I readily admit that I rushed my review on Spider-Man 3, so this time I spent more time on Web of Shadows. I really wish Treyarch had done the same.

The gameplay itself is lacking, whether you walking on land, sailing a ship, or battling in any form, you aren't really battling because the gameplay itself is fun or interesting, you're playing to continue the experience of expanding your goals and reaping the rewards after it.

This Is The Police is a challenging portrayal of law enforcement that falters when it comes to meaningful commentary. While it constructs a good form and addresses topical concerns, it fails to say anything definitive. Starting a conversation is worthwhile, but that only carries the game so far before its menial nature drags it down.

Fighting hordes of monsters, saving allies, and eventually confronting the Demon Queen herself: all of this and more awaits in Spirit Mancer. With a charming art style and cool mechanic of sealing away demons, you would think the game would be a winner. However, its flaws hold the game back from being anything special.

From a presentation standpoint, Ride 3 is outstanding. The bikes look fantastic and I love all the customization options. Unfortunately, it is lacking in terms of gameplay. With this being a video game and all, that’s a bit of a problem. If you really need a bike racer then this may be the best of your very limited options, but with the harsh learning curve, lack of teaching, and uninspired game modes, there are far superior racing games on the market.

Highwater is certainly a looker (and a sounder(?)), but its predictable combat and uninteresting story make it difficult to drudge all the way through.

Summary: Uninspiring with a lack of original ideas. It might be noteworthy if it wasn’t swimming in a pool crowded with 800-pound gorillas.

Ultimately, Runbow disappoints. Bowhemoth is a fun distraction. Single-player is a pretty traditional and unimaginative series of levels that only major platforming fans will maybe enjoy. And online is a hit or miss (mostly miss) collection of modes that is fun for a little while, but falls under the shadow of the Wii U’s insufficient online multiplayer ecosystem.

While the core gameplay is at least somewhat solid, Blue Rider doesn’t have a lot of content or any particularly nifty features to help it stand out amongst its competitors. Unless you love Twin stick shooters and are really, really itching for a challenge, give this one a pass.

Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet, for somebody only remotely aware of the source material, is an enjoyable game with interesting tricks in design held back by an otherwise intrusive plot.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers wears its inspirations a little too proudly on its sleeves, not to the point of the original plagiarism claims, but enough to fail to stand out in an increasingly saturated market. The game’s cultural authenticity is commendable, but it leans too heavily on familiar tropes. The middling technical performance is just the cherry on top.

Tesla vs. Lovecraft is imbued with a frenetic, bold energy that I only wish its designers had committed to more strongly. While there is fun in the premise of knocking back waves of Lovecraftian horrors while teleporting around them and maximizing Tesla’s devices, none of these concepts ever truly hits the mark. The result is a distracting but ultimately mindless exercise in repetition, which fails to ever become truly interesting.

Gas Guzzlers is more of a junker than a Ferrari, and it shows in its technical underperformance and uninspired track designs. If you really have nothing else to play, the game packs a couple cool features that will occupy you for a few hours — if you don’t get carsick before then.

Viola: The Heroine’s Melody might need a bit more time in the cooker, but it’s still an entertaining RPG with fun characters and a great core battle system. If you can overlook its weaker platforming elements and sometimes buggy glitches, you’ll have a good time with the game.

The good news is that fans can now play a new Worms game on their new consoles; the bad news is that Worms Battlegrounds does almost nothing to advance the series and so makes it hard to justify yet another Worms entry to begin with.

Turtle Rock added interesting content in Tunnels of Terror. Ridden Hives offer a compelling challenge, new Cleaners are somewhat worth experimenting with, No Hope is undeniably challenging, and Warped Ridden make you think twice, at least for a moment. But what's missing is purpose. Heng is useless, Ridden Hives aren't worth the risk for the reward and Warped Ridden aren't any more terrifying or game-changing. It's hard to identify Turtle Rock's aim, but there's no question it was off.

Some good warhammer 40k vibes can be found here but there’s just a bit too much going on in Necromunda: Hired Gun. The fast-paced FPS gameplay needs refining and is constantly slowed down by the RPG elements which in turn are not allowed to shine through the FPS aspect. I actually think this setting would lend itself more to a Skyrim style RPG more so than a first person shooter but this is what we got and I am actually a bit gutted that I can’t like it more than I do.

