Code Name S.T.E.A.M. presents a lot of interesting ideas, but never pulls them together to form a cohesive and fun experience. There's certainly a lot here to enjoy, but to get to it you'll have to suffer a little boredom.

Madden NFL 18 marks a second consecutive year of Madden football in a holding pattern. Features and additions to this year's game either just don't feel noteworthy, or miss the mark entirely.

Rust Console Edition is a vastly inferior version of the game being sold at a higher price.

Following off the stellar Metro 2033 and Last Light, Exodus feels like a misstep for this series. This series has built a reputation on its quality, but Exodus falls flat in some ways that truly matter.

Necromunda: Hired Gun does have redeeming qualities. The movement is great, the gunplay feels good, and the environmental design is stellar. There's simply a legion of issues on both the design and technical fronts working overtime to hold it back. If you are willing to overlook Hired Gun's many problems and massive amounts of jank you'll likely have a great time blasting gangers to bloody bits. But, I won't fault you for waiting on a sale or sequel instead.

Kingdoms of Amalur is still a solid game even to this day. It’s just too bad that as a remaster, the game is quite frankly disappointing.

You won't want to break the cycle because Returnal offers an immersive experience that sucks you in for hours. However, when you finally break the cycle and reach the end of Selene's journey, you will realize just how much of a masterpiece Returnal is.

Built for local couch multiplayer matchups with friends, Paperbound is definitely a quality option for parties, but otherwise will likely be collecting dust on your hard drive in the mean time.

Aquanox: Deep Descent works well enough to justify its existence. Performance is fine, gameplay is fine, story is fine, length and price are fine - Aquanox is just fine. It won't wow a lot of people, but the people it does impress will be enamored by it. And, you know what, sometimes that's all you need out of a video game.

Criminal Girls: Invitation Only starts off very lackluster with rather baffling gameplay choices, but after unlocking more skills that improve the battles drastically, dungeon crawler fans can easily find a lot of fun here.

Minecraft: Story Mode Episode 6 brings on some YouTube talent that will please their fans, but disappoint everyone else. The central story, which involves a spooky house and a murder mystery, has its moments, but the overall feeling is that this was not the episode that fans waited so long for.

Super Neptunia RPG is a diamond in the rough. It has the potential to be the best spin-off to date, but is so marred by gameplay issues and bugs that its successes are often overshadowed. Unless you’re in love with Neptunia, then I’d suggest waiting for a patch. Hell, wait anyway.

Mirror's Edge: Catalyst rarely, if ever, makes as memorable an impression as its predecessor did. While it tries incredibly hard to do so, and succeeds in terms of world building and story development, it's all at the sake of nearly every other facet that players of the original may have held near and dear.

Outside of its stunning setting, Assassin's Creed Mirage doesn't have anything exciting or new to offer. It's a mixture of the worst parts of classic and modern Assassin's Creed, sacrificing both storytelling and exploration in an attempt to appease fans from both eras.

WarioWare: Move It! utilizes the Joy-Con to its full potential, delivering the quick-paced, quirky fun you'd expect from such a brilliant franchise. While Story mode is a blast, the game only offers a few hours of content outside its clever but somewhat disappointing multiplayer. Move It! won't replace a certain red-hatted plumber's party and family game staples any time soon, but Intelligent System's creativity is something to be applauded.

Wolcen could have been a contender in the ARPG arena, but it can't get out of it's own way for more than two seconds. Perhaps in time WOLCEN Studio will patch everything up and allow the game to shine as it deserves, but right now the game fights you at every turn. Wolcen is game that is as fun as it is frustrating. I like Wolcen; I simply wish I could love it.

Kirby Star Allies won't bring any new fans to the series. It sticks to the tried-and-true gameplay strictures of the franchise for better and worse. Co-op is nice, and the HD visuals do bring Kirby's world to life in a fresh way, but overall this is a totally by-the-book sequel that adds little of value other than a chance to play another Kirby game.

For fans that missed out on the original release, this is the version to get. The hack-n-slash style of gameplay might not be suitable for everyone’s taste, but the game is still fun in short bursts.

Serious Sam 4 on consoles is a beautifully fun mess. It’s more Serious Sam, which isn’t a bad thing, but there are performance problems that cannot be overlooked.

Broken Age showed a lot of promise in its development and in the first half from last year. However, illogical puzzles combine with an overall lack of new content in the back half to make for an overall middling experience.

Mario Strikers: Battle League is a game that’s carried mostly by its local multiplayer and gameplay. There was so much missed potential for this game to shine brighter than its predecessors. From the lack of single-player modes, content, and limitations to its online, it’s very tough to justify buying the game in its current state.

Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme Vs-Force has its weak points, but if you're able to overlook its shortcomings then you'll be able to find some solid gameplay. It's just unfortunate that more attention wasn't put into the localization effort, as it leaves a lot to be desired. Hardcore fans of the Gundam series should give it a shot, but everyone else should proceed with caution.

A paltry offering of game modes and online issues really overshadow the many good things about F1 2015. As expected, the game looks and plays better than its earlier iterations, but it's just not a substitute for substance and functionality.

Fated: The Silent Oath is unique among the current slate of VR games, in that it has an engaging story and a fully realized world. However, the short time spent in this world could be vastly improved in many ways. Those who have a VR headset and want to see how a traditional story-based experience could work should be intrigued, but others might want to skip this adventure.

Saints Row: Gat out of Hell is the Saints Row you know and love, minus the good stuff. A lack of humor, repetitive missions and structure for this short expansion leave a lot to be desired.

On it's own Fallout 76: Wastelanders is an excellent expansion, but it doesn't completely amend the problems that plague Fallout 76, or subvert the controversy that surrounds it. What it does do is provide a path forward that may eventually lead to Fallout 76 becoming a genuinely good game.

The Walking Dead: A New Frontier – Episode 4 “Thicker than Water” is a worrying penultimate episode for this promising series. It’s not outright bad, but it feels very much like it was rushed out the door before it was ready. Technical issues, such as crashing, are only a small part of this. The real problem is an unsurprising story that only engages the player so much, usually whenever Clementine is around. Let’s hope that this was just setting up for a truly exciting and bombastic finale that delivers on what this series has promised so far.

As a Musou game, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is enjoyable. Narratively, on the other hand, it pulls every punch and is completely underwhelming as a prequel to Breath of the Wild.