Another year, another complicated shopping season when it comes to buying that videogame system they want wrapped up in a bow. Much like 2021, this has also been something of a brutal year for gamers because some real banger titles have hit shelves this turn around the sun. One thing separates this year from last, though: one game has absolutely dominated the gaming conversation this year, and it’s one that can be played on either of the tough-to-find systems. Elden Ring has essentially existed in the same space that Skyrim occupied in its release year almost a decade ago, becoming something close to a mainstream pop culture beacon, a real achievement for its developers and their penchant for … uh, let’s just call them tough games. But Elden Ring is far from the only exceptional game released this year.

In fact, it’s been a long time since so many tremendous titles have come out in a short time, ranging from a new God of War to long-awaited sequels and a free-roaming game where you get to play as a … cat. It honestly doesn’t get much better than that, and we’re here to take you through some of the big ones to grab for those loved ones who’ve been fortunate enough to either get one of the new systems or will be getting one this holiday season. Below, you’ll find a dozen games in our Video Game Software Gift Guide, with links leading out for easy purchases. Let’s get started.

For the Open-World and Fantasy Fanatic

You’ll notice that a few of the games in other categories throughout this gift guide could’ve also fit into this section, and that’s because the fantasy and open exploration subgenres saw a tremendous amount of action this year. The three below are bound to thoroughly tickle their fancy, though, for the breadth of their realms and the extravagance of their fantastical ambitions.

Elden Ring

• The textual world-building of George R.R. Martin comes together with the literal open world-building of now legendary developer FROM Software in the creation of Elden Ring. Much ado may have been made about this partnership before its release, potentially setting it up to be another overhyped disappointment, but what’s become obvious since release is that it wasn’t just a bunch of talk
• Players take control of a fully customizable character who chooses a class at the game’s beginning to focus their skillset, and then they embark on an action-RPG exploratory journey through the Lands Between and its focal realms. From there, those with experience with FROM’s Souls series and Bloodborne will have an idea of what to expect: the deeper the player delves into the lavish world’s many caverns, woods, dungeons, and other hazardous areas, the tougher the challenges become and the more they’ll produce helpful rewards. And boy, there’s a lot of gear available to make ‘em your own.
• FROM Software knows their reputation, though, and they found a way with Elden Ring to both make it accessible for a wider audience and preserves their signature challenge. They’ve done so by smartly crafting the fantastical atmosphere in a way that’s both gritty and mythical, making the player want to explore its nooks and crannies instead of it being a masochistic endeavor. Skyrim may provide more of a free-roaming RPG playground, but Elden Ring has taken the throne for the most multifaceted, absorbing, and rewarding playground for combat and puzzle-solving RPing.  

Click to Order on Amazon

Horizon: Forbidden West

• Horizon: Zero Dawn proved to be one of the breakout hits from the PS4 era, delivering a new franchise and heroine in Aloy that explores a unique post-event world, one where ancient machines post threats to humans of varied levels of technological advancement who have reverted to tribal dynamics.  Forbidden West takes Aloy to another region of the US on a journey that’ll save the world.
• Further west in a region in the space of California, Utah, and Nevada, the protagonist explores a beautiful, verdant, yet hostile open world populated with aggressive weather and volatile machines. In search of the source of an infectious plague and means of survival along the way, Aloy ventures beyond just land discovery this time, utilizing underwater diving and free-form rock climbing to reach the bottoms and tops of the land. Coupled with the Assassin’s Creed-meets-Batman-meets-Tomb Raider style of gameplay and light armor customization, this atmospheric expansion is most welcome.
• Where Elden Ring poses deliberately frazzling challenges, Horizon: Forbidden West lays out its more traditional open landscape as an enjoyably manageable alternative with grand storytelling, thrillingly crafted heroics and a fine heroine, despite the weird controversy before release about Aloy’s appearance. It’s a meticulously crafted sequel to the first Horizon.

Click to Order on Amazon

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands

• The Borderlands franchise features a separate one-shot DLC featuring Tiny Tina and her attempt at being a Dungeon Master (DM) for the characters in the game, transporting the player into a raucous fantasy take on the loot-‘n-shoot atmosphere of the base game. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands takes that same cheeky fantasy energy and expands it into a full shooter-RPG experience.
• With Tiny Tina again showing up to DM a round of Bunkers and Badasses, the player gains control of The Newbie as they enter a mythical realm that could morph at the whims of the storyteller. Luckily, the player can customize their character and choose a class that works best for them, and from there the summary of “Borderlands mixed with Dungeons and Dragons” begins to take shape. Either solo or in a 4-player co-op scenario, the gameplay reworks the gear system of the popular franchise into one that utilizes fantasy concepts with spell slots and melee weapons … and doesn’t take itself too seriously.
• There’s a story involved with dragon lords and swords and armies of skeletons, but the player needs to remember that there isn’t a reliable narrator here, and that’s part of the massive appeal of Wonderlands. This is Borderlands gameplay embracing a lot of the meta potential and silliness factor at its fingertips with a tabletop role-playing game, not unlike Saints Row 4 or Far Cry: Blood Dragon with how players get wrapped up in the twisted novelty and sink hours into it.

Click to Order on Amazon

For Those Who Love A Great Story Above All

Certain games don’t require a great story to be successful; conversely, there are certain gamers who don’t require a great story to enjoy their gaming entertainment. While that’s perfectly understandable, the titles below are specifically built up for their story and how it makes its audience members think and feel, sometimes sacrificing pure gaming adrenaline for the subtleties of a narrative and the invitation for the player’s input.

God of War: Ragnarok

• Old Man Kratos returns for another outing as the revamped protagonist for this retooled take on God of War, this time expanding the storytelling’s reach to all 9 realms of Norse mythology in telling a story of destiny, predetermination, and preventing the end of the world. All that alongside the continuing story of father and son against the backdrop of Norse mythology.
• God of War has had the luxury of being able to see its gameplay evolve across many titles and generations, so while Ragnarok may feel different in terms of camera angles and landscapes, it continues a similar gameplay energy of mild action-RPG systems and brisk combat as its predecessors. With Kratos’ son Atreus providing support, the duo traverse the more open-world layout of this sequel, which incorporates an increase in mini-boss challenges and allows for light gear customization.
• Most importantly, God of War: Ragnarok yearns to tell another grand, momentous story in the same vein as the other grandiose installments in the franchise, and once again the folks at Santa Monica Studio seem to have succeeded in that pursuit. Critics have so far been very kind to it, heaping almost exactly the same amount of praise on it as the 2018 reboot.

Click to Order on Amazon

The Quarry

• Supermassive Games have established themselves as one of the best in the tight gaming niche of “interactive drama and horror” titles, reaching a peak with Until Dawn several years ago and shaping their legacy with the Dark Picture Anthology. They’ve gone back to a more straightforward storytelling place with The Quarry, a tale of hunted teenagers and mysterious monsters lurking in the shadows.
• Like the studio’s other games, the experience isn’t hinged on engaging combat or other fun gameplay aspects, instead finding its satisfaction in the immersion of the storytelling and the complexity of the branching storylines and possible endings. From that standpoint, The Quarry aims to capture the tension and eeriness of classic ‘80s horror movies, incorporating a surprisingly star-studded cast of voices for the various characters in the narrative.
• What takes The Quarry to a place beyond other “interactive dramas” can be found in the technical execution from Supermassive Games, who understand how to utilize the format to maximize atmosphere, character authenticity, and ultimately dread. It’s a gaming experience that builds upon what the studio has done correctly up until now, with added bits of quality like couch co-op mode to deepen the fun with friends as each person takes control of different characters and makes choices.

Click to Order on Amazon

A Plague Tale: Requiem

• Few games have surprised with the capabilities of their setting quite like the original A Plague Tale did a few years back, discovering a way to make the medieval plague and hordes of rats into a fascinating setup for compelling stealth gameplay and harrowing dramatic horror storytelling. The gamemakers at Asobo Studio hope to sink their teeth into the concept again with a sequel, A Plague Tale: Requiem.
• Many aspects are similar from the first installment, in which the lead older sister Amicia employs stealth tactics to maneuver between locations with her brother Hugo while he, with a dose of mysticism, can intermittently gain control of waves of rats for his benefit.  In the trappings new location Provence that the developers selected to give the visual tone a livelier demeanor against the bleakness of the plague, the siblings from the first game exercise more refined versions of their skills, which opens the door for Amicia’s stealth and ranged attack abilities to be a more versatile gameplay facet.
• As with the first Plague Tale, there’s a lot of potential for heaviness in the storytelling for Requiem, hinged on the progression of disease and the unyielding protectiveness of brothers and systers. Most who’ve played it so far are more impressed with how Asobo Studio have one again brought videogame life to such a dour concept and improved upon the execution from the ground up.

Click to Order on Amazon

For Those Who Enjoy Smaller-Scale, Smaller-Price Gems

Whether you need something a little less expensive or are looking for a budget-minded stocking stuffer, these budget titles pack a lot of punch for a smaller dollar value.

Stray

• Speaking of unlikely concepts for a video game: what if all humans were stripped away from an open-world exploration environment, and instead, the player starts to control the everyday activities, puzzle-solving, and dangers of a cat? That’s exactly what happens in Stray, the latest title from BlueTwelve Studio and AnnaPurna Interactive.
• Trapped in a city where all human life has ceased to exist, only sentient robots remain, and a lethal mutated bacteria looms that can destroy both organics and synthetics, our stalwart kitty must find ways of solving puzzles to locate data banks and progress through the environment so they can get to safety. For the most part, the cat does this by leveraging its body mass and jumping from rooftop to rooftop, almost as if someone were thinking that “Assassin’s Creed, But With a Cat” was a good idea.  Turns out, they were right.
• An impeccable cyber dystopian atmosphere provides a unique backdrop for the impeccably captures motions of the cat’s movement throughout the city, and there’s certainly an interesting impetus to follow along with the story in Stray.  That said, there are certain free-roam areas in the game where you can just … waltz around and be a cat in a neon robot city, and who can argue with the splendor of that?

