The lack of Pokemon to draw can also be a bit of a turn-off for some, but the Free Paint mode’s ability to use a blank canvas or any picture on your SD card can help alleviate that a bit.

While the game does have some weird and interesting bugs, the PC port of Marvel's Spider-Man 2 does deliver some great experiences. It took Nixxes a few patches in the first few weeks to get there and they still have some more work to do, but the game looks gorgeous and plays well on top notch systems. Don't try it on the Steam Deck though.

Fans of previous Tony Hawk or skateboarding titles who like combos and big air are going to love this game. It might not be the most realistic game (300 foot long big air traveling through downtown Hong Kong?), but it is certainly a lot of fun.

A good game with a lot of depth & just what one would expect from Paradox. Play it through once or twice just for fun, then grab one of the strategy guides that will be popping up to more fully appreciate the mechanics.

Fans of the series will have the most fun with this, but for others who haven't played any of these games, will most likely have serious problems with the fixed camera and backtracking. The combat is very good but for me, everything else is nothing but frustration.

Newcomers and series veterans alike are sure to find plenty to enjoy in Rome II, which should become even better with future patch releases.

If you are unsure where to begin with this series Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist Of Salburg is a great starting place. It’s the first in the series, and the facelift it has been given is very welcoming to newcomers, like me. I’m glad I gave this one a shot before trying something else in the series; trying this one out after might have felt like a downgrade. Combat and gathering, two of Atelier Marie’s main elements, can be done automatically, making them feel unimportant when I know that is not true. Focusing on learning about the world’s characters is where you’ll find most of the enjoyment. Atelier Marie Remake has sold me on the idea of playing another game in the series, I hope they feel more modern, and require more work on my part.

You might not know it from the box, but Dead or Alive 5 is one of the most baffling games of the year. It's full of weird editing, ninja clones and large breasted women. And that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of what makes this game so incomprehensible. Thankfully the solid gameplay and gorgeous graphics make up for the often disjointed story telling!

MLB 2K10 is a good game that feels for the most part like you're playing baseball. There is a lot of depth, and some great new features. While not as buggy as 2K9, some of the problems still exist, which keeps this game from being great.

Half brilliance, half blunder, Pirates of the Burning Sea sets players up with a boutique online experience rife with piracy, privateering, national pride, cutthroat commerce, user-generated content, conquerable ports, and a highly-listenable musical score.

Cake Bash is an extremely polished four-player collection of minigames and competitions that is perfect for families as well as more experience players. This is the sort of game that is meticulously designed so that anyone can pick up a controller and enjoy it. Though the amount of content in the game feels light, the amount of entertainment to be gained from this package far outweighs the asking price.

A fun, surprisingly lengthy and deep romp with everyone's favorite violent motormouth, Deadpool VR sends players careening around the Marvel Universe on a goofball mission that allows for equal parts bloody combat and surprisingly awesome watercooler moments. The combat is only as fun as you make it, but the non-stop barrage of jokes are top tier. The tone is right, largely due to a killer, irreverent performance from Neil Patrick Harris, so everything else falls into place.

Pharoah is a throwback in the best possible way. Harkening back to a time when city management games were actually manageable, Pharoah will still present players with a good amount of challenge. There is a ton of game here to enjoy, and it continuously pushes the player to find unique ways to solve interesting problems. It is worth mentioning that there may be a gators hiding in the Nile right out of the gate upon release, but one can expect those to be cleaned up in short order; there is nothing here that should stop prospective players from starting their own Egyptian empires. Fun and addictive.

Dead Island 2 is a fun FPS action romp that succeeds at making you feel like a zombie-slaying god. It’s not going to set the gaming world on fire, and yes, there are some issues, but slaughtering my way across LA never got old.

