Simply put, while Rivals can be fun with the right people and in the right doses on the right platforms, it is very poorly suited to PC gaming.

It's the perfect example of a video game status quo being maintained if I've ever seen it, and if there's one game series that desperately needs better than that after nearly a decade, it's Call of Duty.

The additions that Tate Multimedia have added are interesting and the chaotic scenes you traverse are entertaining - or at least they are the first few times - but I have to keep coming back to those frame rate issues. Jump in if you've got a powerful video card, but if not, just hold off, watch the UTF page on Steam, and see if any improvements come along.

Although Episodes 1-3 had flaws, they also had spirit, creativity, and the ability to grab your emotions by the throat. By contrast, Episode 4: The Cain Killer lacks tension, feels sloppily conceived, hastily made, and worst of all, lets its narrative weaknesses set it up for equally damning gameplay shortcomings.

So here we go: Remember Me will either be remembered for being a flawed start of an original and probably eventually very fulfilling and fun game franchise, or forgotten for its reminder of many tired video game tropes that we hope developers can start finally retiring soon. I hope it's the former, but I fear it'll more likely be the latter.

This is not a game that was ever going to ingratiate itself well to Super Serious Video Game Critics, but I think that in the right frame of mind and with the right people, it can prove to be a hell of a lot of fun.

Zeno Clash II isn't amazing, but for twenty bucks, it gets the job done - if only barely.

It sounds good, but frankly, it just doesn't seem like developer Digital Extremes were able (or allowed) to put forth the time, money, or ingenuity to make anything but a Starfleet-themed cooperative shooter, complete with extreme use of cover-based gunfights, silly mini-games, or bad AI - all of which are generally considered hallmarks of a mediocre action game.

The biggest issue with Dead Island Riptide is that it's a glorified expansion pack sold at nearly full price ($40 US on PC, $50 on consoles); there's nothing wrong with a developer doing this if they're adding lots of features and are building on top of a near-universally beloved game, but the simple fact is that neither of those conditions really apply here.

SimCity is a brilliant, accessible yet very deep game - at no point do we deny this conclusion. But for now, EA's infrastructure makes it a sometimes-broken, severely disappointing example of how good intentions with regards to DRM, monetization, and anti-piracy can backfire and create problems for gamers and publishers alike.

It comes off less as a product made of art and design and gameplay and excitement, and more like an entry on a balance sheet, a simple fulfillment of a contract, or a footnote on an investor conference call. I know that both EA and Crytek can do better, and I hope that's their plan for their next project.

As the Outcasts go, however, you're not really missing much if you just leave them behind.

Hammerlock is a decent DLC pack, but with Gearbox farming out some of this work, I'm hoping that means they've got something bigger and even more interesting in the works for post-releaseBL2 support.

Earth Defense Force 2017 is not really a good looking game, nor is its sound anything to hold in high regard, but it gets a lot of its gameplay right, and somehow this quirky title always seems to show up at just the right time on a system to let us know that yes, loot-heavy action RPGs are still a total blast to play - even if other publishers out there haven't bothered to fulfill our wishes for more of them.

There are some nice nuances and a couple of "neutral"-type choices that can be made, but overall I'm not impressed with any of the possible end results, not when this DLC costs a rather princely sum of $15.

All of the Infinity Engine games are brilliant pieces of work that still stand out from the RPG pack more than a decade after their release dates, and here Overhaul Games made a perfectly competent "port" of the game that started it all. But it costs twenty bucks, and that's too much when you can get the original version with the same Tales of the Sword Coast expansion pack over at GOG for half the price - even less when it goes on sale - and a few minutes of installing mods gets you to nearly the same point.

Hitman: Absolution's insistence on putting Agent 47 on the run can often get in the way of what made the series so fun in the past, and the lack of a manual save system undermines the kind of goofing around and experimentation that made past games so enjoyable.

