Like its past several installments, NBA 2K25 is the best sports game I've played this year, but it still comes with a bolded, can't-miss asterisk. This year's basketball sim from Visual Concepts represents the latest in a series that has been lapping the competition in the sports genre--a group of games each seeking to be your live-service obsession. None justify their time commitment as well as NBA 2K25, which is in a league of its own--for presentation, gameplay, and overall immersion first and foremost--but the whole is actually less than the sum of its parts due to long-embedded pay-to-win tactics I fear will never be undone.

This year's biggest changes involve a new dribbling physics system that gives ball-control a more realistic feel. The impact of this is hard to explain but easy to recognize when you're playing it, aided by enhancements to the game's ProPlay animation system that converts real-life game footage to in-game mechanics. Virtually everyone has, at one point in their lives, played basketball, even if it's just shooting baskets at the park or a friend's house. You know what it feels like to maintain ball control and dribble, keeping it away from other players and feeling the weight of the ball as you learn to control it without needing to observe yourself doing so. NBA 2K25 captures that authentically, adding additional support to an already-excellent gameplay foundation that goes back years.

Unlike some other series that dispose of ideas if they don't work after a few years, NBA 2K has always seemed more committed to iteration, tweaking unwelcome features until they become enjoyable ones, and turning good aspects into great ones. Year two of the ProPlay system expresses this attribute. 2K24's foundational overhaul is made more nuanced with numerous new animations, many of them built to mimic a player's real-life play style. Basketball is a sport composed of many individuals who approach the sport in different ways, such that no two hoopers play exactly alike. NBA 2K25 better replicates that player specificity with more unique jumpshots, signature moves, and even post-score celebrations that are pulled from real life.

Supermassive and Behaviour have each been instrumental in defining the genre over the past decade. The former's horror games have come as cinematic choose-your-own-adventure stories where the fates of multiple playable characters come down to your choices, often made in high-stress situations. Meanwhile, the latter blazed a trail now well-trodden: asymmetric multiplayer horror. Dead By Daylight's (DBD) Fortnite-like approach of swallowing up many major horror icons into one space has given it not just staying power, but a twisted Disneyland vibe. Now, with The Casting of Frank Stone, the pair combine forces to tell a Dead By Daylight origin story that will appeal most to fans of the PvP game, though I can say, as a casual DBD fan, I found it enjoyable on its own merits too, despite its issues.

Frank Stone plays much like Supermassive's run of games that began with 2015's Until Dawn. It is a gameplay-light, movie-like experience that you get to direct, in a sense. You'll control several characters, form their relationships with others in the story, and, most excitingly, try to keep them alive through a story full of quick-time events (QTEs) and doomed choices that can get them killed off permanently.

For me, this formula hasn't outstayed its welcome yet, and I'm not sure it ever will. It feels like the kind of game I would happily play each autumn for the rest of my life, even as the narrative merits vary by game. Historically, I've found that no Supermassive script truly stands up to scrutiny, and Frank Stone is no different in that regard. Because of the branching paths, sometimes you may see a scene that feels a bit off, like it better suits a choice I didn't make and never saw.

In its heyday, the Marvel Vs. Capcom crossover fighting franchise was omnipresent. Every arcade--a concept that's also a relic of a time long passed--had walls lined with MvC machines, and each one was surrounded by players dropping quarters into X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, and others. It's a bygone era, and for a while, fans believed that their beloved crossover franchise was as lost to time as the arcades of old.

Marvel Vs. Capcom Fighting Collection, however, brings together all six of those era-defining fighting games--along with the historic brawler that started the core partnership between Marvel and Capcom--in a new era. Thankfully, this package presents each game in a way that celebrates that storied past while also injecting new life into them with modern features, creating a collection that's up to the task of reintroducing these classics to a new age of players.

The meat of the collection is in the fighting games. Each of the six fighting games in this collection are the arcade version--no console ports to be found. This is of course the right call, as each title represents the purest form, running mostly as it was intended back in the 1990s--save for a few frame-rate issues that pop up from time to time. However, it also exposes which of these games are showing their age, and which can still stand with the modern fighters of today.

