Good game to play

It's a weird one, but a charming one. Few RPGs have ever garnered the fervor of Skyrim. Despite a buggy launch, especially for PS3 players, the game has withstood the test of time for its impeccable sense of a real, lived-in world. Whether it's your first time arriving in the chillier region of Tamriel or you're loading up a saved game with hundreds of hours poured in, it's interesting to revisit the game, now almost a decade old, and see how it still holds up in most ways.

While this Tango Gameworks sequel never seemed to do the sales needed to get a third game, hopefully being under the Xbox Game Studios banner means the team will have the major backing it needs should it decide to revisit this world.

The endlessly stylish and exhaustingly relentless Evil Within 2 borrows as much from The Last of Us as the first game borrows from Resident Evil 4. With a smallish open-world, side missions, and lots more stealth combat, this is a game that dares to do things differently and should be rewarded for it with your attention. Everyone has a favorite Fable, and maybe for many it will be the next one from PlayGround Games. But before we get there, catch up with the series starting with this remake of the classic original.

Even Fable Anniversary is quite aged by now, but it still holds up as a fantasy RPG willing to poke fun at itself and its genre more than any other game like it. You can see so much of what drew Microsoft back to this unique world here in the first game. There's really nothing like Fable. There's no better time to play horror games than the fall season. It gets dark earlier, the weather drops to crispy autumnal temperatures, and everyone gets in the mood for spooky stuff.

That makes Dead By Daylight a perfect fit, as it's a horror game you can play with friends. Take turns being one of Hollywood's great slashers or one of the many Behaviour Interactive original villains.

There's no wrong way to go--well, except toward the killer. The Age of Empires series is one of the most cherished in its genre, and this long in-development sequel is at once nostalgic and innovative. The roots of the franchise remain strong in Age of Empires 4 , but better animations, a more user-friendly learning curve, and just an overall sense of more everything lend themselves to this being one of the best games of , and many people's favorite strategy game in a long time.

In a way, Knockout City is EA's overdue response to Rocket League, because it takes concepts we know and love and toys with them in a forever-replayable game. As a 3v3 multiplayer game, it cleverly reinvents the "shooter" by framing it all within the context of dodgeball, and to that end, it really shines.

Velan Studios talked a lot about how hard it was to get the throw and catch mechanics to reliably work online, where latency dictates sometimes unapologetically, but because the team truly nails this aspect, Knockout City is fast becoming one of the breakout hits of the year. With a fun retro-futuristic world and tons of customization, this has a chance to be the next beloved EA Originals title and perhaps even the biggest game under that banner yet.

The foundational Bethesda-ness is still there despite not being from that team, but this murder mystery set in Ancient Rome makes for a compelling investigative game like no other. Revisiting the mean streets of San Andreas, this beloved entry scratches that itch of nostalgia fans have for this PS2 classic. The remaster improves on the older clunky game mechanics, and gives the game a fresh coat of color.

A dating sim with a new twist of the knife. If you're feeling the need for a bit of romance this holiday season, Boyfriend Dungeon gives you romance and dungeon crawls all in one game. You crawl through dungeons searching for love, saving After saving someone, they immediately start flirting with you, giving this game something different from the general character dialogue.

There are a variety of weapons and love interests here, giving you the best of both very strange worlds. Back 4 Blood throws you and three friends into hordes of zombies in this first-person multiplayer shooter. In a very overdone genre, Warner Bros and Turtle Rock studios have done a fantastic job balancing the urgency of the team play with the humor of the characters, and Back 4 Blood puts some much-needed fun into an experience filled with blood and guts.

But is it good? Very good. This one should absolutely be on any and all Nintendo Switch consoles. Stardew Valley is the perfect example of why the Nintendo Switch is a game-changing device.

Because of the nature of the Switch and how it allows you to just passively play while watching TV, or on public transport it's perfect for a game like Stardew Valley -- which is the digital equivalent of knitting a scarf. It's a genuine, proper masterpiece. An investigation story, essentially -- you arrive on the Obra Dinn, a ship where almost all the crewmates have died.

Via flashbacks you try to piece together the story of what happened. It's strange, innovative and completely unforgettable.

If you've played a Paper Mario game before, you probably know the drill. The series is set in a 2D "paper" version of Mario, a theme used to create all sorts of hyper-stylized mechanics and slick visual elements.

It's all laced up with a self-awareness and charm that make the series irresistible to Nintendo fans. Don't believe the online hype: This is one of the best games in the series so far. It's also great to see Pokemon being available on Nintendo's premium console. Definitely check it out. Super Mario Maker 2 doesn't quite feel made for the Nintendo Switch in the way it was perfect for the Wii U, but it's still a fantastic piece of software.

It makes level design accessible for everyone and has a massively beefed-up single-player mode. That's not to mention the endless replay value that comes with the insane user-created levels. Check Super Mario Maker 2 out for sure. It speaks to the quality of the game that people got excited when it was ported to the Nintendo Switch nine years later. But it's also testament to the power of the Nintendo Switch as a device.

It's simply a super fun and convenient way to play video games, particularly indie games like Fez, which are well suited to the smaller screen. And if you haven't played Fez, you absolutely should. It's a genius, mind-bending thing that playfully messes with video game tropes. One of the best games of the last decade.