Those looking for a stroll, a punch, and a bow down memory lane will enjoy the many throwbacks to the original, but even those gamers will likely come away at least a little disappointed.

In the end, Painkiller HD is only a half-measure, and it doesn't do everything it could have to modernize the classic fast-paced action of the original. It's worth the twenty bucks if the overhaul you want is visual, but otherwise, it's best to pass.

I feel that Danger Close is a talented, dedicated and well-meaning studio and I do hope they can stay together and make more games, but at this point, I think it's probably a good idea that EA helps them come up with a new IP or new style of game. This current revival of Medal of Honor just isn't working out.

There's nothing really wrong with DOA5 and it's certainly an improvement over its predecessors, but I was expecting more from the first Dead or Alive game to come out in nearly seven years.

It seems doubtful that this port of an already inhospitable game will make many new fans, especially with the kind of treatment it got in the conversion to PC, but there will be some that will swear by it as one of the best games made in a very long time. If you think there's any chance at all that you'll be one of those people, then you owe it to yourself to drop the cash and find out.

Is Dawnguard worth your money? Yes because it's more Skyrim, no because it's really only that: a bit more Skyrim. For twenty bucks, I was expecting more.

To ask so much of gamers here in 2012, especially when there's such great competition out there, means that they should be delivering a game that's exciting to play, easy to get into, deep when people get to the endgame, and well-rounded in nearly all aspects - and I can't say that they've done that. This game is damn good in concept but it falters in the execution.

Pick it up if you're a serious Japanese action fan, but if not, then at least wait until it's on sale.

It's got decent motion controls that give you a unique handle on the action, and while the cartoonish nature and linear structure won't put this game anywhere near the likes of Skyrim (or even Fable) on the RPG halls of fame, PS Move owners have plenty of reasons to go ahead and give Sorcery a go.

Risen 2 is another ambitious effort from one of Germany's most well-known game developers, but once again it is dragged down by combat that doesn't really ever feel right, and it's kind of sad to see so much effort and talent go into their games when some of the fundamentals have been ignored for so many years.

Sure, the PC version looks prettier in high-res and runs at a higher frame rate, but it feels like the game's logic can barely keep up with the fast frame rates I was getting, causing an unsettling jerky feeling throughout the game - even though the frame rates were doing just fine.

While Impostors is a blast to play for a good several hours at least, it lacks those few rudimentary building blocks that gives PC games the types of communities that last for years. It's unfortunate, too, because this game deserves better.

The Run's attempt to use a cross-country road race to break free of conventions comes packaged with a few crippling flaws, the biggest of which is simply that even with its tense moments and high-powered supercars, it's just not as exciting as it should be.

It's tough because Ultimate MvC3 is a great game and a solid improvement on the fundamentals in the original.

I can recommend that you pick up The Missing Link if you really, really want to spend more time with Adam Jensen, but know that it's not a particularly good DLC add-on - especially for fifteen bucks.

I can recommend that you pick up The Missing Link if you really, really want to spend more time with Adam Jensen, but know that it's not a particularly good DLC add-on - especially for fifteen bucks.

While Spider-Man: Edge of Time delivers a slightly better experience than Activision's other similar licensed games this year, it still falls a bit short of the expectations set by last year's Shattered Dimensions.

While Spider-Man: Edge of Time delivers a slightly better experience than Activision's other similar licensed games this year, it still falls a bit short of the expectations set by last year's Shattered Dimensions.

It's a brilliant game, but I also found it maddening to sit down with, and despite the many hardcore players that are very satisfied with the game and insist that it's worth it, Dark Souls is simply not for me

This is a mostly-linear romp that's shorter than Old World Blues, less interesting, and feels more, well, lonely than any Fallout game ever made.

This is a mostly-linear romp that's shorter than Old World Blues, less interesting, and feels more, well, lonely than any Fallout game ever made.

Be warned: anyone not a hardcore Gundam fan should leave this one on the shelf.

