Despite the fact that Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy can be a bit by-the-numbers inside dungeons, it's anything but in nearly every other facet of the game. While I probably won't be rushing to complete it again anytime soon, it was a lengthy enough adventure that will stay fresh in my mind for some time.

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified desperately wants to be liked, but by failing to satisfy in any direction, all it succeeds in being is a disappointment. It wants to be a strategy game without being a strategy game, it wants to be a shooter without being a shooter, and it wants to be XCOM without being XCOM. As such, it is nothing. It's an inconsequential waste of time that does nothing for anybody, and saying that makes me feel guilty because its cloying pleas to not be hated are worthy of pity.

Black Ops 7 expands on Black Ops 6 with an enhanced, less sweaty multiplayer offering and more Zombie-killing fun, but a forgettable co-op campaign that leads into the exciting new Endgame mode prevents it from being a true top-tier Call of Duty.

The Crystal Bearers gives me something the likes of which I've never played before, and in the end, I think it can stand proudly along side other risky, underappreciated Squaresoft classics like Brave Fencer Musashi and Tobal 2. Ask someone to buy it for you for Christmas/Hannukah/whatever, or pick it up used down the line. Just don't write it off as nothing special.

Meet the new Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers, mostly the same as the old Street Fighter II. Beyond the veil of some visual wizardry and a few rote fleeting fluff modes, this is the old school foundation that a lot of folks built their fighting game careers on.

For all its missteps as an action-RPG, it is simply flawless as an example of how to make a Vita experience work. Judicious use of touchscreen controls, beautiful visuals, a smartly broken-up mission structure and eerily swift loading times makes this the gold standard for Sony's portable.

It doesn't claim to be anything but a wave-based, score-centric space-arcade game, and that works in its favor. The simple design allows the game to focus on its wonderfully satisfying mechanics, even if they aren't communicated very well through the poor tutorial.

MonsterBag is a nice bit of light puzzles and charming slapstick, at least until the narrative drives it towards something more serious and mechanical that ups complexity and challenge, but almost feels like a different, less personable game.

Infinite Minigolf shows a lot of promise, but in its current state it's bland. Apart from the course creator, there's just nothing here that stands out from other minigolf titles.

The bad menus, controls, unplayable online component, and terrible campaign mode completely shroud any real accomplishments made in terms of the game's balance and feel.

It's simple to get into, it looks good and at the end of the day it provides some incredibly good racing action. Purists will hate it, but those who just want to have a laugh without worrying about hardcore racing simulation will enjoy Fuel for what it is.

Like every incarnation of the game, even the Re Mind DLC is going to both confuse and excite people en masse.

But despite its lack of any real innovation or complexity, Nail'd succeeds in being one of the most approachable and entertaining racers of the year.

Do you want to slice some demons into little meat chunks as a troubled badass, and perhaps missed out on the great Dreamcast and PS2 renditions of Berserk? Get Band of the Hawk. Seeing the story continue past the Golden Age is enough for an enthusiast to buy in. Otherwise, wait for the price to match what's being offered.

There's plenty of fun to be had in Lightning Returns if you're open to it, and are willing to overlook some of the messiness.

It's easy to appreciate the budget that went into making it look the way it does, and I hope Respawn gives it another go; but it needed so much more than a shiny veneer to survive in this current VR climate.

It's a lesson in wonderful concept and poor execution. If you were looking for the next Subnautica or Sunless Sea, this isn't quite there.

While decent enough, Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax may be too simplistic for most hardcore fighting game fans to enjoy as anything more than an ephemeral lark, but also perhaps still too complex for those that find the genre intimidating.

This is the Police presents situations that aren’t deep enough to invoke social commentary, yet it still takes the opportunity to arbitrarily throw them out in the open. It’s missing key storytelling elements that allow for that kind of messaging, and in the mundane yet slur-sprinkled missions those ideas fall apart.

There are some glaring balance issues for Rebellion to work out, and Battlezone is far less advisable as a solo game, but damn if it isn't thrilling when everything comes together and your team perseveres against all odds.

I love the look of City of Brass and its combat system, but after only about three hours I felt like I'd seen all it had to offer. It's a great way to kill an afternoon, I just wish it would give me a reason to keep coming back.

There is enough here that I’d give a Monark follow-up a shot. One that fills out its stories a bit more, amps up the horror, and flattens out the grind. There are some novel ideas here, and if you’re looking for something outside the RPG status quo and with a darker vibe, Monark could fit the bill. Just go in knowing that it can get arduous, and you’ll need to overlook those faults to find what Monark does that’s really different.

As much as I wanted to rave about this one, I must begrudgingly admit that those who love freedom would probably be better served hunting down a copy of the PS2 version or downloading it for PSP.

Hot Tin Roof isn’t terrible by any means, it just seems as though Glass Bottom Games had certain things it wanted to put in a game only to realize it had to actually make all those things fit together and the studio never really quite figured out how to make it flow naturally.

It's not a must-buy, not even for platformer fans, but it's a cute little game that most people can find some fun with.

There is simply not enough meat on the core game modes, seemingly in favor of adding in a hodgepodge of concepts that are isolated from one another. It's time to give up the vehicle concept, Nd Cube, as it inherently limits the sprawling nature of the maps we once played for years on end.

The sci-fi meta-narrative, as well as the conspiracy-laced in-world narrative, are both interesting and this was the first time in a while a game has made me do some real detective work.

Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games: The Official Video Game doesn’t have a lot going on. Progression boils down to earning points to unlocking costumes, different titles, earning medals, and not much else. That progression can be kind of a slog, though, when a lot of the gameplay mechanics are too shallow to be fun for more than a few minutes (especially when playing alone). It’s at its absolute best when it’s over-the-top and absurd while competing in sports that are more than just button mashing. If you’ve got a friend or two — or the itch to take this thing online — you’re still bound to have fun, but I doubt it’ll keep most folks interested for very long.