Steep is a gorgeous game that was never able to keep my attention. On paper it seems to have everything it needs to succeed — multiplayer, a big world to explore, lots of things to do, different ways to play — but wandering the mountain and taking part in generic events lacks excitement and personality. I doubt I’ll remember it exists in a year, which is a shame because that moonlit landscape is just breathtaking.

It looks sharp and it may be perfectly serviceable, but with all of the other interesting things happening in video games right now, something as surprisingly soulless and rote as Crysis 3 has absolutely nothing to recommend it.

Much of the experience is visually striking, and without spoilers, I can say that I enjoyed the suitably macabre story too. However, as a survival horror game it fails since any fear I experienced was quickly replaced with frustration — the broken central mechanic terrified me in all the wrong ways.

Overall, I can respect the publisher for releasing a straightforward and no-nonsense port of Glover, as fans and purists will probably enjoy having the original experience preserved on modern consoles. Personally, I would have preferred some slight concessions be made to the gameplay in order to be more accessible. Regardless, I’m sure fans of the original and of obscure retro titles will enjoy seeing this four-fingered hero back in the limelight.

Override: Mech City Brawl is a series of contradictions – it’s a brawler with more depth than it requires, it’s a game showcasing hulking mechs that lack weight, and its one unique twist has been pushed to the wayside for the sake of more conventional design. It’s enjoyable in bursts and easily the best of its genre, but given that Godzilla-style games have been almost universally horrendous, it ends up being small praise.

Rather than representing a revitalization of the Sonic brand, Sonic 4 is a failed, desperate grasp at recapturing its former glory.

In terms of puzzles alone Flood of Light is acceptable, but everything else drags it down. The audiovisual experience is one-note, and the story is unsatisfying even when it can be clearly understood. As an experience overall, Flood of Light ends up being merely mediocre.

It’s unfortunate that The Mage’s Tale feels so unfinished. The developers have all the requisite ingredients — experimental combat, entertaining writing, impressive visuals, and interesting environments. They just weren’t able to do the most important part of spellcrafting and mix it all together.

Blackguards is tolerable, if plodding, but I don't have anything nicer to say about it.

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.

Despite my complaints, Redeemer has me excited to see future work from this studio. The systems here are a great platform to expand upon in a sequel, and at its core, the experience does offer great gameplay — it’s just not enough to carry the entire experience.

Although I badly want to like The Denpa Men 2: Beyond the Waves more than I do, the honest truth is that it's a hell of a lot of work for a game that's basically nothing but grinding through dungeons. If the difficulty and frequency of encounters were just a bit lower, the insanely high cute factor would be able to carry the experience and I probably would have powered through. Instead, it's way, way too much effort for too little return—my patience and stamina wore out long before the credits rolled.

Ultimately, Daylight does manage to produce a few frightening scenarios thanks to the impressive audio, but it's a shame the story, gameplay, and environments aren't as well developed as the sound. The bones of something more chilling (and satisfying) are here, but there just isn't enough meat on them.

Confusing movement patterns could be overlooked during most battles, but the same can’t be said about the pace of ACORN Tactics. Taking time to plan out the attacks of six different machines can understandably be a little time consuming. However, waiting for the enemy to complete its turn should not take the same amount of time. By the end of the campaign, missions were taking around thirty minutes to complete. Unfortunately, ten to fifteen of those minutes was just me staring at the screen as the AI took its sweet, sweet time to attack. An option to allow the AI to move faster would have greatly improved the flow of the game. As is, the battles are just too slow. ACORN Tactics is an interesting case – it may be the first time I’ve ever enjoyed the later stages of the game and at the same time wished it would hurry up and be over.

Maybe the typical, indirect solutions to problems were designed deliberately to poke fun at the genre’s flaws, but they were so frequent that they were just as much of an irritant as this kind of puzzle was back then. Topped off with a wildly lackluster twist to explain Yelltown fever, and Unforeseen Incidents leaves a lot to be desired on nearly every front.

As a side-story to the series, The Conspiracy falls utterly flat—so it's lucky that it fares much better as a game than as a spin-off.

While the central quest in Boot Hill Bounties may have been cliche and the gameplay slightly disappointing, the time spent with my crew made it worthwhile. This Western yarn might not be a consistently excellent experience, but it still reminded me of how much I love the Wild West.

It’s not that I can’t respect it — it seems to offer decent value in that it’s essentially three different types of shooter in one package, but aside from the new Blackout mode, I’ve had significantly better experiences from many of its competitors. And honestly, Blackout’s main competition is a free-to-play game. It may be better than Fortnite in my opinion, but sixty dollars better? I’m not entirely convinced about that, and without a decent singleplayer campaign attached, it’s a pretty hard sell for anyone who isn’t already a fan.

Although Borderlands seemed ready to be one of the next big things, the overwhelming focus on grinding and gun-collecting can't carry the entire game, in either co-op or single-player.

While I enjoyed my time with Horizon Chase Turbo, I wished it was an arcade cabinet instead of something to play at home. Part of the arcade appeal was always seeing how long I could get on a quarter — having unlimited access to such a thing puts it in a new, unfavorable light that reveals the content was never meant for it.

While there’s not much gameplay (and what’s here is below standard), League of Enthusiastic Losers brings a unique artstyle rarely seen in gaming and a solid narrative focused on subjects often overlooked within the gaming industry. I am confident that time will be kind to this one, but it’s a bit too understated to make much of an impact at the moment.

Sadly, I couldn't get past the use of the stylus on what is supposed to be the main event.

It never builds on the gameplay or aesthetic qualities of Doom in any meaningful way—it’s merely content to cover the same old ground and hope no one notices.

Remember Me gets off on the right foot with an impressive opening and a rare female protagonist, but the overall experience of both gameplay and storytelling is too heavily guided and lacking in depth.

All in all, Luminous Arc 2 is a game that feels like it should've been a manga or anime instead.

Venetica has a few good ideas and a couple of characters that deserve further examination, but it just doesn't seem to be at all interested in them. That, I suppose, is why I wasn't all that interested by Venetica, either. Ratin

The Last Story feels like a JRPG that took incomplete notes as it tried to learn from Western design. The simplistic implementation of massively multiplayer online (MMO) combat motifs makes battles boring or frustrating. The character customizability, though wonderful, is purely cosmetic, never really extending into the play or storytelling. Worst of all, the gameplay and story might as well be two ships passing in the night. While Zael confronts the game's real antagonists in cutscenes, the player simply sits on the sidelines. In games, that's the last way you should try to tell a story. Ra

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.