There's no reason to play it, but it is not actively bad the way that some games are. It simply exists to kill time, and to make you think of the six thousand ways it could be better.

There's no reason to play it, but it is not actively bad the way that some games are. It simply exists to kill time, and to make you think of the six thousand ways it could be better.

It’s simply not that fun to play, and is not what gamers should expect from a next-gen title.

At best, Juiced is a mediocre ride. It's got a few shiny bits in the form of the team racing and gambling portions, but then the rough edges come roaring out of the gate and kill whatever joy you had at playing the game.

The presentation and polishing of Batman: Vengeance is all first-rate. It’s the crappy camera management and the twisted control scheme (without the game pad) that make it more of a chore to play than it should be.

The idea of two teams of humans fighting it out in the middle of a zombie outbreak is pretty solid, and it's worth exploring further in another game. Operation Raccoon City is more frustrating than fun, though, with one class dominating the others and a lot of seriously questionable choices marring the co-op campaign. It's easy to imagine a theoretical ORC2 being a great game, both offline and on, but this isn't it.

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

Nothing more than your run-of-the-mill platformer. Though the level design and beautiful visuals are something to admire, the audio, plot and general lack of originality leaves something to be desired.

I didn’t love it or hate it, and it seems to be a pretty representative example of what the adventure game genre has become -- a bunch of middling games that spend way more time on their graphics than they do in creating anything memorable or innovative.

Nothing more than your run-of-the-mill platformer. Though the level design and beautiful visuals are something to admire, the audio, plot and general lack of originality leaves something to be desired.

SVC Chaos also boasts some screwed-up character balance, where four characters--Geese, Zero, Iori, and Chun-Li--can pretty much own the rest of the cast for free, and the single worst case of the infamous SNK Boss Syndrome that I've ever seen.

The inclusion of half-hearted simulation elements and toned down arcade gameplay result in Blitz Pro turning into a watered down shadow of its former self. Hopefully next year’s version will restore some glory to this now tarnished franchise.

Don King Boxing is not a bad game, but it’s not nearly as good as it could have been.

The inclusion of half-hearted simulation elements and toned down arcade gameplay result in Blitz Pro turning into a watered down shadow of its former self. Hopefully next year’s version will restore some glory to this now tarnished franchise.

Simplistic gameplay aside, the game is honestly funny when it's not being too lowbrow. Well, even when it's lowbrow there are still quite a few amusing moments.

I just don’t see it being a game anybody would want to play more than a handful of times. It’s just too simplistic. I saw everything there was to see after one game, but I played it five times to be sure, and that was plenty.

Nothing more than your run-of-the-mill platformer. Though the level design and beautiful visuals are something to admire, the audio, plot and general lack of originality leaves something to be desired.

A mixture of a quality style, fun story, great characterization, and gameplay that's crippled by absolutely baffling design.

I think the game would have worked better if the developers had stayed with the appropriate technology, and if they had allowed players to deal more with the machinery of the Nautilus rather than forcing them to construct bombs (twice) and outwit a deranged computer (numerous times).

Simplistic gameplay aside, the game is honestly funny when it’s not being too lowbrow. Well, even when it’s lowbrow there are still quite a few amusing moments.

If you’re a fan of the franchise, and if you really want to play Heroes VII, then I’d recommend waiting for another month or two, until some more patches have come out and maybe the price has dropped down. If you don’t know anything about the franchise, then Heroes VII definitely isn’t the right version for you to use as your introduction. For you I’d recommend trying out just about any other version of the game, since most of them can be purchased for very little money these days.

If you can look past its denounceable play control then you will find a smart, stylish, Batman experience that is, at its foundation, true to its namesake.

One would think that racing against others online would be the best part of this game. Unfortunately, the online mode is subpar and barely playable.

A decent game but not anywhere near an actual simulation.

The Jurassic Park license alone can only take it so far before it becomes formulaic. Thereafter, the roars become little more than a growl.

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.

The game has barely evolved since it was first released in the 90’s.

It's short and definitely geared more as a memento to Britney fans than anyone else.

Combat is where the most distressing gameplay fault emerges. There is essentially no friendly AI so if your character is hit, he/she will not return fire, much less find a place to hide or run away from the threat. This makes for tedious micromanagement.

A so-so to bad adventure game. There isn’t anything special about the game itself, and the writing quality knocks it down a few pegs from there. But it’s also harmless and it’s playable and it’s inexpensive, so it’s not the worst way in the world to spend a rainy weekend.

If it had a deeper combo system, or extra weapons, or extra characters, it'd be worth checking out. It doesn't, so it isn't.

The plot and graphics are weak, and the gameplay, while fun for a little while, quickly becomes dull because of the absence of a sniper rifle-style light gun.

Never Die Alone needed a lot more playtesting by actual humans before it should've been released. There's a lot here to like, but there's also a lot here that seems like any reasonable person would've said something a lot sooner than this.

Never Die Alone needed a lot more playtesting by actual humans before it should've been released. There's a lot here to like, but there's also a lot here that seems like any reasonable person would've said something a lot sooner than this.

