The most beautiful version of Dragon Quest 3 to date knows exactly how to make a visual impression. However, the teeth of time have been gnawing mercilessly at the plot and gameplay.

It might sound a bit more harsh than the game deserves, but sometimes you have to call the developers out when a game suffers under ill-advised direction. Thanks to the beautiful and richly filled houses and some really great characters, Luigi's Mansion qualifies as a really good game. It's just not the fantastic one it could have been.

JRPG fans who subscribe to the school of thought that imagination can triumph over any of the logical inconsistencies this particular genre regularly brings with it, will welcome this as the new king of their genre. Everyone else will find this to be competent in the gameplay department, visually and acoustically arresting - and completely confused in terms of story.

The resource management is pleasantly challenging, and the story poses interesting questions. However, the emotional component is crushed by inconsistent, far too pragmatic dialogue and decisions.

Non-stop brawling, neon lights and bouncer-marsupials.

Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake from Square Enix goes right back to the beginning of the JRPG genre. Unfortunately, I'm not sure the trek there is worth taking. Well, at least the two role-playing games now look fantastic.

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is a fast-paced and pleasantly challenging, but also very straightforward and short-lived adventure.

Unfortunately, the game itself is too simplistic and hardly challenging, but the concept is incredibly fascinating from start to finish.

You are not Columbo with muscles nor are you Sherlock in a pelt. You're a charismatic version of Chazz Palminteri dropping the coffee mug at the end of The Usual Suspects.

It's just so charmingly old-fashioned that you cannot really fault it for its slight problems.

Not only have these JRPG-bedrock games never looked or sounded better, they also give you all the comforts you could ever want, to experience them again.

There's nothing wrong with the design of the levels or the gameplay in and of themselves. It's just that OMD!2 feels more like a sizeable update complete with co-op integration. It is a good game, though, which manages to best its predecessor. Soloing veterans of that game should think very hard if the amendments are enough to buy this sequel at launch.

It's a lot of fun for a considerable amount of time – until you hit that skill-ceiling and wish there was something more to strive for than a place on the leaderboards. Still, with every single go being very short indeed, Vlambeer's newest game is perfect for short bursts where ever you have to kill a few minutes.

For years, Dust: An Elysian Tail will be a testament to what one person is able to create. But it also shows how problems in a game can sometimes be missed by the creator as well as the players.

PES 2015 just lives and breathes Soccer. After years of decent iteration on the series' core tenets, I almost didn't expect something as impressive as this. That being said, it's just a crying shame Konami seemingly insists on confirming every single stereotype one might have had when it comes to the pathologically shaky online aspect.

After all, the combat system is pleasantly complex without being overloaded, while you can develop all characters very precisely into the specialists you desire in your party. Plus the motivating building of your own empire... Despite the formulaic course of events, you can spend a lot of good time with this remake.

While this is still expertly made and well worth the time and money, really relevant information regarding the murders was few and far between. You don't feel like Bigby is running the investigation, he's hopelessly trailing behind for the third consecutive episode.

Paranormasight features a multi-layered story with interesting insights into Japanese myths, even though it promises more than it delivers in terms of content and gameplay.

Octopath Traveler 0 is a kind of cozy and solid pastime for curling up on the couch during the cold season. But it's certainly not the next big JRPG.

There is a lot of good to be found in Alien Isolation. In the end, this one is just one good writer and five levels less away from being a true classic.

It's not easy to score Kentucky Route Zero's first act. It's not an isolated product, as it sees itself as exposition to a much bigger narrative. Even though it succeeds marvelously in opening up the game, we don't know anything about where this "Lost Highway" will take us. Who didn't fall in love with this on first sight, should rather wait for the next few acts to come around before he decides if this is something for him. If you did though, get it. It may not have a lot of gameplay substance, but its atmosphere will suck you in quite like nothing else.

Nocturnal has got its problems. Locking you out of areas you feel you haven't completely cleared yet, being the main one. I still did enjoy myself playing this, however. To me, it was the right game at the right time, managing to simultaneously be a taster and a alternative draft for Ubisoft's upcoming Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. So, if you have 5 hours to kill, you'll find a (mostly refreshingly) bare-bones, tight and mostly well-made indie title that loves the old 2D Prince of Persias as much as you do. Worth a look.

