If it ain't broke, upscale it to 4K 60FPS, make a ton of quality of life improvements, clean up the worst chapter in the game, and include a new alternate ending that sets up for more great things to come.

Dead Space (2008) is one of my top 3 favorite games of all time, so seeing it get the Resident Evil 2 remake treatment was a dream come true. Is the improvement as alarmingly impressive as RE2 Remake? Absolutely not--because this time the original still holds up. Where Capcom tamed RE2 with a machete and blowtorch, EA Motive resuscitated Dead Space with surgical precision. This is still Dead Space with less fat and more fun. Chapters are seamless, backtracking is encouraged by way of a travel system and side-quests, zero gravity is more intuitive and less of a hurdle, and that last chapter is mercifully concise (though admittedly still a bit of a slog).

All-in-all Dead Space is yet another stellar horror game remake. I can only hope Motive gets the chance to tackle Dead Space 2 and hopefully fix the mess that is Dead Space 3.

What an awesome surprise.

The XCOM people made Marvel Emblem Three Houses and it absolutely rules. I went into this game after hear some good things and I still expected it to be a bit of a slog. Now after 50+ to finish, I'm ready for DLC. Firaxis managed to make something unique, heartfelt, and fun out a property that feels almost worn into the ground by the MCU.

The combat? An interesting spin on "tile" games disguised as a card battler. The hub world? Marvel dating sim without the dating. The customization? Nearly Flawless. Give or take some uncanny valley NPCs and a crash or two along the way, and this was one of my favorite releases of 2022. Big recommend to fans of the genre.