If you never played the Ezio Assassin's Creed games, this remaster is a superior way of experiencing it. If, however, you played them before, I'm not convinced that this remaster offers enough to make replaying them worthwhile unless you are truly that desperate for an Assassin's Creed game this year.

Dark Souls 3 was a wonderful coda for the series, revisiting the best parts of Soulsborne while skillfully buffing over the pieces that didn’t work. Still, the Souls tricks and tropes that have become hallmarks are no longer groundbreaking, and there isn’t much left for Souls proper to achieve. As such, the run-of-the-mill quality of the experience offered here just doesn’t cut it anymore. While I still hold some hope that the second (and final) piece of DLC will be more substantial, Ashes of Ariandel illustrates exactly why Souls needs to end for the foreseeable future.

In one sense, Small Radios, Big Televisions is a short, poetic exploration of humanity’s descent into virtual reality to escape the apocalyptic reality it’s created for itself. In another sense, the game is merely a brief environmental puzzler, thick with atmosphere, style, and enigma. Like any great art, it doesn’t tell players how to interpret it, but instead offers a layered, polysemic experience that can (unfortunately) be just as easily dismissed as appreciated.

The most puzzling thing about Lost Castle is that it makes mistakes it has no reason to. The games that obviously inspired it have already solved its design problems — Rogue Legacy showed how to do an upgrade-based economy perfectly. Dark Souls‘ enemies have weaknesses and the player can defend. The devs rival Isaac‘s dizzying array of items and weapons, but nailing one out of three aspects isn’t enough to recommend it. There’s some quality stuff in Lost Castle and I genuinely hope it gets fixes for its flaws. But, as of right now, it’s a decent-ish co-op title that’s borderline unplayable alone.

Despite the small number of tracks, what’s on offer here is highly accomplished, and Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X’s attempts to bring something new to a rather static style of game are both successful and engaging. Players who can find something to love in Miku’s musical leanings will definitely want to check out their goddess’ latest incarnation.

Hawken may not make the grade as a mech title, but when stacked up next to other free-to-play FPSs, it doesn’t have anything to be ashamed of. The combat is faster and less impactful than I would have liked, but it’s still solid, and I spent more time with it than any other online FPS since the first Titanfall. While there’s not much chance I’ll eventually unlock everything in the game, Hawken has me thinking about going back and spending more time with an F2P FPS, which has never happened before.

Titanfall 2 is both a triumph and a mild disappointment, providing an exceptionally well-crafted singleplayer campaign alongside robust multiplayer that doesn’t quite hit the heights of its groundbreaking predecessor despite some great additions to the formula – the Legion Titan’s minigun is undoubtedly a thing of wonder. Despite my feeling that the multi has lost a few tricks, it remains pretty much best-in-class, and newcomers to the series will undoubtedly be blown away.

All in all, Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour is the perfect homage to the original by capturing the essence of the classic while adding new visuals, audio and levels. Moreover, its humorous social commentary remains a welcome presence in a current scene that is sorely lacking it

Overall, the game presents simple but compelling word strategy with just the right mix of predictability and random chance. One’s enjoyment of Oh…Sir!! may come down to whether or not the style of humor clicks, but it’s hard to deny that it delivers great value for its tiny $2 asking price. Also, your face smells of a dead parrot’s farts.

I write this review with a fair bit of sadness. This can and should be a good title, and despite all the difficulty I had, the interesting premise of Loading Human kept drawing me back in. The story, true 360 degree movement and ability to manipulate almost every object in the space provide a cool experience — the mechanics are just too nauseating — literally. Only the most devoted players with iron stomachs might be able to suffer through in hopes of seeing light at the end of this virtual reality tunnel.

An augmented step forward.

For anyone who’s ever looked at Minecraft and found its lack of structure daunting, DQB is a more focused, more accessible version of it. And, while it may not have the scope of that genre-defining title, there’s something special at its the core — an exploration of what it means to build a community. The game’s ‘building’ isn’t just about bricks and mortar, but about restoring places where people can work together to create something better than anyone could accomplish on their own. Dragon Quest Builders may not be designed to go on forever, but it offers dozens of hours of crafting, construction, and an utterly engaging story to get lost in.