Click to Order on Amazon

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge

• There are many older gamers out there who’ll shiver with pleasure at the mention of retro Ninja Turtles video games, whether it’s the ones at the arcade or the ones they played on home consoles. These are the people who will be elated to see that there’s a brand new game released in the exact same vein, entitled Shredder’s Revenge, but the beat-‘em-up gameplay should grab more than that.
• All it takes is a brief glance at a screenshot, let alone any gameplay footage, to see what this TMNT title’s all about, sporting the familiar looking ability for 4 players to get together, pick their favorite character, and put their talents to work against the Foot before they overtake the Statue of Liberty. The pixel art style gets the vintage feel down while also strengthening the characterizations and landscapes, and it’s bound to make any gamer who’s experienced the older titles get giddy with excitement.
• Turns out, the game doesn’t stop there.  Shredder’s Revenge allows for up to 6 players through online multiplayer, and also makes the other TMNT good guys available as playable characters. Two different modes allow for an arcade one-sitting playthrough or a story-based continuation mode, to which the second mode also incorporates side content. From the graphics to the content, there’s a lot for the inner TMNT fan to love here, and at a respectable price tag.

Click to Order on Amazon

For Those Who Relish Quality Exclusive Gaming

Keep in mind that a few other exclusives appear earlier in this list, such as Horizon: Forbidden West and God of War: Ragnarok, but here are a pair of others that’ll be sure to make the receiver feel special about having their particular system.

The Last of Us – Part 1

• Joel and Ellie’s journey through the zombie-ish infested urban landscape, in which they struggle to survive in the face of horrors both supernatural and human alike, remains one of gaming’s most consequential and emotive narratives. Now, HBO’s about to take a crack at adapting the story in a television (mini-)series format, and what better way to relive it than through a brand new remaster?
• Obviously, the fine folks at Naughty Dog have no interest in making big changes to the experience of The Last of Us, either on the gaming design front or in terms of story, so it’s easy to appreciate that yet another version of this game has been created with the though that it’ll be the definitive one, the one that’ll preserve it for another handful of graphical upgrades across generations. What they have done, however, is given the whole experience a once-over to get it in line with modern expectations, resulting in more tactile character models, tightened shooting controls, and other adjustments that abide by a clear objective: don’t alter the way it feels, because it feels right.
• Does yet another version of The Last of Us need to exist, and should it be at full price? Those questions are hard to quantify, but the time and effort spent to keep this game fresh on people’s minds in the midst of conversations about the validity of video games as art will ultimately be justified.  If you know someone who hasn’t played it, regardless of their preferred genres, it’s undoubtedly worth it.

Click to Order on Amazon

Bayonetta 3

• If there’s no such thing as bad press, then the people caught in the sphere of the release of Bayonetta 3 must’ve been quite happy. Following a long, strange saga involving the replacement of the main character’s voice actress, now we have the latest from PlatinumGames.
• With the iconic Jennifer Hale in the driver’s seat as the titular black-clad, shade-wearing witch, the third installment in the over-the-top action franchise finds Bayonetta engaged in yet another particularly crazy mission: she’s jumping between universes and looking for alternate reality versions of herself. From there, however, the game should be as comfortable as an old sweater to those with experience with the franchise, hinged on the evasive Witch Time mechanic, the summoning and cooperation of demons, and lots of Wicked Weave action.
• What ensues is yet another of the craziest franchise in gaming to date, a vibrantly colorful and unabashedly vulgar streak of decadence that’s matched only by the challenges posed by PlatinumGames’ now legendary penchant for incredibly difficult games.  

Click to Order on Amazon

For Those Who Need a Gift The Whole Fam Can Dig

Good family-friendly games are those where players both young and old can grasp the controls and

Lego Star Wars: Skywalker Saga

• Hard to believe that it’s been over a decade and a half now since Traveller’s Tales made yet another of their franchise tie-in games: LEGO Star Wars. This time would be different, of course, in that the execution of enjoyable all-aged gameplay and delightfully characterizations of the Prequel Trilogy crew would spawn a franchise and, essentially, an entirely new niche of family friendly gaming.
• As one can expect, Traveller’s Tales went down the line and covered all of what’s known as the “Skywalker Saga” – all 3 of the Star Wars trilogies – and they just kept getting more entertaining and humorous each time they went back to the well. This Skywalker Saga release brings together all those efforts into a single game package, but it’s not as simple as calling it a collection.  Traveller’s Tales have revamped the gameplay to a moderate degree, adding new point-of-view tweaks to both lightsaber wielders and those who use blasters, while also allowing players to select whichever Star Wars trilogy they’d like to begin with. The graphics are entirely new, too.
• From explorable hub worlds and mini dogfights with LEGO-ified versions of the spacecraft to a roster of 380-ish different characters to (eventually) choose from, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is absolutely loaded down with content in a very attractively spruced-up package.

Click to Order on Amazon

Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope

• Quite a while before the little yellow minions were stumbling around and spouting gibberish, the Raving Rabbids from the Rayman universe were doing something quite similar, only with more effective slapstick humor. They’ve once again moved up to the big leagues by sharing a title with Nintendo’s Mario, teaming up with him for the turn-based strategy and management game Sparks of Hope.
• A sequel to Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, Sparks of Hope models its combat largely off its predecessor, but it also makes a few adjustments to give the player some added freedom. Rabbid-ified versions of some of Nintendo’s signature characters get embroiled in a zany story involving flying manta rays, an ominous presence called Darkmess, and adorable little star-shaped Rabbids called Sparks that need saving. Out of a tight roster of familiar Mario and Rabbid characters, the player develops a team and progresses through obstacles and battles in charmingly over-the-top fashion.
• Critics can be tough on tactics games, especially sequels, but for the most part both players and pros seem to really appreciate the raucous attitude and addictive, accessible energy of the gameplay.   

Click to Order on Amazon

2022 Gift Guide: Video Games for the Holiday Season

In just a few months, the PS+ program will be receiving a much-anticipated overhaul. As far as one can tell, for now, the $10 Plus subscription tier will exist as it always has as the “Essential” tier; similar things were said about keeping Xbox Live Gold alive and it’s clearly been given the cold shoulder for a while now. Then, the other new prestige tiers come into the picture. The middle-of-the-road “Extra” level obviously includes all the benefits of the baseline service, but also grants access to 400 PS4 and PS5 games to be freely downloaded. Then, the “Premium” subscription level unlocks 340 legacy PS-to-PS3 titles, cloud streaming of select PS4 and below games on PS4/5 consoles and PC, and time-limited game trails. Extra will be $14.99/month or $99.99 yearly, while Premium will be $17.99/month or $119.99 yearly.

It’s a big shift that obviously aims to directly compete with Xbox’s Game Pass in some capacity – the $15 tier lacks certain features to offer a direct comparison, while the $18 tier does a few extra things to earn the higher price tag – and I’m sure it leaves subscribers with feelings of both excitement and anxiety. The question remains: will PlayStation keep up the quality of their baseline service’s offerings for those who choose to stay at that tier? Well, if the answer lies in April’s PS+ free offerings, there’s reason to be nervous. An admittedly charming remaster of a classic franchise tie-in platformer, an aggressively poorly-received free-to-play action title, and a niche deckbuilding fantasy game doesn’t instill confidence that they’ll be upholding the base tier’s substance. But, maybe they’re holding the good stuff in the reserves for once the new PS+ framework kicks into gear.

PS5

Hood: Outlaws and Legends

With the likes of Assassin’s Creed, Thief, and other medieval stealth games being around, the absence of a good, dedicated Robin Hood game makes a lot of sense. If someone wants a theft or bow-‘n-arrow simulator, they’re able to scratch that itch in those games alongside their added storytelling differences, covering most of the simulator bases outside of embodying the actual folklore character himself.  At this point, direct comparisons would even be drawn if someone attempted a traditional third-person style of game featuring Robin Hood.

Perhaps those reasons are why Hood: Outlaws and Legends veers away from the norm. Instead of a traditional adventure game that’d essentially adapt one of the many movies about Robin Hood’s fall and rise with the Merry Men, this game from Sumo NewCastle takes an even more straightforward, purely action-based approach by pitting “Hood” and his merry team against rival thieves in a stealth-based race to steal the Sheriff’s key, raid a vault for riches before the others, and escape with the loot. In theory, this kind of light, pick-up-and-go online title that merely uses the familiar characters for a dose of flavor could work, but both critics and players alike have struggled with its shallowness, clunky controls, and monotonous mission design.

PS4

Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated

Back in 2003, Battle for Bikini Bottom suffered the fate of countless tie-in games like it, where a subpar critical reception really didn’t matter to both young and old audiences who just wanted to enjoy the characters in a videogame format.  More than that, it’s also an original story in the Spongebob world and most of the original cast voiced the characters, so fans will inherently play and at least partly enjoy the story of Plankton’s robot invasion of Bikini Bottom. Over the years, the game’s level design and attitude has invited a new outlook, and the combo of Spongebob’s fanbase and that the game has built popularity among the speedrun community – I know, right? — has given it unexpected longevity.

