War for Cybertron is a huge leap forward compared to previous Transformers games.

While BattleForge is quite costly to play and has some shortcomings, it is one of the most thought-out and engaging multiplayer RTS of the last few years. And it is definitely the most original one.

Duels of the Planeswalkers (which bears the same title as the 11-year old expansion to MicroProse’s adaptation of M:TG) is a neat, albeit simplified, adaptation of the classic game.

Iron Brigade could have become an alternative to Dungeon Defenders, if not for annoying bugs, blurry graphics and very low difficulty that kill most of the fun.

With two expansions under its belt, Sword of the Stars is finally catching up to its rivals. Galactic Civilizations 2: Twilight of the Arnor is still light years ahead, but on the other hand, Lost Empire: Immortals and Space Empires 5 are now just a stone's throw from here.

It is sad to see so many good ideas killed by their implementation.

The Next Big Thing is an ode to classic Hollywood horror movies.

The weak narrative sucks all the emotional drama from the game's story, while beautiful hand-drawn backgrounds are saddled with the ugliest examples of character animation.

Warp is a unique example of a stealth-based arcade game.

My first impression after completing Leviathan was, "Too bad this did not make it into the core game!" In the perfect world, this DLC would have been available for free, just like Extended Cut.

Alice: Madness Returns is a living contradiction, an unholy union of incredible visual flair and ho-hum gameplay.

Colorful vistas and ear-pleasing music are the few things that bring Drakensang closer to its eminent North American brethren. Alas, it is not enough for a good game, especially the one that wants to become the RPG of the year and gain a cult following. One would need talented writers and interesting game design for that.

Only the most hardcore fans of Tower Defense will enjoy Sol Survivor.

If you want to look past the dull single-player missions and buy Battlestations: Pacific for its online component, I advise you to hurry up. In a few months, the already low-populated servers will become deserted, and the best game in this very niche genre will sink to the ocean floor.

The Russian subtitle of this game is "At Twilight", and it gives a pretty clear idea of where EA was going with Late Night. If you're not into vampires and are not in a hurry to leave the suburbs, you won't miss this expansion at all.

Armageddon's visuals are borderline awful, but the primitive gameplay is what looks the worst.

Players who prefer to control a single character will happily dive deep into the whirlpool of daily grind. The rest will face a classic dilemma: stellar career or domestic bliss.

Medal of Honor doesn't become the current image of Electronic Arts – probably the most "humane" of all videogame corporations. Danger Close Games' debut reminds of a time when EA was a gloomy assembly line churning out soulless yearly sequels and movie tie-ins.

Vampyre Story is truly a brainchild of professional artists, which is evident not only in excellent graphics at anachronistic resolution and quirky characters, but also in rather bland game design.

Warhammer 40.000 is a glorious celebration of military minimalism. In this universe, they cut off your hands, burn your legs, drown your head in plasma and then ask questions. But the official slogan, "There Is Only War", is not an excuse to make a game without a good story, memorable characters and varied gameplay situations.

Deponia is a refined adventure game – beautifully drawn, creative, incredibly funny and so close to the classic definition of the genre that it takes your breath away.

MLB 2K11 has plenty of nifty concepts, it is reasonably complex, and has a solid look, but it wouldn't hurt to inject a few fresh ideas into the old formula.

The single-player campaign is poorly balanced and very short, but, since Castle Crashers never materialized on PC, Magicka is the next best alternative. It is fun enough to last a couple of evenings, but doesn't have a lasting appeal.

If you never missed a Twilight premiere, if you know the lineage of the Stackhouse family and follow the adventures of the Salvatore brothers, then this expansion pack is for you. For the rest of the world, it's just a content pack that adds nothing new to the game's mechanics.

Terminal Reality did well to capture the atmosphere of both Ghostbusters movies, but failed to include captivating gameplay. On the other hand, it’s way better than the Riddick game sequel from the same publisher.

Unmechanical is nice to look at, but overly simple and not that interesting.

