You should take my opinion on this with a grain of salt, if you weren’t doing that already. This has never exactly been my franchise, and I picked up Monster Hunter: World after hearing from a number of people that this was supposed to be a good jumping-on point. It is, but only by comparison to the games that came before it. If you’ve already put in the time with previous Monster Hunter titles, and especially if you have a crew to run with, Monster Hunter: World is going to be everything you’ve ever wanted. If you don’t have that experience, though, this game is a slog, and I’m having a hard time finding the fun here. Call it a 70% or so from me, but a fan of the franchise is gonna still be playing this a year from now.

There are a couple of interesting levels or sequences throughout the game, and the production values are obviously high, but Dead Space 2 is blatantly uninspired.

If you never purchased "Superbike 2000" and you're a fan of motorbike racing, Superbike 2001 is a game you don't want to miss.

The graphics have been prettied up, but the rest of the game has been completely moronized and user-friendlized to foot the bill of I-don't-know-who.

Its charms, however, such as they are, are mostly lost on me.

I applaud Arkane for switching up the Dishonored stealth/action formula here, and for addressing a few of the issues Dishonored had. Deathloop just feels too limited by comparison, though, and too repetitive by half besides. I know a lot of people who really like it, but it fell pretty flat for me.

A difficult game to control as you try and keep the camera and all your units going in the right directions with the mouse and keyboard.

But right now the Guitar Hero franchise is doing real damage to the genre by diluting the quality of its games in the attempt to cash in quickly on a formula that sells. It’s sad, and moreover it’s incredibly shortsighted.

But right now the Guitar Hero franchise is doing real damage to the genre by diluting the quality of its games in the attempt to cash in quickly on a formula that sells. It’s sad, and moreover it’s incredibly shortsighted.

Some games grow on you the more you play them, as you get used to the little idiosyncrasies and learn to appreciate the finer points. Far Cry 2 is at the opposite end of the spectrum, a game that makes it harder and harder for you to like it by placing more and more junk between you and its best features.

Some games grow on you the more you play them, as you get used to the little idiosyncrasies and learn to appreciate the finer points. Far Cry 2 is at the opposite end of the spectrum, a game that makes it harder and harder for you to like it by placing more and more junk between you and its best features.

It's essentially the same game that's been around for over a decade, with slightly prettier window-dressing.

Some games grow on you the more you play them, as you get used to the little idiosyncrasies and learn to appreciate the finer points. Far Cry 2 is at the opposite end of the spectrum, a game that makes it harder and harder for you to like it by placing more and more junk between you and its best features.

A nice looking but repetitive and slightly annoying management game.

Overall, while I found This War of Mine to be an intriguing and novel game, I didn’t really enjoy it. It is downbeat and somber to a fault, especially if things start deteriorating and you have to watch your civilians get ground down into nothing.

The huge number of fatal and annoying bugs is unfortunate, because Crimson Skies would be a very good game without them.

Alan Wake is ambitious, occasionally funny, and distinctly memorable; like I said before, I don't regret playing it at all. My abiding impression of the game, though, is of wasted potential. We've been waiting for the next great horror game since Silent Hill 2, and this could've been it.

Odin Sphere ends up being an unforgettable game due to its graphics and unique gameplay, but ends up being riddled with some major problems and puzzling game design issues that greatly reduce the amount of fun that can be had with it.

Superhot almost seems like the teaser for a Kickstarter campaign, one that I think I would support, but as a standalone game it is just too thin.

It may not take long to beat, but there is a good amount of unlockable missions, time trials, and a fairly entertaining versus mode to be had once you do.

But don't be fooled. The new content isn't overwhelming, and Shadow Magic plays almost identically to "Age of Wonders II."

One of the worst interfaces I’ve ever seen in an adventure game.

I found the first hour of LoG nostalgic, and the next hour tolerable, and the hours after that aggravating. The dungeon is bland and the enemies are flat and the combat interface is cumbersome – in others words, just like every RPG dungeon crawl in the 80's.

Perhaps this game would have been a blockbuster back in the days when all games required you to use your imagination to fill in the gaps where graphics and processing power weren't up to the task yet. And indeed, for those "gamers" who still pine for their Commodore 64's, Crusader Kings 2 may provide everything they would ever need. For those of us gaming in the year 2012, however, there just isn't enough here.

