Soldier of Fortune: Payback is a one-trick pony of blood and guts. And if that’s your thing, you might be able to overlook the generic shooting mechanic, enemy AI that’s cheap and stupid, and dull level design. But we just can’t.

Soldier of Fortune: Payback is a one-trick pony of blood and guts. And if that’s your thing, you might be able to overlook the generic shooting mechanic, enemy AI that’s cheap and stupid, and dull level design. But we just can’t.

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.

There’s clearly potential here, but these games will never be more than easily discarded novelties until the developer’s fine tune the controls and embrace the creative craziness of Dream Matches. Here’s hoping Mario and Sonic bring their A game next time around.

Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff is a missed opportunity, and probably should have stayed retired rather than risk its hall of fame status.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode Two ultimately feels loose where it should be tight, slow where it should be fast, and tedious where it should be exciting. Sometimes it's best to let sleeping 'hogs lie.

Director George Lucas famously said that a "special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing." A special effect without strong gameplay is also a boring thing, which is Lost in Shadow's greatest fault.

Comic fans looking for a mindless romp may find Wade Wilson’s misadventures up to the task, but players seeking some actual substance should look for another mercenary to hire.

The good news for beat-'em-up fans is that the combat is fast, furious, and mostly satisfying. The bad news is that repetitive enemy types, lack of cooperative play, and confining levels are decidedly not. Even on the hardest difficulty setting, you'll beat the game within seven hours.

Heroes of Ruin fails to deliver a solid action-RPG experience, and earnest efforts to tailor the experience to the 3DS hardware don't excuse its shortcomings.

Tyris is likeable enough, but generic and uninspired gameplay manage to reduce everything in Golden Axe: Beast Rider to the lowest common denominator. It’s simply not fun--offering very little incentive to keep playing.

The first movie's cult status will draw people into Tron: Evolution, but the single-player campaign's repetitiveness and the unmemorable multiplayer action point to a game that's best enjoyed as a rental rather than a purchase. Tron: Evolution isn't a total failure, just a disappointment for fans hoping for something as innovative as the original film was back in the day.

All the wonderful frosting in the world can't hide a bad tasting cake, and Spyborgs' positives can't overcome the stale combat and the bitter tedium that sets in through 37 levels of straightforward smack and whack.

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.

Blood Bowl is sure to alienate those expecting something akin to Mutant League Football, Pigskin Footbrawl, or similar fantasy-based football games. The poorly designed tutorials, dated visuals, clunky interface, and deliberate pacing are not going to attract those who aren't already familiar with the tabletop game.

The few moments where Murderd: Soul Suspect actually makes good on its supernatural potential aren’t worth slogging through the rest of the game for. It’s trying to be a gripping murder mystery, but never really knows how to get there. This is one you should probably just leave for dead.

WarTech: Senko Ronde is most certainly a niche game, and fans of the genre will definitely take to its manic style. But it's hard to rationalize spending $60 for an arcade experience that's short on content and repetitive.

Rooms has some value if you're into puzzle games, but it's mediocre at best. If you're seeking a fix to your intellectual craving, there are plenty of other games better suited to the task.

A good idea that’s hampered either by poor programming, or perhaps expecting too much of the Wii’s controller. It’s hard to tell which. And really, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter which is to blame. The sad fact is that it just isn’t much fun to play, and if you try to use the motion control setup, it becomes a real struggle.

There's not much to Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes and it pales in comparison to other similar games out there. The large-scale premise is squandered by poor enemy AI and boring combat, and it simply doesn't do anything sufficiently interesting to warrant your attention.

WWE 2K15 has attempted to create an authentic wrestling experience by slowing the pace to a crawl, and the result is a boring and unsatisfying. WWE 2K15 loses sight of what makes wrestling fun in the first place: high thrills, meaningful momentum changes, and unsuspected surprises.

Dawn of Mana is a tale full of marvelous art and storytelling that captures the look and essence of the older Mana games, but beneath the veneer is a different beast that has excised most of the gameplay elements that make the old games so memorable.

Boogie could be fun, but it’s kind of like playing with a younger sibling. They’re not going to offer you a real challenge, and it’s going to be kind of embarrassing.

BlackSite: Area 51 features a handful of fun moments blasting giant aliens, but there’s too much time spent in forgettable shootouts, the story fails to engage, and it’s so riddled with bugs that not even the Orkin Man can feel safe purchasing it.

Though we're happy EA revisited the sandbox structure, everything that made the previous outing a solid game has been sacrificed in exchange for simpler controls and gimped action in Half-Blood Prince.

Just like the DS versions, the concept for Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked hits all the right marks, but it's the execution that fails. A stupid, impractical A.I. companion and the unrealistic stat maintenance make playing it just about as much fun as being stranded on an island in real life.

It's an embarrassing, abhorrent heir resting on its laurels with plenty of ugly humor, bubblegum pastiche, and very little in the way of ass-kicking prowess.

Parasite Eve this is not. The 3rd Birthday squanders some clever concepts with clumsy execution, and the end result is just another mediocre shooter that has very little in common the PlayStation classics that preceded it. This is one birthday that is not worth celebrating.