The technology behind Sega Rally Revo is undeniably impressive and the driving is a good bit of arcade fun, but the game's staying power is highly questionable.

Fundamentally remains the same great strategy game as its predecessor.

A fun and satisfying management game, ... [but] if "Zeus" was two steps forward for the series, Emperor is its one step back.

Essentially just a slightly better version of the original game.

The interesting character design and unique stunt system set it apart from the pack, but the fluctuating frame rate, track design issues, and poor sensation of speed hold it back from being a really good futuristic racing game.

The most accurate re-creation of the 2001 Formula 1 season available, despite its problems.

Goes beyond the standard update and delivers some new styles of gameplay that freshen up the experience without sacrificing the things that made the games popular in the first place.

This is still a solid game of hockey, but it isn't the most realistic or best-playing NHL title out there, and as such, it shouldn't be your first choice for one.

The best arcade-style football game on the home market.

Doesn't blow the doors off Rayman 2, but it does further refine the formula, is completely worthy of the Rayman name, and is also one of the best platformers we've seen on the GameCube thus far.

It's a game worth savoring, and one so effective at instilling you with both curiosity and relaxation that it ought not to be spoiled by binge playing.

It's not the prettiest looking game, but College Hoops 2K6 still delivers where it counts, as a deep and accurate simulation of NCAA basketball.

It's rare that a shuttered studio gets to dictate the final grace notes of their body of work, but that's the opportunity Telltale had with these final episodes, and it's one that was not wasted in any way. The Walking Dead ends not with a bang, but an accomplished sigh.

The supernatural collides with reality under the guise of radical religion in a way that feels too cliche, but spending more time with Sean and his confidants remains a delight. Whether you're heading into the final episode in much the same place you were at the beginning--or under the chilling implications of a certain late game choice--watching Daniel wrap his arms around Sean in either circumstance exemplifies what makes the series work so well. Your Sean can be kind or standoffish, thieving or righteous, but your actions don't change the love and adoration between the Diaz brothers--and that love is still the heart and soul of Life Is Strange 2.

A thick, unsettling atmosphere fills this ambitious first-person action adventure, which makes up for some technical issues with plenty of chills, variety, and originality.

OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast offers a fun, accessible experience to racing fans who just want to jam on the accelerator and go.

NBA Live 09's gameplay has again seen some improvement, but there are still a few rough edges.

Assassin's Creed Mirage is a true prequel to Valhalla, only able to tell a compelling narrative arc for Basim with the knowledge of what he becomes later in life. At the very least, you don't need an encyclopedic understanding of Assassin's Creed to appreciate Basim's growth from a young street thief to a duty-bound assassin to a truth-seeking detective as he looks into the interconnected investigations that unlock the enjoyable Black Box assassination missions. And though uninteresting characters mar the experience, an emphasis on social stealth and a history-rich city curate a fun (and educational!) gameplay loop.

You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to deduce that this is one of the best adventures of the year, or that the game is continuing to make a good case that this series needs to be recognized as one of the best adventure franchises of all time.

With its distinctively clean retro stylings and deceptively simple set up, Videoball may blindside you with the pace and depth of its gameplay. It's reminiscent of arcade classics, and is easily one of the best multiplayer experiences of the year.

While features like multiplayer and base-building certainly put more proverbial asses in seats, they're also the least memorable additions to an otherwise thoughtful experience.

Gory combat comes at a high cost in the uneven Shank 2.

There's a fine balance between tension and fun that elevates the whole experience.

Sanctum 2 takes the enjoyable tower-defense-meets-first-person-shooting style of its predecessor and expands upon it with new weapons, towers, levels, and more.

The campaign is Back 4 Blood's main draw, but you really need a group of friends to enjoy it to its fullest. As a spiritual successor to Left 4 Dead, it ticks almost all of the right boxes. The modern additions add to the game's variety and ensure that each run is unique, while the moment-to-moment gunplay is intense and incredibly gratifying. The overwhelming frequency of the special infected, and their disappointing blandness, is a downer, and the lack of some quality-of-life features makes playing with strangers more frustrating than it should be, especially when you're penalized for playing alone. The landscape of cooperative shooters has changed a lot in the past 12 years and Back 4 Blood might not live up to the heights of Left 4 Dead at its peak. Nevertheless, Turtle Rock's return to the genre it created is still excellent fun, provided you have others to share in the zombie-bashing.

With reasons to return to the game after hitting the credits, Amnesia: The Bunker is the longest-lasting game in the series so far. And thanks to incredible atmosphere, opportunities for player creativity, and an inventory metagame that makes each success or failure entirely your own, Amnesia: The Bunker is proof that Frictional has still got it. This is a team that continues to refine the horror genre, and though I've found each of their games intriguing in different ways, they haven't scared me the way this one does in a long time.

