Colonial Marines comes off as too much fan service with few (if any) ideas of its own. It provides a tired narrative with an unsatisfactory conclusion that opens more questions than it attempts to answer.

I have enjoyed my time with Soul Hackers 2. I’m a fan of the SMT series dating back to when they first came to America. This game has, as we’ve discussed, all of the features of any SMT game. The overall problem isn’t that it’s a bad game — it just doesn’t do much to stand out. Is that bad? Not necessarily. The story is interesting, the characters are likeable, and the voice acting is good. If you enjoy the core game loop for the SMT games, you are getting exactly that. Just don’t expect a huge new experience with a lot of new gameplay concepts.

ORC is defective in ways I've never seen before. To their credit, Slant 6 has invented new methods to creating a faulty game.

We’ve learned what the rogues are after, but at the halfway point in the series, we still don’t know why. With only two episodes left, Telltale needs to raise the stakes and ramp up the urgency of Batman’s mission.

Dead Rising 4 is like a digital stress ball. It can be cathartic to let loose and kill thousands of zombies whenever you want, but it doesn’t have much else going for it, even with the charming Christmas setting and a compelling multiplayer mode. If you’re a diehard Dead Rising fan, you might get more out of the story than I did. Like the characters mentioned earlier, the narrative is not very interesting and mostly served as a way to push me to different parts of the map.

Anarchy Reigns tries to be many things, but what kills it is that it is too often the one thing it never should be: boring.

Sonic Adventure 2 HD isn't terrible, it's just a relic from an unpleasant era. All of its problems are the sort of thing that plagued countless games back when Sega originally put it out, but they're also the sort of thing that people figured out how to fix in the years since.

Ghostwire: Tokyo is not a bad game. I was interested enough to stick with it and engage with as much of it as possible. If you have more patience for open-world exploration and tedious collectable-finding than I do, then you might get more out of it. I didn’t go into detail about this, but the story is decent and well-told, and that counts for something. This game is also bursting with visual flavor and interest, the kind of which you won’t find elsewhere. But the majority of the game is spent in that open-world formula. Clear fog, gather items and souls, turn in for XP and money, do sidequests and tasks for that area. It’s all in the service of filling a percentage bar, and it just gets boring after a while. No matter how pretty or interesting the surroundings were, once I got well and truly stuck in the rut, I honestly stopped noticing.

I wish I could say that Dead Island 2 came out a big winner after such a long development cycle. But it’s not Game of the Year material. It’s not even what I would call a great zombie game — there are many that do story or even gameplay better. But Dead Island 2 is solid. It is competent, and it is fun. If you want some uncomplicated zombie-slaying antics in a beautiful setting, Dead Island 2 will scratch that itch. But I don’t expect anyone to still be talking about it this time next year.

While you certainly won’t hate your experience, Moebius offers nothing remarkable. You can have better adventures elsewhere.

The studio needs to keep banging away at Dangerous Golf until it can make the camera more dynamic in all situations, until it can tune the difficulty, and until it can include some more attention to detail.

Daylight is a victim of its most-touted feature. When the random generated items and enemies work, every step carries a palpable sense of dread and unease. But the immersion’s lost when the player gets caught in an enemy spawning loop with too few flares is hard to get back. The story’s climax works better on paper, and bland visuals just make maze navigation aggravating.

I think that Cyberpunk 2077 delivers the big-budget gaming thrills that many people are looking for. But it falls short in a few key areas for me, and a lot of that comes as a byproduct of its ambition.

While this globetrotting, tier-one engagement has some fun beneath its gritty fingernails, it fails as the category flag-bearer it wants to be. And that's unfortunate, because Medal of Honor innovated in its gunplay-friendly space so many years ago. Now, it stands as a bastion of blasé.

Not everything about the game is great. There are boring parts, where you’ll wonder why you’re searching for that final clue. While the West Virginia setting is beautiful, the human animations aren’t perfect, and the action is pretty slow. Critics of “walking simulator” games should stay away, especially if all you want from a game is action. If you’re a fan of Dontnod games, however, this one is worth picking up.

Dark Alliance feels like many D&D adventures: Sometimes, you gotta slog through some combat in order to learn more about the world and enjoy a good story.

It’s most compelling as a one-and-done. If you have a difficult time grasping the concept of abstract narrative in pinball, it will be a fantastic eye-opener. Taken any further than that, expecting the replay of almost every other pinball option out there, and it disappoints.