Is that enough to earn a remastering? The folks at Purple Lamp Studios certainly think so, and it seems as if they knew what to do to craft a satisfying “Rehydrated” version of a PS2-era title. They’ve preserved the original creative intentions and re-recorded the dialogue – the original recordings are also available; no, the missing cast members from the original didn’t come back – and they’ve specifically mirrored the feel of the controls and gravity for an authentic reconstruction with an audiovisual facelift. This will inherently make the title feel like it’s a family-friendly adventure game from the early 2000s, but it also works in overdrive to satisfy the nostalgic and the speedrunners out there.

Slay the Spire

It’s tough to strike a proper balance between the strategy, selection, and in-action combat of deck-building videogames: titles typically of the fantasy variety that incorporate a deck of “cards” as strategic special abilities to use during turn-based combat. Too much focus on the player collecting, refining, and implementing these cards could result in a decrease of momentum in the combat, whereas too little collaboration with the cards might make them feel like an unnecessary step in what’s otherwise a standard turn-based battle system.

Slay the Spire works really hard to make sure that all those elements coexist with one another for a complete, absorbing gaming experience, taking the expected but welcome paths of making it a randomized roguelike dungeon crawler. After selecting one of 4 characters, the player progresses through the spires of a castle and randomly encounters various creatures with a range of strengths of weaknesses, which the player exploits by choosing what types of attack, defense, and special ability cards to use on a turn by turn basis. Both critics and players have heaped praise upon Slay the Spire’s execution of the tricky concept in videogame form, remarking on its sneaky addictive properties despite the inherent sameness of battles and progression.

April’s PS+ Freebies Sneak, Speedrun Through Month In Leadup to June’s Big Changes

To say that February’s a big month for video games would be an understatement, so it stands to reason that gaming subscription services like PS+ would keep from including high-profile free games in their monthly offerings since they’ll likely get overlooked anyway. All points considered, however, this still ends up being a pretty brave month in terms of what they’re offering and an inability to offer them later, from a noteworthy recent sports title – one that’s essentially locked into being a freebie on the competition’s service — to the precursor-slash-inspiration game behind one of the larger titles to be released in March. Let’s take a closer look at what’s in store, but before doing so, remember to head over and Grab a 1-Year Subscription to PlayStation Plus at Amazon.

PS5

Planet Coaster: Console Edition

Despite having the name “coaster” in the game’s title, Planet Coaster shares just as much in common with the classic SimCity games of yesteryear as the outlandish ride creation game Rollercoaster Tycoon. While this game does allow for the player to cook up elaborate, chaotic coasters, there’s an entire other side of this management and creation sim that’s far more laid-back, relaxing, and therapeutic in tone, found in how the player designs their ideal theme part to accommodate for guests. In Planet Coaster, the player can really invest themselves in the minutiae of the park’s aesthetics, from the color of booths and types of light sources for ambience to the placement of benches, bathrooms, and garbage cans.

Sure, there’s also aspects of this in Rollercoaster Tycoon, but it’s hard to ignore how the semi-realistic 3D graphics of Planet Coaster lend themselves to being incredibly enjoyable through the lens of someone who’s lovingly crafting their ideal theme park. The general tone of Rollercoaster Tycoon comes across as keeping guests satisfied enough so they’ll stay engaged with the outlandish coasters being created, whereas Planet Coaster’s first priority seems to center on providing a satisfying amusement park atmosphere and then building the rides that “fit” said atmosphere, similarly to fitting bigger structures into a smaller developing city in SimCity. Obviously, the comparisons are tough to avoid as Planet Coaster has been labeled the unofficial successor of Rollercoaster Tycoon by both players and critics, and this Console Edition tries admirably to bring the mouse-and-keyboard intentions to the PS5 … with mixed results, in terms of control user-friendliness.

PS4

Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep

It’s a big deal when a piece of spinoff downloadable content for a base game makes the transition into being a standalone downloadable title, as was the case with Far Cry: Blood Dragon and Red Dead Redemption’s Undead Nightmare. But it’s an even bigger deal when the content’s so appealing and holds so much potential that the creators decide that the DLC isn’t enough, and it deserves further development into its own full-scale game. Saints Row IV is kinda-sorta an example of this, where a piece of fleshed-out DLC skipped the add-on phase and became its own thing. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands occupies yet another area, though: it’s a full-sized game that takes the concept of the spinoff DLC, a wild high-fantasy extrapolation from the looter shooter Borderlands, and develops it into a standalone campaign.

So, what’s it about Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep that makes it so appealing? For starters, it takes the general dungeon-crawling and loot-management joys of Borderlands and transforms them into something much more literally inspired by tabletop RPGs, as audience favorite character Tina get the Vault Hunters together to play “Bunkers and Badasses” – yes, Dungeons and Dragons – after the events of Borderlands 2, with her as the dungeon master. The perspective then shifts from the post-apocalyptic wasteland setting to a full-fledged fantasy realm, and you gain control of one of six premade characters that have modified, wacky weapons and abilities to confront a new roster of dark and whimsical baddies. With Tina as narrator and game master, Assault on Dragon’s Keep becomes a fantasy spin on Borderlands of which players couldn’t get enough, hence the coming full-sized game.

UFC 4

What started as a wacky, taboo cage-fighting event in the early ‘90s — probably orchestrated to capitalize on the popularity of Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter, as well as of Bloodsport and Kickboxer playing on cable all the time — has transformed into a highly authentic, skill-based combat sport. UFC stands as the legitimized face of mixed martial arts, where methods of essentially any hand-to-hand combat discipline are allowed in bouts so long as they follow within the sport’s carefully crafted loose ruleset, ranging from wild punching and kicking strikes to grueling wrestling and grappling. There’s still a “wild west” aspect to the matchups based on the range of disciplines, but between rules, weight classes, and the competitive tactics that consistently work in the octagon, UFC has moved almost entirely away from shock value and into the space of competitive sport.  Almost, as fighter personalities are still key.

Therefore, one shouldn’t go into the UFC games with the expectation that it’ll control like a traditional arcade fighting game, as it’s just as important to get the technical aspects of the sport right as it is to make the fights exhilarating to play. Past installments have struggled with this balance, but UFC 3 and now UFC 4 seem to have gotten much closer to the sweet spot, telegraphing the intense striking and grappling of the sport in a polished and entertaining package.  Critics are quick to point out that while UFC 4 tightens up the gameplay and delivers one of the better MMA games out there, it still leaves a lot of room for improvement, especially in the more technical submission and ground aspects of fights. Players, on the other hand, expressed their distaste for advertisements and copy-and-paste game design between UFC 3 and UFC 4 (not unlike Madden), knocking the franchise on the ground and in trouble.

February’s PS+ Free Titles: A Wonderland of Coasters and Badasses

Typically, these articles begin with a fun or creative way of introducing the month, often with a seasonal bend, but there’s no use describing February’s new video game releases with anything other than getting into it, being straightforward and direct: this month’s going to rock. Hard. There’s the obvious reason lying within the open-world RPG that’s been co-written by an actual household name in dark fantasy, as well as the wildly anticipated (exclusive) sequel to one of the best new IPs to come out in a long time, yet another open-world time sink. Alongside that, however, there are other new open-world games, several monumental expansions to longstanding shooters and MMOs, a number of appealing ports and releases in the racing and fighting genres … and the next-gen, immensely improved re-release of one of 2020’s most controversial games. An outstanding month all-around; let’s just get into it.

Dying Light 2: Stay Human — February 4 (PS 4,5; Xbox O/S/X; Switch; PC)

Many games have captured the intensity of the zombie apocalypse or smaller-scale takeovers of towns or buildings – from Resident Evil to Dead Rising and Dead Island — but even after those, there remained a consistent desire for a true, versatile open-world survival horror game within that setting. The studio behind Dead Island, Techland, then took another stab at the concept with Dying Light, meshing the refinement of their gory game philosophies from the previous title with the additions of parkour movement through the environment and a dynamic day-night cycle. This all comes together into a tense horror title with a convincing-enough amount of freedom to scratch that “zombie sim” itch, enough for Dying Light to receive a sequel in pursuit of even better thrills.

One area where Dying Light 2 aims to improve upon its predecessor is with storytelling, which it does by lightly rebooting the universe, jumping ahead 30+ years to a state where the world has eradicated the zombie disease, a mutated strand again escapes a lab, and most of humanity is wiped out. The player gains control of Aiden, who sets off to a European city in search of his sister, which drops the player in a post-pandemic playground that’s roughly 4x the size of the original Dying Light’s sandbox area. Armed with parkour skills and tools like grappling hooks and gliders, the player gets thrown into conflicts with factions across the city that activate a choice and consequence system, which shapes the narrative. Whether the familiar search-and-rescue tale will add anything remains to be seen, but everything else makes it seem like Dying Light 2 is a step up.   

Get Dying Light 2 on Amazon

Cyberpunk 2077 — Next-Gen Re-Release (Xbox Series X and PS5)

At the tail end of 2020, after continuous delays and a draining year like no other, many gamers were looking to Cyberpunk 2077 as the medicine that might cure all their ailments. CD Projekt Red had built a near-flawless reputation with their Witcher role-playing series, so the concept of them reviving a classic ‘80s tabletop RPG setting for a sci-fi RPG was … well, almost hard to believe.  When it finally came out, folks were hit with a cold, hard truth: not only had CDPR delivered a game with myriad technical flaws and a lack of current-gen polish, they delivered a game packed with broken promises and missed marks in terms of the experience they were delivering. The disappointment was overwhelming, but for the most part players took the “Let’s come back to this later” approach instead of disavowing the studio.

