For players new to the adventure genre, this package offers a great opportunity to play one of the best adventure titles ever made. The compelling crime narrative, intriguing characters, and great puzzles are all there, and an integrated hint system minimizes the need to alt-tab to a walkthrough. It's a shame that this remastered version squanders much of the charm of the original, though—I can't see it converting those cold on the genre, but fans and players interested in adventure gaming's roots would do well to check it out.

Runers has an interesting crafting mechanic and a truly staggering number of weapons, but beyond that, there's just nothing much to recommend.

The longer I played The Old City, the more I kept hoping that it would end sooner than it did. While each chapter can be completed in about ten minutes or less, the lack of involving content and Jonah's unbearable droning made it all feel much longer.

It's delightful to look at and even more delightful to explore. If Ubisoft wants to restore some goodwill with core audiences again, releasing lovely little titles like this is a step in the right direction.

Citizens of Earth may entertain for a while, but I doubt it'll have any real lasting appeal.

With bright. beautiful graphics and fantastic level design, Kalimba is a near-perfect action/puzzler that's always challenging in the most rewarding way. It's rare to see a game so difficult be so encouraging, and the developers should be applauded for making this kind of hardcore skill experience accessible to everyone.

In an era where action-RPGs are chock-full of skill trees, obscene amounts of loot, myriad spells and skills, the back-to-the-basics approach in Gauntlet is a breath of fresh air.

Grey Goo feels like a complete RTS package, built to spec in a time when enthusiasm for the genre is at a low. It helps show there's life yet in the formula pioneered by the likes of Command & Conquer and Dune, and while it might not have the weight to stand up against the likes of Starcraft 2, its own place in the contemporary strategic constellation is secure.

A gem, and perhaps the greatest indie sports game of all time. In fact, it's so good that big-budget sports devs need to take an honest look at it—there's a lot they could learn.

Ultimately, it may not have delivered as much variety as I was hoping for, but with the right expectations there's still a good amount of job-flavored questing to be had.

Despite the dated graphics, Criminal Girls: Invite Only manages to impress as an entirely competent retro dungeon crawler. It does run out of steam before the end with some amazingly pointless backtracking and a storyline that devolves into a typical harem snoozefest, but the overall experience? Still worth it, overall.

The unfamiliar battle system may put some newcomers off, but those who don't mind putting in a little practice will be well-rewarded with one of the best and freshest fighters in ages. That it's also one of the most absurdly good-looking titles in years is just gravy on top of a pretty damned special meal.

It's a pinball game at its core, and if the pinball isn't nailed down, then the entire experience suffers. With some redesign of the boards and a bit of physics polish, this would be an easy recommend. As it is, it doesn't feel quite ready for prime time.

Sure, it might be getting up there in years, but while the younger generation feels like it has to show off how ‘scary' it is with cheaper, higher-octane thrills, Resident Evil takes the time to really get under my skin, and considering how many times I leapt out of it, I'd say a bit of maturity isn't a bad thing.

Dying Light is a great experience from beginning to end. The combat is stellar, the parkour is a genre best, and it's taking place in an environment perfectly designed for the game's strengths. For all of its problems, Dead Island was pointing towards something great in the future, and it's clear that Dying Light is that something.

What I can say is that the concept of rewinding and rewriting has much potential. If it delivers genuine variances based on player decisions, there could be many interesting outcomes, but it's too early to tell how much Effect the Butterflies will have.

While Monster Hunter 4: Ultimate is still Monster Hunter (and thank goodness for that) Capcom has put a great deal of effort into improving the overall experience, and I'd say that their revamp has been a wild success.

There's nothing truly ground-breaking going on in The Detail (Telltale and BioWare have done better in the "players-choose-their-responses" department), but it does have potential.

A bit of a disaster...Why? It's a half-assed, crudely cobbled-together product prone to crashing, lockups (and as of press time) absolutely non-functional multiplayer.

Once again, Sony proves itself to be a welcome place for alternative experiences that don't easily fit the standard boxes, and Splice is one more that they can be proud of. I found it to be gracefully understated, masterfully elegant, and a puzzler that I enjoyed every minute with... Even those minutes when I had absolutely no idea where that final cell needed to go.

A highly disappointing game, no two ways about it.

The only mode to feel completely finished is Nightmare in North Point, which pits the player against an army of hopping vampires and a few resurrected faces from the main storyline.

