You feel more as if you're performing a repetitive series of tasks rather than surviving by your wits, but there's still a certain satisfaction in overcoming the game's challenge.

The Bureau is trying hard to pass as a shooter and a strategy game, but seems to accidentally squash its clever ideas with brute force. Though combat might slosh around and threaten to spill, it’s functional. The presentation can only be called cheap, but there’s a dab of polish.

Insect Armageddon can be enjoyed in short intervals with friends, but don't expect anything more than a B-list multiplayer rental. It's a generic shooter that brings nothing new to the table, and there are far better options in the backlog to cure your summer boredom.

The Run falters with its high-profile but underdeveloped plot as well as some awkward design choices. However, it overcomes these potholes with courses that are a blast to drive and simple multiplayer that keeps you hooked in.

Infinite Undiscovery is a capable console action-RPG with an interesting story and some unique ideas, but other than its excellent battle system, the game just isn’t on the same level as the best games in the genre.

Almost all of the major control issues have been fixed, the graphics are much cleaner, and the wireless co-op feature is fantastic. But all of the good still doesn’t outweigh the bad--the horribly generic gameplay just doesn’t cut it.

MechWarrior Online is a smart game burdened by free-to-play annoyances and unfortunately lacking in things to do outside straightforward combat. The grind of match after match eventually erodes your enthusiasm as you start to wonder what it’s all for. Considering MechWarrior has a rich history to draw from, it’s hard not to feel like something’s missing when you find yourself in an endless arena.

Its biggest problem is that its core conceits fail to contribute to what the series is best at. If you're a newcomer, Mount & Blade: Warband is easily the better bet. Veterans will get a brief kick out of this powder keg, but we suspect they'll be reaching for the familiar steel soon enough.

Small actions like switching menus can cause disproportionately long load times, and the game suffers frequent mission-killing bugs. Moody music, mixing in piano with synth, while the voice actors do their best with the script, trying their best to self-distinguish.

Too bad the game doesn't offer much variety outside of its weirdo flea market.

There’s enough new in here to warrant a look at the game even if you played the last one to death. It won’t blow your socks off, but it will any aspiring collegiate hours upon hours of enjoyment.

While the story can be convoluted and the controls make navigation harder than it should be, it's dark take on death and atmosphere make it a ghost hunt worth taking.

Overall, it lacks the polish and simplicity to compete with so many other mini-game collections on the Wii, leaving the unlikely pairing of mascots as its biggest draw.

There are some great ideas in Sniper Elite V2--they're just buried under a few too many bad ones. Asking you to stomach the poor game that exists between the solid sniping sequences is frankly a tall order.

Rise of the Triad has its heart in the right place. How often does a game give you six different rocket launchers? But goofiness doesn't remedy the multitude of bugs. Hopefully Interceptor will address these issues, but right now, Rise of the Triad is less of a triumphant comeback and more of a fun diversion.

The game makes several middling attempts to align itself more closely with other successful designs while keeping its identity mostly intact. Despite a few stumbles in engineering its single-player experience and some irregularities with its controls, this is still a unique and solid experience provided you plan to enlist in online multiplayer.

Nier is definitely an ambitious game that tries to break away from Square Enix's traditional style, but it ultimately isn't up to the task. It's an acquired taste that doesn't go down easy.

It's rare that such a great concept is sabotaged so savagely by poor execution, but Web of Shadows is a stark reminder that it takes more than a solid idea to make a great game.

Even if you've been hankering for a reason to dust off your Kinect, there is no shortage of fleeting distractions better suited to the task.

It's the better of the two downloadable chapters, but you'll need to buy both to fully appreciate it.

Cursed Mountain is an earnest attempt at staking its own niche in the survival horror space, but uninspired gameplay and clumsy controls keep it from reaching its own summit.

PaRappa is a relic of a bygone era. Had Sony decided to make this PSP re-release a PaRappa collection of sorts, including maybe PaRappa 2 from the PS2, or the pseudo-sequel UmJammer Lammy--or both--this would have been a sweet UMD.

Though Shadowrun is a first-person shooter, it still manages to include a lot of the qualities that made the original RPG a hit. At the same time, with just a few multiplayer modes and a paltry nine maps, the fun only lasts for so long.

Sniper Elite 3 definitely improves the rare but rewarding genre of open-world sniping. Being thoughtful about each shot instills a sense of companionship with your rifle, and we definitely felt an unexpected bond with our terrifying tool of death. Everything involving firing that rifle is fun, it’s just too bad the other elements in the game aren’t as impactful.

Even for a budget title, Real Heroes: Firefighter is unpolished and sloppy. The experience picks up toward the end, but it's too little too late when you consider the monotonous trudge that leads you there.

As the traditional RPG goes the way of the dodo, a play through the original Final Fantasy is a nice, entertaining way to rediscover the genre’s roots and remember why a lot of us got into these games in the first place. And this really is the ultimate remake of the game that started it all.

Easily the best NCAA basketball option out there. It does so much right that even the frustrating scoring issues can’t really kill the experience.

Even though it doesn’t have the jaw-dropping visuals of a game like Motorstorm, MX vs. ATV: Untamed delivers tight controls, great tracks, and a lot of options. There’s plenty to do, so you won’t get bored of playing in the dirt anytime soon.