One-on-one battles were a great way in the past to offer quick diversions in the middle of a longer AC campaign, but they are not enough to sustain a game all by themselves. Toss in the fact that the game's graphics are still as bare-bones as they were five years ago, and that there's virtually no new content with much of the material being recycled from previous games, and you've got something that would be a $20 add-on at best.

Lovecraft’s Untold Stories was a low-key delight. Yes, the gameplay was sometimes stiff, but the sheer depth and the developers’ obvious passion for strange fiction showed through, creating a memorable experience. LUS2 has none of its predecessor’s style. With its lack of compelling narrative and overcomplicated crafting system, Lovecraft’s Untold Stories 2 is as unfortunate a sequel as I’ve seen, dropping almost everything that worked about the original and expanding on what didn’t. It’s a disappointment, and I can only hope that if this franchise continues, the developers manage to rediscover what made the first one special.

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.

It's not like I need to be barraged by bells and whistles or the world's slickest design, but Rumble Roses XX comes off as cheap and patched-together. Konami should have put more work into making things (besides the women) appealing.

Heroes of Mana feels like Dawn of Mana, take two. It's gorgeous and somewhat interesting, but undermined by basic flaws in its ability to let players see what's going on. Here's hoping there's no take three in the works.

It's almost as though the developers focused everything they had on the art style and equippable items, but forgot to make sure the rest of the game worked as well. A tedious slog, this sort of project is a risky one to undertake since the potential for boredom to kill the experience is so high.

The most serious problems in Star X lie with its controls. The ship's movements are limited due to poor button configuration.

Sony Online is really out of touch with what makes this kind of game good. It adds nothing to the genre that hasn't already been done before—and actually gets a lot of it wrong. I'm never leaving my copy of "Lumines" at home again.

Instead of the friendlier, less-confusing version of Armored Core this UMD could have been, it's a bitterly disappointing also-ran that's in severe need of a tune-up.

If Mothership Zeta had been half as long and available at half the price, it might have been worthwhile simply for giving players a quick peek behind the origins of the main game's enigmatic alien wreckage. As it stands, this dog-leg jaunt into outer space ends up a giant could-have-been without any real reason to recommend it, save completion for completion's sake.

I understand that much of WWI was fought in the mud and it probably didn’t look like a Hollywood blockbuster, but I can best describe my time with Tannenberg by saying that it never felt like I was in the middle of a war — instead, I was more often wandering through an empty battlefield trying desperately to not quit in the middle of a round. But at least I learned some history!

Hidden Dragon Legend has some good visual design but not much else, and it’s a shame. I appreciated the style, but the actual game is so shoddily produced that it’s impossible to enjoy. I don’t care that enemies look good if fighting them is sluggish and repetitive. With tighter controls and fluid combat, Hidden Dragon Legend could have been a minor gem, but it’s just an attractive failure.

If the game were less suffocating, then perhaps I would give it a chance. You'll just get too frustrated with this game waiting (read: reloading) at your next chance to drive through a frustrating trial.

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.

With a dull location, uninteresting combat and repetitive missions, Fortified only has its ‘50s robots to recommend it. While I can't deny that devotees of the period will no doubt find something to like in this menagerie of tin monsters, anyone looking for a solid Tower Defense/Shooter hybrid will have to look elsewhere. It won't be hard to do better than this.

Crimson Dragon is clumsy, frustrating and often downright hideous. I realize that the Xbox One's launch lineup was pretty underwhelming, but even those new owners desperate for software to play on it should keep Crimson Dragon low on their lists.

Line Rider 2: Unbound is a cute idea, but in my opinion it doesn't have the chops or the longevity to become a successful handheld title.

Getting back to me here, although I can see potential in controlling a team of four and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a perfect fit for such a concept, Mutants In Manhattan feels like a rushed contractual obligation rather than something created out of love or inspiration from the source material.

It’s tremendously disappointing, and hopefully either Aspyr can do something about it in the future, or ardent fans will come to rescue and save this title from a fate worse than death.

What starts out as an interesting idea for a strategy role-playing game (RPG) soon crumbles under the weight of poor design decisions, unintuitive gameplay, and an aesthetic presentation that would have been more at home on the Nintendo Entertainment System than the powerful GameCube.

Firegirl is a title that offers a good premise and some appealing design ideas, but it simply fails to deliver a satisfying experience. With the right updates this game could improve drastically, but as it stands, it’s impossible to recommend.

Unfortunately, Resonance of Fate gets almost everything wrong and even screws up what it got right.

Frustrating, boring, and poorly executed, this is a game that is destined for the dustbin.

The sort of inspiration-deficient throwback that wore out its welcome long ago.

While taking on legions of shambling undead with Morgan's fists was a genuine high point, it's not enough to make up for the fourth-class experience that Riptide is. I forgave many of the original Dead Island's problems since it had such a fresh, exciting vision, but Riptide lacks the same heart. Don't get me wrong, though—the developers don't need to reinvent the wheel every time (and more of a good thing is usually a good thing) but there's no excusing the slapdash production values and shortage of good ideas on display here.

Yes, it's an incredibly, borderline obscenely, brutal game, but within its own context it tells an interesting story and provides some great thrills for the player—or at least it would if it weren't so busy trying to give its players seizures.

I did manage to beat Elden, and I’m still not entirely sure what was going on. There was a forest, a desert, a mountain, and then some caves. I killed the same handful of monsters over and over again, then got stunlocked to oblivion by bosses that shoot immobilizing gloop. If it was longer than it is, I probably wouldn’t have bothered finishing and I can’t say what I played was worth it — whether it was a crutch or an intentional choice, the whole thing wraps up just as bafflingly as it began.

Xel tries to tell a compelling story about time travel, loss, anger, and consequences, but the game just isn’t in great shape. I want to see what Tiny Roar can achieve after they patch the daylights out of Xel, or perhaps what they do in their next project. As it stands, though, Xel needs to think about what it’s done and learn from tis mistakes before it’s not grounded anymore.