While the netcode needs to be improved, offline kombatants will find plenty to do and can enjoy one of the best story modes in beat-em-up history. Dear or Alive? Tekken? Street Fighter? Finish Them!

You know something is going wrong in a horror game if you actively have to pursue threats for body and mind.

Affordable Space Adventures shows exemplary how you should use the Wii U gamepad to enhance a gaming experience. A classic arcade experience transported into a new era.

Etherium shows a lot of potential but lacks inspiration. The three factions don’t play diversely enough, base building is rudimentary at best.

Challenging and captivating turn based match-3-variation somewhere between PuzzleQuest and FTL: Faster Than Light.

It might be short, but it also is very entertaining.

Painful situations and loads of little decisions: The script manages to weave the tragic family story into the political scene of the Seven Kingdoms.

Just as on Xbox One as a rail shooter Blue Estate is not as bad as feared. But it is also very old school and way too easy thanks to the uber-accurate mouse control.

An entertaining thriller that strays too far from the storytelling of the first episode.

Technically and conceptually this is a little gem for all the fans of games like Drox Operative oder Space Pirates and Zombies. But be aware that there are a lot of edges that need to be smoothed out and areas that need to be improved.

There it is, the first game that runs exclusively on Nintendo's improved 3D hardware. And five years after the original release this is still a grand epic roleplaying experience. But the fascination that the original could spark for its premiere is not there – also thanks to technical shortcomings that I didn’t expect on the new system.

Loads of new content and the chance to follow your sims to work where you can try to help them achieve their goals. Too bad the careers don’t deliver equally – with mainly the doctors being the bad apples. That aside The Sims 4 is slowly getting back on track.

It was and still is a grand, cruel and tormenting adventure that finally runs in a smooth framerate without tearing. But nonetheless technically you can see the age of the source material if you compare it to Bloodborne.

Visually this is the definitive edition of the gangster drama we all came to love (or hate) with all its gorgeousness as well as its little flaws. And with the editor as well as the director mode creative players get all the tools they need.

Well executed homage to the classic Dungeon Keeper that can’t escape the long shadow that Horny is still casting more than 15 years after his last PC outing.

It could have been to Gran Turismo for motorbikes. Milestone can’t capture the fascination as well as Polyphony did over years, while the races suffer technically and in terms of balancing.

Visually beautiful 2,5D-platformer that suffers from a very simple fighting system.

Obsidian not only continues the tradition of classic party role-playing by merging virtues of Baldur’s Gate and Planescape Torment. They create a unique fantasy world far away from Dungeons and Dragons, thus demonstrating that creativity and passion are more important than any graphics engine.

On one hand I welcome Tecmos decision to premiere this beat em up franchise on PC. But on the other this is just half-hearted so I wonder if they just want to cash in before Mortal Kombat X arrives.

Quotation forthcoming.

The stubborn insistence on co-op elements impedes more than it helps. But otherwise Capcom is on a good way back to old survival horror virtues with Revelations 2. And that is something that I didn’t think possible after the Resident Evil 6 experience.

It looks decent, it manages to entertain for a little while, but I expected more from the series’ premiere on Wii U than just a colorful snack.

I was looking forward to meeting Rhys, Vaughn, Fiona and Sasha again – and I wasn’t disappointed, even though in terms of mechanics there has been no progress at all. But when it comes to dialogue, characters, directing and story this is Telltale at its best.

I like adventure playbooks. I like science fiction. And I appreciate that Tin Man Games revives this classic from Steve Jackson. But in the end this is more a good read than a good game.

The action seems interesting at first but remains superficial most of the time. Unlike the story that asks about the value of humanity with the answers showing different aspects of the topic.

In theory this is the best Atelier in a rather bleak PS3-apperance of the series. Even visuals and level design are above the rest of the franchise. But with serious frame rate issues and a game-stopping freeze bug that can damage the console data system I suggest you wait until Gust releases a patch.

I was skeptical at first, but now I am a believer. Ori is an incredibly beautiful exploration platformer with constant challenges, spot-on balancing and an incredible soundtrack.

Arc Systems delivers again: A solid retro inspired brawler with an offensively arranged fighting system that takes a little time getting used to but manages to impress.

Visually beautiful, but in terms of mechanics as old-fashioned and unchallenging as on consoles. At least it manages to deliver a decent story with interesting characters.

Uncompromising action, solid visuals and the chance to kill Hitler again and again.

This is the law-abiding step brother of Hotline Miami. But while the concept with the cop duo suggests tactical depth, it stumbles over AI faults. So in the end in terms of intensity, style and atmosphere there still is half a continent between the east and the west coast.

What do you associate with the name Sid Meier? Epic strategy. What do you get in Sid Meier’s Starships? A simple conquest game that can satisfy your appetite for 4X about as much as a cheeseburger.

In terms of design this is pixelart at its finest. But when you look behind the pretty facade the mechanics are not as refined and remain mainly superficial.

As long as you find capable team players this is a fun romp, while with the wrong “mates” it becomes a tedious mess. That aside it lacks a little refinement here and there and mission variety – nothing critical though.

