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.

Overall, Blackwood Crossing is a mesmerizing tale, with fantastical visuals telling a story grounded in deep, human emotions. The game lasts about three hours, depending how quickly you can solve the puzzles. There is little replay value, aside from trophy hunting, as the story never deviates from its linear path. Due to the shoddy frame rate and very light puzzles, it’s best to go into this game expecting a well-told story, but not much more. If you can get past some awkwardness in controlling Scarlet, it’s worth boarding the train for this magical journey.

Even though I may have sounded a bit overly critical of Momodora:RUM over the course of this review, there is still a perfectly serviceable game here that will certainly find its audience. If you're the type of person who skips cutscenes and plays games at a decibel only a pigeon could appreciate, then I just might have the game for you. While the actual act of playing the game is a pleasure, it's kind of like building a sandcastle in the middle of a construction site; there's fun to be had, but the circumstances you find yourself in are less than ideal.

This success, and most of the game's terrific efforts, are unfortunately squandered by the game's failure to advance its story or give you any guidance on how best to navigate its challenges. Theoretically, you could replay through the game in an attempt to discover the best path for yourself, but chances are, you won't want to. The major events of every day are scripted, and there isn't enough that is enjoyable about the gameplay to make you want to repeat days any more than you have to. One playthrough is likely all that you'll want to get out of Beat Cop, and there is a good chance that it will leave you feeling unsatisfied and cheated. This game could have been great, and for the first week or so of the game I thought that I had stumbled onto a great little indie gem. As I progressed, however, the game's intriguing story disappeared, giving way to a pointless grind that ended abruptly and unsatisfyingly. Beat Cop takes the hopelessness simulator one step too far, and it is for this reason that it I cannot wholeheartedly recommend it.

MLB The Show 17 is still a great game of baseball but one that with each season seems less and less impressive compared to other sports games available. With a lack of competition, it's hard to not recommend. But with each year I'm still wanting to see the team at Sony San Diego push the envelope even if there isn't any competition to force their hand.

Aaero contains fifteen music tracks, which makes it a fairly short experience that can be completed in one sitting. As an arcade style action game, however, it offers a lot of replayability, so the game's once through length isn't really a fair assessment of its value. Still, the price tag of $15 is probably on the high side for the overall level of quality and variety that the game has to offer. The game has plenty of high points and some very memorable tracks and levels, but it has some forgettable ones as well. It is worth playing for those high points, but a lower price and more consistent quality would have made the game a much easier recommendation.

Styx: Shards of Darkness' single-minded dedication to being a stealth game is both admirable and potentially a turnoff to players who expect more flexibility in their approach to completing missions. The flexibility is there, though it's entirely represented by the myriad ways the title character moves through the shadows and confounds his enemies. It's refreshing to play a despicable, amoral antihero; but the game's puerile, scattershot humor will not appeal to everyone. Although its mission objectives are a bit repetitive, the balletic act of moving through the world makes Styx: Shards of Darkness overall entertaining.

World to the West is presented in stylized and clearly-defined visuals which goes a long way in perceiving the environmental puzzles. The same simple approach extends to the gameplay. Everything is straightforward and easy to grasp. I liked the old-school vibes of World to the West, harking back all the way to the 80's. When I played these kind of games as a kid with home computers, they were called arcade adventures and presented usually in an isometric view. At the same time, elsewhere in the world kids had their Nintendo Entertainment Systems and were immersed with the likes of The Legend of the Zelda. In my eyes World to the West manages to blend the best of both the western and eastern schools of action-adventuring. The result is fun, challenging and rewarding experience which is easy to play but hard to put down.

Symphony of the Machine is a great VR experience that offers a wonderful sense of immersion as long you use the right equipment and get off the couch. The game itself gets less interesting over time despite the cool factor of the complexity of later trials. With Symphony, it became the kind of game I want to play just to help fill the time. What it needs is to give you a reason to stick around, to show that the time spent growing various plants is worth the time and effort. It doesn’t do that very well and were this a standard, non-VR game, I would have quickly moved on. The VR nature of Symphony of the Machine is definitely where it’s at and should be picked up, preferably at some discount, solely for that portion of the software.

