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.