In short, Alien Rage just isn't very good. If it had nailed the combat, all its other flaws could perhaps be forgiven—but it didn't, so they can't. It's a terrible thing to say, but in a game stuffed to the gills with Xenomorphs, the most alien thing in the entire package is any sense of enjoyment whatsoever.

These rough edges don't take much away from the overall experience, though. How to Survive is a great adventure from start to finish, the ending was great, and I can't remember the last time that I enjoyed collecting wooden sticks, seagull feathers and protein-rich roots as much as I did here.

As wonderful as Gone Home is, it mostly demonstrates that there's still a long way to go.

With a lack of both polish and ambition, Dark will never be anything but an also-ran. As a budget title it's a passable entry-level stealth game, but there's not enough here to justify recommending it when there are so many superior games in the genre. When a game's best selling points are that the stealth is predictable and that the player is a vampire, something has gone terribly wrong.

Cognition's take on a psychic FBI agent is far from perfect, but worth investigating.

Rain tries to emulate the form of others, while totally failing to capture the same substance. The result? A forgettable also-ran that feels more like the product of a committee than someone trying to bring their vision to life.

Technical issues aside, anyone craving more of the sort of stuff Telltale was serving up with Lee and Clementine would be well-advised to check into The Wolf Among Us.

After everything I've written, it should be quite clear to XCOM fans that The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is an entirely different kettle of fish despite sharing a few superficial elements. If the developers hadn't tried to connect the two, I suspect that more people might be pleasantly surprised by what it offers—a fantastically detailed 60's setting, an interesting approach to squad-based shooting, and a genuinely surprising sci-fi story that's told with panache.

Encrufted as it is with uninteresting puzzles, murky visuals, and self-defeating enemy encounters, A Machine for Pigs's better ideas end up just as thoroughly buried as Mandus's diabolical factory.

As much as I like the idea of adventuring with a wooden boy on a magical stage, Puppeteer is one of those unfortunate projects that starts off in a great direction and then fails to flesh out and support the premise. It certainly looks great and the voicework is top-notch, but with a script, characters and gameplay as flat as the theatrical props the game emulates, its charm wears off long before the final act.

I hate to be down on a small title trying to do something different and interesting, but I just couldn't get over the fact that Kickbeat felt more like a work in progress rather than something that was ready for prime time. With a better, more varied soundtrack and a little more exploration of how the martial arts theme could be applied to expanding the current game design, a sequel should be a real knockout. I genuinely hope the dev team gets the chance to make it.

Even with as many downs as ups, Grand Theft Auto V is still a significant achievement in design. Playing missions from multiple perspectives is a creative spark that will surely light up the next generation, and I'm confident the Housers have even bigger ambitions. They'll keep building upon this template and inch tantalizingly closer to creating their perfect game. GTA5 isn't it, but its flashes of brilliance will endure.

Those flaws are easy to forgive in light of what the game gets right, though. As a reviewer who's constantly in search of games which try new things or buck expectations, Lost Planet 3 was quietly, calmly fantastic. Everything about it has a very mature, measured approach which sets it apart from the pack, and the character work on display is some of the best I've seen in quite some time.

Still, it's easy enough to recommend Outlast despite the weaknesses. As far as atmosphere goes, it's at the top of its class and the journey throughout is a well-constructed one, for the most part. It occasionally dips too heavily into common video game contrivances—three fuses littered around the area, three switches for a door, scrounging for batteries, that sort of thing—but it's still a gruesomely enjoyable tale despite its flaws.

That said, the original Etrian Odyssey was a rough, brutal and vaguely experimental experience that I managed to complete out of sheer tenacity. In contrast, Millennium Girl takes the same content and makes it a thousand times more beautiful, approachable, and enjoyable for an all-new audience.

When all's said and done, Race the Sun is a solid offering and I'm sure some players will undoubtedly end up hooked on the thrill of the daily leaderboard battles. On the other hand, some (including me) will come away feeling that the final product is a bit too limited to reach the potential it holds.

Despite these minor blemishes, Rogue Legacy is an engaging game that holds up over numerous trips through its diabolical castle.

Wayforward Technologies has done an excellent job of taking an old classic and giving it a fresh update for a new generation.

The combat also shows surprising depth, although the secondary systems don't quite measure up. It's not groundbreaking or deep, even in the context of its own series, but Tales of Xillia was engaging and satisfying.

That Shelter is not a particularly convincing simulation of being a badger is no real sin—I doubt many people want to play a game about eating earthworms all day. The game's real failure is that it's not an emotionally compelling representation of parenthood. It convincingly shows that the cubs need their mother, but fails to convey the possibility that they can ever not need her.

While digging in a hole might not seem like the most entertaining thing to do in a game that's doesn't have "craft" in the title, SteamWorld Dig successfully delivers its own unique style of subterranean gameplay thanks to a great balance between managing the mine, chasing upgrades and having just enough story to keep me curious without getting bogged down in too much lore.

Between the tedious levels, incoherent story and offputting gigolo missions, I found very little to appreciate about Killer is Dead. I grew quite tired of the shallow game design and weak attempts to distract me from its vacuous lack of substance, and put the game down before rolling credits.

I'm all for interesting choices and humor when making a game, but the appeal of a one-trick pony like Divekick wore off after just a few minutes. Like, five. Perhaps people steeped in the fighting game scene or those with friends (and beer) nearby might get more out of it than I did, but I can't imagine that many players will find value in this drawn-out gag.

Overall, Dusty Revenge feels like a game that needed just a little more time and polish. If the combat could be tightened, interface bugs fixed, and load times could be reduced, this would be a solidly enjoyable title. Perhaps patches will be released to address these flaws, but as it is, Dusty Revenge takes a shot at 2D brawling and misses the mark.

SMT IV gets the details of grinding right, but it seems the devil was elsewhere.

The Dungeons & Dragons titles were some of the most evolved side-scrolling fighters of their day, with design and gameplay concepts that made them stand out from their contemporaries. However, a $15 price-tag makes it tough to recommend the package to anyone who wasn't already a big fan back in the day.

Zeno Clash II, like the original, is an interesting game. It falls slightly flat in the gameplay, but it's largely balanced by the world being so damn interesting to experience and wander around in.

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.