Well, “later” is now. It might be nearly a year and a half later, but the recent update to Cyberpunk 2077 just before its official next-gen upgrade release on Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 this month has dramatically overhauled the game’s systems, atmosphere, and overall experience. Those looking for a different RPG than what was there at launch might still not be satisfied; it hasn’t magically turned into a choose-your-adventure game like Cyberpunk Fallout or something. For those who feel the game would be successful if it had a world that was more filled with life and the environment and people organically reacted to in-game actions, if weapons were overhauled for balance and combat AI was improved, if the player character could occupy other living space hubs and more extensively change their appearance on the fly … ? They might be ready to jump into Night City, for the first time or as a return.

Don’t take my word for it: Check Out the Notes for Patch 1.5.

Get Cyberpunk 2077 at Amazon

Horizon: Forbidden West — February 18 (PS4,5)

There’s a special feeling that comes around when a title surprises the video game community, when a lower-key studio delivers on ambitious ideas to create something entirely new, satisfying, and iconic. Guerrilla Games – known for the Killzone series – pulled this off in grand fashion with Horizon: Zero Dawn, the PS4 exclusive that blends primal/tribal tones with advanced mech and tech across an open-world landscape. Despite being released almost exactly at the same time as Breath of the Wild, Horizon remains in people’s minds for its layered combat, strong characterization, and unique landscape, begging for Guerilla Games to deliver a sequel that’ll push the hardware of next-gen systems.

Horizon: Forbidden West is that sequel, which takes the series protagonist Aloy into the region of California, Nevada, and Utah for its new open-world explorable area within the post-apocalyptic setting, populated by dominant advanced machines and secluded human tribes. Naturally, Guerilla Games wants to preserve as much of what works from the first entry as they can while adding new features, so they’ve given Aloy new and improved methods of exploration – underwater, rock climbing – as well as tightened combat mechanics and tool implementation. They’ve also spruced up the graphics, and despite the early harsh memes about Aloy appearing … chubbier than she was in the first game, it looks absolutely stunning.

GRID Legends — February 25 (PS4,5; Xbox O/S/X; PC)

We’re shifting gears at the end of the month into a noteworthy racing game from Codemasters, GRID Legends. It’s noteworthy for a number of reasons: it will feature over 125 routes in both real circuits and manufactured ones in hallmark cities, as well as over 100 different vehicles at their disposal; it’ll feature a race creation feature for the first time; it’ll have a documentary-inspired narrative/career mode with established actors and a mixing of real and CG people; and it’ll offer cross-platform and cross-generational online multiplayer. The arcade street racer is showcasing a lot of ambition for its fifth installment and as a longstanding predecessor to Codemasters’ other street racers.

GRID Legends is also noteworthy for being the first title in the franchise released under Codemasters’ new publishers and owners, EA, and it’s also the first title in general from Codemasters that’d potentially have substantive input from the gaming giant into its development, if they were to get involved. In general, the developers have a record of reliability with their games, ranging in quality but always being reputable and enjoyable entries in the racing genre. Here’s hoping the trend continues under the new guard and that GRID Legends lives up to its potential.

Elden Ring — February 25 (PS4,5; Xbox O/S/X; PC)

Look, it’s hard not to get hyped up about certain games. Common sense should tell players to temper expectations when it seems like something could be really, really good … but life’s short and enthusiasm can be much more fun than pragmatic calmness. One of such situations comes at the end of February when the folks at FromSoftware, responsible for the Souls line of games and for essentially creating a subgenre of challenging dungeon crawler RPGs, will be delivering another new title for both Xbox and PlayStation consoles with Hidetaka Miyazaki at the helm, Elden Ring. That by itself is exciting, but it’s the other half of the equation that really gets the blood flowing: the worldbuilding will be handled by none other than Mr. Game of Thrones himself, George R.R. Martin. Say what you will about the timeliness of his novels, but it’s hard to argue with the man’s ability to flesh out a dark fantasy world.

When it comes to the gaming innards of Elden Ring, it sounds a whole lot like a continuation of the Souls formula that’s worked so well for FromSoftware, seen in its successes outside the franchise in Bloodborne and Sekiro. On top of the merciless, tactical hack-‘n-slash fantasy combat that’s part of the DNA of the studio’s titles, they’re also incorporating stealth combat – a component of Sekiro – and mounted combat atop the character’s mount, their chief method of travel across the landscape. Customization of the third-person battle experience will be key, though, and the director has stated that it’ll be “richer” than in his previous games, from skills to weapons.  Hype’s a dangerous thing and it’s almost a certainty that Elden Ring won’t live up to it, but boy, the potential’s there for it to be great.

Get Elden Ring at Amazon

Along with a slew of heavy-hitting titles, February also comes with an impressive rush of expansions for other titles. Dynasty Warriors 9 gets its Empires expansion on February 15, and on the same day BioWare Austin and EA will be releasing their hype-up Legacy of the Sith addition to Star Wars: The Old Republic.  Perhaps more high-profile, however, is the hotly anticipated and heavily pre-ordered Destiny 2: The Witch Queen expansion from Bungie, the game’s sixth expansion that’s finally seeing the light of day after getting delayed by COVID-19. A number of great games are also getting appealing ports, such as the entire Life is Strange: Remastered collection for the PS4, Xbox One, PC an Stadia on February 1, as well as the Assassin’s Creed Ezio Trilogy for the Switch on February 17.  Fighting fans will also have a new King of Fighters, KOF XV, to engage on February 17.

February’s Video Game New Releases: A Legendary Month in the Making

Competition has greatly benefitted subscribers to Sony’s PS+ program, because the company’s desire to keep up the pace against the awkward tiers of Microsoft’s cluster of services led to a surprisingly robust and consistent 2021, full of both next-gen and current gen free downloadable games.  One would assume that so long as one studio maintains the status quo, the other likely will as well, and the start of 2022 seems to convey this as well.

Sony continues their streak of offering both a decent pair of titles for the legacy PS4 and at least one attention-grabbing title for the PS5, though there’s a little added spice this month: there are actually 2 PS5 titles here, one being a heavy hitter and another being a well-reviewed, badass action-fueled title. It’s not a groundbreaking month for the service or anything, but it does reinforce why the Plus subscription service remains a tremendous value for Sony’s customers.  Let’s take a gander at the titles, but before doing so, make sure to Grab a 1-Year Subscription to PlayStation Plus at Amazon.

PS5

Dirt 5

There was a time when Codemasters explored different genres with the games they developed, yet ever since they discovered exactly what works for them with the racing genre, they’ve become reliable industry leaders with a predictable calendar. That consists of the annual F1 title based on the corresponding year’s season, and … some kind of offroad/rally racer, usually alternating between GRID and DIRT. DIRT 5 marks the last title independently developed by Codemasters before their acquisition by Electronic Arts – cue cartoonishly ominous music here – and they make sure to do so with a bang by delivering one of the most refined iterations of the rally racer yet.

For the most part, DIRT 5 doesn’t try to deviate from the formula that works, telegraphing much of the same satisfying borderline-arcade racing action of previous entries in its most refined, graphically impressive state. Some new additions that come along with the jump to next-gen hardware include dynamic weather changing that inherently affects the gameplay, as well as impressively stable 60fps splitscreen compatibility for up to 4 players. There’s also a more story-focused, forward-moving career mode featuring the voice of Nolan North in the lead. Most critics and players have been kind to DIRT 5 and how the PS5 version exemplifies the franchise’s evolution, though players have also dinged it for wonky AI, gameplay that’s tilting too arcade-like, and online connectivity issues.

Deep Rock Galactic

Sometimes, just describing a game with a single sentence is enough to capture one’s attention. With Deep Rock Galactic, it’s this: “First-person shooter dwarves use lots of neat gadgets to blast their way through randomized caverns and alien foes, and you can do it with up to 3 other friends.” The combination of elements has such a wonderful flow to it. Dwarves? Already sold. Not enough games with dwarven playable characters.  First-person shooter gameplay? Even the staunchest of opponents to the genre has got to be mildly intrigued by how these things would fit together.  Procedurally generated caverns/landscapes? A surprise at every turn, and that’s not even taking the destructible aspects of the environments into account.  Aliens? Yup. And 4-player co-op? You have my axe.

Deep Rock Galactic marks the first outing for Danish developers Ghost Ship Games, though they’re also powered by partners Coffee Stain Studios, the folks also responsible for Goat Simulator.  Billed as “Minecraft meets Left 4 Dead”, the end result is a delightful blend of genres that hinges on class selection, progression and upgrading along the way, driven by the dwarves mostly just doing honest work of retrieving resources and gear while demolishing their way through colorfully rendered caverns. Both critics and players have noted that the premise does have some slight longevity issues once you’ve been in the caverns repeating tasks for a while, but otherwise it delivers on the concept in an exceedingly fun way that heavily encourages playing with friends (or matchmaking).

PS4

Persona 5: Strikers

 It’s difficult to imagine a more popular spinoff video game series than Persona, originating from the consistently appreciated JRPG series Shin Megami Tensei; the third installment in the series, Nocturne, was recently remastered to critical acclaim. Persona operates around a cluster of focal high-school aged students who utilize the power of “personas” – a real-world materialization of the individual’s psyche – to engage in combat against evil enemy types. Labeling them by genre isn’t very successful since all of the entries incorporate a little something new, though they generally involve turn-based combat scenarios and traditional dungeon crawling exploration.  And from those, there are other spinoffs: Persona 4 Arena delves into fighting game mechanics, while both Persona 3 and 5 have rhythm game modeled after their particular settings.

Persona 5: Strikers finds the series in the hands of Dynasty Warriors game-makers Omega Force, serving as a crossover event between the two franchises and, thus, employing a much more action-oriented gameplay style. A continuation of the Persona 5 narrative in a new gameplay space, the game latches onto the series’ classic role-playing aspects in combat and its vibrant almost-cartoonish visual style, but it also amps up the pacing through the more twitch-based action and dazzling chaos of Dynasty Warriors.  Much like the way the Yakuza series was received when it shifted from straight action to turn-based combat in Like a Dragon, both critics and players have praised the way Persona took a detour into direct action-RPG territory, though a lot of it simply roots in the reunion of the Phantom Thieves in any capacity.

