NASCAR 14 improves on past iterations mostly by creating an on-track racing experience that feels much more authentic and engaging that any NASCAR game to date.

This is most definitely a must-buy if you’re a fan of the brand, but even if you aren’t, The Stick of Truth is an incredibly well-made game with a fantastic sense of humor, a unique art style — at least in relation to other games — and deep character customization.

If you’ve enjoyed past Thief games, you’ll enjoy the reboot as well. Those new to the franchise, or iffy about stealth, would be better-served renting it to give it a shot.

If this is the last piece of story we get from The Last of Us and the franchise ends with one installment, it’s a good way to go out.

It pays homage to every facet of the franchise’s history with its gameplay, and the only way it could do more would be to include the past entries along with all of the older character designs as extras.

At $40, it’s worth buying if you loved the original release and just want to go through it again.

At $10, Dustforce offers up a lot of value for platforming fans. If you love a hearty challenge, or simply enjoy a gaming experience that forces you to get better, then you’ll get your money’s worth.

If you can get past traveling the world map on rails, every location and quest chosen in order for you, the combat is rich enough to make Blackguards worthwhile, and I think comfortably places it near the upper end of that range.

So I guess I’m still looking for that perfect old-school D&D experience, something that pays homage to the way those games used to play while at the same time integrating some newer gaming facets to smooth over the roughest edges and sharpest corners of the old gaming world. M&MX is not that game.

Even though it’s an incredible game, it’s still one that can be beaten over a quick rental period, with multi-player that isn’t deep enough to sustain the experience for much longer.

Broken Age: Act 1 is an amusing game, but it’s not a great game, and it’s a little disappointing given its pedigree. It has all the charm and personality in the world, but the puzzles are so lukewarm and obvious that they drag down everything with them.

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

Still, Violett is only priced at $10, and it’s probably the type of game that’s going to go on sale a lot, so if you’re looking for something different then it’s not the worst thing in the world to purchase and try out.

Some may find that it’s too realistic, but I believe that Madden purists won’t be able to get enough of it.

I can’t recommend that you go out and buy this game.

Media Molecule should once again be commended for thinking outside of the proverbial box and giving us something new and enjoyable to play.

Risk of Rain might appeal to gamers who thrill over the challenge set forth by games like Demon’s Souls or FTL: Faster Than Light, but the uninitiated will find Risk of Rain hard to approach.

The campaign is short and linear and the gameplay does get repetitive, but I dug the setting, characters and visceral combat enough to overlook its shortcomings.

On the strength of its incredible visuals and excellent multiplayer I would recommend Shadow Fall to Killzone fans, but early adopters of the PlayStation 4 looking for a good single-player experience would do better to look elsewhere.

You find yourself caring about your veteran solders, grinding your teeth in frustration when the odds go against you and you lose one of them, and basking in success when a risky strategy pays off. Those characteristics in a video game are rare indeed.

If a deep and compelling single player experience is what you crave, look elsewhere. If you just want to get online and go up against the world, then join the hordes of ghosslings already invading your online network of choice.

FIFA 14 doesn’t take any major leaps forward, instead focusing on fine-tuning the major innovations the series has taken in the last couple of years.

While LocoCycle doesn’t scream next-gen visually, it is a lot of fun to play.

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

At $60, it might not be worth buying right away for those who didn’t enjoy either Hot Pursuit or Most Wanted, but if you liked it, you’ll definitely get your money’s worth out of it.

Knack winds up being a pretty good game that definitely falls short of its potential.

Resogun has definitely lived up to the hype and is one reason everyone who buys a PS4 early will be glad they did so. It’s a short, but sweet game that is well-worth replaying on numerous difficulties and in online co-op.

At $30, it’s a great value and a fine example of a high-quality game being released late in a system’s lifespan.

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.

Lost World looks incredible, sounds great, and is a must-have for anyone seeking a completely new Sonic experience in 3D with some 2D sprinkled in for good measure.

Batman: Arkham Origins does its best to continue what two of the generation’s best games started, but falls far short of either game.