The whole time I couldn't shake off the feeling that I was playing this game on the *wrong* platform.

Long before the events of the original F.E.A.R., scientists of Armacham Corporation put Alma Wade into medically-induced coma and enclosed her in a sarcophagus to suppress her psionic abilities. While trying to create an army of clones with superhuman abilities, they twice artificially inseminated her body, but in the end paid the ultimate price for cruelty and greed. Replace Armacham with Warner Bros., Alma – with F.E.A.R., and this make-believe story will become real.

Dated look and tired “twists” of the barely noticeable story fail to impress. Wolfenstein is a true mediocrity in all regards – it has neither shameful slip-ups nor flashes of inspiration.

Army of Two: The 40th Day is a wild mix of brilliant thoughts, violent firefights, stolen ideas, and lazy design.

If you don’t have access to PlayStation Network or you have no one to play it with, Fireteam Bravo 3 is a waste of money. The game’s single-player campaign reminds of age-old Spec Ops and Conflict series and is basically a complimentary bonus to the multiplayer mode. And the latter is a solid contender for the title of “portable Counter-Strike”.

Developers of family games often do hackwork and resort to oversimplification. IO Interactive didn’t succumb to temptation and made a game that stands head and shoulders above its rivals.

To take Black Ops 2 seriously is to admit that this collection of absurd ideas, worn-out gameplay clichés, and soapy plot twists bears any significance to the first-person shooter genre.

An enjoyable and, dare I say, cozy game, even though it has neither flashy graphics, nor innovative gameplay ideas, nor much variety.

So far, Cubemen is the best "tower defense" of 2012.

Toy Story 3 offers entertainment for any taste. License-based games of such quality are few and far between.

Lush visuals are the only saving grace of this Sherlock Holmes. It pains me to see so much style and no substance.

Army of Two: The 40th Day is a wild mix of brilliant thoughts, violent firefights, stolen ideas, and lazy design.

Operation Arrorhead is a big disappointment. Not only this expansion is boring, but it failed to realize its potential.

If American Nightware were an episode of an actual television series, I would have switched the channel long before the end of the first act.

Sameness is the worst enemy of Smash Cops. A miniscule set of missions will wear you out after just an hour and a half (yep, that's how short the game's career mode is).

Copy-pasted decks and bays, as well as backtrack-heavy mission objectives will test your patience. This DLC adds nothing to the main storyline; it simply demonstrates the atrocities committed by Belltower in the name of surplus profit.

“The game that plays you” is the core idea of Shattered Memories. And it is really so, apart from some quirks. Climax has succeeded in adding a second layer to a Silent Hill game.

More suspense, less predictability, and Frogwares will finally create an ideal Sherlock Holmes adventure.

Ossian brought many genre clichés to Westgate, be it a treasure hunt, a theft investigation, inevitable gladiatorial fights, dialogue-driven quests, or a drinking contest, but twisted them in unexpected ways. Those who take their time to explore each nook and cranny of Westgate will enjoy lots of adventures.

Even if you turn a blind eye to simplistic puzzles and short gameplay, or squint at the scenes lifted from classic LucasArts adventures, you will still have a hard time enjoying Ceville.

Weak intrigue is a traditional soft spot of the Blackwell adventure games. The investigation is predictable, and all of our burning questions are answered in such a dull, ridiculous manner that all build up flies out the window.

Close Quarters was definitely made for fans of Call of Duty – it offers everything that Modern Warfare had from the beginning. Smart tactics is thrown out the window and replaced by confined spaces and fast-paced shootouts.

Rise to Fame is a typical "mobile game" - cute in its own way, but way too simple and shallow.

Shooters like Serious Sam and Painkiller are hard to come by these days. Yes, Hard Reset is full of plot holes, the ending is too silly even for a pulp paperback novel, and there is no blood and flesh – only gear-wheels and oil. But even will all of this, Hard Reset is fun enough if you want to just blow off some steam.

Revolution is not without its flaws, but you can live with them, because finally, this is a real successor to Worms World Party.