Even though Dennaton adds a few interesting elements and delivers a strangely weird and fascinating story, Hotline Miami 2 has problems to step out of the shadow of its predecessor. In the end it is more of the same with a raised difficulty level – which isn’t exactly the worst thing in the world.

The positive trend continues. I am especially happy about the environment puzzles, the boss fights as well as the quiet moments where fear and terror set in. With every episode it looks more like a real Resident Evil.

This is what modern city building should look like. There are small annoying flaws in terms of traffic infrastructure (roundabouts, pathfinding) and also the difficulty level is very forgiving. But none of it is critical and will keep you from playing. Where SimCity and Cities XXL failed, Cities Skylines passes with flying colours.

It’s a pity that the Definitive Edition falls short to the PC in terms of certain texture details. But other than that even two years after its premiere the rejuvenated Dante and his brother show that they still got it.

I don’t get it. They improve on almost every level. They add new elements, the flow feeling is stronger than in the first iteration. And then they decide that from the half way point they ramp up the difficulty level so immensely that flow turns to frustration faster than you can fall off the board. I don’t get it.

The surreal world with its design in the spirit of heavy metal album covers sparks your interest, but with the shallow characters and hardly-challenging puzzles you get little more than solid entertainment.

The step into pure turn-based tactics works well for the Neptunia crew. It lacks the depth and raw charme of games like Disgaea though.

Despite some heavy trial-and-error and jagged edges, White Night combines mansion horror like Resident Evil with an intriguing black and white art design.

Challenging, ridiculously old-school platforming with puzzles that challenge your brain as well as your hands – I like it.

Unfortunately this is not the spiritual successor to ThrillVille. What it gives you is a tremendous editor with convincing physics that tries to camouflage that the attached mini-games are average at best.

There Came an Echo with its surprisingly effective speech recognition is pure immersion. But it definitely could be more challenging, offering more tactical depth and more content in general.

While the visuals are nice and seem to push the hardware a lot of times, you can hardly say that about the mechanics or AI, which are just a tad over the common mobile game on your phone.

A stronger showing than the first episode. The pacing is better and more varied, the story seems to gain momentum as well. Some problems like the random item distribution stay the same, though.

It tries to be like The Talos Principle, but it plainly doesn’t reach it on any level, neither philosophically nor in terms of puzzles or immersion.

It is the storytelling that keeps Republique interesting. The stealth mechanics are not up to common standards, but the dystopian setting manages to salvage a lot.

They’re back. Again. And as usual, Koei didn’t change much. Well, close to nothing, if you take the extensive editor out of the equation. And on top of that the Warriors suffer from technical issues.

While the mechanics definitely work better that in Lucius’ first killing adventure, the Devil’s son stumbles over bugs, clumsy UI and a total lack of atmosphere.

After the gruesome Resident Evil 6 this is a first step to redemption. Atmosphere and exploration move back into the center, but are too often overshadowed by action. It it still a long way back to the old Resident Evil virtues, but you have to start somewhere. So why not here?

The camera is finicky, loading times are long, visuals are scraggy. But underneath all that is a decent game that grows on you once you start to level up your character.

It doesn’t reach the elegant brilliance of its spiritual successor. Options in attack and defense are limited, presentation sometimes is confusing. But the poker for the right tactics keeps the momentum going and delivers intense matches.

Yes, the fights could be more challenging and mechanically more diverse. But in the end the mixture of tabletop, trading cards and real-time action works surprisingly well.

If you like old-school adventures with a modern twist and a lot of humor, stop right here. This book will keep you busy.

This can be as funny as it can be frustrating. One moment you smile at the successful pun towards The Matrix, Lord of the Rings or Super Mario and the next moment you’re dead. But after cursing the developer, the random generator, god, the world and yourself you’ll find yourself crawling back. Again and again.

Challenging jump&shoot with interesting level design in parallel worlds with an additional difficulty level and coop mode on PC.

Is this really the Last Round? I doubt it. But that aside you’ll get a well filled beat-em-up package with subtle visual improvements. But it can’t hide that the base engine is from 2012.

Well done, Creative Assembly. Attila is the game that Rome 2 should have been. It still has its flaws but this fifth century survival strategy is quite entertaining.

This is a rather short trip into a strange alien mountain range – but an entertaining one nonetheless.

As a rail shooter this is not that bad – granted that you use the surprisingly well working Kinect controls. Artdesign and storytelling on the other leave a lot to be desired.

Stylish visuals and challenging fights: On the highest difficulty setting this is very close to Dark Souls in 2D.

It looks awesome and the borders between movie and game get blurred once again. But the linear, very simplistic game design doesn’t even scratch the surface – be it in the firefights, the stealth or the useless interaction. Overall: A tremendous amount of potential gone to waste.

Interesting mix of hack&slay and tower defense, that shines in coop, but falls short in terms of towers and traps. Good clean fun, though.

It lacks variety in the long run, but with the right group of people around you Evolve is a great romp with beautiful visuals.

It is not without flaw. And it can be quite frustrating. But it also is very rewarding once you get the hang of it.

Sunless Sea sparks my curiosity and it is beautifully designed. The exploration of a Lovecraftian ocean is well crafted and well told.

