Some moderate updates to the gameplay (primarily with the new rules and roster changes), but if you're on any kind of budget or aren't in a rush to play, it's probably best to wait for next year when the series shifts to the current-gen.

The creative energy fueling Sunset Overdrive is an agent of change for a genre in creative decline. Its jubilant deluge of light and color, meaningful revisions to control and combat, and the sweeping diversity of skill-based missions push the open-world paradigm harder and faster than any of its peers.

Korra's fiction and Platinum's development lineage impart a veritable dream team of narrative and design, but neither party seemed to bring the necessary hardware to live up to their respective and respected standards.

I had a great time with A Golden Wake and I think anyone who can appreciate an old school point-and-click adventure will too.

After all, stripped of all its unique elements, this is basically Microsoft Paint. Yet, those unique elements – none more important than the step-by-step tutorials and terrific infusion of the Pokemon brand – make Pokemon Art Academy so much more than a mere Office application.

A great addition to any stealth gamer's digital library.

Starpoint Gemini 2 is a standard space sim, with some cool features.

Requisite complications ensue in later challenges, and the different game modes provide a range of valuable experiences, but for the most part, this is a well-balanced package whose value towers over its asking price.

On its own, Ranko Tsukigime's Longest Day is lightweight runner with scant traces of inspiration. As integral part of the dynamic, multimedia Short Peace project, its relative value becomes a bit more manageable. That it's all being packaged and sold as a videogame leaves it feeling heavy on good natured intent, but thin on actual content.

Alien: Isolation projects an authoritative and unrepentant sense of despair consistent with Ridley Scott's 1979 classic. As powerful and affecting as its influence may be, it's applied with enough force to drive Isolation off its rails. It never crashes, but after an aggressively defiant start, it teeters and wobbles its way toward an unassertive and obedient conclusion.

It's a powerful survival horror experience that I won't soon forget.

Driveclub delivers driving fun on gorgeous and expansive maps, offers a variety of ways to race and a bevy of cars to choose from. It won’t satisfy your need for a Gran Turismo-esque experience, but it will certainly bring enjoyment to your racing lives.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel refreshes gameplay through some new mechanics and a whole new story, including a cast of familiar characters and brand new characters, while diving into the events that lead up to Borderlands 2.

Bayonetta 2 expresses a meticulous devotion to excessive elaborateness of style and action. It's a calculated brawler that not only minds its rules with painstaking diligence, but trusts its operator with how to best interpret them. The delicate engineering of merciless destruction has long been Platinum Games' modus operandi, and Bayonetta 2 is the purest and most potent declaration of their intentions.

Ultimax could have slammed the gas pedal in one direction and been fine, instead it takes its time to stop and make sure the view is great, too.

Paired with Crown of the Sunken King and Crown of the Old Iron King, it's enough to wish From Software could extend Dark Souls II's life with interminable rounds of additional content.

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments delivers a good system for finding clues and solving murders with a complex clues and deductions system, plenty of puzzles to be had, and good mysteries to boot.

Skylanders Trap Team for PS4 is better in almost every way than its predecessors. If you have the money, Trap Team is worth every penny.

Neverending Nightmares revels in tension and survives through conservation of its primal resource. Unfolding it exposes a weird paradox; a game that actively campaigns against a traditional desire to play it, and yet seeks to capture attention all the same.

he tale Ethan Carter ultimately aches to tell isn't as complex or natural as its influences, but it finds ample success in directing a curious story through an interactive ensemble.

Sprawling, addictive, and finding a potent balance between suspense and fun, Wasteland 2 fits great in any PC gamer's collection.

It's another solid addition to the PS3's library of JRPGs, and I recommend making an effort to check it out.

For $20, you can do a lot worse, but to find a game this instantly accessible and fun, you may be harder pressed to find.

A beautiful third-person action title that has deep role-playing game elements embedded firmly into it. You also get enormously detailed and deep environments, with unique enemies to populate it. This is simply a superb game.

The game looks absolutely gorgeous on the 3DS. Maintaining 60FPS is the key to a wonderful Smash Bros. experience, and this game fits the bill.

It sets a fun vibe without coming off as silly or childish. The racing is serious business, but there are plenty of ways to play that aren't so ardently competitive.

Series fans may want to play it safe and rent Revolution first. For those who do not play UNS, Revolution is safe to skip.

