Dragon Ball FighterZ is an accomplished fighting game with a clear appreciation for its source material, providing frenetic action between larger-than-life characters ripped straight from the anime/manga series. Though its combo system may be simple on the surface, with many of its moves being universal across its characters, there's a great deal of complexity when it comes to successfully breaking out of a combo string, with timing being the key to victory.

It overwhelmingly asks the question: “Why fight?” It can’t be for the rewards, which are boring. It can’t be for the story, which is non-existent. And it really can’t be for pride, since without any online multiplayer, you are confined to fighting only people who probably have never played before and who might not enjoy coming over to your apartment solely to get their ass kicked.

The good part about being overwhelmed in Planescape: Torment is the sheer amount of quests you can take on without making too much physical progress. You can walk for what would normally take five minutes and stop 10 times along the way and pick up 12 quests. I had picked up 10 quests before I even completed two. It's great that a game like this doesn't feel linear, like its holding your hand.

There are certainly some good ideas here, but its attempts at cinematic effect undermine themselves through sheer repetition, while the story goes from creepy cool to Fox Kids' Club silly faster than you can say "WTF."

Despite its cinematic aspirations and genuinely unique approach, Indigo Prophecy is little more than a short adventure that relies too heavily on the same, bad mini-game when it should be mixing up the contextually-controlled goodness like a dyslexic DJ.

The old songs mixed with the new, the unchanged gameplay, the redundant difficulty modes, the atrocious inclusion of really really bad music videos.

If you’re hardcore into flight sim games, you might find some satisfaction from the better parts of this highway to the danger zone, but if you’re looking for the next Crimson Skies, keep looking.

Overall, there's not much to this game, if you can call it a game. If you're looking for a game with a point or a plot, keep looking.

I love the gooey center of every cyborg PMC out there, but Revengeance fights the player every step of the way. What's more, reducing the difficulty ultimately boils down the combat to a button masher, leaving the experience hollow and draining all the same. Fans and masochists alike might find a lot to love, but even I can't stand the crunchy outside of a bug for the sweet gooey insides.

Hopefully, the next expansion will bring some changes to the table that round out the game a little more, and strike a new balance. I’m tired of stalemates.

Since it's fairly easy to find all the necessary objects, and you can safely talk to every character about almost every object, it's not much of a challenge to finish the game. There's only one storyline, one ending, and one mode of play (i.e. easy), so you're not likely to play the game through more than once.

Simply steeped too deeply in old role-playing game conventions and standbys. Games like "Star Wars: KOTOR" have changed the landscape, while more similar titles like "Final Fantasy X" and "Xenosaga" have a better battle system and a more epic feel, respectively.

It seems that any time Square Enix tries to prove to the world that they can make more than super awesome RPGs, they underwhelm.

A party game with great intentions, but unsatisfying delivery. This is a tedious and often frustrating experience, and its few bright spots get squashed under the weight of Mario's fat, boring ass. This is one dead party.

A forgettable racer with all the depth of a shallow puddle, better suited for a rental than a purchase. It's more a footnote to the Need for Speed series than a chapter in itself.

It’s probably Capcom’s most disappointing offering to the fighting game genre since 1997’s dismal "Street Fighter Collection."

Difficulty levels will turn away nearly everyone.

Unless you're truly a glutton for punishment or simply have to own everything the words "Final" or "Fantasy" in it, go ahead and skip this one.

Pales in comparison to its cousins and is not worth the money to buy. With repetitive gameplay and almost no depth, you're better off letting Dracula ravage the countryside. Might help lower global population numbers.

Without all of the environmental additions, Sega Rally Revo is an average racer at best.

FFIV is still the same ol' game, as classic and playable as ever, but SE expecting you to pay for it once again (along with the joke that is Interlude and the hit-or-miss After Years) is outright greedy.

If I were giving a grade on presentation, the marks would be higher. But since I actually have to play through the games, I have to take a not-so-pleasant trip down memory lane. Oh look, some game didn't pick up after themselves, and I've stepped in it.

All of this is not to say that Supreme Commander 2 is an awful game. But the things that have changed simply won’t win over new fans; if you didn’t like Supreme Commander, then you won’t like Supreme Commander 2.

Unfortunately, the gameplay breaks down fairly often, with enemies acting like idiots, getting stuck on objects, or becoming bulletproof from particular angles.