It's an easy game to pick up, but the cartoonishly warped art style belies a hearty challenge as you get further into the game. The levels certainly get more complicated as you advance through the seven different worlds of Eets: Chowdown, but the action remains consistent throughout the game.

And that's just what Labo is at the moment: a great tool for creation, rather than for playing.

Cartoonish graphics and a smart sense of humor give Risk: Factions some life, although play remains awfully close to the shallow, dice-dependent board game.

That length may have been born from a desire to create a big, meaty RPG, but in the end, it mostly serves to accentuate the simplicity in all aspects. Stretched over so many hours, exploration becomes dull, combat feels repetitive, and the story can't sustain itself. Mario & Luigi: Brothership is well made and has some great ideas, but in breaking free of its handheld limitations, it becomes too ambitious for its own good.

This ambitious military sandbox game comes close to realizing its potential but falls short due to its buggy single-player campaign.

The combat is fast, frenetic and consistently challenging, although that challenge can sometimes feel impossible without stepping back and grinding out some progress elsewhere, which quickly gets frustrating. Thankfully the core of the game--its combat, trading, and space flight--are all superb and had me launching into the stars for many hours of galactic trading and explosive firefights.

Pac-Man: Championship Edition 2 creates an exciting dynamic where ghosts are still dangerous, but the overall game is more forgiving than the original--and it’s more entertaining as a result. Arcade ports tend to be games we play in short bursts--mostly for the nostalgia factor. Pac-Man: Championship Edition 2 certainly relies on that nostalgia to a point, but it handles the classic game in a way that plays with expectations to surprise you. It’s the same game enhanced in the right directions to be make an old concept fun, innovative, and challenging all over again.

Donkey Kong Country Returns is a throwback through and through. It's a little less novel than it was when it first appeared on Wii and was the first DKC game in more than a decade, and at this point a lot of its refinements and clever level ideas have been surpassed by the later Tropical Freeze. It's the best way to play DKC Returns and to revisit some truly top-class level design, though. The visual overhaul looks nice on modern displays and it encompasses the improvements made to the 3DS port. Just be warned: Given the sharp and sometimes frustrating difficulty spikes, only the most dedicated ape enthusiasts need apply.

Those willing to stick it out now will discover one of the best fighting engines around, with a great cast and intelligently balanced fighting styles making it both challenging and fun. That said, for the moment, for anyone other than the most hardcore competitors, Street Fighter V is a delightful tease, hinting at something special down the road.

Even with a handful of new tricks, simply skating around and grinding out huge lines only goes so far, especially when the levels are set up to make doing so incredibly easy.

Even with these issues, it just feels good to see Mega Man back in action, and Mega Man 11 will hopefully be the start of many new robotic adventures to come.

Even if the treasure-hunting gameplay underpinning the narrative progression doesn't evolve beyond its simple beginnings, it's hard not to be entranced by I Am Dead's colorful characters and engaging tales and come away from your getaway to Shelmerston with a smile on your face.

Fans looking to relive the experience of SoulCalibur's early entries may be irked by this game's new additions. But once the steep learning curve is surmounted, you will find a fresh-yet-familiar fighting system that's fun to explore.

Final Fantasy IV's gripping story and fast-paced combat make this sizeable collection fun from start to finish.

Despite those unfortunate technical issues, Othercide is still a great tactics game. The variety of classes and abilities make for a wide range of strategies, but no matter your team composition, the Daughters work together beautifully to take down their enemies. Boss fights are by far the most memorable and really showcase the reaction and combo system, but they also feed into the game's unique and engrossing story. While Othercide's maps and missions leave something to be desired, it's still a blast to cut your way through hordes of Others and pull off deadly combos that look cool as hell. With an exceptional story, atmospheric horror visuals, and tense, rewarding combat, Othercide offers a challenge you'll want to rise to, again and again.

Though the game is marred by its short length and weak enemy AI, those looking for a fun and different shooter experience shouldn't have any hesitation about biting the bullet and taking a ride with the McCalls.

Time reversal is Life is Strange's most unique element, but also its most problematic.

Field Commander scores a direct hit with satisfying turn-based strategy gameplay, a lengthy campaign, and a healthy array of online multiplayer options.

Cyber Shadow is a solid retro throwback with a few things that drag it down. The feeling of becoming more powerful and being able to take down huge enemy threats with your wits and skills is very rewarding, and the levels when you can use your abilities more freely to overcome challenges are quite fun. It's the trial-and-error areas littered with cheap deaths, demanding exact precision over long and frustrating stretches, that hamper the experience. Still, if you're looking for an old-school-styled ninja game that will test your skills (and sometimes your patience), Cyber Shadow is a worthy contender.