If you want to play a Transformers game with your friends, then you need to play War for Cybertron instead. But if you're excited for the upcoming movie and want to get a head start on hyping yourself up, well, maybe you want to rent Dark of the Moon, since it's going to feel like a pretty empty purchase after you've finished it in a single sitting.

Solo fighters can also duke it out with the CPU, but the real draw here is CNPTE's surprisingly fleshed-out story mode. Lightning-quick combat, loads of unlockable characters, fun stages that effectively capture the flavor of the source material, and varied challenges should keep fans absorbed throughout. It's not about to rob Smash Bros. of its championship belt, but it's still a thumb-blistering good time for anyone who can claim to have spent a few couch-bound afternoons soaking in Cartoon Network's unique brand of boob-tube fare.

American McGee, I really wanted to love Alice: Madness Returns, truly I did. And while I can say that in it there were instances of fun and moments of wonder, these were eclipsed by an excess of repetition, a surfeit of crummy-looking textures and a general lack of polish. And so I admit to you with a heart full of regret, that Madness Returns has failed to live up to either my dreams or its own potential.

American McGee, I really wanted to love Alice: Madness Returns, truly I did. And while I can say that in it there were instances of fun and moments of wonder, these were eclipsed by an excess of repetition, a surfeit of crummy-looking textures and a general lack of polish. And so I admit to you with a heart full of regret, that Madness Returns has failed to live up to either my dreams or its own potential.

The open-world gameplay of Guerrilla is gone, and what's been put in its place is decidedly more of what you'd see in a more generic action game.

Brink has quite a few flaws, but the most frustrating one is the spawn-die-spawn-kill-die repetition in single player mode. At best it's a little banal and tedious, and at worst, it's downright rage-inducing. Your AI teammates and enemies often act strangely, exhibiting poor awareness of their surroundings, but they will unleash laser-accurate gunfire once they notice an enemy. This makes playing the game, especially at the start of the Security campaign, a real chore.

Brink has quite a few flaws, but the most frustrating one is the spawn-die-spawn-kill-die repetition in single player mode. At best it's a little banal and tedious, and at worst, it's downright rage-inducing. Your AI teammates and enemies often act strangely, exhibiting poor awareness of their surroundings, but they will unleash laser-accurate gunfire once they notice an enemy. This makes playing the game, especially at the start of the Security campaign, a real chore.

While I'm still not sold on the idea of yet another Wii peripheral making it into millions of homes, I don't think that's through any fault of the UDraw tablet, which works flawlessly and winds up being a lot of fun to use. Spongebob Squigglepants is a great game to showcase this device, especially with the huge number of ways it uses the tablet and even pokes fun at other, more "mature" video games now and then.

With Fire and Sword adds difficulty without an equal level of satisfaction for winning, and the inclusion of firearms makes the results on the battlefield feel much more random than we've gotten in the past games in the series. If you're looking for a new multiplayer experience unlike any you've played, this is a good place to start, but if you want a complete, exciting, and altogether more "winnable" campaign, you might be better off sticking with Warband.

Sanctum isn't for everyone, but for a dedicated pair of FPS/strategy-loving people in the same room, it's a damn fine choice for for a fun weekend of innovative tower defense.

I don't think that this DLC's partial failure is necessarily a bad sign for the third game, but it seems clear that all the new ideas and original content are going into ME3 rather than something like "Arrival".

Rearmed 2 is far from a bad game and it can be a decent value at $15, but it never really excels past the standard set by its predecessor.

It'll probably be years again before Polyphony Digital delivers another Gran Turismo, but I think it's pretty clear what they need to work on: treat all the cars with equal love, give players more options to fine-tune the AI, make driving something to be enjoyed rather than endured, improve all aspects of the online functionality, and re-prioritize all those features into something more focused on fun than a back-of-the-box list.

There are some interesting ideas here, but none of them come together well enough for a serious recommendation.

