As many video game studios continue to leverage technology in the pursuit of photorealism, developers Enhance and Monstars Inc. understand that technology can also be used in the pursuit of emotional impact. Their new game, Lumines Arise, exposes you to a display of perpetual creativity, where every inch of the screen is bathed in a cascade of visual effects that mesmerize you. It takes the foundation of a series that started back in 2004 and turns it on its head by giving it the Tetris Effect treatment, presenting a sensorial experience that's equally enchanting and confident.

Lumines has been largely dormant for the past decade. But while Arise is a synesthesia-fueled sequel, the core conceit of this popular series is largely unchanged. You're still presented with a playfield divided into a grid, in which 2x2 blocks descend from above. Each of those blocks is composed of four squares, and each of those squares is painted with one of two colors or patterns. The goal is to drop the blocks so that squares of the same pattern touch each other, combining them into larger squares of the same type--the bigger the combined square, the more points you earn.

All the while, a timeline--which is represented by a vertical line that moves from left to right with the tempo of the music--will sweep away the combined squares when it comes into contact with them. Therefore, the key is to make squares of a single type so the timeline will remove them and prevent the playfield from becoming full, which is an instant game over, while also attempting to make as many square combos as possible, either by enlarging existing ones or creating several at once. Your squares only score when the timeline sweeps through, so it's a race against the clock to make the biggest combos you can for each pass.

My third child is due in January. When my wife and I sent our first child to kindergarten, we were among the youngest parents in our school community. But when this next baby is grown up and ready for school, I'll be over 40. I sometimes think about how our kids get more or less time with us on this planet based on when we had them. I'll be in this child's life for less time than I was in their siblings' lives, necessarily. It's simple, unconquerable math, and it bums me out. I promise myself I'll stay healthy and attentive to the best of my ability so that I can wring every last day out of my life with them. But even in the best-case scenario, there's no catching up in years. How do I make those days count when they feel so numbered? How can I make up for lost time? Goodnight Universe, the next game from a team comprised mainly of those who made Before Your Eyes, explores this space magnificently and, as should be expected if you played the team's last game, to heartwrenching effect.

In Goodnight Universe, you take on the novel role of a baby named Issac. Played in first-person and using optional camera tracking (on PC, but not consoles) like Before Your Eyes, you'll live out Issac's unexpectedly adventurous life. Early on, you'll meet his parents and sister, as well as his grandfather and other significant figures who enter his life. As an adult, Issac narrates his memories from infancy, and you'll live them out yourself, smashing the tray attached to your highchair, playing with your teething toys, and finding yourself utterly mesmerized by the children's TV show, Gilbert the Goat.

While these sound like typical things a baby would do, it doesn't take long for Issac to admit he was different--special, even. According to Issac, from birth, he could think fluently and problem-solve like an adult. He could even go beyond those behaviors. As a telekinetic, he's able to move things with his mind or read people's thoughts. In gameplay terms, you'll perform these supernatural feats using a controller if you prefer, but more engaging is to use camera tracking and perform them with your own face and hands.

It's exceedingly rare for an annual sports game to skip an entire year, but that's exactly what developer Sports Interactive did when it canceled Football Manager 25. With so many changes--including switching game engines to Unity--and numerous delays, the game simply wasn't up to standard in time. Couple this unforeseen gap year with the promise of a brand-new foundation built on an improved match engine and a completely overhauled interface, and Football Manager 26 quickly became the most highly anticipated game in the long-running series. Unfortunately, the end result is a cliched game of two halves. While the match engine is as impressive as advertised, the UI debuts with significant teething problems. Throw in some missing features and a multitude of frustrating bugs, and FM 26 would be disappointing even if expectations weren't so high.

It's not all bad news, though. As I mentioned, one of the game's two halves plays some excellent football, starting with a tactical revamp that significantly alters how you set up your team on match day. It's a long-overdue shake-up, as even back in 2016, when I reviewed Football Manager 2017, I bemoaned how rigid the series' tactics had become. "The tactical side of Football Manager would benefit from giving you more control over how your team functions, especially during specific phases of play--perhaps letting you fluidly shift from one formation to another depending on whether your team has the ball or not," I said. It might've taken nine years, but this exact scenario is the basis for FM 26's tactical overhaul.

There's now a clear delineation between when your team has possession and when it doesn't. If you're so inclined, you can set up to attack in a particular formation and then fluidly switch to another when defending, giving you more granular control over your team's structure. As manager of Arsenal Women--FM 26 adds 14 women's leagues for the first time--I mainly used a 4-2-3-1 formation in possession, then transitioned to a 4-4-2 shape when I didn't have the ball. As the defending team, this allowed my two forward players to lead the press while the rest of the team sat in two banks of four, providing a solid base that could also spring a counterattack whenever I won the ball back. When this happened, the three midfielders gave me more control in the middle of the pitch, and this also allowed players like Olivia Smith and Frida Maanum to play in their more natural positions behind the striker.

Nearly 50 years ago, Atari published Breakout, a spin on the ball-bouncing gameplay of Pong where your opponent wasn't another player but rather an increasingly dense wall of bricks slowly dropping down towards you. Arkanoid, released not long after, expanded on its foundations, giving players more ways to play through the introduction of upgrades to your paddle, spawning additional balls, and more.

These are two games that Ball x Pit designer Kenny Sun was clearly inspired by, but not the two that this modern interpretation solely borrows from. Instead, Ball x Pit is an intoxicating mash-up that includes elements of Vampire Survivors, numerous roguelites, and town-management wrapped up in an engaging adventure down a bottomless pit that is chaotic and engaging, but also slightly messy in its execution.

Like its inspirations, Ball x Pit is easy to understand. You play as one of a variety of characters, each with their own abilities, flinging balls at waves of enemies slowly descending towards you. Your balls bounce off of walls and enemies to damage and eventually eliminate them, preventing them from reaching the bottom and damaging you.

"Don't shoot!" I called out to the raider from a nearby bush. "I'm coming out, but I mean you no harm."

Clearly startled by my presence and reacting based on what was more than likely a combination of the Rocketeer hovering menacingly close and a history of earlier betrayals, the dusty raider pointed his weathered Ferro rifle my way. He'd already called for the elevator to bring him back to Speranza safe and sound, so it's no wonder that he'd be anxious. He was in danger of losing everything right at the finish line, just before those saferoom doors opened. But so was I, and he didn't know--couldn't know--that I hadn't ever killed a raider before.

I could see him measuring my trustworthiness on the fly. "The robots are the bad guys, right?" I continued, sweating out the moment every second he didn't lower his gun. "If I killed you here, you'd be the first raider I've shot down. I'm just trying to get home, same as you." I kept moving so he couldn't get a clean shot at me, but I remained hopeful it wouldn't come to that. Before he could crunch the numbers on whether I was to be believed, the Rocketeer's alert status started howling something fierce. It had spotted him while he'd had his sights set on me.