This still is a seasoned and distinct piece of rpg. But between the slow start, the often slumberous and drawn out palaver and some redundant carrot-dangling in the main quest, this clearly is the weakest entry in the acclaimed series.

It's a dialogue-heavy, but ultimately solid bridging episode that's probably going to be compared to the fourth part of season one, when it's all said and done. You get the feeling it's only about to really get started now.

Sadly, this is the second-best way to experience part 2 and 3 of the franchise. As an idea for a 'satellite-game' to the home edition, leaving out Peace Walker from the Vita-collection was hardly a stroke of genius. For the moment it seems that the series should stay where it calls home: On a enormous widescreen, support by a gigantic sound-system.

If you were to ask me if you should play Skulls of the Shogun, I'd first go ahead and give you a list of better titles in a similar vein. If you're already past the Advance Wars', Fire Emblems and Valkyria Chronicles', this is well worth a look. It's just not all that memorable.

The Outer Worlds 2 is a damn good, classic role-playing game in which you can pretty much do whatever you want...At the same time, I have to admit that I found it to be quite formulaic for long stretches. Factions, conflicts, open character development with numerous gameplay options: none of this is new, and because every distribution of perks, weaknesses and abilities always leads to a certain goal, proceedings feel somewhat arbitrary and lacking a certain special spark.

The multiplayer is the true heart of this game and offers a ton of strategically challenging missions. If you don´t care about the campaign, love to play online against others and can accept quite a few issues concerning comfort and gamesystem, than this highly tactical game could still offer something for you.

Technically, the remaster shows its age. In terms of content, it is a successful spin-off with a cool battle system and motivating mini-games.

Never once does Watch Dogs raise a finger to show the rest of the world which way to take the genre. Instead, it is somewhat of a Best-of across a multitude of thematically and systemically similar games. A highly polished, and entertaining, cross-section through all things 'open world'. I'd lie if I said I hadn't gotten a few really satisfied sighs out of it. But sometimes that's just not enough.

Structurally and narratively I wish the developers had had shown more courage. But this kind of thing can happen, I guess, if you concentrate on getting your core mechanics spot on as much as United Front did. More of a rigidly controlled experience than a real sandbox, you can't help but notice that this type of game is not what it once was: Once open-world games were the fresh-faced poster boys of interactivity and do-as-you-please attitude. Now they're becoming more and more stale and antiseptic environments. It's not Sleeping Dogs' fault alone, and the game does impress at least mechanically most of the time, but it never manages to surprise.

This could have been so much more than a Contra with a rewind feature, but Super Time Force doesn't always manage to fulfill its potential.

Gripping, no-frills action with annoying rough edges - but so spot-on in terms of content that the big shooters should take a leaf out of their book.

In terms of playability, then, The Puppeteer is a disappointment, too much in love with its own design. Had it not strangled the experience with an unbearably high number of cut-scenes, Sony might have actually had the chance to develop the core gameplay in a way to make this adventure worthwhile. It's a game with skewed priorities. It looks great, has loads of personality, but this close to Rayman Legends, which married its elements so perfectly, I cannot recommend Kutaro's tale wholeheartedly.

There's a lot to like about this pretty, wordless puzzle platformer, but you'll complete many of its repetition-prone puzzles on autopilot. It's heartfelt, but nowhere near as impactful as Limbo or Inside.

It's not quite what Kirby deserved. But Triple Deluxe is still well worth the two or three carelessly entertained afternoons between feathery clouds and cotton candy.

Age of Wonders 3 knows the ropes, so much is clear. But as soon as you get a grip on the clever AI, you'll notice this game might be looking in Civilization's direction – much too often for me to believe that's not what it wants to be – but it never really reaches those heights.

Moving about the impressive cityscape with the help of your miracle powers is a boon. But Second Son is lacking in plot, characters and worthwhile side missions, to be something genuinely impressive. Instead, it's a bit too content to tread well-known paths.

Proteus' metaphor for life is a more lonely one than Journey's and I did miss the more personal note of thatgamecompany's title. Also, the static movement hinders immersion a bit, you don't really feel like you're moving an entity through this sprawling three-and-a-half-bit world. Still, this is worthwhile for one or two goes. Games like Proteus are important – if only to show us how ridiculously reliant we are on genre denominations and categories. Or, to quote the great Frank Zappa, 'without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible'.

