The characters are not only woefully generic, but poorly drawn and animated.

Despite featuring a gorgeous and carefully-designed world, Obduction fails to execute on its central identity as a puzzle game. And, when three quarters of the experience consists of walking from one point to another and sitting through loading screens, it’s difficult to imagine that Cyan Worlds respects the time of Obduction’s players. Returning the favor, I ended up having very little respect for their game.

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.

Retro players starved for a Shinobi-like title who also relish mastery through repetition will surely see this as the perfect opportunity — just be sure to get anything other than the Switch version. For everyone else, Ganryu 2‘s try-and-die learning curve is repulsive, and the trial-and-error design harshly punishes the player for every little mistake. It’s one of those rare titles that I do not wish to go back to.

Retribution gave me absolutely nothing that I was expecting it to, what I was offered in its stead was amazingly violent and fast-paced action. The game achieves almost everything it set out to do, and I have to applaud that.

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.

Xeno is charmingly strange thanks to its bizarre enemies and low difficulty level — it was a breeze to play through. It feels skeletal, however, and only those who wonder would happen if a three-story Maus tank battled a Rhino made of rocket launchers should give it a serious look.

Seems like a battle system without a role-playing game. There is little variety or depth to the combat, and even in the presence of assorted power-ups it becomes painfully repetitive after only a short while.

There's always more to learn of the characters in all sorts of ways, and underneath the goofiness, there was still a thick layer of strong narrative and character development that kept me invested through sixty hours. I don't know if JRPGs will ever return to their previous prominence, but if Ar Tonelico Qoga is any indication, they still have a lot to offer.

A whole lot of hot air and buzz with nothing to back it up.

The manager’s commentary during and after every stage is poorly performed, to say nothing of the terrible and repetitive victory ceremony featuring around three static commentaries, making it a must-skip. All of the aforementioned issues are especially notable considering TDF 2020 is dedicated to providing a realistic 3D race. The other modes, which include a professional career mode and other races, are hardly worth the time and effort. Tour de France 2020 is therefore greatly outclassed by Pro Cycling Manager 2020 in terms of content, and hardly makes up any ground with a better presentation.

J-Stars Victory VS+ doesn't look all that hot, offers inconsistent controls and camera, and features wildly unbalanced characters. While it was admittedly awesome to see Vegeta from Dragon Ball power up in a manner 100% authentic to how he is on screen, there's just nothing here for those who aren't already sold on the characters and franchises.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II is just terrible.

While Armature definitely made a few bad calls when putting Blackgate together, I greatly enjoyed this new style of Batman, and didn't have too much heartburn over the rough patches.

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.

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.

Lego 2K Drive is one of the finest arcade racers around, setting itself apart from the competition by literally building a new foundation for the genre. Like the very best LEGO sets, each of its pieces adds up to a wonderful product. Racing fans owe it to themselves to check this one out.

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.

In the end, I still enjoyed it enough to put in more than fifty hours in and still want to play more, despite all its problems. When it’s running as intended, it’s clear that this is the kind of game I’d like to see a lot more of — bloody, unpretentious, and gameplay-focused in a manner that’s eminently replayable thanks to strong core combat. That said, the good stuff in Wanted: Dead is buried under a mountain of problems — and when I say buried, I mean buried deep.

I really wanted this game to be good. The E3 trailer looked like the ridiculous Fast & Furious title people have wanted for a decade, and I specifically asked for this review opportunity. In my mind, I was totally down for what this game was promising and in the mood for a good Need For Speed, but this just isn’t it. There are certainly worse racing games out there, but few can match Payback’s blandness. It’s a listless, lifeless, soulless product that perfectly exemplifies the current state of Electronic Arts. Maybe next time.

It's a short and mildly engrossing action romp that, while probably not worth the price of a full game, will make a nice time killer for those long Saturday afternoons when the big game of the month hasn't hit shelves yet

Despite strong foundational combat mechanics common to the genre, Redemption Reapers is weak in just about every other aspect. Those flaws in combination with its punishing difficulty make it hard to recommend, and I’d say that it’s likely to produce more groans than thrills for all but the most hardcore SRPG players.

Overall, the Namco Museum Archives collection offers a bunch of great games in versions that some players might not have seen before, but the whole package is missing some personality. Sure, that doesn’t detract from the titles themselves, but it’s shame to see these historical artifacts treated in such a slapdash way.

Hellboy: Web of Wyrd feels very safe as roguelikes go — The controls are uncomplicated, the equipment is serviceable equipment, the enemies are straightforward, and it doesn’t go out of it’s way to do anything too strange or off the beaten path other than showcasing Mike Mignola’s iconic art style. Since that art was enough to get me in the door, it did what it needed to do, I suppose. Hellboy comic fans may enjoy this experience more than others as it was created with help from the writer of the comics, but I’m hoping that there are some updates down the road that will give the game a little more bite.

RICO has a pace that won’t be to everyone’s liking, and the same goes for the tone of its presentation, but the frenetic approach and the replayable nature of the mission structure makes it a delight in both single and multiplayer for those who can switch their brain off and simply enjoy the mechanics.

Zeno Clash II, like the original, is an interesting game. It falls slightly flat in the gameplay, but it's largely balanced by the world being so damn interesting to experience and wander around in.

I have no idea how something this bad came from team capable of creating something so good, but the magnitude with which Drakengard 3 fails is impressive.

Phoning Home plays well enough for its genre and has several good world-building moments, but it just wasn’t for me. I was hoping for something a little more complex given the excellent premise, but it never developed. Players who are fond of survival/crafting games might get more out of it than I did, but they should be prepared to do a lot of babysitting when ANI makes her appearance.