American developer Double Helix has managed to stick its landing—right in the uneasy, dark parts of the mind that define the Silent Hill experience.

A deep, hard strategy game that offers tons in the way of customization and length.

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.

For the $15 asking price, you'd be hard-pressed to find another multiplayer experience on a console with this much meat on its bones.

If you want a game that can mix up your activity on the go or maybe a title with a ton of personality that shows off the touch controls on the PlayStation Vita, Escape Plan can't be missed. If you've already got five games, resist the urge to buy more. This one will go on sale soon.

Beenox did a commendable job juicing up the visuals and maintaining the fluid first-person shooting mechanics, but time has not been as kind. Modern Warfare 2 is a dated game due to the archaic framework that surrounds its gunplay and primitive storytelling, showing that the “modern” part of Modern Warfare 2 is no longer as applicable.

That said, with the plethora of other options ranging from churches to space programs, controlling an island nation bent on exorcizing its previous demons (existing under the Crown of an imperialist ruler) and taking sole command of an army and a civilization, Tropico 5 is a fulfilling experience.

Hopscotching its way from borrowed concept to borrowed concept, TimeShift is substantially less than the sum of its all-too-obvious parts.

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.

Unfortunately, it's only half a great game. Clocking in at around 6 hours, it might be the shortest adventure-horror game out there and has almost zero replay value.

The Medium is a step in the right direction for Bloober Team and I hope that it’s a sign that the studio is moving out of its comfort zone. It’s definitely the most dynamic title from the devs so far. At its best times, The Medium channels Silent Hill, but the rough pacing and limited gameplay outside of puzzle-solving hold it back. Additionally, the unsatisfactory ending leaves a sour note that detracts from the overall experience.

Call it what you will, but DOOM is still DOOM, even in KISS makeup.

While the game looks better than "Half-Life" did before the 1.1.0.6 patch, the engine does nothing new or revolutionary and comes off as fairly dated. Don't expect any amazing solar effects or vast open areas with incredible viewing distances.

Equally goofy and strange, but in an unassuming way, it's also good, unpretentious fun.

Problematically, it just doesn’t do too anything new and doesn’t space itself out from the crowd. It feels like you’ve played this game before and you probably have - in better, more interesting forms.

Lego Rock Band is a watered-down version of the original; dressed up, for sure, but with few places to go.

It's a shame, because despite all of the rampant bad old-schooliness (I'm coining that phrase right here, right now), 4 Heroes of Light has some good qualities and I actually started enjoying it right about the midway point when you get your whole party together and the crown system kicks in full swing. The problem is that you have to slog through the first half to get there, and even then all the annoyances and frustrations are still lurking – they're just a little easier to ignore.

Genuinely translating an action film is hardly done with as much effort as High Moon Studios has put into it. Although the combat suffers from a lack of refinement and complexity, it still keeps up with the vigorous pace and calculated intensity of Jason Bourne.

Again, the difficulty curve is sharp at times and inconsistent, though for a discount release, this is a fun and quirky little experience. The story is amusing and deeper, albeit forgettable, than one might think. Easy to pick up, difficult yet engrossing, and a simple story worth the giggles?

The only thing inherently disappointing with this game is that... it's the same thing that's been coming out over the past decade-plus.

If you are just playing (or replaying) through Mass Effect 2, then grab this DLC and inject the added content into your adventure. But if you have been done with the game for a while, a lone new Achievement, an added team member, a very short new mission, and a scrap of new loot may not be enough for extended service aboard the Normandy.

It may not be the most open ended theme park on the planet, but it's full of different ways to have fun, and that's what matters most. Buy the ticket, and take the ride.

Senran Kagura as a series is something of a guilty pleasure for me, faults and confusion and all.

The best I can say about Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy is that it's adequate at best. But at a time when the 3DS is finally getting all the killer software that it was missing for the first few months of its existence, adequate hardly cuts it.

Despite some truly gorgeous visuals on now last-gen hardware and satisfying combat mechanics that feel as Castlevania as 3D gameplay could ever hope to get, Dracula gets hampered and hogtied far too frequently by poorly executed stealth. These mechanics have no place in an experience that, without them, could have totally satisfied your bloodlust.

So what you're essentially paying for in the difference is the graphical polish of the environments, a satisfactory storyline, and clean craftsmanship. If that sounds like a fine deal, then Dungeon Siege III is the right dungeon crawler for you.

