So it's May now and being that we're a pretty good way into 2025, we've seen several high profile releases already. Most recent of which was this past week's hotly-anticipated Doom sequel, The Dark Ages. The latest installment to id Software's legendary first-person shooter series sees the Doom Slayer adding a shield saw - - along with a variety of slower, more methodical gameplay mechanics - - to his crazy assortment of demon-death-dealing devices for the first time.

While it can't be denied that the classic run-n-gun gameplay is one of the main components that made the series so famous for so long, it also seems like it might be a good idea to try something a little different every now and again. Though based on reviews, it seems like your mileage may vary on how well the new shield saw mechanics resonate with you personally. At least there are still plenty of firepower options to choose from.

Also out in the last 3 months, the first new Fatal Fury installment in a quarter century; a beautiful-looking remaster of the outstanding 2006 Bethesda hit, the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion; and a port of the fantastic Game Boy Advance cult classic, Ninja Five-O.

Earlier this month, Nintendo hosted their much-anticipated Switch 2 Direct video which provided answers to many of the most pressing questions about the upcoming console. A few games were also announced, including the new Mario Kart World and a Bloodborne-esque FromSoftware exclusive titled The Duskbloods, as well as Switch 2 versions of Metroid Prime 4, Pokemon Legends: Z-A, Hades II and Cyberpunk 2077. Though there was much shown in the presentation to make the multitudes of eager Nintendo fans happy, the days and weeks following the Direct have seen a rather significant amount of fairly vocal dissatisfaction with some of Nintendo's announcements.

First and foremost, the pricing of the console, which at US $450, puts it not only pretty well above industry expert expectations, but also pretty well outside of the price range of your average children's device (which, let's be honest, is what a sizable quantity of Nintendo consoles are purchased to serve as). Not only is the console itself overpriced, but the games too, with some announced to be as high as $80. Again, well above the price of your average children's birthday party gift.

In that same Direct, Nintendo also unveiled an introductory game for the Switch 2 called Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, a sort of interactive guide to the system's features not unlike Astro's Playroom for the PlayStation 5. What is unlike Astro's Playroom, which came pre-installed on every PS5 console as a free bonus, is the fact that Nintendo will be audaciously charging new Switch 2 owners $10 for their digital tour. While you could maybe try to chalk the high hardware and software prices up to the economy or it simply being a reasonable amount to ask for the type of tech that Nintendo is offering, it's extremely difficult to see them charging for an instructional guide to their hardware as anything other than straight up greed.

As per usual for this time of year, the big three gaming giants have once again cranked up their respective hype machines in order to let gamers know exactly which incoming titles they can start getting amped up about. These were all in the form of near-hour-long video presentations featuring closer looks of already somewhat-known quantities along with a few surprise reveals as well. Though the first presentation was held over 2 months ago now, we decided to wait until all three had shown their hand, which the last of them finally did this past week. So now, for your convenience and reading pleasure, please enjoy this brief roundup of some of the highlights of those presentations.

Well, we're a month and a half into 2025 now, and we've finally amassed enough notable new releases for our customary post. Of course, we also had to throw in the few remaining stand-outs for 2024 that we hadn't gotten to yet. This past week saw the release of the anticipated next installment to Sid Meier's celebrated, long-running Civilization series. Civ VII features overhauled systems, new tweaks to the classic turn-based strategy gameplay, and new and improved visuals and sound design, including narration by Game of Thrones star, Gwendoline Christie. Although your mileage may vary whether you will be fully on board with all of said tweaks or not, Civilization VII definitely sounds like it should at least be worth checking out.

Also out in the last 13 weeks, a game that quite possibly may be the first sufficiently satisfying Indiana Jones adventure to come along in decades; an HD Switch remaster of a Wii and 3DS Donkey Kong classic; and a pair of absolutely legendary arcade shoot 'em up titles. Build an empire to stand the test of time, then jump past the break to see more new releases from the last 91 days.

Happy 2025! What better way to start off the year than with a massive bombshell coming out of Nintendo? At long last, and after a fairly substantial amount of speculation and rumors, the big N has finally revealed a successor to their nearly 8-year-old outstanding original Switch console!

Featuring a larger screen, an adjustable stand, and bigger, more versatile joy-con controllers, the Switch 2 appears to be an improvement over the original in nearly every single way. ​Although no game titles have been revealed as of yet, a new Mario Kart entry was shown playing on the screen of the newly-unveiled console in the announcement video that dropped a couple weeks ago. No launch date has been given thus far either, beyond simply 2025 (sometime), but the video did inform viewers of an upcoming Nintendo Direct presentation that is scheduled for April 2nd, so presumably more information will be revealed on that date. Switch lovers start saving up your pennies now, because if history is anything to go by, Nintendo is more likely to launch the Switch 2 in the earlier part of the year, rather than the latter.