Overall this game does what it set out to do, and it does it well, giving both veterans of the series and new players a chance to experience some of the original magic of Total Annihilation, while keeping it fresh and extensive enough to create new battles and new war stories on a galactic scale to tell around the Real-Time Strategy campfire.

If you are a diehard FIFA fanatic, you will not be disappointed. And if you are new to the series, FIFA 15 is not a bad entry point.

Hyrule Warriors delivers a wonderful Legend of Zelda action game with a large cast of familiar characters, identifiable worlds, a great upgrade/leveling system and endless amounts of action. It’s far from a perfect game, especially in regards to controls and repetitiveness, but it’s much better than expected.

Conspicuous in style, literal in primary objective, and contentious in an exclusive platform, Murasaki Baby commands attention across myriad of dimensions. It executes its heartfelt intentions with a confident nonchalance, wondering why other games need to scream when a careful whisper will do.

Fans of the Final Fantasy games (especially the soundtracks) will enjoy this game, fans of Rhythm games can enjoy this game, and fans of both may thoroughly enjoy this game, especially longtime fans who have played many of the games and have a fondness towards the soundtracks.

Destiny isn’t a perfect game, but it’s a perfect gaming experience. The girth of the planets, the endless exploration, a fun co-op element and a strong PvP structure has this series on the right track. I can’t wait to see what else the future expansions have in store for the overall body of work.

Everything looks great, plays well and feels like the NHL hockey I love. Even the tricky teammate AI can be addressed via settings tweaks. Where NHL 15 disappoints, however, is in the trimmed features and modes.

Dead Rising 3's inability to operate without consistently crashing wasn't a simple technical shortcoming, but rather a comprehensive failure that came to damage and define every aspect of its experience. Looking back on my time with Dead Rising 3, I'm not thinking of open-world mayhem under the stress of a cataclysmic time crunch, but rather the ugly and sudden halt of everything I found enjoyable in the intended game.

Whether you choose to label it a cash-in or a shameless celebration, it’s collaborative love from Level-5 and Capcom that you probably won’t want to miss.

Crown of the Old Iron King is a showcase of Dark Souls II's aggressive enemy encounter design. It folds a few other cards in favor of its ace, but such is the endearing nature and defining risk of inspired post-game content. Applied to Dark Souls II, Iron King stands as a thoughtful one-off that fits neatly alongside Sunken King.

One of the best gaming purchases you will make all year.

A competent JRPG with some considerable flaws, and one that is best enjoyed by those who are familiar with SAO.

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare is a good title for the PlayStation 3. It doesn’t go over the top with what it’s trying to accomplish, but it does provide a nice twist from the original PvZ’s gameplay. That might be enough to warrant a purchase and the $29.99 certainly gives you that little push to pull the trigger.

Eidolon demands patience from its audience. The glacial pace of its most basic operation, the fragmented mass of narrative provisions, and the initial sense of indistinguishable aesthetic diversity seem intent on wrecking Eidolon's sprawling sense of discovery. Sticking with it inevitably reveals a multifaceted excursion into an intimately assembled and oddly exotic interpretation of a distant Earth. The reward is putting it all together, provided you can summon the drive to find all the pieces.

I would recommend Tales of Xillia 2 to any Tales or JRPG fan.

EA Tiburon did a fantastic job with making the right adjustments for this year’s Madden title. Improved defense and a more balanced offense makes for a fun football experience.

A heart of gold surrounded by endless color makes it all easier to swallow, but you're left wondering what could have been had The Last Tinker's gameplay come on as strong as its presentation.

Drawing inspiration from a satirical appreciation of the Cold War, it's fair for CounterSpy to teeter on the edge of principled oblivion. Finding value in its eccentricity, however, controls whether you can hang on or fall off.

Firefall has potential, but it’s not quite there just yet. A little bit more restructuring and beefing up in some areas will help Firefall evolve, if Red 5 Studios can give more time and money to the project. Hopefully it keeps developing the title, as it does have potential.

The most complete and best version of a great game, the Ultimate Evil Edition is an excellent addition to any growing PS4 collection, especially if you enjoy dungeon crawling with friends.

Surgeon Simulator Anniversary Edition is still giant dripping bucket of stupid fun - and most of the new content is great - but absent is the howling laughter and pure novelty from its debut.

Genuine art is meant to evoke a response from its audience, and Hohokum's diverse assortment of imaginative endeavors makes it easy to get lost inside its world. It's effective union of art, activity and music, managing a progression of open personal responses without the weight of a direct narrative or dissonant mechanics.

The Last of Us finds a very appropriate home on the PS4.