A modest if unspectacular golfing experience.

I generally like what Vicarious Visions has done to bring the Guitar Hero experience to the portable market, but I’d prefer to see them focus on amending the functionality of the game rather than expanding the song list of a still flawed product.

In comparison to South Park Rally, probably the most recent PC arcade racer, Wacky Racer isn't all that bad, but that's not saying much. Wacky Races could and should have been better on the PC.

If Telltale can figure out a way to weave together all of the possible branches in the story to create a second season (and beyond), then that will hopefully make all of the doom and gloom from the first season more worthwhile. But if Telltale has painted themselves into a corner, and this season is it, then I wouldn’t recommend the game at all, unless your idea of fun is getting punched in the face repeatedly.

I liked Next Life better than "Culpa Innata," but that’s about as left-handed as my left-handed recommendations get.

Suffers from many faults that turn what could have been an excellent game of stealth into a game that is sometimes very frustrating to play.

A nice looking but repetitive and slightly annoying management game.

Tragically named, Freeblade proves the old adage that no iTunes or Google Play app is truly free. You’ll need the starter pack if you want to make serious head way into the campaign.

A fun game, but fans of this type of game might be best to either break out their dusty Super NESes or N64s and play one of the Mario Kart titles ... or wait until "Mario Kart: Double Dash!" comes out for GameCube.

It wasn’t a lot of fun to play, and it didn’t run very well on my computer. All it did was remind me how much fun Stronghold was, and that I should go back and play it sometime.

I came into it expecting something terrible given the reputation of past Ford games, but I ended up with an above average game that didn't really screw anything up, and actually featured innovation - so I'm quite pleased with it.

And so, obviously, I wouldn't recommend Hector: Episode 1. It's short and it's sloppy, and other than its tone, it doesn't have a whole lot going for it. It's also the first offering from Telltale Games that I didn't really like. The second and third episodes of the Hector season aren't coming out for a few months, so possibly Straandlooper could figure a few things out and create something worthwhile, but I'm not optimistic, and I'd give this new franchise a pass.

And so Batman: The Telltale Series is looking like a mixed bag at the moment. The first episode is all set-up, so there isn’t any way to tell if the series is going to be interesting or not, or even what the series is going to be about.

Luckily, while I didn’t enjoy Yesterday Origins for most of the time that I played it, the ending was clever and worked pretty well, and that saved the game for me. Still, I can’t overlook ten bad hours for one good one. The story is dull and does little to establish an emotional connection, I didn’t like any of the characters involved, and the puzzles are at best workmanlike. If you were a fan of Yesterday, then Yesterday Origins might be a worthwhile purchase for you, but otherwise you’re better off looking elsewhere.

The game is hindered by unoriginal and lackluster gameplay mechanics that, while easy to pick up and play, does little to provide an experience that is as good as other music games currently on the market.

The idea of a zombie-apocalypse “Metroidvania” set in what used to be a modern city is an excellent hook for a game, but Zombi is too busy showing off Wii-U features that aren’t there anymore to fulfill that premise.

While that is indeed ridiculously cheap, especially for a brand-new game, you're really paying for carpal tunnel. There are better button-mashers, better shooters, and better games based on anime licenses out there. Don't waste the money.

The puzzles morph from tedious to annoying to frustrating, and at no point are they fun.

The disparity, however, between this title and the great classics that LucasArts used to create is too great of a void to disregard.

I came into it expecting something terrible given the reputation of past Ford games, but I ended up with an above average game that didn’t really screw anything up, and actually featured innovation - so I’m quite pleased with it.

And so overall I didn’t much like Anna’s Quest. It’s just so nice and pleasant that it’s boring. That being said, there isn’t any profanity or violence or meanness to be seen, so it’s definitely a family-friendly game. It also appears to be targeted at young girls, and since that’s not the usual audience for games, it could work in the right situation.

The graphics changes help bring the Carmageddon series into line with what is now the standard of the 3D graphics bag of tricks. But underneath it all, it's still Carmageddon, and for me at least, I've had enough.

The real problem with Hot Dog King is that it doesn’t know what it wants to be.

I found Gore to be kind of mundane.

Despite the varied modes, the gameplay is the same and the lack of sophisticated AI play means you'll be entertained for one or two rounds until the races become too long (and too easy) to bear.

D:TDL is, by an itsy bitsy margin, better than Dungeons (perhaps if that trend continues in six or seven sequels it will approach marginal), but the gameplay which was the biggest weakness of Dungeons remains essentially unchanged.

The problem with the concept, at least with Jazz and Faust, is that you get two small, simplistic adventures instead of one interesting adventure, and it’s one of those cases where two halves don’t make a whole.

The two single-player campaigns are relatively short and not particularly challenging, even on the highest difficulty setting, and the AI can be frustrating at times.

A fun game, but fans of this type of game might be best to either break out their dusty Super NESes or N64s and play one of the Mario Kart titles ... or wait until Mario Kart: Double Dash!! comes out for GameCube.