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is the pirate-themed open-world action adventure that I’ve always wanted. While the meta-story is little more than filler and Captain Kenway’s story could have been better focused, I still thoroughly enjoyed my time with these pirates, privateers and buccaneers.

The gameplay improvements make it at least worth a rental if you’re a bit jaded towards the series, but give it a few days and you’ll likely be won over by just how big a difference the small changes make in actually having great matches.

So for The Wolf Among Us, my evaluation is this: so far so good. The writing is solid, the characters and universe are intriguing, and the murder mystery looks like it can hold up for a 10-hour game (or however long the entire season lasts).

Overall, I found Goodbye Deponia to be a lot of fun. It’s tough and it’s funny, it looks good, and the voice actors (who are all back from the previous games) do a fine job with their lines.

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.

Beyond: Two Souls is one of the PS3′s finest games and is neck-and-neck with The Last of Us for telling the best story and having the best graphics of the console generation.

The console version is without a doubt the Diablo III you should get, even if you already have it for PC. The controls work brilliantly on the controller and its painterly style still looks as vibrant and gorgeous as ever. Thanks to a few smart changes, Blizzard has managed to remedy essentially every problem I initially had with the game, leaving me to enjoy Diablo III the way it was meant to be played.

GTA5’s main single player story mode delivers the best Grand Theft Auto experience to date.

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.

Suffice it to say, I didn’t enjoy Rise of Venice at all. It crashes too often, it doesn’t explain itself well (and for some reason the tutorial video is hidden in the quest journal), and the endless buying and selling just gets tedious, especially since automating the process seems to remove any chance of actually earning a profit with it, or at least that’s how it worked for me.

Rome 2 is a colossal let down and while I’m sure the game will be decent after the 20th patch, I’m just tired of being jerked around. Get your head in the game, Creative Assembly!

At $60, newcomers might want to wait until a price drop, while series fans can buy this ASAP without worrying about whether or not they’ll get their money’s worth out of it.

In A:aMfP the balance is off. There’s too much wandering around admiring the scenery and not enough stuff to do or scares to go around. But the plot is so good I almost wish they had released it as a movie instead of a game.

Killzone: Mercenary is the shooter that Vita fans have been patiently craving: gorgeous visuals, reasonably tight controls, a surprisingly clever (if short) campaign, and a multiplayer element that will keep you coming back for more make it the complete package.

FIFA 14 doesn’t take any major leaps forward, instead focusing on fine-tuning the major innovations the series has taken in the last couple of years.

If it wasn’t for the world itself and the characters in it, I wouldn’t have gotten as far in Lost Planet 3 as I did. That’s most of my recommendation right there. Whoever wrote this game needs to get more work, ideally in an original series so he or she can really shine.

Madden 25 is a fantastic culmination of a generation. There is plenty to do, and the game feels as good or better in all aspects. If you’re a fan of football and the series, you owe it to yourself to pick it up.

It’s got a delightful cheery exterior, but underneath lies a fairly dark plot that makes wonderful use of the stage play setup to create a visual style you don’t see very often.

If you’re a true hockey fan I’m sure you’re already playing NHL 14, but if you’ve never played this series or are simply looking for something new to try, then this is worth a look.

Flashback on the Sega Genesis is a beloved title from the past that could have been a groundbreaking experience when updated for today’s consoles. Unfortunately, what we received is a bargain priced Xbox Live Arcade title that never quite delivers on any of the expectations fans have had over the years.

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.

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified aptly illustrates my view of the XCOM series, as a whole. All of it sounds fun on paper (Mass Effect-style combat in a 1960s setting) but the execution falls flat. Whereas Enemy Unknown was simply overrated, but still solid for a single playthrough, The Bureau was a struggle to even finish. Every conversation was painful, every trip through the home base felt pointless and every combat mission left me screaming at my teammates’ incapacitated bodies.

It’s an incredible game well-worth its $15 asking price on any platform you desire – although the symmetrical sticks of the PS3 may be a bit easier to get used to than the 360′s design.