Both fascinating and addictive to play, and yet has so many rough edges that you might not want to play it at all.

As good as PES can be, and the moments of magic are arguably better than those on FIFA, it has fallen so far behind the competition in so many aspects that it's difficult to make a serious comparison. I know I've come across as a FIFA fanboy here, and PES 2013 isn't without its merits, but if you can only play one soccer game this year, I'd go with the former rather than the latter.

I will say that it is worth playing through once, if only to see the movies, and the multiplayer adds some more mileage to it. But as an entry into the C&C universe, it demonstrates a series well past its peak.

The campaign in Celtic Kings isn’t especially different than campaigns in any other real-time strategy game, and, in fact, nothing about Celtic Kings is especially different than what you’ll find in other games.

The game is about a 10-hour experience. There's absolutely no reason to replay it.

I think if you really took the time to delve into and test out the game’s options, then you could make it effective at simulating a modern Major League season, and if you're interested in other leagues (like the Japanese or Mexican leagues) or in historical leagues, then OTPB9 is just about the only option out there.

I failed to get into it. I skipped lightly along the plot, confronted by moral and ethical choices I for the most part either didn’t understand the implications of or didn’t care enough about. Interviews I have read with the designers indicated they wanted players to consider the question “What does one life matter.” This game didn’t make me consider that. It did make me consider what a dozen or so hours of my life are worth, and this wasn’t it.

There’s also something terribly wrong with the sound in RollerCoaster Tycoon 3.

It is also diminished by the inability to keep the results you've tallied during a mission; namely the veteran status of your officers and soldiers.

While the game does have it's moments, it ends up leaving a mediocre impression at best due to a lack of creative gameplay.

The lack of difficulty levels, imbalanced gameplay mechanics and lack of multiplayer support reduce this game from being much more than a rent for anyone other than the most hardcore flight fanatic.

While I applaud their artists and music, The Banner Saga has very little else to cheer about.

The gameplay throughout has taken a back seat to the titles aspirations, and since a good deal of those aspirations do not quite pan out an outright purchase cannot be recommended. Fans of the previous titles will want to give it a Saturday's rental, however, if for no other reason than try to bed-down a peasant girl and possibly contract something nasty (no joke).

Its mechanics are simple and its missions are boring, and so there’s just nothing to recommend about it.

This isn’t the game you’re looking for unless you are Vampire: The Masquerade obsessed or just completely strung out on buggy RPGs. There’s a lot of nice elements hiding under the hideously overwrought surface, but it’s hard to say that they’re worth digging for.

That said, I think Hasbro needs to be very cautious about returning to this well too often (Hello, Tomb Raider). While I liked this one, I don't think I'd receive RCT XP3 as kindly.

A great idea for a game, but it's a broken, uninspired mess. It looks okay, the music's fine, and upon first blush, it plays as well as you'd expect it would. The deeper you get into it, though, the less you'll find to keep you playing.

Despite a plethora of flaws, SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 remains a capable, if underachieving, wrestling game.

Didn’t hate it. Didn’t love it. Don’t feel like it soiled my fond memories of the last X-Wing series in any serious way. It’s just another in a long line of Star Wars games that could have been great and instead ended up being solidly mediocre.

The computer AI doesn’t cut it, the units do retarded things sometimes, and the multiplayer game is either too long, or too uninteresting compared to other RTS games available out there – I would much rather play "Warcraft 3" or "C&C: Generals."

Lost Planet brings to the table an awkward shooter with no story to speak of and whose general gameplay mechanics are somewhat flawed or incomplete. However, there are players out there who may just want to shoot some bugs out in the cold.

Overall, Tropico 3 is a fine city management game, provided that you don't mind that it's essentially just Tropico with a modern game engine.

The game has one glaring hole that has to disappoint everyone who plays it, even long standing fans of the series, and that is the combat system.

At points where the car’s unusable, The Following is just more Dying Light, which is still a fun but flawed experience, and those are also the points where the expansion is at its best.

It’s good, simple fun. It’s just that it’s tough to be too upbeat about a game that you might finish in a single sitting.

I wouldn’t recommend Port Royale unless you’re looking for a slow-paced game that challenges your brain more than your reflexes, and unless you’re only planning to play an hour or two each night. If you play any more than that, the game will get too repetitive and too boring too quickly.

