For all its quaint charms, Tesla Effect is held back by all of the flaws that killed its genre in the first place.

It may seem crazy to ask players to pay a subscription fee in the growing field of free-to-play MMOs, but if you ask me, WildStar is worth the price of entry.

To be clear, I wasn't expecting a complete game from D4—the episodic model guarantees a certain amount of waiting around on the part of the consumer—but this doesn't even feel like a complete episode.

I may not be ready to write an in-depth technical analysis on every inch of the Walking Dead board, but it strikes me as a well-designed table that knows its subject inside and out, and it gives fans of Lee, Clementine, and the rest a whole new context within which to play.

In its current state, Destiny feels unfinished and unfocused, but I imagine that things will be looking quite different in a year's time.

However, in the end, I felt that much of what made Risen 2 such a charming adventure was missing from Risen 3—it has fewer flaws overall, but the ambition has diminished as well. As a result, it's simply less interesting, and the return trip isn't as enjoyable as the previous journey.

Mario Kart 8 is pretty great in many ways, but undoubtedly moreso with a collection of friends to play with, or when facing off against other players online.

As much as I loved the bulk of the game, by the end I was burning out, and burning out fast. Despite that, I'm glad that some studios are still willing to show an almost insane level of ambition in realizing the games they want to make without compromise, even if it does lead to a few dire moments here and there.

Warriors Orochi 3 isn't likely to change anyone's mind about Omega Force's flagship series, but it's undoubtedly a fan-pleaser of the highest caliber, and an excellent entry point for those who might be curious about the Warriors series.

The core game certainly shows promise in its distinctive style and its solid procedural generation engine, and players partial to fighting games may gel with the combat more than I did. However, the difficulty spikes make the campaign more frustrating than rewarding, and the shoddy optimization on Xbox 360 nearly drives it into "unplayable" territory.

With its high-quality ballistic modelling and gruesome death scenes, Sniper Elite 3 offers exactly what fans of the series demand, but still comes nowhere near living up to its potential.

In fact, I was this close to simply quitting the series and not coming back, but Clementine & co. definitely recaptured some of the original Walking Dead magic before the final credits rolled, and I was grateful for that.

That Rogue Legacy got a lousy port is particularly damning, because the game is otherwise perfectly suited to the handheld, with an average round lasting no more than ten minutes but with depth encouraging much longer sessions if possible.

It's a must-play for Visual Novel fans, and those who enjoyed the first year of the deadliest high school ever will find that the return trip is even better.

I'm really glad I decided to take on Disgaea 4: A Promise Revisited despite the steep, steep learning curve and the "fend for yourself" approach. I'm guessing that its audience will likely be fervent series fans and very few newcomers (like me!) but it has a lot to offer to any fan of SRPGs.

While it can be completed in less than six hours, it perfectly explores themes and concepts that triple-A titles still have difficulty grasping: gray morality, a poignant, thought-provoking storyline, and appealing gameplay that isn't based on killing everything in sight.

With a bit of restraint and more focus on the types of relational challenges that it does well, Metrico would have been an easy recommend to fans of the fringe. In its current state, it's an aggravating equation that produces unhappy results.

I support sci-fi that does more than ask people to shoot aliens with futuristic guns, but there's just not enough coherence in The Swapper to put up with the split between the intriguing premise and the contrivances that surround it.

Ultra was a great time over a weekend (especially trading off between rounds with my kids) and I'm sure that players who've stayed current with Street Fighter have already purchased it and sussed out the new tweaks and systems, but as someone who popped in to see how things are going, I quickly popped back out and wished the series well

While it might not be better than some of the classics of its genre, Gaucamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition still offers a plump pinata that delivers plenty of candy for players willing to break it open.

There are no puzzles, no secret rooms, no open exploration of any kind, and the game wants players to do this with ten unique characters, leveling them each to 99. Battle Princess of Arcadias is so monotonous that I kept playing it out of inertia rather than because of enjoyment, but I kept hoping for more of the magic from its first five minutes. Sadly, that magic never appeared.

Although I'm not satisfied with its economics and it still needs polish, I freely admit that Destiny of Spirits remains strangely compelling, and putting together a roster of fantasy creatures holds appeal.

When the game lets its main character race through the world, bounding across chasms and flinging himself here and there with the grapple, it is really wonderful. That happens all too rarely, however, and instead the game breeds repeated frustration brought on by the difficulty of figuring out where the protagonist should grapple, why he can't, or what to do about it.

Unfortunately, its current form, Z-Run seems like the early access or beta version of something that needs at least another six months in the oven.

My gut feeling is that a player could easily skip the past events and get just as much value out of Amid The Ruins— maybe more.

When reduced to a puzzle to be solved rather than a world to be experienced, the emotional impact of Gods Will Be Watching evaporates, leaving the sense that it wasn't interesting enough to justify the amount of work that went into making or playing it.

I'm not going to offer any theories as to whether this whole thing should be legally actionable, but setting potential plagiarism aside, Abyss is a high-quality hidden object game more than enough content to keep anyone entertained.

Thanks to the quality in both concept and function, this is one of the finest first-person-shooters I've ever played, and the best iteration of one of gaming's most storied franchises.