Weeping Doll isn’t much of a game, and at just an hour long with no hidden depth to necessitate a second playthrough, it’s overpriced at ten dollars. That said, as a first-generation console VR proof-of-concept, it succeeds more than it fails.

Gamers who absolutely need a quick, harmless Zelda fix can safely download it, but anyone else should probably take a pass on Oceanhorn.

In light of this incomplete content, the fact that it’s being be sold without this information up front feels disingenuous, and prevents me from being able to recommend it to anyone. Dead Synchronicity is dead on arrival.

In the end, Battlezone is an incredible VR experience. It’s enough of a full-featured tank simulator that it would be a great time played with standard controls on a normal television, but the perfect immersion takes that already-great play and elevates it to something truly special. Among the eight PSVR launch titles, Battlezone is the best at creating a seamless world for the player to inhabit, and even with a few balance problems in the campaign, it stands as one of the best arguments for getting PSVR.

Thumper isn’t going to revolutionize rhythm games, nor is it the best example of VR out there, but it’s still worth taking a look at — just be sure to listen to your body as you play. If you feel fatigued, battered down, or depressed, then take the headset off and get some air. The overall experience will be better for it. Trust me.

Viking Squad is one of those games with occasional highlights — pecking enemies to death with an ostrich does have its moments after all — and a slick exterior that’s undercut by not quite getting the basics right. In this case, a diverse and interesting combat system would have gone a long way towards making this voyage way more worthwhile to embark on.

This brief length shouldn’t discourage anyone with a PSVR from playing Wayward Sky, though – besides being a stellar proof-of-concept showing how one of the oldest genres of gaming will do just fine in this brand new format, it’s a great title all on its own, and a genuine standout of the launch lineup.

Prospective ninjas who choose to stick it out will easily spend a dozen hours chipping away at ‘perfect’ runs or indulging completionist tendencies, but for most others, Aragami won’t be seen as more than a reasonably competent also-ran.

Most of my complaints about Battlefield 1 are small. With a few tweaks and an update or two, Battlefield 1 could be the best in the series, and it feels like the refresh this series has needed for a while. Setting Battlefield in WW1 paid off and I’m excited to see what the series does next. But for now, I can’t wait to jump back in and pull off another successful bayonet charge.

Make no mistake, I unabashedly love this game. It’s a beautiful, near-perfect blend of old-school whimsy and new-school innovation. I’d never heard of Owlboy before it re-emerged earlier this year, but even if I’d spent nearly a decade anticipating this release, I can’t imagine that the finished product would have left me unsatisfied. It’s one of the best 2D platformers I’ve ever played.

Every part of this game is terrible...Ace Banana frustrated me like few games ever have, and it’s rare to see a finished title that gets every important design feature completely wrong. Ace Banana manages it, though, and sinks lower than almost any game I’ve ever played.

After hours of hair-splitting and nitpicking, the bottom line is that Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens just may be the best time I’ve had with a Lego title in years. Everything here is big, broad and loaded with replay value, and — unlike stormtrooper fire — will provide fans with a perfectly aimed blast of entertainment.

I liken this year’s football shootout to musicians. In the current season, FIFA is like Madonna – aging but venerable, full of glitz and entertainment value, but ultimately lacking substance. Contrarily, PES is like a fiery independent singer, with minimal flash but much deeper soul where it counts most. In the end, both performers might put a smile on gamers’ faces, but FIFA’s bloat and wrinkles are beginning to show, especially with a younger, hungrier upstart nipping at its heels.

There’s certainly an able amount of fanservice in Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity, but it simply wasn’t built to be much more than a knowing nod to a friendly audience, rather than a genuine ambassador for one of Japan’s most beloved gaming brands.

While I do think I’d have been slightly less burnt out if I’d played it in smaller doses over a longer period (and finishing its prequel beforehand didn’t help either, I’m sure), God Eater 2: Rage Burst proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that there really can be far, far too much of an entirely okay thing.

While it was a long time coming, I’m quite glad that I waited for Darkest Dungeon. The learning curve is steep, the controls are a little fiddly and the difficulty is high, but it’s a superb port of a rich game that’s become part of my daily routine. Conquering these cosmic horrors and undoing my mad uncle’s actions may be a long, grueling process, but it’s a process I’ll see to the end.

Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 is tough to recommend when the first game is still around. This new entry sure is a sequel, but that’s about it.