The core mission of Ring Fit Adventure is to make you forget that you’re exercising, and I think it’s only partially successful at that.

As cute and clever as its creatures are, the puzzles just aren't deep or interesting enough. Still, I don't dislike Bugsnax.

As Dusk Falls is a valiant attempt to tell a good crime drama where actions have consequences. The story went on a lot longer than I expected, as the tense moments at the motel spawned a lot of different threads — both flash forwards and flashbacks — that I didn’t expect. But ultimately the tale failed to move me in the way that I had hoped for. The characters were caught in circumstances where they had nothing but bad choices, and it just made me think that the dumbest thing they did was to allow themselves to be caught in those circumstances. In that way, I don’t think the storytellers succeeded in created the empathy for characters on both sides of the events that they wanted. I would like to see more from this talented studio. But so far the story feels more like a TV show than a stellar movie, and more like a soap opera than a memorable drama.

Record Keeper isn’t offensive. It can sometimes be a little fun. But it’s not incredibly engaging.

When I think of games from Spiders, Cyanide, Piranha Bytes, or Reality Pump, I appreciate how often ambition overcomes limited resources. Their games (such as Gothic, Two Worlds, Greedfall, Of Orcs & Men) may have glitches and fall short of triple-A standards, but they tend to be fun, have good stories, and mechanics and systems that I enjoy interacting with. Werewolf: The Apocalypse has most of these. I enjoyed taking on an evil corporation, learning more about how the Garou fit into The World of Darkness, and tearing my foes about. I won’t hide from that. But just don’t ask me to hide from Endron’s guards again.

Chinatown Detective Agency is made in the image of classic adventure games and never aspires beyond that. Meeting it on its own terms, it’s an adequate cybernoir mystery with a compelling lead and colorful scenery. If you’re not into that already, this game probably won’t tickle your fancy very much. But if you are, you’ll find this to be a decently written and designed adventure. It’ll take a bit of research on your part, but I have the feeling that a lot of gamers out there will find that as fun as I do. Just know that, even weeks after its release, the game still has some sound problems that might make diminish your enjoyment.

Smove has a solid foundation, but whether or not you stick with it depends on how much you care about beating high scores. If you don’t, you’ll have little to complain about here, but even less to keep you playing.

The Enemy Within has some great action sequences, but it leans too much on the wider Batman universe as a crutch. It doesn’t put in the effort to make you care about the characters or the situations, and because of that, none of the choices feel meaningful.

Sherlock Holmes Chapter One is a decent adventure game that lets you play as the great detective. The trouble is, it wants to be more than that. It wants to be an action-adventure game with an open world. It wants Sherlock to be a fun and interesting player character, but the game makes him drag around a buddy who’s even less helpful than Watson. That said, I am curious to see where Frogwares goes from here. Mysteries, not action, make for a good Sherlock Holmes game (as should be obvious), and I want to see if Frogwares sheds the latter or chooses to double-down instead.

I wish I liked Knights of Pen and Paper 2 a lot more than I did. It has a lot of charm and heart — I can see it in the gorgeous pixel art and in all the neat jokes and references built into Paperos. But it just isn’t very fun to play.

Nintendo has forced itself to find ways to change this series over its many sequels, but it’s actually at a worst place than it started off. The Bowser Party mode at least does some interesting things with the Wii U GamePad, but it still isn’t as fun as a regular 20-turn game on the original Mario Party.

I think any gamers who want a farming sim with less grind and hustle will enjoy Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life. It trims a lot of the fat that has become common in the genre. You’re not a warrior or a spelunker or a craftsman. You’re simply a farmer trying to live a quiet life and make your way with the resources you have. If you played the original and loved it, you’ll definitely enjoy the remake because it’s almost the same game but prettier. However, if you’re more used to modern farming sims and want one that will give you more to do on a daily basis, AWL might be too simplistic for you. There’s just not a lot happening in Forgotten Valley. Regardless of your preference, the in-game marriage being pushed within the very first chapter felt way too rushed and forced. If you were hoping to have fun, interesting characters to spend your in-game life with, you’ll again likely be disappointed.

Redux: Dark Matters is not an exemplary shoot-em-up, but it is a rather a safe and well-executed one where fans of the genre can get an immediate sense of its influences.

It’s a stylish game centered around an interesting moral dilemma. However, there just isn’t enough world-building to hammer the point home.