There is plenty to see and do in Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons, as long as the thing you want to do is nonogram puzzles with a Story of Seasons theme. If you were expecting to play the first nonogram farm sim then you may hbe disappointed. The puzzles are pretty good, some of them are just silly, I’m still upset about what the developer considers to be an egg. The collage puzzles require more patience and thinking than the normal nonogram puzzles presented here, but that’s good too. Other features like the almanac are welcome additions-even if they don’t add much overall. If you are into both genres then picking up Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons make sense.

It has been some time since I’ve come into contact with a game that seems loved by the masses that I don’t understand, but that’s Phasmophobia. I don’t understand why it’s ok that you have to have a team of four people in order to find mild success. I don’t understand why I need to spend time looking up a cheat sheet to help understand why a haunt is fun. I hate that I need to do so much outside the game, or to play round after round, just to have a better understanding of what is going on. I’m not opposed to playing Phasmophobia again, but it would take some convincing from at least three friends who are in need of a fourth played to have a full party. I also think each session is very dependent on having a good group of people around you in order to enjoy Phasmophobia, or at least a funny group of people to laugh at the misery of playing.

Blazing Chrome is a great throwback to games such as Contra; simple run-and-guns with swarms of enemies, awesome boss fights, special weapons, and a great soundtrack to go with it. With fluid controls, multiple difficulties, and a stage select so you can pick which stage to tackle in any order, Blazing Chrome is definitely worth picking up if you’re into Contra-style games.

Atelier Ayesha Plus: The Alchemist of Dusk looks good and has a great crafting system, but it pales in comparison to Atelier Rorona.

If you own a GBA or a DS then be sure to check out Riviera if you can find a copy, you'll find a very fun and challenging game underneath its cutesy exterior, and clocking it at well over twenty hours for the first play through you'll be long entertained, even into your second time around when you seek out all the stuff you missed the first time.

Jumpjet Rex is a great game but it can often as frustrating as it is fun. As long as you pace yourself, especially when things start getting difficult and your progression slows, you will find it to be an extremely enjoyable trip down memory lane and a great reminder of how challenging 2D platformers can be.

Aegis Defenders is probably one of the tougher games I’ve played in recent memory, and that’s all thanks to the tower defense sections. Fans of that genre probably won’t have too many issues, but newcomers playing alone might find those sections pretty daunting until they master switching characters, learning the arena layouts, and know what traps to use when. If you have a friend to play co-op, you’ll likely have a much easier time. Still, it’s a pretty good game for GUTS Department’s first outing.

A solid, well written game that's bit on the production values. It's a little on the short side but it does serve as a nice warm up for the next game.

A year after releasing Resident Evil 5, Capcom is back with the exciting conclusion to the story.

So is it worth it this year? That's a firm "yes". The Hypermotion 2 engine lives up to its hype and delivers what it probably the best simulation of football I've seen. You have a variety of game modes to find your favorites with some like Volta that deliberately speed up the pace that the engine tends to slow down in Career. You also have the widest variety of stars to choose from featuring men's and women's teams as well as all the licenses and real player likenesses you can hope for. However, Career mode needs some love. And by love I don't mean more meaningless transfer cutscenes. I mean depth beyond just the UK pyramid: add some real lower division teams across leagues and stop neglecting everything outside of Europe.

Puzzle Quest Galactrix sounds like a dream come true. I love the epic space battles, cool technology and, most importantly, the first game. So why is it that I can't get into this pseudo-sequel? This is a good second attempt, but I liked the first game better!

A surprisingly fun and simple RTS, with great pacing and intuitive play.

For trainers wanting a true one-on-one real time Pokemon experience, Pokken Tournament delivers rather well. There are a few things here and there that could use some improvement, most notably some online features and how ranking up works with the Ferrum League, but overall a rather enjoyable game for Pokemon and fighting game fans alike.

Brothers in Arms is a very cinematic game with interesting level layouts that force the player to think in tactical ways that no other series have been able to duplicate.

