Launcher (The Washington Post)

Forspoken doesn’t do anything new for the open-world genre of games, but it does offer just enough to distinguish itself, mostly thanks to Frey and her magic spells, and a story that’s able to stick the landing. Or to translate this to Whedonspeak, “Yep, she really did just do that!"

Engage continues the series trend of mashing up tactics and RPG elements, but while the latter falls flat and feels out of place, it excels in the former. And if my biggest qualms are with the game’s least Fire Emblem-y parts, I consider that a solid entry in the series.

Dwarf Fortress is a storytelling engine as much as it is a game, spitting out associations and facts and details that you can shape into a coherent and specific narrative. This is also what we do to our own lives, personifying random events so that they feel significant rather than a matter of chance. Life isn’t usually a satisfying narrative. It isn’t so much that “Dwarf Fortress” is a perfect simulacrum of life, but that it shines a bright light on the human tendency to look for meaning in everything. I care about my dwarves because the stories I make up about their lives are also the ones I make up about my own.

I still haven’t made up my mind if I’m going to be returning to “World of Warcraft” any time soon, whether it is to see how “Dragonflight” evolves from here or to try out future expansions. But after all these years, I’m glad I returned to witness the start of a new journey for a group that spent decades in stasis. Seeing the Dracthyr regaining control of their fate gave me hope that the next time I visit Azeroth, the people behind this world might have freed themselves from their historic shackles.

This uneven mix of humor and design keeps High on Life from ever feeling like a natural combination of video game and traditional comedy, even if there are plenty of moments where glimpses of some better blend of the two elements appears. What’s here is worthwhile for audiences curious about the concept of a comedy shooter, but it’s too uneven and stiflingly desperate to please to recommend beyond that.

The overarching problem, I think, is that the game rarely sets up its horror. The best horror films and games ramp up the tension — and release it with a scare. But a neighbor coming up to you and catching you while you attempt to solve a puzzle mostly just feels random. There’s no setup — just surprise from something you couldn’t possibly foresee. More often than not, as I hid in closets from my pursuers, I felt frustrated rather than scared. I either wanted to continue what I was doing before, or for the pursuers to find me just to get it over with.

Need for Speed Unbound handily straddles the line between realism and fun, making it one of the best racing experiences of the year.

Striking Distance’s debut is a swing and a miss, but The Callisto Protocol ends on a cliffhanger. If the studio decides to revisit the series with a sequel, I’m hoping the second outing will be better than the first.

Aside from the perspiration provided by an initial landing at a crowded point of interest, or the jaw-clenching moments of the final circle, the pace of play is deliberate, allowing players to think, look around and take advantage of the battleground in clever and effective ways.

From a narrative standpoint, it’s tough to tie up all of a story’s threads when any one of them can end at any time, and “The Devil in Me” exhibits the usual flaws of that approach. Characters tend to be awkwardly sidelined, and motivations don’t quite coalesce. Even the hulking murderer who can kill every character begins to feel a little inept when we spend so much time dodging his killing blows.