Hunted has potential. It has the art design and spark, but the attempt at a genre hybrid ultimately falls short. Though the idea of a fantasy RPG with a third-person action mentality, from Gears of War or Resident Evil 5, is innovative, it just isn't polished enough to make it work.

Don't be lured in with its evil promises - the shallow gameplay and rough delivery will make everyone who plays it a victim.

Maybe it’s petty to lay into a game for what it could’ve been, but this game, though unique, charming, and well-executed, feels like an appetizer when I really wanted a meal.

Hunted has potential. It has the art design and spark, but the attempt at a genre hybrid ultimately falls short.

If you're a survival-horror fan, you could do worse than to try following a teenage romance story while battling mutated creatures generated from genetically unstable hallucinogenic pollen that multiply through an infection that spreads like an STD all set to the awesome sounds of the Boston string orchestra and Children's Choir.

An awful, bland "story."

Wizards of the Coast needs to learn about loss aversion and the concept of not fixing something that ain't broken.

It may not be the end of an era for Crash, but it is certainly a disappointment. Crash Bandicoot: Mind Over Mutant could have been an entertaining game, but it has been rendered the video game equivalent of a nosebleed.

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.

True Crime: New York City replicates the over-the-top violence and goofy sexuality of GTA, but trashes that series' friendly interface, gorgeous environment, and dependable physics. If there's a lesson to be learned here, it's that what made GTA so enjoyable weren't the mature themes, but the execution.

Despite the ease of earning all of the Achievements/Trophies, the $50 retail price is a bit steep for the content when there is no multiplayer and the story, what little there is, isn't worth playing through again.

This game could get a recommendation if the price was right...but it's not. The game is worth about 10 bucks, but it sells for a whopping $30. That's just a brutal rip off, considering what you get - a subpar pinball game. But at least it's a great extinction theory.

I wish Sega had taken more time with "Zombie Revenge;" removed the loading times, made some graphical improvements, hired actual voice actors, and added another mission or two.

Where an ordinary RPG would give you 60-100 hours in a single release, this game forces you to buy one-third of a game at full price. Once you shell out for all three games, you’ve bought a full-length RPG at triple the typical cost. And, much like the .hack tetrology that preceded it, each game in the trilogy is exactly like the others.

Underneath the bubbly aesthetics of frolicking animals, pan flute music, and dolphin-mask souvenirs lies an intricate strategy game of careful planning and decisive action.

Defiance is full of good ideas and a bevy of solid MMORPG systems, but it's all buried under a messy-looking, shoddily designed shooter that you'd never enjoy on its own merits.

Ryse is an absolutely beautiful game, but all the beauty in the world can't make up for repetitive gameplay that will most likely bore the average gamer, even those who like hack-and-slash.

While the Dreamcast edition is still on the cheap side, the emulation is just lousy in comparison to the PC.

It's not a successful music/rhythm game and it's not a successful racing game. It's merely an adequate hybrid with a kickass soundtrack.

NBA Live 16 is made to feel accessible and simple. At least that’s what the structure caters to. From in-game learning help to player development, it’s all mostly basic.

Discovering and learning to use the different disguises keeps Wario: Master of Disguise exciting for a few levels. But once the novelty wears off, there’s really nothing to keep you interested in the game.

It’s a kinder, gentler MMO - Nerfed PvP, language filters, and all.

I would give a C+/B- based solely on the merits of the game, but I just can't ignore unsavory business practices when they're out to con gamers like you.

Firefall is middling. If you have free time to spare, the fact that it won’t cost you anything to try is a huge win. If it manages to sink its teeth into you over the first few hours, you might just be hooked. Personally, I’ll pass.

The amount of backtracking required in Sonic Unleashed is absolutely inexcusable, and this mandatory medal hunting is the nail in the coffin.

I wouldn't recommend it but if it just looks so crazy awesome that you didn't believe anything I just said at least buy it on sale or rent it.