The aesthetic design was pleasantly beautiful, the score was catchy and memorable without any dull moments, the characters were interesting and quirky, and the game stayed relatively simple without sacrificing any of my interest. There is a lot to love about The Sexy Brutale, but unfortunately, the game doesn’t take many big risks. Other than the unique hybrid between genre and mechanics, there seems to be a lot of wasted potential, or rather potential that could have benefitted from a little extra time and effort. I’m by no means disappointed, but I really would have liked to spend more time learning about the characters through something like additional puzzles or manipulation of the time mechanic. That being said, it does provide a great experience to anyone who is looking for a puzzle game with an interesting set of characters. It won’t blow you away, but it’s definitely well worth your hard earned twenty dollars.

Ghost Recon: Wildlands is by no means a terrible, or even bad, game: it provides moments of intense fun, particularly with friends, when you're trying to clear out a base without being detected. Yet, it has some serious issues. The A.I. coding is just not good; the huge draw distances causes stutter and screen-tearing on consoles; and even though there is undeniably a lot of content in the form of missions and things to collect, it does become repetitive and dull—just how quickly it becomes a drag depends on your tolerance for walking around and collecting things, I suppose. But if you don't have friends to play with, and you have to rely on boneheaded teammate A.I. to help you fight questionable and irrational enemy A.I., then the game's problems are amplified.

Bye-Bye BoxBoy! is an excellent sendoff to Nintendo’s underrated square mascot. With nearly two dozen worlds of 6-8 levels each, there are at least seven hours of gameplay, not including extras. If you’ve played the first two games, you know what you’re in for. Though the core concepts are identical, Qbabies and special powers keep the geometric puzzler fresh. If you haven’t experienced the BoxBoy! series and can only pick one, Bye-Bye BoxBoy! has the most variety, providing the most value. Otherwise, picking up the whole trilogy is a great solution for anyone seeking ingenious portable puzzles in bulk. Bye-Bye, BoxBoy! We’ll miss you!

Danganronpa 1-2 Reload takes two fantastic point-and-click visual novels and ties them up in one discounted package. Between both games and some surprisingly fun post-game alternative modes, Reload offers over 60 hours of content. If you’ve already played through these games, the only incentives to double-dipping are if you want both games in the same package and the ability to play it on your PS4. If you haven’t experienced the series, then this game is the best way to get your fix of high school murder mysteries, trigger-happy courtroom action, and psycho bears. Oh my!

If you happen to enjoy puzzle and logic games, it's very easy to recommend Nightmares from the Deep 2: The Siren's Call. With its variety of puzzles all strewn along a solid (but not spectacular) story and combined with a helpful hint and navigation system, a puzzle fan is virtually guaranteed hours of entertainment here. As it turns out, if you're a puzzle enthusiast, perhaps you should heed this Siren's Call...

Was the story exciting and interesting enough to experience it several times? Yes and then some! It tells something that even after a few play-throughs, I was curled up in tension with heartbeat in my ears when I drove the story to previously unseen directions. Lastly, would I recommend Late Shift to hardcore gamers? Yes, because I'm such myself and I could see no reason why someone else would't get thrilled by it. And there you have it. Late Shift is a solid crime thriller where you don't have to just watch people making bad choices because you can make them yourself. Or even some good ones necessary to pull you through the night.

Although Persona 5 deals with the everyday angst of your average, magic-wielding teenagers, it is epic in almost every conceivable way, from its combat to its sprawling and surprise-laden story. While some of its large cast of characters strike a sour note and its gameplay can challenge the impatient player, Persona 5 somehow manages the improbable feat of being both an ultimate reward to fans of the franchise and a perfect gateway to newcomers.

Nevertheless, The Ringed City is one of the single best slices of Dark Souls that FromSoftware has ever presented, and for every element that could have stood to be left well-alone, there is a series highlight to be found. The Ringed City is simultaneously Dark Souls at its best and its most tired. The series may or may not be coming to an end, but this final piece of content, due just as much to its faults as its successes, feels conclusive regardless of what happens to the franchise in the immediate future. It is fitting, then, that the impending hiatus feels earned.

The sights and scenes of the carnival are depicted in the usual colorful Artifex Mundi style. Even though numerous cut scenes are rendered in a low resolution, they liven up the events nonetheless. It should be noted that games like Dark Arkana: The Carnival are always measured up within its sub-genre of casual adventures and not compared to the big league of graphic adventures. As such, the game offers comfy and even suspenseful entertainment, and the few hours put to solve the mystery are well-spent. As is usual with casual adventures, the game also serves as a great stress relief. Dark Arkana: The Carnival might not be up to the standards of the later and more complex Artifex Mundi games, but it still comes recommended for fans of the genre.