While Sniper Elite 5 introduces a generous amount of game mechanics that are new to the series, they aren’t especially unique when looking at the shooter genre at large. Sure, it’s good that Sniper Elite is now catching up, but it’s still got a ways to go. With that said, it’s a marked improvement over Sniper Elite 4 and fans of the franchise will no doubt find a lot to like here. It’s also on Xbox Game Pass and will be a fine addition to the line-up during a tumultuous time for the service. [Review in Progress]

If you don't have a PSP, it might be worth checking out if the nostalgia hits you hard enough, but unless you're a glutton for punishment, I don't know how much you can find here. Oh, and if you do have the PSP version, just walk away. Take your time, no need to hurry, just walk aw-BOOM!

It fails in the most fundamental aspect: the gameplay. It’s generally dull. Despite a high initial learning curve – usually the sign of a game with depth and complexity – Knights in the Nightmare is shallow and simple.

Aion is simply a poor game.

Twenty years ago, it would have been worth forty bucks. But today, it’s just another obsolete space ship, grounded in favor of better, faster rockets.

Obduction feels like a game that belongs in the 1990s with a modern-day coat of paint. If you haven't played an adventure game since then, you might be pleasantly surprised, but I'd have rather spent my time replaying Firewatch, Oxenfree, or any number of other quality adventure titles instead of this buggy mess.

This game has found a way to take traditional FPS game modes and deliver them in a way that doesn't feel derivative. For example, Turf War is essentially a capture mode, but points are immediately awarded upon capture rather than your team being given these values over time. This promotes mobility and progression.

Its sardonic take on typical conventions is thwarted by its own weak design, and its tongue-in-cheek humor fails more often than it succeeds. Laughter might well be the best medicine, but a bad joke is the worst ailment.

Most of the game is as tedious and exciting as burning ants with a magnifying glass.

Load times slow things down, and long digressive missions and lame mini-games seem to prolong what should be a short, violent romp.

An unfortunately hollow universe is troublesome but ultimately a low-priority concern in the grand scheme of The Surge 2’s more pressing matters. Its multiple failings are almost bewildering because of how closely it copies much of its identity from its spiritual predecessors. But those similarities to much better games just point out how little imagination The Surge 2 has and how inadequately it has attempted to implement those popular mechanics.

Without all of the environmental additions, Sega Rally Revo is an average racer at best.

Even though it pushes a new type of battle system, a huge step for any RPG, Baten Kaitos Origins reshuffles the series' deck and comes up with a hand that I wouldn't bet on.

With its uninspired maps, lack of new weapons and missing Special Forces content, Armored Fury would be a little disappointing even if it were free.

A weird idea and plenty of kitsch value doesn’t make for a good game, although it certainly makes for one helluva song.

The coolest part of Frontlines, the RC copters and mini-tanks, are legitimately neat and worth a look if a friend buys the game. But the extremely loose shooting, weak communication apparatus, and lone, quidditch-dumb, multiplayer game mode are points that recommend waiting.

Die-hard R6ers might get a kick out of it, but I don't recommend it to newbies unless you're just itchin to play dress up with some big bad army men.

Its sardonic take on typical conventions is thwarted by its own weak design, and its tongue-in-cheek humor fails more often than it succeeds. Laughter might well be the best medicine, but a bad joke is the worst ailment.

Every Extend Extra, a game that could have filled the PSP’s need for fun and simple arcade action, blows itself up in a miniscule pop of disappointment.

I could have recommended Zoo Keeper for $10 or possibly even $15, but at full price, this is a complete rip-off.

A very average action game that’s only funny when it isn’t trying to be. Vaporizing humans and terrorizing cities in a big flying saucer is still fun, but the missions are decidedly of this world.

Square-Enix manages to spin a good yarn and populate an interesting world full of fantastic characters, but a plethora of inexcusable design decisions threaten to unravel everything. Despite its promise, some serious growing pains prevent this adolescent from truly coming of age.

Despite the hype, Legend of Dragoon is a soulless creature, a subpar game held aloft by deceptive marketing. Don't trust it.

Above all, Heat feels like subscription filler, another driving game to add value to EA’s Access bundles.

You'd have to be the hardest of the hardcore to play Resonance of Fate through to the end (or an intern at Game Revolution). It is violently unruly and complex in its battle systems and structure. I'm sure there are plenty of masochists out there in the RPG community, but Resonance of Fate exudes punishment in spades.

