If it wasn't for the load times, I would be far more likely to recommend Deadliest Warrior: Ancient Combat to anyone that liked the television show and wanted a cheap game that called back to Bushido Blade. The gameplay has merit and there's a good selection of weapons to unlock, but I wouldn't want anyone to suffer through thirty second loadtimes for those occasional flashes of depth.

Receiver has a neat idea at its core, but that didn't translate into an interesting game.

Those expecting a God of War type experience within Asura's Wrath are bound to be disappointed. Hell, those expecting a game are likely to feel some letdown because the bulk of Asura's Wrath is spent watching things instead of doing them. Hardcore anime fans will probably find something worthwhile here, but those looking for a solid action brawler would be well-advised to keep searching.

Myst III has so much going for it, in that clearly much effort was put into the plot, the acting, and the richly detailed pre-rendered graphics. But the whole experience never gels into an enjoyable game, and the world of Myst, while scenic, feels too static to be captivating.

Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel lacks vibrancy, the animations lack imagination, and the characters are a bunch of bores. Not having played any other games in the series, I can’t say whether this series is suffering from sequelitis exhaustion, but this installment just lacks so much. It’s an excruciating play that I cannot recommend.

For a game that could have been that potential leap forward, it's a real shame that all Apex manages to do is present a mediocre-to-poor driving experience in a painfully threadbare setting.

It leaves out the most crucial element: a compelling story. The story is predictable and unimaginative and little is done to move the story forward any faster than at a snail's pace.

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.

As a dungeon crawler, Strange Journey is abominable. As an SMT, it's unforgivable.

As the subject of this review so deftly proves, a whipped-together concept by itself is not enough. I may spend a few minutes flipping through Lowrider magazine the next time I'm at the newsstand, but I'm not going to be spending any more time on the game.

It's a bad game that needs to be reviewed so other gamers out there can avoid being sucked into the whirlpool of uninspired gameplay, bland graphics, and generalized mediocrity that colors the entirety of the title.

Time and Eternity's veneer is gorgeous, but style doesn't trump substance—and the substance here leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Toki and Towa may love Zach the Alleged Protagonist, but I sure don't.

Mable and the Wood isn’t a big game, but a person could spend a few hours on it and walk away feeling like they’d spent fifty. Drab, ugly, and at turns borderline unplayable, Mable demonstrates how quickly a good idea can become a bad one when it’s so thoroughly misapplied.

Gamers will play Van Helsing because it scratches the itch for this type of action adequately at this price, but the repetitive action, awkward controls, poor graphics and strange tower defense levels make it feel like an unfinished title. Despite being a cheap (or free, on Xbox One) diversion, Van Helsing is a bad value, and a worse investment of players' time.

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.

What bothers me the most about the gameplay in Bear With Me is the overall lack of direction — it just didn’t feel like there was any reason to play. The script evolves into a predictable cartoonish melodrama and the case basically solves itself without challenging the player to come up with their own theories along the way. There’s no morally grey culprit or alternative outcomes. There’s only one way to play through Bear and unfortunately, it’s not one that kept my attention.

LEGO Worlds is a disappointing and frustrating mess. The idea of an open-world Minecraft-like title is brilliant, and maybe with a few patches and improvements it might live up to that promise. But right now? LEGO Worlds feels like it was rushed to consoles and performs at an unacceptable level. Kids might enjoy it in short bursts, but I’d recommend waiting to see if improvements are implemented in the coming months. Until then, go buy some real LEGO bricks instead.

With not much of value in the narrative or the gameplay, Forgotten Fields’ merits are some pretty virtual environments and an original soundtrack that often takes the spotlight. There are ways in which Forgotten Fields could have worked as an emotionally powerful experience, but these avenues go under-explored and the result is something that I can’t recommend, even to enthusiasts of this particular genre-transcending premise.

I see no reason to purchase and play a mediocre amalgamation with no exceptional qualities to recommend it, though I guess I shouldn't be surprised because nearly every game employing dragons as anything but enemies ends up stinking.

I know that the company gets a lot of flak for rehashing its material, but if Star Fox Zero is Nintendo’s idea of innovating an established franchise, I hope that this is their final attempt to prove that motion control wasn’t just a fad.

So Medal of Honor: Vanguard is just a waste of time and money. A tedious plodding waste suitable only for those absolutely desperate for another first-person shooter to play on their Wii.

There are times when it looks like there’s a much better game trying to claw its way free from the technical and design issues that plague it, but they’re only fleeting glances at what could have been before it gets overwhelmed by the muck dragging it down. Fans of the books it’s based on might get some worth out of The Dwarves, but when compared to pretty much any other half-decent RPG on the market, it comes up short in almost every possible way.

South Park: Snow Day! features some interesting mechanics that change up the drudgery of its mediocre combat, but it ultimately feels too shallow and underdeveloped. The short length doesn’t allow much room for the content to grow or develop, either. In the end, I think this is one snow day I’d rather stay inside for.

Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back is a mess. Bad controls, uninspired enemy and level design, and a total lack of motivation to keep playing. I want to find something nice to say about it, but even the three boss fights are tedious, confusing slogs. The game ends with a promise that Bubsy will return in another installment, but it feels more like a threat.

The Silver Case is a dud, through and through. With neither story nor gameplay to grab its audience, and with production values that never manage to impress, all players are left with is an impenetrable plot which takes too long to unfold. It’s possible this would have worked better as an actual novel – as a visual novel, there’s nothing here to recommend.

The weak plot, thin characters and lackadaisical approach to combat added up to a final product that was inconsequential best and a disrespectful waste of my time at worst. I can’t recommend it to JRPG fans, people who want more VR experiences, or really, to anyone at all.

Wheelspin is slightly improved in multiplayer, but that requires having at least one enthusiastic person with a good sense of humor in the same room. Even so, this title is short on features, short on consistent gameplay and short on charm. Wheelspin Frenzy should be avoided.

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.