Bottomline, it's still a good game, but it isn't quite great.

I suppose if you're tired of Majesty 1 and want some more of the same action pick up Majesty 2. It should give you hours worth of game play.

The concept of The Escapists—make friends, make enemies, make crazy tools, and escape from prison through any applicable deviancy—is easy to fall in love with. Reality, positioning The Escapists as a beautiful machine undermined by the gears assigned to power it, is more cruel.

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

For those who have played the original titles and for anyone who likes a straight-forward tactical RPG, VH: FoJ is worth a look.

Dead Rising 2: Off the Record is a textbook definition of a director's cut. Those enjoying it for the first time won't know the difference, those who disliked it won't care, and those who loved the original will be split down the middle in their appreciation of a reworked interpretation.

Street Fighter V is loaded with meaningful changes and improvements to its namesake's divine infrastructure. As a game—a full-priced package sold under the assumption of a finished product—Street Fighter V is destitute and disappointing. Its value and service will expand and evolve over time, though one has to question the wisdom and motive of releasing Street Fighter V in its present condition.

For all its positives, in the end, Smash Up is simply less and fewer in every way than Brawl. There are fewer levels (by half), fewer characters (by half), fewer collectible trophies (by an order of magnitude)… and the overall number of unlockables isn’t even in the same ballpark. It’s still a good game, and there’s no denying the appeal once you begin to perfect your technique, but comparison is inevitable under the circumstances.

A sort of diamond in the rough perhaps, in that Daedalic did a fine job with many aspects of Blackguards, yet a handful of problems, certainly some more crucial than others, and yet all patchable, keep the overall experience stunted.

Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact has several good ideas, but very little follow through in catering to diehard fighting game players, new players unfamiliar with the tag-fighter subgenre, or even folks unfamiliar with the franchise. It’s fun yet fluid fighter, don’t get me wrong; only time will tell if it reaches a more fulfilling state in the future.

The Darkness II is a fun romp for the brief duration that it lasts. Multiplayer is clever, but not enough to make up for the short, mediocre campaign. Definitely worth a serious look if you played and enjoyed the first Darkness game but note that a weekend rental might be all you need out of it.

Song of the Deep is a meandering lesson that not every reflection of Metroidvania has to be a grand odyssey. By that measure it's a serviceable decent into the great unknown with a handful of neat ideas. It's also too oblivious of its own limitations to leave a distinct impression in a crowded field.

The Testament of Sherlock Holmes offers a challenging, rigid adventure that emphasizes details and a slow pace. It's not without some significant flaws, but it's a compelling entry into the genre nonetheless.

This is all to say that Phantom Abyss falls somewhat short on achieving the goal of offering a challenging parkour adventure in a roguelite package. The whip and phantom gameplay involving other players’ trial and error are unique, but its clunkiness, difficulty, and disparate progression are worth a pause. I’m confident that additional polish and content are coming down the pipeline, but I need more from the current state of the game.

An upgrade from the original, but sometimes for the wrong reason. The lack of local play is an odd decision, considering the original thrived on it, and especially when so much thought and execution was put into the online multiplayer aspect of the title this time around. The fighting system probably won’t win over most fans of the series or of the original 2004 title, but the charm of the original game is still intact through this edition’s exploration and treasure discovery. In the end, this game still contains some fun aspects of its original gaming intentions, but only if you can see through its faults.

If you can tolerate the rough patches in presentation and gameplay, you can find a bit of quirky, arcade style fun in Live 16.

Broken Pieces ultimately leaves an impression on the player. The setting and tone are undeniably intriguing and will spark the curiosity of willing players. Presenting a massively fascinating web of narratives, developer Elseware Games aimed high but definitely got a little lost in the weeds on delivering a satisfying conclusion. But the exploration and puzzle-heavy gameplay may begin to wear on players seeking more action than backtracking. Broken Pieces has its moments but never manages to capitalize on its initial promise.

Tesla Force is one of the few rogue-lite games I have ever played, and I also rarely play twin stick shooters. I found the experience a little chaffing at times, in how I had to restart a chapter of random stages after dying, but there is a lot of satisfaction derived from unlocking better and better weapons, abilities, and perks and laying waste to the monsters. Best played with a friend or three, Tesla Force is pretty cool and reasonably priced for the experience it offers overall.

The Detective Reaper Invites is an interesting game of logic and deduction. While it doesn’t go as deep as it could, there’s enough to give players a taste of deductive gameplay that will surely test one’s reasoning skills.

Rogue Warrior was a lot of fun even though it's got a lot of miscellaneous problems and shortcomings.

Overall, Shadow Warrior 3 was fun to play through, but I’m glad it ended relatively quickly because the gameplay loop is very repetitive. Flying Wild Hog has some great ideas here, but the lazy arena battle design and some (not all) lackluster level design needed to be more robust and creative. As it plays now, the gameplay is just paper thin like an arcade game — and I love arcades games, but those are short by design because they don’t have enough substance and breadth to hold the player’s interest for very long. All that said, I still enjoyed playing through Shadow Warrior 3 mostly, though I won’t be coming back for seconds. With due caution, I recommend it to anyone that enjoys the franchise or likes a raw run and gun FPS experience, and especially if you can play it on PSNow or GamePass.

Exploring the destructive psychosis of a plaintive individual is a noble, if not precarious, responsibility. The Park, however, can't decide if its manic behavior is either a means of identifying with its troubled protagonist or a symptom of its own decent into chaos.

With Red Faction: Armageddon I got the sense that Volition was really excited about creating a few segments and merely obliged their responsibility to fill in the gaps. There was nobility to be found in breaking the core design away from the success of Guerrilla, but the shift in dynamic ultimately irrelevant in the final product. Armageddon can be fun, but its linearity casts it alongside other (and better) games rather than a bold new direction for the series.

Most of what I have had to say about TLM2V has not been awesome as Emmett would say, but for the most part I still enjoyed my time with the game, especially when playing co-op. Keeping in mind the target audience and the price point of $40, the Lego Movie 2 Videogame presents a game worth considering for fans of the movie, Lego, or casual, family-friendly play.

Squirrel with a Gun is charming and a nutty idea at first glance. It’s better enjoyed in small bursts as to keep its small supply of silliness enjoyed to the fullest extent. If you’ve ever wanted to go nuts being a squirrel with a large arsenal of guns, this is the simulation for you.

Overall, Ben 10: Cosmic Destruction is a straight-forward, fun game.

Bodycount has its place, but for the full price and at this time of year, it's hard to recommend for purchase for any gamer who needs to pick and choose his way through this upcoming holiday gaming season. Ultimately, it manages to be fun enough to play in spite of a variety of key issues in the design and execution.

Certainly there is a lot more here than is immediately evident, but the fact remains that this expansion's approach of adding spice as opposed to entirely new entrees is unlikely to excite all but the most dedicated Sims fans.