The Missing Link is an extremely enjoyable addition tot he main game. The problem is that true fans will enjoy the ride but ultimately find their selves wishing it was more in hindsight. It's a lengthy and entertaining addition but once it is over and done with, you will find yourself craving a true advancement on the Human Revolution experience.

Overture is a great idea with decent execution. The groundwork is certainly laid here for a new take on the roguelike genre but there is still a lot of room for improvement and expansion.

If you would have told me there was a new PSP game coming out in 2015 that I had to play, I would have called you crazy. But here we are. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Second Chapter is a title that you shouldn't miss.

With two distinct but well-integrated strategy modes, Brigandine offers a huge amount of gameplay that feels both old school and fresh at the same time. A fantastic tutorial eases new players into the game with little friction, and the seeming complexity becomes quickly manageable. While the graphics are nothing to write home about, the care taken in each story thread is evident, and the tactical gameplay offers a ton of replay value. Brigandine is an utterly unique offering on Switch, and should appeal to RPG fans and strategy buffs alike.

Be warned: There isn’t any sort of ”game” to the Summerhouse experience. This is a simple, doodling-sandbox meant to allow users to craft serene landscapes without needing any drawing skills. It does exactly what it sets out to do but could easily be SO much more.

Clutchtime: Basketball Deckbuilder is a novel concept, translating basketball into a deckbuilding card game rather elegantly. The gameplay isn't the issue, but using difficulty to gatekeep entire game modes is. To put it in basketball terms: they've dunked the ball but have been called for a technical foul for hanging on the rim and taunting us players.

There are some problems with the mission structure, but the intense action and addictive online more than make up for the inane tank missions.

Mario and Luigi Paper Jam successfully mixes the two long-running Mario RPG series, but outside of a few new Paper-based gameplay surprises it’s the same solid, self-aware role playing experience you’d expect from the Mario and Luigi series.

Penny Arcade Adventures may be the most expensive game on the Xbox Live Arcade service, but that shouldn't keep you from discovering a wonderful adventure full of snappy dialog and addictive combat.

Some of the tracks in the game are troublesome and the graphics look like they're straight out of 1997, but honestly, what are you going to spend your fifty bucks on? "Pokemon Colosseum"? Yea, I didn't think so.

Still free to play, World of Tanks brings explosive action and hours of fun with each sitting that will make it hard to put down. Veterans and new players alike can appreciate the upgrades that Wargaming.net has implemented, making for a solid title that's still one of the best free to play games on the market.

Singularity is a great game, with good ideas, wrapped in mediocre visuals. Raven Software is a studio to watch, and hopefully we'll watch them get a bigger budget.

The AWE expansion is a fantastic addition to the Control base game. Everything about it is just that shade better than the original content. It delivers a horror experience that is a step above, a new weapon that offers something really unique, and a final showdown that is bigger and badder than anything you've done in this game yet. It's a few more hours of a good game, that this time around takes a slight step forward to be even better.

Simply put, if you liked The New Order, you’ll like The Old Blood. The more than competent shooting, likable protagonist, writing, and gameplay choices make up for some small issues and a few static characters.

While The Club is one of Sega's best action games in years, it's marred by a lack of depth and repetitive gameplay. If you can get past some of these shortcomings then you will find that The Club is a worthwhile game that tries to do something different with the third-person shooter genre.

MAG tries and does some things well. 256 player battles still seem too chaotic and the game relies heavily on having a good team which is hard when it's a public style offering.

Minutes surprised me with its challenging yet fun gameplay.

Rather than continuing the story of guerillas in Yara, Far Cry 6 Vaas: Insanity offers a tight little roguelite centered on the villain of Far Cry 3. Stripping the franchise down to its core of exploration and shooting, this DLC could stand alone as its own small but satisfying game.

Hilarious, insane, intense, violent, and at the same time, completely ridiculous, Rocketbirds is a truly enjoyable game. The otherwise great game is only held back by sluggish controls that keep it from achieving its true potential as a great game.

