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.

Quite easy to learn, but incredibly difficult to master. Perhaps it's just me who needs to do a little adjusting, but I think newcomers to the city-building games are going to be in for a rough time.

The inclusion of the cutman mini-game between rounds is a great addition, and the Haymaker provides a phenomenal sense of drama with punches that can knock boxers out at any time. I personally can't wait to see next year's version.

The crazy thing is you’ll undoubtedly spend more time playing Puzzle Quest than most of the $60-70 games in your collection. It’s fun, addictive and easily ranks among the very best offerings on Xbox Live Arcade.

If you only touched the campaigns in DoW and Winter Assault, you may not find much to latch onto here. The open structure of the Dark Crusade campaign is not far removed from multiplayer or Skrimishes. Naturally, people who’ve been playing those modes constantly should be ecstatic with the new material.

An amazing game. I mean, seriously, wow. Expect to invest an absurd amount of time getting to the end of the game.

Series vets with fond memories of the Pro Race Driver/TOCA games on previous systems should pick this up immediately, and if you're unsure about it, there's a demo available for download that’ll give you a good idea as to how easily most of the cars can be controlled, but won't give you a very accurate view of just how many kinds of racing styles are represented in the full game.

Intermittent AI detection, graphical issues that affect core gameplay and length issues truly diminishes the impressive nature of this game. Fortunately, the impressive multiplayer game salvages this game from simply being a quick rental without replay value.

A deep fighting game with loads of strategy involved, tons of game modes and memorable characters, this game showcases two of the fundamental tenets of the genre: addictive, fast-paced action and solid controls.

With its addictive, fast-paced gameplay, smooth controls, slick graphics, and excellent soundtrack, Bayonetta is an easy recommendation for any action fan.

A Crack in Time is essentially safe. It's a Ratchet & Clank game, which means it has high production values, a good sense of humor, a high number of explosions, accessible gameplay, and much of the same stuff you're used to from the games that have come before it. You can't really go wrong with it; it's a consistently excellent series, with only a few slight issues here and there.

Persona 3 is, despite that complaint, one of the best RPGs on the PS2, and in fact, on any console. It has characters you'll care about, a combat system that's easy to get into but hard to master, enough of a difficulty curve that you'll feel like you're working for your victories, and a truly bizarre and memorable soundtrack.

If you can get invested in the characters and their bizarre circumstances, it’s a good use of your time.

DJ Hero 2 improves upon its predecessor in every way.

Every game in the franchise looks great, sounds even better, and will have you chuckling with the spot-on chemistry of the cast in each entry.

Supreme Commander is still mountains of fun; it's just that the gratification is delayed, instead of instant. I think this should be commended.

A worthy successor to Fallout 1, and for those who loved the original they're in for a whole new experience.

With a great sense of speed and deep gameplay inspired by Burnout 3, Burnout Legends is one of the best racers available on the PSP. This is one of those games that you can sit down for a few minutes and enjoy or get lost in for a couple of hours.

More of an evolutionary product than a revolutionary one in the series.

It’s the best rally racer on modern consoles, and a fine debut for this DiRT sub-series.

With an extremely realistic presentation, augmented control system, and additional attention paid to the overall gameplay, MVP 2005 could be one of those games baseball fans keep returning to in the upcoming years of exclusive sports games.

The fast paced action is still the centerpiece of the game, and the action is engaging enough to capture even the most jaded first person shooter vet who’s probably tired of the numerous WWII titles that’ve been released.

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.

There’s plenty to do in the career mode, and players will truly enjoy the ability to define their game based on their personal driving style.

With Bash Party, EA and Spielberg have taken the original Boom Blox and built on it to produce a package that is creative, innovative, and crazy-fun to play.

While the inclusion of the vision cones and the concept of the Superstar mode were creative ideas, the actual implementation of the features ranged from inconvenient to improperly constructed.

While the controls are technically inferior to the 360 and PS3 version due to the lack of analog buttons on any Wii U control method, they still work really well and don’t make the game hard to control – it just takes some time to get used to controlling a modern racer with purely digital buttons.

DmC was one of the best action games of the last generation, and it’s remained fantastic two years later. It’s a better overall value now than it was then thanks to the addition of the DLC campaign and is still a must-play game.

It’s fun, vibrant, challenging, charming and rewarding. And the best part, it only costs $20.

The bottom line is that for all its promise and potential, Dragon Age: Origins is a game that never comes together to be anything but a mediocre game with an interesting premise and a lot of issues.