Considering the blahness of the single player mode, it's somewhat surprising that Tron Evolution also has a multiplayer mode where up to ten players can play neonized, light-cycle-accessorized versions of deathmatch or capture the flag. Like the single player, these experiences are less than gripping.

And, like many of Kinect's titles, photos taken of the players capture all the ridiculousness. Kinect's launch-day racer lacks polish, and serious race fans will want to steer clear of its super-casual approach. However, if you're looking for a Kinect title with a fun, wind-in-your-hair approach to the genre, this one's worth taking for a spin.

Everything from poorly-executed multiplayer modes that no one cares for, to the formulaic and dull shooting, to the car sequences that will get you excited for far too short of a time - Blood Stone is better than mediocre, but the only thing it really excels at is the Bond atmosphere and style. And that's simply not enough to carry a video game, especially one that its publisher left out to pasture.

The Ball is good effort with some interesting ideas. Unfortunately, the good things are undermined by some questionable combat mechanics, a bothersome, half-obstructed first person point of view and a half-baked story concept.

Dead Space: Ignition isn't a great game or even a good one.

I really had hope for Medal of Honor and I was excited at the prospect of Call of Duty getting some competition, but I think we'll have to wait for the ex-Infinity Ward guys to be the ones to do it. Simply put, Medal of Honor is kind of a mess, and the whole is worth less than the sum of its component pieces.

Still, the art, design, and action go at least some of the way towards making this game worth your money, so if you've blasted your way through all of those and are yearning for more, then you should definitely check out the Shank demo on XBLA or PSN.

I really had hope for Medal of Honor and I was excited at the prospect of Call of Duty getting some competition, but I think we'll have to wait for the ex-Infinity Ward guys to be the ones to do it. Simply put, Medal of Honor is kind of a mess, and the whole is worth less than the sum of its component pieces.

For now, if you just can't get enough of Star Power lightning effects, checking your hit/miss percentage on the second guitar solo of a given song, heavy metal album cover-style art and design, and the Guitar Hero way of doing everything, then you won't have a problem jumping into Warriors of Rock. But if you want a wider range of tracks to pick from, new control schemes that more closely resemble playing real music, and a different range of features to go alongside it all, you're better off keeping your money and waiting for Rock Band 3 to be released in a couple of weeks.

Having had my DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue experience so painfully truncated by the aforementioned bug, it's hard to comment fully on the game. It is possible however, to say that going by the entertaining action/RPG elements and the unparalleled humor of the game to that point, that Ron Gilbert's still "got it". Still, a bug that prevents players from finishing the game (and that as yet has no known fix) just can't be overlooked.

I can't say I disagree; while this game serves up some very unique and gritty visuals, the story and action just don't come together like they should.

I can't say I disagree; while this game serves up some very unique and gritty visuals, the story and action just don't come together like they should.

I'd recommend Harmony of Despair only to the savviest of Castlevania fans, as they'll probably stick with the multi-player long enough to appreciate its moderate value and admirable, but flawed evolution of the classic formula.

Movie games have a generally shady reputation and as a result, rarely get a fair shake with the gaming public. Sadly, Clash of the Titans: The Videogame, while much more polished and ambitious than most movie-based titles, is still unable to buck the trend.

APB is a collection of seemingly solid ideas that disappointingly, just doesn't gel.

Alpha Protocol suffers from a lack of focus and its insistence on eccentricities over basic, solid action.

Alpha Protocol suffers from a lack of focus and its insistence on eccentricities over basic, solid action.

Ultimately, Nier is more remarkable for the things it does wrong than for the things it does right.

Developers like Bethesda and Bioware seem to have found something that works with console RPG fans the best, and if Risen was an experiment to see if they can be pushed further in the direction of discovering the game all by themselves, I think we can call this one a failure.

Rebellion had the right idea with AvP, but they just didn't fit all the pieces together properly.

It's certainly flawed, especially when it's trying to be a third-person shooter, but it also has lots of great ideas. It will surprise you sometimes, but mostly it'll leave you feeling like it could have been so much more.

