With a Boards Of Canada-esque ambient soundtrack and a simple but colorful and distinctive palette, MirrorMoon EP is a game you can lose yourself in -- both in a good and bad way.

Killzone: Mercenary could have stood to provide more content, but that which is on offer is all very well polished and plays almost impeccably on Sony's latest handheld venture.

The Wonderful 101 is one of those rare games that keeps getting more and more fun the more that you play it. If you have the dexterity to handle the controls and the patience to deal with a few momentum-killing platforming/puzzle bits, you're in for a heck of a time.

If you want to be told a vexingly bizarre story presented with a real sense of style, The Chinese Room may have exactly what you want. If you're a massive survival horror fan who wants to be made to scream, however, you probably want to stick your snout in someone else's offal.

Just as how The Bureau: XCOM Declassified was a watered down focused tested version of Mass Effect, Lost Planet 3 feels like a watered down Dead Space. Any redeeming qualities of the Lost Planet franchise are dead and gone, leaving a husk of its former self.

Above all, I'm most charmed by how honestly Puppeteer wears its influences on its sleeve. From classic platformers like Mario to more recent excursions such as Rayman Origins, Sony Japan's sidescrolling adventure is littered with nods to the very best in platform gaming -- a genre so criminally underused these days.

At the very least, Conquistador's acceptance of player failure makes it possible to experience its excellent writing.

The story and characters are delightful, and an engaging battle system rounds out a mesmeric package. Simply put, Tales of Xillia is one of the finest role-playing games in recent memory.

It's overly simplistic, but the constant amount of positive reinforcement and sheer amount of content unlocks may keep you going should you charge through the monotony.

The deciding factor for Hammerwatch depends on if you’re planning on playing it cooperatively. If you've got a buddy or two who would play through the game with you and you enjoy some mindless hacking and/or slashing, then it will not disappoint.

Outlast simultaneously reminds me of the grainy slasher flicks of the '70s, the gruesome body horror of Clive Barker, and gratuitous modern torture porn. It manages to squeeze a great deal of diversity into what is quite a small package of around six or seven hours, but it doesn't burst or struggle to reconcile the different elements.

If Revolution was the best that Worms had ever been -- and it was, because I said it was last year -- then Clan Wars is now the definitive version.

KickBeat's polarizing soundtrack is perhaps its toughest sell, but if you can overcome it with an open mind and dig into Beat Your Music, there's a really solid rhythm game underneath it that'll have you tapping your feet (and your fingers) for quite some time.

It's simple, yet challenging, and although it seems low-tech, it actually gives you some rather high-tech contraptions to overcome. It's not just one of the best AR games available, but one of the most fun, challenging, and satisfying puzzle titles on the Vita in general.

Sadly, two remakes practically no one asked for, and two maps that do nothing to transcend the typical formula aren't enough to justify the price unless you're a hardcore zombies fanatic.

Rayman Legends is occasionally flustering, and sometimes seems to demand more than a conventional controller is capable of. The surprisingly slapdash jury-rigging of Wii U features on other systems is glaring in its inelegance, too. However, we're still left with an impressively designed platformer that proves itself a worthy followup to Rayman Origins, making a few notable omissions, but adding some excellent new ideas of its own.

The action isn't truly technical but it works, and the cast and narrative don't have that Suda quality charm, but they're interesting enough to compel you to keep playing. If you're a pure action fan, this is just another game to eat up -- for everyone else, there's not a whole lot for you to enjoy in Killer is Dead.

Paradox Development Studio has shown that it understands grand strategy like no other studio. Europa Universalis IV is the defining game in the genre, laying out the whole world in front of players and just letting them have at it. It's a polished, almost terrifyingly vast title that gets its hooks in you the moment you click on that first country, and simply refuses to let go.

So long as you're willing to put up with some rather elementary action gameplay, Disney Infinity is a solid choice for families, younger gamers, and gamers who are young at heart alike.

Divekick! sits in perfect balance between the new wave of deconstructed fighting games like Nidhogg, and Samurai Gunn, and traditional fighters like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat.

Madden 25 is an improved version of the clumsy Madden 13, which was better than any Madden game that released on this generation of consoles. The physics are good and make manipulating these hulking brutes in a fabricated 3D space feel comfortable and occasionally interesting. Ultimate Team is still nothing I want to do, ever.

There is a genuine allure to SteamWorld Dig, you just have to clear out the rubble to find it.

The good news is, if you're up for some cooperative stealth and mercenary antics, Splinter Cell: Blacklist is right up your alley. If all you desire is more Sam Fisher action, however, you may come away feeling a little shortchanged.

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.

PAYDAY 2 is undeniably rough and needs a couple of updates to fill in a few blanks, but the thrill of robbing banks, smashing jewel cases, and cooking meth is too great for the asking price not be returned to the player in spades.

Layton Brothers: Mystery Room is a fine companion to the main Layton series. Unless you really, really miss those Highlights brain teasers, that is.

All I really wanted was more Dishonored, but what I got was something that surpasses it. Intricate level design, nuanced worldbuilding, and gameplay that demands a thoughtful approach even when resulting in flashy, bloody violence -- The Brigmore Witches is setting the bar very high for future stealth romps.

What you're getting is basically more of that classic Plants vs. Zombie experience, with just enough tweaks to keep it interesting -- and that's more than enough for me.