They're done very well too, but in a day and age where people are accustomed to gravity defying Matrix-like moves that spin the room around in 360 degrees -- these basics look a lot less appealing than they ought to be.

I’m happy that Iridium Studios continues to try new and unusual things, and I’ll even say that when the audio interface actually worked for me, it made the missions feel much more involving (perhaps because it made them feel more like multiplayer missions). But the game was far too short and far too broken for me to recommend it.

The Incredible Hulk doesn't draw much from the comic book sources either. Stuck in the void between both, The Incredible Hulk looks less and less incredible.

While it ends up being a disappointing game due to its bloated backdrops, poor music, and control problems, Tetris Evolution does a fine job at providing players with an enjoyable, basic game of Tetris on the 360. I think it would have been better suited as an XBLA download.

The game suffers from many faults that turn what could have been an excellent game of stealth into a game that is sometimes very frustrating to play.

Overall, I didn’t like Hard West as much as I thought I would. The campaign is interesting, but developer CreativeForge spent so much time on “flashback” scenarios that it was difficult for me to connect with anybody or care what happened.

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.

Perhaps the most interesting addition in Tomb Raider: Chronicles is the level editor. With it, you can now create your own missions and scenarios to pass along to your friends in the mod community, but before you get excited, it should be known that this is one complicated tool.

I kept thinking how this game might be better if it was turned into a behind the plane action game; like the old "Afterburner" or the Xbox Airforce Delta Storm.

One quintessential problem plaguing WWII Online is its incompleteness.

Its light-hearted approach is suitable to that type of play and I imagine Motocross will find a good niche there because of its Saturday morning cartoon treatment of motorcycle racing.

It’s an incredibly thin expansion pack, even considering the el-cheapo price tag.

I love the idea of Pokémon Picross, and it is executed well. The core game got its hooks into me quickly, but as a puzzle game with no random elements, it doesn’t translate well to the world of free-to-play. Even patient and skilled Picross players will find their entertainment held hostage behind paywalls.

If Capcom's aim was to create a simple turn-based strategy title in the vein of the original Defender of the Crown, it succeeded. There's no doubt about that.

Overall, I didn't particularly enjoy the first episode of Law & Order: Legacies. I tried for a while to get a perfect score, so I kept replaying conversations until I got them right, but even so the episode only took me about two hours to complete, and the case wasn't exactly fascinating. Worse, the graphics are a little too much on the cartoony side, which works better for funny adventures than it does for serious games, and the voice actors all had a tough time impersonating the characters from the show (although otherwise they performed their lines well enough).

Technically correct but uninspired, unbalanced, and lacking in some production values.

If you're a big LBP fan then it might be worth it, but if you've played ModNation Racers, I don't think the slight makeover is enough to warrant a full price tag.

It's not deep enough. For starters, there isn't enough depth in the turn-based strategy portion.

Touch ‘n Roll suffers from trying to shoe-horn in features just to make use of them.

You should only buy Laser Squad Nemesis if you’re looking for multiplayer skirmishes.

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.

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.

Overall, the Amazing Spider-Man succeeds at offering a great story, but fails at accomplishing its goal of making you feel like Spidey.

A disappointment. I liked Tilted Mill’s first offering, Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile, much more, and it’s odd how they could go from a unique and interesting game to one so completely bland and generic.

It’s a little boring and it’s a little easy and it’s a little basic, but if you’ve never tried the city-building genre before, then you might find it to be of some value. However, if you’re familiar with the genre at all, then you might as well skip Imperium Romanum, because you’ve already played better versions of it.

Some of the missions are downright easy because enemy gangs will just sit in their territory and wait for you to kill them, and then in other missions the enemies appear to cheat (getting gang members for free, starting with their territory already taken over), and they’re next to impossible.

All of its bugs certainly put a damper on things, but the pace of the game also seems to be much slower, and the activities seem much more repetitive than they were before (the daily council meetings in particular are a real killer).

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.

GameCube owners beware as Armageddon has been reported to lock up frequently on that system. Lock up or no lock up, though, non-fans are looking at an attractive but typical third person action game.

The biggest issue that hampers the overall enjoyment of the game is it’s finicky and unresponsive gameplay. There is a noticeable delay between the time you hit a button to the time the on-screen wrestler actually performs the move.

Omerta is the sort of game where if you want to play it at all, you should wait for it to drop well below the $40 price where it is now.

I commend the developers for trying something new with the first-person viewpoint and for giving Wii owners a decent firefighting game. Unfortunately, it's not an exceptional one, and while this is a well-made game in a lot of ways, it is hurt by its very sterile look, poor graphics, and control issues.

My last civil war title was "Sid Meier’s Antietam." Antietam may have taken some liberty with the authenticity license but it was real-time, easy to grasp and exciting to play even for a novice. Unfortunately, my experience with ACWG did not measure up to that classic.

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.

In the end, Legends of WrestleMania fails to completely live up to its potential, but does provide a fun experience for a short time.