PS+ Titles for January: Dirt, Strikers, SPACE DWARVES

Regardless of how extreme the video game industry’s business was throughout the month of December, typically the month of January is, at the very least, massively slowed down in terms of new releases. It’s still a numbers game after all, and heavy holiday spending typically doesn’t bode well for sales figures in the months following, where people are likely enjoying their video game gifts or recovering financially. 2022 isn’t any different; in fact, the month seems even sparser than normal. While the month does mark the awaited return of a AAA shooting franchise, the low volume and attention-grabbing nature of this January leave it feeling empty even by comparison to last year. Let’s take a closer look at what’s going on, though!

Nobody Saves the World — January 18 (Xbox O/S/X; PC)

Sometimes, games simply feel like a bunch of other titles have been thrown into a blender, thoroughly mixed, and served to its audience.  Whether that’s acceptable or not depends on the mixture of ingredients; after all, mangoes and blueberries don’t really work in all smoothies they’re thrown in. The ingredients of Nobody Saves the World seem like a delightful blend, though, beginning with a action-RPG base where the main character embraces different forms to combat different foes. Add in a retro top-down aesthetic to the dungeon crawling, a roguelike procedural generation to the underlayers of the dungeons, and a crafty sense of humor, and you’ve got the components of the latest title from Drinkbox Games, the folks behind the delightful Guacamelee.

The lead character isn’t a charismatic, dashing hero either, instead a pale and weak little human equipped with a star-topped wand that grants new forms and abilities.  As one can expect, the character starts out with limited capabilities and gains more as they progress through dungeons and battles, eventually totaling over a dozen. In a similar vein to Guacamelee, the art style is delightfully vibrant and fluid, and the hack-‘n-slash combat seems basic but fast-paced and responsive to meet the standard control’s demands. Nobody Saves the World will also launch with a co-op multiplayer function as well, so you and a buddy can tackle dungeons together on the same screen; this covers online co-op, as the state of couch co-op is currently unknown.

Get Nobody Saves the World at Microsoft

Rainbow Six: Extraction — January 20 (PS4,5; Xbox O/S/X; PC; Stadia)

When Rainbow Six: Vegas came out early in the Xbox 360’s lifecycle, it became one of those must-play experiences for nearly everyone who owned the console, whether they were shooter fans or not. The smooth tactical controls, visual polish and perceived realism established the franchise’s popularity early and quickly. However, it shouldn’t require much to get the point across that the landscape of shooters changed dramatically soon after its release, especially when it comes to those aiming for precise realism.  Amid the flurry of Call of Duties and Battlefields as well as the sci-fi themed Halo and Gears of War series, interest in Rainbow Six became sloshy even through the release of the online-only Rainbow Six: Siege, which has both logged an impressive number of users and earned tepid impressions on the game itself.

Amid this strange mixture of interest and lukewarmness with the online game, Rainbow Six: Extraction arrives with the intention of shaking up the franchise’s objectives and reputation. How? It makes the bold choice of tossing the tactical shooter combat into a science-fiction setting, hinged on an alien invasion, essentially providing the alien counterpoint to Call of Duty’s popular zombie modes. Extraction has also been designed with multiplayer as its firm focus, though, using Siege as a gameplay springboard and adopting some of its “operator” characters for familiarity. A cluster of nearly 20 different operator types with various skillsets can be selected before engaging in the partly procedurally-generated “incursions”, where the players infiltrate alien spaces to collect items. It’s a bold new direction, but perhaps it’s what Rainbox Six needs to stand out in the modern era, and it’s been budget priced at $40 to get folks interested.

Order Rainbow Six: Extraction at Amazon

Pokemon Legends: Arceus — January 28 (Switch)

Sure, it has essentially always been popular, but Pokemon seems to be at a particularly high point right now. Between the rampant attention drawn to the card game market, the thriving community built around the “augmented reality” Pokemon Go mobile game, and the creation of a few fan concept trailers, the demand has never been higher for an open-world style of role-playing game set within the Pokemon universe. Therefore, when the trailer for Pokemon Legends: Arceus emerged on the scene, excitement and enthusiasm reach a particular high.  It had a visual grandeur, openness and flow akin to Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, only featuring landscapes and characters from the Poke universe, so the assumptions that this would finally be “it” had some merit.

The folks at Pokemon let this perception continue unanswered up until a few months ago, where they eventually confirmed that Pokemon Legends: Arceus wouldn’t exactly be the open experience many believed it would be.  What further information and trailers have confirmed since, however, is that it’s a feature-rich, customizable RPG in the vein of the other video games in the series that instead has “open-world areas” to engage in the historical region of Hisui (Sinnoh).  The objective? To create the very first Pokedex, which should inherently get their audience excited so long as they’re game for a prequel. Whether it will satisfy beyond that remains to be seen, especially considering the perceived disappointment in this lack of open-world delivery. There’s always the real open-world Pokemon Go.

Order Pokemon Legends: Arceus at Amazon

The rest of January has been populated with ports, with the likes of Monster Hunter Rise and God of War getting PC editions on January 12 and 14, as well as the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves game bundle coming to PS5 at the end of the month. There’s also a pair of unique sports titles coming out on January 20: RPGolf Legends (PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC) sounds like it could be a golf role-playing game, but it’s actually more of a retro, top-down JRPG with golf as an underlying gameplay aspect; and Windjammers 2 (PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC, Stadia) brings the Pong-meets-Dodgeball quirkiness of the ‘90s Neo Geo title to the current era.

January’s New Video Games: Rainbow Six Goes Alien, Pokemon Goes Prequel

Throughout the year, Sony seems to have viewed the release of the PS5 as a transition point for their PS+ program, ensuring that there has been a mixture of both a shiny new PS5 game and a unique pair of PS4 games with each month. The quality of the games has wavered, for sure, but when compared to the base subscription service of their competitor, they’ve sustained the reputation since the release of the new consoles.

December continues this, but in a clumsy fashion.  The two PS4 games are arguably more satisfying than other months, containing both a successful family-friendly action game and a layered action-RPG for the more intense gamers.  The PS5 title is … a portion of a game? A booster? It’s several things at once without being the full experience of the title it’s representing, ending 2021 on an awkward note for the Plus service. Let’s look closer at all the titles, but before doing so, be sure to head over and Grab a 1-Year PlayStation Plus subscription from Amazon.

PS5

Godfall: Challenger Edition

So, what exactly is the “Challenger Edition” of the action-RPG Godfall? After checking around a bit, you’ll discover that this version of Gearbox’s game offers a catch-me-up experience that drops the players into “endgame-level content”, and in turn powers up the player accordingly.  From there, the player engages in a trio of challenge modes that flex the maximum of what Gearbox wants to accomplish with their intense gameplay, where adept player characters – solo or in co-op groups with up to 2 others – can be customized and power through with what’s described as “looter slasher” game design. Essentially, the Challenger Edition jumps ahead of all the grinding and gets the player to the good stuff, then gives them lots of fun trials and tribulations with this newfound power.

What’s missing, however, is the entirety of the campaign of Godfall, which makes this a complicated inclusion for the PlayStation Plus program as its PS5 title. For those who are interested, the Challenger Edition can seamlessly integrate with the preexisting version of the base title, or the rest of the campaign can be purchased later as an add-on. That’s the thing, though: the base game itself simply doesn’t come with this iteration, and considering the state of the game itself – it received middling reviews from critics, harsher impressions from gamers, and can be purchased for $20 – it seems much wiser to include the whole package and spark some positive word of mouth and goodwill instead of providing additional hoops to gamers. The Challenger Edition is a budget title otherwise at $15.

PS4

LEGO DC Super-Villains

By now, most people – not just gamers, but people in general – know what to expect from one of the LEGO video games. While uncomplicated, the third-person action controls are merely there so players of all ages can gain control of toy iterations of their favorite characters, interact with a block-built versions of the worlds in which those characters live and work their way through exaggerated spins on their familiar stories (usually popular movies). Since their rise in popularity, however, there have been new movies made about the LEGO versions of the characters featuring unique stories, which has snowballed into unique games that don’t rely on those familiar stories to push them forward.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it does, but rarely are the games simply unfun to play … especially those from DC and Marvel wing of the work done by Traveller’s Tales.

LEGO DC Super-Villains takes all that to another level, allowing the player to create and customize their own super-villain who powers through levels and bumps into the familiar faces of the DC Rogues Gallery. Instead of getting involved with a “bad guy” plot, however, the villains are forced to take the place of the Justice League and fight against villains from a parallel universe: the Justice Syndicate (aka Crime Syndicate of America), evil counterparts of the Justice League characters from another Earth. As the story progresses, the player’s customized character develops their attributes and eventually gains access to superpowers, the most novel aspect of this LEGO title beyond the gameplay’s pillars of a wide roster of other playable characters, exaggerated environments, and vibrant sense of humor.

Mortal Shell

Sometimes, it can seem unfair to compare one game’s style to another or label it a clone, something that’s fairly common in the arena of third-person action-RPGs. Cold Symmetry doesn’t shy away from those comparisons, though, as they’re happy to prop Mortal Shell up as a “soulslike” game that’s heavily inspired by the Dark Souls franchise. Designed as a pint-sized indie version to scratch the itch in a period when there weren’t any other uncompromising, aesthetically and emotionally grim dungeon crawlers out there, it showcases many evident similarities to the design of the Souls franchise and many areas where they obviously tweaked aspects for specific effects.

