The puzzles featured in Puzzle Agent 2 are not bad overall. They simply could have been so much better. Rather than being the perfectly cooked, delicious steak that you miss immediately after you finish, they are the breakfast cereal that is palatable and will tide you over until lunch time.

Fans of the Rearmed will find there's a lot to love about the follow up, despite a few shortcomings. Because it's ultimately not as impressive as the original, that doesn't mean Bionic Commando Rearmed 2's not worth checking out.

Impressive aesthetics and weighty mental gymnastics aren't enough to compensate for puzzle design that becomes a slog before long. It's a shame because Pneuma boldly asks questions about player agency, but in ways that are bogged down in tedium.

I actually cannot think of a single positive thing to say about the game, and the fact that I have been rooting for this IP from the moment the first game was announced just makes it all the more infuriating. I wished nothing but the best for Kane & Lynch as a series, but the appalling nature of Dog Days confirms to me that this franchise will never be what it deserves to be.

There's a fantastic game buried somewhere here, but its merits are clouded by a plethora of bad design choices, uneven writing, and a protagonist who nobody in their right mind would ever want to spend any time with.

As one of the few fresh things on the menu, I would implore anybody with determination, an interest in strategy, and a desire for something new to check it out. It's got a fair few flaws, some of which can be draining, but it's a fine game indeed, one of Koei's best efforts to date.

The prologue is an amazing experience and the game itself, while drastically different, still kept my friends and I coming back. But it's not a good game. There are too many bugs and mishandled mechanics holding it back, in addition to a huge bait-and-switch on story and lore. I do think there is a lot of potential here, as The Blackout Club fills an empty void in the market, but dang it's just so disappointing in its current state.

Battlefield 2042 feels like it could become a cool game, but it’s tantalizingly out of reach today. There’s enough promise with the satisfying-when-it-works gunplay, large-scale chaos (that’s starting to feel more controlled over time), and fantastic legacy Battlefield content in Portal that I’ll stick around for a bit. It didn’t have to be this way, though.

There's just not enough here for entice anyone to double-dip or shell out the full price if you aren't a sim-junkie. While the publisher should be chided for releasing an iteration as rushed as this, they are lucky that the core package was already decent to begin with.

Aside from the incorporated change that made previously limp exotics actually fun to use, it's clear that Bungie has a lot of work ahead of them.

When you get right down to the core of it, see how the elements work in your favour or conspire against you, Skyhill admirably creates this tense game of hubris and courage, one that never lets up until you escape or, far more likely, die.

Blade of Galadriel is much more to the point, without much of the same flair -- either the good or the bad.

With too many enemies present, Sir, You Are Being Hunted would simply be an open-world shooter, but with too few, it would be boring. While many might find its empty spaces dull, they always carry with them a hidden threat that a pipe-smoking robot has you in its crosshairs with its steely finger on the trigger.

The core game is spectacular, even if the presentation framing it is awful, and it's got the potential to be well worth the money. So should you buy it? That depends on what's most important to you, but I'm going to say you most certainly should.

With plenty of accessories to outfit your pet, an island brimming with secrets, and all the niceties of a "regular" pet sim, this adorable adventure has a leg up on the competition, but does falter a bit in its execution.

It’s just overall not that well executed. The physics and gameplay are not where they should be. The levels are just okay. The goals are rarely entertaining. But you’re here for the birds, right? There are definitely skateboarding birds, I can guarantee they are in SkateBIRD. I’m not even being sarcastic, the birds are absolutely great. Just try to focus on that and nothing else.

Bubsy: Paws on Fire is a light arcade title that features fun visuals and great music. Played sporadically, it can provide a short dose of simplistic fun. Ultimately, however, the repetitive gameplay, bland presentation, and hollow world prevent players from immersing themselves in its optimistic spirit. The Bubsy experiment has ended. It's time to let the bobcat go.

Disney Tsum Tsum Festival is packed with stuff to do, but most of it should be left to full family households with everyone on deck.

Fracture feels like a concept forged many years ago, but it just doesn’t stack up with any conventional standards. If you enjoy shooters, feel free to rent. Otherwise, it’s safe to pass this one up.

Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters is certainly one of the most unique titles the Vita has seen or will see by far, and while it can take an astronomical amount of getting used to, it's absolutely worth investing time in.

Croixleur's largest sin might be its clear lack of ambition. This arcade hack and slash adventure is very competent at what it does but takes very few risks while doing it. The result is an experience that's easy to enjoy, but difficult to love.

Weapon Shop de Omasse is a breezy rhythm game, brimming with humor targeted at JRPG fans. I realize that's a niche within a niche, and it certainly won't be for everyone, but I loved it. And if that bizarre concept sounds even vaguely interesting, I bet you'll love it too.

Sneaky Sneaky is not a bad game. At five bucks for about two hours of gameplay, I could even recommend it to fans of stealth and/or puzzles. But it is by no means a must-play, even for fans of those genres.

They took a simple, beloved concept and tried doing too much with it. As a result, the course design is rarely rewarding and the elaborate story is poorly presented. No matter how far above the clouds this game is, it landed in the rough.

Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3 is held back by the switch to the 3DS, and I recommend just picking up the past core entry instead.

By far the most blatantly rushed cash-in attempt of all the PS Vita launch titles, ModNation Racers: Road Trip is to be avoided at all costs. With horrid visuals, dawdling menus, and threadbare features, this lazy piece of software insults the system it is supposed to help showcase. In fact, I'd say its existence could be directly harmful to the Vita, given how it's one of the bigger titles available at launch and makes the Vita look like it's only capable of producing garbage.

This is a game that does absolutely not need to exist but does for the sheer fact that the original game had no way of raking in the dough.

It's a great concept, and when it's working it's a great inventive challenge, but when it goes downhill, it put a huge damper on my experience as a whole. I wanted to like it, but it was tough given some of the rough puzzle and level designs on show.