It wouldn't seem to make sense to call Dying Light: The Beast a more grounded game than its predecessors. It's a game in which you routinely shift into something like X-Men's Wolverine, slashing at the undead with the ferocity of a preying mountain lion and carving them to shreds with what is basically an instant win button. But beyond the feature that informs the game's title, this expansion turned standalone sequel actually leans further into horror and survival than anything in the series, making it the most fun I've had with Dying Light to date.

Dying Light: The Beast returns the game's original protagonist, Kyle Crane, to the starring role, moving him to Castor Woods, a brand-new location for the series, and a lush nature reserve decorated with once-gorgeous villages that manage to feel both ornate and rustic at the same time. Like before, the game is an open-world first-person zombie game with a significant emphasis on death-defying parkour and brutal melee combat. But The Beast adds (or returns) a few other wrinkles, too.

For one, guns are more prevalent than ever this time, though ammo isn't as common. Using guns feels reliable enough but doesn't fill your Beast Mode meter, so I frequently rejected this quasi-new toy in favor of the series' long-held favorites: baseball bats, machetes, and loose pipes fitted with elemental add-ons that light the zombies on fire, send electric shocks through the hordes, or cause them to bleed out between my crunchy swings to their squishy heads.

As a dyed-in-the-wool Nintendo Kid, Mario has always been the yardstick by which I measure competitors. When Sonic the Hedgehog broke out on the Sega Genesis, I couldn't help but compare it to Mario's platforming to measure the similarities and differences. So I have to admit that it's difficult to approach an arcade kart racer like Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds without Mario Kart in the back of my head--especially since that series just had a new entry this summer. But it's that contrast that really makes CrossWorlds stand out in some positive ways. Whereas Nintendo's latest racer excelled due to its simplicity, CrossWorlds offers a massive wealth of options and customization to help you find and craft your own style. There is a lot going on, and it can be a little overwhelming, but ultimately the level of depth rewards experimentation.

From the start, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds offers three main offline modes, two of which need little introduction: Grand Prix and Time Trials are your tried-and-true staples, and then there's the more inventive Race Park. More on that in a bit. Grand Prix is where most players will start, with a suite of seven Grand Prix to master. These are listed as three races apiece, but each one also consists of a fourth grand finale race that remixes parts of the three prior tracks.

And that's where CrossWorlds gets its unique twist, as well as its name. Seemingly inspired by the Sonic the Hedgehog movies, in which rings act as portals to other planets, the tracks in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds are not just straightforward point-A-to-point-B affairs. Instead you'll regularly cross a threshold through a giant ring and into a new world. The race leader chooses a destination, between one known option or another random selection. You hop into another world to visit for a little while, and then portal your way back to the main track you were in.

Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter finally addresses a major dilemma for newcomers considering getting into Falcom's epic industrial fantasy saga. While the Trails series has consisted of different arcs set in different parts of the continent of Zemuria that you could start from, when its overarching storyline and continuity spans titles released over two decades, where better to begin than the very first chapter?

Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter successfully remakes the game and brings it in line with the standards of a Trails game in 2025, while preserving its original story. This is not a bloated reimagining--Trails titles have already been well-regarded for having a wealth of text, so it's not like a remake would benefit from more fleshing out--but sticks to all of the original story beats, along with a revised localization that's also closer in style to the Japanese text. There are some new lines too, mostly to fill the silences during exploration, but still not quite the same undertaking of localizing a new script from scratch, which is usually why previous Trails games have taken longer to reach the West.

Just like the original, 1st Chapter begins with 11 year-old Estelle waiting for her father Cassius to arrive home, only to find he's brought with him an injured orphaned boy named Joshua who's also her age. Fast-forwarding five years later, he's part of the family and the pair are following in their father's footsteps to become bracers: heroic warriors serving and protecting their communities by exterminating dangerous monsters and helping with odd jobs. But besides going from town to town in the kingdom of Liberl and doing good deeds to increase their bracer rank, Estelle and Joshua become embroiled in one mystery after another, from political corruption to kidnappings, culminating in a vast conspiracy beyond what they could have imagined.

Assassin's Creed has long focused each of its stories on a central theme. Almost every aspect of Odyssey's main campaign and dozens of side quests deal with legacy, for example, while Valhalla's lengthy story largely centers around fate. Assassin's Creed Shadows is far less defined, with protagonists Naoe and Yasuke's journey across 16th-century Japan primarily being about found family, but delving into revenge and honor as well. Thematically, it's been the weakest narrative theme of the larger, more RPG-focused Assassin's Creed games, muddied by the main story's aimless second act.

Those same problems persist in Shadows' first major story-driven expansion, Claws of Awaji. And while a few changes to the cat-and-mouse formula of pursuing and eliminating targets do make for a more engaging gameplay loop, the persisting narrative issues leave the ending to the DLC, and Naoe's arc specifically, feeling barebones.

Claws of Awaji takes place after the events of Shadows' main story. So if you haven't finished Shadows' campaign and don't want to be spoiled, turn back.

There are so many great co-op experiences to be had right now that my biggest issue isn't finding something to play with my wife or kids, it's finding enough time to play them all. But I'm glad I made the time for Lego Voyagers, because it's the sort of game that is immediately, obviously special, and culminates in a beautiful final few minutes that made my kids and me care deeply for a simple pair of Lego bricks.

Lego Voyagers is a two-player co-op game, so there's no solo mode, nor can you pair up with a bot partner. Played online or--even better--with two players sharing a couch, the game takes only about four hours to go through. But that's time very well spent, I can tell you, after having played it with my daughter and son at different times.

Lego Voyagers stars two minuscule Lego bricks. Both nameless, they're each personified only by their single googly-eye sticker, as well as their different colors; one is blue, the other is red. The simple, wordless story is nonetheless affecting. As the pair live out their lives as neighbors and buddies atop a small island built of Lego bricks, a rocket in the distance can be seen taking off, awakening in them a passion for science and space travel. Heading off from home, the pair go on an adventure to explore this passion together.