A role-playing action about the modern world felt like a jolt of fresh air in the ocean of high fantasy, ancient myths, and space operas. But, as it usually happens, a good idea was killed by poor execution. It doesn’t matter if it was because of too many cooks in the game-design kitchen, or Sega’s meddling. The spy already got his burn notice.

Stylish, challenging, original, and nice to look at.

The fatal flaws of Dante’s Inferno are not even its dated graphics or depressing lack of originality. It’s monotony and endless repetition that will drive you nuts.

According to Obsidian, Storm of Zehir is their way to show us what else can be squeezed from Electron Toolset. Well, as a technical demo this expansion is very impressive. As a game – not so much.

War of the Roses is a good base to build upon in future installments, but until then, Mount & Blade has nothing to worry about.

By copying the original game, 1C: Ino-Co preserved its charm, but exposed its flaws. In 2000, they were excusable; in 2009, they are depressing.

Serious Sam 3 is riddled with flaws, but there is so much flying bacon that you can fill an entire meat plant. It's a decent game that could have been better.

An urban version of Split/Second from the creators of FlatOut. This sentence evokes two distinctly different feelings, depending on when you read it, before or after playing Ridge Racer Unbounded.

The game's endearing visual style and amusing (albeit clichéd) story are let down by the overall laziness of its creators.

Futuremark could have made a great multiplayer shooter out of this concept, but, alas, they decided to sell a glorified tech demo.

Majesty without a random map generator is like a chicken without a head. I understand that I shouldn't ask too much from a $2,99 title, but randomness is one of the things that make the original Majesty so fun and addictive even today.

It's a modern fairytale with a muddled story, flawed logic and ho-hum graphics. Sometimes the entire thing feels hollow-hearted, but, thankfully, it's not as disappointing as was The Whispered World.

The only big drawback is the hacking puzzle which is required travel between star systems. You have to replay this timed mini-game as many times as there are stars in the sky – literally!

Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson once wrote in his blog that he honestly doesn't remember anything about a car that was sent to him for reviewing – it was that unremarkable. I had a similar moment with DiRT Showdown – I forgot to review it upon release.

Medal of Honor doesn't become the current image of Electronic Arts – probably the most "humane" of all videogame corporations. Danger Close Games' debut reminds of a time when EA was a gloomy assembly line churning out soulless yearly sequels and movie tie-ins.

If TimeGate Studios had a desire (time, money, talent), here’s what it could have done to turn Section 8 into a proper game: expand its story, make a single-player campaign a la Tribes: Vengeance instead of a humdrum tutorial, improve visuals, introduce additional gameplay modes, add vehicles and destructible objects. Unfortunately, the final game is just an empty shell.

Shadowgun mimics Gears of War so closely that if it were published on consoles, it would have been immediately branded as a desperate knock-off.

Gray Matter makes the most of its small scale. There are no mad supervillains, and no one here wants to plunge the world in the eternal darkness. This is a convincing, emotionally mature story about grief, estrangement, and longing to be with a beloved person.

Dungeon Siege 3, just as Obsidian's previous game, Alpha Protocol, is an RPG that adds absolutely nothing to the genre.

TDU 2, like its predecessor, is a very self-absorbed and meditative game. It doesn't force you to dash through all the championships, to fly to the final race... But there comes an inevitable moment when you start pondering what to do next. All tasks have been completed, all cars have been tested, and you're the best in your club... And that's it?

Saints Row 2, like its protagonist, has been in a coma for the last three years. Just like many other failed GTA wannabes, it offers bland story, cardboard cutouts instead of interesting characters and tons of mini-games. Stillwater is not a city – it’s a theme park.

A meditative, unworldly, overly formulaic shoot 'em up. It won't keep you occupied for hours, but it's nice enough to help you kill time until Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet arrives.

Yet another European RPG is weighted down by cement shoes of its ambitions and the developer’s lack of proper experience.