Five maps for 1200 MPS is not a very good deal, especially when you can buy many enjoyable arcade games for the same price. The new zombie map -"Call of the Dead"- is, however, enjoyable and the best Call of Duty zombie map so far.

If you like the puzzles, then you’ll like the game. If you don’t like (or can’t complete) the puzzles, then you probably won’t. Since I’m guessing most people will fall under the latter category than the former, Uru isn’t a game I’d recommend you purchase.

That isn’t to say this is a bad game. Even a bad Gears game is a good game; it’s just unfortunate that this series has to end – on this console generation anyway – not with a bang, but with a whimper.

Bound in Blood certainly isn’t without its flaws, but for fans of the genre I definitely suggest picking it up and giving it a try.

I love the color. I love the creativity. I love the intensity and the barely controlled mayhem. But over it all, there’s no denying that Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is more or less a glittery skin thrown over Borderlands 3. As a DLC maybe (and when I told some of my friends that I was reviewing Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, several of them asked, oh, is that the new Borderlands DLC?) something limited to the 10-15 hour or less realm (and the $20 or less price tag), this might work. But as a new thing, that really isn’t anything different from the old thing, Gearbox really needs to find something to freshen up this formula, and I don’t mean top-flight voice talent.

Intermittent AI detection, graphical issues that affect core gameplay and length issues truly diminishes the impressive nature of this game. What’s worse, Gamecube owners are deprived of the multiplayer mode, which extends the value of Pandora Tomorrow greatly.

Put simply and colloquially, this game sucks. Bad. There is extremely few good things about this game (and I'm being open-minded about it - *I* haven't found any good things about the game whatsoever).

Despite a plethora of flaws, SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 remains a capable, if underachieving, wrestling game.

Probably the first true competitive sports game in virtual reality. It has its flaws, sure, but it offers an entertaining experience sports fans will definitely enjoy.

I found the controls very sloppy for an FPS, and almost downright unresponsive during short periods when there was a big explosion or several grenades going off at once (seemingly independent of whether or not the explosion was actually in my field of view at the time).

I realize this has been a fairly short review (especially by my standards), but frankly there just isn’t that much to say about PES 2014. It feels like a slightly shinier version of last year’s installment.

Tales from the Borderlands is a fun interactive movie, but it could do with a little more player input and less linearity.

Shank 2 features tighter gameplay than the first, but also more glitches and slowdown, and graphics that have pretty much stayed the same with a soundtrack that isn't as good as the first. At $10, it isn't a terrible use of money and does offer a few hours of fun, but my gut tells me it's best to wait for a price drop - there will probably be one for both the PS3 and 360 versions at some point, and there will definitely be one for the PC/Steam version. If you didn't really love the first game, you can skip this one, but if you did, definitely give it a shot when it drops in price.

Far Cry has gone the way of Assassin’s Creed, another source of income that’s been left to stagnate so everything that worked can be borrowed by the inevitable sequel.

I don’t know if I’d buy Street Fighter V right now unless you plan on being a part of your area’s competitive scene. It’s not particularly casual-friendly and that’s mostly by design.

Bound in Blood certainly isn’t without its flaws, but for fans of the genre I definitely suggest picking it up and giving it a try.

As I walk away from my review and Zeno Clash I’m left with the feeling that as an arcade game (albeit one with vastly superior graphics), something that you would chuck a few quarters at and play for a couple of hours and then not play again for several months, it would have been OK.

There’s more to the gameplay than may initially meet the eye, but there are a lot of annoying hiccups in the flow that make it more of a chore than a fun game to play at times – and hurt the experience as a whole quite a bit.

Multiplayer has within it the seeds for fine gameplay, but with some iffy design decisions, lacking a serious tutorial, no AI to play with, and few other people to play against, it turns what should have been the game’s best piece into its greatest disappointment.

If it had free no-holds-barred multiplayer, UaW would be a very good game.

Sid Meier’s Railroads! isn’t a game I’d recommend for strategy fans. Most of the things that made the Railroad Tycoon franchise fun and challenging were either removed or dumbed down here, and the result is a game that might appeal to casual gamers who like trains... or it might not.

A very accessible racing title that is easy to play from the start so fun is also a word that comes along for the ride. But in spite of the variety, I came away with the feeling that there was too much and then at the same time, too little of a game.

