Summing up Ravenbound was a challenge because, despite its flaws, the game isn’t bad and I did have a good time when it worked as intended. However, it’s just badly executed with the lack of missions, explorations, and many frustrating bugs that make Ravenbound hard to recommend. Systemic Reaction are aware of the issues and are actively talking to their community through patch notes to, hopefully, revive this game and make it the fun roguelite it’s asking to be.

Unfortunately there’s not enough here to justify itself at all – nothing that mixes up the already wonderful gameplay, nor any story purpose, nor extra benefits/modes/items to care about. I only hope that this doesn’t dissuade the team to move on to other things because I would love more Textorcist – there isn’t anything else out there to scratch the same itch. The problem is that, with how fun those first set of big baddies were, we now expect each fight to be pumped full of creative ways to push the player, to always one up the previous encounter, and that’s just a seriously hard target to meet.

TowerMancer leaves a lot to be desired, which is just so annoying because it feels like they almost had something great, something you wouldn’t be able to pull yourself away from. It has an underlying addictive quality but it constantly works to push the player away with repetitive levels, fixed-path victories, and non-stop griefing. I really do hope to see another iteration from the team with a wider variety of everything – level setups, hazards, rooms, options. It could be a fab little time waster, but in its current state I think most people are just going to come away aggravated, disappointed, or both.

If Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl came out twenty years ago it would have been a smashing success, ignoring that many of the characters within didn’t exist back then. But that’s not the case, and even though I did enjoy it for what it is, I can’t recommend it when the alternatives are so incredibly superior in its current state. I’m sure with a passionate team and a dedicated community it could do really well, but with a haemorrhaging player base and the blaring shortage of anything to keep people in the game in a world dominated by season passes and constant loot-box unlocks, I just don’t see that happening.

Neptunia Virtual Stars ends up coming on stage as one of the poorer entries in the Neptunia franchise. This is a huge shame, because having an action shooter blended with hack and slash gameplay has so much potential to be a blast, but this is poorly executed. As it stands, the gameplay is not captivating enough to be enjoyable for the 16 hours or so it takes to beat, standard aiming is unreliable and enemies are reused too much and suffer from no change to their attack patterns. The ladies of Neptunia cannot carry this game over its gameplay, and with so many better options out there for this type of action, Neptunia Virtual Stars is a Vtuber that simply wants to annoy you rather than offer some entertaining pass time.

The lack of content is deeply disappointing, but the worst part of all is how interesting the idea is. I want to like it. I want it to be better. I wish it was just being released into early access in its current state so it could be greatly expanded on with the help of the community but it looks like this is all we’re going to get. Hopefully we’ll hear some good news from the team in the future or see the approach used elsewhere. Until then, however, I think I’ll leave Can’t Drive This uninstalled.

In all, Golden Force was unfortunately pretty disappointing. It would already be hard for this one to stand out, even if it was heavily polished, because there’s no hook besides the strange humour of murdering cats in a bloody shower of guts and naming all of the bosses after Mexican foods. But with all the bugs and design issues piled on top it probably has very little chance. One can only hope that the team will be able to iterate and improve if there’s ever a sequel, spiritual or otherwise, much like how the Shantae series (which gives off similar vibes) has progressed.

The premise for Bee Simulator is good, and I like the idea of doing education through video games in such a uniquely refreshing way, but the execution here has problems. When the game is not asking much from the player, then Bee Simulator ends up being somewhat fun with a great sense of scale, but the controls hamper such an important part of the game that the experience ends up being frustrating. Throw in repetitive tasks and muddy visuals and what you have is a video game that sadly does not deliver on its potential. It is hard to recommend Bee Simulator out right, especially at its asking price, but some of the younger kids might enjoy what Bee Simulator has to offer.

Generally, unless you’re incredibly interested in the spectacular visuals, I can’t recommend Trüberbrook. It feels half-made with large sections being completely disjointed from the plot and rooms, that no doubt took someone a ridiculous amount of time to design, build-out, and paint, having nothing in them, even when it’s abundantly clear that they should have. Perhaps cuts were made to meet a budget or tight Kickstarter deadlines but instead of having a lean 3-4 hour game that shows off what it does best, it drags on for around 6 with a lot of stiff backtracking and filler.