The ultimate knock against Spirit Camera is that it just doesn't have very much content. It's well-produced while it lasts, but it doesn't last long.

As much as I enjoy some of the oddball strategy games available, I can't bring myself to recommend this to even the most ardent grognards.

An unoriginal example of an archaic form of entertainment.

Though it’s technically a 9-year-old game, it feels far older, stuck in many of the conventions other RPGs from around the world have already moved past. If you have to see how the story ends, it’s worth seeing through, but everyone else should look for something else to spend this much time with.

If you have no other recourse, then getting the iOS version of Guitar Hero Live might be for you. But even then you may want to reconsider.

I could see someone maybe enjoying the fishing aspect of it, but in this case, still waters don’t run deep. To catch fish, you simply use your sonar to highlight their hiding spots in the water and cast your line. The whole endeavor lacks complexity, and if you’re there to see the characters, then there’s not much of that either.

The glaucoma-inducing choice of interface and the stretching of space and gameplay time beyond the point of breaking make this a hard game to broadly recommend. This would have been one hell of a 6-hour jaunt, but at upward of 20 hours for a basic playthrough, the amount of fluff is suffocating.

The lack of real instruction and clunky controls further wear down the initial charm of this spell-clinging comic adventure.

Sacred 3 is a fair hack-‘n’-slasher. It runs well, and if you’re into such games, I bet you’ll have some fun. But it doesn’t carry on its heritage as one of the most unsung action-RPGs franchises, and if you come into it with those expectations, you will only find disappointment.

Two-button controls just aren’t very deep, and while the game is enjoyable in short bursts, I doubt if most players will care to play extensively.

Games have to fit into our lives, and that's not always fair. Mass Effect: Andromeda might've worked a decade ago on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but it doesn't work in a world that is delivering games like Horizon: Zero Dawn, Nier: Automata, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. In this reality, BioWare's latest role-playing game is old, broken, and often boring. Worst of all, it's going to disappoint fans of the Mass Effect series.

Liberation feels like an unimportant side story in a far more ambitious tale, one that you don't really need to hear. If you've never played an Assassin's Creed game before, then this is a terrible place to start.

The trademark Borderlands humor and Telltale story prowess are missing from Atlas Mugged, which forces players to spend the whole game preparing to do something instead of just doing it.

It took me about three hours to burn through Contrast, and the level design didn’t seem like it had really done anything dramatic in such a limited session.

Survival Instinct left me feeling empty. It’s less of a story arc and more of a montage of “Here’s what Daryl and Merle did before Season One.” Unfortunately, technical problems and frustrating design decisions prevent its one redeeming feature — the survival gameplay — from reaching its potential.

It wasn’t terrible. Maybe I will play it again. And maybe I will wake up in a cold sweat after dreams of masochistic racing missions.

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes is a demo being sold as a bargain-priced game. While the Metal Gear franchise is renowned for having exceptional game teasers, the idea of selling one of them at this price is absurd. The unsatisfying, unlockable content is painfully obvious filler. Not enough moments of gameplay or narrative consequence happen in the main mission to justify a price above $10, let alone the $20-$30 range.

Dawn of Titans has some strong and fun moments, and people that are willing to dump money into it may have different experiences, but it’s a busy time of year — especially for gaming — and there’s plenty of other games out there that better respect a player’s time.

Dollar Dash isn’t great. It’s sometimes pretty OK but only after you get your head around the obtuse controls and are playing with real humans. It’s probably a bit better with people you know, but that would require your friends to all purchase the game as well.

One Piece: Romance Dawn is easy to summarize: It just isn’t any fun.

Sometimes Civ V feels like it’s on autopilot, which isn’t the hallmark of a strategy game worth your time.

This first chapter casts a dull light that’s lost in the eclipse of its big-screen brother.

A lack of interesting commands ensures Reality Fighters is a shallow and forgettable experience, even with the addition of weapons after 30 minutes of play.

Its world is bland and uninviting, its free-to-play systems annoying and restrictive, and its gameplay shallow and repetitive.

As feel-good as Doki-Doki Universe is, there’s not much going on under the surface.

Mighty No. 9 can have its moments when its platforming and shooting tickles that same nostalgic bone that makes us love Mega Man, but its poor design makes it more frustrating than novel.

Besides adding a wealth of content, Tecmo Koei hasn’t done much to bring this series into a new generation, and its difficulty and tedium might alienate anyone but the most hardcore fans. This is one classic that should have stayed where it belongs — in the past.

