Though it starts with a glimmer of excellence, Armikrog's luster fades over time. It inevitably feels empty, falling flat in its effort to develop its characters, fill out its world with compelling atmosphere, and provide consistent puzzles with sound logic.

In some ways, Halo 5 is the boldest Halo yet. The franchise's multiplayer is at its peak, with a mode I'm sure I'll return to several times over. But then there's the campaign, which introduces fluid new movement and open level design, yet can't tell a coherent story to match. There are signs of a phenomenal shooter here, but certain narrative aspects feel underdeveloped, holding the franchise's newest sequel back from true excellence.

As far as the Tales series is concerned, there’s no overestimating the value of familiarity, which is why "comfort food" is a term often used to describe it.

The developers at Untame should be proud and confident that they can build thorough and robust gameplay structures around their ideas. But the concept at the centre of Mushroom 11, I would implore, is not something they should return to.

A triumphant return to form for a franchise, and presents a beautifully structured tale with heart and soul to spare.

But like its story of fashion and surface appeal, there’s not much depth here, and the facade fades with time. Tri Force Heroes offers us the means to work together, but not enough reason to do so.

They say beauty is only skin deep, and in this case, there's definitely a lot of roughness under the surface.

Life is Strange paints an excellent, vivid picture of a young woman's struggle for acceptance and justice, but trips itself up by trying to make things gamey.

Guitar Hero Live's reinvented mechanics makes music-driven gameplay fresh and fun again, and while that's a truly massive and meaningful change for the genre as a whole, the campaign's off-putting presentation and GHTV's unpleasant microtransactions all sour the experience built up around that gameplay.

In addition to its satisfying emotional arcs, dark humor and semi-insulting banter are the other major hallmarks of Tales from the Borderlands. This final , written in collaboration with longtime Borderlands writer Anthony Burch, is the funniest episode in the series. One minute you're on the verge of tears as the characters spiral into despair, and the next a character speaks a line or an event occurs that brings you right back up to a side-splitting high. In my time with the episode, I alternated between wildly upset and laughing hard enough to choke.

With too much out of sync--from wildly variable handling to the way you use items to the unconvincing character relationships--Fatal Frame: Maiden of the Black Water isn't anything more than a mediocre experience.

While the initial thrill of decorating the game's big spaces is fun, I wish there was something more cohesive that tied Happy Home Designer together--a way to play with friends or an actual village that takes shape as you add more and more denizens.

Any good bedtime story that makes you want to hear it again right after it’s over is one for the ages.

Even with improved on-court control and an online Pro-Am mode that can lead to pockets of outlandish fun, NBA Live 16 still fails to justify its existence. Its Rising Star and Dynasty modes are too underdeveloped and unvaried to remain interesting beyond the first few hours of play, and the basic dribbling, passing, and shooting tend to trip over themselves during offensive rebounds or fast breaks.

The loss of humanity Prison Architect breeds in its players could be its greatest strength, but without even an acknowledgement of that loss, the game stumbles instead of teaches.

It's a pleasant start, packed with individual events but featuring little in the way of narrative propulsion. When I reached the end of this episode, I wanted more. I'm hoping that, like most outstanding Minecraft creations, Minecraft: Story Mode just needs a little more time to build.

The frequent and diverse boss encounters distract from the otherwise rote, unimaginative, and oft-repeated mission objectives.

For every promising moment--which are few and far between--there's a commercial for candy, or a series of mini-tasks and menus that drag you back down. Chibi-Robo is a sleepy trip through a forgettable world. Plead with it to go faster, beg it to surprise you with new experiences, but don't be surprised when it answers back with the merits of biting into the center of a Tootsie Pop.

It may lack a certain spark and its missions tend to slip into drudgery, but I keep finding myself coming back to blast off toward any star in the night sky and eventually reach it. Such possibilities satisfy the thwarted little astronaut within me, and perhaps more importantly, they kindle excitement for the possibilities of the future.

For a game that needs to present information clearly and effectively, it fails to do so, and this failure has an unfortunate ripple effect on the rest of the game.

There's a point when a character whistles the boss fight music. And just when you're sure one such encounter is coming, he walks away to that haunting tune, without so much as a fistfight. This is what Hearts of Stone does best. It takes our expectations and runs with them.

That old Civilization mantra still echoes, just like it used to: One more turn.

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.

The soundtrack in THPS5 is good enough, but the game is riddled with technical glitches and design missteps, making it a huge step back for the series.

Within THPS5 lies a basic skating game that's difficult to enjoy, because you have to jump over numerous hoops and ignore a plethora of obvious issues to find the smallest amount of fun. Previous THPS games were able to capture your imagination, and motivate you through character progression, gear, interesting levels, and even a great soundtrack.

Whether you're bumbling your way to the top or playing all your cards right, Armello makes regicide ridiculously entertaining.

Rock Band 4 recaptures the unadulterated gratification that made the series such a hit half a decade ago, but mainly because it’s a relatively unchanged, repackaged Rock Band 2. A lack of content and general stagnation hold this particular iteration of Rock Band back, but new ideas like Freestyle Solos genuinely enhance the core experience, which remains a sincere and joyful celebration of music.

After Dark may not be a revolutionary addition to Cities: Skylines, but the number of impressive new features and enhancements offered here is more than good enough to get my vote again.