For me, the quality of an adventure is based on its story and its puzzles. Since I didn’t overly enjoy either area in Lights Out, the game isn’t one I’d really recommend. It’s also a little disappointing that Lights Out seems to be a step down from the original Dark Fall.

It's the very definition of a game that is perfect for a rental because it isn't worth buying by anyone because there's only enough content here for anyone to enjoy it for a few days.

Also, the production values for the game are excellent. All of the voice actors do a terrific job with their lines, which is a good thing considering how much dialogue there is, and the visuals, while not spectacular, get the job done.

Just because the engine has been updated doesn't mean the game is any less tedious or frustrating than it was in its original form.

Anyone who has wanted a new fighting game to play should give it a shot – especially if your PS3 is filled up with them, as you’ll find a lot to enjoy here thanks to its combination of a fairly robust roster and tight gameplay.

Overall, Battlezone is an excellent reboot for this long-suffering franchise. No modernization of the original concept has worked nearly as well as this does, and it is a perfect showcase for VR technology.

It’s just below average in too many areas — writing, puzzles, and voice acting to name but a few — for me to recommend. But it’s different, and it’s available in a dozen languages and three operating systems, and so it might fill a need for some people. If you’re interested, just wait for it to go on sale. By a lot.

Ground Zeroes is a tough recommendation. Yes, it contains all of the Metal Gear Solid goodness fans are hoping for, but clocking in at a total of three hours of gameplay (including the side missions) for the $29.99 price tag feels like a developer being presumptuous and arrogant, almost daring a fan to refuse.

Targeted at the younger audience, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a decent game overall, but it doesn’t live up to the potential and grandeur of the Harry Potter legacy.

It's sad that I've come away from King Arthur 2 with such a negative impression. Almost universally, I crave more and better storytelling in my games. Here we have a game that's oozing with story, but that's about it. I wish the writing was enough to carry it into positive territory, but truth be told, the gameplay bored me to tears and I couldn't wait to put it down after even a half-hour session. Maybe King Arthur 3, if it's made, will find the right balance.

The audio effects are disappointing but everything else is up to par. Unfortunately, it fails to become really meaningful and memorable, thus making it a good space action title but not one that will be talked about years later.

The game has a great look and feel to it, but the gameplay, while fast-paced, borders on being shallow.

By employing a bizarre range limitation to artificially enhance its difficulty, though, it means the game, if you'll forgive the alarmingly twee turn of phrase, shoots itself in the foot.

A lack of tactile speed, a complicated upgrade system and a number of useless features makes SRS much more of a rental for hardcore driving fans only than a must have.

Need For Speed is a better-playing game than The Run, but still falls far short of any of the Criterion games or the early ’00s games as well.

A decent foundation for a possible series. Unfortunately, lackluster navigation, combat maneuvers and repetitious sound effects, amongst other slights weaken this game significantly.

If Magna Carta had a less frustrating combat system, it'd be a perfectly good, if slightly self-parodying, RPG.

While the original plot and movie footage are an interesting look into the backstory between The Animatrix, Reloaded and the original film, the lackluster action, replayability and glitches severely hamper this title from truly being great.

Sort of a snoozer. I had trouble playing it for more than an hour without it causing me to nod off, and while I found the ending to be intriguing, it wasn't enough to make up for the basic puzzles and the basic dialogue, and the lack of interaction between the lead characters (surprisingly, they're almost never on screen at the same time).

A fairly entertaining game for the duration of the racing life mode, mostly because of the impressive pre-rendered sequences, but if you’re looking for a racing game with the simulation style goodness of "MotoGP," or the frenetic action of "Ridge Racer," you’d be well advised to look elsewhere.

Hardcore fans will probably snap this game up immediately, and if you’ve never played an Ape Escape title, this is a good place to catch up on the platforming that other gamers have enjoyed for years. However, you’ll have to take part of that with a spoonful of salt, because some of the magic just hasn’t crossed over from the console version to the portable rendition.

It’s like somebody at Wanadoo wondered just how little time they could put into a game and still release it, and Secret at Loch Ness is the result.

Madden NFL Arcade is a very entertaining little game. It doesn’t attempt to be an NFL sim, so don’t buy it expecting one. The arcade feel with real NFL teams and players included is a nice combination, and at only around ten bucks this will be a great addition to your library that you can fire up and enjoy a few minutes of fast-paced arcade fun.

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is an interesting beast because it really shouldn't exist. Outside of a unique art style it brings nothing new to the genre and does little to improve over the original game, which I might add, was far from a good game.

