Although it offers newcomers two brand-new species to play as, Jump to Lightspeed (like so much of the content added to the game in recent updates) has been designed to reward dedicated, hardcore players rather than appeal to new ones, and that's exactly what it does.

If you consider yourself a fan of the strategy-tactics RPG genre, you're not going to mind that the graphics are a little outdated or that the audio has some hissing and popping in it. Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon is just too good to pass up.

Bad Blood introduces new mechanics that fit snugly within an already fully-featured world. It's these qualities that make Bad Blood an essential purchase for Watch Dogs fans.

There is a real velocity to Three Fourths Home. It sneaks up on you, quietly at first, before suddenly becoming overwhelming. Its closest analogs aren't other games, but works like John Darnielle's novel Wolf in White Van or the haunting music of lo-fi artist Mount Eerie--art that rumbles and groans and then springs into action.

What seems at first glance like a fairly standard genre game, Toukiden 2 ultimately offers an interesting setting, imaginative creature designs, story- and exploration-driven gameplay, and unique combat elements. While its flaws are obvious, it’s not hard to forgive them when you’re in the heat of battle, chopping off a hellish spider-demon’s legs one by one and watching its life force disappear with every slash, shot, and punch.

Episode 4 of Telltale's Batman: The Enemy Within has top-notch writing, thoughtful depictions, and impactful decision-making moments. It leaves Bruce, Batman, and you to grapple with questions and uncertainty. Between the future of Joker, the nature of Amanda Waller, and the potential fallout of Bruce's mission on his allies, Telltale has set the stage for what could (better) be an explosive finale.

A classic case of a game sequel giving you what you need, but not necessarily all you want.

For as long as it lasts, Stranglehold delivers a satisfying, if somewhat derivative action game experience.

The over-the-top anime stylings of the Guilty Gear series deliver a one-two punch in this package containing both a beat-'em-up and a fighting game.

Despite that gripe, Zenless Zone Zero is yet another solid entry in the HoYoverse portfolio as of Version 1.0, and it's easy to see the potential as new Agents get added alongside Story commissions. It's a shame that the bright spots are dimmed by a complete lack of meaningful challenges when it comes to nearly all commissions--for both puzzles and combat--in the early chapters of the game. But the current experience still shines thanks to how fun and vibrant the direction is in all facets of the game.

It's a short and generally simple game with only a few difficult sections, but it emulates the show's style of criminal investigation almost perfectly, and you can't really ask for much more than that from a game called Law & Order.

Eternal Strands is a straightforward action-adventure game. The physics-based magic system adds a lot of fun and satisfyingly strategic energy to Brynn's regular run-ins with colossal enemies, but smaller threats rarely rise above being a tedious hindrance. And although the history of the world is interesting to uncover and conversations with Brynn's party members a regularly lively delight, the actual moment-to-moment story beats don't feel all that compelling. It's a shame that Eternal Strands' lows drag parts of its experience down, because the narrative and gameplay have clear highs that would excel in a game that wasn't holding them back.

Dawn of War III builds and maintains an organic tension that yields huge pay-offs, and there’s nothing else quite like it.

The Big Con is ultimately about its story, though, and it's a story that mostly works despite an inescapable sense of familiarity. There aren't many beats here that you haven't seen before, and while that lends the closing hours the feeling that expected pieces are simply falling into place, the game has enough verve and style that it manages to hold it together. The writing isn't especially funny or clever, but there's enough personality in the art style and story conceit that I was still entertained for the bulk of the six hours that I spent with it.

Much like that final mission enemy, Hard West 2 gets it right where it counts. Despite some thin RPG trappings, it's ultimately a highly-accomplished game of tactical combat with two or three genuinely terrific ideas executed exceptionally well. While it does suffer from a lack of imagination in some of its map design, that doesn't detract too much from how enjoyable it is to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with your posse and find creative ways to put down hordes of Wild West demons.

This somewhat scary sequel is a solid shooter, but it can't keep pace with its lauded predecessor.

A game that, while designed with kids in mind, has such a surplus of charm that even nostalgia-minded adults will be able to join in on the fun.

Playing The Sims Medieval is like looking at your neighbor's vacation slides: You're hearing about someone else's grand adventure rather than having one of your own.

Generic questing aside, Tera is a well-executed game: it's easy on the eyes, smooth under the fingers, and remarkably stable.