As I ran around this forest performing repetitive fetch quests for much longer than I wanted to, I felt an awful lot like the fox I was possessing – a tool in a conflict I have no stake in, when all I wanted to do was look at the pretty scenery.

Nearly every aspect of its aesthetic was, paradoxically, both aggressively unpleasant and lazily innocuous. Its story switched between wild flights of hard-to-follow, drug-like fantasy and drudging resistance to do anything at all for long stretches of time. I’m certain that this work will connect with a very specific type of player, but it was like nails on a chalkboard to me.

Hiccups aside, my hat is tipped to Codemasters for listening to fans and critics. In F1 2016, the company delivers the deep, intricate racing experience we should have enjoyed a year sooner, and the title is loaded with all the depth and customization that F1 enthusiasts can handle, while also welcoming clutch-wary newcomers. F1 2016 may not be perfect, but no sports sim has seen more improvement in such a short amount of time.

Overall, it’s more than a little eyebrow-raising to see how closely Vermintide has followed the template set by Valve, and disappointing to see that it hasn’t improved or advanced the precedent that was set — it’s just a not-as-good version with rodents in place of the undead.

While it manages to offer decent characters and an interesting battle system, MeiQ: Labyrinth Of Death is a disappointment overall. With so many strong entries in the dungeon-crawl genre already, one that only goes half the distance is impossible to recommend.

The game is a technical and mechanical mess, with unbalanced combat that’s neither intense nor rewarding.

Atlas Reactor has tons of strategic depth compressed into hyper-kinetic ten-minute chunks.

Livelock isn’t a title that’s going to move its genre forward, but it is a great example of the genre it’s representing. Anyone who enjoys this brand of action will find spending time with this metallic trio of saviors to be worthwhile.

Syndrome might offer a beautiful ship to look at, but it’s a buggy mess that fails to get the essentials right. This lovely ship can’t make up for an ugly everything else.

Metronomicon has a lot going for it — the songs are catchy, the combat is intuitive, and the storyline, while thin, is delightfully weird. I only wish the developers had found a way to let me enjoy the graphics. As it stands, it’s a game that plays well and is interesting to watch, but doesn’t manage to be both of those things at the same time.

Redout delivers excitement I haven’t felt since Nintendo released the last great F-Zero title over a decade ago. I don’t know if it’s the best racer I’ve ever played, but it’s almost certainly the most exhilarating, and earns its place among the very games it takes inspiration from.

Unto the Evil is a solid start, but it’s likely that the two other DLCs yet to come will surpass it since the development team will have thousands of hours of community play and feedback by that time. Time will tell.

For those looking to spend a few melancholic hours drinking in the sights and sounds of a desolate island while churning over an old man’s heartbreak, this version of Dear Esther is as good as it gets.

There’s a lot going for Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors. The characters are likable, the writing is solid, the combat is fresh, and it feels like a great fit for the Vita. However, it’s embarrassing to level up when others are around, and the ‘sexy’ minigames wore out their welcome in a hurry.

Clustertruck is admirably insane. The action is so fast and engaging that it made me enjoy a randomized, chaotic platformer, which was something I’d previously thought impossible. Still, I couldn’t avoid the nagging sense that I wasn’t wholly responsible for my failures (and successes!) they way I would have been in a more tightly-designed game. That said, anyone willing to loosen their grip on the wheel and go with the flow can expect a consistently surprising and raucous good time.

Episode 4 might ultimately be more of the same, but this year’s episodic Hitman is the best the series has ever been, and I’m not complaining. However, with the United States and Japan chapters still to come before this season ends, I do hope IO Interactive has a few more tricks up its sleeve.

Though still a bit flawed in execution, players who want to see how narrative-based games can evolve should absolutely play Event[0].

NBA 2K17 is an all-around win. There is simply no equal to the depth and overall quality of this title, cementing the series as perhaps the best of all sports. Those who enjoy drama will find MyPlayer to their liking. Armchair point guards will enjoy MyLeague and MyGM. Casual ballers can hop in and play some of the most finely-tuned basketball ever. There’s more content here than most basketball fans will ever experience, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t try. Any fan needs NBA 2K17 in their library.

