The game is incredibly accessible, but it's also incredibly deep. It's the warm shore of the Pacific Ocean, with a teeming coral reef 30 feet below the surface. A reef made up of hideous demons and, when PVP is released, ruthless, hardcore players, of course. But they will find it beautiful, while casual fans and curious semi-gamers will be perfectly content splashing around in the shallows.

Despite some minor issues (and a couple that aren't so minor), Max Payne 3 still manages to be a first-class third-person shooter and is thus one of the better games of the year. More importantly, it's a welcome return for one of the shooter genre's better series. The years may not have been kind of Max, but it seems he hasn't missed a beat.

There's clearly room for improvement, including a more aggressive AI, but over 30 hours later and I'm still playing it. Not bad for a simple take on Civ with some dragons thrown in.

Starhawk gives you a wonderful set of toys and just enough incentive to use them, and with a will to learn and experiment, hardcore players will find a deep and engrossing multiplayer experience. It may be rough around the edges, and it's certainly not perfect, but Starhawk is definitely fun.

Moments of blissfully smooth combat are followed by awkward bouts of running away. Just when you start to get bored by doing the same "go slurp us that scientist" mission for the fifth time, it throws you a curve ball. Which means that anyone who thought the original fell short, or was dull, or got trumped by inFamous, Hulk, or any number of Spider-Man games, is not going to be swayed by this. But for those who enjoyed the original, this sequel does not disappoint.

Despite the constant worry of carrying too much loot around, and even with some small interface issues, The Witcher 2 Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition is a marvelous game. It's more focused and has a vastly superior combat model than Skyrim, is more realized and contains better writing than Dragon Age, and treats sex like a mature theme and not a juvenile goal. It's not to be missed.

It's short but sweet, which I personally prefer over games that overstay their welcome. It's also a pleasure to play, with a satisfying mix of action/platformer pizzazz and puzzle elements with a steady, addictive progression from those simple first stages to the devious concoctions of the late game.

If you opt to try it out, beware that this is the sort of thing you really do need to play with others. Playing is fun, watching others play is fun – but flailing through a bunch of Kinect minigames alone in a darkened apartment is not the Happy Action way.

SSX is a worthy addition/reboot (whatever we're calling it) to the series, although the whole Survive It shtick isn't nearly as robust as it was originally played up to be, and probably explains why EA dropped Deadly Descents from the name. While some feature are questionable, or questionably absent, as in the case of multiplayer, shredding the slopes in outlandish fashion is as enticing as ever.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 is close. It's so very close to being a truly great golf sim and the Kinect support is far and away better than I could have possibly imagined.

I appreciate Team Ninja's attempts at revisionism and editorial design, but I think most Ninja Gaiden fans- myself included- would have been happier with an elaborate, over-the-top design like the first two games rather than such a pared down, over-simplified one.

Binary Domain is a decent third person cover shooter with great set piece fights and a few fun boss battles trapped inside a gimmicky command structure and a story that disintegrates near the end and turns what should have been a surprisingly good shooter into one that is tough to fully recommend.

The single player is a complete waste despite the hefty amount of content put into it. If you're going to enjoy Kid Icarus: Uprising, it's because you can stand the awful controls and really badly want something to play online. If you're considering the game for any other reason than that, I highly recommend catching the next updraft and tossing it into the sun.

Raccoon City isn't the next real Resident Evil game (though its improved controls do bode well for that game). Instead, it's a mostly solid third-person, cover-based shooter set in the same universe. Granted, it's a little too Evil in spots for its own good, and not Evil enough in others, and certainly not as good as Left 4 Dead unless you don't play well with others. But overall, it's a fun spin-off.

As an Undead Nightmare-like DLC pack for Yakuza 4, Dead Souls makes sense. As a full retail package, the combination of the zombie theme and the recycling feels desperate and ill-advised.

Silent Hill: Downpour is not for gamers who've gotten used to having the path pointed out to them over the last generation of survival horror games. Its moments of brilliance tend to shine through the fog of frustration. Having played through the game a single time, I feel like there were many, many things that I missed. Diehard Silent Hill fans shouldn't miss this one, and anyone else hurting for a new horror game could certainly do worse.

This is a game for people who feel "regular" soccer is too slow and methodical. It's like watching those old And One basketball tapes or going to a Globetrotters game. It's technically soccer but it's faster, looser, not terribly realistic and ideal to play against a buddy when there's 30 minutes to kill and you want to get in a handful of matches and talk a little smack in the process.

While the game's story alone probably wouldn't make for a tremendously successful anime series, and the competent but repetitive gameplay might not suffice without the narrative absurdity, the two elements combine with terrific production values to produce an experience that's definitely worth a look. There aren't many games quite like Asura's Wrath and there aren't a lot of heroes quite like Asura. He may have anger management issues, but it's still worth getting to know him.

In the end, Mario Party 9 remains what each game in the series has been: a party game. Part of me wants to berate Nintendo for making nine Mario Party games in little more than a decade, but I've got to applaud them in this case. There's no flashy new control scheme or extraneous microphone peripheral in Mario Party 9. No, in lieu of any fancy new hardware, Nintendo simply gave the old gang the keys to the company car and actually changed the rules of the game for once-and it works surprisingly well.

Fighting game fans have been blessed with an embarrassment of riches over the past few years, and SFxT is definitely a top shelf example of the genre.

For the right person, Puddle will get in your head and refuse to leave until you've unlocked every damned Au in the game. That's precisely what makes it an excellent puzzler – and a completely pure experience.

In the end, though, none of this simplification really matters all that much. Sure, this smaller scope may diminish the game's scale, but it doesn't diminish its impact, as Mass Effect 3 is ultimately only slightly - and not always that noticeably - less fun than Mass Effect 2 (and is still a slight bit better than the original).

Just like the big budget, small brained sci-fi action movies it emulates, it won't leave you with any lasting memories, but it will entertain you nonetheless.

It's difficult to shake the feeling that Tekken 3D Prime Edition is a lazy, perfunctory product with little to offer longtime fans other than a terrible movie, 3D graphics, and mobility.

THQ has, once again, put together a strong MMA fighting game with the UFC license. UFC 3: Undisputed will, ultimately, please MMA fans. Its attention to detail and inclusion of many likable fighters and big personalities from the sport will draw you in and the hefty fighting system will keep you coming back, despite its flaws.

This is a brilliant game, a masterful work by the people at Paradox. Perhaps the biggest praise I can give it is that I plan on playing it on a regular basis far beyond the time it takes to review it. It's rare when a game captures my imagination to this degree, but Crusader Kings II still has its hooks in me.

But the reality of a game in this class is that gamers may leave the whole thing to die, waiting for price drops or getting their fill of it over the course of a weekend rental.

This direct sequel isn't an improvement in every single way, but it's a huge step forward that corrects many of the most glaring mistakes the fan base took issue with. What of Lightning and her gorgeous Valkyrie-inspired costume? You'll have to play to find out, and I recommend that you do.