Ultimately, Killing Floor: Incursion is an atmosphere-and-action-heavy game, so most of its flaws will be subsumed by the moment-to-moment need to survive the next wave of enemies or to solve the puzzle that opens the next area. Relative to the short, demo-like products that continue to populate the Oculus store, Killing Floor: Incursion feels substantial. If this genre is your jam, and you have the Touch controllers, you won't be disappointed.

You could kindly call Albion Online old-school or hardcore, which might appeal to gamers with a nostalgia for the days of corpse runs, griefing, and ganking. Less graciously, you could say it is repetitive, cynical, uninspired, and opaque. In truth, MMORPGs that survive their infancy often grow into very different games than they were at launch. Patches and player input often have a way of shaping a game for the better, and given time, Albion Online may evolve as well.

Phantom Trigger is decent at being the top-down hack-and-slash game that the developers at Bread Team set out to create. The compelling story, stunningly pixelated neon world, and challenge are its strengths. If it weren’t bogged down by dull dungeon design, a limited move-set, and tedious gameplay, this action title could have stood out. As it is, Phantom Trigger is recommended only to those willing to look past its repetitive nature to experience this hardcore neon slasher.

Tiny Trax is a lot more fun than I expected it to be. With only three championship races and an all star cup race (which pulls two tracks from each course), it’s a little light on content. That didn’t bother me too much, though, because of how fun the content is to play. Ongoing support via new courses would be a treat, but what I really want to see added is a track editor. There are a lot of talented and patience content creators out there in video game land, and I bet they could produce some stellar race tracks using in-game assets. Tiny Trax is a celebration of slot car racing, and with its great track design and worthy adversaries, I didn’t realize how much fun I was having until I stopped.

I always thought Final Fantasy XII is way ahead of its time when it was first released. Playing the remaster version has cemented that thought. The game still feels fresh and modern even after a decade. Everything I had ever expected from a modern day JRPG is still present in Final Fantasy XII - the open-ended exploration, well-designed interconnected areas, sprawling cities with various NPCs which change as the story progresses on, and seemingly endless side-quests and optional enemies, dungeons and hidden treasures. Final Fantasy XII is nothing short of a timeless masterpiece that I cannot recommend enough.

Graceful Explosion Machine is a twitch-based shooter that is one part mentally stimulating and another part emotionally exhilarating. It’s not for everyone, though. You have to play through levels over and over again, trying to achieve combos and the best grades, to get the most out of this title. If you don’t dabble in score attack games, then you won’t enjoy the repetitive looping levels filled with the same enemies. A lack of bosses and endless mode leave something to be desired as well. But if you appreciate the fine art of racking up high scores, then this shoot ‘em up is a true gem.

StarCraft is a masterpiece, a landmark game that remains as entertaining as it was in 1998. The question is whether Remastered's cosmetic upgrades are worth the $14.99, as the unvarnished original and Brood War expansion are already free from Blizzard. There are fans that would like to see the original game entirely remade with StarCraft 2-quality units, effects, and graphics but until that unlikely event happens, StarCraft Remastered will have to do.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time with Masquerada: Songs and Shadows. Granted, it doesn't have the deepest combat system out there, and its isometric graphics aren't what anyone would call top-notch (although both those things are solid for an indie title). But what it does have is a lot of HEART. The story is intriguing and well told and the audio is just fantastic. If you're looking for a song to get lost in, Maquerada may be just what you're looking for.

This all may come across as overly harsh and a tad vindictive, but I really wanted to love this game. There's so many juicy elements in Valkyria Revolution that could have been molded into a truly wonderful experience, but all those pieces just never seemed to properly assemble. I appreciate that the designers tried something new with the combat, but trying to blend strategy RPG elements with a hack 'n' slash just didn't work in this case. If you're curious about the Valkyria franchise, my advice would be to pick up the HD remaster of the original Valkyria Chronicles. I can't speak for the two follow-up games released on the Vita, but I can say, with certainty, that Valkyria Revolution is not worth your time or money.

CastleStorm is a fun game to play either online or against AI and that experience alone is worth the price. However, it shouldn't be blindly purchased just because it has "VR" added to the title.

