Zoo Tycoon has all the cuddly critters up its sleeve (and I'm down with any game that features red pandas), and it wields the stick of cuteness without shame. But this simulation buries the cuteness beneath menus and squanders the power of the next-gen console by limiting the size of the zoo. Though creating a zoo is pleasant and breezy, after building several zoos with all of the animals, you've pretty much experienced the lion's share of what Zoo Tycoon has to offer.

Board game enthusiasts will find themselves bored quickly, the average player will only break it out when there are friends around—which is the point, and I guess with friends the skill-based games aren’t too bad—and Party aficionados will be able to scratch that virtual itch.

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.

Unfortunately, the changes in Dynasty Warriors 9 are a bit too superficial and kept too much of what made the series suffer in previous titles. The controls and animations need tightening, and the storytelling needs to evolve to a point where it's more coherent. If you're a fan of the Musou franchise, there's a lot of new stuff to experience and enjoy here. Dynasty Warriors 9 isn't likely to attract a ton of new fans, but it sets the groundwork for the future of the series, and we'll likely see the real fruits of this new direction in the next few entries in the franchise.

In short, as a game Zumba Fitness World Party is poorly made and poorly structured. But as a supplemental fitness video app, it's great, provided you can get through the menus without any problems. So it's probably a great buy for people already doing Zumba Workouts and other fitness programs, but not much use for anyone else.

Regardless, Mirror of Fate has some beautiful visuals, nice voice work, and combat that frequently pleases, even if it does wander into button-mashing territory at times. Anyone looking to bridge the gap between the original Lords of Shadow and its sequel out later this year should consider picking up Mirror of Fate to quench their thirst for blood, while newcomers should steer clear. This is one family squabble not worth your time.

It is easy to be frustrated by the overall state of the PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds PlayStation 4 port. The texture pop-in is ridiculous and the gameplay still has so many rough edges. But there is a certain charm to PUBG‘s gameplay that keeps players coming back for more.

Anyone with only a passing interest in epic hundred-hour tales of good and evil should stay away. With the game costing only $7.99 as a digital download, those steeped in the Japanese role-playing games will love mixing a massive adventure and Weapon Shop during long gaming sessions.

On paper, the whole thing sounds delicious, but in the end the effort to combine them gives you a stomachache. It’s not a bad game; it just doesn’t do anything striking with the mechanics it borrows.

The only meaningful thing separating the two versions is the inclusion of new characters and quests, and those additions aren't quite strong enough to make Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition an easy recommendation.

Hogwarts Legacy is full of Harry Potter fanservice, but as a game, it’s only serviceable. A fun but forgettable journey that isn’t worth the amount of controversy surrounding it.

Wattam’s fascination with connection could have been better served if had a stronger story to back it up. Perhaps it could have been a kid-friendly, significantly less convoluted version of Death Stranding if it fleshed out its narrative just a bit more in the right ways.

Somewhere buried in The Crew, beneath the bloated content and the MMO shenanigans, is a competent racer featuring the perfect road trip. But for a game whose primary strength is freedom, there should have been more objectives and more incentives to explore its world with friends, instead of copy-and-pasted skill challenges and missions tangled in a confounding plot that's hard to forget for all the wrong reasons.

For $60 I needed to see more quality, and instead became overloaded with quantity.

Much like the laid back quips of our banana buddy, it's too easy to leave My Friend Pedro without many strong feelings.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX tells a good Pokemon story from a unique angle and with visuals that help enhance the storybook feel. However, gameplay that might have held up in 2005 has not aged well. There’s something here for diehard Pokemon fans to enjoy and potentially love, but anyone else should just stick to the mainline series of games.

Red Faction Guerilla ReMARStered is far from perfect, but it’s fun, and it’s proof that not every game needs to have a serious, super in-depth narrative to please.

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.

Gameplay is where it counts, and regardless of its bland design and extensive hodge-podging from other properties, Shadow Complex Remastered is a fun game that will reward your time spent with it.

It’s not really “bad” or anything; it’s just too niche for its own good. I found some enjoyment in it, but after a few times playing through the story, it felt more tedious than anything. There’s not enough here to make me want to strive for greatness. Maybe if the devs had strived for it first, I would’ve stayed glued to my controller a bit longer.

The sheer lack of variety, despite two stages never being the same ever thanks to the brilliantly designed, random level-generating engine that Pwnee Studios has designed, leaves Cloudberry Kingdom feeling thin on content.

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.

I don’t regret contributing to this journey in the least, and frankly, I feel like the first half of Broken Age is very much worth experiencing. And that’s how I’ll rate it—as an excellent first half with a middling second half.

Series newbies lacking preconceived expectations will probably have the most fun with Revolution, but it’s hard to imagine fans being thrilled with the game’s at-times confused direction even if they do fully understand its proclaimed spinoff nature.

Untainted by the realization that you've done this all before, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 will be a good buy. Beyond that, Bandai Namco has essentially hit the rewind button.

If you are a MechWarrior fanatic, MechWarrior 5 will probably give you hours of enjoyment. If not, I’d wait until some of the problems above are addressed before making a purchase.

Despite its flaws, there is some merit to Tech Support: Error Unknown. It does capture the feeling of working in a fast paced support environment. You get a sense of sympathy towards the worker’s plight just by going through the motions. However, it doesn’t do a great job of integrating anything else into the equation due to its unwillingness to open up.

The lack of content and limited attempts at personality hinder those moments, but at the end of the day Cel Damage HD is a solid update of a mostly forgotten 13-year-old game.