Even talented designers couldn’t have saved Killing Floor. The game is so low-budget that it evokes pity instead of nostalgia. The visuals aren’t bad for an Unreal Engine 2 game, but they are a far cry from modern shooters. Threepenny lighting and jerky animation are the worst horrors you’ll see here.

FIFA Manager finally made an effort to combat stagnation. Now Bright Future needs to rewrite the game's flawed 3D engine to give Sports Interactive a run for their money.

The biggest drawback of Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier is not so much its boring, monotonous design as the overall lack of ideas. High Impact Games made a game “with cute little animals” instead of an epic adventure. It’s certainly playable, but it won’t make your heart skip a beat.

Divine Wind is the expansion for the oldest fans of the franchise. The changes it introduces are really nice, but they aren't as exciting as Heir to the Throne and In Nomine.

Too little, too thin, too derivative.

A poor FPS combined with an equally weak platformer. The developers must have decided that a minus times a minus equals a plus. Not this time.

By (re)introducing some of the original ideas that never made it into Fantasy Wars, Elven Legacy became even more captivating than its predecessor.

A few years ago, we had three very distinct shooter franchises: Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Ghost Recon. Now we have just one: Call of Duty from Activision, Call of Duty from EA, and Call of Duty from Ubisoft. I'm willing to accept this new direction of the series, but Future Soldier hasn't got a single memorable moment.

Even with all its flaws, Nuclear Dawn is a treat for those who wanted a decent FPS/RTS hybrid.

Emerald City Confidential is a good-looking, atmospheric, light-hearted fairytale with stellar writing, perhaps even too stellar for a casual game.

Warlock is just a failed attempt to reproduce Master of Magic.

Mildly realistic combat and addictive RPG elements put Lionheart above Crusaders and XIII Century. Unfortunately, the lack of a strategic mode and technical glitches are serious turn-offs that won't stop only the hardened fans of the Crusades epoch.

All the sore spots that we hated in Sacred Underworld have found a new home in the sequel. Take any modern MMORPG, and it will offer you all the same things as Sacred 2: rudimentary story, copy/pasted quests, constant grinding. And much more than that.

Hector: Badge of Carnage is a proof that Telltale Games knows a bit or two about mischief, and that Northern Ireland is home to talented foul-mouthed jokesmiths. Unfortunately, the combination of these two forces does not necessarily result in a brilliant adventure game.

There is a slim chance that Fatshark will eventually manage to fill Lead and Gold with content, like Valve did with Team Fortress 2. But right now the game is not worth its $15.

The pace of this game is laid-back even by the standards of the 4X strategy genre. Most people will hate it for being obscure and boring, while orientalists and fans of leisurely 4X games will be playing it non-stop. In any case, it's hard to treat RotK XI with indifference.

What’s the difference between Relic Entertainment and a large dairy farm in the neighborhood of Vancouver? Relic is better at milking its cows. Tales of Valor feels like a crisis management by-product, as if its design document was written by a marketing executive, edited by the chief financial officer, and polished by PR staff.

I hope that future patches and expansions will fix the game, since right now Sanctum brings only headaches instead of joy.

Liberation feels like it was made only to honor the agreement between Sony and Ubisoft that required the latter to produce a Vita-exclusive Assassin's Creed game.

Look past the thick veil of colorful visual effects, and you'll see Dead Trigger for what it really is – a compilation of the worst features of freemium shooters that plague the App Store.

Who would have thought that this highly ambitious concept would turn out to be such a bland game?

Generations is, without a doubt, the second blandest expansion in The Sims franchise since The House Party.

The adventures in the lifeless town are long and at times boring, but you will get your $10 worth of entertainment.

H.A.W.X. sorely lacks in the epic battles department. There is no one else really fighting in the sky, besides you and two wingmen who react to commands like “Engage!” and “Cover me”. While the sky is almost empty, the ground is unnaturally clean: there are no signs of destruction, no shell holes, no burning armor... Even for an arcade game, H.A.W.X. is full of conventions.