Provides a very rewarding way to relive WWII from the perspective of its top leaders.

The game's short length is what makes it so engaging...an addictive little game much like "Bejeweled" or "Tetris," but instead of being a puzzle, it's a little adventure that you can lose yourself in for a few minutes at a time.

Although the grand strategy is a bit misguided, the tactical combat is a splendid twist on the concept of collectible card games.

EA Sports decided to key on gameplay this time around, and in the process it has successfully propelled the game dangerously close to reality. This should sit well with anyone who truly appreciates the nuances, subtlety, and pace of the real-world sport.

Places an emphasis on action on the pitch and supplies a few of the gameplay modes that are missing from EA's popular FIFA series.

Despite some real problems, Resistance offers a memorable setting and the sort of intense, intelligent challenges that can make tactical shooters so much fun.

And challenging it is: The Middle Ages were tough times and similarly, Lords of the Realm II is a tough game.

Those purely looking for a first-person shooter won't find that NightFire is the best choice around, but as a Bond game, NightFire successfully re-creates the style, presentation, and action of its source material.

Zeno Clash is surreal and relentlessly bizarre, but sheer weirdness takes this first-person brawler only so far.

With versions in the works for both the PlayStation 2 and the Dreamcast, though, owners of multiple consoles are probably better off waiting for the graphical enhancement that will come with a more powerful console.

It's still well worth your time (and it will cost you plenty of it), but expect it to provide you with no small degree of frustration along with its thrills.

The game's impressive visuals on the Xbox coupled with its rich gameplay definitely make it one of the better platform games on the system.

A short but well-crafted third-person action game with a surprising variety of gameplay.

With the addition of four-player multiplayer, "Army Men: Air Combat" is the best game to bear the "Army Men" name - granted, that isn't exactly a tough feat.

A refreshingly unique game … despite its ephemeral nature, Pokemon Snap is a must-buy for fans of the license and probably warrants interest from those that aren't.

At its best, though, in both the original survival mode, across the bulk of the campaign and in the one-off challenge of the week maps, They Are Billions remains a tight and compelling strategy game. The knowledge that you're always just one misstep away from disaster creates a gripping, tense atmosphere that's unusual for the genre. And the cycle from defense to offense and back again as you progress from one wave to the next offers both well-paced urgency and the ability to set clear short-term goals. It's a smartly designed game at its core, despite the distractions. Just like a lone zombie can bring about your demise, sometimes one strong idea is enough.

2006 FIFA World Cup does a good job of re-creating the carnival atmosphere that surrounds the competition, and it plays a good, fast-paced game of soccer to boot.

The game's level of challenge often borders on being punishing, but fans of tactical strategy games will find that the effort is worth it.

2006 FIFA World Cup does a good job of re-creating the carnival atmosphere that surrounds the competition, but it suffers from frequent and obnoxious slowdown.

Enjoy a fun fantasy adventure and addictive farm management without having to wake up at dawn.

Shadows of the Damned balances strong gameplay with artistic delights to create a mesmerizing experience.

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon on 3DS was a surprising revival for an unconventional game. Now that we've had Luigi's Mansion 3, the series has come more into its own, and the second game is neither the trailblazer nor the refined third entry. That makes Luigi's Mansion 2 HD an oddball--less essential than some other Switch remakes, but an interesting middle step in the development of Luigi's puzzle series, with its own charms and place in the series history.

The Godfather is a satisfying, lengthy adventure, and more importantly, it remains faithful to the classic film while managing to create a compelling story of its own.

Project Zero 2: Wii Edition is a bleak, nasty horror game that scares every step of the way.

Through well designed puzzles, intense escape room scenarios, and a kineticism absent in video games on standard screens, I Expect You to Die knows exactly how to leverage the magic of VR, and proves it almost every step of the way.

Figment is at once lighthearted and deep. It reminds us that dark things may lurk underneath otherwise pleasant surfaces, that grumpy egos may populate the shuttered houses of an otherwise beautiful mind. Sometimes Figment seems a little too silly for its ambitions, but that frivolity never manages to fully drown out its overarching message--that if we persevere and have a little faith in our abilities, things will likely turn out well in the long run. Or, at least, we'll learn how to live with the pain.

Despite having big ideas, Whispers of a Machine is ultimately a traditional example of the genre with some neat ideas rather than something revelatory. But it's very good at what it does, and those augmentations help to differentiate it from all the other adventure games out there. It's short but gripping, offering a well-written, interesting and clever experience that wraps up well and which rewards your choices and play style with unique powers and puzzle solutions.