For $10, Black Knight Sword delivers a mostly good and entirely creepy experience.

At $30, Shades of Darkness seems dramatically overpriced. I’d recommend that you wait until the price drops down to about half of that amount (which will probably happen sooner rather than later) and for a patch or two to come out.

If you can’t get past the flaws Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Plus is rife with, you may find your ninja combat needs satisfied by another title with similar gameplay and a more polished and thought out presentation. That title is Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Yes, that title, at times, is more Ninja Gaiden than this one or even the putrid offering that was Ninja Gaiden 3.

Kingdom Hearts Re:coded is a game that feels fragmented. It failed to live up to its potential when it comes to treading new ground, as it falls back into the same familiar territory that fans have already visited and seen. It is not a bad game by any means, but this latest Kingdom Hearts game just isn't what it could have been in regards to giving the series a boost and the breath of fresh air that it needed.

If you played American Conquest then you've already (essentially) played Fight Back, and if you haven’t played American Conquest yet, I’d recommend you play that game instead.

Its biggest flaw is that the dogfights that are nominally its focus are satisfying and will keep you engaged, but escort, bombing, and recon missions are a lot more fun.

Nothing about Medieval Conquest speaks of quality, and I thought the four mission campaign was repetitive and boring (although it did take 15-20 hours, if that makes a difference).

Her voice and 3D model may be missing but the spirit of adventure is definitely something not forgotten here.

The trouble with Enclave is the camera system. It seems geared toward exploration, one-on-one combat and not mass combat, therefore allowing even a group of lowly enemies to inflict significant damage from 'cheap' shots.

If you’re on the fence about it, try the free trial – you’ll get to play through the first stage, including a boss battle, and get a perfect idea for how the game feels.

Citizens of Earth is a must-have for anyone who loved Earthbound either in its heyday or has had a chance to play it with the Wii U re-release.

A polished and relentless action game with some of the craziest levels in this console generation.

As long as you don’t mind that the game doesn’t really have a campaign and instead relies on skirmishes, then it can provide you with a worthwhile gaming experience. I’d just recommend that you wait for the price to drop down to well under the $50 mark where it is now.

Diablo got to be the icon and the benchmark that it is by giving players great tools for building countless different character types and then throwing them mercilessly into a constantly changing proving ground of monster slaying mayhem. Too Human may be working off that same blueprint for success, but, like so many other imitators before it, it never quite gets there.

It's unforgiving, user-unfriendly, and the computer routinely cheats. I can't recommend it to modern gamers at all.

Overall, Yesterday is a fine adventure with a unique look, competent puzzles, and a compelling story. The only downside is that it's relatively short. It only took me a little more than five hours to complete the game, and so Pendulo definitely had some room to add in an extra chapter or two. But otherwise, as long as you don't mind some disturbing content, Yesterday is well worth its $30 price tag.

In the end, Blacklight: Tango Down is a good game with some lofty goals. For sheer amount of content it gets gold stars, and ideas like the Digi Grenade, which explodes into a brilliant array of blinding pixels, are admirable ones. Unfortunately, the game also likes to reward shady practices like spawn camping, and the health bar is pretty much useless.

On the one hand, aside from the camera issue, it’s a solid adaptation of the board game with a unique twist. On the other hand, I still prefer to play the actual board game, and the lack of online support makes this an exclusive party.

Surprisingly absent from this version of Dig Dug is the alternating two-player mode found in the original arcade version.

It brings some interesting graphical style, some cool hip-hop beats, and some top-notch voice work by Sam Jackson to the party, but it’s too short, too repetitive, and too flawed design-wise to be anything but a mediocre game.

Classic naval strategy with a twist. The entire presentation of the Classic Battleship mode could have been put together a little better, but the Arcade mode provides a solid action-packed alternative to the standard board game.

I found the experience more entertaining than frustrating, and, with a price of about $25, the game is fun enough for those who have twitchy trigger fingers.

It’s a little short, and it doesn’t have much in the way of puzzles, but it’s an intriguing game, and it’s fun to play through.

So, if I had to pick a single word from the roughly 1000 that I have written above, it would have to be disappointed. I was completely primed for Dungeon Keeper, and what I got instead was kind of Diablo meets Rollercoaster Tycoon. Not good. Worse than not good.

Of note in this installment is the overall graphic and sound improvements. The graphics are actually quite good and crisp. The character animation is very nice. Other than a few notable exceptions, the sound is quite a bit better as well.

Despite the much talked about three unique campaigns, this is a game that puts its multiplayer in the spotlight, but there's very little innovation and even less of a reason to choose this game over the myriad of better online experiences out there.