Come on an adventure with treasure hunters Cid and Chocobo as they quest to rescue the memories of Lostime.

The White March - Part 1 is a great first expansion for Pillars of Eternity fans that have been in need of new content. A lengthy main quest, varied side tasks, and an enthralling narrative combine to make a worthwhile expansion for veteran players.

EA UFC 2 is certainly an improvement over the original game and while it does add more game modes and more to do, it's just disappointing that the main game mode, the career mode has almost gone untouched and the new additions don't really add much to the experience.

With a beautiful open world, great narrative side missions, and enough tension to raise even the calmest player's blood pressure, Dying Light 2 wrings a mountain of slick fun out of the most dire of settings. Scary to play solo and a ton of fun in multiplayer, Dying Light 2 will keep you entertained for a long time with its fantastic mission structure and groundbreaking day/night mechanics. It took a while, but Dying Light 2 was worth the wait.

ATV Offroad Fury Pro won't win any awards for graphics or game play, but it does feature an insane amount of levels, modes, mini-games and multiplayer fun.

Iron Harvest: Operation Eagle is a challenging DLC to a fun RTS game. Even though it can be played as a stand alone title Iron Harvest: Operation Eagle works best when accompanied by the main title Iron Harvest. The introduction of Ursonia and their campaign is a solid addition, even if adding aerial units to the game hurts its overall gameplay. The campaign story alone is worth the price of entry.

There are still nagging programming problems but for the most part, the Pitt does a lot better job at continuing the Fallout 3 experience. I enjoyed the DLC a lot more than the first one and it's nice to see a new and different environment in the game.

World Invitational is classic Hot Shots through and through, which is both good and bad. The game is a blast and has plenty of content to keep fans occupied for a long, long time but ultimately it doesn't do anything to further the series or draw new fans to the experience.

Yes, you're essentially playing through the events of Kingdom Hearts in portable form, but there's enough content here to make the experience seem new and fresh again.

Even when I’m not playing TopSpin 2K25, I’m thinking about playing TopSpin 2K25. I’m obsessed with its gameplay, despite its online play being held back by some inconsistencies. TopSpin is a clear contender for the best sports game of 2024.

Star Wars Outlaws is a good time, once you come to terms with it's stealth gameplay. While the visuals feel rough around the edges, the story and writing are fun and the gameplay can be surprisingly engaging. Things do wear thin after doing the same stealth missions over and over again, but this is still a trip to the outer rim well worth taking.

Need for Speed Rivals is a repetitive adrenaline rush, both good and bad, in the fact that the game will torture you with constant cop chases, but with constantly repeating tracks. Even with this, the game is still fun and is a great pick-up for those who need that fix for open world racing.

If you can imagine Asteroids meets Frogger in Space, you have a fairly good idea of what to expect from LOST ORBIT: Terminal Velocity. The game play is entertaining and the difficulty levels ramp up at a reasonable slope. The storyline doesn't bring much to the table, but the game mechanics stand on their own just fine.

Kingdom Come will break you down. It will humble you. It will remind you that you’ve got a lot to learn. Whether that means making your fingers do more WASD gymnastics than you’ve ever done in a first-person game, or giving you the down and dirty as to the extended services provided in the bath house. It acknowledges what a thorough hell it is for women living under a complete patriarchy. It’ll also give you a feel for what it was like to walk through the streets of the Late Middle Ages, with its still-primitive technologies and its utter lack of plumbing.

Embers of Mirrim has a fantastic core concept: controlling two characters simultaneously in a 2.5D platformer. Developer Creative Bytes have leveraged this concept against a deep variety of puzzles and challenges, and wrapped the whole thing in a majestic, understated graphical style.

Curious Expedition 2's gorgeous backgrounds and good-looking characters improve on the first title, but don't do enough to make the management part of the game sparkle. Expeditions become a trudge, especially when your party robs you of all your alcohol; and combat can be fun, but not much fun to look at.

