You need patience, skill, and ,in my created character's case, a mean right hook to climb to the top of the ranks and earn a championship belt.

A Realm Reborn is such a substantial change from the original game that it merits a second look if you hated the first release. So much has changed for the better, and it has resulted in one of the most polished MMORPGs out there today.

With a unique narrative structure and a story that actually fills in a lot of back story, this second episode of The Devil's Playhouse is a real winner.

If you can get passed a little repetition and some frustrating boss battles, chances are you'll find Manhattan to be a great place to spin your web.

Sure, you've seen it all somewhere before, but Darksiders manages to tie together just about every adventure-game idiom and make it all work.

Old World Blues is a fun and funny DLC offering up some great rewards along the way. The mission variations is slim, but you'll have plenty of areas to explore in the Big Empty. Bugs still crop up that can annoy or kill your game though.

With revamped GM and Pro game modes, a near flawless experience with online play, and a fantastic improvement upon the gameplay itself, NHL 13 proves to be worthy of hoisting the Stanley Cup.

Even with a few outdated quirks, this fourth (and final?) Oddworld delivers an exciting storyline full of memorable characters.

This is a great looking game that will remind players of the genre's heyday in the 1990s. And with dozens of items to unlock and a wide variety of weapons to shoot, Jamestown+ will keep shoot-em-up fans happy for many hours to come.

A great twist on a genre almost as old as gaming itself, SteamWorld Dig gives platforming an injection of life and spirit that stands out from the crowd in this age of blockbuster gaming. It's worth playing for many reasons, but the fresh way it handles platforming is reason enough itself.

Less bang for your buck is the best way to describe Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X. You've got a truncated songlist that has to be milked for modules, giving this series a grind game that it never needed to have. It's still got some great music and the presentation is as excellent as ever, but it still feels like we've been shortchanged somehow.

One of the best expansion packs in a long while, They Shall Not Pass delivers excellent gameplay, and captures the spirit of World War I better than anything thus far.

While the combat system of the Bravely Default 2 is unique and offers a high risk, high reward style of gameplay not seen elsewhere, the overall experience plays out in classic JRPG fashion. I had fun grinding out XP for the jobs I wanted, with it never feeling like a chore, the true sign of a well made JRPG. The lack of mouse support for the PC version though is next to unacceptable with all the menus you work in. Classic JRPG style, not necessarily a modern day classic. The lack of true innovations keep it from perfection.

Atari didn't owe us this one. The best selling original game is back, and it's just as fulfilling as the old one. There are some unfair nuances that you have to get past, but for $10, you owe it to your childhood to play this game, beat this game, and help Yar finally get the revenge they seek. Step up. This IS your grandparents' bullet hell game.

The real question I set out to answer for myself was a simple one. Is Athena Crisis a true successor to the Advance Wars and Wargroove formula? Or does it feel more like a cheap knockoff, trying to get a quick buck from an unsuspecting gamer? I think seeing all the units that are available to play with speaks enough for itself to show that this isn’t the Advance Wars you grew up with. While the dialogue does feel a bit Saturday morning cartoon, the amount of choices you have when crafting an army are massive. Add a campaign editor, and a few other customization options and you have a title that is worthy of the games it wants to emulate. Not only that, but sets the bar for the next title in this genre to rise up to.

And that sums it all up. Bye-Bye Boxboy! packs a lot of punch for its size. Its combination of platforming and puzzle-solving is unique, and its simple premise gets complex early in the game. The additional content is anything but slim, and not only adds, but enhances the experience of the game. The developers did a great job of crossing classic platforming with new puzzle-solving to create a new style of game that exercises the mind.

The first handful of gameplay hours are working against Triangle Strategy. Not a lot of combat, characters that you don’t care about yet doing things that are not very interesting. However, there is an excellent game, with a fascinating story to experience, hiding behind all of that initial content. You have to learn about the world you are dropped into before you can have the ride of your life, if that’s not of interest then look elsewhere. It’s hard to say just play the first four hours, if you’re not hooked by then you’ll never be, but it’s the truth.

If you’re a fan of puzzle games and especially Pushmo, you’ll likely enjoy Stretchmo just as much, if not more.

The Swapper is a masterpiece of design.

While the game features some new innovation that we’ll be seeing in upcoming games you do have to wonder about the value the game brings as the single player side of the game is a bit on the short side and the multiplayer is a bit on the generic side.

With amazing graphics, an intriguing new combat model and one of the best RPG stories I've experienced in years, Crisis Core may just be the game that makes you completely forget about God of War: Chains of Olympus!

A solid, well written, well executed game. If you're looking for something new and original, Darksiders is your game.

All in all, the game itself is fairly solid. MLB 08 will give you a relatively deep experience with most of the game modes that you select, but there will be some headaches depending on how far you go.

Alan Wake comes to the PC and brings his paranormal curse with him, completely intact. The same defining horror experience is here, occasionally marred by outdated graphics and quirky character animation, but everything else works like a charm. The extra DLC chapters are also included, so book your trip to Bright Falls today...you won't soon forget it.

Without being weird and unrecognizable as a video game, Transistor turns many video game tropes on their heads—subtley.

If you somehow still haven't played Castle Crashers, now is the perfect time to do so. If you already have the game on another platform, it may not be worth the upgrade, because the game has been changed so little that you won't be missing anything new.

Rogue Galaxy is a decent action RPG from one of my favorite developers, Level 5. While not quite as good as their previous titles, Rogue Galaxy still offers plenty of fun RPG goodness, and does it in a very appealing style.

inFAMOUS 2 is as solid as the original game if not more-so. Sucker Punch has nailed the superhero formula and created what could be the perfect superhero simulation for any platform. This game is the perfect way to scratch that desire in your imagination to be more than human...