That's all the info we've got at the moment. Here's a link to Nintendo's dedicated website page for the upcoming console. You can also jump past the break to see the Switch 2 announcement video (if you haven't already).

Another year, another ridiculously late Games of the Year article. Many apologies. It took much longer than expected to get to all of the standout 2023 unboxings on our YouTube channel. We plan to have all the 2024 unboxings done within the first few months of next year, and then we will hopefully be able to focus on getting caught up with 2025 by this time next December. If it's any consolation, as a result of taking so much time to determine the winners of 2023, we're feeling extremely confident in our picks (not that we haven't for most other years). Hopefully, you will too. Please read on to find out why we chose what we chose as the 12 best titles that 2023 had to offer:

Despite the massive success of the Wii, Nintendo had a problem on their hands just a few short years after its release. While the system exploded in popularity shortly after its launch, it was failing to maintain that same level of interest over time. The motion-based controls that Nintendo (and their competitors) had gone all in on over the subsequent console cycle had clearly been a passing fad. Changes to the design of their next home gaming system would be necessary if Nintendo desired to stay relevant.

​For inspiration, Nintendo decided to look no further than their very own successful line of DS handheld game systems. They came up with the idea for a tablet controller that would serve as a second screen, offering developers and players a choice of how they wanted to control their gameplay, be it with standard buttons and sticks, a touchscreen, or motion controls (for those that still wanted them). As an added bonus, this would also let players choose (in most cases) to either view the gameplay on a regular television screen, or the tablet controller itself, offering a unique level of versatility and flexibility for gaming enthusiasts who had to share the TV with other members of their household. The new console would ultimately also boast better graphics, HDMI output (which the Wii had notably lacked), and full backward compatibility with the Wii.

​Dubbed the Wii U, Nintendo's new console would make its debut on November 18, 2012. Sadly, despite looking like a pretty respectable machine on paper, the console ended up being a pretty big flop for Nintendo, not even managing to reach a quarter of the numbers that its predecessor had sold. While the astoundingly poor choice of name was a big part of the Wii U's problems, so too was its comparatively anemic library of titles. Though the Wii U did have a fairly reasonable selection to offer at first, support for the console waned after the first couple of years, to the point where major new titles for the system began to come pretty few and far between.

That isn't to say that the Wii U's library was bad, however. Far from it. By nearly any metric, a good portion of the Wii U's titles actually ended up being objectively better than those that had been released for the Wii. Not only was the Wii U not absolutely rife with the same massive pile of third-party (wrist) waggle-controlled garbage games that the Wii library became infamous for, but many of its Nintendo-published titles were higher quality as well. Most games on the Wii U tended to score better with critics, featured more precise controls, and were arguably just more fun. Please read on for a list of 12 of the best games that the Wii U had to offer.

One might be forgiven for having thought that by the end of September, most of the year's big releases had already been released. Apparently this was not the case, however, as the last several weeks have seen the arrival of a number of high profile titles. This past week alone gave us the Octopath Traveler-inspired HD-2D remake of Dragon Quest III, a game that has been hotly-anticipated by many a fan of the beloved Dragon Quest series and/or high quality RPGs in general.

Also out in the last 7 weeks, the latest installment in the Mario & Luigi RPG series, a sweet-looking turn-based tactical spin on the action-packed Metal Slug series,  and a remaster of the PSP port of the PS2 classic tactical RPG, Phantom Brave. A beloved masterpiece, reimagined. Jump past the break to see more new releases from the last 49 days.

After the massive success of Sony's original PlayStation, a follow-up console basically became a foregone conclusion. Rival Sega, which had utterly taken a beating with their ill-fated Saturn console, attempted to correct course with their next gaming system, the Dreamcast; even managing to get a jump on the competition by getting their new hardware to market over a year before anyone else. Sony, still enjoying their considerable lead in the race, was able to take some time in developing a proper successor to the PlayStation, and did ultimately succeed in delivering something truly worthy of following in that formidable console's footsteps.

The PlayStation 2 would officially be unveiled at the Tokyo Game Show on September 20, 1999, merely a week after the release of Sega's Dreamcast. Despite some savvy design decisions, a respectable library of new and upcoming titles, and the Dreamcast's modest early foothold in that generation's console race, it wouldn't be enough. The absolutely massive amount of hype leading up to, and then following, the October 26, 2000 North American launch of Sony's smartly-designed PlayStation 2 console would impact Dreamcast sales to the point that Sega would have to prematurely bring its run to an end, just five months later.

The hype was definitely warranted. In addition to doubling as a budget-friendly DVD player, and being backward-compatible with a massive collection of original PlayStation titles, the PS2 would boast its own substantial library of games - - one of the largest for any console, not only then, but ever. While a collection that large is bound to have at least a few stinkers, it also, of course, contained plenty of top-notch exclusives as well, both temporary, and permanent (at least for that generation). Please read on for a selection of 12 of the finest titles to ever grace the PlayStation 2.