Aside from a rather light multiplayer component, Star Fox Command has few flaws and is a must-have for DS owners.

Far Cry Primal is a fantastic departure from the usual FPS adventure. While it is formulaic, in a Far Cry sense, a rich and detailed world, as well as tons to see and do, make this an adventure worth taking.

City Life adds a new social element to the traditional sim game. It takes some clever planning to keep your city’s populace from destroying each other, but the implementation feels just a bit heavy-handed. The rest of the package is high caliber, except for some questionable taste in music.

Fans of Alan Wake and the paranormal should immediately add American Nightmare to their download queue.

Capcom Beat ‘Em Up Bundle is another successful entry in Capcom’s recent efforts to bring more retro games back into the fold. It’s a solid experience whether you’re looking to relive the glory days of the arcade, or discover the types of games that cost your gaming predecessors all their coveted quarters. With seven different arcade brawlers in the game, there’s plenty to love if you’re just looking for a relaxing night of solo games. But bring a few friends into the fold, and you’ve got the makings of a solid game night.

Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden packs interesting combat, open world exploration and lore, and numerous systems that have the player invested in what their characters, but it ends on too early a note to really have any impact.

Minus ray-tracing support, Days Gone on PC brings a lot of goodies that PC gamers look for. There's 60 Hz refresh rates, unlimited frames per second, ultrawide resolutions, HDR, and even an increased field of view. The technical aspects of this port are solid, even if I have to do a framey 360 spin with the camera whenever I first load up.

Twelve Minutes is a nice little point-and-click adventure game that will leave you stunned. Some points of frustration can make the game longer than it needs to be. Can get tedious at times if you're stuck.

It’s not particularly challenging, deep or narratively profound, but it is consistently funny in a wry, innocent way and outside of some physics quirks the platforming gameplay is engaging. Pikuniku is a game you keep playing because you want to see how it will make you smile next; what will the next odd little character exclaim? What will the next hat let you do? What minigame is around the corner? Pikuniku is arty and ludicrous without trying too hard or shoving a message down your throat, and in that regard it fits into Devolver’s stable of IP perfectly.

Wasteland 2 is quickly becoming a modern classic – and deservedly so. If you have not played this game, you really owe it to yourself to give it a shot. But some usability issues on the Switch might not make it the best choice for newcomers to a game that some already find difficult to parse. This version of Wasteland 2 is serviceable, but not ideal.

A unique twist on tower defense games is what makes Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare so fun. The monotony of standard tower defense is broken and is now a split between that and a first person shooter, though the standard defense rules are still in place. Several game modes and beautiful worlds add to the flair of the title, making this a fun choice for any Xbox One owner.

Samurai Warrior 4 is yet another solid entry in the long-running beat-em-up franchise. It offers a few new gameplay tweaks and a different narrative structure, but is largely the same old brawler you've seen countless times.

While Smoke and Mirrors is a little on the short side, The Wolf Among Us continues to impress with its story-driven gameplay that adapts to your previous decisions in unexpected ways.

Hard Corps: Uprising is a treat for fans of the original Contra series. The game pays homage to the older titles in the series while making its own mark with modern additions and improvements. Expect a challenge though as the difficulty level of the game has been turned up to eleven.

The gameplay loop to UFO: Unidentified Falling Objects is simple enough, but addicting, at least for a while. You can watch a trailer for this game, and you can even play for a little bit and think you know what you are doing, but you would be wrong. The further I dig into UFO the further it gets away from just being a casual puzzler. The online multiplayer would probably help drive that thought if I could find a match. This is a smaller title; its price reflects that, but in a good way. The gameplay is sharp, pixels even sharper, and just a fun time overall, just don’t rely on playing online.

FIFA Street is the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of gaming. Equal parts glorious and monstrous, it will leave you ultimately disappointed, if not completely filled with rage. Maybe Icarus is a better metaphor. It flies so close to greatness but invariably crashes and burns. Either way, play FIFA Street at your own risk.

