It stands as proof that all it takes to make a fantastic game, even with today's available technology, is a solid set of core gameplay mechanics with inherent depth.

Apotheon eschews modern expectations, reflecting a far older brand of storytelling.

Perhaps the next true frontier is the search for a procedural generation system that can create something more ostentatious, something that can surprise…something not so visible derived from an underlying system of ones and zeroes. But then, maybe it's there in Elite: Dangerous, in its way, and the problem is that I need to learn to start being more impressed by LaGrange points.

It's a nifty little time-waster that Neocore's created here, and while there could and should be a lot more content in the future, the game we've got right now nonetheless makes a convincing bid for your time.

The overall package for Majora's Mask 3D preserves all the weird delight of the original game while lowering the barrier of entry for new players. There's still a lot that's challenging about the puzzles and fights, but a few minor tweaks make your hard-won heart containers and masks feel that much more satisfying.

The Lost Lords offers no respite from the anguish of Iron from Ice, and keeps the energy and intrigue up in surprising ways.

Ultimately, the game is such an infinite fountain of charming and funny, that even when you've started rolling your eyes at how often you've had to wait for one of the traffic cone/hermit crab enemies to come out of defense, you end up getting into a conversation with an NPC and forgetting it ever happened.

One of the best traditional RTS games to hit the PC in a number of years.

My dearest Dying Light, I am so grateful for your specialness, for it shines through even when I am prepared to damn you to hell.

I am rooting for Dying Light's success, even as I shake my head at its avoidable foibles. I understand it, I get it, and so I find pleasure in it even as it disappoints me, even when I land between a fence and a rocky cliff and get stuck there, even when I don't grab a ledge or pole after a jump for reasons that I can't quite understand.

[Time reversal is] a nifty effect at first, but the rewind as a whole undermines one of the formula's most treasured elements: ownership of your decisions.

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

Inconsistencies of time reversal aside, Life is Strange is an involving slice of life that works because its situations eloquently capture a peculiar early-college state of mind.

It's just a shame that the game's level design and enemy combine to short-circuit the experience throughout, because there are so many individual pieces that make the game really easy to like. Sofia deserves better.

It's hard to convey the toughest moments, those moments that we compartmentalize and repress beyond recognition as adults. And it's especially hard to convey such moments in language and images that both children and adults can appreciate and understand. That Gravity Ghost accomplishes this feat with such seeming ease is a testament to its imagination and its power.

Grim Fandango’s greatest triumph, however, is that you needn’t overflow with nostalgia to appreciate its greatness.

If you're willing to block out the story and to seek out the challenges that SGU provides too many ways to avoid, a deceptively fun and enticing arcade racer is there for the taking.

Blackguards 2 may start off as a something of a bad-guy gimmick, but it soon transcends the wow factor inspired by the dark gothic setting and the baleful protagonists. Come for the evil, stay for the brilliantly realized and addictive tactical game loaded with depth and challenge.

It's the kind of expansion that gets you imagining what else this world and these characters are capable of, which is the best kind of disappointment you can have.

It's an expansion that leaves a lot to be desired, only because there’s enough fertile ground to support a full blown game.

There's a beautiful simplicity to Resident Evil HD that serves as a reminder that the best mysteries don't need convoluted stories to be enthralling.

While neither game will win awards for its narrative, playing both and adjusting your play style to whichever task you have at hand is always a blast.

As much as I appreciated the shift away from the crime investigation premise of Assassin's Creed Unity, sending Arno on a mere fetch quest turns Dead Kings into the blandest kind of open-world adventure, in which a man who used to be a hero is reduced to a mere errand boy.

The completion of a campaign should leave you with the sensation of a job well done. It should not leave you with the relief of knowing that you won't have to endure another second of a mediocre game. I experienced the latter during my playthrough of Assassin's Creed Unity and had similar impressions of Dead Kings, albeit in a slightly more tolerable bite-sized package.

To play Lost Constellation is to wrap yourself in a fleece blanket and shelter yourself from the cold.

Persona Q doesn’t quite hit the peaks that Persona and Etrian Odyssey do on their own. It does, however, take some of the best elements of each game, blending them together into an immensely satisfying and lengthy RPG. Persona Q is proof that this series has the power to delight, surprise, and engage, no matter the form it takes.

The beauty of Kalimba is in its high replay value, even more so than the gratification of solving its platforming puzzles.

Scrolls shouldn't be your introduction to collectable card games; Hearthstone serves that purpose far better. In fact, you should probably pop in Final Fantasy Tactics or Disgaea should you need a primer on Scrolls’ strategic concerns. But if you crave a challenge and a new type of CCG experience, Scrolls may fulfill that role.