XBLA and PSN are probably the right place for Matt Hazard to be, but with this entry clocking in at $15, it's hard to recommend it for all of its missed opportunities and ho-hum action. Maybe next time, Matt!

If you enjoyed any of the Wii's boarding games, and are looking to take it to the next level, you'll have a trick-fueled blast with RIDE. If you prefer strict accuracy driven by analog sticks and buttons, however, stay far away from this one, lest your frustration finds you impaling your HDTV with RIDE's faux skateboard.

WireWay is a surprisingly entertaining little game. While the main Quest Mode is a bit short at about four hours, the game offers considerable replay value with its Challenge and Versus Modes.

LEGO Rock Band for the DS is ultimately a disappointment, unless you're someone who can't go ten minutes without a Rock Band fix.

Overall, Band Hero on the DS is a step in the wrong direction for portable music games. They've tried to go big on the peripheral front, but in doing so they've excluded a huge chunk of gamers in a wide range of ages.

The lackluster execution could be partially forgiven if Fairytale Fights were an Xbox Live Arcade title. But as a full-priced retail release it feels like a missed opportunity.

Anyone thinking of buying this game, I have a better idea--do yourself a favor and set fire to a twenty dollar bill.

What disappoints me about WET is that the developers seemed to sabotage the fun factor in their own game by insisting on too many video game and film stereotypes.

The result is an uneven hodge-podge where the ninja concept isn't particularly fresh and where the good bits are undermined by the game’s undeniable issues in the areas of feedback, controls and targeting.

King of Fighters XII is just not ambitious enough of a project. If this were a highly successful series with millions of sales, maybe SNK could get away with this middling revival of classic action.

Plagued by shallow, monotonous gameplay and an annoyingly repetitive soundtrack, Science Papa seems to have gone out of its way to fulfill low gamer expectation.

Ultimately, the game is a solid but flawed first attempt from High Voltage Software at a first person shooter on the Wii.

While certain parts of the game are tremendous fun, Overlord II fails to represent a significant improvement over the first game as lack of player guidance, control issues, collision problems and poor camera control conspire to kill the fun.

Yes, D-A-C can be fun when everything aligns up just right, but you'll get into way too many frustrating or lop-sided games to make it worth it.

Sorry wizardry fans; if you're looking for magical mystery, I suggest you re-read Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Magician's Quest just doesn't deliver.

It's not that Violette's adventures in Nazi-occupied territory are particularly bad, but any stealth game comes with an assumption of frustration in figuring out patrol routes, minimizing the amount of time you're exposed, and dealing with whatever systems are built into the game to detect you.

In the end, Elite Forces: Unit 77 is an uneven effort that takes you on a roller-coaster ride of lowered expectations, a reasonable level of fun, a bit of trouble with the clunky pathfinding, a note of admiration for the level design and finally a feeling of defeat at the seemingly built-in annoyances.

There's some good stuff here if you dig in for a while, but even if you do, don't expect to be blown away.

Lux-Pain is an ambitious title that suffers from a problem called, “biting off more than it can chew”. Although the game has interesting ideas and looks and sounds good, it's weighed down by an overlong and convoluted storyline and conspicuous lack of game play.

Even with the modest $20 price tag for Puzzle Quest: Galactrix, it's not worth the frustration after a taking a couple of losses that are completely out of your hands.

If you're looking for some thumb-blistering battling at the hands of a barely-dressed female protagonist, you could do a lot worse (see Bikini Samurai Squad) than X-Blades.

I maintain that Saints Row 2 is still a damn fun game and really not bad on a super-fast PC, but it's not going to be worth the effort for most.

Quantum of Solace certainly showed some great promise before its release (in preview events, Activision made sure to show off the absolute best levels in the game) and the console versions play a bit more solidly, but the PC port is one that should be avoided.

Beast Rider is far from perfect, and it won’t overthrow Kratos' Greek empire anytime soon.