A disappointing outing from a developer that has made some of Nintendo’s most exquisite games.

A glossier coat of paint can't hide Bugbear's signature unbalanced gameplay and defective physics. At worst, I barely had any fun no matter how hard I tried to. At best, this game makes me wish I was playing the vastly superior Split/Second instead.

Whether your favorite was SSX Tricky or SSX 3, this latest entry, simply titled "SSX," has virtually nothing to do with the franchise fans fell in love. Voiceovers from DJ Atomika have been slapped on top to reassure you that yes, you're playing an SSX game, but the gameplay, courses, and overall quality are saying something else entirely.

With a laborious combat system, sterile mission designs, and a weak retelling of the storyline crippling it, TDKR game is an entirely skippable experience.

A frustrating experience for Sonic fans. You can sense the old, creaky bones of what once made the franchise so much fun, but they're surrounded by chewy, rancid meat.

Legasista isn't fun. If you desperately need a new JRPG to play, pick up Tales of Graces F, Eternal Sonata, or even NIS's Atelier series. All of those games are infinitely better than this mediocre adventure full of annoying, stereotypical characters and needlessly frustrating mechanics.

If there has ever been a grimmer, more depressing story in a game, we don't want to play it. Our heroes can find their way to four different endings, and they range in tone from "bleak and uncertain" to "horrific and hateful." Leading up to those endings, every awful thing that can possibly happen does.

Middle Manager of Justice goes on and on and on. Playing feels like walking a treadmill on the slowest speed with the best option being to just buckle down and pay for gastrointestinal surgery. But then, what's the point? You're paying to not play the game.

Even Apple will feel aggrieved, as Little Deviants traces over various templates for iPhone games and submits the result as something to be proud of. The copycat tactics fail every time.

Declassified is brief, boring, and bland. It should have stayed locked up in the filing cabinet.

Weapon Shop de Omasse is an infuriating, boring game. Only RPG enthusiasts who snigger at jokes about stereotypical Evil Lords, grinding against rats, and “Tutorial Caves” will care to play it — and even then, they would be wise to reconsider.

Too many factors weigh down the gameplay, too much depth appeared to be there for the sake of providing “options” that weren’t, and frankly, it just wasn’t that fun.

A weak attempt to make its homicidal bear more interesting after the fairly negative reception of the first game.

If Crimson Dragon had been released for iOS or Android devices at a cheaper price, it would be one of the year’s more interesting releases. Instead, the final product is a rushed, homogenized mess of a game that fails to live up to its loosely associated pedigree.

Asura's Wrath commits the cardinal sin of video games: It's not fun. I genuinely commend Capcom for backing such an ambitious, experimental project; I just wish they had read the script first. This was not a story worth telling, and it sure as hell isn't a story worth paying extra for to see how it "really" ends.

It’s a blatant attempt to get you to buy more Amiibo, and it’s not even a good one at that.

Painfully slow to play, out of tune and obnoxious when it came to handling Kyle’s character(s), and grating to listen to when people weren’t talking, it took what could have been a delightful story and stretched it on a rack, set it on fire, and forced me to randomly talk with four people before grabbing the bucket of water I could clearly see on the counter to try to help put it out.

Seduce Me isn't the first erotic video game, but it is far from an inventive or adventurous one. Fragmented images acting as cutscenes and hardly any direct character interaction combined with a series of annoying and often unfair-feeling card battles turn a title selling itself as an erotic adventure into a barely tantalizing mess.

Even if the series had never existed, and this was hypothetically the first game in a new franchise, it would still be a boring mess. This coaster deserves to rust.

Castlevania isn’t brutish — it is a test of your agility and your willingness to overcome nearly impossible odds. Mirror of Fate really wants to dazzle you with clever puzzles and name dropping fan-favorite characters, but it can’t emulate the soul of the series.

There is so little original content in Attack on Titan: Humanity in Chains that its full retail price feels like robbery.

Balan Wonderworld is a $60 game, but I wouldn’t recommend it for even $10. It oscillates between boring and infuriating. The most fun I had with it was when I got costumes that made it feel almost on par with a mediocre Sega Dreamcast platformer in terms of capabilities. The kindest thing I can say about the game is that it does make for an entertaining livestream. I broadcasted my play on Twitch, and my audience seemed to really enjoy watching me suffer. So I guess this is a great one for all those fans of masochism out there. Let’s call it The Room of video games.