I'll stop just short of saying "Siesta Fiesta" is a must-own for any Nintendo 3DS user, if only because there are "gamers" for whom this type of game (best suited to be picked up and played in short bursts rather than extensive sit-downs) will probably never deliver a satisfactory time.

Guacamelee was already a great game, and while not all of the extras for Super Turbo Championship Edition are beneficial, it's tough to say the grand experience isn't better for their inclusion.

Still, "Wooden Sen'Sey" is cheap, good-spirited and chuckle-inducing. It's a charming addition to the Wii U eShop that lays the groundwork for an even more ground-breaking sequel (please?)

In a certain light The Crown of the Sunken King actually does it better, employing different constraints and driving new ways to explore and appreciate Dark Souls II's finer details.

One Piece fans will appreciate it, but newbies might want to give it a rent before jumping at it.

Infinity Runner's boasts an attractive premise - a werewolf must escape a space station - but its thinly sliced narrative doesn't contain any satisfactory hooks and its moments of player agency rarely reach any sort of plateau. Infinity Runner's beautiful premise isn't an invitation to something greater; it's an excuse for an otherwise incidental experience.

Once again, Sniper Elite proves to be a really fun and engaging game, despite its numerous bugs at launch.

Dynasty Warriors: Gundam Reborn is a simple package that guarantees only what you see on the surface. There are some unlockables and reasons to replay the game, but beyond the two modes (Official and Ultimate) there’s nothing else to it. Is that bad? Not at all, since it’s good fun and especially since it’s priced at $39.99. It’s certainly worth a go.

Bloodbath is a mess of a game as of this writing and barring some major game-changing patches, will be one you can safely skip no matter how much you like the fighting genre.

Codemasters did an outstanding job by delivering a medley of racing options and styles with GRID Autosport. It’s not perfect, but it’s damn close to a perfect experience when you want to try everything on the racing menu.

WildStar is a remarkably funny and action packed MMO that oozes with personality. Though many features aren't exactly groundbreaking, WildStar manages to build on many tried and true MMO elements. A wealth of features tailored to both casual and hardcore players ensure an enjoyable experience for all.

What Killzone Shadow Fall Intercept lacks in maps and level design, it makes up with strong, team oriented gameplay and a deep points/reward system that keeps you going. Intercept certainly renews the excitement of owning Killzone Shadow Fall.

As it stands Battle Princess of Arcadias is a neat endeavor across divergent styles – and not much else.

Atelier Rorona Plus: The Alchemist of Arland, while not perfect, is an improvement over the 2010 version.

Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack is an apocalyptic experience that performs its duties not under the harrowing death rattle of humanity, but alongside a gleeful creature with an insatiable and literal appetite for the material world.

This is an accessible game but one that is very challenging, yet it's always engaging.

This is a very solid first time in the Octagon for EA. The foundation they've put in place for the gameplay is something they can definitely work with going forward. In comparison to the last time a game was released with the UFC brand attached, this does lag behind somewhat. Undisputed 3 played a little crisper, a little cleaner, while exhibiting more confidence to the player that he/she can completely wrap their head around all parts of every control aspect with efficiency.

Pushmo World is a nice addition to the Wii U eShop content and should be played by any puzzle fan who hasn't yet experienced Pushmo and doesn't own a 3DS. However, if you're in either of the previous two categories, you would probably be better served to pick up the original Pushmo and/or Crashmo for an equally enjoyable experience at a discounted price with the freedom of portable gaming.

Entwined will put your brain to work and force you to think with both hands at the same time. It will challenge you to do better and keep you going, while at the same time relaxing your senses. It’s not perfect, but it’s engaging enough to warrant the time, money and effort.

While life simulators in general give players the opportunity to create a persona and live out that avatar’s life in ways they might not to live their own, this game gives the player the ability to affect dozens of lives without dictating every single moment of any given individual Mii’s existence.

It's not without its flaws to be sure, some of which are patchable, but Murdered Soul Suspect offers an interesting mystery and enough other positives to make it well worth playing.

War Thunder has some issues here and there, but it’s a very competent flying and ground war game that doesn’t let its microtransaction component get in the way. There’s plenty of tanks and planes to try out and modify to your liking, and just enough visuals to enjoy along the way. It’s not perfect, but it’s a solid game.

Among the Sleep puts the player behind the eyes of a two-year old and tasks them with surviving a series of wildly traumatizing scenarios. Careful hands and compassionate minds push Among the Sleep's delicate subject matter away from abject immorality, however, not with enough guidance to pivot an honest story into a capable game.

