The Madden curse is lifted.

No, not that one--the one I alluded to at the end of my review last year. I'd said it felt like I was cursed to play a frustrating football game year after year forever, because I liked it enough to invest my time (if only for my job and my online league), but I never felt like it was living up to its responsibility as the only NFL sim available on the market. Madden NFL 26 finally gives me hope. Supplementing the great on-field gameplay with a Franchise overhaul that turns Madden into a sports RPG in the way it should be, this is the best Madden in a long time.

Sunday Spectacle

Madden's on-field gameplay has been improving year over year for a good while now. It's not that it can't improve any more, but it's finally in that stage, like some other sports games have reached before, where the foundation is sturdy and, with the most important aspects in a good place, the development team is now focusing on enhancements more than fixes.

The Mafia series has always been an outlier in the open-world action genre. While the 2002 original could have easily been written off as another Grand Theft Auto clone, Mafia and subsequent titles in the franchise carved a niche for themselves by being narrative-driven experiences built around a specific time and place. Empire Bay from Mafia 1 and 2 is an amalgamation of Chicago and New York created to capture the feeling of 1930s and 50s gangster culture, while New Bordeaux from Mafia 3 attempted to depict the Vietnam-era in the south. Mafia: The Old Country successfully continues this trend with its depiction of Sicily in the early 1900s, but is ultimately held back by its shallow mechanics and dated design.

Mafia: The Old Country follows Enzo Favara as he falls in with the Torrisi Crime Family. After fleeing the sulfur mines, Enzo is saved by Don Torrisi, a soft-spoken and enigmatic mob boss that sounds like another very famous soft-spoken crime lord. Torrisi sees potential in Enzo and puts him to work at his vineyard where he meets Luca, a mentor-like figure to Enzo; Cesare, Don Torrisi’s hot-headed nephew; and Isabella, the Don’s daughter with whom Enzo has an instant connection. Throughout the course of the 12-hour story, Enzo sinks deeper and deeper into the criminal underworld. It’s a fairly predictable mobster story that’s elevated by strong characters, great performances, and thoughtful writing.

That said, Mafia: The Old Country’s cast doesn’t make the best first impression. Enzo is very quiet and standoffish in the early hours; Don Torissi, at times, sounds a little too much like Michael Corleone; and Luca--despite being one of my favorite characters by the end--comes across as just another rank-and-file mobster. Fortunately, after the first couple of chapters, their personalities start to come through more strongly. This is especially true for Luca, who helps guide Enzo through his new life within the Torrisi family. Meanwhile, Cesare develops beyond a simple hothead as he struggles to live up to his uncle’s lofty expectations. The only exception to the slow burn of character personalities is Tino, Don Torrisi consigliere. Portrayed by Anthony Skordi, Tino makes a chilling impression out of the gate and frequently steals whatever scene he’s in.

Like the best revivals, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound feels like it could've come from a different era. Crafted by Blasphemous developer The Game Kitchen, Ragebound is a deliberately old-school action game that captures the essence of the classic Ninja Gaiden series, with sharp gameplay, challenging levels, and gloriously retro visuals and music that would feel right at home on the Super NES. It also builds upon this foundation with some smart new mechanics, making it more than a mere imitation of earlier games.

Rather than putting you in control of series mainstay Ryu, Ragebound follows two new protagonists: Kenji Mozu, an untested trainee of the Hayabusa Clan; and Kumori, a mysterious kunoichi from the rival Black Spider Clan. When Kenji steps in to save Hayabusa Village from a sudden demon onslaught, the pair's destinies become entwined and they form an uneasy alliance, using their combined abilities to stand against the demonic forces threatening the world.

Like so many other aspects of the game, Ragebound's plot is pure Ninja Gaiden: scattershot, nonsensical, and ultimately inconsequential. In their quest to stop the Demon Lord from being unleashed, Kenji and Kumori travel to various sites throughout Japan, battling grotesque monsters, commandeering the occasional vehicle, and eventually becoming entangled in the CIA's affairs. It's knowingly silly stuff, and it affords the developers plenty of opportunities to whisk players through a range of memorable set pieces, from ancient Japanese villages and castles to busy construction sites, flooded pirate coves, and secret military facilities.

Dead Take feels more like an artist's point of view of the unsaid traumas and private despair that plague the lives of actors than a horror adventure game. It is still very much a video game driven by rewarding puzzle mechanics, but the meat of the experience is the insight it gives of what it can feel like to be an actor. It's altogether more disturbing than spooky, and although certain supernatural elements do dampen the puzzle box nature and horror of the overall game, Dead Take is still a powerful, emotion-driven descent into one man's psyche.

Experienced entirely in first-person, Dead Take has you play as an actor named Chase who breaks into and explores the seemingly abandoned mansion of Cain, a famous Hollywood producer. There are signs of a party, but all the lights are off and an eerie stillness hangs over the darkened hallways and strangely shaped rooms. Chase is looking for his friend, Vinny, another actor, who successfully landed the role of Willie in an upcoming movie--a role that Chase had also been gunning for. As you guide Chase through the mansion, you'll slowly uncover what transpired behind the scenes during the movie's pre-production, learning how so many people's lives were destroyed in service to the damaged and traumatized ego of one man.

It's a haunting tale brought to life by full-motion video (FMV) recordings of powerhouse actors in the industry. Neil Newbon gives Chase an almost psychopathic desperation to his need to land the role of Willie, while Ben Starr hides Vinny's nepotism behind charismatic suave and charm to produce a completely different type of creepiness. The unnerving and disgusting battle behind the scenes to determine the leading lady opposite Willie and cover up a "problematic" woman for a more "agreeable" one is explored through the fantastic (and subsequently, deeply uncomfortable to watch) performances of Alanah Pearce and Laura Bailey. And at one point, Jane Perry delivers a performance of Cain's wife so powerful and deeply chilling, I doubt I'll ever forget it.

Assessing Grounded 2 in a world in which the original exists is tricky. Grounded went 1.0 in 2022 and enjoyed many updates both before and after that milestone. Because of the sequel's changes to some of the game's foundational elements, I won't be at all surprised if Grounded 2 is eventually a much better game. Some of those changes already make it difficult to return to the first game. However, the sequel is also without some of the original's essential features for now, too, meaning this game about shrunken heroes needs more time to grow bigger and better than the original.

Grounded 2 wastes no time getting its band of adolescent heroes shrunk back down to the size of insects, opening with a hurried, "Oops, I did it again" kind of story beat. Max, Willow, Hoops, and Pete are slightly older and a little more vulgar in their teen years, but once more find themselves fighting to survive in the wilderness of a world where bugs don't just sting or bite; they aim to kill.

Though Grounded 2 does occasionally play like a horror game, such as when you're traveling at night without a torch and the glowing eyes of a scorpion or wolf spider suddenly stalk your path ahead, its best trait is one it naturally carries over from the first game: its childlike spirit. Whereas so many survival-crafting games are bleak, sometimes grueling affairs telling thematically dark tales with muted color palettes, Grounded's world is vibrant and silly, colorful and whimsical, and that's a difference I truly adore. The sun-soaked Brookhaven Park gives you a whole new world to explore, decorated with a familiar sense of exploration.