If you do enjoy the challenge of playing other humans and you have an interest in Ping Pong, you should definitely give Rockstar’s Table Tennis a try. You’ll be amazed just how well the game captures the essence of the sport.

Overall, Samurai Shodown has some rough edges to it – but fewer than any entry has had in around 20 years. It’s the best-playing entry in the series since the legendary second installment, and stands out nicely even in today’s crowded field of fighters. Much like it did in the early ’90s, by being different than the pack with its feudal Japanese setting and story, it allows the core game to be different even if the framework is still a single-plane fighter. It’s a must-play for any lapsed fans of the series and will not only rekindle old memories, but forge new ones for all who play it.

Stronghold is a very interesting game; a game which has no equals, not because it’s that outstanding, but because there’s been so few games that can fight for the title of castle sim champion.

I’ve got to give it big kudos for being something that feels absolutely unlike any other FPS out there in many ways. I think it’s worth supporting for that reason alone.

It is unfortunate there isn't a free campaign mode in this game like Rome: Total War or any of the Total War series. Such a feature would have taken this title to the next level and mitigated the shortcomings of an overly rigid single player campaign and a reduced multiplayer component. Still, it is one of a kind.

A solid script, good gameplay and a huge dose of humor makes this game stand out as a nice platformer. Unfortunately, technical issues prevent this game from truly standing out as exceptional.

So how does GoldenEye 007 on the Wii stack up to the N64 classic? Well, the short answer is that the two really can't be compared. Will any experience ever match that of the original? Probably not. Does this game do a fantastic job of recreating the Bond universe in a new era? Absolutely.

Overall, Vampire Smile is a major improvement over the first game, which was still pretty good in its own right.

The bottom line here is that Broken Steel is more Fallout 3, and if you’re a fan that can’t possibly be a bad thing. Like with the other DLC, the story will probably only take you a few hours to go through and then you’re left with the goodies.

The game is very polished and smooth – I hit zero bugs while playing it, and didn’t have to download a 10GB patch the day after it was released, and Gearbox should be congratulated for that if nothing else. So if what you’re looking for is more Borderlands, this would be the place to find it.

Graphically gorgeous, audibly impressive (except in a few places where the music and sound design decisions are absolutely confounding) and totally immersive sums up Final Fantasy XV in one sentence. Is it a perfect entry into the series? Hell no. There’s some serious downtime and the car mechanics needed a lot more time to bake, but all in all the entire experience is worthy of its place and, most of all, worthy of your time and money.

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

Though it degenerates into a lot of fighting at the end, and makes a fair number of mistakes in its execution along the way, there’s something entrancing about this game and each of the amazing things you can do.

Civilization: Beyond Earth is a game that grew on me. I started skeptical, fearing it would simply be a gussied-up Civ 5 mod. But I’m now convinced it’s a damn fine game in its own right.

It has not only breathed new aspirations into the already high level characters, it has given the up and coming characters a place to look forward to.

Difficulties on defense and an overpowering “icing” technique aside, NCAA Football 09 has put itself in contention for a championship season. With the addition of the online dynasty and the always-outstanding college football atmosphere, all the talent is here to make this a memorable year.

A portable platform puzzler that while simple in nature, is sure to please fans of both Nintendo characters.

An impressive addition to the Mortal Kombat Universe, one that handily picks up where "Deadly Alliance" left off. The included game modes expands the replayability for Deception significantly, and the stability of online play will guarantee that this title will stay in consoles for a long, long time.

It’s a little buggy, and a little bland on the eyes (I bought a new 30” 1900×1200 monitor for what exactly?), but it is funny as hell if your humor runs blackly, and is absolutely packed with stuff.

Overall, it's a better game (probably the best it's ever been), but the experience still isn't what it should be.

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.

College Hoops 2K8 is your best college basketball option for this year. The game looks good, the gameplay is as sharp as ever, and the feel of college basketball is there. If you're a college basketball fan, then this one is easy to recommend.

All in all, I found that Midnight Club: L.A. is an incredibly enjoyable, but flawed racing game that succeeds at offering an excellent virtual L.A. and a great deal of fun racing action, but also requires you to jump through far too many hoops to fully enjoy the game.

If you’re a fan of the board game or strategy games in general, there’s no better way to spend your Microsoft Points.

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

An excellent and vast real-time strategy game that is complex yet fun to play, and which provides almost unlimited replayability.

It may be a lot easier than the original, but in almost every other way--graphics, sound, atmosphere, storytelling, sheer style--it's a drastic improvement.

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.