There's a reason this space is so dreamily built--Solar Ash takes place inside a massive black hole, after all--but the game is at its best when it isn't treating those reasons as if they matter all that much. The late game leans a little too heavily into the story, including swapping out the strong boss battles in favor of a binary choice in the game's climactic moments. But, most of the time, that story is where it belongs: in the background. And, thankfully, Solar Ash has some gorgeous backgrounds.

Risk of Rain is highly enjoyable, and with constant rewards of new items and character classes, it's hard to put down once you start. Even as I watched the last of the end credits roll by, I wiped the sweat from my brow and jumped back into the fray: I have an item log that still needs to be filled.

This colorful golf game offers so much great single-player content that it'll be weeks before you notice the lack of any online functionality.

Immortals Fenyx Rising is far from perfect--but it is good. It stumbles frequently as it explores Greek myths through a new lens, its best features are borrowed, and for as large and fun as its world is, it always feels like you're on a guided tour instead of really exploring it. But even as it lives in the shadow of better games, its puzzles, combat, and open-world loop come together often enough for me to not only see it through for a few dozen hours, but also want to keep filling out its almighty checklist, even if it lead me by the nose most of the way through.

The experience just doesn't last long enough to be savored. Gun's main story missions are exciting, but the main plot is over so quickly that the whole thing just ends up feeling rushed, and the various side missions aren't compelling enough to hold your interest after the end credits roll.

Unbalanced difficulty and other issues cast a shadow on Tales of Graces f, but deep combat and endearing characters still shine through.

This classic platformer is as fun and good-looking as ever, but it's over before you know it.

A solid, balanced, and very polished game - which is why it's all the more unfortunate that its gameplay closely follows an otherwise unoriginal and limited formula for real-time strategy games: Gather resources, amass troops, and attack your enemy.

The unique play mechanics of Soul Reaver 2, as well as its impressive graphics and excellent story, make it easy to recommend to fans of action or adventure games.

Although the game does feature some annoying faults, it boasts impressive graphics, audio, and gameplay in a tight package that most baseball fans will enjoy.

There are a handful of other first-person shooters on the GBA, and a few of them are certainly more complete when it comes to overall design, but none are as vicarious or as stimulating as Doom II.

This version of Splinter Cell is a good enough game on its own merits to tide over Splinter Cell fans looking for a portable version or GBA owners looking for a briskly paced game to have on the go.

A well-done game, filled with dangerous opponents and plenty of targets to shoot at, but it also doesn't fulfill its potential.

Furi lures you in with a cool lead character and a powerful soundtrack--qualities that are easy to appreciate--but its the journey to become a better fighter that defines the experience.

There aren't many changes to be found in A World of Keflings, another easygoing city-builder game from developer NinjaBee.

For as long as it lasts, Stranglehold delivers a satisfying, if somewhat derivative action game experience.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre plays, looks, and sounds like its team holds the source material in the highest regard. Faithfully transposing the film's signature terror into a modern multiplayer game is a feat on both ends. The metagame never gamifies the tension to a degree that feels distracting or dampening, and yet that rewarding gameplay loop means, despite how unnerving each round is, there's a strong pull to play it again and again. As one of the year's scariest and best-designed experiences, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has reset the bar for multiplayer horror games.

Sure, Just Dance 4 doesn't bring much in the way of new features to the party, but if all you want is to have one hell of a fun, energetic, and hilarious time, there really is no party quite like a Just Dance 4 party.

It isn't quite as impressive looking as its console counterparts, and it's a short ride, but there's still a great time to be had with King Kong on the PC.

With its focus on infantry and urban combat, Special Forces delivers more of the intense and insanely fun Battlefield 2 gameplay; at least, it does if you can get it running.

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.

This operation has its share of complications, but most of them are good ones.

The third time is the charm for Traveller's Tales--logical puzzles and great offline co-op play make this the best Lego game yet.

The PSP puzzler finds a natural home on Nintendo's console, where the Wii Remote finally gives you much-needed tilt control.

De Blob 2 has an infectious feel-good vibe, but some frustrations cramp this platformer's funky style.

It ends up telling a story that brilliantly grapples with a lot of under-explored, or even unexplored, themes in video games. Like a lot of my favorite games, it left me with a lot to think about, such as the roles we choose or reject, the hardships we inescapably inherit from family, and how trauma casts a dauntingly long shadow, but how forgiveness, should we choose to show it, may just let the light in.

Less challenging but more accessible than the original Xbox version, and in the end, just as good.

It's heaps of fun, totally absorbing, and such a wonderful place to be.