Players gain control of an “empty shell” of a character who roams the landscape of a world in the aftermath of humanity’s collapse, and in that collapse they encounter the bodies of the fallen, who provide different shells that the player can occupy and embrace their skillsets. The environment looks and feels like an extension of those from the creations of FromSoftware: shadowed yet stunning, grim with glimmers of possibility, and full of obstacles. Through it, the player engages a layered, weighed third-person combat scheme and intuitive RPG skillsets, and it all gains even more respect when taking the studio’s small size into consideration.  Mortal Shell certainly isn’t perfect in the eyes of either critics or players, with some not seeing enough difference or longevity inside, but most view it as an admirable and engaging soulslike crawler.

December PS+ Freebies: Mortal Shell, LEGO DC … Part of Godfall?

Regardless of the shortage in consoles available to purchase, 2021 has been a terrific year for new video game titles. Be sure to hop over to Ben’s Bargain’s Holiday Software Gift Guide to see a brief rundown of some of the hits, which range from novel spins on open-world games and innovations in horror and sci-fi to several celebrated rejuvenations of franchises. There are three variables clogging up the last two months in the year, though, that’d understandably scare off other developers from dropping anything too big during the period: holiday shopping in an already complicated year, the approaching release of Halo in December, and of course Call of Duty.

Even with those things in mind, the months of November ad December shaped up into a diverse, packed stretch of remasters, unique new titles, and one delayed long enough to unfortunately “compete” with CoD in the same genre during November, resulting in a nice array of titles squeezed into the last months before the holidays that could end up being worthwhile gifts. Let’s take a closer look.

Call of Duty: Vanguard – November 5 (PS4,5; Xbox O/S/X; PC)

It’s difficult to make heads or tails over whether the gaming community really feels positive or negative about a new Call of Duty title at release, as there’s always a hefty rush of impressions and opinions before and around the big date. Ultimately, this has all but stopped mattering, as the latest COD title works off the nonstop energy of its multiplayer fanbase who’ll continue to purchase the FPS juggernaut despite any iffy thoughts about the latest campaign’s tone and longevity or the multiplayer’s sameness. Despite this, the folks at Sledgehammer, Treyarch, and Infinity Ward – and Raven Software in a support role – have continued to deliver annual titles that utilize AAA polish and ambitions to keep the series immersive, versatile, and exhilarating for both campaign and online players.

Vanguard is the latest, in which the campaign takes the audience back to the World War II and shortly after, where special ops forces are tracking down the actors involved with “Project Phoenix” and a theoretical true successor to Hitler’s place in government. Alongside the interesting single-player narrative, the multiplayer hopes to shake things up with a new “Combat Pacing” function, which allows players to select the intensity, style, and team size for the upcoming match. So far, critics have received both those core aspects of Vanguard fairly well, though there seems to be some “been there, done that” attitudes towards those things and a stronger consensus that the Zombies mode is lacking this year.    

Order Call of Duty: Vanguard at Amazon

Jurassic World Evolution 2 – November 9 (PS4,5; Xbox O/S/X; PC)

Sequels to sim games have a different set of benchmarks to hit than other genres, and they also tend to have a bit more of a forgiving player base when it comes to delivering incrementally better versions instead of drastically new entries. While enhanced features and expanded options will always be celebrated, there’s also lots of satisfaction to be found in picking up a simulator and discovering that a lot of the gameplay aspects remain the same, kind of like having a bunch of brand-new tools and upcoming projects yet the same workbench and organization area to know where everything’s at. Jurassic World Evolution delivers on the concept of, essentially, a “dinosaur zoo simulator” with callbacks to the movies and books, but critics generally felt that the sim could use more depth.

Evolution 2 has the opportunity to improve upon its middlingly reviewed first entry by improving its big draws, by deepening the business and construction aspects and refining its dinosaur interactions. It hopes to do so by widening the workspace maps – relocated to the US for more landscape variety — and placing more unique demands upon the players, such as maintaining animal diets and catering to different visitor tastes.  Improvements in those areas seem less pertinent to game-makers Frontier Developments than enhancing the authenticity of the dinosaurs themselves, though, upping the species count to 75 and ensuring that their behaviors authentically intersect on a more frequent basis. Whether that’ll amount to enough to make Evolution 2 a worthwhile upgrade remains to be seen.

Order Jurassic World Evolution 2 at Amazon

Skyrim: Anniversary Edition – November 11 (PS4,5; Xbox O/S/X; PC)

At this point, the multiple iterations of Skyrim across several consoles have transformed into a running joke – a meme, if you will. For the most part, all the re-releases have had their purpose for showing up when they did, from lateral ports to other consoles and virtual reality accessibility to new console upgrades that’d hopefully tide players over until Elder Scrolls 6 finally arrives. The mantra’s pretty simple, according to Bethesda’s studio head: so long as players are buying and enjoying Skyrim, they’ll keep finding ways of re-releasing and upgrading the celebrated open-world RPG. Thus, when the announcement came that the studio would release an “anniversary edition” of Skyrim designed for Xbox Series X and PS5 consoles, few if any people were surprised. So, what else could possibly be added?

In essence, the Anniversary Edition of Skyrim makes it easy for players to have an up-to-date version of the complete Special Edition game – including all official DLC — that’s also beefed up with a ton of small to moderate additions through Bethesda’s Creation Club, ranging from artifacts to activities and quests. This includes brand-new content released alongside the Anniversary Edition from the Creation Club, such as fishing, a simulator-ish survival mode, and new quests. The Anniversary Edition also touches up the visuals for next-gen consoles, though those on the Xbox Series X will likely see no appreciable difference over the already optimized version of the Special Edition. There’s a $20 digital upgrade options for those who already own the Special Edition, but there’s also a complete physical copy of the Anniversary Edition for $50.

Get ESV: Skyrim Anniversary Edition at Amazon

GTA: Definitive Trilogy – November 11 (PS4,5; Xbox O/S/X; Switch; PC)

It’s hard to overstate how influential the sequence of Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City, and San Andreas was to the video game landscape. GTA III brought together different aspects of free-roaming action and emergent gameplay into a singular experience, Vice City took that blueprint and gave it a distinct, violent attitude … and then San Andreas upped the attitude, narrative potency, and sheer volume and variety of things to do to such a degree that it almost felt like a simulation. The ability for players to do essentially whatever they wanted in a “sandbox”, to create whatever degree of chaos they wanted, became a blueprint for other games to follow that range from revolutionary and historical assassin sims to animated show tie-ins.   They’ve aged, but their legacy exists in the bones of countless modern titles.

One would naturally assume, then, that games with such a rich legacy would receive high-quality remasters, especially during a time when remasters are hotter than normal. The recently renamed Grove Street Games, previously known as War Drum Studios, the developers behind mobile ports of this same trilogy, have undertaken the challenge with this Definitive Edition, and they showed clear inspiration early on in how to approach the project. From what aspects to preserve full stop (such as the physics engine) to which aesthetics should be cleaned up and which ones should be amplified, it sounds like worthwhile promises. The execution, however, has been polarizing, due in large part to the underwhelming visuals and a lack of editing and refinement, alongside a hefty share of technical glitches.

Order GTA Trilogy: Definitive Edition at Amazon

Shin Megami Tensei V – November 12 (Switch)

It took a bit of time, but Atlus has really grasped one fact about their Shin Megami Tensei series: the fanbase still really, really likes the third entry, Nocturne. Even as the spinoff Persona series mounts in popularity and creates its own hot spinoffs – like the fighting-based Arena line – there remained plenty of enthusiasm behind the prospect of a remastered iteration of the PS2-era Nocturne, which was finally released to critical acclaim earlier this year. Aside from the rerelease, the enthusiasm has also spread into the development philosophies of the long-awaited fifth entry in the primary numbered Shin Megami Tensei series, where the vague but somewhat telling description of its “profound charm” has been laced into the new entry alongside the more objective demon-raising aspects of SMT IV.

As one would expect, players gain control of a high-school student who ropes a few buddies into a demon search through underground tunnels. Shortly after entering the tunnels, the player gets transported to an alternate reality version of Tokyo embroiled in a war between angels and demons, where the existence of the high-schooler – and his friends — soon becomes linked with that of a god-like being so that the students can get directly involved with the battle. From there, the signature turn-based combat system of the Shin Megami Tensei series and the frequently challenging nature of its battles take hold, supported by a choice-and-consequence system that’ll help dictate the sort of ending you’ll receive.  It’s a manifestation of much enthusiasm that’s currently exclusive to the Switch.

Halo: Infinite – December 8 (Xbox O/S/X; PC)

Xbox turns 20 this year, and it’s hard to argue with the assertion that the most popular … well, thing, period, to ever come out of Microsoft’s console would be their exhilarating sci-fi shooter series, Halo. The first confidently labeled itself “Combat Evolved” and the distinction didn’t feel unmerited, providing an engaging campaign and multiplayer experience that handily dethroned previous competitors such as GoldenEye, escalating the popularity of LAN parties and shaping the PvP landscape as it’s known today. Its sequels would refine the positive aspects of that experience, even when the campaign’s storytelling or brevity would wobble and waver across both Bungie and 343’s installments. After half of a decade away from regular installments, Master Chief has decided to jump back into action for the 20^th anniversary of Xbox in Halo: Infinite.

With the creative energy of former Bungie writer and cinematics director Joseph Staten as the project lead of the campaign, Halo: Infinite aspires to bring the series back to its original glory in the modern era, tying familiar aesthetics and plot devices into a new story of alien invasion and world repair. Players once again control Master Chief for the entirety of the game as they zip across the landscape of Zeta Halo, opening up the gameplay for free roaming and emergent battles while also sticking to a firm campaign with its sights sets on Cortana. The multiplayer also has its heart in the right place by focusing on familiar modes such as capture the flag and slayer, while also incorporating new powers and designs to spice up the formula. More than anything, though, folks who’ve played Halo: Infinite have reaffirmed the expected: the gunplay is outstanding, and should make either campaign or multiplayer a blast.