Provides an enjoyable hockey experience that’s easy to pick up and play, graphically sound and aurally interesting just like before. However, this experiment with more realism injected into the series lacks a certain amount of zip that diehard fans have come to know and love.

Fast RMX doesn’t reinvent the series, but it does bring anti-gravity racing to a Nintendo console at launch for the first time in many years. It is a perfect pick-up for fans of the genre that grew up on F-Zero and wanted something to follow in its footsteps. It controls like a dream using the JoyCon grip and feels as natural as using a more traditional controller. It’s also one of the best-looking games on the system and takes what was already an incredible experience on the Wii U and improves it with more content. The online setup is flawed, but what little is there is executed well. Fast RMX is an outstanding game and one of the Switch’s best launch titles.

So Age of Empires IV is well put together and polished to high hell. I wish that something new had been done to bring the RTS genre that has been sitting more or less idle for a decade or so into the modern era, but you can’t have everything, and I suspect that more stuff like a map editor will be added in the future. Beyond that, with the recently released AOE2 Definitive Edition, that title, now 22 years old and $30 cheaper, already comes with a map editor that AOE4 lacks, and roughly a trillion player-made maps, and is probably the better bargain for your gaming dollar, especially if somehow you never got around to playing it previously.

Overall, FIFA 08 is a wonderful soccer game that improves on its predecessor in almost every way. It looks great, plays great, and is back on the right track for taking the crown back from the Winning Eleven series.

In the end, Rage reminds me a lot of Borderlands, another game that, while uniquely awesome in its own way, ultimately left me disappointed: same basic locale, same silent protagonist, same pseudo-open world, same focus on driving to missions, same side quest driven, bare-bones story. To be honest, the fact that Rage is a better shooter with much better vehicle controls is tempered by the lack of RPG elements that would allow you to invest in, or "own," your character. Instead, you're just sort of... there.

"X-Men Legends" on steroids. It’s bigger and better.

Aside from some lingering issues with the gameplay and horrendous online issues, it’s a well-crafted game that should satisfy fans of the series, and bring back those who have lost faith in it in the past.

Technically, BFV remains a really nicely constructed game for the most part. The weapons feel and sound great. The environments of snow and water and sand are stunning. The game is relatively bug free (other than AI shortcomings) and the servers are stable. The menu structures however are terrible, with a layout reminiscent of the windows tiles and a functionality that would best be described as counterintuitive. Sometimes I found myself just clicking on boxes almost randomly, curious where they would take me because I didn’t really know.

The included game modes expands the replayability for Deception significantly, and the stability of online play will guarantee that this title will stay in consoles for a long, long time.

The singleplayer campaign lacks polish and as a result, some of the objectives are confusing and ultimately meaningless, and the levels feel disjointed. Where Perfect Dark Zero excels is multiplayer, co-operatively and competitively, with a vast selection of cool weapons, a number of clever game types and a seemlingly endless number of options.

The largest improvement in the game, the one that I’m sure without even checking that all the forums are buzzing about, is that halfway or so through the game you get to customize your light saber.

The point here is despite all its flaws, Ninja Gaiden 2 was still able to deliver some excitement and thrills and every now and then it exhibits some of the pure kung-fu insanity that placed its predecessor on the mantle of genre-defining action titles.

NBA Live 10 looks great, and finally plays great as well. The Dynamic Season mode is the highlight of the game, and is worth the price of admission by itself.

Overall, I enjoyed the time I spent with A Plague Tale: Innocence. It’s unique in premise and content, it looks and sounds good, and it doesn’t overstay its welcome. I probably would have liked it even better if it had stayed more stealthy than action-oriented, but I’m not going to complain. A Plague Take definitely isn’t for kids — violence and gruesome deaths abound, and there is also some (completely unnecessary) profanity — but for everyone else, it’s a worthwhile game to check out, just perhaps at a slightly cheaper price.

Provides an enjoyable hockey experience that’s easy to pick up and play, graphically sound and aurally interesting just like before. However, this experiment with more realism injected into the series lacks a certain amount of zip that diehard fans have come to know and love.

Overall, Black Ops 3 is an outstanding entry in the franchise.

Overall, I think Trine remains a clever little side-scrolling puzzler, which, four iterations in, is a genuinely pleasant surprise for me. The puzzles remain fresh, and build kind of organically as the game progresses, so the difficulty curve is rather constant throughout. The multiplayer isn’t all that great unless you have a friend and a yen to really play it that way. I’m at about the 75% point in just four hours of play, so I think something like 5-7 hours is about what you’ll get out of it, multiplayer aside. I seem to recall in an earlier review that I said that Trine takes the side scroller about as far as it can go, and I think that remains true of Trine 4 as well.

