Overall, what we have here is your standard mixed bag.

It all falls on the characters but the game’s cast isn’t strong enough to bear that burden. Its tame story would be more acceptable if the many soft moments in between beats had less cringeworthy dialogue and more actual humor.

It also could have been a lot worse. It’s powered by a solid engine, features a ton of unlockable content, and is rife with humorous potential, which we hope Konami taps in the inexorable "Rumble Roses XXX."

If you loved Dead Island you'll love that Riptide gives you more of the same, but everyone else should use their brains before they turn to zombie chow.

I just wish it wasn't so mediocre.

A mixed bag of great ideas and poor implementation.

Your competition is dead serious, the hazards are all fatal, and your only resource is the X button. While Blazin’ Trails manages to cover a lot of different terrain, its shoddy gameplay prevents it from handling any of it well.

As a full retail release more than five months after the Xbox One's release, Kinect Sports Rivals is a tough pill to swallow. It's essentially ten dollars per mini-game and only about half of them are worth replaying, after you fully prepare your living room of course.

Life is Strange 2 Episode 2 feels more like a crossover bonus sequel to The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit than a true continuation of the first episode. While it does slowly inch toward the story at large, it fails in making a meaningful plot of its own in the meantime and lacks much substance thanks to the clumsy dialogue and boring scenes.

A unique gadget full of down-home adventure. The huge obstacles you'll scale in the game, however, are small compared to those you'll deal with while playing.

Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty is a vanilla ice cream cone. It's snack-sized, relatively cheap, and is nice on a lazy summer day. But at some point, you'll probably wish it was part of a float or a banana split.

The sound is forgettable (which I nearly did), the graphics are sub-par, yet the gameplay is simple...and I like it.

It’s probably not the opus of the series, but it’s a good enough case to warrant further investigation.

The game quickly begins to feel like a chore. And it's no mystery - chores are exactly what most casual gamers are trying to avoid.

The world’s laziest sport just got a whole lot lazier. Aside from the one-handed approach and a lack of online play, this game isn’t any better or worse than last year’s Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 for the PS2.

Despite the well-executed customization suite and some entertaining gameplay, it feels like too many good ideas were buried under mountains and mountains of bullshit you never asked for and you'll never use.

If you've got a lot of house work to do, Grandia III might be for you. Do the dishes or clean up the dog's mess while the dire plot unwinds, then plop back onto the couch in time to crack skulls.

I could go on, of course, but the main idea is that Goliath, for having an authentically fun concept is not that much fun itself, venturing into being frustrating and overly cynical.

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.

The overall gameplay is on track, at least with a forsaken kingdom filled with a balanced mix of puzzling, platforming, sneaking, and fighting. But stretching the aesthetic elements, the toddler-hand-holding relationship that will grow between you and the Majin, or those damn talking animals will wear extremely thin.

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

There is some good stuff here. It's a shame they had to ruin the rest of the game.

But in the end, Acclaim has exceeded my expectations. Given, those expectations were very, very low to begin with.

TIR ought to be politely referred to as SIR... Sorta Immersion Racing. Everything works, but it doesn't offer anything that hasn't been done better before.

As promising as a role-playing game based on The Lord of the Rings mythos sounds, The Third Age's reality is one of strict linearity, wacky plot foibles, and generic turn-based action.

But whatever "fun" might be experienced is abbreviated by a terrifyingly bad plot, and frustrating gameplay choices. While it's true that comparisons may be drawn to God of War, or Devil May Cry, they will always inevitably end with the statement: "Go play those instead."

Unfortunately, they have opted for color over realism. This is not a good thing, as it gives the game a cartoony look and can make it difficult to tell the difference between a dirt road and, say, that mud embankment up ahead.

While the concept is good and the presentation is at times outstanding, the core gameplay isn't strong enough to separate it from the swarms of mediocre kart racers that have come before it.

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.

But whatever "fun" might be experienced is abbreviated by a terrifyingly bad plot, and frustrating gameplay choices. While it's true that comparisons may be drawn to God of War, or Devil May Cry, they will always inevitably end with the statement: "Go play those instead."

In the end, the Wii Zapper is just a hunk of plastic and the game is too short and kind of boring. Link's Crossbow Training will make a nice chunky gift to fill in blank spots under the tree, but all wrapped up like that, you can never be sure exactly what you're getting.

Duet is a solid game if you play it exactly as you might a mobile title, taking frequent breaks so the game doesn't mesmerize you into its lull of increased artificial difficulty. However, having to make that caveat, on a title that is being released for a PC desktop, feels hollow and poorly implemented.

A game that aspires to be both a legitimate portrayal of war and an entertaining video game, but opts to take the easy route and do rid with any semblance of mature, balanced storytelling and instead replaces it with a rushed, disjointed campaign and a multiplayer component that’s getting seriously long in the tooth.

PGR4 makes a lot of absurd decisions ranging from motorcycles to Lady Sovereign to unreadable menus to Quebec. While the core gameplay is the about the same as it has always been, the one good upgrade, the weather effects, isn’t enough to maintain PGR’s earlier decent showing.