It's not always up for the traditional definition of fun, but it perfectly captures the disorientation and despondency of balancing dire problems between the dearest of friends.

A successful reboot of a classic that manages to meld game design from the old school FPS days with modern elements, giving players the best of both.

If Sly's your thing - and it's not an exclusive club - this is another fine way to enjoy three classic games.

Watch Dogs doesn’t have the depth you’ll find in a Grand Theft Auto title, but it does have a unique gameplay experience through hacking abilities, a gorgeous gaming environment to play in and enough added content via side quests and online play to make it worth your time.

Having friends over for a night of games remains a modern novelty, but Sportsfriends is so good you'll wish it was just the norm.

Unfortunately while Monochroma's story manages some delicate moments, its gameplay can't escape obscene points of needless frustration and mechanical tedium. It’s the latter that comes to define the experience.

If you enjoyed the remix of Pac-Man and the re-release of all the Capcom Arcade games out there, then you’re going to love what IREM and Tozai Games did with R-Type Dimensions. Sure it’s going to be tough as freaking nails, but that’s how arcade games were during the arcade era — and you’re going to love every moment of it.

Transistor's nuanced world-building and clever storytelling render its narrative original and intriguing.

It's not perfect, it's not from a big budget studio, isn't 100+ hours, and it doesn't say Scrolls, Age, or Souls on the box, but any fan of the genre should give it a legit shot -- I think they'll be pleasantly surprised as I was.

It’s safe to say that this is the best Mario Kart since the SNES days, and that’s a pretty heavy statement.

Delta isn't likely to change your opinion of the original game, but it lives up to its Ultimate Edition billing.

Borderlands 2 might have its issues on the PlayStation Vita, but underneath those issues lies the same game you know and love. If you can get used to the controls and visual dip, then you might just find a solid title waiting for you.

A heart of gold surrounded by endless color makes it all easier to swallow, but you're left wondering what could have been had The Last Tinker's gameplay come on as strong as its presentation.

For all but the most passionate Spider-Man fans, TAS2 is one you can safely skip or get by with on a rental.

Dark Souls II, as its blessing and its curse, is not another Dark Souls. It is, however, more Dark Souls - and it makes good on its hallowed name.

Fighting game fans should endeavor to at least try All-Star Battle before dismissing it on the grounds of not knowing anything about JoJo's universe. On the other hand, JoJo's fans have ample reason to support Namco and CyberConnect2 by picking this one up.

Two amazing classics in one well-priced and convenient release that I'm happy to recommend to series newcomers and veterans who want to revisit these gems on the go.

Mario Golf: World Tour is hardly progressive and rarely creative on the level of its predecessors—and in some ways, it actually feels somewhat regressive. However, the core appeal of the series is still alive and well nonetheless, and with the added extensibility of online play and tournaments—as well as downloadable courses—it’s hard to deny its appeal if you ever enjoyed what the series had to offer from the start.

If you're looking for an accessible and often-fun four player competitive splitscreen game, Cel Damage HD is worth a look.

Daylight is gold when it comes to scares, but is merely sterling silver in the gameplay substance department. The price might be worth the risk, though.

Kirby: Triple Deluxe is exactly what you would expect it to be: multiple game modes, creative level design, fun lighthearted style, colorful presentation, and crisp precise platforming. Kirby continues to live as a creative series built around a simple mechanic of move stealing and move-set freedom and will always be regarded dearly in this gamer's heart.

When I look at The Elder Scrolls Online I don’t see an MMO that is finished. I see an MMO that has a solid foundation built for it with a vibrant, adventurous future ahead of it. The notion of expansion into the worlds we love and know from the non-MMO games is an exciting one. ESO brings together a solid amount of single-player experience that we know and love from previous Elder Scrolls titles and mixes it in with intriguing and grounded MMO elements. That mixture sometimes doesn’t work, but there’s plenty of room for adjustment.

Ultimately, your enjoyment of 'Cold, Cold Heart' rides solely on your level of fatigue with the core gameplay mechanics in the Arkham series.

In the way that sports games go, this is every bit a $60 release, even with availability limited to aging hardware.

This one is for the nostalgic fans out there that grew up with and respect the 8-bit era. Nintendo has put together some solid mini-games and remix levels from some of their strongest NES titles. You’ll find a lot to love about NES Remix 2. Just beware of the occasional frustrating moments.