The audio is about what you’d expect from an Outrun game - nearly perfect. Both the remixes and original OR songs enhance the action, and accurately reflect the casual vibe given off throughout it.

Even with the technical snafus that sometimes plague Legends, this is still the best X-Men title ever produced. The Action/RPG elements are nicely integrated within an epic storyline with plenty of intrigue and a huge amount of gameplay that can take 20 hours or more to fully complete.

With the variety of ghosts and ghostly powers, there are many ways to complete missions, and so even though you could probably finish the campaign in well under 10 hours, there’s lots of room for re-playability, and you might find Ghost Master haunting your hard drive for weeks to come.

Lengthy in nature, Breath of Fire II will keep you busy for quite some time and the story is more interesting in this rendition, with a colorful, and at times, zany cast.

if you’re looking to take your tactical skills online, Island Thunder breathes new life into the multiplayer experience, and the promise of additional missions in the coming months via Xbox Live is icing on the cake.

With a strong dose of attitude, very accessible control scheme and creative spin on the sport of football, NFL Street is a bold and worthy addition to the EA Sports Big family.

There’s a ton of replay value with the numerous game modes, and the computer opponents can always be counted on for a challenge, especially with the expansive number of moves for each fighter.

But overall, The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 is a nice adventure. It’s friendly and it’s colorful and its puzzles are of moderate difficulty.

Does Dungeon Defenders stand out from the crowd? If I had to judge this game based solely on the action/tower defense/RPG gameplay, I would have to say no. None of those three features really shines and the whole isn't greater than the sum of its parts. However, the multiplayer component is done so well, with fluid matchmaking, well-balanced dungeons (for a group), and even the ability to hang out in a communal tavern between missions, it does present itself well as a great party game (either LAN or headset-over-internet). And at only fifteen dollars, it won't be too difficult to convince your friends to join in.

UMvC 3 is an outstanding game and an absolute must-buy for those who love the series but didn't buy MvC 3 for whatever reason. If you did buy it, then I would recommend waiting for a price drop unless you absolutely MUST recreate your favorite Strider Hiryu moments from MvC 2 - $40 is a fantastic price for those without MvC 3, but isn't so attractive if you already spent $60 on MvC 3.

Don’t get me wrong; it’s not bad by any stretch of the imagination. But given that XCOM2 is over four years old, I was expecting something more and better, and I feel like Gears: Tactics delivered neither.

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 is an outstanding shooter well worth the time of anyone who enjoyed the first game. Newcomers to this sub-series can start off with this game without losing anything, and will be rewarded with a finely-tuned and highly-polished effort.

Longtime Disgaea fans will want to get Disgaea 5 as soon as possible. It takes everything that has worked before and makes the gameplay better than ever. While the storyline isn’t all that amazing, it does have some excellent characters and Killia is a blast.

If you love Civ (and if you are reading this, the assumption is that you do), buying this expansion is simply a must. The people that are waiting for a sale before buying, I pity, because they don't know it yet, but they are playing half a game.

If you absolutely have no other way of playing the game, then give this a rental, and if you like it, buy it once the price has dropped and its major glitches have been patched up by Rockstar.

Bottom line, when it comes to squad-based tactical shooters, it doesn't get much better than this.

After bringing the series closer to its roots in Tekken 5, Namco has continued that trend with Tekken 6 and the end result is a game sure to please fighting fans of any experience level.

While it’s still a pretty good adventure, it doesn’t have the same magic for me that "Syberia" did.

The ending is simply spectacular and is worth working hard to get to. When it comes to storylines, I have to take off my hat and congratulate Jane Jenson to be the Agatha Christy of Mystery Adventure games.

It's a short but wholly entertaining first person shooter, made more so by its intriguing setting and plot.

Tyranny is no Pillars of Eternity – let me say that straight out – but the story has some compelling moments.

The graphics are smooth and exciting, the action is hectic and well-balanced, and the gameplay is truly like nothing else I've ever seen before. And, as I started out saying, this is a budget title. How much gameplay do you need for $10? I think for the money Anomaly: Warzone Earth is a fine bargain.

However, unlike Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, which came off feeling entirely like filler, Revelations has just enough assassiny goodness to sate your bloodlust while also feeling very important to understanding all of the heroes so far, even Desmond.

Merely adequate. There's some pretty glaring problems that simply overshadow the good areas of the game. Hopefully a sequel will straighten these out, because there is the potential for a truly great game here.