For multiple console life cycles, PlayStation has fostered a brand built on gritty anti-heroes, fantastical worlds at conflict with themselves, and a trope colloquially referred to as "sad dads." I like most of those games and find the praise they receive in many cases to be well-earned, but Astro Bot is a reminder of another side to the PlayStation DNA. Not only does it feel like a revitalization of an important part of the brand, but it also feels like a spotlight shifting to a character who has been lurking in the background, previously unable to see over the hulking Kratos, the war-ready Aloy, or the tortured Joel. Team Asobi's Astro Bot quickly, consistently, and joyously launches its titular hero into the pantheon of all-time greats, both in its first-party family and genre, with a platformer whose incredible ambition is matched by its brilliant execution.

Stranded in space following an attack from a googly-eyed alien, Astro's mission is to repair their ship and rescue all 300 pals scattered across five main clusters of planets, each composed of individual levels. Naturally, the story is not the focus here, and yet I was so immersed in the 15-hour game that I beat it in two long sittings. It may be 2024's most immersive game, and it achieves that without a line of dialogue. Instead, each level tells a story, clear as day, about where you ought to go next and what you should do there.

There is both depth and breadth to most levels, and frequent checkpoints mean you'll rarely be punished for exploration or missing a jump. Levels take only five to 10 minutes in most cases, but are overflowing with personality. Robot animals climb trees along the periphery or jump out of the ocean far beneath the levitating worlds you explore. Everything constantly moves around you, imbuing every level with life beyond the scraps you'll engage in with the game's enemies. Each level's theme is brought to life with aesthetic assets and design ideas that strengthen their themes. During a Japan-themed level in which Astro can soak up water to become something like a giant squishy kaiju, you'll simply plow over enemies the robot would otherwise need to be wary of, topple bamboo walls as the ground shakes around you, and soak in hot springs, all while string music evokes the country's signature sounds.

As I thrust my Chainsword into the chest of a Tyranid Warrior and split the vile Xenos in half, I can't help but be reminded of 2016's Doom. From a gameplay perspective, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is nothing like id Software's demon-infested reboot--at best, any similarities between the two are merely superficial. But Space Marine 2 manages to capture a kindred vibe that prodded the part of my brain reserved for all things Doom: one that relishes in gory, balls-to-the-wall action and an unapologetic, almost old-school approach to game design that puts unadulterated fun above all else. It's a game that clearly understands how absurd, horrific, and over-the-top the whole franchise is. There are flaws, but Space Marine 2 improves upon its 13-year-old predecessor in every conceivable way, making you embody an Ultramarine as you stomp your way through a fully realized recreation of Warhammer 40,000's grimdark universe.

Set roughly 200 years after the events of the first game, Space Marine 2 straps you back into the gaudy power armor of protagonist Demetrian Titus. The erstwhile Captain has spent the past century as a Blackshield in an act of self-imposed penance, fighting among the ranks of the Deathwatch under the belief that he has disgraced his former chapter. When an Archmagos of the Adeptus Mechanicus calls for aid in defending the jungle planet of Kadaku from a Tyranid invasion, Titus is sent to the planet's defense, only to be mortally wounded by a ferocious Carnifex. After being rescued by the Ultramarines, Chapter Master Marneus Calgar has Titus undergo the Rubicon Primaris to save his life, making him faster, stronger, and smarter in the process. Once he emerges from his slumber, Titus intends to return to the Deathwatch but is convinced otherwise; if he truly yearns for redemption, he must rejoin the 2nd Company and help the Avengers of Ultramar repel the assailing Tyranids.

The setup propels Space Marine 2's action-packed story into motion as you plunge headfirst into the Fourth Tyrannic War. Titus' past immediately adds tension to the proceedings, with his new captain and squadmates wary of his reinstatement due to a checkered service record. This leads to some decent character-building and uneasy infighting, especially with the threat of Chaos lingering in the air. It's not long before the Thousand Sons Chaos Space Marines rear their ugly heads to throw a spanner in the works, but for the most part, Space Marine 2 tells a fairly standard war story amidst the backdrop of Warhammer 40,000's unmistakable world. It's cliched at times but remains engaging throughout. There's rarely a dull moment as you uncover long-dormant secrets and attempt to crush the Imperium's enemies beneath your hefty boots.