Sine Mora EX doesn’t do much to differentiate between its older version. Apart from an added local couch co-op mode, new time attack variants, difficult challenge modes, and a boost in visuals, you’d be hard pressed to find anything out of the ordinary. I enjoyed the game more after playing it on a larger television screen because the game’s beauty and detail are done justice on a 55” screen as opposed to the smaller OLED on the Vita. Even if shmups are not your thing, passing on Sine Mora EX for that reason means missing out on a great, story driven side scrolling shooter that has style, maturity, and unexpected plot twists.

F1 2017 is a game that’s built for F1 fans. It does a really admirable job of bringing people like me along for the ride, but I think it rewards fans over and over again with an amazing F1 experience. Even though I’m not the biggest F1 fan I fell in love with F1 2017 and see it as a game that I’ll keep coming back to long after this review is published.

There’s something awfully disarming about Nihon Falcom’s straightforward and honest approach to the action RPG genre. All the trademarks of their user-friendliness are evident in Ys SEVEN too, like saving everywhere you want, an auto-map overlay and a fast travel introduced during the course of the adventure. But above all, Ys SEVEN hooks in with its simple and blistering fast gameplay, ensuring it’s always fun to do the necessary grinding to keep up with the numerous boss fights. I enjoyed every minute - and there were lots of those minutes - with Adol and his friends.

Resident Evil Revelations on the Xbox One is a solid port of a five-year-old survival horror adventure that’s perfect for those jumping into the franchise for the first time (or those who are looking to triple dip).

Simple, yet fun. It has a few kinks, but it generally holds up really well as a goofy, yet intense multiplayer game that you’ll definitely want to play with friends. I wouldn’t recommend playing the game by yourself, so definitely pick it up with a friend for a truly fun experience. I would also consider playing the game in short bursts since I personally found myself tiring of doing the same thing for so long. All in all, the new additions to the game are welcome, but they definitely need a bit of tweaking. While nothing in the game is inherently wrong, some additions feel like a bit of a departure from what is otherwise an excellent game. I like to see bigger and better things from a sequel, but sometimes all a simple game needs is stability and consistency in order to remain at the top. Nidhogg 2 loses some of its simplicity in translation, but it’s still quite an enjoyable time.

If there's fault to be found in West of Loathing it can be in the RPG elements and mission structure -- which are fairly perfunctory -- and maybe a whiff of the belief that when it comes to comedy, quantity beats quality. That's ok. We probably need more games that don't rely on videocards being pushed to their limits or over-emoting mo-capped heroes, games that can tell a story or sell a joke with a straight line, a circle and some dots.

In the end, Archangel makes a good first impression, but the fact of the matter is this is a game you’d play at a Dave & Buster’s. The on-rail nature of gameplay makes it better suited to an experience rather than a video game. There’s no reason to play through it a second time, either. Nothing about the two to three-hour story, the characters, or the gameplay made me say, “Gosh, I really want to play this again!” As much as I wanted Archangel to be a first-person Zone of the Enders, I do have to be realistic. That sort of experience isn’t possible on the platform yet. Maybe if it came with a Steel Battalion-like control system, it’d be a lot more fun and interactive. But considering the limits of the Move controllers, what I want the game to be isn’t possible right now. And that’s a shame because Archangel has some promise, and I wish I could engage with it more than I am allowed to. A decent way to kill an afternoon, though you might want to wait for the price to drop below $40.

Smashbox Arena proves that not all game genres can weather the transition from a console game to immersive virtual reality. This is something you could easily play without the headset, though it wouldn't do the game any significant favors. With or without VR, it doesn’t change the central concern that this game just isn’t fun to play. The shooting part is pretty okay and almost fun for the first few rounds. What kills the game is the lack of meaningful challenges by way of playing against other humans. There is a single player campaign but it's not enough to justify the time you'd put into it. I could never find people to play with and the resulting skirmishes with AI bots made the whole thing regretfully unenjoyable.