Passable and tolerable.

Though episode 7 isn't exactly skippable, the drive to complete it even in an hour or so can feel unfulfilling. As I said, for completionists only.

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.

In the end, Samurai Warriors 4 Empires is basically the same as Samurai Warriors 4-II, but with a heavy emphasis on pre-combat strategy and no interesting storylines for the characters. Fans of the series will appreciate the variation on gameplay, but there's nothing to draw new players to the franchise.

A zombie could have a hundred flailing tentacles and a cool set of giant spider legs, but without a mouth, it just hasn’t got any bite.

Dark Summit sets its sights high, but the final product is mainly just a decent snowboarding game with a weird, lame story. A few cool concepts raise it above mediocrity, however.

Without a doubt, the best part of Blood Wake is its graphics. From coastal towns to the many scattered islands, there's always something well-rendered to look at.

Those who've never had an appointment with the doctor may take to it, but others who in the past made regular visits might feel that he hasn't kept up with the times.

It needs to be said that Sacred 2 is still rife with minor bugs, but patches are slowly mending the game-crashing bugs and graphical mishaps. This is just one of many clues that point towards an overambitious design document that didn’t have enough time or manpower to execute fully.

Since the combat is so shallow, and the story is rather bland in spite of how different it is, Avalon Code never really sucked me in.

Visually, The Lego Movie Video Game on PS4 looks about the same as Lego Marvel Superheroes did on the Wii U, which is a shame since the movie added scratches to textures and variable stop-motion framerate and lighting effects that could have been exploited with the next-gen hardware.

Much like "Yoshi Touch & Go," the Pac-Pix's cool tech demo roots are supported by a frighteningly flimsy frame, resulting in just another misuse of Pac-Power.

It takes risks, which we love, and builds off the risks of yesteryear, which is even better. However, little in this game is streamlined or intuitive, the fielding is awful, and some of the lapses are unforgivably sloppy.

I had a lot of fun with Mass Effect: Andromeda. The galaxy I got to explore was full of life and the combat felt incredibly satisfying. But various issues with important mechanics like the scanner and hefty technical problems prevented my enjoyment from ever lasting too long...Although familiar in some regards, this is a positive in Andromeda’s case. Though, a truly successful revival needs to be innovative, not repetitive, and Andromeda often falls into a trap of tedium. It's a shame because it could have been so much more.

The Sinking City is certainly more involving and had more care put into it than last year’s official Call of Cthulhu game but besting its spiritual predecessor doesn’t mean it reaches its full potential. The detective work is quite involving, but the combat is a mess and the pretty open-world doesn’t have enough in it to justify its existence. It would’ve been better suited as a series of locations you hop between, rather than dull jaunts to get to places of interest or the various archives of information.

The Walking Dead: The Final Season Episode 2 lacks an intriguing plot of its own and it isn’t able to write off its great character moments and writing as part of a bigger puzzle. As is, this is mostly a setup episode. And that can work but it doesn’t work as well when there is nothing to build up to.

For the price tag, Gotham City Impostors is incredible. It has bazillions of unlockable items including costume designs for each for your characters for both the bats and jokers. The game hosts a ton of weaponry and gadgets that rival the armory of Call of Duty. My only big gripe are the micro-transactions they added that help boost experience, buy costumes, unlock certain mascots, and expedite the time it takes how long to queue players into a working lobby.

The Simpsons Game may just be the funniest video game ever, but funny is not the same as fun,and it's just not a very good game. I found myself wanting to finish the game just for the humor, even though I was screaming at the TV after falling down the 10,000th pit or when the camera showing me the wall again while i get killed.

The problem with Pilotwings Resort is that there just isn't much to do.

The gameplay is addictive, the movements you make are fun, and getting animated with friends will be endlessly entertaining. Just know that if you've already experienced Halfbrick's juicy karate simulator on another platform, you won't find anything new. That is, of course, aside from the multiplayer (slap-fighting) fruit slicing.

What really takes me away from the serious nature of Post Mortem are the shoddy character animations. The characters fidget and jerk in repetitive, awkward ways. It really gets distracting and pulls you out of the narrative. Less movement would be have been far more effective.

Definitely one of the more enjoyable kart racers in recent memory.

A mixed bag of intense and exciting racing just like the PS2 version. The vast and various stretches of road suffer from a total lack of extras and are beset by unimpressive collision physics and limited camera angles.