It was great to spend a little more time with the Saints crew and when the series pops, it really pops. I enjoyed some of the situations and one-liners, that musical number was a true classic, and being able to fly across the city on a pair of wings was fantastic. Unfortunately, without more of the comedy and writing that makes Saints Row great, Gat Out Of Hell is too much busywork and not enough good time.

Despite my frustrations with some unfair aspects of the gameplay, I found Never Alone to be incredibly compelling.

In choosing to re-create Wings exactly as it was, warts and all, the developers have revealed that on a fundamental level, Wings was always more wart than it was game.

This third chapter shows more promise than both of its predecessors combined, but serious flaws still make it hard to endorse.

With a huge map, hundreds of cars, and countless racetrack possibilities, Forza Horizon 2 is a stellar open world racing game.

Nothing else needs to be said—Zen Pinball 2 owners should buy South Park Pinball. South Park fans must buy this table pack.

Even if it had made serious strides over Far Cry 3, even if the gameplay held true to the series's core, even if its story weren't junk, even if it had been put together perfectly, I would still find Far Cry 4 annoying as hell. It's not just that Ubisoft can't execute; it seems like they can't design anymore. To compensate, they've just slapped whatever crap they can onto an open world in the desperate hope that large portions will make up for the flavorlessness of the meal. Instead, I got sick of chewing, and longed for the days when Far Cry just shut up and let me shoot some guns.

As a fan of the series, I loved Game of Thrones Episode One: Iron from Ice. It's a great start that does the show justice and perfectly captures the brutality and political intrigue of Westeros.

Although The Fall ends in a satisfying way and could easily be considered a complete story, I've been told that it's only the first of three chapters. With that in mind, I very much look forward to the next installment, and if it's anywhere near as good as this one, then fans of science fiction (like myself!) will be in for a real treat.

Shadowrun: Dragonfall has excellent writing which supports the whole shebang beautifully, but its sub-par tactical gameplay holds it back once the bullets and blades start flying.

With a few effective scares and hints of an interesting story, Slender: The Arrival is the kind of experience that anyone looking to juice their heartrate for half an hour should seek out. After the shock has worn off, though, the game has nothing left to offer.

Spry Fox does a solid job in presenting a polished, attractive-looking package, even if the gameplay doesn't quite meet the same standard.

If the rest of Tales of the Borderlands is as solid as Zer0 Sum, then Telltale will be able to count another great story under its belt.

So much of Spirits of Spring is on-point that the failure to ultimately cross the finish line is a sharp disappointment. I should keep things in perspective, though. Spirits of Spring's design, art, and narrative work so well together in conveying its theme that the strongest complaint I can muster is that it doesn't work perfectly.

Still, when it lays off the screwballs and offers a straight-up fight, CastleStorm: Definitive Edition is solidly entertaining.

Dragon Age: Inquisition is a frustrating game. I often found myself scratching and clawing through boring, MMO-like content for enough power points to progress to the next major plot event. However, the fact that I was willing to slog through it at all shows just how good this game can be when it hits its stride.

Apart from that absolutely baffling meat grinder at the end, I'd still recommend Escape to fans of the mid-list. 98% of it was an enjoyable spiral into insanity, and the project could certainly stand on its own even without being attached to the Dead Island franchise -- just be ready to slog through that final bit to see how it all wraps up.

Volgarr the Viking is an amazing accomplishment. Its developers have taken the skeleton of a classic title and transformed it into the greatest game the 80s never produced.

It's not much of a rhythm game (or much of a game in general) but when taken as pure fanservice, it's pretty much everything anyone could ask for without doing an unfiltered Google search.

Those who are willing to look past its flaws will find a truly gripping tale of psychological horror, and possibly a greater empathy for those suffering from psychological disorders who endure such hell on a regular basis.

All in all, it's an accessible, enjoyable fighter. R

For extremely high-end PC gamers who don't have the console in question, this is a great chance to try out a special game. Everyone else should just stick to the original version.

It becomes like a dream, and when it concludes, players will wake up refreshed. They will not be able to perfectly describe what they've just experienced, but the feeling and memories will linger.

As it is, Lord of the Mind is a great HOG for most of its running time, but the jarringly disappointing finale keeps it from being one of the classics.

It may not be what it could have been, but there's still a lot to like underneath the awkward design blips.

It's well paced, has a compelling plot, the twists are surprising without being outlandish, it prefers a more nuanced psychological horror over excessive blood and gore, and it's able to organically elicit fear, sadness and intrigue.

Videogames simply do not come better than this, and I give Persona Q: Shadows of the Labyrinth my highest possible recommendation.

