Fans of the genre would be smart to pick it up, and fans of Alien can consider it both a mega-dose of fanservice, and a must-play to be tracked down.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 is an exercise in making the best out of a bad situation. Feedback was taken from the previous game, and corrections requested by the players dissatisfied with FFXIII are mostly for the best, but it suffers from being the middle child in what will (now) obviously be a trilogy. Old characters feel pointlessly shoehorned into the plot, and nothing feels accomplished at the end of the game. Fortunately for FFXIII-2, overcoming these issues isn't impossible given how enjoyable the rest of it can be.

While it doesn't achieve much with the plot or its core concept, Alan Wake's American Nightmare offers an interesting-enough time-loop scenario with satisfying combat, and it knows when to end before it wears out its welcome. I definitely enjoyed my time with the game in a tactile sense, but I could never get over the nagging feeling that the series still has quite a way to go before reaching its full potential.

While it doesn't approach the level of awesomeness that the concept of ninja janitors killing dust monsters might suggest, Dustforce is nevertheless an enjoyable, challenging romp. It's just a shame that the glaring omission of online multiplayer keeps it from reaching its full potential, while the steep difficulty of earning S-ranks might put off those looking for something that requires a little less effort.

I might have had less aggravation if I had a dedicated group of other players to go through the game with from beginning to end, but I wouldn't ask any of my friends to pay full price for The Lord of the Rings: War in the North. Thankfully, since War in the North was released after Dark Souls, before Skyrim, and on the same day as Uncharted 3, there's a good chance the game is already in the bargain bin for a fraction of the MSRP.

For the price (currently available for $15 on Steam) Q.U.B.E. is a decent way to spend a few hours. I found it a welcome change from the glut of open-world RPGs that have seemed to come out month after month recently, and I would happily buy DLC for additional puzzle packs if they became available. The short length of the campaign left me wanting more later on, but as a palate cleanser between meatier affairs, it hit just the right spot.

Don't get me wrong; Yakuza 3 is still a good game that offers a uniquely Japanese experience and dramatic content an order of magnitude more mature than most of what's coming down the pike, but it just doesn't match up to the first two entries. I hate to say it, but the Dragon of Dojima's gotten soft in the middle-it's time for Kazuma to cut back on the yakiniku and get his ass back to the gym.

I had high hopes for Zack Zero going in, but the game is too rough and unpolished to recommend it. The dodgy platforming, bland gameplay, and goofy main character are huge detriments to the experience, and the ridiculous ending is like one final slap in the face before gamers go about their life.

NeverDead is garbage, and there is no good reason to ever play it.

While it's great to see a developer take a new (and very welcome) approach to spicing up combat in an RPG, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is purely mechanical where the soul and inspiration should be. Players who can content themselves with massive amounts of loot and an endless series of simpleminded errands may be in heaven, but RPG players craving depth and the ability to make real choices or play a role will be out of luck. It might be a great game if the goal is to kill hundreds of hours of free time, but Amalur doesn't have much to offer otherwise.

Choplifter HD certainly does its predecessor justice, faithfully recreating the original's highs and lows, and offering beautiful graphics to make up for the lack of original thinking. While there may not be much depth or replayability to Choplifter HD, it's certainly an entertaining diversion which serves as a testament to the solid gameplay mechanics of a title from thirty years ago. Maybe Choplifter was never a top-tier game, but it's certainly one that warranted a second look, and inXile gave it the update it deserved.

I still count myself as a huge fan of Dead Island, but Ryder White takes too many wrong turns and strays from what made the original game what it was. Completists will surely want to see the twist ending, but more casual fans of the game don't have much reason to take this brutal, frustrating trip.

Gorgeous, polished, and legitimately challenging, it is as good a 2D platformer as one will find, nostalgic or no. Very few games manage to be old-school and new-school at the same time, but Rayman Origins threads that needle to near-perfection.

Despite this, much of the game is a joy to play, providing more than its share of simple, disposable fun. Moreover, Cabela's Survival: Shadows of Katmai nails the spirit of its protagonist and the atmosphere of the adventure. Although its scenario is silly and many of its incidents are ridiculous, the game succeeds because it never takes itself very seriously.

There were interesting ideas-and a very pretty opening video-but everything about Solatorobo felt…flat.

After meeting Ulysses and bringing Lonesome Road to a close, I had nothing but admiration for the mysterious, exciting, brutal and beautiful trek I took through the ravaged remnants of the Divide. I greatly appreciated the change of pace and shift in tone away from the core content, and the events which transpired were a great way to cap off a massive, top-tier RPG like New Vegas.

Rather than the perfect end to a thrilling series, it seemed like the developers were afraid to take real risks with either the story or the gameplay of Gears 3.

Although it's larger and more fully developed than Honest Hearts, I'm afraid that Fallout: New Vegas-Old World Blues is another case of a great idea not living up to its potential.

Otomedius Excellent shouldn't be worth anyone's time. Beyond the overall badness of the gameplay, the whole thing just feels incredibly cynical.

Amy should never have gotten off the drawing board and into production the way it is, and I genuinely regret that it didn't turn out better.

After finishing the game, I can say that The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was not what I expected. I thought it would be a good (but not great) practitioner of the Zelda formula hampered by unnecessary motion controls, much like Twilight Princess was. Instead, I got a game that's cripplingly hamstrung by its controls and even falters when presenting the basic Zelda recipe.

While the gameplay mechanics are a blast, the level designs are so questionable as to make me wonder about Croteam's reasoning.

Need for Speed: The Run was designed to raise the bar for the racing genre, but while setting up the supports, the game must have slipped and wound up with the bar clonking it on the head. While there's great fun to be had in online competition, everything that was supposed to be different and special about The Run is flat-out garbage.

With more time and attention given to the writing, characters, and quests, it could have been a very special experience. As it stands, it's a forgettable detour through Averagetown that strays from the exceptional content I've come to expect from New Vegas.

The original Trine was an excellent title, but Trine 2 has re-established Frozenbyte's well-earned reputation for quality. A steal at $15, Trine 2 is worthwhile investment for any puzzle-oriented players looking for something to sink their teeth into.

The adventure is of a satisfying size, the writing and characterizations are strong, and it offers an experience that is uniquely different from the main campaign. As a matter of fact, it even includes some surprising revelations that will entice players to play through the other three DLC episodes that follow. From every angle, Dead Money is a winning hand.

Assassin's Creed Revelations is not an outright bad game, but neither is it a good one. In a series that has seen this many interesting ideas, such mediocrity amounts to a disaster. Thanks to slipshod implementation, none of the new features in Revelations improve the Assassin's Creed experience, and some make it noticeably worse. As such, the only thing that Revelations really adds to the series is the feeling of being cheated.

Resistance 3 does plenty. It's beautiful, thrilling, and-quite unexpectedly-contains one of the most memorable campaigns this side of Halo and Half-Life. In a year full of Sony-branded disappointments, Insomniac has produced an absolute gem.