Order Halo: Infinite at Amazon

The end of year has a cluster of other interesting titles worth looking into, though one of them may or may not be Battlefield 2042, which has been getting dragged through the mud by the community and certainly is up against some hefty competition in the shooter genre through here. Just Dance 2022 (November 4) gets the party moving at the end of the year with a smattering of new songs and intricate choreography, while Football Manager 2022 (November 9) keeps the pace slow, familiar, yet addictive with its updated roster simulation gameplay. Similar to Far Cry: Blood Dragon, the Borderlands-themed DLC Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon’s Keep (November 9) has received a standalone release, while Frogwares has returned to the Sherlock Holmes for something of a prequel, Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One (November 16), that focuses on the detective’s career in his early twenties. There’s also a space combat game called Chorus (December 3) worth keeping an eye on, as well as a futuristic platformer Solar Ash (December 2).

Notable Video Game Releases Closing Out 2021: Call of Duty, Halo, MOAR SKYRIM

At first glance, there may not seem like there’s much to the PS+ games made available for November, a month that’s bound to be hectic for any and all trying to get their hands on a PS5 for the holiday. An under-the-radar remaster, a deception party game, and a sports game centered on … dodgeball? Thing is, they all have underlying strengths that make them more than meets the eye, and while they may not push new subscriptions or anything, they’re bound to satisfy those hopping onto PlayStations and linking up with their subscription service in this pivotal, chaotic month. Plus, that number actually doubles to 6 this month for those who are into Sony’s VR system.

Let’s take a closer look at the titles, but before doing so, head over and Grab a 1-Year Subscription Card from Amazon to access the benefits.

PS5

Knockout City

In a way, some of the concepts of dodgeball exist in the early pieces of gaming’s DNA, where the likes of Pong and Breakout involve timing the player-controlled icon to “catch” a ball and send it back at a precise target. Games nowadays naturally require a little more oomph to hold interest than that, and when it comes to the actual schoolyard sport of dodgeball, it usually has to coexist with other aspects of a game like as a side activity in Rockstar’s Bully. Developers have picked up on how fun the concept can be in videogame for, however, and they’ve had some success in making dedicated games about it, from the story-based side-scrolling Dodgeball Academia to the hyper-futuristic hybridization of Robot Roller-Derby Disco Dodgeball.

None of them have really captured the sport of dodgeball in an objective, near-simulation fashion, though, and that’s where Knockout City comes in … sort of. Sure, the game takes place in a colorful, futuristic setting reminiscent of Fortnite or Splatoon instead of in gym class or a sports arena, it isn’t limited to the confines of a rectangular court, and one strike of the ball doesn’t mean you’re out.  That said, once the player gets involved with the multi-level battlegrounds and adjusts to the power-ups, there’s a fluidity to the gameplay in Knockout City that genuinely gets what playing dodgeball is about, and the rest of what’s going on – the power-ups, life bars, and quirky characters — comes across as the necessary expansions to the gameplay to give it variety and potential longevity.

PS4

Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning

There’s a pretty odd and winding story behind the original development and release of Kingdoms of Amalur, involving a professional baseball player, incentives through the state of Rhode Island, shut-down and acquired studios and, ultimately, an MMORPG remodeled into a single-player experience. With a host of talent behind the world-building – R.A. Salvatore for the text lore, Todd McFarlane for the visuals – what was once an immensely ambitious project ended up being a better-than-average dungeon crawler with an impressive amount of character customization. Alas, against the likes of Dark Souls and Dragon’s Dogma, not to mention the rampant and enduring popularity of Skyrim, the remodeled fantasy game had to settle for being an alternative, the next in line for genre fans.

That’s a shame, because despite the obvious roots of its creation being visible in the finished game, Kingdoms of Amalur is actually quite enjoyable and layered as a hack-‘n-slash RPG, and it has built a niche following since its initial release. It’s strong enough for THQ Nordic to go back to the well and release the Re-Reckoning version for modern consoles, to perform a measured visual remaster while also including gameplay difficulty tweaks – including zone level recalculations and a “very hard” mode – and a compilation of all DLC. Fantasy RPGs have progressed a bit over the past decade and Kingdoms of Amalur doesn’t attempt to counterbalance this much, allowing its enjoyable aged leveling and customization systems to get the job done in the same way they fought to do so almost a decade ago.

First Class Trouble

Social deduction games have become popular over the past decade, escalating in popularity as the likes of Werewolf and Mafia were modified into variations within different settings, from WWII Germany with Secret Hitler and renaissance times with Love Letter to a dystopian future with The Resistance. However, it could be argued that the format has taken another dramatic jump in popularity with the introduction of Among Us, a like-minded game of deduction that uses various colored spacesuit meeples that are deemed “sus”(picious) or not in their effort to survive on a space station. Determined either by the crewmates completing tasks or the impostors killing off the crewmates before they can, it’s a way of bringing the social concept to a digital interface in a colorful, animated way.

In a way, First Class Trouble piggybacks off the success of Among Us and attempts to bring the social deduction concept back to a more “humanoid” and normal level. Even though it also takes place on an outer space station and some of the other players are murderous robots, it operates around customizable human-looking avatars who are observing the actions of other humans in the beautiful 3D space of a luxury space transport. Players vote on who’s suspicious or not and, of course, throw those on the wrong end of the vote out the airlock, and eventually winners are determined based off whether she ship’s AI maintains control of the transport or not. In theory, First Class Trouble is a smart way of executing a mature videogame version of the social deduction game; however, players have struggled with stability and repetitiveness issues on the PlayStation, so that’s worth keeping in mind.

PS VR

On top of those games, Sony has also made a trio of VR titles available for free download this month: The Persistence, a sci-fi survival horror game hinged on repairing a space colonization ship that’s been plagued by monstrous mutated humans; The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners, another horror survival experience set in the popular zombie universe from the comics and show; and Until You Fall, a color and dynamic hybrid of laser sword-fighting and rhythm coordination. It’s worth noting that The Persistence actually has a non-VR mode as well, which essentially makes it a 4^th free general title for this month.

PS+ Games For November: Knockouts, Troubles, a Re-Reckoning

Last year’s hardware gift guide began with the somewhat obvious preface that 2020 was an incredibly different year in several ways, with the video game market both thriving and struggling with supply issues … and that was before the next generation of consoles were released before holiday shopping. Ideally, a year later, one would imagine that some of the issues might be smoothed out, and that this following holiday season would be primed for gift givers to get their loved ones caught up on the latest and most desirable in gaming. Alas, with the extended stay of the pandemic and its impacts on both the construction and distribution of electronics, it looks as if 2021 will be another year where folks will be frantically searching for the elusive next-generation consoles … and probably the other consoles, too.

Availability of those ever-so-desirable PS5s and Xbox Series X consoles will be in short, narrow windows where folks will need to be at the right place at the right time to get what they’re wanting to give. On top of that, it’ll be a bit tougher to “substitute” the newest systems with those of the current generation due to how many games simply perform more properly on the newer ones, even though heaps of great games still came out on them this year. At least Nintendo Switches shouldn’t be impossible to obtain this year, though it wouldn’t be unwise to go ahead and grab one of those while they’re available now.

Below, we’ve pieced together a bit of a guide to help point readers in the right directions during what will likely be yet another complicated holiday shopping season. Be sure to check out our Software Guide to figure out which games to gift.

For Fans of Marvel, God of War, and 4K UltraHD Superiority, Gift This.

In the early stages of this side-by-side console release, choosing between one or the other usually boiled down to brand loyalty, exclusives, and scrutinizing specks without much hands-on review impressions.  After a year of seeing how these consoles perform, the choices have expectedly become much easier and determined by less factors, with the PS5 having two easy and noteworthy positives in its column: it has a not-so-arguably superior slate of exclusive games, and it’s a reliable, above-par 4K playback device. Discussions about performance have become more practical: while there may be moments of stronger processing power on the Series X, both essentially play their big, shared games on about the same level, and that’s understandable since the two machines are incredibly similar under the hood.

When it comes to their library, the PS5 started things off on a strong note by having their exclusive Spider-Man: Miles Morales title ready at launch, an impression that’s continued at a low, consistent level over the past year. Deathloop, Ratchet and Clank, and the dazzling remakes of Final Fantasy VII and Demon’s Souls are currently only available on PlayStation consoles, and future titles like God of War Ragnarok, Horizon: Forbidden West, and Wolverine will continue their exclusivity on Sony’s hardware. After a brief digital hiccup at release that overclocked the brightness levels while watching movies, the PS5 has also very quietly taken the crown as the superior 4K UltraHD disc player, though that’s to be expected from the company that produces dedicates players.  While neither are top of the line in that arena, the PS5 has developed a reputation for being more stable and crisper through playback.

Check Price/Availability on Amazon Or Search Ben’s for PS5 Console Deals

For Those Who Value Nostalgia, Versatile Power, and Bethesda, Gift This.

Following the shaky release of the Xbox One, Microsoft has restructured their game plan to fill a void and satisfy users in ways neglected by their competitors: through easy backwards compatibility. While other systems choose to focus almost entirely on the latest and greatest, the folks at Xbox figured out that making older games and libraries available to play on their next-gen console wouldn’t so drastically impact the attention placed on new content, resulting in their effort to make 360 and even original Xbox games playable on the system through emulation. One of the most compelling parts of the Xbox Series X has been how one can essentially unplug all their old hardware from the Xbox One, plug it into the same slots on the Series X, and they’re good to go with continuing their gaming without much of hassle. Those games installed on an external HD? Easily playable on the Series X once the system recognizes it.