No matter how many hours I spent in Star Renegades, every run, every battle, every turn felt like a new captivating puzzle to solve. In my experience, roguelites lose their luster when the runs start to feel the same no matter how you change things up. Even after playing for dozens of hours and having seen the vast majority of what there is to see, I never lost interest in picking apart each battle to dismantle an opponent for a turn, then another one, and another until the battle is finished. The satisfying feeling of living in the moment and conquering it never gets old.

Though it doesn't take full advantage of the PlayStation 3 hardware, MLB 07: The Show is a great game, and the new road to the show mode is fantastic.

This is far and away the best Dragon Ball Z game around, and it's a must-have for DBZ fans. However, the action is also so fast-paced and viscerally satisfying that it can genuinely appeal even to those otherwise uninterested in Dragon Ball Z.

Great online options and an innovative experience system make this poker game difficult to put down.

With the game's clever gun crafting system added into the mix, familiar tropes and techniques from classic shooting galleries feel super-charged in the game's randomized bullet-hell dungeons.

Offers some entertaining action, lots of explosions, and too many technical hiccups.

It's not for those with short attention spans, but patient players who aren't squeamish should enjoy Sniper Elite's tense and methodically paced action.

A combination of endearing critters and solid role-playing gameplay make Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 a pleasant portable adventure.

The first booster pack for Battlefield 2142 offers up three exciting new maps and a new gameplay mode, making it a must-have for fans of the multiplayer action game.

Does Brain Age actually make you smarter? We have no idea, but it's still an interesting puzzle game available at a budget price.

Cleopatra is both more difficult and more complex than "Pharaoh," but it also makes the game seem new and fresh.

With Ace Combat: Assault Horizon, a respected series takes a nose-dive.

Never have levels been this short, nor the emphasis on perfection so explicit, and these elements work in New Super Luigi U's favor.

Sharing issues aside, Game Builder Garage is an endearing and fun-to-use game creation tool. While the software may not allow you to make the game of your dreams, it's a smartly designed and flexible package that gives you an impressive amount of freedom to create nearly anything you can think of. Even more importantly, it offers an illuminating (if highly simplified) look into the work that goes into creating a game, and that is its most invaluable lesson.

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.

FIFA Street's unique brand of trick-fuelled football is heaps of fast-paced, stylish fun.

Fun and frantic, and a great introduction to a typically unfriendly genre.

If your system can handle it and you don't have any hang-ups with wandering around in dark places, you'll likely find a lot to like.

A few problems keep it from being a classic, but Ring of Fates is still a capricious caper whether you're on your own or playing with pals.

3D Dot Game Heroes is a pleasant retreat for anyone who pines for the good old days, but even those without nostalgic links to the past will find an enjoyable experience.

An incredibly appealing sports game. While it doesn't possess the sheer addictiveness of, say, "NFL Blitz," it's simultaneously a breath of fresh air and a nostalgic look at the baseball game genre.

It is an unforgiving and sometimes treacherously authentic game that minimizes the importance of top speed and accentuates such real world concepts as torque, grip, gravity and four-point suspension...Simply too intriguing to ignore completely.

The first baseball management sim that is truly easy to use... [but] its glacierlike speed won't win it any friends.

Its puzzlingly addictive nature simply cannot be reasoned with, yet at the same time, it helps solidify the game as one of the best games of pool to come out on a console platform in many years.

A bevy of bizarre obstacles and freaky power-ups gives Super Bust-A-Move a level of addictiveness and challenge rarely seen on handheld systems.

Takes the familiar characters and graphics from three of Sega's most cherished franchises and uses them to create an especially satisfying pinball game.

A good hack-and-slash RPG that will keep you occupied for hours just building up a character that's useful in all three of the game's separate play modes.

Warts and all, Need for Speed Underground is a good racing game--not because it's pretty, but because it's actually engaging and fun to play.

Tiger Woods 13 still presents a decent golf game, but there isn't much new here, and many added features like Kinect support come with problems.

As Telltale's Game of Thrones passes its halfway mark, it takes a bit of a dip, staging a set of scenes that feel less like something you can control and more like something you can only passively watch. There's no real sense of agency in the choices you are offered, other than spinning a conversation in a certain direction before coming full circle to a pre-determined outcome.

Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet immerses you in its alien world, but frequent mechanical problems lead to frustration.

