There are a lot of worthy ways for you to spend your $50, and there are a lot more legitimate excuses to turn on your PS4.

The argument has been made a lot in the video game industry. Which is better five hours of exceptional gameplay or twenty hours of good gameplay? Don't worry about that with X-Men Destiny it's not only short but it's just flat out a bad game. Unless you want easy achievement points there are far too many great titles this holiday to waste your time with this one.

This looks, sounds, and plays like a student project attached to a Unity water physics tech demo.

As a VR game, I would say that League of War: VR Arena an interesting concept that was rushed in design and was poorly executed. There's little reason to play the game for more than fifteen minutes, and I honestly can't recommend it to anyone. It's definitely a cool idea, especially if you like strategy games. However, I would wait for a better game to be released in the future that can hopefully stimulate the palette of any seasoned strategy veteran, while also providing an immersive virtual reality experience. League of War: VR Arena simply fails to make itself as thought-provoking as a strategy game should be. It's just not fun to play.

Overall, Paranautical Activity is an average game, hindered by vexing roguelike mechanics.

Deer God makes an interesting attempt at dealing with spiritual questions in a videogame, but it ultimately detracts from the fun of the game. Crescent Moon Games did an admirable job to add the depth that is so often lacking in platforming games, but it was never enough to overcome their own ambitions. The RPG elements aren’t quite deep enough to become truly invested, and the repeating platforming sections make the game feel smaller than it really is. Deer God puts a lot of interesting ideas into play, but they never coalesce into the rewarding experience its potential hinted at. The fun is fast but fleeting like a deer in the woods.

Over and over, you think: people fighting dinosaurs! Awesome, right?! Then you come back to the reality of Primal Carnage: Extinction and kind of wish it was just an idea, because in your head it’s all shadowy, mist-filled jungles, stealthy dinosaurs, and soldiers with high-tech equipment and copious amounts of dread, waiting to kill or be killed. Suddenly the raptor’s head clips awkwardly through the tree and you remember where you are what you’re doing: playing a pretty mediocre video game version of a great idea.

Overall, it just exudes an overall lack of polish and detail, which, unfortunately, detracts from the few new features the game touts over other bus driving games and falls short on its ‘simulation’ aspect.

Midway tries to resurrect their fun Rampage franchise on the Wii and fails miserably. Get ready for some simplistic controls and extremely dated visuals.

It is too bad that what was good about AereA did not ultimately find a better game in which to reside. It is a bad game, but it is one that does not feel like a soulless cash grab. On the other hand, it is also not a game that stumbles because it is overly ambitious or because it banks on one or two game mechanics that just don’t work. It is a game that sets a low bar for its gameplay and then fails to hurdle it. It is hard to tell what, exactly was the goal of developer Triangle Studios when they developed this game, which is far too simple and repetitive to compete with any action RPG produced in the past 20 years. What is easy to conclude, however, is that AereA is not good, and regardless of your interest level in action RPGs or classical music, you will likely not enjoy it.

It took a rocky trip through hell (both metaphorically and in-game) to finally appreciate what Fear Effect Sedna tries to do. It’s clumsy, controversial and at times even ugly (not Hana, though!), but if it was too perfect it wouldn’t be Fear Effect; rough around the edges and morally dubious. In the end, the game did respect its characters and origins, opening a possible future for the franchise.

Who says you can't play poker all by yourself. The game allows you do do just that, but one misses out on one key ingredient to the poker game - the bluff.

A next-gen Sonic platformer would have been a godsend, but Sega somehow manages to screw this up with an insanely frustrating camera and serious framerate issues.

Unfortunately, when all of the issues stack up—the snail's pace gameplay, the graveyard-quiet servers, the small player base, the not-very-good server connections, the flat and lifeless sound design, and the futility of trying to play a squad-based game when most people just want to go for kills—it makes it kind of hard to recommend Verdun on Xbox One.

The celebrated anime series gets transleted into yet another mediocre video game, plagued by a convulated story, repetitive combat and messy controls.

Offering a plot from different perspective seems like a grand idea, but the lazy execution, boring characters and slow pacing makes this one an absolute mess.

Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon has some potential and is definitely not the worst game based on a television show but is far from being a quality game in its own right.

Somewhere, buried deep in the design document for Reservoir Dogs: Bloody Days was the idea for a decent game. The time rewinding mechanic, to its credit, does not feel gimmicky, as if it were tacked on to give the game a defining feature. Unfortunately, it isn't worth nearly the amount of frustration that it brings. Between its misuse of a license and its joyless, repetitive gameplay, there is little in this game that provides any entertainment value. Like most failed movie games, if you want the genuine experience, you are better off simply watching the movie.

The Huntsman: Winter’s Curse could have been a pretty good game, as it has fantastic visuals, a compelling storyline, and rather ambient music selections, but the bugs make it unbearable.

Maize is a premise without a core. It’s corn without the cob. There’s no foundation in the gameplay for its various ideas – both good and bad – to stick to, and it leads to the whole experience feeling hollow. This could be forgiven if Maize was funny, or if the narrative was humorous but heartfelt. Unfortunately, jokes are the only component here, overemphasized over anything else, leaving the rest bare. This is just a comedy script devoid of any subtlety that has been reluctantly stapled onto a game.

It is an addictive game, but some people may not enjoy doing the same things over and over, and for that reason I can see it becoming too tedious for a lot of players. But as a fun, casual, couch co-op game, I think Monster Couch did a great job.

I love the game that is bubbling under all the excess garbage. This year’s MyPlayer is pretty much what I would have liked to see before in the series, even though I had to play it with Plan B characters as photo uploading in-game didn’t initially work. Despite its crappy presentation, MyCareer is also endearing and inspiring. If you, like me, advocate equality in all things, WWE 2K20 is worth your attention if the entertainment it features is your thing – and only when it’s fixed to the state when all the playtime won’t be spent on bewildering bugs and glitches. A tip to 2K and Visual Concepts; don’t even bother with the next year’s iteration until this one is fully patched.

I can almost understand what Wales Interactive wanted to do and it might have turned out better if the game had more time to cook. As it exists now, there are much, much better ways to spend $7.

The nostalgia is strong in Generation Zero, both in and outside, and Avalanche Studios has more or less successfully bet on it. It worked for me even though I know it won’t necessarily work for everyone. Still, if you’re looking for something that does considerably less than most of those shiny games out there but at the same time has more integrity while doing so, Generation Zero might just be up your alley, although it’s a true niche title if there ever was one. To sum the game up, it’s like an 80’s Volvo; boxy but good.

Unless you enjoy poorly developed games that make you frustrated right off, then you can probably just let this bomb go off and move on to other games.

Sega has jumped the shark with their Sonic franchise, as this release massively disappoints with frustrating controls and useless camera.

Dream Alone makes a valiant effort to live up to its inspirations, Limbo and Inside. However, it falls short of creating an immersive world that would cleverly combine fun platforming and crafty puzzles. What’s left are awkward, frustrating platforming and forced puzzles. Combined with an overly dark display and cheap level design, this is a tough recommendation for even the biggest dreamers.

Despite its admittedly numerous faults, I found Broken Porcelain unique and strangely appealing in its own peculiar way. I also have to admire the game’s author’s sincere passion for his vision. Despite the pervasive element of horror, there is an endearing and a bit naïve spunk to the game. Make no mistake, you will fall and fumble through the game but if you endure it all just like troubled Jennifer herself, you will get a glimpse of something true and beautiful in Remothered’s warped and flawed world. This one is only for acquired tastes but its bittersweet flavor has a faint bouquet of organic blossom.