We admire the effort and love the style, but we expect our video games to be first and foremost good games, not good art. That's a bonus, not a foundation. Despite our appreciation for those that push the boundaries of game design, Killer 7's lofty ideas come crashing down in a flurry of bad gameplay decisions, proving that sometimes weird isn't quite enough.

Without all of the environmental additions, Sega Rally Revo is an average racer at best.

An extremely ambitious game, but it misses the mark due to unoriginality and subpar presentation.

In the end, this race is barely a race at all. The 360 is the winner by a mile, and for the price of those wheels, no doubt it should be. The Xbox comes in a distant second with fewer cars and none of the cool online modes. And trailing way behind that is the PS2, a run-down jalopy that probably shouldn’t even be on the road.

For a title that costs more than "World of Warcraft," Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach is unbelievably light on stuff to do. It does feature some decent dungeons that can be fun to run through with a group, but with no pvp, no economy, no trade skills and nothing useful you can do by yourself, this is a dungeon to crawl away from.

A very average action game that's only funny when it isn't trying to be. Vaporizing humans and terrorizing cities in a big flying saucer is still fun, but the missions are decidedly of this world.

But when there are so many better, more interesting RPGs on the PSP, why bother with one that simply drains your system's battery life?

Take away the horses, squinty eyes, six-shooters and five o’ clock shadows, and this cowpoke goes from deadeye to dead on arrival.

Get in your car, drive to a hockey game, support your local team, and go pay $20 for a deep-fried stadium lunch. Because whatever you do, don’t spend any time on this flabby substitute.

Take away the horses, squinty eyes, six-shooters and five o’ clock shadows, and this cowpoke goes from deadeye to dead on arrival.

Concepts and premises like this whimsical survivor tale are fresh at least; now EA needs to escape from Suck Island and find fun gameplay.

The lack of precision and agility really destroys the pathetic online modes. Deathmatch, team deathmatch, and an “objective” territories-style mode are all sad, as is the twelve-player maximum.

Carried over from the last generation, this fighting game just feels old and fights with no heart whatsoever.

It’s odd that Capcom has done so little to the hibernating series and let this beloved game wither away under the harsh sands of time.

If you love LocoRoco but for some reason wished it were much, much harder, then you’ll adore this game. However, if you like that kind of pain, then you'd probably also enjoy having your PSP jammed up your nose.

You want gamers to really hate your game? Here's how to do it. Make the gameplay repetitive and uninteresting, then let them complete 99% of a level only to have the character die inexplicably and restart the level all over again. Body Harvest fits the preceding bill to a "T". This game has neither the innovation, the depth, nor a halfway interesting story to keep you playing for any extended period of time.

The game’s a breeze, which might appeal to novice gamers and people for whom achievement is more highly-valued than challenge, but doesn't do it for those better-versed in the art of fragging.

A lot more work than fun. When I play it for long stretches, I feel like I deserve a nap on a bale of hay.

I like games that are fun to play, not that remind me that I could be playing something else so, so much better.

Linear takes on roguelikes often feature lots of variety and plenty of unique hooks. The world of Sparklite feels drab in comparison. It feels like you’ve been here a hundred times before in a hundred other games.

The King, it hurts me to say, has been de-throned.

Beyond Light is the first note in a dirge for Destiny 2, and major steps need to be taken by Bungie to fix the issues caused by sunsetting and content vaulting. But regardless of what Bungie’s next steps are at this point, it’s difficult to feel excitement for any future expansions given the direction Destiny 2 is headed in.

Gives World War II games a bad name by skimping on the essentials - story, A.I. and multiplayer - to focus on floating icons and the art of hiding behind crates. Instead, just hide your wallet.

I can respect Funimation’s attempt to change many staid fighting game conventions throughout their Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi series, but in the process, the controls have become almost impossible to learn.

So the story is so-so and the characters are a bit over-the-top, and the levels are a bit dull, and there aren’t really that many “Super” robots, and the ones that are there are a bit less than super, but whatever.

What's left is a rather generic husk of an empty insane asylum and Sweet Tooth, a fat, hairy, and semi-nude protagonist who can run around in it. And what is a mental patient in an abandoned asylum to do? Collect concept art, of course!

Gives World War II games a bad name by skimping on the essentials - story, A.I. and multiplayer - to focus on floating icons and the art of hiding behind crates. Instead, just hide your wallet.

Every aspect of this game is horribly average, derivative, unpolished, or worse. Half-assed, floaty, imprecise character movement. Half-assed melee combat. Half-assed cover mechanic. Half-assed weapon upgrade system. Half-assed sound design and mixing. Quarter-assed story. No-assed AI.

