Despite some of the missteps, World Tour's bedrock gameplay remains a reason to check out the title. The 3DS' touchscreen is used to add draw, fade, loft, and drive to your shots, and it works well. Additions like this and online play show that the series hasn't remained stagnant in its long interval, but they aren't entirely unexpected, either. Mario Golf: World Tour is a welcome but not irrefutably triumphant return.

The PC version of Dark Souls II is the definitive one to own. It’s a good step up in the graphics and performance departments, annoying load times are drastically reduced, and players can even opt to play with the mouse and keyboard if they so desire. It shows that From Software spent a considerable amount of time attempting to come up with controls that would feel natural on the PC.

Even so, FTL is richly imagined and hard to put down, and an impressively deep and complex game for the iOS platform.

It feels like a lot of a sizzle for such a small piece of steak. If this had been packed in with the Xbox One to demonstrate the new Kinect, it would seem like a nice extra. As a standalone game, it's just not compelling.

Trials Fusion, like its predecessors, is a bundle of fun packaged in frustration, repetition, and memorization. If that kind of punishment is your cup of tea, Fusion offers more of what you’ve come to expect.

Trials Fusion, like its predecessors, is a bundle of fun packaged in frustration, repetition, and memorization. If that kind of punishment is your cup of tea, Fusion offers more of what you’ve come to expect. The existing formula is an awfully good one, but with few meaningful steps forward, it’s easy to feel like we’ve crashed down this road before.

Trials Fusion, like its predecessors, is a bundle of fun packaged in frustration, repetition, and memorization. If that kind of punishment is your cup of tea, Fusion offers more of what you’ve come to expect.

Age of Wonders III's wealth of unit types and leader abilities leads to some engaging battles. I just wish as much thought was required for its strategic empire-building sections. If you can put up with the toil of running an empire, you are treated to some compelling and rewarding combat. Unfortunately, you have to do both, because you can't play only half a game.

World Cup Brazil has its advantages, but it's stuck in an awkward position. It's not the best representation of all the tournament encompasses, and in some ways it's not even better than FIFA 14.

If the gameplay is a zero-sum when compared to FIFA 14, the title's World Cup-related accoutrements are welcome, but not significant.

Some of the most exciting RPGs work with relationship building, like Persona and Fire Emblem, but this just takes it in a bizarre direction. Merely giving players a chance to pair up isn't enough; the actual relationship building needs have genuine developments and substance, and Conception II hits all the wrong notes.

I could forgive the plot if the game was actually exciting, but this is a dull dungeon crawler. Some of the most exciting RPGs work with relationship building, like Persona and Fire Emblem, but this just takes it in a bizarre direction.

Moebius is missing a spark — something that makes you want to keep playing. It has a few shining moments with some standout humorous lines, but they're buried in bad dialogue, empty characters, and a dry mystery. Sadly, I don't think people will be talking about Malachi Rector with the esteem they do Gabriel Knight.

Boom Beach gives you more strategic options than its predecessor, but it is still designed to create lulls that encourage you to pay to speed up the clock, limiting the average player’s access to its best features.

R.B.I. Baseball 14 is one of the most baffling new releases I’ve come across. The visuals are somewhat modern, and the rosters are current, but everything that happens after the pitch is thrown harks back to the ‘80s – a time when developers were just starting to figure out how to make baseball games.

It's not enough that Trials Frontier has mastered the gameplay of the series on its new platform. The inflated structure that surrounds it – whether you pay or not – obscures what makes Frontier worth playing.

The 360 version of Titanfall holds up well as an overall experience, even though it is undoubtedly the worst way to experience the game, reflected in a quarter-point drop in score compared to the Xbox One and PC versions.

The Show 14 is another pennant-winning effort for Sony San Diego that showcases improvements both on and off the field, and opens avenues of play to people looking to digest baseball in different ways.

A Crooked Mile is a much more balanced episode than its predecessor.

With all of the side quests and collectibles, Lego The Hobbit is a complete and entertaining game. If you were counting on the Lego version of a movie adaptation of a 70-year-old book to deliver an unsullied narrative experience, you were expecting too much anyway.

On my short list for mobile game of the year.

As it is, this style of shooting action feels like it’s stretched thin over such a lengthy campaign, and some of the missions might have been more fun if I hadn’t already explored the maps so thoroughly. That tedium certainly isn’t enough for me to warn people away from such a richly illustrated tribute to the roots of the shooter.

I don’t completely regret playing Goat Simulator, but I also don’t recommend it to anyone looking for more than disposable entertainment involving goats making people fall down and blowing up gas stations. I appreciate that Coffee Stain Studios is in on the joke, but acknowledging a game is bad doesn't suddenly make it good.

I’m a firm believer that a puzzle game needs to stand apart from whatever license or theme it has slapped on it. The game is the mechanic, after all. This is a case where characters are really the only really appealing thing there is. Games like Puzzle & Dragons have successfully juggled a similar mechanic and character-collection elements, proving that it can be done – and done well. Pokémon Battle Trozei is too superficial to remain interesting in the long term.

With a staggering revamp that touched upon almost all aspects of the game and modes that keep things interesting, Reaper of Souls isn’t so much an expansion as it is a completely new game.

Smite is an excellent addition to an expanding genre, and one that distinguishes itself from the rest of the pack with decidedly different gameplay, a quirky and lighthearted take on classic mythology, and a variety of interesting modes.

Mercenary Kings is a testament to the idea that you can get too much of a good thing.

I appreciate the new freedom that Blood Ties affords combos, but there isn’t much else in place that dramatically changes up the formula from what we’ve seen before.