At the end of the day, Infinite Minigolf is one of those games you’d play once or twice before putting it aside, occasionally bringing it out when friends and family come over. Passing the controller around for each hole would be a lot more fun that blitzing through the courses by yourself. The included level editor will surely attract the kind of person that loves to spend hours crafting elaborate stages in games like LittleBigPlanet and ModNation Racers. With the limited content provided by Zen Studios, I do feel as if they are relying on the community to keep the game alive. It’d be nice to see Zen support it with additional content. As the only minigolf game available for the PlayStation 4, Infinite Minigolf isn't perfect, but it manages to get the job done.

Super Rocket Shootout wants to be a good game, and it certainly has its moments. However, it’s held back by so many problems that kept me from fully enjoying it. Even for $10, it’s hard to recommend this game when you can spend a couple more dollars on Duck Game and have a similar experience with the addition of online multiplayer. Only get this game if you have friends to play local multiplayer with.

It’s frustrating how close to a masterpiece Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is. It has the looks, the atmosphere, the swordplay and the heart. If only it had more focus on the storytelling and gameplay. First, it’s the burdensome narrative that almost drowns all the sensibility stored in Senua’s tale. It takes far too long to actually care for her. When the narrative finally starts to ease off towards the end of the game, it’s the repetitive gameplay that gets in the way. The game drags on for its own good, making it too often boring and laborious. All the same, Senua’s trembling journey is a one that needs to be seen to the close to get its true meaning. I realize I might have sounded quite harsh in my critique but my heart told me to rate the game better. After all, Senua's cry for help made me shed tears.

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.

When I wrapped up the 7-8 hours of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy I was sort of blown away with how polished and enjoyable the experience was. At times, Uncharted 4 felt a little combat heavy for me, but The Lost Legacy feels like it does a better job of balancing traversal, combat, and puzzles. Although there were two chapters that comprised the open-world segment of The Lost Legacy that didn’t do it for me, the rest of the experience is so polished and so enjoyable that it more than made up for it. Not to mention that Nadine and Chloe are fantastic characters that make for a truly memorable Uncharted experience. Uncharted 1-4 may have been all about Nathan Drake, but this game proves without a doubt that Uncharted can live on without him.

More Than a Feeling was an overall better episode than Under Pressure. It feels like a second half, with episode 2 having gotten all the exposition out of the way, finding and using the Eternity Forge gave Episode 3 all the oomph it needed. With 2 episodes left, I remain invested in seeing what’s in store for the Guardians and what happens to bring the Galaxy back to status quo.

Sadly, the same repetitiveness affects the enemy types as well. Legion has only one set of soldiers, and due to a miscommunication during Kingpin’s intro mission, I killed at least one of each less than two hours into the game. 20 hours later, my time with Agents of Mayhem was fine. I enjoyed the mix of agents, especially their personal missions, but felt beaten down by the repetitive missions. The boss encounters were enjoyable, but the slog through the hordes of minions to get there was not. Were it not for the overwhelming need to finish, I probably could have written this review 10 hours in and never looked back. Agents of Mayhem is fine. It is. But that’s all it is.

Pixel Heroes: Byte & Magic uses its happy-go-lucky attitude to its advantage. It’s a great game for players who are looking for a very light RPG experience, or players who don’t have the time to pour into a more absorbing game. Sadly, there is not much to fall back on under the surface mechanics, but Pixel Heroes: Byte and Magic can stand up on its own as a quick, fun, and lighthearted game.

In the end, Yonder is undeniably a fantastic game to sit back and chill with. If you're looking forward to some exploration, collection, and light building and farming elements, then Yonder is definitely right up your alley. However! There should be a heavy emphasis on "light" in the sentence up above! This is not the next Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley. No, this is a game with few puzzles, no combat, and filled to the brim with fetch quests and item collection. Yonder isn't without its charms, to be sure. But deep and engaging game play (and story) definitely isn't one of them.

While Splatoon 2 is not a drastic change from the original formula that was available on the Wii U, there are certainly enough additions and alterations that separate it from its predecessor. Some of the maps have been recycled, and one can’t help but wonder if this decision was made to expedite the development of the game. For a system that is currently starved for new, triple-A titles the way that the Nintendo Switch is, it seems plausible that a few corners needed to cut to get the game out the door. Regardless, Nintendo made good on their promise to support the first title in this series, and one can only assume that they will give this title the same amount of love and care. If you own a Switch, this game deserves a spot in your library.