The re-telling of the Tale of Genji improvises on the novel with fast-paced action, hard-hitting combos and deep storyline. Pity it doesn't last that long.

Where The Water Tastes Like Wine is a welcome addition to the adventure genre. While its minute-to-minute narrative lacks the complexity and pull of classic adventure games, its open-world design and unique approach to storytelling make it something unlike anything I've ever played before. For those looking to lose themselves in an atmospheric world with phenomenal music and voice acting, Where The Water Tastes Like Wine is worth experiencing. It's certainly an acquired taste, but the water tastes pretty good here.

If you have ever been interested in Rugby, this is the game to check out for you.

It's cheap, it looks good, and it plays well, if you've got $5 and a few hours to kill you really can't go wrong with Mercury Hg.

Expeditions: Viking features some admirably nuanced turn-based combat that is in service of a larger story and interesting characters. It is a game that probably demands -- and certainly rewards -- multiple playthroughs both to gain mastery over the systems and to explore different choices in the story. Relatively minor quibbles with the game's visuals, camera, controls and occasional bugs aside, playing Expeditions: Viking is an unexpectedly rewarding experience.

While it’s obvious that the games spell-crafting system is the main focus, I felt as though it was never implemented into the game well enough to warrant great praise. I’m sure it will get a lot of coverage and be an entertaining thing to watch players utilize and break over time, but it doesn’t do much for the game aside from that. Mages of Mystralia is a good looking fantasy romp with an interesting spell system, typical fantasy setting and story, and basic combat. It’s the type of game you can finish and enjoy in a weekend and then probably forget about in a few weeks.

For a game built on such a solid mix of exploration and combat, to have both systems feel so broken is almost criminal, especially when a different, better version of the same game exists on another platform.

Its dynamic gameplay birthed unforgettable, heroic tales of agents who made amazing triumphs and ultimate sacrifices alike that I still remember over twenty years later. Unfortunately, Phoenix Point never inspires in the same way. The turn-based combat is probably among the best the genre offers but the hollow string of separate missions the procedurally created content weaves can’t carry the game. Ultimately, Phoenix Point is only for true believers of the genre - if they don’t mind the meaningless framework the game is put onto, that is.

Kingdom Hearts fans will want to see the new story content and there’s likely enough content here to make them feel they got their money’s worth. Everyone else will be able to find a rhythm game more worthy of their time.

Due to unfortunate design choices, I just wanted to rush through everything and couldn’t exactly enjoy my time with the game. In short, Ancestors Legacy felt too much like a chore to play. Saying this doesn’t bring me any joy because the Middle Ages setting and the presented factions were actually cool. The idea to make a history-based, story-driven RTS title with dynamic features could have been great, but all these sides didn’t mesh well here. I really wanted to get into the gameplay, but the best I could muster was excitement for engaging cutscenes and disturbingly alluring images.

Apart from adding a new game to the short list of PSN exclusives, the game seems better suited to a different audience, unless there are people out there that feel nostalgic for an eight year old game.

While Gigantic builds on a foundation that has already been set, the architects at Motiga have a blueprint with real potential. The Clash and Guardian system is distinctive and gives a great sense of scale, while the list of heroes is colorful, yet not over-designed. This isn’t just another MOBA; it’s a unique experience that takes the minimum requirements to qualify for the genre and goes off on its own tangent – and I couldn’t be happier for it.

On top of the great strategy gameplay, Kings Bounty: Warriors of the North offers a great value with its $30 price tag. The worst thing that you can say about it is that it doesn't deviate much from King's Bounty: Armored Princess, besides a few details and a few conveniences – or is that the best thing that you can say about it? After all, Armored Princess was an excellent game.

“Dark Room” delivers the same level of high emotional drama as previous episodes and raises the stakes for what is expected to be a busy finale.

All in all, I did not really enjoy Trials of Mana. It feels rushed, cheaply made, and the gameplay just doesn’t engage me. I realize this may be a frustrating opinion for fans of the series (who are very passionate), but this game just isn’t for me and I feel like it is not put together or balanced very well. If you’re already a big fan of the series, you might find this title to be quite enjoyable. As it is, though, I find it to be a bit of a mess.

The combat and driving are solid, the customization options are engaging, and the missions are wild. Volition did a fantastic job with the original version and Sperasoft has done good work updating the game but has also introduced several issues and missed some opportunities to improve the game. If you haven’t played a Saints Row game before, The Third is the best place to start. And if you’re a fan of the series, it’s just as good as you remember.

Layers of Fear isn’t just about being terrifying, as it has a solid story that deals with some dark material even though you could very well miss the majority of it if you aren’t diligent about investigating your environment.

The highly acclaimed developer works their magic on the bike racing scene with this extremely addictive sim. Not quite a Gran Turismo for bikes, but close enough.

While I could not have recommended it to any but the hardcore fighting game community when it released, it’s now complete enough that I don’t have qualms about getting into it now. I’m still having fun with the game, even though most of my time is spent trying to complete survival runs and challenges rather then feed people rating boots online.

Namco debuts their flagship racer on the 360, wowing everyone with the fast arcade style racing it is famous for, except for a lag-plagued online play.

Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken is a game that has a lot going for it. Engaging game play, tight controls, and a kicking sound track make for a great experience. Lack of narrative pulls it down, but not enough to diminish the time spent with it. For a $9.99 price point, I would gladly recommend HBC and his gun-toting craziness to a gamer looking for some cheap, yet well produced dumb fun.

In the pantheon of pinball tables bearing the Star Wars name, Rogue One runs close to the middle of the pack. Some exceptional visuals serve as standouts, but are not enough to carry the sadly banal play of the table itself. It never reaches the lows of the American Dad table, but unless you are looking to fill out your collection, Rogue One is nothing to go out of your way for.

With the exception of Monster Seeking Monster, Jackbox Party Pack IV delivered a great time with good friends. It’s really about all you can ask of a party game, to be entertaining for a group, and Jackbox accomplishes that with a familiar flair.

The PC conversion is technically flawless, running butter smooth even on a modest hardware and with tons of configuration options you can make the game as pretty as it can be. I’m used to that Nihon Falcom’s games exist in a timeless bubble, always visually a bit behind of current standards but making up for that with catching stories and intricate characterizations, but it’s there where Ys: Memories of Celceta sadly fails.

Played cooperatively, For the King is an entertaining and engaging stand-in for a tabletop RPG game and its pleasant art and gentle humor balance nicely its difficulty and mechanical complexity. It’s less fun as a single-player experience, simply because coordinating character movement and exploration with quests and combat challenges and random encounters is a lot to track. Including the DLC, the console version of For the King is a substantial amount of reasonably priced content.

It’s a fun stealth-action open-world hacking game, but it’s one that falls under its own weight in many ways. With the technical problems of the Xbox One version smoothed out and enhancements to the visuals and performance across the board, I can much more easily recommend the Xbox Series X version but that doesn’t fix the core design problems. Watch Dogs: Legion is incredibly impressive, but only insomuch as it is flawed. Thankfully, there is still a competent third-person open-world game at its core.

Unmechanical is a puzzle games that offers a pretty, but all too familiar experience of solving difficult puzzles in order to advance through a subterranean underworld. Easy and minimalistic controls make the game easy enough to pick up for gamers of any skill level, but some of the more complex puzzles may put them off or force them to seek out solutions. If it's a challenge you seek, Unmechanical will give it to you.

With a fantastic roster and just greater polish overall, WWE 2K14 is a great addition into the WWE video game franchise and is a must own for any wrestling fan.