Instead of an outstanding title, all we're left with is an average game highlighted by one outstanding feature.

If you can get past the difficulty swings, The 3rd Birthday is a surprisingly fun experience. It's pretty; it's easy to dive into (a pun!); and the story is told in such a way that it's easy to follow… especially for a Square-Enix game!

If you haven't experienced the original Resident Evil, now is your chance to embrace a classic. Gamers who have played it before, however, won't find quite enough extra here to justify paying for the privilege of doing it all over again.

No Man’s Sky will not be everyone’s cup of space tea, proving to be just as divisive as the genre it represents. It can be boring, but a "good" kind of boring. It can also be frustrating, the sort of frustrating that makes you wish you can travel back to 2013 and relive the first time No Man’s Sky entered the public mind, sparking the long-dormant imaginations of the gaming community.

Its tone is a perfect balance—not cutesy and not over-serious. The characters may be stereotypical, but there’s a real sense of self-awareness and satirical humor in them as well.

Generally disappointing. It's a decent game, but just nowhere near as enjoyable or impressive as the many new FPS recruits who have recently landed on the retail battlefield.

If tennis is your game, you'll love Grand Slam Tennis 2. If it's not, it's worth taking a look anyway.

By this sixth hour of Telltale’s Minecraft experiment, killing Creepers or Cave Spiders doesn’t deliver much by way of thrilling set pieces. Here, the enjoyment comes from the way the characters react to their situations or comment on the obvious gaming-like aspects like having more than enough blocks of wood to go around.

Sniper Elite III is like working from home for me. Although I enjoy the tasks and executing them, I feel like there are ways to make doing them more rewarding and engaging.

For Back to the Future fans or just adventure game aficionados, Episode Four is amazing. And from the looks of the teaser at the end of this chapter, the next one might just surpass it.

It stumbles in its lame single-player and brutally slow pacing, but offers a nice amount of customization for would-be mech mechanics, leading to a game perfect for the chop shop and lousy for the road.

Nice to see Bandai-Namco is bringing back some classics; maybe we can see more intense action and story next time.

Id love to say this was a GREAT GAME!! but i just cant i like it but after awhile its to repetitive to really appreciate.

Episode One is a fun two hours with plenty of shout-outs to fans of the series while also a solid balance of gameplay and characters for those who’ve never combined flint, sticks, and a feather to create an arrow. As a "player choice via conversation" game, though, the plot so far is fairly standard.

The fact is, if you already own a Tiger game for a current-gen machine, you own a better one than this. Numbers don’t lie, and neither do we.

A surprisingly remarkable Xbox exclusive that you won't able to put down and delivers the veritable “fun factor” that modern games often miss. It's truly a game that's greater than the sum of its parts, and yet every part is crafted with care and a sense of excitement, from the three fully-fledged campaigns modes and the accessible Sandbox system, to the GLaDOS-like voiceovers and the game's humorous, futuristic theme.

Unfortunately, though beating the crap out of Rancor is cool, it's quite flawed, thanks to the wonky camera and targeting system.

It's obvious that the game is geared toward the equestrian enthusiast, what with stats and breeding abilities and overall depth, but it won't convert the casual observer. The racing is strategic and toned down rather than an adrenaline rush, and this hurts game's crossover appeal.

The bad enemy AI, poor enemy variety and extreme linearity makes it hard to want to play any of the levels more than once. In the case of the Banner levels, you won't want to play them at all.

Though the objectives are overly simple and quite repetitive, the game is well programmed with decent graphics and a solid pace, and the cooperative aspect should make for many lively slumber parties. Just don’t expect it to keep the grown-up ogres entertained for long.

Monster Hunter: Freedom tries to capture the odd, free-form gameplay that made its console counterpart so quirky, but its load problems, aggravating combat, lame AI and lack of online play dulls its blade immeasurably.

You have to give Ridge Racer Unbounded points for trying something new. The series has gone downhill at a blistering pace following industry embarassments like this one. Bringing fresh ideas to the table and executing them in a stylish matter is exactly what the doctor ordered. Unfortunately, none of these ideas are original and they were all better accomplished in the titles that originated them. Take one of the older models for a spin around the block and see for yourself.