Spirit of Justice is a must-play for fans of Phoenix Wright’s continuing adventures. Though some minor mechanical quibbles remain, this is, by far, the most intuitive and visually engaging entry in the series. The amount of innovation and genuine humor found throughout paint a rosy picture for the future of the franchise and make Spirit of Justice the freshest courtroom since the first.

While I can’t say much about Batman as a series yet, what I can say is that I enjoyed my two hours as both Bruce and Batman. It’s a solid beginning for the caped crusader.

Virginia is an excellent example of what can be done with the medium – the director’s hand is felt, the approach is unusual and the subject is intriguing. However, “Ambiguous Story” is becoming a widespread disease in videogames, and it’s hitting the indie scene are particularly hard. While occasionally appropriate, it’s a perilous shortcut that leads too many narratives astray, and this game is a victim. I recommend Virginia to examine how it moves a player through its story, but I can’t sign off on the story itself.

While the visuals are appealing and the bots are full of life, I find myself a bit let down by the gameplay. It’s not precise enough to be a true ballet of blades as the title implies, and really, it’s too bad since the market has room for a top-down Nidhogg. On the other hand, it’s too precise to be a wacky laugh-with-your-mates brawler like Gang Beasts, which it could have done equally well. As is, it is a decent game within reach (in either direction) of being something much greater.

Despite a cliché story, unnecessary combat and some borrowed elements, Valley delivers a well-paced, beautifully scored, and engaging first-person adventure. At times it achieves an extraordinary sense of majestic isolation, but more peaks and less valleys would have helped this adventure truly soar.

I really like what Strike Vector EX does — the ships look great, it feels good to fly around in the world (when not hovering, anyway) and dogfighting games aren’t as common as they used to be. The developers are onto something good here, and I hope Ragequit continues on this track — maybe a sequel with a bigger focus on the campaign next time?

I wanted to like Lifeless Planet. I gave it a fair shake and I even liked it until I got a grasp on everything it has to see and do — about 45 minutes. Past that, it’s just an exercise in running and jumping across boring vistas while collecting uninteresting audiologs to support the bloated, unsatisfying story.

#killallzombies has no excuse for getting this so wrong.

In a market where fresh faces are constantly churning out promising new content, seeing a game as sloppy, unpolished and archaic as ReCore being produced by such experienced minds is downright heartbreaking. The game shows promise in its early hours, but after seeing the whole thing, I can’t recommend ReCore in good conscience.

The Castlevania series is something of a comfort food for me, and any game that can properly emulate what it does gets my recommendation. Predictable as it may be, Reverie is the tight, efficient, and beautiful work from someone who knows the subgenre well. I may even go check out the other three now.

Madden 17 is still an improvement, and represents the best in sports sim gaming today.

It has a genuinely cool premise, and the core mechanic of reeling into titans at absurd speeds with the intent of doing hideous amounts of damage is a good one. There’s just very little else to it, so while it’s initially exciting and gives a unique feeling of freedom to murder adversaries, longer sessions allow tedium to set in.

Gamers with a special place in their hearts for beat-’em-ups may get several sessions’ worth of enjoyment out of it (and I’d still recommend it to folks who really enjoyed arcade beat-’em-ups back in the day) but Mother Russia Bleeds is not the shot in the arm the genre needed to remain relevant in 2016.

I looked hard for something wrong with this re-release of RE4, but I found… nothing. I suppose some could fault the developers for not adding a quick weapon switch to the D-pad (going into a briefcase to switch weapons has never been ideal) and it’s disappointing to see that the FMV sequences weren’t given the same visual overhaul as the rest of the title. Beyond those small quibbles, however, the game remains as good as it’s ever been. The campaign is the best in the series, the bonus chapter offers a huge amount of new content, and the costumes change the way the game is played. This really is one of the best games ever made, and over a decade later, it hasn’t lost any of its cachet.

Although it asks some weighty questions and fails to answer them through its limited narrative, Hue is best enjoyed for its color-swapping puzzle mechanics and austere visual design.

The team at Thunder Lotus is on the right track, but I hope their next effort focuses on adding more depth and intricacy to their work.

Even three months and numerous patches after release, it’s clear that this project is nowhere near complete.Worse, the developers are clearly prioritizing the more successful PC version over this compromised port job. Console-owning fans of the survival genre may find something to enjoy in 7 Days To Die, but my advice is to steer clear all the same.

