Ars Technica

The most satisfying part of roguelites isn’t becoming powerful because the numbers went up; it’s becoming powerful due to your own cleverness. Pathogenic is a toybox that rewards experimentation.

Maybe it’s expecting too much for a new Slay the Spire game to recapture the thrill of learning the intricate balance of the original game’s deckbuilding system and turn-based combat. If you’re looking for a sequel that builds on the essential skeleton of its predecessor, Slay the Spire 2 has you covered. And there are enough unlockable trinkets and optional difficulty challenges here to keep aficionados poring through the game’s new challenges for hundreds more hours. But if you already feel like you’ve reached the burnout point with the original Slay the Spire, this sequel might not be new enough to rekindle another long-term randomized love affair. [Early Access Impressions]

There are bound to be some people who see TR-49 as akin to a homework simulator, with painful flashbacks to all-nighters spent desperately researching a last-minute college term paper. For anyone who knows the inherent appeal of diving deep into a previously unknown world, though, TR-49 is an engrossing work of world-building fiction presented in a truly memorable way.

It's a structure that can feel punishing, unforgiving, tedious, and enraging in turns. But it's also a structure that leads to moments of the most genuinely satisfying sense of achievement I can remember having in modern gaming...It's about a miles-long journey starting with a single, halting step. It's about putting one foot in front of the other until you can't anymore. It's about climbing the mountain because it's there. It's about falling down 1,000 times and getting up 1,001 times.

If you can power through these mouse-related annoyances, though, Drag x Drive is one of the more unique and fun action-sports games out there. I hope a critical mass of people give it a chance because I’d love to see some professional e-sports athletes madly swooping their Joy-Cons across a desk in a near-future Twitch stream.

The adorable relationship between young Pauline and the silent Donkey Kong is the icing on a very satisfying cake here. Even though Mario is nowhere to be seen, Donkey Kong Bananza seems destined to be thought of in the same breath as the Mario games that have come to define earlier Nintendo hardware launches.

Those nitpicks aside, Free Roam mode is what I'd consider the best realization of Mario Kart World's open-world ambitions. The more traditional racing modes can be too frantic and time-sensitive to let you enjoy the obvious care and attention to detail that has gone into building out the world around Mario Kart's racing tracks. And while racing around those tracks feels as satisfying as ever, this time around, the game's structure tends to get in the way of that satisfying core experience.

Those technical problems aside, I was surprised at how well this zippy, capsule-size take on the Elden Ring formula worked in practice. Nightreign might not be the full-fledged, epic Elden Ring sequel that long-time "Soulsborne" fans are looking for, but it's still a compelling, action-packed twist on the popular adventure gameplay.

It’s been hard to be overly critical of a game that has all but forced me to log off and talk to friends for a couple hours each week. The downsides of Sunderfolk have mostly been the same as those of playing any tabletop game with humans: waiting, expertise imbalance, distraction, and someone’s dog needing attention...Beyond that, I think Sunderfolk is a success at what it set out to do: Put the cardboard, cards, and dice on the screen and make it easier for everyone to show up. It won’t replace the traditional game night, but it might bring more people into it and remind people like me why it’s so good.

It'd be easy to glance at Avowed and see just another all-too-familiar take on a well-trodden fantasy RPG space. But that would be a mistake. The game's zippy controls, tough but not overwhelming combat, and morally ambiguous perspective make for a memorable journey that sets itself apart from the crowd.