Great level design and brilliant dialogue in the second act have you thrilled for the resolution of this well crafted DLC. But that's where Levine overdoes it a bit. It feels forced in a way, as the steps he has to take to get us there, aren't too believable. In some ways he even takes away some of the first Bioshock's magic in the process, which leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Where Fallblox was a step forward, Pullblox World takes one to the side, once again tipping its hat to a simple but entertaining core mechanic.

The campaign has some weaknesses pertaining to the story and the maps, which are a bit too small for their own good. Also, I would have liked a few more clever kills and more options to follow through on my insidious plans. All in all, though, this is a typical Hitman game with quite some technical chops and solid gameplay.

If it wouldn’t be for the name “Ys”, this release wouldn’t exist, but since it’s here: it’s okay, you can play this. Or not. Lots of better action-RPGs out there. Many of them are also called Ys.

Maybe the games' designers will clear up upcoming tracks from some of the visual ballast to take out some of the hecticness of some races and maybe even shorten the almost painfully long loading times. The basics are there, to be sure, to dub the astonishingly good looking WipEout 2048 as racing fans' first choice when the Vita launches on February 22nd.

Stylish adventure game with mostly simple puzzles. Unfortunately, important points of the actual interesting story are dealt with too briefly.

Koei should have kept the story more compact and focused more on the mysterious protagonist instead of a quarreling China. My recommendation: If you love the Warriors series, get the game - there's a lot to like. But if you don't have a clue about Chinese history, don't play it. There are games in the Warriors series that are much easier to get into.

It's a shame that in the end, it's quite apparent that this project started as a tech-demo. As much as the bitter-sweet music and the story of an orphaned boy, his dead mother and a king that never seems to finish what he started try to get an emotional reaction out of you, it always stays a mess of themes and symbolism. If it had something to say, the message somehow got lost under a heap of its own metaphors. If your heart burns mainly for artistic visuals, though, this graphically visionary little game has a lot to offer.

Gameplay-wise Call of Juarez: Gunslinger doesn't do too much different from all the other shooters, but the way Silas' memories shape the campaign gives it a really fresh feel. It really elevates an okay and arcadey corridor shooter to a fascinatingly told western-adventure, that has Fans of John Ford and Sergio Leone fork over the 15 bucks without hesitation.

Techland’s latest dive into zombie parkour chaos is at times pure gold and at others wearying routine, a tightrope walk between adrenaline rush and monotony.

Turns out, RE4 is not a timeless classic, then, but it's a classic nonetheless. And as such you shout, by all means, have played it at least once in your life. The closer to release you did that, the better. But for a mere 20 Bucks you can hardly go wrong in 2014, as well.

I do agree that the biggest horror is the one you cannot see. But that's not the same as making essential puzzle pieces hardly distinguishable.

Technically impressive spin-off with stunning vistas, solid rock-climbing mechanics and entertaining fights using bow and arrow. It plays it a bit too safe and hardly showcases some of the capabilities specific to PlayStation VR2, but does make it easy getting to terms with VR for less experienced players.

It's a shame then, that the beginning section gets way too tedious after the first few tries and the fights are a bit bothersome. Also, the story mode needs to be implemented better, so that you don't have to literally search for it for hours on end. There's really only two ways your first contact with Don't Starve will turn out: Either you really enjoy it for a bit, just to drop it like a hot potato pretty suddenly – or you totally get absorbed in this for quite some time, looking under each and every stone, reading up on the mysteries and workings on forums and so on. As it stands, I see the majority of players in the first camp.

Scram Kitty and his buddy on rails is a decent, but ultimately disappointing experience, that almost had me break my Wii-Tablet over my knee.

Curiously, this offers about the same value as the recently published Stadium, but costs about twice as much.It's not exactly worse than that one, but, crucially, by far not as good a deal.

In the end, Civilization 7 remains a Civilization game at its core. BUT: The new gameplay mechanic with changing ages is a double-edged sword. I'm honestly still not sure what to make of it after all this time with the review version. I see Civilization 7 as a solid foundation for what's to come in the future. In a year's time, this game could look completely different, let alone in three or four. But whether you're ready to embark on this adventure right now is up to you. You might love it. You could hate it. Or, like me, you could be caught between the two.