Despite a few minor missteps, Alone With You is an excellent example of a genuine sci-fi title, and spending time getting to know artificial people while quietly struggling to survive the aftermath of a colony’s collapse kept me wholly interested from start to finish. More cerebral and moody than most, I would strongly recommend it to anyone who doesn’t mind leaving their laser rifle at home in favor of having an experience about an experience.

When taken as a whole, Shiren The Wanderer: The Tower Of Fortune And The Dice Of Fate delivers a carefully crafted, carefully considered experience that captures the best of what makes a good roguelike, while also mitigating the pain points that give the genre its hardcore reputation.

Beyond Mankind Divided‘s fumbled sociopolitical themes, the plot’s just dull and too small in scale.

Episode 4 might ultimately be more of the same, but this year’s episodic Hitman is the best the series has ever been, and I’m not complaining. However, with the United States and Japan chapters still to come before this season ends, I do hope IO Interactive has a few more tricks up its sleeve.

After a few runs I’d heard all the jokes, fought all the enemies, and seen all of the mild shifts in aesthetics. I wanted to rush through the content I’d already seen and finally, hopefully, get a glimpse of something new, but this Souls­-inspired combat prides itself on punishing the impatient, and hasty Necropolis players get a full reset. This was my internal struggle—I wanted to get the game over with, but I didn’t want to be even more bored with it by repeatedly dying and restarting in the process.

Even by the lowered standards of licensed tie-in titles, Phoenix Festa fails to impress, seemingly intent on undoing the redemptive work of other, better, tie-ins like the Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm series or even the various Sword Art Online adaptations.

It’s a dark experience from beginning to end, but one that’s absolutely worth playing, especially when it offers some insight into what makes people compelled to fight for the future, no matter how futile the battle may be.

It’s a slick, if understated, little title that delivers a frenetic, yet rewarding experience—like the best escape rooms.

It’s a shame there’s not more to Bound than there is. The artists are incredibly talented people and the visuals they’ve crafted can legitimately be described as poetry in motion. Sadly, graphics can only go so far and there’s nothing of significance past them, reducing Bound to being another beautiful art-house trifle that doesn’t capitalize on its potential.

The very definition of a missed opportunity. Thirsty mecha fans are still stuck in that same desert, and they’ll have to wait for something to quench their desires a while longer.

For players who just want more Witcher, there’s no doubt that Blood And Wine delivers. It has a whole new land to explore, there are tons of things to do, and there’s enough content to keep someone busy for dozens of hours. On the other hand, it felt to me like the entire Witcher experience had already peaked, so following it up with something that’s just not as good leaves things in an awkward place. The last ten minutes are absolutely worth seeing, but the hours that come before it? Maybe not so much.

Ghostbusters is an abysmal piece of garbage. It runs poorly, it sounds terrible, it has awful writing and it’s just a drag to play.

I largely enjoyed my time with God Eater: Resurrection. Even though it’s a little too padded with filler missions featuring the same roaming enemies over and over, laying into Aragami with massive hammers and swords that could cut dumpsters in half generally makes for some good times.

A fantastic experience, and rarely do developers manage to make such perfect use of a setting when building a game. This isn’t just a puzzle game that happens to be zombie-themed, it’s literally a zombie puzzle game, where all of the challenges and tasks flow naturally from the concept, constantly expanding and elaborating on the core idea. Yes, it’s fair to sum Zombie Night Terror up as Lemmings With Zombies, but from that jumping off point it accomplishes incredible things.

Although these new assignments for 47 are just bonus surprises, I prefer them to the normal Contracts and Escalation missions IO regularly publishes. The maps aren’t brand new, but it’s clear that care and creativity went into crafting the missions, and that the developers didn’t just push quickie content out the door to hold players over until the next official episode.

Half of Adr1ft is a fantastic experience. The spacewalking segments are like nothing I’ve ever encountered in a game before—freeing yet claustrophobic, beautiful and terrifying. If it was judged solely by how well it captures the mystery of and fascination with the great emptiness beyond the earth, it would be a success. This isn’t just a floating sim, though, and once simply being in zero-G gets old, there isn’t a compelling reason to get through the rest.

