For me, the experience was like taking your car to the shop. When you get it back, it’s shining, detailed, and purring: They’ve traded your Ford Focus for a Ford GT. Hooray! But then you get in and notice it’s a stick shift, with manual brakes and steering, no stereo, no A/C, and wait, where are the doors?

If you’re looking for a good game to play on the PlayStation 4 or the Vita, Velocity 2X is a fantastic choice, with its crisp, bright visuals and energetic soundtrack (I never got sick of it once). Just keep in mind that outer space can be an unfriendly place, and if you’re a sucker for story, you’ve got a lot of playing ahead of you if you want to finish all 50 levels.

No Going Back is a quality episode, yet it fails to be as memorable as Season One’s ending, despite some intense and heartbreaking moments.

The game’s high production values add charm and character to the experience. The compelling storyline and animation make up for dialogue that might linger a little too long and puzzles that might speed by a little too quickly.

Counterspy successfully gives you the feeling of being a powerful and deadly third wheel in a Spy vs. Spy game of one-upmanship. Moving to and removing your target of choice amounts to the most gratifying stealth since 2012’s Mark of the Ninja. But the problems start flying as soon as the bullets do.

You should definitely try Hohokum if only to understand how weird and hard to describe it is. But not everyone will appreciate its laid-back attitude and guidance allergy. It’s certainly a beautiful and unique title, and I enjoyed playing it, but bring along some extra patience just in case.

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.

It remains a solid adventure today despite the late-game efforts of one of the worst system-based game mechanics of this or any other year. The afternoon of graph diving it takes to beat Metrico is all that’s needed to forever see a small silhouette jumping to and fro on all of the financial documents in your future.

Modern Combat 5: Blackout is at its best when it’s not trying to replicate the FPS experience from consoles and PC. The touch screen doesn’t give you the type of responsiveness you need for a game like this. The only reason it works for the linear campaign and quick-fire Spec Ops challenges is because of player-friendly options that make up for all the sluggishness.

This is the digital Magic game that fans have been wanting since 2009; it’s the pinnacle of the series in function, and it’s a welcome new direction.

Like many penultimate television episodes, Episode 4: Amid the Ruins serves to set up the series’ finale by applying pressure to The Walking Dead’s characters and upping the stakes. Clementine’s group has never been more desperate.

Cry Wolf ends Telltale’s Fables series on a memorable and effective note, taking everything that has worked in the series so far and amplifying it to its most spectacular.

Old school gamers will love Shovel Knight’s retro sensibilities, but they’ll also appreciate its modern touches.

I’ve never been much of a history buff, but maybe I would be if more games like Valiant Hearts: The Great War existed. Between the artistic backdrops and the soldierly tasks you commit, both right and wrong, Ubisoft Montpellier retells the events of World War I in amazing detail. Yet, the story is always about the people on the frontlines and what they endured, not the politics.

The career mode and realistic gameplay will gain the love of diehard UFC fans and hardcore sports gamers...However, the complicated controls and unpredictable striking mechanics will frustrate and confuse everyone else. There are also a number of bugs that need to be fixed.

Tomodachi Life reminds me what I love about Nintendo. Another developer might try an experience like this on iOS or Android, but it’s unlikely they would leave it unsullied by in-game purchases. I also doubt that many other studios could nail the effortless humor that makes this so refreshing to play.

Pushmo World is a fun puzzle game, even if its presentation will make you feel like a preschooler. Still, the easy-to-use level editor really helps make it an easier recommendation to anyone looking for an interesting little addition to their Wii U library.

War Thunder surprised me. I am not very good at it, but I still have a lot of fun playing it. Because it is a free-to-play game, some players will download it on a whim and quit 20 minutes in due to the poor controls. Those that brave the steep learning curve will be rewarded with a realistic combat simulator that could be truly great one day.

One of the most surprisingly good games I’ve played in a long time. It manages to sell its bizarre premise and builds a solid, moving story out of it, and the plot-propelling investigations add immensely to the detective feel. Walking around as a ghost is clever and entertaining, and it even manages to inject variety into some of gaming’s most overused elements.

In Sheep’s Clothing continues on the brutal and downright insane path that Smoke and Mirrors began. It’s a little on the short side, but Telltale uses the time to maximum effect through heightened drama and expansion of the game’s world and society. It’ll leave you excited for the final episode and angry that you can’t play it immediately after finishing this one.

While minor bugs, inconsistencies, and a lackluster story restrain Watch Dogs, its impressive environments, fluid interconnected mechanics and welcome multiplayer components set the bar for future open-world experiences, and help it to stand as a sign of things to come.

Dated graphics and a hopeless multiplayer section damage its overall appeal, but fans of the Tropico series and its competitors won’t be disappointed by the newest offering.

Transistor is beautiful and engaging with a brilliant combat systems that encourages careful planning before and during battle. It’s just a shame the story holds it back from being a true classic. It’s a more flawed experience than Bastion was, but it’s also a more interesting one.

While shooting fascists in video games will likely always be fun, The New Order falters when it’s trying to decide how you should feel about it. Its options and ridiculously sized weapons provide a lot of enjoyment, but the story tries so hard to be serious that it forgets that this is a game that includes Moon Nazis.

Mario Kart is typically the best racer for most people. That’s no different with Mario Kart 8. Nintendo has combined its classic gameplay (finely tuned as ever) with beautiful visuals, and the result is something that I love playing — and so will most people.

Although a bit slower paced than its predecessors, In Harm’s Way is probably the most violent entry of the series to date. It introduces intriguing new characters and gives old ones (very brief) screen time. But it’s the progression of Clementine’s character that will keep you invested throughout the short runtime.

The Last Tinker: City of Colors is best shared with friends or family who enjoy a good story and pretty artwork. It’s not difficult, it’s not aggressive, and it’s not online, so it definitely belongs in the gentler category of family games like the Lego series.

It’s easy to recommend to anyone who’s enjoyed the series before. It’s very easy to recommend to a baseball fan who has a PlayStation 4 and never played The Show before. I just hope that next year’s edition wows me a bit more.