Forspoken shines brightest when its protagonist is dipping, ducking, and diving along the generally striking world of Athia while casting a variety of spells, but the standard fish-out-of-water fantasy story of Frey only subtracts from the experience.

Knack doesn't really do anything exceptionally well, and squanders your willingness to like it by constantly working against you.

There's a fun game lurking underneath the surface here, but lazy voiceover decisions, overly-dry, didactic lectures between missions, and wall-punchingly frustrating ally AI keep the bright qualities of the game from shining through.

Spider-Man 3 is so by the numbers, so average that we just can't muster much enthusiasm. Comic fans'll hate the inconsistent power levels while hardcore gamers will balk at how unfinished it feels.

Everything about Madden 3DS is curious, from its timing (released well after the end of the NFL season) to its design (no multiplayer, no franchise) to its price ($40 when it should be half that). Our cynical side thinks it's an attempt to cash in on the excitement of a new handheld device, while our naïve side prefers to think of it as an honest attempt at meeting a deadline and having to prioritize.

You could probably leech out a weekend's worth of so-so gaming, and at 30 bucks, you'll still have plenty of cash to check out the upcoming film. It's bound to be more exciting than this.

Zombi is hardly a deluxe version of ZombiU, with numerous bugs and few graphical improvements. It's still a good survival game, but feels outdated and misses the Wii U Game Pad.

Team Sonic Racing, despite carrying a tidbit of fun, doesn't stand up to other kart racers today.

If you can play this on a computer, do so. If you already own The Sims 2 for PS2 and are considering paying full price again to get the Pets feature, don't.

The Elder Scrolls: Castles promises to put you in charge of your own castle and dynasty, and it certainly does, but managing your subjects, making rulings, crafting gear, and venturing outside to fight only to do all of the above again and again and again makes the new Elder Scrolls title lose its sheen sooner rather than later.

Even though most gameplay and options tend to be predictably consistent, The Art of Learning is a great tool for skill building and is put together in a simple easy to use package with something to offer everyone.

The Cartel has some interesting ideas behind it. However, too many of them are dependent on co-op, and even with them, long stretches of the game feel like boring, soulless slogs. More damagingly, the charm and sense of fun from the earlier games is largely gone, replaced with what appears to be a desire to ape the low-fi look and grittiness of Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days.

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric is too slow-paced, too easy, and too childish for teen or adult Sonic fans, and its control and design issues make it difficult to recommend even for its target audience.

For those who are truly desperate to gain any advantage they can in their vision - all the moneyed falconers and old men crossing the street out there - well, play it for a few weeks, but don’t be surprised if you spot an unwanted space in your wallet where twenty bucks used to be.

Drag x Drive makes a solid case for the Nintendo Switch 2's mouse control scheme, but it fails to make one for these wheelchair basketball matches themselves. Elegant steering doesn't mesh well with comparatively imprecise and messy tackling and shooting systems that range from too tricky to far too simple.

The best thing going for this hyper-violent pavement-pound is the epically bold badness of the unecessary storyline, concerning revolutionaries participating in Velocity Death Battles (VDBs, biatch!) to confuse a weather predicting machine hell-bent on controlling the human race. It makes the "Twisted Metal" canon look like Shakespeare.

Screamride has a pretty impressive roller coaster building suite and some satisfying destructible environments, but everything else - from the other gameplay modes to its presentation - is a total snore.

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is a brilliant tech demo for an RPG system that has the potential to revolutionize the way we progress our characters in games, I just wish it there had been a little less proof of concept and a little more fun.

Brooktown has obvious charm and we do hope for a sequel, but it's going to need to hit the books hard before we'll give it a passing grade.

But even as a flawed game, Murder on the Orient Express still manages to draw you in with lush environments, a stellar score and top-notch voice acting (which manage to make most of the protracted conversations at least marginally interesting).

If you're determined to enjoy Two Worlds II you'll need superhuman pain tolerance and more free time than recess at Immortal Elementary.

A bland and occasionally baffling return for the Vampire: The Masquerade series.

There are moments of fun to be had with the game, particularly when the narrative hits its stride, but with little variety in the quests you’ll be taking on, and no real depth to the combat, the experience grows old very quickly, making it a difficult recommendation.

In terms of low-budget games, you could do way worse than MCD. If you're one of the sad few who has missed out on the Modern Warfare craze due to financial issues or you simply want another game that's Move compatible, then MCD should fit well within your budget. The game isn't spectacular, but it has enough bells and whistles to keep you occupied.

Sure there is some gem of PvP in there somewhere, but you have to work far too hard to get there.

One Piece: Unlimited Adventure takes the scavenger hunt approach too far. You spend way more time chopping up shrubs in search of raw materials than you ever do fighting soldiers or following the story.

Although a great initial distraction for Potterheads, the novelty of Harry Potter Quidditch Champions fades to reveal a competent yet insubstantial grind-a-thon. With questionable voice acting, childish animation, and a flimsy campaign to blitz through in three hours flat, even the biggest Wizarding World fans will struggle to stay engaged – unless staring down the barrel of another battle pass appeals to you.

There's a half-decent time to be had bashing your way around Stranger of Paradise's dungeons, but routine level design, rough edges and messy narrative delivery stop the experience evolving into a compelling adventure. Despite its efforts to create ordered systems, chaos has the final word.