As a movie port using the oldest recipe in the book, Constantine is about as average a game as you can get, which is actually better than most licensed translations. Neither Heaven nor Hell, Constantine is merely a short stay in Purgatory.

True Crime: New York City replicates the over-the-top violence and goofy sexuality of GTA, but trashes that series' friendly interface, gorgeous environment, and dependable physics. If there's a lesson to be learned here, it's that what made GTA so enjoyable weren't the mature themes, but the execution.

Tiny Troopers may be a middle-of-the-road experience, but sometimes that's just fine.

Comparing World Poker Tour to "World Series of Poker" is like asking if you’d rather be short & fat or ugly & stupid. The generally competent A.I. and career mode make this one the better choice, but your best bet is to leave both flops on the table and find a new game altogether.

Fans of Mario Party and Fusion Frenzy alike will find no small amount of entertainment here and will thoroughly appreciate the nonexistent barriers to entry. If ever there was a movie game worth picking up to play with friends, Rio is it.

One of the worst games we’ve ever seen. As much as we’d like to see more sexual content in games, we’re afraid Magna Cum Laude will do for Mature games what "Showgirls" did for NC-17 rated movies.

Simple, useful, and keeps you motivated.

It’s still entertaining. A repetitive kind of entertaining, but entertaining nonetheless. You’ll get a kick out of smashing robots up with your bare hands and you’ll fist pump in joy when you make a death-defying leap across a tower block. Its clipped length works in its favor as it never truly outstays its welcome.

The best part of Starsky & Hutch is that it only costs a Jackson, which makes it one of the highest quality "bargain" games yet for the PS2.

Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage reminds us what a great beat-'em-up at its core is all about, as long as you're playing by yourself and hopefully in spurts.

Playing The Art of Fighting Anthology is a little bit like rediscovering your 6th grade journal. It’s entertaining to relive those days and marvel at how far you’ve come, and certainly it has too much sentimental value to get rid of, but ultimately it’s too painful to look at for long, and really belongs in a box somewhere where you can forget about it for another fifteen years.

It’s fun and humorous at first, but the lack of substance and challenge is a Spider-killer.

Populous DS can be addicting once you get past the quirks that are unique to this series. This god-sim is an incredible challenge, and it's a refreshing shift from more modern, conventional RTS games.

Whether you are a child of the '80s or a Naruto-watching kid of the 2000's, playing Re-Shelled will hold you for a very short span of time, but it is surely better than the recent Gak-faced, Hose-brained attempts at re-igniting the Turtle Power love.

Even with the enhancements and tweaks, Dynasty Warriors 6 is still the same old fried rice - re-heated, re-seasoned, and re-served once more.

There's nothing here that will really pull new players into playing Adventure Island: The Beginning, other than nostalgia for an audience who is familiar with the name.

Had it been given a little more depth pretty much everywhere, this may have been a sleeper hit. Instead, it’s just a sleeper.

I know it’s designed for kids, hence the lack of difficulty, but it does come across better this time than it previously had.

This just feels like one of those movies where you push a button to decide what scene should come next (and we all know how great those movies are). That’s just not enough to justify what is essentially five slow moving episodes of Harvey Birdman.

As the competition pulls further and further away, GameDay is quickly becoming a punchline, a sad fate for a series that at one point was at the top of the pile.

Dark Void may be the most aptly named game to ever be released - with a half-dozen good concepts sucked in, alas, never to be seen again. It ranks even lower than last year's Bionic Commando in Capcom's list of franchises that had promise but turned out to be no fun to play. A little more fluidity, polish and thought would have made a big difference for this game, as it stands though, Dark aVoid this one.

New games are thin and uninteresting.

If Konami would have introduced Metal Gear Survive as an entirely new title, and marketed it better, it would likely be a Spring hit. However, slapping Metal Gear on it weirdly makes it have this generic feel. Despite the enjoyable gameplay, I always felt like something was missing, and there is. You can tell Kojima went nowhere near this Metal Gear.

