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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

Unfortunately there is so much wrong with it that it doesn’t even manage to reach average status.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Unfortunately there is so much wrong with it that it doesn’t even manage to reach average status.

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.

There is fun to be had here for children who are particularly fond of colouring and puzzles, but if they’re that keen, you can get the real thing for a tiny fraction of the cost of this (as well as being able to look at your work later), and so there’s little reason to buy Crayola Treasure Adventures.

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.

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.

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.

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 a shame that such smooth controls, great audio and classic visuals were wasted on a game that is just so outdated.

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.

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.

Ultimately, Wii Music is the equivalent of Leonardo da Vinci saying he’ll paint the Mona Lisa for you, but then deciding to challenge himself by using a Etch A Sketch. Yes, I am sure the clever old codger could work out something, but you’re sure as hell not going to take a vacation to Paris to view the end result.

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.

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.

It should be noted that the idea of terrain deformation is a good one, and one that deserves to be expanded on, but this time around its implementation is significantly below par in execution. So much so, that I’d be hard-pressed to recommend the game to anyone - even as a rental.

It should be noted that the idea of terrain deformation is a good one, and one that deserves to be expanded on, but this time around its implementation is significantly below par in execution. So much so, that I’d be hard-pressed to recommend the game to anyone - even as a rental.

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.

An absolute rotting putrid corpse of a videogame.

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.

It’s poorly executed and ends up being a boring, generic title that can’t justify a place for itself in your DS collection.

In all honesty I fail to see a reason for anyone buy something this. Even if you included the whole game as a mini-game in some other larger title it would still seem limited. It’s honestly a miracle that I wrote this much about a game that offers gamers so little in return.

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.

Give this game a miss, and get your EXP-grinding gums around Dungeon Siege 2.

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.

At the end of the day, the bad points massively outweigh the good ones, and when the credits roll you’ll be left with a feeling that it all could have been so much better. The game also has absolutely no replay value whatsoever, and is consequently terrible value for money.

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

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.

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.

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.

So, Dark Horizon isn’t a horrible game. It’s just not a very good one, either. While nothing about it is particularly offensive, it still absolutely fails to generate any interest in a genre that, in most people’s eyes, stagnated a long time ago.

Bugs ruin fun.

Regardless of its name, it's still clear to see Haze is a disappointing game based on a weak premise that has been half-heartedly realised.

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

How the developer of Star Wars: Battlefront and the publishers of the Battlefield series let this one out the door in this state I will never understand.

Bugs ruin fun.

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.

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.

What Sonic and the Black Knight amounts to is a game that has been polished to within an inch of its life, yet one that sadly misses the point everywhere else.

The game is not criminally poor, and nowhere near as painful as having red hot needles shoved into your eyes, but at times you get an insidious feeling that those involved put as little effort as possible into delivering the final product.

How the developer of Star Wars: Battlefront and the publishers of the Battlefield series let this one out the door in this state I will never understand.

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.

As with most movie licence titles, QoS is an average experience, plagued by problems, that will undoubtedly sell well due to the advertising campaign and corresponding blockbuster.

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.

It’s just a really bad game, in places unapologetically bad.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

It’s just a really bad game, in places unapologetically bad.

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.

Ironically, KoD sums itself up in its own lacklustre ‘Yar’ sound effect, which becomes annoying from the very start. That’s just what Pirates: KoD is; lacklustre.

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.

The DS version also uses a 2D isometric view and to be honest isn’t the most pleasing on the eye.

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.

A simple design idea for controllers created a massive chain reaction in how the game is played, and frankly, it’s for the worst.

Somehow someone somewhere managed to design and create a game that is almost completely devoid of fun and enjoyment.

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.

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.

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.

Somehow someone somewhere managed to design and create a game that is almost completely devoid of fun and enjoyment.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A simple design idea for controllers created a massive chain reaction in how the game is played, and frankly, it’s for the worst.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Don’t be a sucker. Avoid, avoid, avoid.

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

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.

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.

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.

If you’ve never played one and are somewhat interested then you are best of buying Dynasty Warriors 6 instead because Warriors Orochi 2 just doesn’t get past private rank anymore in this world of dynasty wars.

Given that the game only allows the use of the Wii-mote, playing a good old game of football seems a hard concept to imitate. Needless to say, this sport is ridiculously unsatisfying.

Tornado is a title that started with a solid base of fun gameplay mechanics and interesting level design and then buried it under a mound of inexplicably terrible design faults that seem like they were created to generate annoyance.

There are just four ‘arenas’ to choose from, four factions, with four characters in each, three similar modes and variable numbers of Balls present in each game. It won’t take long to exhaust the possibilities.

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

Ultimately, the biggest problem with PDC World Championship Darts 2008 is there is very little reason for it to exist.

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.

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.

Don’t be a sucker. Avoid, avoid, avoid.