In the end, Mini-Mech Mayhem‘s charming aesthetic might win kids over, but whether or not they’ll have the patience for the tedious controls and length of matches is another thing entirely. The concept of a strategy game playing out on a virtual board is an intriguing one, but like many PSVR experiments, this one fails to execute its ambitious concepts effectively, much less create an alternative experience to traditional console-based strategy games played with a controller.

Overall, SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy suffers the same problem that many of the most recent fighting games have: barebones content. The character selection is small, with more characters planned to be added via DLC, but the brief story mode and unsatisfying combat put a permanent hamper on the experience regardless of increased roster. There just isn’t much here in the way of fun or fanservice, and the Switch version runs at a shoddier framerate to add insult to injury. The fun little nods and imagery do not make up the overall price tag, and the neutered controls feel far more unconventional then streamlined. Everyone should just put their clothes back on and sober up, because the mood just isn’t there this time.

Underneath it all there’s genuinely something interesting here – it just needed to be more focussed, polished, moulded into a vision instead of left as a loose idea. The gameplay and story need working on heavily in their own way. I’d definitely come back to check on a sequel but it would be out of wary curiosity, not excitement. Still, I think a lot can be done in this space and hope to see something special come from it in the future.

With over 100 levels, cartoony graphics, a low price tag, simple controls and humour to boot this is worth a few hours of your time but don’t expect too much replayability above restarting the level over and over.

I won’t pretend that Sonic Forces is a disappointment – it telegraphed its kitchen sink approach to content a long time ago. Desperately trying to please every kind of Sonic fan, it is every bit the mishmash of half realised ideas vying for your attention that it seemed like it would be. I guess I just never expected that their attempts to hold that attention would be so feeble.

Despite the good intentions of the developers, Arizona Sunshine is yet another PSVR game that is plagued by unoptimized controls, queasy camera movement and an overall brief and unremarkable experience that barely qualifies it as a rental, where such an option even possible. The standards have already been raised for virtual horror games thanks to Resident Evil 7, so it falls upon developers to catch up to the VR race and deliver the same kind of quality that Sony’s new hardware add-on desperately needs.

VR space exploring is an inspired concept, but a good game idea matters little if the gameplay doesn’t measure up, and Space Rift fails doubly as a VR experience due to its lackluster aesthetics and unrefined VR controls. Chalk this up to yet another quickly conceptualized concept that lacks the necessary polish to make it work, and only makes players yearn harder for the time when a competent developer fulfills one out of many VR dream games that companies try too quickly to capitalize on during a hardware’s launch window.

In the end, horror aficionados will probably prove the harshest audience for Weeping Doll: the potential for VR horror has already been seen in various demos and titles, creating a deep hunger for more fleshed-out and frightful experiences. Weeping Doll’s attempts to startle or unnerve players fail harder than a PG-rated horror movie on ABC Family.

A cluttered mess that tries to pretend it is high-quality immersion. It’s a shame that developer Untold Games spent so much time reaching for the stars with its VR debut that they didn’t stop to nail the necessary fundamentals to a functional VR experience: when the very act of moving from point A to point B is a nauseating challenge, that would be the time to drop back down to Earth and back into the drawing board.

It is unknown if the developers can patch Battlezone to reduce the nauseating feelings its perspective emits (reports indicate the game was even more discomforting during press previews before receiving some fine-tuning before launch), but that alone is a big enough reason to caution players from purchasing it. This is especially unfortunate, as the arcade-style mission-based gameplay can be really fun, especially when other online tanks join in.

It’s somewhat cathartic to discover the single worst launch game in a new hardware’s lineup, but simply calling Ace Banana a rotten fruit that spoils the batch does not do its awfulness justice: this is, simply put, VR poison, the kind of low-budget and poorly optimized trash that would put newcomers completely off VR gaming just as it has began its console infancy.

I can’t recommend Manual Samuel to anyone, it’s an awful game. A comedy game devoid of a sense of humour that is only interested in sucking all potential fun out of itself and replacing it with outright frustration. I mean, the game works and all but it’s never good, it’s a bad experience.

Unfortunately, the story never really got going in the game and with the slow crawl through a pretty much lifeless ship this made the game a little underwhelming. The story lasts anywhere between 2 -3 hours depending on how slow you take it and just feels too short and I’m not sure I ever really saw those stealth mechanics.

Max Damage is a game that comes filled with frustration, from the awful handling model to the bare bones limited visuals, from the tedious and drawn-out races to the generic music, everything about this recent Carmageddon game is just middling and sterile, and what fun is to be had is often in small spades that it is a struggle to play for extended periods of time.

