2 and 3 released in 2019 and 2020, it felt like a safe bet that Capcom would do an equally admirable job of rebuilding Resident Evil 4. Even so, when I hit the start button on this 2023 remake of the legendary 2005 action-horror game I wasn’t prepared for how forcefully it would knock my knees out from under me and suplex me headfirst into 16 hours of sustained tension and exhilaration. This fully revitalised campaign dramatically one-ups the original in almost every conceivable way...

Whenever I’m asked what my favorite roguelike is, my answer is confidently and unabashedly Dead Cells. That’s been true across five years of superb content updates, and it’s even more true with the arrival of its latest paid DLC, Return to Castlevania. This sizable expansion expertly remixes the base game and Konami’s classic action-platformer series – one of Dead Cells’ biggest inspirations – into something that feels wonderfully and wholeheartedly its own. Its more traditional story structure is less mysterious than the connect-the-dots style we’ve seen in the past, and it’s immediately clear how much work has gone into bringing Castlevania’s iconic characters, weapons, music, and locations into Dead Cells’ world...

On the chitin-covered heels of the impressive Witch Queen expansion and a relatively strong year of live-service support overall, it seemed like Destiny 2 was finally gaining momentum as it headed toward the conclusion of its epic saga. Sadly, my optimism for a game I’ve spent thousands of hours playing has come crashing down like a Cabal drop pod after just a couple dozen with Destiny’s latest expansion, Lightfall. The story is so shockingly incoherent that even someone who has spent countless hours reading Destiny’s lore like I have couldn’t understand its nonsense, the new destination on Neptune feels as lifeless as the real planet, and the endgame/seasonal activities have so few surprises to offer (at least so far) that they give me deja vu in the worst possible way...

At this point, it’s probably fair to say that Team Ninja has a pretty good handle on this whole soulslike genre thing. Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty may not reach the same heights as Nioh 2 did back in 2020, but it certainly scratches that same itch of lightning-fast combat, punishing-yet-rewarding difficulty, and deep build customization options that you can craft and tailor to your own playstyle. It’s great for the same reasons that the Nioh games are, and it accomplishes that feat even while completely changing up the fundamentals of its combat system to be closer to Sekiro than Dark Souls. But by that same token, it also falls victim to the same familiar issues nagging at those other Team Ninja soulslikes, including subpar storytelling and excessively fiddly loot mechanics...

When it comes to next-gen racing games, I’ll admit I generally reach for the wheel of Forza Horizon 5’s approachable open world over the close second that is Gran Turismo 7’s more rigid dedication to realism. But the shiny new PlayStation VR2 headset is like a burst of nitrous oxide in the latter’s engine, narrowly pushing GT7 ahead of the competition by finally putting its money where its mouth has always been. Impressive headset haptics, HDR, and 3D audio all come together so believably, creating a one-of-a-kind experience that any car junkie or racing fan should want to dive into, even if you aren’t usually into the strict regimentation and slow-burn progression GT7 lays down. And if you are already a bonafide Gran Turismo fan, the PS VR2 offers such a visual and experiential ...

As I took my first steps on Scars Above’s mysterious planet, I felt my excitement and fear rising. Almost immediately, an encounter with its grotesque alien creatures turned out to be much more complicated than I anticipated. I even died a couple of times before making any significant progress at all, giving me the impression that I was at the beginning of a harsh and nervewracking journey that was going to ask the very best of me to survive on its default difficulty level. But my fear of the unknown proved to be unjustified in this case, and the initial thrill dissipated after an hour or so when I’d unlocked the first few of a vast arsenal of weapons...