Overall, it’s a shame that the final game feels like a missed opportunity to bring the survival horror genre back into the spotlight. Between the poor story and characters, familiar elements from other games and the problems I had during my playthrough, it seems as though The Evil Within is content to live in the past instead of than drawing inspiration from it and moving forward.

I press on with Heavy Bullets because its luminescent vision sculpts that chaos from noise into a signal, and creates a deconstruction and resurrection of an idealized game that I'll never get to play, but never get tired of chasing.

As a puzzle game in its own right it's mildly diverting, but doesn't hold up against the platform's best in any real way.

To be fair, Lords of the Fallen isn't terrible in any way, it just fails to measure up to its inspiration by every conceivable measure, save perhaps "easier."

Metallia's antics coupled with the dull gameplay was just too much to take. Even if it does get better later on, the hours I sunk into the game's unsatisfying mechanics and nasty storyline left me cold. NIS has many good titles in their library, but this isn't one of them.

Costume Quest isn't about providing a challenge; it's about rekindling the magic of Halloween we all experienced when we were younger, and it does an incredible job.

I can't blame anyone for being initially put off by the somewhat obnoxious sense of humor, but anyone passing on Sunset Overdrive will be missing one of the freshest and most exhilarating games the genre has seen in years.

Those who want to use speedruns as a demonstration of their twitch skills will likely find Lovely Planet a 50-hour obsession. Nobody else really need apply.

While the multi never panned out for me and the campaign missions can sometimes be more frustrating than fun, there's something undeniably juicy about Frozen Synapse Prime.

Side-scrolling combat games aren't new, and plenty of them are heftier, more substantial and cheaper than this one. Steam users can do better.

I don't want that to deter anyone from playing Isolation—truth be told, I think it's one of the year's must-play releases for those with as much adoration for the original Alien film as I have.

XBlaze - Code: Embryo isn't the most offensive visual novel I've ever played, but it's ultimately dragged down by a lackluster story, dull characters, and the infuriating TOi system.

By focusing on Sherlock's palette of intellectual powers and limiting the amount of typical adventure game tedium, the game captures the essence of Holmes's process better than ever, and the result is the most satisfying entry to date.

With gameplay limited to simple taps and swipes, I realize that only a niche group of people would enjoy the time spent here, and honestly, I don't feel as though Curtain Call is a complete game—I prefer to think of it as an interactive music player.

Once I recovered from the shock and awe of the T&A, the thoughtful design and satisfying mechanics of Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus had no problem keeping my attention. I'd recommend it to any Vita owner looking for fast action in short bursts, but I'd never let anyone watch over my shoulder, though...

Huge fans of Japan or Japanese games might find more to appreciate in this Akihabara-centered experience than I did, but as someone who looking for a quirky story or interesting combat, I came away feeling quite unsatisfied.

Mind: Path to Thalamus is beautiful and has several elegant puzzles, but it doesn't tell any story with those attributes, nor does it tell a good story with anything else.

It's one of the most thrilling titles I've played this year, at once an adoring shout-out to the games that dominated my childhood and an introduction to a series that—surprise!—I actually resonate with. It's not a game for everyone, but it was most certainly the game for me.

A solid story and engaging characters go a long way towards justifying a JRPG's existence, and the world of FFF is quite charming.

If Monolith's ducks had all been in a row, Mordor could have been a top contender for the year, but even so, it's still worth getting into for no other reason than it delivers what I've wanted from Assassin's Creed since the start.

For players who love killing things, building godly characters, and grabbing loads of awesome loot in the process, Diablo III Ultimate Evil Edition is the biggest no-brainer purchase of this year.

A lack of ambition isn't necessarily a problem here—for players looking for solid Tower Defense, DG2 has a decent story, plenty of well-built levels, and truly impressive number of gameplay modifiers and modes, and it has handily replaced DG1 as the most technically adept game of its type.

Those interested in Persona 4 Arena: Ultimax for the fighting will be satisfied with what's on offer, but narrative fans curious about what happens to the gang before the next official Persona RPG debuts will likely feel burned. The story side is a tedious, thudding disappointment compared to the stellar stuff the series usually delivers.

Wayward Manor may be the worst game I've played this year.

Shadowgate doesn't religiously preserve the architecture or the puzzles of the original game, and is better for it. What it does retain is the castle's sense of threat and atmosphere of danger—rare things to find in an adventure game.