This still is Baldur's Gate and even in this version it remains a highly worthwhile experience, especially when it comes to party dynamics, lore and the tactical fighting system, even if it sometimes comes across as a bit too reliant dice throws. It is still a big pleasure for anyone who likes their RPGs big, challenging and most of all classical in their setting. Which again brings me to the squandered potential of this re-release. They could have made something really brave and interesting with this. They didn't. So, even when this runs in a more stable manner than it does now, this hardly becomes an essential release.

You have to have some interest in speedruns and an affinity for dexterity games from the first-person perspective with a Quake-like pace. Then you might love it, even though you still have to look past an overly obscure level-design.

All in all, the port is well executed and especially Snake never looked better. But that is hardly a good enough reason for veterans of MGS 3: Subsistence to return to the jungle.

You get a good amount of gaming for little money and you will feel like a happy kid for a while with MotorStorm RC. In the end it´s the completely missing online modes which keep it from higher praise.

Eighteen years after the last installment, Samus Aran finds herself lost in her most linear, easiest game yet. Nevertheless, the unique atmosphere, solid foundations, excellent visuals, and several neat dungeon ideas make Viewros well worth a visit.

It might be lacking in structure and its online systems seem ancient. As a golf game, though, Mario Golf World Tour is solid beyond any doubt. Its inner mechanics just are some of the best in the genre.

Don't Starve can be a real pain. But if you know what you're getting yourself into, you'll not regret answering the call of this cute, but somehow distressingly terrifying wild.

As much as Disgaea 3 can get along on the qualities of the original and of course still is a good game: you just can´t help the feeling, that the Vita should instead have deserved the fourth release of the franchise.

Telltale has a way with words, its authors consistently producing quite powerful stuff. It might well be that they still manage to turn this season into something special with the final episode. I just wish they had sealed the deal sooner by finding a consistent theme to the season and making the narrative less incidental.

In spite of all the youtube-nonsense and the useless frame of a story, Grid feels like a game from another time. It just didn't really evolve all that much from its predecessor, which fit its era much better. The generation was still young back then, but today, Grid 2 has to ask itself, where its place should be, between Shift 2, Forza, Most Wanted, Hot Pursuit, Gran Turismo, iRacing and all the other ones. This field of gaming has great titles for every type of player and the high quality that's on display all throughout Grid 2 has become sort of the bottom line expectation.

Honor of Kings can be a good choice for getting into the genre on a smartphone. After all, the game is simple, offers a stripped-down MOBA experience and helps you to understand the basics in and out of matches. However, the game doesn't really stand out with much.

Some of the action is spectacular and great to play, but in the long run Rogue Flight is quite monotonous.

Nothing on offer here is bad per se. It is very competent in all of the disciplines you'd expect a title with this pedigree to be competent in. But somewhere along the fast track into store shelves Mario's magic got lost. Coming out shortly after the much fresher and more inventive 3D Land didn't do it any favors. And as a successor, six years after the first NSMB, these little updates don't do enough to justify the '2' in the title. This might just be the first Mario game that has you playing it mostly because of twenty year old automatisms.

Brilliant idea, solid framework—and yet an adventure that falls short of its potential: much of the detective work in Hell is Us is more tiresome than engaging.

Even though this sticks close to Dead Space's horror roots in structure and pacing, the last two games were much more threatening, horrifying and memorable. That being said, Visceral hasn't really done anything wrong, except trying to blow up their game to bigger proportions than its initial idea was ever meant to. Consequently, Dead Space 3 can't help but feel stretched. By now, you know the tricks too well, as to be blown away by one or two sound upgrades. (…) Still, this is a competent and at times outright glorious game.

The difficult decisions vividly reflect the struggle for survival. However, the weak, unfaithful soundtrack and the tedious tactical maneuvering in the real-time battles are disappointing.

So I'm disappointed - but I still love roaming the streets with Kazuma again. No other game offers this kind of escapism; the opportunity to get to know a city in such a way that you are familiar with every corner instead of just speeding past it in a car. As much as I would like to see new impulses in the mini-games, as well as the outdated presentation, locations and game mechanics, I'm still not fed up Sega's rehashing of the formula year after year.