These tens of thousands of encounters plus the appearances by the series’ many other heroes makes for an essential experience for any Dragon Quest fan, even if you haven’t played a hack-and-slasher in ages. These characters are so fully realized that, assuming you’re not a stickler for official canon, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to consider Dragon Quest Heroes as a companion piece alongside the main series.

From the faint outlines of religion to the background hum of influence, from the awkward city-building to the cumbersome tactical combat, all wrapped up in a cultural system that struggles to imprint a strong identity on your empire, Humankind strains under the weight of too many complex systems that too often find themselves colliding rather than coalescing. By turns disjointed and confounding, Humankind is nonetheless fascinating, at least to this experienced 4X strategy player, even if I couldn't say I truly enjoyed it.

Returning home to Baldur’s Gate makes Siege of Dragonspear one of the most enjoyable RPGs that I have played in a long time, both for the nostalgia factor of revisiting an all-time favorite and for the impressively designed and involving narrative that captures nearly everything that fans love about traditional D&D. Even though the engine creaks in spots, the overall experience is everything that a hardcore D&D fan could ask for, and a superb expansion of one of the most legendary franchises in all of roleplaying game history.

RAAM's Shadow delivers good Gears action and a novel way to wreak havoc, but it's hampered by uneven pacing and a lackluster narrative.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 is a comprehensive reboot of the series, offering improved gameplay and a host of great new features.

Its attractive visuals make Crysis 3 a pleasure to look at, and the game is plenty of fun, though not up to the high standards of its forebears.

Easily the most diverse and accessible Mega Man game yet...If you've enjoyed Mega Man games in the past or have been waiting for one that's a little less punishing, Mega Man Zero 3 is the game to get.

The ATV Offroad Fury series has long been known for fast, dirty thrills, and ATV4 is the best so far.

It's more of a good thing, but a second-rate campaign and an underwhelming new gameplay mode keep this expansion from soaring.

This entertaining and varied sci-fi shooter doesn't break new ground; it's just a bunch of goofy, gory fun.

There's so much variety and personality, however, that the odds are good that you'll find your money's worth in some aspect or another.

2006 FIFA World Cup does a good job of re-creating the carnival atmosphere that surrounds the competition, but it suffers from frequent and obnoxious slowdown.

The authentic Men of War: Assault Squad packs plenty of challenge for real-time strategy enthusiasts.

It's rare that a prequel truly works, where a story can captivate despite the audience knowing what's coming and where the path will lead. Life Is Strange: Before The Storm is one of those exceptional stories because it draws you in on its own terms. The only problem: You know it's building you up just to break your heart.

Killzone is reborn in this consistently intense, periodically infuriating, yet undeniably enjoyable handheld tactical shooter.

But even though it's not quite as good as Danganronpa's dizzying roller-coaster highs, Rain Code is a solid detective adventure that entertains and engages for the majority of its runtime. It's got an intriguing concept, enjoyable dialogue, an interesting and plenty of bold, outlandish strangeness to hold a player's interest. I, for one, certainly hope this isn't the last we see of Shinigami's sublime snark.

For all its faults, though, Arena Wars manages to offer up clever gameplay that merges elements of shooters and real-time strategy games into a fresh, action-packed whole.

Multiplayer shines brightly alongside a short but dynamic campaign in the tower offense sequel Anomaly 2.

Authentic arcade presentation and a smart assortment of challenges make this a great way to experience two very enjoyable Capcom arcade classics.

Big strikeouts and even bigger homers make The BIGS a great arcade baseball game.

Destructive environments and excellent track design make MotorStorm: Apocalypse one of the most exciting racing experiences on the PlayStation 3.

Easily the most cohesive and well-rounded surfing game to hit the PS2 yet, and a unique and enjoyable extreme sports game in its own right.

It's not suitable for everyone, and it will require considerable time and effort on your part in order to produce satisfying results. This same time and effort could just as well be spent learning the actual tools of the trade.

Even though Massive Assault is fairly easy to learn and is very user-friendly, it can be excessively difficult, sometimes putting an end to the fun as soon as it begins.

Apart from actually putting together a completely decent gameplay engine, Shaolin Monks is so ridiculously chock-full of hidden goodies and subtle wink-and-nod-style in-jokes that anybody who professes to have a degree in MK will be hard-pressed not to come away entertained.

While Modern Combat does offer some amount of charm with its highly produced interludes and its slick unit-switching mechanism, ultimately this multiplayer-focused military shooter falls short of its promise with design flaws in its campaign and clunky vehicle handling. The obvious graphical enhancements for the Xbox 360 do add something to the overall package, though.