Overall, this game is your standard Madden, with a standard amount of improvements and beefed up graphics and animations. It looks great, and the new gameplay features make this title well worth the purchase for Madden fans.

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

Aside from some lingering issues with the gameplay and horrendous online issues, it’s a well-crafted game that should satisfy fans of the series, and bring back those who have lost faith in it in the past.

An excellent game. Is it completely new? No. Is it revolutionary in some way? No. But EA has taken the core FIFA game and improved it to create the best FIFA footballer to date. If you are a soccer game fan, you simply can't miss this title.

Sure, mini-golf is fun and online is fun, but most of what you’ve seen here is found in the previous game, which is somewhat disappointing.

However, unlike Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, which came off feeling entirely like filler, Revelations has just enough assassiny goodness to sate your bloodlust while also feeling very important to understanding all of the heroes so far, even Desmond.

So there you have it, the current-gen version of Battlefield 4. To be honest, it’s not a huge leap forward over Battlefield 3. It looks slightly better but performs slightly worse.

It’s polished and well made, it has a long campaign, and there’s even some re-playability to it, both for starting a new character and playing the campaign again, and for upping the difficulty level and continuing the exploits of your first character.

The game's edges have been softened for the mass market. Many of the original's complexities have been watered down for easier consumption. Because it takes place so much further into the future, it also loses some of the familiarity.

Dedicating all your time, you can finish the game in about fifteen hours, which includes the completion of all Baumusu’s challenges, unlocking of arenas, and other rewards. This seriously decreases the replay factor.

The most innovative and original add-on device that has hit home consoles in years. The technology implemented to capture your image and detect motion is surprisingly refined considering this is the first version of the unit.

One great addition in Makin’ Magic is the creation of a character inventory, which allows you to keep MagiCoins and ingredients for spells and charms.

Thus, while Templar's precursor may have been merely good when it was initially released, in the face of new competition from much shallower titles, it is even better, like Citizen Kane's positive reappraisal.

Those who already own Chrono Phantasma can probably wait a bit, but if you’re new to the franchise, there is no better jumping off point than this game.

Special attention was paid to capturing the athletic tumbling abilities that Spider-Man exhibited in both the comic books and the movies, and it shows. The incredibly agile moves that a player can pull off with Spidey are astounding.

All in all, Kiwami is an easy game to recommend to fans of the series and those who have already played Yakuza 0 and loved it. The remakes of the older titles are Sega’s way of ushering in a new generation of fans and, now that the series has proven to do well in the west, bring all of the series’ experiences to a wider audience. Yakuza Kiwami is just as fun, weird, disturbing, hilarious and provocative as the rest of the series’ titles, and is well worth the twenty-five hours of gameplay and thirty dollar price of admission.

As sequels go, Bloodshot is sort of a mixed bag. Chances are if you liked the first Condemned you’ll like the second, even if it doesn’t pull it all off with the same panache.

All in All, Driver: San Francisco is a successful rebirth for the series.

It's no longer the de facto title out there. I still came away enjoying my time with Pacific Assault immensely.

Space Invaders Extreme is a definite must-buy.

In the end, LEGO The Lord of the Rings is fantastic – very possibly one of the best LEGO games made to date. The level design is ingenious and unique despite using the same tried and true techniques we've seen before. I like how different situations call for unique strategies. I also appreciated the risk taken since there is no central hub.

If you’re like me, where Wii Sports continues to get the most play on your Wii, then you’re surely itching to get your hands on Wii Sports Resort, if you haven’t done so already.

It’s certain not to appeal to all gamers, and while I often personally use games to relax and blow off steam, I find that after playing an hour or so of Outlast I’m too wound up to play anymore. Good thing then that the whole game is about five hours long.

From Dust is a fantastic game and a great follow-up to the Summer of Arcade's first game, Bastion. It's not quite like anything you've ever seen before and there's plenty of content to warrant a purchase. There are a few kinks that need to be worked out but overall, this is a game that everyone should check out, just make sure you don't let your newfound godly prowess get to your head.

Be wary, though, as Doomsday, like its predecessor, can suck away hours to no end. And in the final analysis, that’s not a bad thing at all.

The sound in Homecourt is spectacular. From the excellent narration of the players’ tales to the on-the-court trash talk, the sound is awesome.

As great as Marvel’s Avengers was, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy takes the framework of combat there and fine-tunes it.

The story is engaging, the graphics are attractive, and the gameplay is challenging, but rewarding. I'm practically burnt out on WWII games, but this one managed wet my whistle.

Overall, Injustice is a very good game aided by the gameplay being a slightly more evolved version of the MK reboot.