If you’ve ever loved the series before, make this a part of your collection ASAP, and if you’ve been turned off by it before, at least try the free-to-play game out to see if you like the gameplay mechanics.

If you loved Origins, you’ll definitely get $60 worth out of this even with some Origins content being present here, while those who’ve never played Origins should give the demo a shot and see if they like it. If you’re won over by it, then snatch it up ASAP.

Supplementing the streets with glowing collectibles and earning the use of a weaponized dildo (yes, you read that right) can only take you so far before one begins to wonder why Bruce Campbell wasn’t hired to voice the main character.

There’s a lot of fun to be had with this and even if you didn’t grow up with the show’s theme song stuck in your head, I think it’s safe to say you’ll get its $15 asking price out of it easily if you love platformers.

Unfortunately, Charlie Murder isn’t quite able to live up to its potential. When I first saw the trailer, Charlie Murder seemed like the shot in the arm brawlers needed. Visually, it is, but the sometimes-clunky gameplay hurts it quite a bit. Still, at a mere $10, it’s hard not to recommend Charlie Murder even with its flaws.

And so, overall, Face Noir isn’t a game I’d recommend. I don’t really like dumping on the debut effort of a new developer, but there just aren’t many positives to work with here.

Cloudberry Kingdom may initially petrify those who aren’t good at precision platformers.

Dragon’s Crown is an outstanding brawler/action RPG hybrid.

When compared to the PC and console games, I would say there is enough material in The Fall for one, or if you really push it, maybe two chapters of a typical Deus Ex corpus.

If you enjoy Civ V and Gods and Kings, this latest expansion is a must-buy, no-brainer. And while heaping massive amounts of glowing praise on a game might make for an unexciting review, I can’t help but to keep heaping. After all, Civilization V is now the most consistently fun game, from start to finish, in the series’ history. Well done, Firaxis.

Considering the fact that there are many more JRPG choices out there (of much greater quality) for the same price, it is virtually impossible to recommend anyone spend their gaming dollars on this twenty-some-odd hour game that will only annoy and disappoint them.

NCAA Football 14 offers a worthy culmination of this generation of football games. It won’t blow anyone out of the water, but again, we really have come to a point where only so much is going to happen this generation.

And so, overall, there’s little to recommend about Jack Keane 2: The Fire Within. The puzzles are varied and competent, but everything else needs a lot of work, and adventure games don’t usually receive much in the way of patches (of course, for most they’re not needed).

I think people like me who enjoyed the first one may in the back of their minds complain a little about what exactly we waited seven years for, but the front of their minds will be having a pretty good time playing it.

You’re buying the Chronicles pack for Shadows Over Mystara, with Tower of Doom as a sort of optional curiosity. It’s a fun way to pass a couple of hours and the online play is generally solid (at least, it is on XBLA; I’ve heard nothing but bad things about the Steam version), so this would be a great pick for those of you who’re looking for a four-player party game.

For the most part, Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded works pretty well. Some of the new humor falls flat, like a sequence in the casino buffet where 90% of the comments aren’t funny, but otherwise Reloaded is a fine remake of a fine game.

Deadpool is rough around the edges in some major ways, but if you love the character, it’s worth picking up on sale. $50 is way too high a price to pay for a game that is just an 8-10 hour campaign with some challenge missions thrown in.

Muramasa Rebirth is about as good a remake as one could realistically hope for on the Vita and a must-buy for anyone who enjoyed the original release but wished it controlled better than it did.

Gunslinger is the best game in the Call of Juarez series and a gargantuan improvement over The Cartel. I thought that game might have killed this series, but thanks to a few smart moves on Techland’s part, I think they’ve cleaned this brand up a bit. Call of Juarez: Gunslinger is definitely worth your time.

It’s just one of those games where there isn’t anything really wrong or right about it, and it sits somewhere in the middle.

It effectively closes out this generation on a high note while simultaneously raising expectations for gaming storylines and their presentation in the next console generation.

