When the night comes to a close and the vomit is all cleaned up, SimCoaster is simply not fun enough. The emphasis on micro-management and objective oriented gameplay really takes away from the overall enjoyment of designing and running an amusement park.

While the Front Mission series has been acclaimed in the past, this is a horrible misstep that hopefully won’t be repeated in the future. Substandard combat design and AI, a cluttered player interface and technically outdated graphics butcher most, if not almost all, of the fun you’d have with this title.

Visuals are definitely the strength of the game. Controls and audio would fight for second place. Variety, unfortunately, is last.

Unfortunately, the difficulty never lets up in the thirty-seven levels.

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.

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.

For PC fans, the adapted control system feels awkward and the gameplay limited, and I suspect that console gamers who pick this up to “see what the fuss is about” will be confused as to why anyone could get addicted to a game with such boring A.I. and predictable gameplay.

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.

As I played Afterparty, I kept thinking that I should be liking it more than I was. A character- and story-driven game sounds like it should be right up my alley, and I can picture people enjoying the conversations and appreciating a vision of Hell where it’s being run by devils with just as many problems as everybody else. But I didn’t like the game, and I didn’t really like that there isn’t much game in the game (there aren’t any puzzles, and the drinking mini-games are so inconsequential it doesn’t even matter if you win them). So I’m giving Afterparty a lukewarm score. It’s definitely a game where your mileage may vary.

It’s kind of hard to recommend this as a $60 purchase, but if you loved either GRID game before, you’ll enjoy GRID Autosport – just be prepared for a visual shock to the senses when you see how bland the menus look.

The open-ended gameplay is solid from start to finish, the production values are top notch for a current generation title, and the game just oozes charisma. You don’t even have to be a fan of the Scarface film to enjoy Scarface the video game.

In the end, DiRT Showdown is an outstanding game and probably the most polished demolition-style racer out there. Online play is surprisingly smooth, and outside of relatively small issues like needing login data for Youtube and Codemasters' own Racenet service nearby, there isn't much I didn't enjoy about the experience as a whole. It's definitely a worthwhile purchase for either fans of the DiRT franchise or of demolition racers in general.

Most of the game is actually pretty fun, although the loading times are damned long for a downloadable title. It's a colorful, violent cartoon with some of the best music of any game this year. It's simply that any time a boss shows up, I want to go play something else.

This DS title is not bad by any means, but it is certainly the weakest installment of the Kingdom Hearts series so far. However, to its credit, the game is still a charming and fun title to play for Kingdom Hearts enthusiasts and fans alike.

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time is an excellent platformer/stealth hybrid, just like its predecessors, and something long-time fans of the series will love, but newcomers may be better off picking up the HD trilogy since it doesn’t do all that much new and gives you far more value for your money.

If you love card games or are a fanatic for Metal Gear, and you're fairly patient, then this could easily be the game for you. It's a really great implementation of new technology as well as being very ambitious.

The experience is a great deal more entertaining than the previous effort (Liberty City Stories), so if you enjoyed Vice City for the PS2 and don’t own a PSP, go ahead and pick this one up.

RPG fans that are interested in a good laugh at their favorite genre's expense will probably dig this title, flaws and all.

Overall, The Next BIG Thing is humorous, well-acted and well-presented, and it might take you around 10 hours to complete. The game's puzzles are a little bit on the easy side, which isn't necessarily bad, and because of that, and also because of the difficulty settings, The Next BIG Thing might work better as an introduction to adventure games rather than as a challenge for veteran players. But I enjoyed my time with the game (with the caveat that I got to play it for free), and I'd give it a modest recommendation.

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.

It looks great, it’s reasonably well acted, and while its puzzles are hit and miss, its story is enveloping enough to draw you in and keep you playing.

If you’ve played Telltale’s other games, then Game of Thrones is about what you should expect.

In North America, where big bangs, high production values and cinematic 'rail shooters' reign supreme, the hint of frustration and subtle depth that Hidden and Dangerous 2 offers might not be so alluring, but for fans of the original, you owe it to yourself to try it out, even if you can no longer play the campaigns through with your friends.

Overall, Dungeons 3 was a mixed bag for me, mostly because I found the campaign to be sort of a chore. It took me 30 hours to finish its 20 missions, and while the humor was great, the lack of challenge took away any sense of tension or excitement, and I knew at the start of every mission that I was going to win after about 90 minutes. I was also sort of surprised that the focus of the game is way more on the surface (where everything interesting happens) rather than the dungeons (which all look about the same), when it should have been the opposite. So while Dungeons 3 isn’t a terrible game or anything, it’s certainly a title where I’d recommend that you wait for a sale before purchasing it.

Hydro Thunder Hurricane destroys its predecessor by providing more of what made it such a classic to begin with, and improving upon it.

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

Though this game is a visceral and grand experience, I can't get away from the fact that it was supposed to be a free pack-in, and instead they've slapped a $50 price tag on it. It would've surely been the best pack-in of all time. As a stand-alone retail game, I can still recommend it, but only for fans of the NBA Jam series.