This is one critic who can see through the bullsh.t and has his name down in blood for Yakuza 5.

A fun little golfer whose attitude and extras keep the game from getting too dull. Some problems with minor slowdown and the lack of creative courses are a disappointment, but the game doesn't suffer too greatly.

The lack of action deals a heavy blow to this otherwise polished adventure.

While offering a decent helping of fun, the bland textures and ubiquitous gameplay make for a somewhat unexciting PS2 start.

By adding more depth and a much needed multiplayer mode, Koei has improved the series. So if you're a fan of beat 'em up action on a massive level, this is definitely the game for you.

It might not be the fanciest bong [don't you mean water pipe? ~GR-Ed.] in town anymore, but it still delivers the drug.

It's fun to learn the patterns and hone in on that perfect game, though the limited gameplay and the shortness of the actual experience make it well suited for a rental.

All in all, Madden NFL 12 lives up to its franchise's basic standards as a hard-hitting realistic football game. Besides all the new fancy updates and sparkly things that dangle on the screen, loyal Madden-ists and newcomers can enjoy mostly everything Madden has to offer.

Though Lost Odyssey won't change your mind about turn-based JRPGs, it fills the void of the genre with a well-paced and pleasing aesthetic, and a healthy dose of nostalgia.

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.

Vanquish is likely one of the smoothest all-around PC ports in recent memory, limited framerate in cutscenes notwithstanding. Sporting features I wish similar modern games had, Vanquish now has a firm place in today's generation. Should Shinji Mikami and Platinum Games feel so inclined as to revisit this title and make it into a series, I would be the first in line.

So Yoshi’s Woolly World doesn’t quite match the highs of Super Mario World, despite both games’ numerous similarities, and it may not be the vital platformer that Wii U owners were hoping for as the console continues its unfortunate drought. However, it’s still a very enjoyable yarn (geddit?) that offers a surprising level of replayability that delights with its overwhelming level of cuteness, even if it doesn’t particularly innovate.

While this almost feels like "Sim Universe" at times, the core difference is in something for which to strive and active threats beyond your own mishandling of resources and the occasional fire to put out. There's a whole universe out there, and I can't wait to play through Stellaris as many times as it takes to experience the whole thing.

An amazingly funny game. It’s not actually good, but it manages to fail in such a stylish, over-the-top way that it’s endearing all the same. Although you’ll probably have no real desire to replay the game ever again upon completion, it’s a hoot the first time through and is absolutely worth a rental.

It's great to play a shooter that contains more than just planes, tanks, and machine guns. The fireworks theme gives the game an excuse to take you around the world, celebrating local cultures with glittery explosions, while still granting you the rare opportunity to blast a hole in a flying squid.

The loading times are lightning fast compared to earlier installments and the extraordinary roster has more than one hundred wrestlers, in addition to a wealth of DLC characters.

Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is a hell of a tale, even if by day it masquerades as a mediocre adventure game. If you have a strong memory and a high threshold for aimless exploration, this is a case worth solving.

When the camera isn’t doing funky things during melee combat, when you sneak into a base disguised as a soldier, when you’re soaring from building to building for the pure joy of it, or when you’re hitchhiking on a passing helicopter just because you can, Prototype momentarily feels fresh and fun.

The inventory system is atrocious, but man, I just loved getting more and better guns, so it was worth suffering through.

The Ancient Gods Part 2 is the least impressive segment in Doom’s rebooted trilogy with its stages, level of difficulty, and slightly off-kilter story beats that all come in just below the previously established baseline. But it’s still one heck of a high baseline since the strategic, blazing-fast gunplay and ever-growing lineup of unique demons still have no equal in the first-person shooter space. The Doom Slayer was directed to rip and tear until it was done and now that it is indeed done, he has earned his rest even though his final showdown wasn’t his finest ripping and tearing.

It seems content simply toying with features found in other first-person shooters and doesn’t really go the distance with any of them. The result is a decent if predictable shooter saved by a beefy online component. It might be inspired, but that doesn’t make it inspirational.

With a rehashed battle system and a story very loosely tied together by tight underwear, Thongs of Virtue is not as cohesive nor as innovative as its predecessor. But it feels overbearing to criticize an unflinchingly goofy 15-hour adventure that couldn't take itself any less seriously if it tried.

A schizophrenic game. On one hand, you have a satisfying, complex online shooter, but on the other a port of a four year-old N64 platformer. Why Rare decided to update this port when they should have made a sequel is beyond us, but you can't argue with the breadth of the package.

As a fan of the series, the only notable downside I can point out in this game is its lack of personality.

In the long run, I would have loved to see even more tools and monsters rather than just the ones they made for the single-player campaign. The true life of this franchise lies in its fantastic multiplayer potential - this expansion should have addressed that in greater, more specific detail.

A decent baseball game and is genuinely better than the last offering, but you get the sense that the developers are more spending too much time with cute bonus features like the EyeToy support and headset commands rather than focusing on ways to improve the gameplay.

Snake Eater 3D is only recommended over the Collection if, for some reason, you don't have a 360 or a PS3

Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy, along with Resident Evil: Revelations, proves that third-parties can do amazing things on Nintendo hardware. It is more than deserving of your money, and while it might not be a system seller (or escape from the FF garbage we've all come to know and love/hate), Theatrhythm stands strong alongside Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land as a game 3DS owners must have.