I keep coming back to the voice acting but a big part of an RPG is the how the story is conveyed and this game falls flat on it’s face here making the story seem drab rather than the colour tale they have crafted. The environments are nice but overall nothing to write home about. The game looked good on paper but unfortunately it has too many pitfalls causing it to feel very lackluster.

As mentioned above the game is only about 3 hours long and unless you want to get an S rank on all 9 stages on all difficulties there’s really no reason to replay it at all.

While I like the roguelike progression, the rest of the game feels like an prototype, lacking any sort of redeeming presentation, polish or any score tracking to keep you coming back.

You get the impression that if Richardson had someone to bounce ideas off – someone to pick up the slack and point out the bad ideas – he’d be capable of something that’s actually interesting.

For those looking for an enthralling title for their mobile devices Metro 2033 Wars trips in almost every department.

WWE2K16 is a game with so many various bugs that sometime soon sentient societies will rise up to worship them. If this does not bother you, and you can laugh away regular trips to the monster factory of technical horror, then maybe you will be able to find moments of joy in the substandard gameplay on show.

The art is nice and the music even has a zen-like quality to it but they cannot redeem the frustration that this game provides.

It is such an all encompassing mess that a publisher with any morality at their core would have never allowed this disguised vomit to hit market.

Angry Birds is no longer the ultimate time waster, it now feels like a soulless service built solely to harvest money, and is happy to screw its players in as many ways possible to get it.

Simply put, Kholat fails to properly balance its moody aesthetics while keeping the player actively invested. It is yet another case of an experience that is beautiful to witness, but boring to actually engage in.

Ultimately, I believe that the Hatred team simply tried to make something controversial in the hopes that nobody would notice how forgettable their title is. Even calling itself ‘ultra-violent’ is a stretch.

In the end, Attack on Titan: Humanity in Chains is precisely the kind of Anime game that many expected it to be: a quick and uninspired cash-in that tries to utilize its source material to hide the boring and sparse gameplay within.

I’m afraid that whilst The Deer God was boasted as “a breathtaking 3d pixel art game that will challenge your religion and your platforming skills”, the only thing that it really challenged was my patience. It did look pretty nice though.

Regardless of quantity concerns (which is a valid complaint), where The Order more crucially falls apart is in regards to quality. It does not matter if a game is one or one hundred hours long, you need to enjoy playing it, and The Order fails at that most crucial of tasks. This is unforgivable, and instantly makes it impossible to recommend.

Perhaps a better, more Mean Girls like way, to summarize the game in one simple phrase is like this. It’s just not Fetch.

The Crew however lacks that indistinguishable something that other games sitting in the same genre have in spades, and without it my urge to play the game quickly dwindled to being almost nonexistent.

As of this writing, Ubisoft has created a live blog that promises to address all of the technical issues that is plaguing their high profile game. Considering their misplaced priorities, however, they hardly deserve a pass for releasing Assassin’s Creed Unity in the miserable shape that it’s in, which damages both this decent entry in the series as well as the very AC brand itself.

In summation, Frozen: Olaf’s Quest is a boring atrocity of a game, and I can’t figure out for the life of me why it is currently selling better than many huge hits and excellent games of 2014, such as InFamous: Second Son and Child of Light.

The gaming world certainly needs more off-the-wall games like this, but a little more effort is required in order to kick-start this rarely-utilized genre.

Hyperdimension Neptunia: Producing Perfection is one for the hardcore fans of the Hyperdimension Neptunia series who want to see more of their favourite characters break off into another type of game.

The effort put into the questions and answers is stellar and something that will have people flocking to this game like a tasty cake but, sadly, the cake has no icing, no sprinkles, or even external goodies to make it long lasting.

In the end, The Witch and the Hundred Knight is a failed experiment made more noticeable due to its heartlessly joyless story.

It’s a dumb and silly game, and sure, it’s not what you would call a good video game, but deep down there is some sort of hidden charm that makes me have a guilty pleasure when the game’s doing its best.

Gamers with significant visual impairments will have new reasons to question their eyesight, and the true nostalgia hungry fans will be vastly disappointed at the lack of content compared to other games such as Stargate and Geometry Wars.

There is nothing at all worth recommending about this game, especially when there is no shortage of free titles that do a far more effective job of scaring gamers out of their wits instead of their wallets.