The problem with playing an oldie like After Burner nowadays is its depth: There's hardly any to be found.

When it isn’t busy knocking you off cliffs or duping you into a second play-through, it’s a fun, hectic shooter, but without a more gradual difficulty ramp or at least some cheat codes, this is one problem best left unsolved.

Everything you've come to expect from a trrack and field game, just upped a notch graphically. Lots of button tapping, good-looking environments and the correct audio help round it out.

You'd have to be the hardest of the hardcore to play Resonance of Fate through to the end (or an intern at Game Revolution). It is violently unruly and complex in its battle systems and structure. I'm sure there are plenty of masochists out there in the RPG community, but Resonance of Fate exudes punishment in spades.

I have a hard time recommending Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds to anyone. If you're obsessed with 2D brawlers and love Japanese animé, I strongly recommend you give the demo a try before shelling out any cash. The redundant and dated gameplay, coupled with weak production values, make this a forgettable experience that won't keep you entertained for very long.

It’s more of a novelty, a third-party candidate – you’ll like some of what it has to offer, but it’s still pretty much just wasting your vote.

It is the exact same thing [as "Rainbow Six" and "Ghost Recon"], except for the planning, the intricacy, the strategy, the coordination, and most importantly, the fun.

Even though it's got loads of personality and it fully embraces its own craziness, it fails to be a sturdy combination of different game genres, and is just not fun enough to justify hunting through all those pixels.

Every aspect of this game is horribly average, derivative, unpolished, or worse. Half-assed, floaty, imprecise character movement. Half-assed melee combat. Half-assed cover mechanic. Half-assed weapon upgrade system. Half-assed sound design and mixing. Quarter-assed story. No-assed AI.

Pretty girls? Check. Effeminate guy? Check. Enthralling experience? Mehhh, not really.

Despite its innovation, charm and style, the glaring functionality omissions render it impotent. You turn it on, draw out some cool sounds for a couple minutes, and then shut it off wondering why you can't save anything.

We’d like to give credit to Graffiti Kingdom’s designers for sticking with a daring concept, but then they went and surrounded it with a mindless action shell. Overly repetitive, simplistic gameplay dominates the landscape, and only the monster creator saves this game from running out of ink completely.

It's the grinding that honestly made this game more of a chore for me than an enjoyment. If you need that old-school fix, there are better ways to do it on both PSN and XBLA, and you can just download and listen to the songs through your iPod or something if you really need the flashback. I just can't recommend it beyond the die-hard Double Dragon folks… if any of you are still out there.

The extra missions would have really helped flesh out the original. But it's not really worth a second price of admission. Wait for this one to hit the bargain bin, or if you don't have the original, wait for the inevitable "bundle."

Klang’s good ideas are upstaged by their own poor execution. Neither the rhythm or the platforming are good enough to stand on their own, with the sum of their parts still failing to add up to a complete experience. I wanted to like Klang, but this hybrid is less of a chimera and more of an abomination. At least the music was good.

A good RPG brought down by the very thing it touted as a feature: complexity. Buggy gameplay and a distinct lack of plot turn this promising game into a lesson in mediocrity.

But sim racing fans will find it sorely lacking in key details, and arcade racing fans will find the game far too boring and long-winded for their taste.

Though packed with more bloodshed than a European soccer match, there's not enough actual gameplay in this one to qualify it as a good game.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is a hearty appetizer for Hundred Heroes. I think Natsume Atari accomplished its mission of giving players a taste of what the world of Hundred Heroes has to offer, and I’ve gotten less enjoyment out of much more expensive games. You can’t ask for much more for a budget title that was created as a stretch goal for a Kickstarter project. However, some players just aren’t going to find enough meat here to pique their interest. The gameplay does get repetitive, and none of the various systems has much depth. If you aren’t interested in Hundred Heroes and don’t find yourself invested in New Neveah and its inhabitants, you might want to skip this one. [Provisional Score = 80]

That’s just about all Breakdown has going for it: a genuinely good sci-fi story. But even that gets overpowered by numerous gameplay flaws, from the unconvincing AI and crummy fragging to the boring environments and irritating pacing.

For newbies, the controls are too unwieldy, and for veterans, though they’ll get a short burst of fret-shredding (for $49.99…), stylus scraping just doesn’t compare to a life-sized Gibson controller. With all the fumbling it takes to hold the DS comfortably, you’ll wonder why you’re playing this in public.