There's so much extra built into the game I'm not sure how anyone could evaluate all of it in one go, which is why I'd encourage anyone interested in NHL 13 to give it a rental first to focus on the part of the game that might be of most interest. For me, it's the action on the ice during couch matches, which is my recommended way to play.

From Episode 1 to Episode 3, only three characters I started with are still part of Lee's struggling cadre of survivors. New characters are added to fill the character void but how those voids were created... It's not a "fun" experience in the usual sense, but it certainly is gripping to the point where there's only one thing left to say. Mama?

Despite that engine tune-up that does improve some of the realism through the player physics, Madden NFL 13 plays relatively the same as its close predecessors.

As a straight-up action adventure game, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron it's falls short in terms of excellence, but the titantic epicness of the concluding shots is so awesome that any Transformers fan should grab Fall of Cybertron if one's willing to overlook the shortcomings of some of the game mechanics.

At its worst, Future Soldier is an uneven experience with some unchecked boxes as they pertain to PC ports (e.g. no option to invert the controls on a gamepad) and an unrecognizable story, but at its best it's a good shooter with a little more thought required than many other 3rd person shooters available right now.

Tales of Graces F is a good game and though the story may seem like a typical JRPG, it does stray away from the stereotypes as the story progresses, and leaves you wanting to know what will happen next.

The Amazing Spider-Man tries very hard to emulate Batman Arkham City, but despite solid controls, especially the well-designed Web Rush, and a good amount of single-player gameplay, the open-world concept doesn't offer much else in the form of any kind of really challenging gameplay and engaging side-mission variety as its obvious inspiration, the award-winning Batman Arkham City.

It's a side-scrolling platformer where goombas are flattened, blocks smashed, turtle shells hurled, and tricky platforms navigated by, what else, jumping. And the coins... so many coins.

On PC, Prototype 2 hums along nicely in the presentation department, but playing a game a game like this with a keyboard and mouse is ridiculous. It's not as accurate as playing with a controller, which this reviewer switched to after about 20 minutes fidgeting with the keyboard and mouse and finding them completely impractical at best and frustrating at worst.

The campaign is a solid adventure that is best enjoyed with another person (rather than the AI!) and the game offers a certain level of "surprise" with some of its unique gameplay elements. It's just a shame that some of these unique elements are not incorporated better or injected more frequently in the campaign. While I wouldn't pay full price for the game, it's definitely worth checking out once the price goes down.

Traveller's Tales has done a good job of fitting together multi-part, leap-frog puzzles to break up the tedium of punching LEGO men to pieces.

As a third-person shooter, Inversion has some fun and long-lasting single-player gunplay (even if it does a huge amount of copycatting off of Gears of War). That's despite an utterly incomprehensible and confusing single-player story filled with too many plot holes along with a very sparse online presence to date.

Witcher 2 is a throwback in a lot of ways to old PC games, which certainly appeals to me. The delivery method is modern, no doubt, but the fact there's a lot of poking and prodding (and death) that happens even early on has me anxious for another instalment.

The longevity of Lollipop Chainsaw relies on how much time gamers want to practice combos to finish levels faster and more cleanly than other players on the leaderboards or earn enough silver coins to purchase a closet's worth of outfits for Juliet. Otherwise, the game is a quick experience that doesn't dwell too much on one particular thing for too long before throwing something else at the player.

No doubt in my mind, 3DS owners should have Kid Icarus: Uprising in their library of games, especially if action games are a favorite.

Like Gotham City Imposters a few months ago, the component parts of Nexuiz are sound; the weapons and shooting good, and the "hook" of the mutators offers some variety but there just isn't the player base to make it worth checking out unless gunning down bots isn't a deal breaker. And it should be reported that unlike Gotham City Imposters, getting connected and staying connected to a match of Nexuiz was never a problem.

What you should take away from everything above is that Max Payne 3 is a worthy sequel to the Remedy Games originals. Max's monologues aren't quite as faux-serious (and are instead depressingly serious) and the cover mechanic will certainly be an adjustment for fans of the first two games, but there's a lot of action, challenge, twists in the story, and plenty to do after the credits roll that Max Payne 3 gets high marks indeed.

All in all, the care put into Starhawk definitely shows – but the amount of things that were left on the drawing board or out of the concept phase shows as well. A few tweaks to the combat, vehicle, and piloting system would have made huge steps into making this the premier game of the year as opposed to just the pretty darn good game that we got.

GST2 is a solid effort, but falls short in several areas. The career mode, opponent AI and presentation still need to be fine tuned. If EA can sort out these issues then there's no doubt GST3 could be the new Grand Slam Champion of tennis.

All in all – Naruto Shippuden Ninja Storm Generations is moving in the right direction – giving fans the chance to use all of the favorite characters and making it accessible to as many people as possible. When making parity though you have to be careful that you aren't watering down all the characters too much which is what ended up happening.

Max Payne 3 has an action-packed and long-lasting single-player campaign driven by an expectedly solid single-player story that is a Rockstar trademark. That combines with very entertaining multiplayer that will have gamers playing long after the single-player campaign is complete.

It's a fun little distraction for the price, and the game actually makes for a surprisingly satisfying "beat up some robots" experience with how it combines its control scheme on the mouse and keyboard. It's definitely a fun action game to look into.

The process of building mechs then testing their mettle on the battlefield is Armored Core V's strongest element, but with another showing like this if there ever is a sixth Armored Core, the longtime mech franchise may be dishonorably discharged.

There is absolutely no denying that Diablo III continues to maintain the high artistic standards that it has kept over the years. But the dumbed character and inventory systems, coupled to the ridiculous always-on connection and the breathtaking arrogance of the"you'll play how we tell you to play" attitude makes playing this title a damned shame instead of a hell of a good time.

As a standalone "episode" of Alan Wake, American Nightmare is something PC gamers should be checking out, particularly if the craziness of it appeals to you. For $15 there's really no excuse; and if it ever goes on sale, the trigger on this purchase should be pulled without hesitation.

The first couple of difficulty levels are complete pushovers, so anyone with previous experience should jump to the Hard difficulty level. Then the game comes down to accurately predicting opponents and taking advantage of their weaknesses. (Luigi is atrocious at returning "fish tile" power shots.) As with most games like these, maatching skills against computer-controlled opponents takes a backseat to human competition. Either way, Mario Tennis Open is pleasant, though it seems to lack any addictive extras or some hook to make it addictive.

For a relatively budget price with around 45 hours of total gameplay, gamers who may not have played them in their first release get a reintroduction to one of the PS2's classic protagonists in two good games – DMC1 and DMC3 with a third (DMC2) only worth playing to acquire new added achievements.

As an opening act, A New Day did what it was supposed to: get me interested in the next episode even if the overall universe of Walking Dead completely depresses me. It's not that there's no happy ending; it's that there's not even real respite from the horror of what's going on. And that's exactly what happens at the end of the first episode.