Thanks to Street Fighter IV’s rebirth of the genre, there is now a wealth of options to pick from when it comes to fighting games, so there are no reasons to buy the generic sounding Girl Fight, because this is a bad, budget fighter with no redeeming qualities to enjoy.

The game is all about making more money to progress, but the grind to get it is monotonous, meaning most will lose the will to toil away on the farm long before getting access to the bigger, better machinery.

For a person who missed the era when the game was in its prime, Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded will feel like a relic creeping into the modern age and demonstrating to everyone how archaic the old times used to be.

Sadly, while the game does have its fun moments here and there, the game breaks apart with monotonous and predicable combat, boring side quests and poor pacing. It’s one for the hardcore fans, but even then, I’m not sure how well they can admire this.

For us to fight monsters, Yuke’s have created a monster of their own. I wish the apocalypse had never been canceled. No one should have lived on to see this hideous travesty of a game.

Garfield’s Wild Ride can’t overcome the licensed app blues. Whether you play this on an iOS or Android device, it’s probable that the experience will be underwhelming, if not frustrating.

It’s a shame that such smooth controls, great audio and classic visuals were wasted on a game that is just so outdated.

Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge never had much of a chance of matching the quality of its predecessors, but it would have at least sufficed as a decent game. The unforgiving difficulty and poorly-planned gameplay restrictions only bring to light the still-present flaws of the original game rather than cover them up.

Ultimately, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Plus is a case study that just because a game can be ported to a handheld doesn’t mean it necessarily should, especially if it suffers from downgraded visuals, spotty framerate and imprecise controls. Newbie players who never played the console versions may end up less frustrated out of ignorance, but a game that originally relied on tight controls and smooth gameplay should not have to endure such drawbacks just for the sake of going portable. It may earn points as a novelty to have the game on the go, but the cost of portability is too much of a disservice for a great action game optimized for consoles.

There is really nothing astonishing about this game. The anime (and the manga) does it all so much better – go spend a couple of hours watching that instead.

It's an ugly, uncomfortable game that fails in so many areas a platformer shouldn't.

Check vs. Mate could have been very good if the developers hadn't been lazy with character animations, or if someone had taken the time to write a legitimate story.

As you can probably tell, I am very disappointed that such an iconic character has been given a below-par game to represent his 50th anniversary. The idea is great, but the execution and lack of respect – or maybe it is effort – to represent all the Bonds with the correct actors and context, is poor.

I said it when I was describing the interface: Clan of Champions is a minimal title. I don't think the people who developed it are bad game designers in any way; I just think they got lazy. They came up with an amazing premise but then didn't put enough effort into it to make it worth playing. Honestly, if you even have a somewhat decent computer, sidestep this game in favor of Dark Souls, Fable, or Kingdoms of Amular. You'll have much more fun.

Mugen Souls has interesting ideas, but they are badly implemented, causing the game to include too much unwanted junk.

Call me disappointed in the end for Dungeon Fighter Live. I was hoping to have a nice smoothie of fun, beat-em-up gameplay, RPG elements and loot blended into one, but I came away saddened and frustrated.

Accelate started on my good side, with a respectable combat system that rewarded players willing to flesh out the combo mechanics. However, a poor tutorial system and that ridiculous search mechanic twisted the game from fun to downright annoying – no game should cause you to grind a stupid amount to see the next part of the main story - and fed me the answer that I didn't want to hear.

Battleship is just another below-par movie license videogame. It features an extremely short campaign that you can blast through in an evening and no multiplayer or incentives to replay once you've finished the game. It isn't worth the full retail asking price for the sheer fact that none of the gameplay is exciting or good. In short, the game is basic, boring, uninspiring and not entertaining. Battleship should be left to sink in the cluttered first-person shooter market.

If you're into mindless bashing, you might somewhat enjoy Bloodforge, but I think most people will be fine with just skipping the title and saving their Microsoft Points for some of the other great stuff coming soon to the marketplace.

Unless you want to experience a butchered version of Silent Hill 2 and a somewhat decent Silent Hill 3, don't buy this collection.

Sadly, for me this game was a big disappointment, a bit of a wreck so to speak.

Deep Black: Reloaded falls short of its promising use of a predominately-water environment and instead casts that aside to become a below average shooter fest.

I hate the idea of any studio producing a flop and having to close, so I hope this doesn't happen to Version 2. But next time I hope they spend a bit more on polishing whatever game they work on. When it comes to Smash 'N' Survive though, gamers should avoid it like the Austin Allegro, because you'd never buy that car, right?

