Ryan McCaffrey

Extraction shooters live or die on emergent gameplay, and there’s nothing as emergent as a twister, flood or tsunami. The weather during a session of Exoborne can change from clement to hellscape in minutes – all of which has profound effects on gameplay, according to Sharkmob.

With a promising story, absorbing vibe, and responsive skating controls, Skate Story has so much potential as both a distinct story and a damn cool skating game. It shot up to the top of my Steam wishlist after my hands-on demo at Summer Game Fest this year, and I can’t wait to see the weird places this wildly expressive skating game goes.

Blending monster collecting, management simulation, and puzzle-based dungeon crawling sounds a lot more overwhelming than it actually is in Critter Cafe. That’s not to say that this comfy game from Sumo Digital and Secret Mode is oversimplified, just that it’s chill and approachable. Like any sim worth its salt, customization is the name of the game here.

The first of Blumhouse Games’ newly announced slate, Fear The Spotlight promises throwback horror with a more approachable take on PS1-era horror gameplay designed for non-horror fans to enjoy. Set on the night of a break-in gone wrong, this story follows two high schoolers on a night they won’t soon forget as they unravel their school’s dark past.

Hearkening back to PS2-era action platformers, Akimbot already seems like a great example of nostalgia done right. Full of homage to classics from that era like Ratchet and Clank, I had so much fun jumping, shooting, and air-dashing through an early version of Akimbot’s first level.

Action game aficionados have been well-fed in the recent past with games like Stellar Blade and Sekiro, but based on a new hands-on gameplay demo at Summer Games Fest, it looks like Phantom Blade 0 will stand up with the leaders in the genre.

When Sonic Generations released over a decade ago, fans of the series around the world celebrated the blue blur’s most successful Sonic title in years – one that bridged the gap between classic Sonic and modern Sonic. Now, Sega is going back to one of their most critically acclaimed Sonic titles with a re-release of Sonic Generations that includes new content in the form of Shadow the Hedgehog levels. And much to my surprise, that new content is incredibly fun.

Amid multiple leaks and rumors, we had a decent idea of what was going to be at this year’s Xbox Games Showcase with seemingly plenty to get excited about. But when the Showcase finally aired, Microsoft did the near-impossible for any company in a fickle social media-fueled age: they exceeded expectations and drew almost universal acclaim.

Last time we checked in with Stormgate, the new RTS coming from a bunch of former Starcraft developers at Frost Giant Studios, we got to dig deep into the demonic Infernal Host faction, joining the determined Human Vanguard. Now, the third faction has been revealed, and they're a strong counterpoint both thematically and mechanically. The Celestial Armada consist of angelic artificial forms inhabited by the souls of a hyper-advanced alien race, and they play quite a bit differently from anything we've seen in an RTS like this so far.

There was a lot that came out of my hands-on time with Delta Force: Hawk Ops that I didn’t expect. I didn’t know it was a top-to-bottom reboot of the 1999 series of military shooters, re-imagined meticulously in Unreal Engine 5. I would have never guessed it was attempting to strike out at not one, not two, but three different current shooter sub-genres all at once. And I would have never imagined that my short time with it would leave me anxious to play more of its heavy tactics-focused running and gunning.