Both Freedom Force games have the same kooky, over-the-top comic book charm to them, and almost all of the voice actors from the first game returned to reprise their roles in the sequel, and they all did another fantastic job.

Titanfall is a great start to an exciting new franchise. Sure, campaign multiplayer is a disappointment and I wish there was a little more meat on the bones in terms of game modes and pilot and titan types, among other things – but the gameplay is outstanding.

Tomb Raider’s whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and everything combines to make this the best reboot game on the market today.

Those who already have Xrd may want to wait for a price drop since there isn’t a ton of new content, but if you’re jonesing for more Guilty Gear, then this is an outstanding entry in the series and well-worth your time.

God of War: Ghost of Sparta takes the PSP's previous high-mark and raises it.

While it’s not perfect, and the sharp increase in difficulty at the end isn’t for everyone, Trials HD is an incredible experience overall.

Overall, the gameplay itself is fun, and there are enough options (Wii Remote, Wii Remote/Nunchuk, Balance Board) to suit the preferences of any gamer.

Why would they do anything more than improve the game cosmetically, create a few new units while tweaking others, and leave most of the game alone? The answer is they wouldn’t, and they didn’t, not for Wings of Liberty, and not for Heart of the Swarm.

If it walks, crawls, flies, swims, or shambles, it’s probably in the game, and you’ll probably get to kill it -- a lot.

With a larger career mode featuring more cities and greater tracks, additional gameplay modes and rock solid online play, this is the racer you want to cross the finish line with in your gaming console.

#Reload, plain and simple, has it all. About the only thing I can say against it is that it's a bit laggy on Live.

Obsidian ditched the level cap, added randomized items, and made Knights of the Old Republic II a better game in almost every respect than its predecessor. I just wish they'd had the time to iron all the bugs out of the final version.

Look, Mass Effect Legendary Edition isn’t bad. It’s good. It’s as good as a revamping of the original series all delivered in one sleek package can be. I’m just not sure who has been asking for that.

Gameplay is part and parcel of an elegantly imagined gameworld. The animation is so smooth as to be almost flawless, with the same engine handling everything from simple dialogue to a headlong rooftop escape from enemy aircraft...I think you should all go play Beyond Good & Evil right damn now.

Aside from those admittedly minor issues, Mortal Kombat is an impressive piece of work. It's got more than enough gore to satisfy the older fans, a deep combat system to draw in tournament-level players, and a huge amount of content. It's nice to see that after twenty years, the series can finally move towards being something other than a guilty pleasure.

Everything in this game is just right (even the weak single-player modes are forgivable), but the absence of multiplayer and no arcade version is not; and as a result, I don't see this game surviving on the market for any decent amount of time, even though I love it and it will have its rightful place along Soul Calibur 1 and 2 on my shelf.

NHL 12 is, in my opinion, the best hockey game to date. It looks vivid and sharp, but the true-to-form NHL gameplay is what pushes it over the top. With a fast-paced game like hockey, it's not easy to recreate the experience in a video game, but with this title, EA has managed to do so quite successfully, making this one easy to recommend without thinking twice.

Even with some missed opportunities for growth, particularly in the Road to Glory mode, NCAA Football 11 is still easy to recommend to college football fans, and sports fans in general.

In spite of its faults, SF III :3rd Strike Online is still a must-play for those who missed it before or for long-time fans just to experience the best-looking version of the game yet. Even though it is presently hampered by online lag and matchmaking problems, it's still worth its $15 asking price. Multi-platform owners are probably better off with the 360 version, since the stock controller is better for the game, and at least some of its online issues should be remedied soon.

Produces a great, no, an outstanding single player experience, but I have trouble recommending a game with so little game for like $40.

Beyond pulling some of the control features of Homeworld 2 back into Homeworld 1, the gameplay of the remastered versions is as near as I can tell identical to the earlier ones.

It’s fun, it gives you a lot of options for how to play, and the interface is clean and easy to use. But it doesn’t look or sound great, you’re not given any control in combat, and the lack of multiplayer means you’ll have to rely on playing computer-controlled opponents, which is never a good thing (even if there are a lot of AI options, as there are here).

I’m torn between calling Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus brave or merely unexpected. The core of The New Colossus remains as good as, and largely unchanged from, the earlier game. It’s great, explosive, and violent. The other half, so to speak, the heavy emphasis on story doesn’t drive the FPS experience so much as shift your focus into directions that FPS games don’t normally go. That’s not to say that FPS games don’t tell a story or even a complex story (Bioshock told an incredibly involved story and even explored the extrapolation of a Randian economics as a political movement), but they rarely (AFAIK never) attempt to tell a story so full of sadness and self-examination. The two parts sometimes fit well, sometimes less than well, and I think individual gamers will react very differently to the result.