The little issues stack up so high that it’s hard to really recommend playing this over any other game in the genre. Especially on Switch, where the portable mode is beyond broken. If you were hoping to have a fun time on the go with some Nazi tactics, I just have one phrase for you: Next time Charlie. Next time.

I would love to drive an indestructible car that could never, ever flip in my ordinary, everyday life, but when we play games, we like to break things. After playing some Asphalt Urban GT, you’ll just want to break your Nintendo DS.

Resistance: Burning Skies is an excellent proof of concept. It is the tech demo that shows third-party publishers that first-person shooters can be achieved on the Vita hardware. It is by no means a crowning achievement. Instead, Nihilistic have opened the door for other, more accomplished developers to step through.

Dance Dance Revolution for PS3 has been seemingly blindsighted by Dance Central, but even as a game in its venerated franchise, it doesn't live up to its own innovations.

Anybody who has experience with platform games will beat Rayman: Arena like a redheaded stepchild. So, it can be inferred that the game is probably not meant for experienced platformers.

It’s just a bland shooter with a flimsy toy gun and a big spoonful of “we-know-better” arrogance.

The battle system whips along, only to have its toes stomped by the boring crafting system. In the end Blade Dancer: Lineage of Light has a fine sense of rhythm, but two left feet.

Given how much repetition is in the game, one would think it was much longer than its six to eight hour length. The lack of any kind of multiplayer hurts it further. And the final stake to the heart is the appallingly abrupt and inconclusive ending.

But if I were a fan, I'd enjoy it a bit more because it does feel like an authentic, quality (relatively speaking) Dragon Ball experience.

The best quality of Jeremy McGrath's Offroad is that it's functional. It may even be slightly enjoyable for a few hours if you're not picky about downloadable games. Otherwise, I recommend spending a little more than $10 and catching DiRT 3 on sale.

Spider-Man 3 features the series’ worst combat yet.

There are so many great visuals, interesting gameplay moments, and little strokes of genius. It epitomizes how small games can be big experiences.

Unfinished, underdeveloped racing efforts like Need for Speed: Undercover leave the acrid taste of stale engine oil and greasy do-rags in my mouth. Luckily, it’s nothing that a little time spent with Grid or PGR4 can’t wash away. Undercover attempts to return the series to its former glory, but it’s obviously lost that loving feeling.

At its best, players might enjoy stepping into the paws of a Pokémon they've commanded for 15 years. At its worst, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity lobotomizes the franchise. While Pokémon Masters rely on their friends to be the best, Chunsoft pulled a Team Rocket, using Pokémon as tools to sell boring gameplay.

True Crime: New York City replicates the over-the-top violence and goofy sexuality of GTA, but trashes that series' friendly interface, gorgeous environment, and dependable physics. If there's a lesson to be learned here, it's that what made GTA so enjoyable weren't the mature themes, but the execution.

Gets points for creativity and inventiveness. It tries to bring together many disparate game ideas, but these ideas weren't pushed all the way and at the very least weren't polished enough for a final product.

It’s not bad, but it’s not great either. Could’ve used more “zip," I think.

Dark Void may be the most aptly named game to ever be released - with a half-dozen good concepts sucked in, alas, never to be seen again. It ranks even lower than last year's Bionic Commando in Capcom's list of franchises that had promise but turned out to be no fun to play. A little more fluidity, polish and thought would have made a big difference for this game, as it stands though, Dark aVoid this one.

Pretty or not, no JRPG on the 360 has the edge on Spectral Force 3 in terms of gameplay. In other words, it has a great personality.

Getting tired of shooting rockets back and forth? Play in the skills challenge or, better yet, hop in a story mode and really wreak havoc. But bring your game when playing online; there definitely are some Worms veterans on the scene.

