The racing itself is reasonably good as are the graphics – despite them having a lot of little flaws. The sound design is solid, but the soundtrack lacks any soul and that holds true for the voice work. Still, it’s a fun time and fans of many kinds of racing will find something to enjoy.

It’s obvious from the beginning that this game isn’t trying to do anything new or terribly innovative. Origins does action, and does it well.

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.

Overall, The 40th Day, which is an awful name by the way, is actually a great game. Is it as much of an improvement over the original as we might’ve hoped? Not really, but there is a ton more content including a hefty arsenal of weaponry for you to pimp out and an expanded multiplayer that makes this game well worth playing.

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.

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.

With an enhanced battle system, extra game modes, tweaked gameplay and cooperative wireless play on the DS, the game delivers on one of the single most overlooked factors in game production: fun. Space Invaders Extreme 2 is addictive and fun.

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.

If you played through Dead Rising 2 and you're not particularly enthused about Frank, the reason to look at Off the Record is to spend a few days with a friend bouncing around the mall in Sandbox Mode. I wouldn't recommend this on any other basis, but that's pretty much enough on its own.

Dragon Quest VI is another great title in this series that still manages to hold intrigue and charm amongst hardcore and casual RPG fans.

If you played through Dead Rising 2 and you're not particularly enthused about Frank, the reason to look at Off the Record is to spend a few days with a friend bouncing around the mall in Sandbox Mode. I wouldn't recommend this on any other basis, but that's pretty much enough on its own.

You could do a lot worse with your Microsoft Points than to pick it up.

On the whole, I really like B4B. I’d like to see the difficulty spikes addressed and some expanded PvP choices, both of which I think can and will be pretty easily added and fixed. I’m also hoping that more people start playing it, as most of the runs I’ve joined have at least one BOT in it and is often nothing but BOTs (and when I’m playing with nothing but BOTs, why do I have to wait for online server space to play it?). The BOTs are competent shooters, and use their player advantages pretty well, but have zero ability with regards to the additional level objectives – they won’t plant explosives or carry supplies, and they tend to hang near you, which is good from a survival perspective, but doesn’t help in finding weapon and healing caches. But for a team that plays well together, and I’m hoping to get my crew to move over from L4D, it’s a fine zombie run and gun.

The depth of the diplomacy, the many well-balanced factions, the intelligent layout of the interface, that all indicates to me a game design crew that really had its stuff together. While I don’t think as a game reviewer it would be appropriate for me to penalize a game for being too involved, I do think the pace of this game, the amount of plotting and planning versus the amount of payoff, is a little out of whack.

Even if you’ve already spent hundreds of hours wandering Skyrim’s countryside, the mods available at launch provide new ways to play, new loot to acquire, new locations to explore, and much more. Skyrim Special Edition is the best version of one of the all-time great fantasy role-playing games, even if it has begun to show its age.

The escalated difficulty of mixing all these together (now instead of one or two game types, you have half a dozen) and inconsistency in pacing the sequences ironically makes the holistic package less accessible.

The radical game imbalance makes this one for the FPS hardcore gamer or the Sci-Fi player who loves futuristic titles.

It’s cute, funny, clever, and the controls are all very responsive and tight for a collection like this with so many different games to build. So, if you’ve got the itch for some light-hearted minigame fun, go out and pick this one up.

It's not easy, it's pretty funny, and you'll only rarely do the same thing twice. It's there to test a wide variety of skills, or to simply entertain those with short attention spans, and it succeeds at both.

If you liked the movie, you'll probably like the game, as it's a near-perfect blend of classic gameplay with the production values and design of the film.

Despite the lack of online play and the humdrum combat system, LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures is a lot fun to play.

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.

Despite its shortcomings (with the emphasis on short), Voodoo Vince is an imaginative and fun platform game, full of wit and charm.

If you like your kung-fu and melodrama mixed together and brought to a rolling boil like a nabeyaki udon, download yourself a copy right away.

It’s a title for fans of both mystery and point-and-clicks, and, despite its technical shortcomings, is worth the price of admission.

Wolfenstein: The New Order is an electric veg-o-matic of FPS gaming bits and pieces set thrown into the hopper and set for puree. It lacks some stuff that we’re sort of gotten used to seeing in our FPS games these days and adds, a thousand collectable widgets aside, not much that we haven’t seen elsewhere before.

It's not easy, it's pretty funny, and you'll only rarely do the same thing twice. It's there to test a wide variety of skills, or to simply entertain those with short attention spans, and it succeeds at both.

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.