As Estelle pieces together her scrapbook made by my hand, I often found myself asking why I took a particular image, what I liked about a specific sound. What memories or feelings was I conjuring, even subconsciously, that led me to present Estelle's world in the ways I did, and what did that say about how I see my own world? Season asks a lot of introspective questions, provides few definitive answers, and hopes players are willing to breathe it in, consider it carefully, then exhale slowly as they reflect on both the game and themselves. It's unconventional even in a sea of indies that are constantly trying new weird things, but it works.

The Disney Afternoon Collection is a refined time capsule that covers a very specific chapter in gaming history. While these games might not be anything to get overly excited about individually, in a package that includes plenty of history and extras, this collection is a nostalgic curiosity with heart.

Tales of Kenzera: Zau's strength lies in its powerful narrative, digging into how one navigates the sadness, rage, and terror that accompanies the worst moments of grief. Its tale has its hiccups, but Zau's adventure of coming to terms with loss resonates through the beating heart of the thumping musical score, standout vocal performances, and dance-like battles that feel straight out of Bantu myth. Loss is a universal human emotion, making Zau's attempts to grapple with grief uncomfortably relatable. But there's catharsis to be earned in working through that discomfort alongside Zau, and a touching story to enjoy along the way.

As was the Xbox 360 version, the PS3 version of Madden NFL 07 is a very good football game that doesn't quite live up to the full potential of the latest console hardware. And while the game looks and plays quite good on the PS3, the added Sixaxis control support isn't really that impressive.

I'm left with mixed feelings about Bravely Default II. There's a lot to like and a core that's still fun and engaging. But the removal of some key quality-of-life features gives this experience a lot more friction than the prior games. I've loved the Bravely Default series for letting me feel like I'm 15 again--with all the time in the world to grind out a full set of level-99 characters--while still respecting my time by recognizing I don't actually want to do that. Bravely Default II asked me to put in the tedious work and lost some of the series' identity in the process.

The visuals may not sing as sweetly on the Xbox 360 as they do on the PC, but it looks marvelous, regardless.

This is Blitz at its best, adding an even meaner, uglier spirit to the game that will have anyone with a strong stomach and a thirst for brutality jumping out of his or her seat in elation with every murderous tackle landed. Ladies and gentlemen, Blitz is back.

W.M.D. is easily the best game in the Worms series in several years. It stays true to the 2D, animated roots of the ’90s games while adding enough new features to keep it feeling fresh and relevant. The relatively simple gameplay is overflowing with finesse and strategy, the presentation is fantastic, and offline or on, Worms is just incredibly fun.

Thanks to some crucial new control mechanics, the introduction of star impact players that can blow a match wide open, real clubs and players, and a faithful re-creation of the high-impact sport of rugby, Rugby 06 improves on last year's effort and remains an engaging and fun game.

From Dust provides a rich world full of engaging challenges, though there are some frustrations even a god must suffer.

D4 is insanity distilled into adventure-game form, more self-consciously wacky than another Swery game, Deadly Premonition, but more human, too.

It's not for those with short attention spans, but patient players who aren't squeamish should enjoy Sniper Elite's tense and methodically paced action.

The Enigma is a successful opening chapter to a Batman story that's shaping up to be more ambitious than anything Telltale attempted in the first season.

While the initial learning curve is daunting, this is one of those games that opens up dramatically the more that you play it, so the time commitment is worthwhile whether you're a laidback dogfighter or a hardcore simmer.

Birth By Sleep: A Fragmentary Passage might be short, but it's a beautiful, entertaining episode that fills in some gaps in the lore. Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance retains a lot of the fun that made it so popular on the 3DS, even if its Drop system grows tedious. And for all of its comparative drudgery, Kingdom Hearts x Back Cover is at least visually appealing. It might be an overall confusing entry for newcomers to the series, but on the whole, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue indicates that we have much to look forward to in the long-overdue Kingdom Hearts III.

Destiny prefers telling the same stories time and time again, hoping to transfix you with its rinse-and-repeat pace and ply you with the possibility of better loot, rather than with gameplay diversity that intimates surprises hovering on the horizon.

Konami's seventh Pro Evolution Soccer is a small improvement in terms of playability, but there's little else to make it worth the upgrade.

WWE 2K19 might not reach the lofty heights of wrestling video gaming's heyday--or maybe that's just the nostalgia talking--but it's 2K's best effort so far. Maybe next year we'll be on to a true title contender.

The well-realized license in this third-person shooter can hide the myriad problems for only so long.

Given the unique demands of anti-gravity gameplay, the PC version's comprehensive yet concise tutorials turn out to be crucial for onboarding new users. That makes their puzzling omission from the PS4 version disappointing.