I will say that it is worth playing through once, if only to see the movies, and the multiplayer adds some more mileage to it. But as an entry into the C&C universe, it demonstrates a series well past its peak.

The lack of difficulty levels, imbalanced gameplay mechanics and lack of multiplayer support reduce this game from being much more than a rent for anyone other than the most hardcore flight fanatic.

I’d only recommend Risen to people who really enjoyed the Gothic series, or perhaps similarly flawed games like Two Worlds or Dungeon Lords.

"Master of Orion 3: had better save me from all this crap, that’s all I’ve got to say.

A game that is less puzzle-like than "Commandos" and more action-like than the roots of which this game originated from.

Overall, despite some performance issues, I rather enjoyed the mercenaries, spies and private eyes campaign that is Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. I’d like to see the development team get a chance to really flesh out a longer campaign in this style, but you know…the call of duty.

A damned scary game, and it's one of the better survival horror titles out there because of that. It's good to see its designers taking risks and experimenting with the formula. This time, however, it's kind of a misfire. It's by no means a failure, but it's not a success, either.

Unfortunately a lot of the good aspects are overshadowed by poor controls and camera angles that are downright scary.

For $50, players deserve more than a badly-programmed mish-mash of the Burnout series. It’s easily the weakest console entry in the series yet.

A lack of checkpoints, imperfect weapon design and control along with a lack of a story that players will care for makes this the low point for the impressive franchise.

MAG is not particularly user-friendly. I am told that below its exterior, if you find a good clan and have a good headset, it is a deep, fluid military shooter with hundreds of hours of gameplay lurking within it.

It does not revolutionize any concepts in the genre but it manages to get the basics down right to make an enjoyable urban planning experience.

A game with a fundamentally really messed up economy in a lot of ways (money, trust, gas, ammunition, motorcycle repair – none of it works right) wrapped around a so-so open world zombie combat sandbox. I think more than anything else, it makes me want to play more Dying Light.

Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions is definitely a mixed bag. It's not a "bad" game per se despite having some poorly-executed parts to its gameplay, but it's also not as good as the franchise's best gaming entries either.

I eventually stopped playing after about 30 hours because the game was just too mind-numbingly boring to continue. I was also shocked that I had only played for 30 hours. It felt like at least twice that long.

I'm aware I've probably come across as being overly negative in this review, but I think it's just because I'm such a huge football nut. It's not that FIFA Street is a bad game per say, but I don't think it works nearly as well as it should. The fact is that FIFA Street was designed specifically for a small percentage of gamers; namely those with the same fanaticism I have. I don't see this appealing to anyone who isn't a diehard footy fan, but then I can't see anyone who isn't a diehard footy fan buying this in the first place. So consider this a warning to temper your expectations football fanatics: FIFA Street is worth playing if you can get past a slew of minor annoyances and some sore thumbs.

The combination of frustrating mission mechanics and limited replay value leads me to strongly suggest renting Destroy All Humans before buying, if at all, regardless of your love for bad sci-fi.

A damned scary game, and it's one of the better survival horror titles out there because of that. It's good to see its designers taking risks and experimenting with the formula. This time, however, it's kind of a misfire. It's by no means a failure, but it's not a success, either.

The presentation is fine, and RoboBlitz's sheer challenge factor will probably attract serious platformer fans. It's frustrating, though, and all the moreso when a seemingly simple task just refuses to work for no good reason.

Ultimately, I left Starfighter SE with mixed feelings like one of the characters at the end of the game. He has done his share of the fighting and would simply want to walk off the stage.

The result is a game that I think will appeal to little more than the Borderlands diehards.

A fair presentation of a game that we’ve all played a lot of times before.

I liken Blade of Darkness to a popcorn flick. Check your brain at the door, this one’s all about the special effects and boisterous fighting scenes.

In the overall impression of Tomb Raider: Underworld, I believe somewhere under this mess lies an actual good game you can play and enjoy. Unfortunately the lack of polish and refinement that could have done to fix the awful camera and frame rate might have saved the enjoyment of Lara Croft’s newest adventure.

There aren’t enough interactive moments in the action-adventure, and the few that are there aren’t interesting enough or complicated enough to make the game worth playing.

Overall, Tropico 3 is a fine city management game, provided that you don't mind that it's essentially just Tropico with a modern game engine.