Fun, addictive and rewarding and it shouldn't have it's rich history held against it. It ranks right up there with any shooting game on Xbox Live.

Halo 2 multiplayer was already a one of a kind experience. But now with a total of 21 maps to play, it's that much farther ahead of the curve than anything else.

If you enjoy hack and slash games you should have a good time with Crystal Chronicles...a great attempt at connectivity and a fun game as long as you have the massive hardware requirements needed to fully enjoy it.

Not being a fan of this genre, I found myself engaged in reliving some fond memories of heroes and villains I nearly forgot about.

I ended up finding Battle Chasers: Nightwar to be a bit of a mixed bag. I love seeing the concept of Battle Chasers come back, and I think Nightwar does a pretty good job of continuing the Battle Chasers story. I absolutely love getting more of Joe Madureira’s character designs and artwork on display here, and I think the classic turn-based RPG approach makes a lot of sense. But there is definitely room for improvement here, and unless you’re petty enamoured with the classic style of RPG mechanics, you might burn out a little too soon with Battle Chasers: Nightwar. Ideally some things will be fixable by patches, but this wasn’t quite the home run I was hoping for.

If you’re looking for anything like logic in an Earth Defense Force game, you’re missing the point. These games are designed to allow you to blow up as much of the world around you as possible with a minimum of fuss, and, like I said, you get a rocket launcher in the very first level. Earth Defense Force 5 won’t win any awards, but if you want more of the same from this now-venerable series, it’ll deliver everything you could possibly be looking for.

Of course let's not forget about those 1000 achievement points for the whores out there. God forbid you pay 40 dollars and you don't get a new set of achievement points!

The destruction effects are really impressive, as is the art style, and smashing buildings with giant monsters is really hard to screw up.

As long as you don’t expect too much – or, I guess, as long as you just want more of what was in Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2 – then Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3 does just enough to be worth playing.

Even though I’m a cat person, spending a couple of hours with your dog in Rainbow Bay is enough to get you invested in its success — and by extension, in the game. The other people were tolerable (okay, a couple tolerable, most were still pretty annoying by the end), but I was really rooting to see my rescue pup become more comfortable around people. That may not mean that Best Friend Forever is a success as a dating game, but if you’re after a pet-raising sim, it’s a nice way to pass a few hours.

May not bring much new to the table for the genre, but the new additions offer enough of a twist to keep the game interesting.

Offline play is extremely polished, and worth price of admission alone. I could not make that statement without Total Punch Control, as it makes the game even more challenging. Online is a great bonus, but it seemed rather rushed near the end.

As I said up top, despite all my complaints, I’m not going to deny that MLB The Show 21 is a solid, well-made baseball game. If you haven’t played the series in years, or if you’re coming to it on Xbox, then it’s probably a must-play. But if you’ve been sinking years into it already, there’s not much here that will make it worth playing.

It's a pack where you should't skip any titles, but at the same time it won't make anyone download the Arcade app. Try out the demos offered to see if you want add these to the collection.

I had a lot of fun with Arkham Origins, I thought the multiplayer mode was interesting, and I definitely think it’s worth checking out, once some of the more serious bugs are addressed.

Still, despite its issues, I mostly enjoyed my time with Outriders, and with a few more updates and tweaks I think it’ll be at a point where I’d like to go back and play more of the end-game content or roll another character class. I’d say it’s a harder sell at full price for $60 right now, but it’s more of a no-brainer to try out if you have the option to do so on Xbox platforms via Gamepass.

London Detective Mysteria is silly fan fiction where Sherlock Holmes and Queen Victoria and Miss Marple and Jack the Ripper (or at least their proxies) all interact and no one bats an eye. But sometimes, you don’t need to bat an eye, and you just need to go with it. If you’re a fan at all of visual novels, this is definitely one of the times to just go with it.

It’s a bummer when you are first getting familiar with a level and have to repeatedly reload after dying. I have rage quit a couple times from this alone. Most people won’t’ let this affect them and in their case, you’re likely to have a good time with Hitman.

A big, dumb, gloriously fun joke, and one that's worth checking out when you're just in the mood to see stuff get blown up by one insane goat.

It does have a couple issues, sure, but overall I think it's worth checking out. Also, the online leaderboard function works great, and the game offers up plenty of chances to challenge yourself via speed runs if you're looking to compete against your friends list.

So I'd suggest checking this out primarily if you skipped over Dead Rising 2.

So get your group of friends together, throw a party, or just get wasted as singing is something everyone loves to do, it just takes a little motivation to get some of your friends to sing along, but you'll get them there one way or another.

It’s a short, simple game, but the developers clearly took the criticisms of the first game and worked to fix all those issues — which is definitely the kind of thing that deserves being acknowledged and rewarded.

There's a hefty number of characters and stages to check out, lots of optional side content, and the addition of individualized move sets, special abilities, full stat customization, and more which make for a fun and rewarding throwback to old school beat 'em up fun.

While the game is beautiful, and the story mode is a lot more engaging and interesting than that presented in "Spider-Man 2," some of the lackluster combat options and changes to web-slinging keep it from being amazing.

It's far from being a definitive Vita experience, to be sure, but if you're looking for some mostly enjoyable platforming on the go (or if you've just got a nostalgic itch to be scratched), the Jak & Daxter Collection is certainly worth picking up.

The lack of a battery backup is irritating beyond belief, but not enough to keep me from recommending Rampage Puzzle Attack. The license is not the reason to play this game folks, but the fun gameplay definitely is.

What stays with you afterwards is how incredibly dark this game gets. That may not be what you want from a puzzle game, but if you’re after that, Reflection of Mine might be right up your alley.