Crimson Shroud is a short but sweet burst of JRPG that the 3DS is surprisingly short on these days.

A better package than Legacy, Mark of the Assassin has a great story to tell and is worth picking up if you're a fan of the Dragon Age franchise.

The Heist is a good bite-sized morsel of content that kept my attention throughout, and I'm excited to see where the rest of these chapters go. I just hope the Insomniac team can keep things interesting throughout.

The single-player is a complete write-off, but the multi-player crowd will find a lot to like in Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad.

While there are quite a few survival games out, the Flame in the Flood approaches the end of the world from a new perspective. Its an enjoyable survival game that always ends in peril; nevertheless, the Flame in the Flood is worth playing over and over again.

The game could have used a little more variety, but this $10 game proves to be yet another great game from Capcom!

Pode is a fun and relaxing puzzle game that starts out simple and becomes more complex as the game progresses and you gain new abilities. While the game is meant for co-op play, it plays just as well single-player, though you will have to constantly swap between Glo and Bulder. Having a second player can also help with solving puzzles as you have a second person helping you out, but alone or with a friend, with its enjoyable art style and relaxing atmosphere, Pode is a puzzle game worth checking out.

Story of Seasons doesn't rewrite the book on farming sims, but it's a big, healthy break from the Harvest Moon series that adds a few strong new ideas. It's Harvest Moon in everything but name, and one of the best of this kind of game to come along in a while.

I hope that any sequel keeps the writing teams and gives them enough leverage to write a script that's as interesting and fun as the first one.

PGA Tour 2K23 is a perfectly fine golf sim that manages to neither impress nor disappoint. It’s unlikely that you’ll hate it, but it’s likely that you’ll be left wanting more out of it. If you’ve played a golf sim in the last decade this one will feel very familiar to you, for better or worse.

The single-player and campaign modes are actually really great stuff. But like nearly all Call of Duty games, that is the content you'll breeze through within your first week playing if even for just a few hours a day. The bulk of the ride ends up being multiplayer and zombies and that is where the problems really lie. This is a game that I'm sure will eventually get the extra content, balancing, and bugs worked out along a series of patches and end up being much better than it is today. But unfortunately the buggy, laggy, unbalanced, and content-sparse game we get at launch is the only one I was given to review. And the balance of the excellent single-player with below average multiplayer ends up for an average overall experience.

Evolve offers an excellent mix of competitive and cooperative gameplay but it is buried behind a muddled progression system and lengthy matchmaking / loading times.

With great online play and two satisfying missions, Battlestations: Pacific proves to be one of the best games of its type on the Xbox 360.

Warnings at Waverly Academy proves that Nancy Drew has come a long way since she made bobby socks hot in 1930. As a value point-and-click adventure/puzzle title, it may not be the valedictorian, but it’s good enough for honor roll.

Serious Sam: Bogus Detour does a fantastic job of distilling the Serious Sam formula down into a twin-stick shooter. While there are a couple hitches along the way, the game is a surprisingly robust package and a lot of quality content for a great price.

Some may argue that this is a step backwards, but for what it is Dominator proves to be a highly competent racer with plenty of replay.

Mass Effect: Andromeda doesn’t quite live up to the hype, but it comes close. Considering the situation in which the developers found themselves, they put out an addition to the franchise that really feels like returning home even though you’re millions of light years from Earth. With stunning scenery, a distinct Mass Effect feel, and an abundance of things to do, it’s a worthy investment for any Mass Effect veteran or newcomer—but don’t expect it to be perfect.

Order Up! will be entertaining and easy to learn for all ages. At an average of six hours to complete, though, it suffers from the lack of a multiplayer challenge mode.

Din's Curse from Soldak Entertainment is an action RPG with a surprising amount of innovative takes on the genre. Unfortunately, these shining moments are marred by a rough-around-the-edges presentation.