It's unashamed of its roots, sometimes to a fault, but as an attempt to recreate a classic it succeeds far more than it falters. It doesn't do anything that would make the Shadowgate name as revolutionary as it once was, but it's an enjoyable adventure for old admirers and newcomers alike.

It might be short, but I enjoyed almost every minute of my time with CounterSpy. The movement and gunplay are smooth and responsive, and the lovingly crafted presentation remains stunning throughout. This is a stealth game that makes you feel as silent as you are deadly, and is wonderfully, wholly refreshing.

Here's the thing: lack of accuracy in the controls is the whole point of Surgeon Simulator. That is the joke. However, when it comes to the difference between fun and frustrating, it's a matter of degrees. Playing Surgeon Simulator on PS4 is like listening to someone stumble through the telling of what could have been a hilarious wisecrack.

Akiba's Trip has a bizarre concept that might turn a few heads, but once you strip away the promiscuity, there's little left to keep your attention.

An excellent tour through the best and worst of a society in ruins.

It's that ebb and flow, that movement in and out of danger, and the panic you feel when danger finds you even when you think you should be most at peace, that makes Metro Redux such an excellent tour through the best and worst of a society in ruins.

This compilation is about a place. It's a place where you can hear the laughter of children long since dead, and the screams of aircraft passengers moments before their incineration. It's a place where you must fear both the hideous mutants that prowl as well as humankind--and yet it's only with humankind that you might find safety.

Even if you don't fall in love with Path to Thalamus, I suspect you won't be fully immune to its gravity.

Diablo 3: Ultimate Evil Edition feels like the happy conclusion of a two-year public beta, with the initial purchasers on PC bearing much of the grief with the auction house and the slow pace to reach level 60.

It's just a shame that some newcomers won't appreciate what the early adopters went through to make the fantastic game it is today.

Risen 3: Titan Lords is not the studio's grandest gesture, but the tendrils of this fantasy saga still grab you. The glitches and irritations poke at your patience, but the promise of buried treasure on a distant beach still compels you. Risen 3 has the potential to sweep you away, provided all that driftwood doesn't keep you at shore.

It’s easy to get lost in Hohokum’s enchanting scenes, but it’s just as easy to come crashing back down to Earth when you lose your way.

Sacred 3's primary primary flaw is that it's so easy to forget. It contains too little of what you look for in an action-first RPG, and distances itself it so far from its two predecessors that there is no meaningful connection left between the games besides the name and the setting. And that, as you can see from this example, doesn't mean much.

It's still great fun, particularly in short bursts, but it's hard to justify plunking down extra cash for Wii Sports Club.

Halfway's environments, writing, and musical score convey a sense of quiet perseverance, but the gameplay doesn't communicate that feeling as clearly as it should.

Metrico looks and sounds the part of a critical darling, but laborious controls and empty narrative agency mar this chromatic trip.

Road Not Taken is an ambitious endeavor, a substantial puzzle adventure with that special something that keeps you returning for yet another trek through the harsh wilds. It's sometimes too unforgiving for its own good, but the urge to travel along another path is difficult to resist.

Duels of the Planeswalkers 2015 gives players what they've wanted for a long time by implementing deckbuilding, but it doesn't excuse the bare-bones package and needless extra monetization.

It's almost unfair to compare Rogue Legacy to other games that emphasize permanent death. It doesn't have the secrets of Spelunky and it's more predictable than The Binding of Isaac, yet at the end of every game comes a desire to hop right back in, spend your gold on some upgrades and rack up more monster kills, something the game encourages with a challenging new-game-plus option that appears after the credits roll.

Buggy behavior and clunky locomotion make it a mechanical failure, leaving the story and themes to make good where gameplay could not. Alas, irredeemable characters and loathsome dialogue aren't appropriate pillars upon which to erect a substantial tale.

Gods Will Be Watching was close to being a must-have puzzler, but it's doubtful that even the gods would have the patience to see it through to the bitter end.

The game's insistence on mixing things up makes it joyful throughout. Siesta Fiesta may not keep you coming back when it's over, but it's a lot of fun while it lasts.

The Last of Us is a great action game that you should play if you haven't already. And if you have played it before, the improvements here aren't so dramatic as to make the game feel like a new experience, but it is definitely one worth revisiting. In the world of The Last of Us, as in our own world, love might destroy you, but it's also one of the only things worth fighting for.

This is one of those cases where familiarity and excellence peacefully coexist, and that approach tends to work well whether you're singing about vanished rock stars or gaming with creatures of the night.

Crown of the Sunken King's standout exploratory design and abundance of engaging enemy encounters make it a terrific adventure, though a hair short of being essential. Equally significant is that it succeeds at raising the stakes for the next installment.

Crown of the Sunken King's standout exploratory design and abundance of engaging enemy encounters make it a terrific adventure, though a hair short of being essential. Equally significant is that it succeeds at raising the stakes for the next installment.

Despite the ads, and occasional frustrations from the fiddly analogue movement, this is a remake that feels as though it was crafted with love and respect.

Super Comboman is severely flawed, but buried beneath controller-snapping frustration is a game that with some control tweaks, less lag, and some bug fixes could have been enjoyable. Sadly, in addition to its numerous deficiencies, it is riddled with annoying bugs that keep the camera from focusing on you or that prevent your character sprite from loading at all, though to the developer's credit, patches have been frequent.