How do you score something that is so hellish (in more than one way) one second and so awesome the next? Hellgate: London probably just needed some extra time in Beta. Maybe pushing for Halloween was too much. I'm in the camp that would rather have a game delayed than have it get over-looked due to technical issues that could've been worked out beforehand.

For the determined vampire hunter, Castlevania: Curse of Darkness can be engaging, but only in the manner of any item-heavy level grind.

Hellish bugs might significantly diminish the experience but Afterparty still gives players a convincing enough argument to take an express elevator down to the fiery pits of torment.

It lacks the balance it would take to make it something really great, but what is there is fun, just not as phenomenal as some of Capcom's more recent franchise reboots.

That inherent, unapologetic, child-like fun is still present in Armageddon.

Aside from the constant elevator music, Super Swing Golf Season 2 is a solid golf game with a lot of replay value.

Even though Crackdown 2 feels more like Crackdown 1.5 than a true sequel, there is enough here and enough that has been improved that you will enjoy it just as much as the original, if not even more.

A great fetch that celebrates why we love cute, little animals so much.

So while Fractured Soul has some good ideas and at times is a pleasant return to the tough standards of old-school gaming, it takes it to an excess that eventually breaks the game and undoes the good will of its nostalgic positives.

The disconnect that the overly convoluted plotline produces mixed with the detachment I felt with the world because of the continually shifting environment left made the whole thing feel hollow to me. I can’t recommend Layers of Fear 2 unless you just absolutely love the genre and have played everything else out there.

American developer Double Helix has managed to stick its landing—right in the uneasy, dark parts of the mind that define the Silent Hill experience.

I think it's safe to say that someone at EA Sports has too tight a grip on the mantra, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Year after year, the Live series crops up with minor retrofits while other EA lines, like the admirable Madden games, enjoy sparkling new touches and interesting new modes.

The Sims Online is burdened by an intense emphasis on drudgery and an amazing lack of emphasis on fun - unless it's a quick pit stop at a pool table or in front of a TV to juice up your Sim's Fun meter to prepare for more work. That's just a little bit too much like real life for my tastes.

Offers great production softened by gameplay more derivative than a cloned ear, and will have lasting appeal really only to most hardcore racers.

Really meant for four players and is simply a game you either love or hate.

A good game. For a mere $20, you get plenty of mindless old-school fun, albeit for a relatively short time.

While both games more or less occupy the same video game space, Virtua Tennis 4 is less of an aggressive winner down the line and more of a straight, albeit simple, shot down the center of the court that lands deep enough to force players into a competitive but friendly rally.

Tales of Valor has some decent content, though there’s not much, all things considered. The previous expansion brought two complete factions, with two complete campaigns, whereas Tales of Valor brings just over five hours of single-player fun and a few imbalanced multiplayer modes to the table.

Scurge doesn’t stand out, but it’s comfortable if you need a bite-sized action game to pass the time.

Arcade racers should be better represented on console and PC, with Cruis’n Blast ticking a lot of boxes for those who love this genre and wish that it wasn’t almost solely confined to arcade cabinets. There are few games that will pitch a unicorn in a race against a UFO, and such possibilities in Cruis’n Blast should be celebrated appropriately. However, performance problems, the absence of online multiplayer, and the lack of things to do for the solo player make for an altogether disappointing port, that nonetheless just about offers enough to warrant the attention of arcade racing fans.

Despite its interesting strategy mechanic, The Outfit winds up feeling pretty typical. Its lacking single-player campaign is saved in part by its genuinely frantic, yet derivative multiplayer.

Assassin's Creed fans will still enjoy the portable gameplay. Even Vita owners looking to justify the handheld through pure technical power can find a lot to love in Liberation. It's just not the experience you might expect from the franchise.

Hopscotching its way from borrowed concept to borrowed concept, TimeShift is substantially less than the sum of its all-too-obvious parts.

While elements are bland and the story feels heavily padded, to say that Demon Gaze feels half-assed would assume that it's trying to be more than it is, a grindfest that rewards players with 2D titillation and innuendo. It does what it does fairly well, but it's also profoundly average. Nothing is ventured and nothing gained in any part of its design.

Ultimately, the EyePet is interesting as a toy, but as a piece of software on the PS3, it's lacking.

With a more engaging story that didn’t solely rely on zaniness and/or idiocy to sell itself, Dead Rising 3 could have been more worthy of recommendation. Instead, accept my lukewarm approval of it as a purchase decision.