It surprises with its cool references and attention to detail, but loses a lot of luster in attempting to appeal to a wee audience.

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

A game with noble intent without the skills to fulfill its potential, showing that sometimes life isn’t strange, but disappointing.

For anyone with an itch to play Tony Hawk again, know what you're getting into. THPS HD is a remake that opted to leave what cost too much in the past, consequently hemorrhaging that which we've come to know and love.

My complaints boil down to a linear plot, a generic skill-tree system & the game's overall lack of challenge. And while these things aren't necessarily that bad, it's that Dead Rising 4 now blends in with almost every other game on the market, where the series used to stand tall, offering something that no other game did.

Vikings may be a promising starting point, but Valhalla is aimless and bloated beyond recognition, making for a dull and par for the Norse installment in the franchise.

It’s almost unfortunate that the first couple hours of Second Sight are really good. You won’t care that the action is too easy or that the A.I. is dumber than Teddy Ruxpin because the plot is good and the characters are interesting. But by hour six or so, the plot loses its mystery and the gameplay holes become increasingly frustrating.

You have to commend Nintendo for producing a pretty cool tech demo, but they failed to encapsulate it in a worthwhile game.

A soulless clone of a good game. It puts almost all of the pieces together, but the two that it misses, intelligence and personality, are what make a game likable and engaging.

Part of me wants to really praise Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Impact for not being what the Naruto fighting games have been, and part of me wants to just play Dynasty Warriors.

So take our irritable advice, and leave this half-cooked “kernel” unpopped.

Warfighter isn't a total failure, but it's certainly not up to the standards of the international Tier 1 Operators it clings to.

The overall gameplay is on track, at least with a forsaken kingdom filled with a balanced mix of puzzling, platforming, sneaking, and fighting. But stretching the aesthetic elements, the toddler-hand-holding relationship that will grow between you and the Majin, or those damn talking animals will wear extremely thin.

Touchmaster 3 is probably going to sit on a shelf somewhere. Only pick up Touchmaster 3 if you want a "chaser" or something to let off a bit of steam.

At $20, you have to be a desperate PS3 owner or an extremely dedicated racing enthusiast to download Superstars V8 Racing.

If you’re not a Japanophile, or you’re looking for a game to make you curse the Devil every other minute, Deception IV: Blood Ties is for you. If you’re like me and prefer games that don’t pad their lengths with frustrating mechanics with little narrative reward, you’ll find almost anything else to play.

Divekick is a crazy idea that just so happens to work well for a short while, but wears out its charm long before you get your money’s worth out of the content. Unless you plan on playing locally on the couch with some buddies that are as like-minded as you and the developers are, the $9.99 asking price would be better spent elsewhere.

A very mediocre game. The actual play mechanics are solid, but the abundance of white-trash gimmickry gets in the way.

The new arcade-style squad control may make things quicker, but it short-circuits the one thing that made Rainbow Six different: intelligent squad strategy.

It’s a fun game with great control, a portent of good things to come, but sports a bargain title’s worth of content while asking for a full price.

It’s got some fresh, entertaining details, and though the game experience is shallow and a little frustrating, you can hop into a mortar cannon and knock down an enemy entrenchment to make you feel better.

While the puzzles and level design are as solid as any handheld platformer out there, the crazy camera, imprecise control and gorilla-sized load times keep his old silverback from evolving.

It provides a somewhat engrossing, predictable plot, and a steady flow of battles, puzzles, drama and rewards. Unfortunately, the lack of more interesting ammo leaves this gun firing blanks.

While they’ve done a good job of giving you many reasons to replay those levels for higher scores and more unlockables, replaying these levels many times over will barely bring the game’s total length to more than a few hours. This bumbling groundhog should have seen its shadow much sooner and ushered in a much longer springtime full of rail-shooting joy.

I would only recommend this game to someone who would like to try out an adventure game without too much challenge, or who really likes the artifact-chasing, save-the-world type of adventure. For the more experienced adventurer, I would recommend that you pass this one up.

The only time you can use the Bat-grapple is when you get an onscreen signal to look for a huge, out of place Bat-insignia perched on the corner of some overhead location. Oh, I guess I'm supposed use my Bat-grapple here. Sheesh!

I can't recommend this game as the payout of eye candy isn't worth the time you have to put in slogging through hell behind the eyes of a depressingly slow husk of a dead man.

If you own Empire, there’s not a good reason to own Napoleon.

Despite some cool art and more playable characters, this sequel fails to improve upon its predecessor and actually drops the ball in its A.I. and camera, resulting in a pretty rusty blade.

The inclusion of the microphone doesn't have any notable impact on the quality of the game and the whole formula is starting to look its age.

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.

Shaun White Snowboarding should have used other aspects of the Assassin's Creed engine and gone beyond the boundaries of the real. It just feels like a miss. It's not exciting or fun enough for me, reading more like an instruction manual than anything else.

Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z does some decent things right like the cel-shaded comic book narrative… and well, that’s about it. I wouldn’t suggest this for a fan of the Ninja Gaiden franchise or for someone who enjoys speedy action platformers.

