Vice

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is one of Square Enix’s best original IPs in years. It’s a perfect blend of classic Zelda and Final Fantasy Adventure, mixed with a unique time-traveling mechanic. While the game initially starts out deceptively simple, it quickly turns into a mind-bending adventure story with complex mechanics and exploration.

007 First Light is easily the best James Bond game since GoldenEye and is also one of the better Bond stories told in the last decade. IO Interactive has created a game that is a culmination of all of their best mechanics over the years. 007 First Light has the addicting sandbox gameplay of the Hitman franchise while also having an incredible narrative that matches the quality of Naughty Dog and Rockstar Games. James Bond is finally back and is better than he’s been in years.

Pragmata is a fantastic new IP that effortlessly blends its unique combat and emotional character building into one of the year’s best stories. Even if you aren’t a parent, the game’s beautiful narrative will grab its hooks into you. This is easily one of Capcom’s best original IPs in years, and is a game sci-fi fans shouldn’t miss out on. More importantly though, Pragmata is just a ton of fun. The game’s real-time hacking mechanic is a killer feature that I hope more studio’s take inspiration from.

The amount of content in the Starfield PS5 release is so staggering that it would take pages for me to go into all of it. But what really stands out to me are all the little quality-of-life changes Bethesda has made to really push Starfield into a complete experience. When exploring space, you now encounter more unique NPCs and questlines.

If you are someone who wants a more linear or cinematic, story-driven campaign, Crimson Desert might not be for you. However, if you loved the sense of freedom and discovery that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild had, then Crimson Desert is the next big game in that genre. Pearl Abyss has truly created something special here, that I suspect we’ll be talking about for years to come.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles is a must-play and one of my favorite games this year. [Best in Class]

It takes a minute to finally start cooking. But once The Necromancer’s Tale throws a little gasoline on the fire, it’s smooth sailing from that point forward. If you’ve been searching for a dark, gritty, and sometimes disgusting RPG to engross yourself in, you can’t go wrong with this one. It’s beautifully done, with a fantastic visual style, great audio, and some of the best writing in recent memory. [Highly Recommended]

The gameplay is a classic point-and-click adventure, but Mick Carter talks to you throughout in that neo-noir style. Graphically, The Drifter stands out with its incredibly detailed pixel art style. It’s perfect for this story and style of play because it makes you pay attention to every aspect of the environment to solve a puzzle. [Highly Recommended]

On the merits of just being a really good game, it’s easy to recommend. But if you’re not comfortable with some of the subject matter, I’d suggest staying away from this one. [Highly Recommended]

A few bugs kept Prison Boss: Prohibition from reaching its full potential. Playing on Meta Quest 3, I had several issues with trying to grip onto objects, as they would randomly fall out of my hand even when I was holding the button. Other times, police would spot something as small as Grains, even if the cabinet was only open in the slightest. While frustrating, I was having far too much fun running my own make-shift saloon for it to detract from the experience. If you’ve got a friend who’s willing to help you break the law and make some sweet drinks, this could be the one for you. [Recommended]