A quintessentially average game... These particular skies are partly cloudy, with average temperatures. Bring a sweater for later.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the heinous menu music. During Franchise mode, there's this rap song - I think it's rap - that sounds like a reject from the "Breakin'" soundtrack. It's neither hip nor hop.

If you're looking for the thinking man's shooter, then keep searching. Soldier of Fortune is all about the mindless yet blissful twitch.

Ho-hum gameplay combined with simple annoyances make this game a shadow of the popular cartoon it was based on.

Even after a sequel, this Street still falls flat on its asphalt.

This year’s installment isn't the most polished basketball title or even the best hoops title in general. But it’s absolutely safe to say NBA Live has returned and will be sticking around as a contender, as long as it continues to take these positive dribbles forward.

The winding dungeon crawl the franchise defined long ago has been replaced with a lifeless linear action game's dash, one which will hopefully get back on the track its forefathers fought so hard to gain.

Rule of Rose has almost nothing going for it other than sheer creepiness, and as you are probably aware, creepiness doesn’t count for much.

Ultimately, Splatterhouse is a fun game when taken in tiny chunks.

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.

Though short, Contrast can be replayed to get all the collectibles and is worth a look for the way the story and gameplay integrate, even if at times it's a little rough around the edges.

Hydrophobia is just a Titanic of a shipwreck.

While I love this game's unusual art style and I enjoy the story premise, playing Dokuro is more frustrating than fun. It doesn't help that the controls have such an odd layout.

A sub-par romp through what we’ve already seen many, many times before.

I love to waste time with video games, but Loadout seems to point the gun in the wrong direction and then fire dud rounds at all the wrong ideas. The package offers plenty of gameplay and you could certainly get a kick out of using Vita remote play to while away commercials on TV, but you probably have other games to play too.

If you’re a big fan of Souls-likes and want to play a game that follows that formula fairly closely while introducing a few unique gameplay elements, Hellpoint isn’t a bad choice. However, the game lacks direction and polish, and it makes for a poor introduction to the genre.

I was surprised at how simple and fun the fairy collection was, but the combat mechanics are a dull affair. Traipsing around in the walls isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and the game’s reliance on the field guide is a lazy design trick.

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.

No matter how you slice it, rampant dragon destruction is more fun than running around smacking bad guys with a dagger.

For a while, it is rather enjoyable to cruise by and experience the closest thing you’ll ever have to being anything like Hef, but you'll quickly long for deeper gameplay or a more real sense of progression. Use that $50 on 3 years’ worth of Playboy subscriptions instead.

Strikeforce is a great step toward finally integrating the online universe with Dynasty Warriors and an unexpected excuse to lower your head as other gamers pass you by. You’re not hiding or hanging your head in shame, you’re just looking for items.

As cute and as endearing as Squeeballs tries to be, it just never hits the mark.

You could ask for a version more to your liking, but Ultimate seems mostly focused on getting to these new consoles before any other subtitle.

Coded Arms is such a weak rendition of a first-person-shooter, it makes us wonder whether such a thing is even possible on the single-analog PSP.

It straddles the line between little kid game and hard platformer in such a way that I don’t think anyone will like it. I guess The Hobbit makes these strange concessions to game-play to make it a friendlier game, but it’s still frustrating as hell.

It’s sad to think that with all its high-tech fanciness of the new console generation, TMNT can’t even muster up the personality and gameplay of the old arcade games.

It's a dated PC game ported to a next-gen console instead of a totally revised, retooled product. The folks at Cinemaware may have had their finger on the gaming pulse 20 years ago, but now they're just living in the past.

For those of us looking for a better more improved NASCAR driving experience on a console, it's best to pull out 07 on previous systems or wait for EA to take this design back to the garage for '09.

Still, Faery is commendable for being among the first foray of the core RPG genre in the downloadable space dominated by twin-stick shooters and bite-sized platformers.