It certainly has something going for it with the unique possession mechanic and clever puzzles, but the linear gameplay, mediocre delivery and short story makes it a house more cursed than haunted.

Madballs in: Baboo Invasion's main problem is that it feels generic, even though the characters are so different than you would expect in a shooter.

For some, Rez will be an incredibly creative experience that fuses art and game. It's got the look, it's got the style, and it's got the feel. Others will just see it as a plain shooter that is way too short. No cool enemies, no cool pick-ups - just a cursor and a shoot button that will save the world in one sitting.

As a standard third-person action-platformer, there's nothing substantially wrong with THQ's take on The Incredibles, but neither is there anything original.

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

We’re glad they resurrected Final Fantasy III, but they also brought back all the problems RPG makers have spent years solving. It doesn’t do anything new for RPGs, but at least it serves to remind us how far they’ve come.

Unfortunately, the lack of any sort of Franchise mode cripples the replayability, making this little more than a decent romp on the gridiron in between rest stops.

If you’re looking for a way to make yourself smarter, start by saving your money for a better investment, like a book.

Jungle Rumble appears to function as a back-and-forth of interesting ideas and ho-hum delivery.

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

A solid fighting game with some cool looking features. But unless you’re willing to dedicate a significant chunk of your life to understanding and mastering it, you’re likely to get bored fairly quickly.

Astonishingly, this series is showing progress. If you owned the first Rocky, there is not much new here beyond playing as other characters, though newcomers will undoubtedly appreciate the way the game pays homage to the films.

If you're an adult who loves Legos and lives with his parents, this game is for you. Anyone else over the age of 12 is going to want something with more depth, and besides, making a game childishly easy is not the way to fix broken controls. Any kid can tell you that.

To be honest, Valhalla Knights 3 is the perfect concept for a portable game. Since the game is so based around grinding and raising your character, it’s easy to pick up your Vita, do a quest or two, and put it down just as easily. You're always making progress no matter how short your spurts of play are. Unfortunately, this good idea is muddied by poor presentation and mediocre mechanics.

While Dark of the Moon hits all the bases for a blockbuster game, it won't live up to the blockbuster experience. At least the game wasn't as bad as the movie.

While Dark of the Moon hits all the bases for a blockbuster game, it won't live up to the blockbuster experience. At least the game wasn't as bad as the movie.

Pork is generally one of my favorite foods, but it doesn't seem to translate to much of a game.

As far as reflex games, this isn't too terrible to play. Each "beat 20 games" setup has its own personality and artistic style - along with some fitting and pretty cool music to match - so it's not a total loss.

A watered-down RPG with a few flaws that take some of the fun out of it. My first inclination was to compare the dilemmas in this game to those of the Scarecrow: No brain. But this game has maybe too much brain. It's very logical and Xseed definitely put a lot of thought into making it very playable. The problem with TWOBYBR, though, is more like the Tin Man's: No heart.

At thirty dollars, Extraction Point feels more like an overpriced mod than a full-fledged expansion. Unless you’ve really got to prove you can make it through the same haunt twice, you should buy a ticket for a new ride.

I also have to wonder what part of the world Uncle Sam dug up my own squad mates. They could often be seen running in circles and constantly blocking my line of fire. At least they were resilient; one of the guys was turned into Swiss cheese by an enemy bayonet and shrugged it off like nothing happened. Tough guys…tough guys.

Simple and quirky, but ultimately too short and repetitive to really break out.

It’s a game that aims low and achieves those goals, but only for a small, niche audience. If your life’s work is mastering this specific brand of platforming, then this is an obvious purchase. Most of the rest of us will find more enjoyment in watching the game streamed during an Awesome Games Done Quick event than actually playing it.

Mark of Chaos bridges a gap between tabletop and PC gaming, but will leave both sides less than impressed.

Top Gun is amusing for a little while, and hearing "Danger Zone" again (even if it is a cover... c'mon, why not the original?) is all well and good, but when it's so monotonous and has so little character in the "plot", it won't stay in play for too long.

This year, as 2K8 lags with its overcomplicated controls, EA has managed to slip by. NHL 08 is imperfect, but with its simple gameplay and its clean presentation, it’s somehow on track to lead the league and push it forward.

As promising as a role-playing game based on The Lord of the Rings mythos sounds, The Third Age's reality is one of strict linearity, wacky plot foibles, and generic turn-based action.

Were Alpha Prime really fantastic in some specific aspect, at just $20, I would be happy to recommend it to one and all. It isn’t bad – you can have fun playing it and it’s not going to crash inexplicably – but it is an offering exactly matched by its budget price.

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

I really wanted to like Forced Showdown. Maybe there’s something about it that just didn’t *click* with me. Too many half-baked ideas does not a casserole make, my mother always said. If they had taken the time to expand on what makes each of the genres compelling, this could have been a whole different review. Instead, it’s a hot mess on your keyboard.

But the underlying gameplay and A.I. that made the PC version such a cohesive package is lost on this new generation of sexless sims, who care only for new rugs, expensive coffee tables, and balanced meals. They’re perfect yuppies, and perfectly boring.