Splatoon 2 is very similar to the first Splatoon. It's barely a sequel in the traditional sense, but, much like Mario Kart 8, that doesn't make it any less essential. Splatoon's high concept is pure genius and extremely Nintendo. It takes the first-person shooter, traditionally a violent genre, and flips it on its head. You're shooting paint, not bullets. You don't score points for shooting enemies, you score points by shooting the environment itself. Among Us is one of the most popular games in the world right now.

While the Nintendo Switch might not be the ideal platform, I'd argue it's the best way for kids to play. There's no chance of them coming across audio chats with teenagers swearing at one another, plus the chat is censored. I can't believe it even exists. I also can't believe how good it is.

It doesn't even make sense. Then it was released, and it turned out to be one of the best games on the Nintendo Switch. Except you battle killer rabbits with laser guns. It's overpriced, but if you love Zelda, and you loved Link's Awakening , you have to play this faithful, lovingly adapted remake. It's not perfect, but it gets the job done. Cadence of Hyrule is an indie rogue-like rhythm game based on the Legend of Zelda. In regular speak: a game that crosses Zelda with Dance Dance Revolution.

Which sounds like a completely bizarre proposition, but Cadence of Hyrule works! It really works. And you should play the hell out of it. Doom rules. This is known. Playing Doom on the Nintendo Switch also rules.

A quirky 2D slasher game with a retro aesthetic. But here's the twist: The Messenger begins as a simple hack and slash game in the 8-bit style, but later you get to travel to the future, where the game evolves into a bit style metroidvania. Mario is pretty good at sport. As is Nintendo when it puts its mind to it. Mario Tennis Aces gives us what we haven't had for a remarkably long time -- a good tennis game. Gorogoa is unlike any video game you've ever played. It's a puzzle game I guess.

But it's really a game about exploring a strange universe in ways you can't really predict. A couple of warnings: Gorogoa is pretty short and I think it might play better on an iPad, but it's such a unique, compelling and seamless experience on any platform.

Dark Souls isn't perfect on the Nintendo Switch, and, at this point, you could make a strong argument the best version is the remastered version on the PS4 Pro and the Xbox One X. That being said, you can't play either of those on the toilet. Rocket League is awesome. You know this. Sonic Mania is just I mean imagine being an adult, growing up with Sonic. They announce a new game, and you expect it to be bad because Sonic has been bad for like 20 years.

Then they drop Sonic Mania. A game that takes everything good about Sonic, preserves it and then updates it perfectly in a seamless modern interpretation that has no right being this good. You know when you're playing a video game, and you're like, "Man, this story is really interesting and well written With Oxenfree you don't really need to make that distinction. Oxenfree is a spooky mystery wrapped in teen drama. The twist: you're a snake. Your body gets longer as well as slightly wider as you eat the various dots that are littered around.

This will cause them to vanish, leaving behind loads of body dots to collect. Consider pimping out your snake with a necklace that dangles as they slither. For something similar with a twist, try powerline. You're probably familiar with the style of Kingdom of Loathing, which has been going strong for years.

It's that sort of pseudo-mmo kind of thing, firmly embedded in the web interface, with drop down menus letting you select your attacks, and page refreshes for every new area. It's a little ugly, but Kingdom of Loathing isn't trying to be pretty.

It's succeeding at being funny. Really, really funny. Take, for instance, the classes. They make absolutely no sense, but they're funny because they're pun based. So I'm a Sauceror. I fling hot sauce in people's faces, and they get damaged, because hot sauce really hurts when it gets in your face. Making even less sense, they're Disco Bandits, who dance at their enemies, fuelled by moxie. And this is all before you end up in the Haiku Dungeon, where not only are all the descriptions of your enemies in Haiku, but so are your attacks.

The whole game is consistently absurd and amusing, from the enemy types, to the genre conventions it apes so cleverly. And while you can't directly play with other people, you can steal their stuff, join guilds and interact with them.

So that's something. This bit adventure game has you battling in a dungeon over valuable treasure. There are three other players looking to get a piece of the pie, too. You can respawn as long as the time is ticking away, but once you die you lose some of your gold. The aim of the game is to have the most gold when the time is up.

Various power-ups also appear around the dungeon and can be used to keep yourself alive. You have to locate more powerful weapons to even have a chance against them. It's now evolved into Super Treasure Arena as a full release as well. War Brokers is a first-person voxel team shooter. There are sometimes missions that theme combat rounds beyond straight deathmatch, like stopping the enemy launching their missiles.

It's now expanded to include a battle royale mode as well. War Brokers has plenty of different guns and machines for you to unlock and use. Guns unlock over time, but you do start off with a pistol and a rifle to defend yourself with.

Vehicles such as helicopters and tanks can be found around the map, which you can of course get into and control. If you log into an account, there are tons of little missions and rewards you can claim for playing.

And the competition can be brutal—it's especially good if you want a challenging experience. For more deathmatches, there's also Raid.

If you've ever played the party game Mafia or Werewolf, Town of Salem should feel familiar. This roleplaying game challenges you to be a conniving liar and mislead other players. Depending on who you are randomly cast as, you might be a townsperson good , the mafia bad or neutrals. If you're a townsperson, you need to track down mafia members and stop them before they kill everyone in your town.

There are many different roles for each category of player. Each of these different roles will give you a unique ability that you can use in the night phase of the game.

At night, players plan out their moves and make notes in their will. If they die in the night, the remaining players can use their wills to, hopefully, achieve the goals you were meant to do! Town of Salem is quite complex to explain, but you'll get the hang of it soon enough.