In spite of its faults, SF III :3rd Strike Online is still a must-play for those who missed it before or for long-time fans just to experience the best-looking version of the game yet. Even though it is presently hampered by online lag and matchmaking problems, it's still worth its $15 asking price. Multi-platform owners are probably better off with the 360 version, since the stock controller is better for the game, and at least some of its online issues should be remedied soon.

Despite the game’s short life span, it is still one of the most entertaining platform games for any system, past or present.

A fantastic boxing title that really delivers the action in a realistic way for fight fans, and those discovering the sweet science for the first time on their home console.

The improved multiplayer interface, seamless online integration, improved musical diversity, and tricked out visual presentation outdoes its predecessor in every conceivable way. Rhythm-based perfection, thy name is Amplitude.

The Bastion is an absolute must-own for anyone who has enjoyed action RPGs in the past.

Overall, Sonic Mania is a remarkable game and the best Sonic game released in over a decade. When looking at the game as a whole, it’s hard to find fault with it. Some may wish all of the stages were all-new, but the existing stages have all been revamped – so it’s less a retread and more of a remix blended with a lot of new content. It’s clearly a passion project and one that should result in Sega revisiting the idea of more 2D Sonics, hopefully with a focus on taking what makes this game so good and expanding it into future 3D entries. Sonic Mania is a must-buy for anyone who has ever loved Sonic the Hedgehog games – it will remind you of why the character had such a huge peak, and is a great buy for either the Switch or PS4.

The best RPG I've played all summer. I love that I'm loving an RPG on the GameCube.

While the course selection features slim pickings, the inclusion of the Arnold Palmer Course Designer is a welcome sight, and one that will undoubtedly excite the Links community as a whole.

Graphically, the new zones look better. Combine that with the addition of a new race, a new continent, the change from level 50 to level 60 characters, new items, spells and creatures and you've basically got a fantastic addition that is a must for EverQuest adventurers.

An absolutely excellent game. Sure, it does not redefine the genre...but it doesn’t just sit on its predecessor’s laurels, it has something of its own to bring in – a most impressive graphics and physics engine, an incredible bot AI ..., as well as very impressive level design and great multiplayer capabilities.

When I finished the campaign, it was with a sense of relief that I could move on to something else.

No matter how you choose to play Burnout 2 – Championship, Chase, or Crash -- the ultra-responsive gameplay will shine through as the pinnacle of arcade-racing perfection.

It’s the little details in Rainbow Six 3 that really impress me.

It would appear the true fans, a small niche of the general gaming population, will truly appreciate it. But when it comes to sheer variety, an easier learning curve and exotic game modes, I’d pop in something else other than Rally 3.

Simple, addictive, colorful, and cheap; twenty dollars gets you about ten hours of entertainment, and more if you're a completionist. It's also difficult to describe in any way that makes any sort of sense, since it's one of those uniquely Japanese games that seems to have been conceptualized in the depths of a fever dream.

One can’t help but have the feeling that the series needs something new. The Empire system in this game adds a little bit, but it’s nothing revolutionary, and only provides a distraction from the same old gameplay. This “same old gameplay”, though, is darn good.

Yet it cannot really match the epic scale of "Homeworld" since the entire campaign revolves around the defense of one planet. Strategy fans will find a great game within the box but may end up putting away the disc after a few months, especially if skirmishes aren’t their taste.

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.

Yes, there are pathfinding issues with respect to friendly AI, some of the missions will seem a little overwhelming with all the units you have to control, and multiplayer still doesn’t feature a cover system, but all that aside what you’ve got here is a singleplayer campaign that’s just as thrilling and intense as the original, and a robust multiplayer component that is sure to keep gamers coming back to the virtual battlefield for months to come.

When the game is actually Max Payne, when you've set up the perfect shoot-dodge and you're sailing through the air putting holes through people, everything lines up and it's the greatest game in the world: amazing graphics, great voice acting, a funny and deftly written script, a memorable soundtrack, the whole nine yards. It's just a shame about all of this other extraneous modern crap that Rockstar's bolted onto it.

If you are a fan of the genre and have been hoping for something new and fresh, this will suit you quite nicely.