There’s little uniquely Bond about this experience. It’s simply an average shooter at a time when average doesn’t quite cut it.

The levels are short and there are lots of them (about 40 total, not counting bonus levels), the weapons are varied as are the aliens, the locales are well-drawn and fun, and the screen is almost continually packed with stuff dying. What more could you want in escapist arcade entertainment?

If you’re looking for puzzles, then there are any number of adventures better suited for you. But if you like the idea of hanging out with Gil Grissom and the rest of the “CSI” team, then Dark Motives can provide a weekend’s worth of enjoyment.

Overall, there isn’t anything to get excited about here. If you’ve played one zoo tycoon game, then you’ve played them all, and there isn’t any reason to buy Wildlife Zoo unless you really like the genre or unless you haven’t played anything in the genre yet.

With extremely linear gameplay, a relatively flawed fear mechanic and basic combat system, Batman really isn't breaking a sweat in this title.

Serves up some decent platforming elements, and blasting hordes of opposition is fun to a certain extent, but there are so many trifling aspects to the experience that you’ll probably want to give up before you have a chance to appreciate the game’s interesting storyline.

Of course, you’ll miss out on a lot of the wonderful visuals and spot-on gameplay elements if you go the PS2 route, but if that’s your only option then take comfort in the fact that Mafia’s excellent storyline, which is arguably its best quality, hasn’t suffered a bit in the transition.

The superfluous story mode, unbalanced custom versus mode and technical issues relegate this title to a definite rent before you buy game.

As it stands now, Monster Force's camera is too close and fixated to the protagonist, putting the player at an unnecessary disadvantage; poor vantage point for exploration and an easy Achilles heel for swarms of monsters to exploit.

Rising Sun begins in Pearl Harbor with a bang, but drags on to finish with a whimper.

It’s a must-buy for anyone who has craved a new Burnout game and physical buyers of the console version get Danger Zone 2 as a freebie – essentially bringing back Crash mode and providing more value for the money.

I’ve played worse Star Wars games, way worse, but I’ve also played better ones. This one falls solidly in the middle of the pack.

The only one of the film's cast members to appear here is Robert Duvall, and every word spoken sounds like he was reading it while doing his taxes. The members of the Godfather cast who appeared in the first game knew when to 'git while the gittin's good' it seems.

For a game that promised so much, Viking really doesn't do much in the way of delivering.

Bethesda says Operation Anchorage takes 3-4 hours to complete. I’d put that number at more like 2-3, but for only $10 it represents moderate gaming bang for your buck. I’m hoping future DLC will be much better.

In a season of really great shooters, Kane & Lynch is pretty much a dud. It’s sort of a style over substance kind of game, except the style isn’t even terribly impressive. The substance, what there is of it, amounts to a fairly so-so action game that’s kind of short.

This game is good. It had a lot of potential and succeeded on a few fronts.

While the game lacks visual flair and can become a little repetitive in the later stages, fans of the show, particularly younger gamers, are sure to enjoy the familiar theme, characters and wackiness.

Though the game does have its high points, a fair collection of flaws and technical shortcomings hold the game back from being anything but a second rate game for only diehards of the genre.

For every reason I play RPGs (big decisions, interesting characters, fun gameplay, immersive exploration), Risen 3 hits every sweet spot.

Aven Colony isn’t a bad game. It was just sort of meh for me. Luckily, the developer is staying involved with the game. They’ve already released multiple patches even though the game has only been out for a week, and they’ve promised to add new content eventually — and for free — so maybe things will get better over time. But for now, Aven Colony isn’t really a game I’d recommend. It’s only for you if you really like city-builders and you’re not too choosy, or if you haven’t played many city-builders before.

Off-Road Redneck Racing is available at a budget price, but with all the bumps in the road, it's simply a mediocre ride.

It brings some interesting graphical style, some cool hip-hop beats, and some top-notch voice work by Sam Jackson to the party, but it’s too short, too repetitive, and too flawed design-wise to be anything but a mediocre game.

Overall, Just Cause 4 is a fairly big improvement as an experience compared to the third entry. It doesn’t quite reach the heights of the second, which felt like the franchise’s peak at the time and has remained so to this day. This game lacks the thrill of “wow, the series is truly finding itself” – akin to Saints Row the Third doing that for the Saints Row games, and while it is better than the third entry, that’s a fairly low bar to fly over given how many issues plagued the console versions of the game. It performs a lot better, at the expense of the core graphics suffering a bit. The core gunplay and frantic action are better now than before though, but something still feels missing in the overall experience.

