The setting, urban art theme, and gravity-shifting mechanics give Sideway: New York plenty of opportunities to stand out, but it squanders all of them. Instead, Nox navigates bland levels and takes out repetitive bosses with a set of generic powers. With so much potential, it's remarkable that Sideway ended up being so ordinary. Unfortunately, that's the only remarkable thing about it.

On occasion, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine manages to turn its setting to good use, and Games Workshop fans will certainly relish the chance to grab a chainsword and strike a blow for the Emperor. As it progresses, though, the game loses its brutal, inspired nature and becomes too much of a shooter despite its lack of a cover system.

A game like Red Orchestra 2 is a rare find in this era, even considering that World War II has been done to death as a game setting. An uncompromising title that does not have any qualms about throwing players to the sharks and saying "deal with it", it's a deeply satisfying multiplayer experience if one can suffer enough to allow it to be.

It's really a shame that Rochard hasn't been advertised or promoted anywhere near as much as it deserves, but don't let Sony's oversight stop you... players seeking a fat-free experience with rock-solid fundamentals, polished production levels and cleverly engaging gameplay can hardly do better than this.

While girlfriend-friendly and action-ready, Crimson Alliance needs some beefing up to be a memorable experience. Booting up the similar Torchlight for just a few minutes is enough to show that while simple is good, elegant is better.

The mechanics of Orcs Must Die! are totally solid, the visual style is nice, and the hyper-fast-paced play is a real strength, but the game almost feels incomplete. Without much variation in the gameplay and little in the way of details, characterization and extras, the end result is too lean to be as tasty as it should be.

After twelve long years of waiting, Persona 2: Innocent Sin certainly lives up to expectations and proves that its reputation as one of the gems of the previous generation of JRPGs was well deserved.

With shoddy production values and multiple lapses in judgment with regard to the game's overall design, BloodRayne: Betrayal feels like an amateurish, half-baked XBLI title that should be begging for a buck instead of the ready-for-prime-time XBLA title it's pretending to be. No thanks.

On the whole, Deus Ex: Human Revolution expects the player to handle their own progression appropriately and hand-holding is kept to a minimum. Given the often-commonplace mentality that many modern games should lead players around by the nose to one degree or another, having the guts to return to a philosophy of personal responsibility and choice isn't just smart-it's appreciated.

I enjoyed myself without question, but I think something like this with just tad more concreteness to it could be a real hit.

Dead Island is so close to greatness that it's frustrating. Sure, it's not exactly an original concept and the story is such a pointless, clichéd mess that I forgot to mention it in the review, but the core gameplay is so stunningly well-executed that I'm able to forgive most of its flaws.

Sporadic difficulty notwithstanding, it's certainly a credit to Mr. Cavanagh that a project with VVVVVV's basic graphics and simple controls can feel so completely energetic and entertaining. Much more than it initially appears, I was quite glad to have spent time with the title, and eagerly look forward to what Terry will be cooking up next.

The main game alone is more than worth the budget price, but there's also a series of challenge levels and a New Game Plus option that allows players to go back and find all the secrets they missed the first time around.

Offering excellent driving gameplay to all levels of player skill, Dirt 3 raises the bar for accessibility in a realistic driving simulator. With dozens of unique tracks, cars, and multiplayer games it offers and harassment of content without ever feeling overwhelming. By their very nature racing games are was going to be a little repetitive but Dirt 3 has almost completely succeeded in removing frustration from the mix.

I've played this game for tens of hours, thought about it another few, and now written a review, and I still don't know exactly what the developers intended.

Signal Studios took what was already a great game and made it even better, and that's no easy thing.

In short, Dungeon Siege III is a morass of flat characters, a story as dull as dishwater, and combat that manages to be both frustrating and boring.

NASCAR 2011: The Game feels like a slapdash effort, a rough draft of a game dressed up with a fancy cinematic and some licensed music and sent out to make a quick buck off the fans.

Fuelcell Games displays a savant-like grasp of the material they've created, and the result is easily one of 2011's best games.

It's not perfect, but gamers looking for a title that features lots of quirky humor and some decent gameplay will definitely find both of those things lurking in these Shadows.

It's a fantastic way to scratch the strategy itch, and a damned relaxing one to boot.

Unfortunately, F.E.A.R. 3 is a prime example of a game that can't decide what it wants to be. In trying to be an intense horror campaign and an intricate co-op/multiplayer experience at the same time, it winds up being neither and pleasing no one. I see some good ideas in the story and multiplayer modes, but a distinct lack of focus brings it all down.

From Dust is an interesting, original and creative project... unfortunately, it never capitalizes on its promise thanks to too many technical problems and a feeling of unpolished awkwardness. More frustrating and tedious than uplifting and deific, I'd love to see a revamped installment with the kinks ironed out. As it stands, I was all too ready to leave the islands behind and head back to the mainland at the first opportunity.

After I'd seen the plot play out and was able to mentally put it aside, it became clear that the lion's share of the pleasure I derived from Bastion was of the technical, hack-'em-up kind. In that regard, I salute it. On the other hand, while my hands enjoyed the time I spent with Bastion, my brain and my heart were left untouched.

Those niggles aside, I do want to praise Akimi Village and NinjaBee for again delivering a game without any negative dynamics to contend with: no enemies to defend against, no hurricanes or earthquakes to ruin urban development, and no penalties of any sort.

The formula of play still holds much appeal, and there's a lot of game on tap for the now-lower-than-average price of 800 Microsoft points. Ms. 'Splosion Man may not be a perfect sequel, but it has little trouble justifying a return trip to the lab that spawned 'sploding in the first place. R

Alice: Madness Returns is still a mad ride worth taking, but from start to finish, I never stopped thinking how much better it could have been with help from a strong editor's hand.

At the end of the day, Virtua Tennis 4 is a game that trades largely on its lineage-but given that this game, like VT2009, continues to muck up a really good formula, it's hard to imagine gamers continuing to be forgiving of Sega's recurring missteps.