Resident Evil 7 is definitely worth your time, but unless you’re looking to go all in, it’s probably best as a rental. It’s a strong start for Capcom’s year, and it’s proof that there’s still a lot of life left in both this franchise and in the company. With a little more care shown towards its endgame and a few extra modes for longevity, another game like this one could be an all-time classic.

NHL 12 is, in my opinion, the best hockey game to date. It looks vivid and sharp, but the true-to-form NHL gameplay is what pushes it over the top. With a fast-paced game like hockey, it's not easy to recreate the experience in a video game, but with this title, EA has managed to do so quite successfully, making this one easy to recommend without thinking twice.

This is easily the best 3D action game on the Xbox One, and hopefully it isn’t swept under the rug sales-wise in a crowded holiday season.

DJ Hero doesn’t stray too far from the formula that made Guitar Hero and Rock Band into household names, but it has a fresh quality about it that the former titles expended long ago.

Forza Horizon 2 takes everything that made the original game great, includes it here without removing anything and then adds some new stuff to boot.

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.

There are no bugs or technical problems, the production values are excellent, and the gameplay is fun. What more could you want? Well, ok, a longer single-player experience would be nice.

The gameplay is fun but can get a little tough and/or complex in certain places but hey, that's what the Internet and walkthroughs are for.

With long draw distances, fierce competition and frenetic speeds, there's really not much more I could ask for from Moto Racer Advance.

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.

DJ Hero 2 improves upon its predecessor in every way.

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.

If you are one who knows what the term 'powerslide' means in racers, you'll undoubtedly want to pick this one up.

The enthralling tactical shooter gameplay and adjustable difficulty make it an experience that can be enjoyed by all. Do not bet on black; do not bet on red... take sixty dollars of your hard earned cash and place it on the rainbow. To win. It’s a sure thing.

DiRT 4 isn’t the greatest entry in the series, but it is still quite good. It lacks the feeling of life that prior games had and trades that in for a more sterile feeling. It’s a shame too because the festival setting injected a lot of fun into things, while the casual atmosphere let you go at your own pace through your career. Now, things are more rigid and while the core game is still fun, it feels like you have to do well as opposed to simply having fun being its own reward and better play resulted in faster progress. The core mechanics are excellent, though, and anyone looking for a high-quality rally racer will find one here. Series veterans who have become lapsed fans may not be won over by it, but should at least give it a rental while newcomers should give it a whirl as a rental and then give it a buy if they fall in love with it.

The game’s blend of an original Metroid-style progression system with a rogue-lite and a bit of Alien thrown in with the unknown nature of the world makes Returnal a compelling experience at all times. It looks and sounds great and controls like a dream – although it would be nice if gyroscopic aiming was added in later on for a bit more intuitive control.

If you are a fan of the series, this is a no-brainer to pick up, but even if you are even a mild sports fan, you cannot go wrong with Madden NFL 10.

Forza Motorsport 7 provides the best mainline experience yet on the Xbox One. Forza 4 may still be the greatest overall entry thanks to its overly-generous nature of giving out cars and the in-game auction house, but Forza 7 comes very close to topping it. The car selection is outstanding and the core gameplay is better now than ever before – with immersion also topping out here thanks to the massive increases in graphical quality and overall sound design.

I called Skill Stick one of the greatest innovations in sports videogames last year and now that EA has had another year to fine-tune the system, and add a new skating engine, NHL 08 is the best game on ice.

From a shear hours-per-dollar perspective the expansion pack is more than worth it. For those who explored every nook and cranny of Oblivion and were somehow craving more, have at it – you doubtless will not be disappointed. For those, like me, who maybe had enough, more time on the all-you-can buffet line isn’t really a good thing.

Currently, the game has some synching issues between the dialogue and the subtitles, but that seems like an easy thing for Double Fine to fix with a patch. So if you’ve never played Day of the Tentacle, or if you’re like me and you haven’t played it in 20 years, then Day of the Tentacle Remastered is an easy game to recommend.

While the inclusion of the vision cones and the concept of the Superstar mode were creative ideas, the actual implementation of the features ranged from inconvenient to improperly constructed.

That's what really separates Allegiance from your average space combat title, each and every ship you come across is piloted by another human player. It's ambitious, unique and undoubtedly sets the standards for future multiplayer games of its kind.

It’s a more accessible and cinematic experience that may turn off some Splinter Cell purists. If you’re only in it for the single player story, a rental will suffice, but with a good-sized co-op campaign and a more focused multiplayer suite, Splinter Cell fans have excellent reason to get re-acquainted with Sam Fisher this summer.