Remember Me isn’t a bad long weekend’s entertainment if you’re willing to give its world a chance to draw you in, but it really just isn’t enough of a game for me to give it an unqualified recommendation.

GRID 2 continues many of the things that made the original one of this generation’s finest racing games, but suffers from a more lifeless career mode.

Until then, it’s hard to recommend buying this if you’ve beaten the original, but if you loved it, couldn’t beat it, and want to give New mode a shot, it’s easily worth either buying it at a lower price point or simply renting it.

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.

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.

It’s a solid game that looks good and plays well, and its cooperative Echelon mode ripped straight out of Gears of War, Halo, Left 4 Dead, etc. is genuinely fun. The only problem is it’s not particularly memorable. Fuse can provide a weekend’s worth of entertainment, but I guarantee you’ll soon forget it.

There isn’t any real extra content to speak of, so if you already played Resident Evil: Revelations to death on the 3DS, there’s no reason to get a second copy unless you really want to send a message to Capcom.

Defiance isn’t a bad game, it’s just not all that fun to play.

Last Light is a punishing, hardcore experience that isn’t quite like anything else on the shelves right now, and if you go into it looking for exactly that, it delivers in spades. If you pick it up looking for a quick weekend’s shoot-’em-up fun (or a lap dance), it will crush your spirit and laugh at your pain. You’ve been warned.

I had been hoping (and kind of expecting from the trailer) for a sort of Arkham City combat structure in the form of a more classical RPG. This is not that game. The melee combat engine, while interesting, doesn’t actually balance well, and it results in combat that feels ridiculous and clunky where Arkham was fluid and dynamic.

Anyone who enjoys Monster Hunter, and even folks who don’t, will find a game that offers up a lot of fun both off and online.

Overall, Papo & Yo is an interesting game — especially visually — and it’s also a memorable game, but I don’t know that I’d call it a good game. The puzzles are largely easy, the story elements are largely missing, and the playing time isn’t large at all. Still, Papo & Yo is only priced at $15, so it might be worthwhile to pick up just to try something different.

There’s no reason at all to play it alone, but if you can round up a consistent crew to run through the game together, it’s well worth the price of admission.

If I had to sum up The Devil’s Cartel in a few words, I’d say it’s all style and no substance. Whereas its predecessors at least tried to be mildly entertaining, this entry has no problem tossing waves of faceless goons at you until you either mow them all down and proceed to the next level or give up and play something else. With this game, I recommend choosing the latter.

The gameplay is a slightly more evolved version of the MK reboot, so if you loved that, you’ll like this and the plot is compelling and pushes the T rating pretty far, so folks turned off by MK vs. DC U’s toned-down violence have nothing to fear here.

All in all, if you’re one of the lucky ones that avoided the first version due to low scores or bad word-of-mouth, then this one might just do it for you.

City Interactive has done a wonderful job of improving on the first Ghost Warrior title, and while this game still has a ways to go before being stellar, it definitely has succeeded in getting us excited for what the next sniping title may look like.

Sacred Citadel offers up a lot of fun for beat-em-up fans, with a surprisingly high amount of depth in its gameplay making replaying stages with each character type something you’ll come to enjoy instead of dread like it many other beat-em-ups.

It’s a must for any MetroidVania-style fan, and wrestling fans who’ve never played one should use this as a gateway game into the genre.

I don’t dislike BioShock Infinite (as my score attests) but Rapture was a more thoughtful, engrossing, and better assembled experience.

Overall, Motocross Madness is a game that plays really well but suffers from some cosmetic flaws and an underwhelming soundtrack. Still, the core gameplay is outstanding and well worth the $10 price tag.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 is obviously geared towards serious golfers who appreciate the history of their favorite past time. Of course, these are the people who pre-ordered the game and are already playing it. But with the changes focused on golf’s illustrious history and gameplay changes favoring more elaborate shot shaping, one can make the argument that more casual gamers aren’t purchasing a wholly new experience this year.

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.