The Postal games have always been unoriginal by gameplay standards, but have always made up for it with hilarious situations. Unfortunately, this Postal game seems to have taken too much from inspirations like Gears of War. It literally feels like they spent half the time the game was in development watching Jackass, and the other half reading 14 year old boys' Blogspots. They then combined the two and decided to make a clunky game out of it.

After you've experienced The Run you'll sadly come to the conclusion that it isn't any good. It's a great idea compromised by poor design and handling.

If you are an X-Men fan, save your money. If you must, give it a rental. But under no circumstances should you waste your money on this. The less people buy it the better, maybe then Activision will get the message that they can't get away with substandard rubbish like this.

This is a game that could have been a lot better than it is. But it is not better. It is exactly as good as it is, and that is not good. It is, in fact, bad.

101-in-1 Sports Party Megamix lacks imagination, polish, passion, quality, depth, and will ensure your house will never be the place to party at again.

I'll admit that I've played games that are technically worse than Homefront, but I have not played a game that irritated me as much as this in a very long time.

It isn't an awful game, by any measure – just a terminally dull one.

It isn't an awful game, by any measure – just a terminally dull one.

If only some time and effort went into creating what could be an enjoyable romp. As it turns out this reeks of disappointment.

If only some time and effort went into creating what could be an enjoyable romp. As it turns out this reeks of disappointment.

At times it evokes some nostalgic memories from a generation gone, but ultimately it fails to match the standards those titles set back in their heyday.

The original Force Unleashed shot for the stars, and fell short, but at least you could commend it for trying. Force Unleashed 2 feels sterile and barren in comparison, refusing to try for anything spectacular, and managing to reuse and recycle its few good ideas countless times over its short run.

The original Force Unleashed shot for the stars, and fell short, but at least you could commend it for trying. Force Unleashed 2 feels sterile and barren in comparison, refusing to try for anything spectacular, and managing to reuse and recycle its few good ideas countless times over its short run.

In the end, the very existence of Top Gun is a confusing one, as there was hardly any demand for a modern videogame based on the aged franchise. Strip away the camp value of the movie, and there is nothing left but unimpressive dog fights that have been polished years ago by other jet-based games like the Ace Combat series.

It’s only been out for a couple of weeks and it’s already getting heavily discounted by some retailers – and there’s a whole bunch of reasons for that. I don’t care if you’re a fan of the show, it’s just not worth it.

It’s only been out for a couple of weeks and it’s already getting heavily discounted by some retailers – and there’s a whole bunch of reasons for that. I don’t care if you’re a fan of the show, it’s just not worth it.

It’s only been out for a couple of weeks and it’s already getting heavily discounted by some retailers – and there’s a whole bunch of reasons for that. I don’t care if you’re a fan of the show, it’s just not worth it.

Tiberium Twilight is a poor game that removes the things that made the original concept so good. What’s left is a hollow shell that feels irrelevant, given the superior games in the series that came long before it.

It’s quite hard to recommend Last Rebellion to anyone but some insane hardcore RPG person, certainly after the recent rush of decent titles that have arrived for the genre. The game is full of so many decisions that hamper the experience and fun.

With dull events, terrible lip synching in the cut scenes, short story and just not enough to do for a sandbox game the few fun vehicle parts just aren’t enough. If you have some small children who enjoyed the film it’s probably worth picking up just to keep them quiet for a bit, but for anyone else it just isn’t worth it.

With dull events, terrible lip synching in the cut scenes, short story and just not enough to do for a sandbox game the few fun vehicle parts just aren’t enough. If you have some small children who enjoyed the film it’s probably worth picking up just to keep them quiet for a bit, but for anyone else it just isn’t worth it.

Personally I found it a bit on the dull side but perhaps it might make an ideal Christmas present for a more elderly relative, as long as they have a DS that is.

Who am I kidding? I’ve tried, but this game is just rubbish. Utter crap. Another steaming pile of movie-based compost to throw on the pile. Avoid this game like your brain depended on it.

Who am I kidding? I’ve tried, but this game is just rubbish. Utter crap. Another steaming pile of movie-based compost to throw on the pile. Avoid this game like your brain depended on it.

You’d have to be a real dummy to spend any money on this.

If you can make it past the horrible audiovisuals and laborious gameplay then there is some fun to be had here, but you really have to work for it.

Despite the tedious missions, wonky controls and piss-poor visuals, it can cast a strange spell over you.