The arcade classic was slightly improved here and there but in the end it doesn’t deliver the same experience as its PS3 or Vita siblings.

If you didn’t play any of the XL-games yet, this is the most complete and polished version out there. But then again it is not much more than an overpriced content patch, so you might as well be happy with the older and cheaper predecessors.

While most of the core mechanics are at least solid unfortunately what sticks in mind is the primitive portrayal of women.

Interesting the jump marathon becomes tedious due to heavy repetition of level design and base mechanics.

It is a great remake of the N64-classic. It proves the importance of giving the player the freedom to explore a magical world instead of leading him through with GPS and puzzle-finding equipment.

There is more of everything and it works as good (or bad) as always. But you won’t find an important ingredient: Fresh ideas.

I was hoping that Dying Light would be more than Dead Island in a big city. And while the parkour elements as well as the stealth are a welcome but in some cases underutilized addition to the proven zombie killing formula, a lot of the core gameplay is run-of-the-mill open world: Mindless fetch-missions with almost no coherent or suspenseful story.

Seriously? Two months wait for two hours of game time? C’mon Telltale, don’t get cheap. And while they don’t take any risks in term of mechanics the storytelling, the pacing and the characterization are top notch.

A lot of the problems that made its PS3-sibling such a bittersweet pleasure to play are gone. But while I can appreciate the effort Acquire made to enhance and improve the surreal vampire/beat-em-up/roleplaying mix, still a lot of the potential remains untouched.

Playing Indigo Prophecy after ten years feels like coming home. The storytelling and direction that surprised the gaming world in 2005 still works. Yes: the controversy about the ending still is there, but there is no denying nonetheless that this is one of the few very important games in recent memory.

A very intimate and suspenseful mystery adventure with convincing characters and loads of interesting decisions.

After so many delays my expectations were quite low. And even then what I had to witness is quite underwhelming. Broken quests, bad dialogue, a fight system from hell. Next to this, Risen 2 feels like a game of the year candidate. If it weren’t for the halfway interesting sea battles I would have gone back to Sid Meier’s Pirates much earlier.

3D space strategy on an epic scale as good as this I haven’t seen since Homeworld.

I love turn-based tacts, I love classics and I like Fantasy. But while other games of that era aged well, HoMM feels outdated. If you really want to play it, get the original with mods.

Classic real-time strategy like Command & Conquer with base building – I’ve missed you. Unfortunately when it comes to battles, brawn is favored over brains.

This is an ugly duckling. And it won’t grow up to be a pretty swan. But on the inside you get a lot of sometimes crude, sometimes funny, but always entertaining political satire in a retro RPG coat.

The basic concept is interesting enough to spark your curiosity, but in the end it stays too repetitive.

I like Resident Evil. Still. And as a fan of the GameCube remake I enjoy the up-to-date presentation with 16:9 ratio and 5.1 surround sound. Nonetheless, one of the godfathers of survival horrors lost a little of its fascination over the years. It still is better and scarier entertainment than Resident Evil 6.

A consequent sequel with a lot of enhancements on the predecessor as well as interesting new ideas and a mercenary system. Bugs and outdated visuals hinder the progress, though.

While the over-the-top-action and the humor didn’t lose anything, the visuals don’t scream HD like they do in GTA 5. In its best moments it is on par with the PC version of Saints Row 4, but occasionally suffers from framerate issues. Nonetheless with the addition of all the content, including the recent add-on Gat out of Hell this is a package worth picking up if you haven’t played it on the past-gen systems.

The driving physics are a dream come true. If at all, only iRacing can capture the fascination of authentic driving this realistically. But in terms of content it leaves a lot to be desired: Even though it looks great, it still feels like a beta version. Maybe the dev team should have waited a little longer with the official release to give Assetto Corsa more time for fine tuning.

Shadowmatic is a decent puzzler and fancy representative of the so-called zen gaming. Even though it doesn’t offer the variety or the challenge of The Room this is an entertaining experience.

For doctors it actually might work as a distraction in the form of playful training exercises. But as a game it is not very entertaining.

You fight through ugly visuals and repetitive battles just to find yourself in the overpriced real currency store.

A co-op platforming experience with moral decisions sound interesting. But in the end the small team bit off more than they can chew. Visually a stylistic nightmare, technically too fragile and unnerving background music make this more of a chore than a fun game to play or watch.

It is short, visually stimulating and very relaxing. A different approach to gaming that works quite as well on PC as it did before on Wii U.

A year ago, when I was sitting in the cockpit the first time, I was ecstatic – and I still am. The flight model might not be realistic but just feels right. The visuals and acoustics are top notch. But at the same time Braben’s universe feels weirdly outdated and after a while you notice the mistakes in the trading systems as well as faults in other areas. Nonetheless this trip through the galaxy captures the fascination space like almost no other.

It is as motivating as it is relaxing to take the charming mushroom on a treasure hunt filled with puzzles. Nintendo delivers a strong start into the new year.

Good idea, bad delivery. Unfortunately the very interesting story premise is not enough to fuel this pixel platformer.

With Warlords of Draenor, Blizzard is back on track.