Will Daemonica single handedly revive the adventure game genre? It won’t. Because Daemonica is set in a single town, it doesn’t have enough real estate (literally and figuratively speaking) to really expand into an epic adventure.

The bottom line here is that Mothership Zeta is about as much of a miss as Bethesda has ever been responsible for. A few hours of linear romp through boring corridors fighting boring enemies is frankly a shocking disappointment from such a successful development group.

A pretty fun ride. At times it really does feel like a mod, and it may have been a stretch to release this as a commercial product, but it's not a bad bet for fans of FPS.

There’s little uniquely Bond about this experience. It’s simply an average shooter at a time when average doesn’t quite cut it.

A funny but repetitive (and eventually tedious) real-time strategy game.

The off and online modes of play are good concepts, but unfortunately have enough hiccups to make either one completely enjoyable.

A perfectly fun dungeon crawler-style game, and probably about as close as you'll get to "X-Men Legends" on the DS.

Choplifter HD is a tough game to recommend if you aren't familiar with the series because enjoying it relies on liking its slower-paced gameplay.

Almost nothing about the game is fun or enjoyable -- the puzzles are a chore, the storyline is presented badly, and even the ending is annoying -- and so I wouldn’t recommend it to anybody, unless, for some reason, you like being lost and confused.

The Awakened Fate Ultimatum is an absolute must-buy for anyone who enjoys dungeon-crawlers.

With Blood Bath and Beyond, Vicious Cycle Software has struck a balance between humor and gameplay that was sorely lacking from Hazard’s previous outing. Sure, the game can be quite frustrating at times (then again, Contra was too) and the co-op support is limited to local play, but if you’re looking for a 2D side-scroller with a sense of humor, look no further than Blood Bath and Beyond on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network.

Beyond the somewhat short, very linear, and probably not replayable single player campaign, most people coming to Battlefront 2 are going to be interested in the multiplayer. This has proven to be very difficult to review, because there have been so many game updates to multiplayer since the release that I feel like I’m trying to review a moving target, though the core of multiplayer has not changed all that much through the updates. Long story short, the multiplayer gaming is staggeringly unbalanced because of the way the whole game is structured, and I doubt even another dozen updates is going to change that.

The computer AI is just a mess, and for a game that is mostly about interaction with alien races, to have all those races behave like mental patients, isn’t as much fun as it’s cracked up to be.

If you loved JA2 (like I did), then you owe it to yourself to play this. If you hated JA2, though, there is nothing in this that will make you change your mind: in fact, the higher linearity (compared to JA2) will likely turn you off even more, and you are probably better off waiting for JA3, whenever that will be.

Brotherhood of Steel can be described like this: "Dark Alliance" minus encumbrance minus magic minus feats plus guns plus grenades. It's "Dark Alliance" for dummies.

A pretty lightweight expansion pack, and what it does include isn’t especially interesting or memorable.

Targeted at the younger audience, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a decent game overall, but it doesn’t live up to the potential and grandeur of the Harry Potter legacy.

So on the whole I'm unpleased with Gothic 4. It's a wonderful graphics engine with an adequate combat system hampered by dull quests and a lack of action. More action would have put them into the action RPG realm, which I personally think is somewhat under-populated on the PC platform. Of course, more mainstream RPG fans are going to be turned off by the lack of common RPG elements. You'll likely be better off picking up Dragon Age on the discount rack if you, like me, haven't played it yet.

Despite the much talked about three unique campaigns, this is a game that puts its multiplayer in the spotlight, but there's very little innovation and even less of a reason to choose this game over the myriad of better online experiences out there.

The main thing going against this title is that it lacks any kind of satisfying conclusion to all of its mayhem, and isn’t close to being fleshed out enough for most players to care.

The premise and execution is solid and entertaining.

It's way too easy, its puzzles are so shallow as to be nonexistent (the "hacking" puzzle is almost embarrassing), it's got some pretty serious camera issues that could've been solved by anyone who's ever played a third-person action game before, and its stealth component simply isn't worth bothering with.

Need For Speed The Run is a good racing game that I was hoping would be great, and instead wound up being greatly hurt by its difficulty and lack of content. It's disappointing to see a Need For Speed game that isn't worth full-price and really is better as a rental, but that's the case here. The Run mode can be beaten in a day, and there simply isn't enough other content here to warrant a full-priced purchase. It's a short-lived, but incredibly exciting thrill ride that I'd recommend paying $30 or so for if you must own it, but not $60.

A lack of tactile speed, a complicated upgrade system and a number of useless features makes SRS much more of a rental for hardcore driving fans only than a must have.