Inheritance doesn’t bring any of what I loved most about Layers of Fear back to the canvas, and instead feels like an unnecessary epilogue. It’s a shame, but like the work of Fear’s own tortured painter, not everything can be a masterpiece.

A success. It’s as grueling and intense as dour puzzle-platformers come, and thanks to its striking visuals and deliberate pacing, it proves an interesting and unique take on the overstuffed ‘zombpocalypse’ genre. With its tight gameplay, (mostly) great level design, and troubling vision of America in collapse, Deadlight deserves to be recognized as a standout in the genre.

Just a competent JRPG. How could it not be, considering how much it liberally lifts from its betters? Looking at it with a purely analytical eye, this Frankenstein’s Monster of a game has haphazardly pieced everything needed to make it stand among the giants it aspires to be, except the most critical of requirements—a spark of life.

My only major knock against Furi is having to repeat tedious bullet hell sequences during some matches, but otherwise I enjoyed the physicality of the duels. And to my surprise, the story actually comes to a head in a fairly satisfying way at the end. Overall this is a win for The Game Bakers, and I’d recommend Furi to anyone who appreciates demanding (but fair!) action games.

Hyper Light Drifter isn’t for everyone—the replay value is low and some may not like how cryptic and mysterious the story is, but for me, the positives far outweighed potential issues. For those wanting to explore a world with rich environments, strong atmosphere and rewarding combat, Hyper Light Drifter delivers.

I hope that we haven’t heard the last of the Zero Escape team, but I also hope that their future projects rein themselves in and they produce something more coherent and personal.

A smart puzzle-driven title, but one that might only appreciated by those with infinite patience and fingers fast enough to endure falling to their death for the 463rd time on the second ball of level 78.

While I’m not familiar with the manga this game is based on and can’t speak to its fidelity as an adaptation, when taken on its own terms it’s a robust and satisfying arena brawler with almost too much story.

I enjoyed Grand Kingdom quite a bit. On paper this game is everything I want in an SRPG, but it did leave me feeling a little underwhelmed. With a stronger narrative stitching everything together, I think it really would be the total package.

I did not like anything about Wasted. Neither its humor nor its gameplay are adequate to support the irritation of mastering the first dungeon or the tedium of blasting through the subsequent four. I spent many hours beating this game out of sheer spite and didn’t enjoy a single minute of it. Reader, do not repeat my error.

Lost Sea has some good ideas. Exploring randomized islands alongside talented crewmates sounds exciting and it looks like an enjoyable swashbuckling adventure, but the annoying music, repeated areas, boring combat and terrible AI sank this game long before the ship reached its destination.

Though prospective pilots may have a tough time giving the green light to Assault Suit Leynos due to the hefty price tag, it’s an impeccable remake of a classic, underappreciated Genesis game that delivers all that could be asked of it and more.

This undersea tour is quite short. I got through it in about two hours or so and was surprised by the brevity, but it’s probably better that way. No matter how beautiful it is to swim with whales or to descend into an undersea crevasse, there is precious little to do in Abzu, and it’s never particularly touching or thought-provoking. If it told a better tale or if there were more to it than swimming and occasionally pushing a button, it might have been a knockout. As it stands, the appeal of looking at pretty fish wears off in a hurry, and there’s not much else to recommend it.

Monochroma can proudly hold its metaphorical head high among other classy 2D puzzle-platformers. This is a game whose developers extensively studied the greats of the genre, and obviously understand what they did right. While it may not bring anything particularly new to the table, Monochroma is a beautifully executed adventure that kept me enthralled all the way from the promising opening to the slightly annoying finale.

It’s absolutely worth playing for anyone who missed it the first time, and the new features and content make a strong argument for existing fans to take a second look.

It’s difficult to recommend a title that serves only the most experienced racing fans, while alienating the rest of us. When coupled with a bland visual presentation and more than a few technical issues, players should to go back to older motocross titles to get their fix.

While I can imagine how Portal may have inspired the team to expand on its concept, in the end, all I wanted to do was play more Portal.

Although I absolutely love the aesthetics and concept of Headlander, the non-combat gameplay is only fair, and it’s brought down further with too much combat detracting from the things it does well. I was interested enough to stick around and see how things turned out at the end, but there were definitely a few times when I walked away and took a break out of annoyance. Like so many other examples before it, Headlander is another could-have-been that just doesn’t play to its strengths.