The simulation might not be as deep as others, but working the heavy machinery is quite entertaining most of the time.

In terms of gameplay, Pokémon Legends: Z-A has some good points, such as real-time catching and battles, while the city seems limiting. Technically, it's still lagging behind, but at least it runs reasonably well on the Switch 2.

The physics and presentation are so well done that you can have a pleasant game. In terms of gameplay and audiovisuals, however, Zen's tables are still no match for the classics.

Vultures: Scavengers of Death is a fascinating genre experiment with a strong tactical core and wonderfully rough-edged retro survival-horror flair, but unfortunately also a few flaws that are hard to overlook.

Crimes and Punishment is not the sort of adventure where you jam-pack your inventory with random items and boredly click away window after window of borderline meaningless dialog. It's a real detective game – the video game equivalent of a crime novel, suspenseful, but ultimately undemanding.

So again, there's a solid engine at work under the hood of this one, but it still gives you lots of opportunity to get really angry at it at the same time.

Our enthusiasm is only held back by the dozy and overpowered RAAM, who has nothing to add to the formula, but instead strips away most of what is good about Gears. But not to worry, his part is over quickly and then it´s back to the familiar role in some fresh surroundings.

Etrian Odyssey will forever have a special place in my heart, and I'm happy with how the HD remaster for the Nintendo Switch turned out. Still, despite the thoroughly successful visual, technical and auditory performance, Etrian Odyssey doesn't play quite as smoothly as it does on the DS, though.

This 15-minute daily sitcom is wonderfully charming and often makes you laugh. But like a swing that you have to occasionally push, it’s only fun as long as you’re willing to put something into it. Occasional repetition and Nintendo’s sharing restrictions are annoying.

A great power fantasy that invites the creation of strong cinematic moments, but is also never quite pushed to its limits in terms of content and playfulness.

Anomaly 2 is a fresh coat of paint on the tower defense genre without being all too new or disruptive at the same time. It's a well done and refined version of what came before, adding a multiplayer mode. If part one was to your liking, you're not doing anything wrong with this.

A lovingly drawn platformer that is not as lively in terms of gameplay as its visuals might suggest.

The Posthumous Investigation is an adventure game that feels like a visual detective novel that's stylistically poignant yet shallow in terms of actual detective work.

The rally aspect suffers from the openness of the tracks, the game world is not very exciting, but it includes a lot of new content and comes with the usual good gameplay.

Van Helsing 2 is a charming and solid piece of hack and slash, spiced with interesting gimmicks and a good dose of humor.

Until Kid Icarus Uprising is released, checking out this remake on the 3DS is well worth your time.

The Knife of Dunwall is a good, solid DLC, that strives to give you more of what made the main game something special. This only serves to show that Arkane can trust in the base mechanics they thought up for Dishonored. It's just a shame it only really gets going soon before the credits roll, so make sure you're prepared to pay up for a follow up to this.

This is a solid version that's well worth the download for Xbox live gold members. Compared to the PC game it lacks too many features, though, and technologically it is far behind as well.

The meager eight stages are fun, but leave you very abruptly stranded at the end-credits and wishing for more areas, Bossfights and especially many more weapons.

Moonrider is a solid remix of its masters, a decent game that never particularly shines. It offers up a good challenge and nice level design that often has you thinking, 'hey, I know recognize that!' — when you're actually thinking of a superior title that you should be playing instead.

Tactica is a solid turn-based tactics affair with a static meta game and long speech bubble conversations, which ultimately isn't as stylishly sure-footed as the main title in the series.

Charming adventure that's a little too similar to Journey and somewhat lacking in depth - but unique in how it has you herding fantastical beasts on a wordless trip into the mountains.

Even if the premise is not as self-contained as it should be and the basic design not as fascinating, as in the game that helped Swifts rise to fame: Friend of Portal-esque puzzles will find enough to do for two long afternoons - and at a reasonable price point, too.

Rocksmith's European version is an improvement over the original but the ingenious concept still leaves some things to be desired. The idea is there, the tech works. Now it's up to future versions to serve guitar prospects the freedoms to choose how they play the game and to ditch the automatically adjusting difficulty.

The gameplay really is to be commended, even though in aiming for the mass market, musically, Fantasia loses a bit of its soul.