Overall, the game presents simple but compelling word strategy with just the right mix of predictability and random chance. One’s enjoyment of Oh…Sir!! may come down to whether or not the style of humor clicks, but it’s hard to deny that it delivers great value for its tiny $2 asking price. Also, your face smells of a dead parrot’s farts.

I write this review with a fair bit of sadness. This can and should be a good title, and despite all the difficulty I had, the interesting premise of Loading Human kept drawing me back in. The story, true 360 degree movement and ability to manipulate almost every object in the space provide a cool experience — the mechanics are just too nauseating — literally. Only the most devoted players with iron stomachs might be able to suffer through in hopes of seeing light at the end of this virtual reality tunnel.

An augmented step forward.

For anyone who’s ever looked at Minecraft and found its lack of structure daunting, DQB is a more focused, more accessible version of it. And, while it may not have the scope of that genre-defining title, there’s something special at its the core — an exploration of what it means to build a community. The game’s ‘building’ isn’t just about bricks and mortar, but about restoring places where people can work together to create something better than anyone could accomplish on their own. Dragon Quest Builders may not be designed to go on forever, but it offers dozens of hours of crafting, construction, and an utterly engaging story to get lost in.

Weeping Doll isn’t much of a game, and at just an hour long with no hidden depth to necessitate a second playthrough, it’s overpriced at ten dollars. That said, as a first-generation console VR proof-of-concept, it succeeds more than it fails.

Gamers who absolutely need a quick, harmless Zelda fix can safely download it, but anyone else should probably take a pass on Oceanhorn.

In light of this incomplete content, the fact that it’s being be sold without this information up front feels disingenuous, and prevents me from being able to recommend it to anyone. Dead Synchronicity is dead on arrival.

In the end, Battlezone is an incredible VR experience. It’s enough of a full-featured tank simulator that it would be a great time played with standard controls on a normal television, but the perfect immersion takes that already-great play and elevates it to something truly special. Among the eight PSVR launch titles, Battlezone is the best at creating a seamless world for the player to inhabit, and even with a few balance problems in the campaign, it stands as one of the best arguments for getting PSVR.

Thumper isn’t going to revolutionize rhythm games, nor is it the best example of VR out there, but it’s still worth taking a look at — just be sure to listen to your body as you play. If you feel fatigued, battered down, or depressed, then take the headset off and get some air. The overall experience will be better for it. Trust me.

Viking Squad is one of those games with occasional highlights — pecking enemies to death with an ostrich does have its moments after all — and a slick exterior that’s undercut by not quite getting the basics right. In this case, a diverse and interesting combat system would have gone a long way towards making this voyage way more worthwhile to embark on.

This brief length shouldn’t discourage anyone with a PSVR from playing Wayward Sky, though – besides being a stellar proof-of-concept showing how one of the oldest genres of gaming will do just fine in this brand new format, it’s a great title all on its own, and a genuine standout of the launch lineup.

Prospective ninjas who choose to stick it out will easily spend a dozen hours chipping away at ‘perfect’ runs or indulging completionist tendencies, but for most others, Aragami won’t be seen as more than a reasonably competent also-ran.

Most of my complaints about Battlefield 1 are small. With a few tweaks and an update or two, Battlefield 1 could be the best in the series, and it feels like the refresh this series has needed for a while. Setting Battlefield in WW1 paid off and I’m excited to see what the series does next. But for now, I can’t wait to jump back in and pull off another successful bayonet charge.

Make no mistake, I unabashedly love this game. It’s a beautiful, near-perfect blend of old-school whimsy and new-school innovation. I’d never heard of Owlboy before it re-emerged earlier this year, but even if I’d spent nearly a decade anticipating this release, I can’t imagine that the finished product would have left me unsatisfied. It’s one of the best 2D platformers I’ve ever played.

Every part of this game is terrible...Ace Banana frustrated me like few games ever have, and it’s rare to see a finished title that gets every important design feature completely wrong. Ace Banana manages it, though, and sinks lower than almost any game I’ve ever played.

After hours of hair-splitting and nitpicking, the bottom line is that Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens just may be the best time I’ve had with a Lego title in years. Everything here is big, broad and loaded with replay value, and — unlike stormtrooper fire — will provide fans with a perfectly aimed blast of entertainment.

I liken this year’s football shootout to musicians. In the current season, FIFA is like Madonna – aging but venerable, full of glitz and entertainment value, but ultimately lacking substance. Contrarily, PES is like a fiery independent singer, with minimal flash but much deeper soul where it counts most. In the end, both performers might put a smile on gamers’ faces, but FIFA’s bloat and wrinkles are beginning to show, especially with a younger, hungrier upstart nipping at its heels.

There’s certainly an able amount of fanservice in Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity, but it simply wasn’t built to be much more than a knowing nod to a friendly audience, rather than a genuine ambassador for one of Japan’s most beloved gaming brands.

While I do think I’d have been slightly less burnt out if I’d played it in smaller doses over a longer period (and finishing its prequel beforehand didn’t help either, I’m sure), God Eater 2: Rage Burst proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that there really can be far, far too much of an entirely okay thing.

While it was a long time coming, I’m quite glad that I waited for Darkest Dungeon. The learning curve is steep, the controls are a little fiddly and the difficulty is high, but it’s a superb port of a rich game that’s become part of my daily routine. Conquering these cosmic horrors and undoing my mad uncle’s actions may be a long, grueling process, but it’s a process I’ll see to the end.

Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 is tough to recommend when the first game is still around. This new entry sure is a sequel, but that’s about it.

As I ran around this forest performing repetitive fetch quests for much longer than I wanted to, I felt an awful lot like the fox I was possessing – a tool in a conflict I have no stake in, when all I wanted to do was look at the pretty scenery.

Nearly every aspect of its aesthetic was, paradoxically, both aggressively unpleasant and lazily innocuous. Its story switched between wild flights of hard-to-follow, drug-like fantasy and drudging resistance to do anything at all for long stretches of time. I’m certain that this work will connect with a very specific type of player, but it was like nails on a chalkboard to me.

Hiccups aside, my hat is tipped to Codemasters for listening to fans and critics. In F1 2016, the company delivers the deep, intricate racing experience we should have enjoyed a year sooner, and the title is loaded with all the depth and customization that F1 enthusiasts can handle, while also welcoming clutch-wary newcomers. F1 2016 may not be perfect, but no sports sim has seen more improvement in such a short amount of time.

Overall, it’s more than a little eyebrow-raising to see how closely Vermintide has followed the template set by Valve, and disappointing to see that it hasn’t improved or advanced the precedent that was set — it’s just a not-as-good version with rodents in place of the undead.

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.

The game is a technical and mechanical mess, with unbalanced combat that’s neither intense nor rewarding.

Atlas Reactor has tons of strategic depth compressed into hyper-kinetic ten-minute chunks.