There are moments of brilliance, but it's tough to enjoy them while being kicked in the face at every turn. It's a genuine shame, but I can't recommend Natural Doctrine when so much of it is so terribly wrong.

In a game that encourages perfection to the nanosecond, having to occasionally stop to think about which button does what can occasionally cost time. It's a small issue and one that won't affect players unconcerned with high scores.

Blood Knights is representative of the terrible trend in game design where its devs have taken what might have been a mediocre-but-serviceable brawler and packed it full of systems that do nothing for the player but push them further away from the action.

For all its quaint charms, Tesla Effect is held back by all of the flaws that killed its genre in the first place.

It may seem crazy to ask players to pay a subscription fee in the growing field of free-to-play MMOs, but if you ask me, WildStar is worth the price of entry.

To be clear, I wasn't expecting a complete game from D4—the episodic model guarantees a certain amount of waiting around on the part of the consumer—but this doesn't even feel like a complete episode.

I may not be ready to write an in-depth technical analysis on every inch of the Walking Dead board, but it strikes me as a well-designed table that knows its subject inside and out, and it gives fans of Lee, Clementine, and the rest a whole new context within which to play.

In its current state, Destiny feels unfinished and unfocused, but I imagine that things will be looking quite different in a year's time.

However, in the end, I felt that much of what made Risen 2 such a charming adventure was missing from Risen 3—it has fewer flaws overall, but the ambition has diminished as well. As a result, it's simply less interesting, and the return trip isn't as enjoyable as the previous journey.

Mario Kart 8 is pretty great in many ways, but undoubtedly moreso with a collection of friends to play with, or when facing off against other players online.

As much as I loved the bulk of the game, by the end I was burning out, and burning out fast. Despite that, I'm glad that some studios are still willing to show an almost insane level of ambition in realizing the games they want to make without compromise, even if it does lead to a few dire moments here and there.

Warriors Orochi 3 isn't likely to change anyone's mind about Omega Force's flagship series, but it's undoubtedly a fan-pleaser of the highest caliber, and an excellent entry point for those who might be curious about the Warriors series.

The core game certainly shows promise in its distinctive style and its solid procedural generation engine, and players partial to fighting games may gel with the combat more than I did. However, the difficulty spikes make the campaign more frustrating than rewarding, and the shoddy optimization on Xbox 360 nearly drives it into "unplayable" territory.

With its high-quality ballistic modelling and gruesome death scenes, Sniper Elite 3 offers exactly what fans of the series demand, but still comes nowhere near living up to its potential.

In fact, I was this close to simply quitting the series and not coming back, but Clementine & co. definitely recaptured some of the original Walking Dead magic before the final credits rolled, and I was grateful for that.

That Rogue Legacy got a lousy port is particularly damning, because the game is otherwise perfectly suited to the handheld, with an average round lasting no more than ten minutes but with depth encouraging much longer sessions if possible.

It's a must-play for Visual Novel fans, and those who enjoyed the first year of the deadliest high school ever will find that the return trip is even better.

I'm really glad I decided to take on Disgaea 4: A Promise Revisited despite the steep, steep learning curve and the "fend for yourself" approach. I'm guessing that its audience will likely be fervent series fans and very few newcomers (like me!) but it has a lot to offer to any fan of SRPGs.

While it can be completed in less than six hours, it perfectly explores themes and concepts that triple-A titles still have difficulty grasping: gray morality, a poignant, thought-provoking storyline, and appealing gameplay that isn't based on killing everything in sight.

With a bit of restraint and more focus on the types of relational challenges that it does well, Metrico would have been an easy recommend to fans of the fringe. In its current state, it's an aggravating equation that produces unhappy results.

I support sci-fi that does more than ask people to shoot aliens with futuristic guns, but there's just not enough coherence in The Swapper to put up with the split between the intriguing premise and the contrivances that surround it.

Ultra was a great time over a weekend (especially trading off between rounds with my kids) and I'm sure that players who've stayed current with Street Fighter have already purchased it and sussed out the new tweaks and systems, but as someone who popped in to see how things are going, I quickly popped back out and wished the series well

While it might not be better than some of the classics of its genre, Gaucamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition still offers a plump pinata that delivers plenty of candy for players willing to break it open.

There are no puzzles, no secret rooms, no open exploration of any kind, and the game wants players to do this with ten unique characters, leveling them each to 99. Battle Princess of Arcadias is so monotonous that I kept playing it out of inertia rather than because of enjoyment, but I kept hoping for more of the magic from its first five minutes. Sadly, that magic never appeared.