Here’s the thing: the Xbox Series X can also process games on a more advanced level, whether they’re new or classics. While new titles have been “Optimized for Xbox Series X” to take advantage of the full 4K graphical power coming from this machine, old-school games like Fallout 3 and Elder Scrolls: Morrowind have also been “Xbox One X Enhanced” with immense performance upgrades that make replaying them more than just a nostalgic rehash of joy, and effortlessly playable from either discs or external HDs. From storage and controller adaptability to downloading both old and new titles through the Xbox Game Pass subscription program, the experience in owning an Xbox Series X feels more diverse and accessible than the others … and the purchase of Fallout and Elder Scrolls gamemaker Bethesda Studios by Microsoft will have significant ramifications on the exclusivity of games to come.

Check Price/Availability on Amazon Or Search Ben’s for Xbox Series X Deals

For Those Who Love Portability, Family-Friendly Quality, and Zelda, Gift This.

Limited Edition Animal Crossing Nintendo Switch Console

Pros: Cute Colors, Kid-Room Appropriate, Semi-Available | Cons: Game Not Included MSRP: $299

Through the development and release of these new powerhouse systems, the Nintendo Switch has been content with being along for the ride, serving as both a primary gaming system for some folks and a secondary one for those who choose sides in the console wars. Sales were phenomenal in the previous year during the rise in popularity of Animal Crossing: New Horizons amid the pandemic, and the release of several games from Nintendo’s attention-grabbing franchises – Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD, Metroid Dread, and Mario Party – make the system equally or perhaps even more appealing this holiday season. Outside of issues where the screen gets scuffed in the dock and the motion controls have a brief lapse in connectivity, Nintendo’s hybridized system has proven to be a wildly successful experiment.

From among the primary video game systems of the latest generation and the one before it, the Switch will likely be the least difficult system to purchase this year. Currently, some models of Nintendo’s portable-home crossbred console can be purchased for mid-November delivery from Amazon, though the color selection is already limited.  Bear in mind that the Animal Crossing version of the Nintendo Switch console, which does seem to be floating in and out of stock currently at several locations, does not come with that game included: an easy mistake to make considering how it’s designed. Some colors of the Nintendo Switch Lite – the compact, portable-only version of the system that doesn’t hook up to the TV or use detachable motion controllers — also seem to be available in a few colors right now at the $199 price point.

Check Price/Availability on Amazon Or Search Ben’s for Switch Console Deals

So, Uh … Where Are They? A Guide of a Different Sort.

Normally, this is where the Holiday Video Game Hardware Guide explores different console bundles and other gift options, but 2021 is a unique year where a perfect storm of slowed manufacturing, supply-chain issues, and halted last-gen console production has resulted in a major shortage across the board. Awesome bundles of last-gen gaming systems thrown together with some of their most popular titles are nowhere to be found, nor are most of the creative and colorful skinned systems, and it’s a struggle to even find regular standalone consoles from the PS4 and Xbox One era.

This isn’t a year where walking into a place that sells video games and walking out with holiday shopping done will be a common occurrence; in fact, most will have to resort to strategizing with different stores and keeping an eagle eye on stock will be necessary. Here are some of the methods that people are using to keep track of in-stock status of certain systems:

Twitter. One of the quickest and most reliable methods to receive alerts will be through Twitter, as there are numerous accounts dedicated to stock updates: @PS5StockNews, @SwitchStockNews, @XboxStockAlerts and so on. It’s possible to continuously refresh the Twitter feed for updates, but signing up for an account and following them will allow you to receive real-time updates when new stock alerts are published, so one can hop online and grab a system before that dreaded gray “out of stock” button shows up once again.

Get Connected. Different brick-and mortal stores will also have certain programs available so that customers may luck out and get one of the restocked systems, though they all involve jumping through hoops. One of the consistent themes about nearly all of the options is that it pays to be a member of some fashion to one of the stores, as that will grant exclusive access either to early info about the drops … or straight-up access to the consoles themselves when they’re available.

• BestBuy has a new TotalTech program that costs subscribers $200/year, but it boasts access to in-demand electronics before non-subscribers, and it makes sense that PS5s and Series X consoles would apply. The TotalTech program also comes with product protection benefits, free delivery and installation of purchases, around-the-clock GeekSquad service, and extended return windows alongside the discount perks, so there’s plenty of other stuff that comes alongside the membership fee.
• Walmart also has a subscription service, Walmart+, that grants early access to deals for its customers, and that has applied to next-gen console availability. Pricing for the subscription is $13/month or right at $100 for a year, and it also comes with free store-to-home deliveries, gas discounts and free shipping for Walmart items regardless of price (normally orders over $35 ship free).
• Costco recently got a restock on console bundles as well, but obviously only for members. That bundle features the console, an extra controller, a premium headset, and subscription cards for PlayStation’s 2 services. Here’s the landing page for that PS5 bundle.
• NewEgg periodically restocks with their own custom bundle (usually an extra controller and/or an HD Camera), but it’s gated by a raffle system called NewEgg Shuffle. After signing up for a NewEgg account, customers can visit the Shuffle page or receive notifications to be entered into specific raffles, which are started once certain items hit the warehouse.  The landing page for that PS5 bundle can be found here.
• GameStop will be announcing when inventory will be available at select locations. Recently, they made a page available for a console “Bundle Event”, in which certain stores in and surrounding a half-dozen major cities would have custom bundles available on a given date at 8am. Bundles have also been available to purchase online, though the company’s PowerUp Rewards Pro Members — $14.99 for purchase discounts and trade/point benefits, or $19.99 if you want physical GameInformer magazines – have early access.

There’s no telling what the next few weeks leading up to Black Friday will have in store, whether little pockets of console stock will be unearthed and made available to the general public, or not. Until then, it’s the kind of year where one can only wish shoppers the best of luck in tracking down and rushing home with their treasures.

For Those Who Have Their System Situation Under Control, Gift This.

Pictured: Xbox’s Limited Controller in Aqua Shift

The one semi-benefit to there being a console shortage is that gift givers will likely have an easier time picking up the extra items for a given system, and just about every gamer will tell you that a new controller is a welcome sight. Also, with this being a year into the console’s life cycle, some new color options have been debut. While Sony has cranked out Midnight Black and Cosmic Red variants of their stock white controller, the folks at Xbox have predictably made more headway with numerous color variants that are compatible with the Xbox One and the Xbox Series X. That includes a snazzy Aqua Shift blue ombre controller that was released in August.

If none of the stock options will suit a specific person’s personality and they’re on the Xbox, there’s the Xbox Design Lab, which reopened for business in July of this year.

Click Here to Visit Xbox’s Revamped Design Lab

For Online Players and Freebie/Deal Hunters, Gift These.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate / PS+ Subscriptions

Game Pass Ultimate 3-Month on Amazon PS+ 12 Month on Amazon

Each yeah, there’s a little bit of uncertainty when discussing the future of the main console subscription services, as to what they’ll look like in the near future and whether card purchases are still viable.  Regardless of the answer, the recommendation hasn’t really changed … until this year. While folks on Sony consoles will still be content with picking up year subscriptions to PlayStation Plus, those on the Xbox side of things may want to consider a shift, or perhaps more accurately an upgrade. This also opens a prime opportunity for a quality gift as well, one that’s essentially worth what the receiver decides to squeeze out of it.

Instead of loading up on yet another 12 Month subscription of the baseline Xbox Live service, folks will want to take a close look at the value of the Game Pass Ultimate program. Over the past year, the benefits of subscribing to just that program have dwindled: online play remains a must, but the Games With Gold freebies and associated discounts at the Xbox Store haven’t been as worthwhile. While the Game Pass Ultimate subscription is notably more expensive — $15/month as opposed to $10/month for Live; card discount prices not taken into account – it also opens the door for subscribers to download a huge amount of current, quality games and have access to the same Games With Gold benefits. There’s a Game Pass Only subscription for $10/month as well, but the online play might be integral to the subscription decision and the combo rate is preferable. Cards only come in 3-month increments though, for now.

For Tabletop and Tech Enthusiasts, As Well As For The Fam, Gift This.

Arcade 1UP’s Infinity Table

Pros: Movable, Pause Games, Apps Added; Cons: Light on Game Quantity | MSRP: $699/899

Over the past 4-5 years, Arcade1UP has been gradually building a reputation for its brand, delivering affordable yet high-quality duplications of arcade game cabinets at roughly ¾ scale. Many attempts have been made to do similar emulations and failed to fully capture the retro spirit, so it’s a noteworthy accomplishment for this company to survive the scrutiny of nostalgic gamers and become known as a reliable source of decent hardware. After moving to slightly unique products with their pinball machine and reshaped “counter-cade” cabinet for bar tops, Arcade1UP now moves into another more innovative stage of their product line with the Infinity Table.

What began as a Kickstarter campaign last year has moved into general availability, with two sizes of table displays currently available: 24” at $699, and 32” at $899. The Infinity Table essentially functions like a giant touchscreen tablet that exclusively boots up old-school board games and family-friendly activities.  For some, that might downplay the uniqueness of the product; for others, the concept of a “giant game tablet” will effortlessly draw their attention. Nearly 50 different applications are available as of this writing, including licensed games that range from Monopoly and Scrabble to the outstanding strategy game Pandemic. The availability for new titles to be loaded into its library makes it very appealing, especially if they keep up the momentum by licensing more quality board games.

Click For the 24″ Model on Amazon Click For the 32″ Model on Amazon

2021 Gift Guide: Video Game Hardware and Accessories