The Walking Dead: A New Frontier didn't just have an ambitious title, it also had a great deal of promise. The start of the third season was as memorable as anything Telltale had done before, but the story took turns in some strange directions that didn't have the payoff hinted at early on. Given Telltale's track record, we're not writing off the future of The Walking Dead, but A New Frontier's finish certainly raised questions as to whether or not Telltale has anything exciting left to say about this world.

For a penultimate episode, "Thicker Than Water" doesn't ramp up the stakes quite as much as some of Telltale's earlier efforts. With so little changing during the events of this fourth chapter in The New Frontier, it's hard not to be disappointed by the time seemingly squandered in this episode. Granted, the final moments accelerate things to a worthy climax, but save for those 10-15 minutes, everything that transpired in "Thicker Than Water" could easily have been folded in to the previous or upcoming episode. Hopefully Telltale was saving all the fireworks for the upcoming final chapter, as it would be a shame for A New Frontier's strong start to end with a whimper.

Exploration is a great deal of fun right up until the denizens of the newly discovered planets drag you into their own problems, which aren't all that impressive in the grand scheme. Nobody said being a Pathfinder would be easy, but it probably would have been a bit more tolerable if it wasn't so mired in managing tedium.

I wanted Desync to be good. I’m fan of games that actually test your reflexes and mettle but so much of this title just feels unfair. It controls well enough and when you’re actually able to get a combo going, it’s fun. Ultimately, those moments are too few and far between. Maybe with some improvements or toning down the difficulty and enemy speed, I’ll return to Desync. For now I’ll just to stick with games that do everything Desync tries to do with better results, like Bulletstorm or Doom.

Berserk and the Band of the Hawk could have been more than a simple re-issuing of the same Warriors formula that Omega Force has perfected over the years, but instead this is merely a re-telling of the Berserk story with a lot of emphasis on the Square and Triangle buttons.

Gravity Rush 2 seems to offer mind-bending action with an unique set of powers via its heroine Kat, but the major fault of the game lies in a story that’s unclear and features outside of gravity powers that aren’t anything new or complex.

The Last Guardian is an interesting and frustrating game that can’t decide if it wants to be modern or retro, and that constant argument brings the entire experience down a notch. While I was willing to deal with the limits of the previous era to enjoy the perks of the current one, I can understand where others might grow weary of the experience.

Dead Rising 4 sees the franchise's original hero forced back into action in a sequel that's bigger than any entry in the series before, yet feels more empty and bereft of excitement than its predecessors.

WWE 2K17 should be marking a new era for WWE video games, but unfortunately it dredges up old problems from the past just as much as it improves with new content. The massive roster, excellent control scheme save for reversals, and extensive creation suite all impressed me, but the little technical nuances just kept annoying me to no end.

Mafia III as a narrative alone is a commendable effort, and is unlikely to be forgotten for that very reason. It takes a hard look at a life many of us have never led, and challenges players with an experience most could never truly know. Ultimately though, even the strongest of stories can't save Mafia III from falling prey to genre conventions, and too many at that.

When you strip away the silly executions and crowded, dense maps, Hitman is still a solid stealth experience.

Rise of Iron is a strange hiccup in Bungie’s progress towards making Destiny a better overall experience. SIVA is an interesting villain that is ultimately never explained or explored. The majority of the content here is the actual Plaguelands themselves, and all there is to do is a couple of fetch-quests and patrol missions. Everything in this expansion seems to revolve around tedious grinding; grinding to finish the Iron Record book and get more rewards, grinding to get your light level up to do the raid. Whereas Taken King did so much to improve Destiny in every way, Rise of Iron feels like a big step back.

A lot should be made of ReCore's basic technical issues. Without them this game could be considered one of the sleeper hits of the year, but being constantly forced to wait for a game to load and then experiencing weird clipping issues during the game does not an enjoyable experience make.

Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 shines in all the same ways as Pac-Man Championship Edition, just with a light that's a little duller. Levels are still fun, they're just not as fun. The action still has a funky, flow-y groove, just not as funky or flow-y.

In short, while the Himmapan level is nice to look at and chock full of things to do, it's held back by a lack of defining features linking it to Bangkok and lopsided mission design.

The universe is huge. It instills such a feeling of insignificance and it is incredibly fun to think of all the possibilities when arriving in a new place, but when it inevitably requires the patience to do the same things over and over, the wonder of exploration loses out on some important magic.

What Telltale has been able to do from strictly a narrative standpoint is up to the company's usual high standards. Enjoying those moments is an absolute challenge though, as so much of the rest of the game just doesn't work properly. Telltale has earned our trust to eventually rectify these qualms, but Batman's adventure is still off to one of the roughest starts we've seen from the developer.

We feel the same way about Generations as we did about Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate last year: it's a fun game that requires far too much grinding. We only wish there were more new things to talk about instead of just the same old hunter's song and dance.

As a Turtles fans I’m mildly satisfied seeing the characters in a new light, but playing the game just doesn’t cut it for me.

Hitman -Sapienza doesn’t live up to the free-form assassination sandbox that the previous episode set up. The frustrating lack of freedom and save issues really hurt the experience however. Despite it being a better looking and ultimately more immersive setting than any of the first three missions, Sapienza falls flat in its mission structure.

There's a lot to like about Star Fox Zero, but those ideas are rooted in games past and the new features muddle the whole thing up.

Ultimately Hyper Light Drifter is a great adventure game that begs to presented in a better way. A more clearly defined story and more intuitive exploration would make this game the adventure that it wants to be, but without those things Hyper Light Drifter falls flat.

Adr1ft tries to break away from the tropes of bombastic violence and self-congratulation found in so many video games, and for that, its development team should be lauded. It’s too bad that this game set in the black void of space didn’t find anything interesting enough to fill the void of its barely-existent gameplay.

Into the Stars, despite some lack of variety, isn’t boring. Even for being a bit repetitive, it provides urgency, difficulty, relief and frustration in-game that runs pretty flawlessly.

Far Cry Primal is an incredibly interesting game that really nails the feeling of danger and survival at times. The game’s nearly non-existent, thin plot and tedious crafting system however hold it back from being great.

Michonne is the big draw here, and Samira Wiley's performance alone makes this episode worth playing. We just have to hope the later episodes give her more to do that we haven't already seen before.

Street Fighter V's core skeleton is sturdy, but beneath those bones lies a barely beating heart. With almost no single-player, limited multiplayer, a tiny cast, and unstable online, this feels like an Early Access beta that Capcom had the gall to try to price as a completed game.

Garden Warfare 2 does nothing new outside of those new maps and the hub area, which really isn’t that much. This sequel feels like a “complete edition” of the first Garden Warfare only with different maps. The weak campaign and lackluster multiplayer modes outside of Gnome Bomb aren’t doing it any favors either.