With the end in sight, I feel akin to the characters in the game with regards to where the series is heading, namely, I don’t have a damn clue. Thicker Than Water was a good episode in a season that ranks only slightly below the original, and the only thing left for the team now is to wrap up what they started. Will Javier and co. survive? Will Richmond? We’ll just have to wait to find out.

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero is an excellent 2D platformer that doesn’t take itself too seriously. The humor is quirky, the gameplay is great, and it expertly crafts a retro-style game into a glossy and new coat of paint. Even so, it didn’t seem to provide the same sense of awe that Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse provided in the not-so-distant past of 2014. This is not to say that Half-Genie Hero missed the mark; it’s just different from what you would expect out of the series. Fortunately, that’s one of the best features about the series as a whole. Each game feels unique, bringing a whole new taste to the table every time. This is what always brings me back to Shantae, and it’s what makes Half-Genie Hero all the more enjoyable. Ultimately, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero manages to create a sense of old-school bliss in the modern era where there proves to be little success, and it’s wonderful.

In spite of its issues, I had a good time with High Noon Revolver. Not all aspects of its frustration-fun continuum are as thought out as they initially seem, but it succeeds where it needs to the most. It’s a high-octane reflex romp that makes short work of inattentive players, and once you’ve won, it coyly tempts you to do it again with a handicap. Better balancing and a tighter aesthetic focus would’ve resulted in something great, but what we’re left with is still pretty good.

The biggest issue with The Keep is that as a PC title, it offers nothing to really distinguish itself from the legion of other dungeon crawlers, both retro-style and contemporary. Conceptually a game for a small-scale platform, on PC its limitations become amplified and its quirks become impediments to enjoyment. The Keep is not a bad game - especially on the 3DS - but doesn't feel like an essential experience to either fans of old-school dungeon crawlers or gamers who have grown tired of empty-headed, big-budget titles that are all sizzle and no steak.

Creating effective horror depends on powerful moments of the the unexpected juxtaposed with long stretches of calm and the mundane. In general, The Crow's Eye understands the basics of the genre, but frustrating puzzles and platforming both dispel the drive of the narrative and alienate the player. Kudos for looking at a somewhat tired format through a new lens, but points off for implementation. Suggestion: give the player control over save points, pare the platforming to a highly-tuned minimum, and don't repeat the puzzles. Despite these caveats, The Crow's Eye is still worth a look for fans of dread-inducing exploration.

In the end, Dying: Reborn VR could have been a fairly okay product if it weren’t so harshly abridged. It’s a good enough VR experience, but without a coherent story to back it all up, it amounts to nothing more than a paid demo. If you're new to PlayStation VR, there are much better ways to spend your money and time.

With four episodes left, and this episode ending with one hell of a mystery left to solve with a villain hot on their tales, I am looking forward to picking up with the Guardians to see where adventure takes them. Consider my interest also peaked for finding out how they eventually work Thanos back into the mix. Until then, we’re left with a wonderfully solid first chapter that leaves me with the hope that Telltale’s best is still to come.

This product sets out to do one thing: repackage and sell my childhood. In that department, it is a smashing success.

If you’ve ever played a Bomberman game, nothing will surprise you about this modest entry. The fast-paced multiplayer action remains on top of its game, provided you’re not playing with the laggy online mode. But it’s still a tough sell, considering we’ve seen this standard battle mode before, and done better in some cases. Unless this is your only means of playing old-school Bomberman, there are cheaper and more content-rich options on older consoles. More than anything, Super Bomberman R serves as a blip on Bomberman’s heart monitor. As a fan of the series, I’m excited that the little white bomber is back, but he deserves better than this

Senran Kagura Estival Versus appeals to a very particular taste. Those who love fanservice and ecchi-rich anime will have a fantastic time as the girls fight and dilly dally on the beach. I do appreciate that the game made some changes to its design and presentation, making it a more animated and spirited game than Shinobi Versus. With a new dynamic camera, sexier transformations, and “interesting” finishers, and more robust playtime systems for the girls, the game knows its audience. Though the plot is lacking and the battles are often repetitive, such concerns are not going to stop fans from having some fun in the sun.