With the largest cast of wrestlers the franchise has ever seen, 2K and Yukes have done a solid job righting the WWE 2K ship. That being said, there is still a lot of work to be done.

Funko Fusion feels like it actively goes out of its way to ensure you don’t have fun. Despite Funko choosing a few fun properties and characters to translate to a video game, a plethora of bugs, clunky gameplay, and frustrating moments continuously hamper your ability to ever enjoy the moment. I believe there may be a good game hidden deep within Funko Fusion, but it is buried under so many issues that I doubt many players will have the patience to find it. The lack of co-op upon launch is truly baffling, as that may have been the one thing to save this experience. At minimum, I'd wait until co-op is released and a few updates have been made before checking Funko Fusion out.

Super Rude Bear Resurrection is a tough platformer with the interesting twist of using your previous failures towards your successful run, but sometimes too slippery platforming, mediocre design and distracting companion take away from what could be a fun romp through a terrible time.

The Caligula Effect offers a fascinating story inside of a huge virtual world. Filled with heavy concepts, writer Tadashi Satomi weaves a complex story about human suffering, artificial happiness, and the lengths people will go to find inner peace. While not nearly as developed or immersive as Persona 5, the game’s flashy graphics, star-studded soundtrack and solid story help to make up for what the game lacks in a depressingly shallow and unfulfilling social system, unclear objectives within dungeons and a rather tedious battle system.

To this day, I call Assassin’s Creed II my favorite video game of the past generation. It was truly a masterpiece. Unfortunately, the Assassin’s Creed series has become a shell of its former self. Syndicate tries hard to recreate some of the magic, and even creates some smart new features, but it ultimately falls short.

Montaro is an endless runner that does what it needs to. Its silly charm and low price of one dollar makes up for its sometimes unfair mechanics and limited content.

Nintendo Labo Toy-Con 04: VR Kit is ingeniously designed. The synthesis of physical cardboard Toy-Con with commensurate digital software creates a tactile and fun virtual reality experience that feels decidedly Nintendo. However, once the initial magic of Labo VR wears off, all that is left is a shallow, oddly assembled lot of minigames that won’t last more than an afternoon.

The Edge of Fate is the most whelming Destiny 2 expansion of all time. There are additions, sure, but there aren’t any real innovations that deepen the D2 experience the way The Final Shape, or even Lightfall, did. Unless you like turning into a little ball and rolling around, of course.

Stereo Aereo is a functional music game. While it has a very cool scoring method and control scheme, it’s ultimately plagued by unforgiving and frustrating gameplay plus a generic soundtrack. Play this one if you’re looking for a fun time-waster, but there are better titles to which you may rock out.

Figment’s mechanics are woefully underdeveloped, but the rest of the game is so cohesive and often brilliant that it’s difficult to dismiss out of hand. The ambient soundtrack, and especially the boss songs go a long way and are worth playing through the slight, five hour game to hear if that interests you at all. If not, the gameplay can be downright boring at times.

It gets so difficult, and the progression is so odd, that I couldn’t even finish the game. You can only try to maneuver a dirt bike through pneumatic platforms that launch you from one to another, up a shaft, so many times before admitting defeat.

In the end, this charming little puzzle game just isn't a good fit for the Wii.

One Way Trip is the story of a definite and unjust death sentence, told amongst an eerily realistic dissociative drug trip backdrop that freaked my delicate mind more than once. Basic, disjointed, and tragic, this game strips away almost all functions of a game and makes you a decision maker. Plagued with crashes that can cause fatal errors, One Way Trip does have some improvements to make. With those improvements, and time, One Way Trip is sure to become a cult favorite of the PlayStation 4 age.

The way that Telltale takes advantage of Minecraft lore to form its own narrative is intriguing and will delight fans of the original game, but what the studio is doing with this new story isn’t doing much that will excite anyone else.

Slybots: Frantic Zone has its redeeming aspects as both a single-player and multiplayer game, but without much variety in content or gameplay, the entertainment value wanes fairly quickly.

All in all, AdvenChewers isn’t a bad distraction, and for a buck there are much worse options out there.

The Men of Yoshiwara: Ohgiya is a pretty little romance game which does everything adequately, but not exceptionally. It's a little light on content, some of the bachelor's stories aren't terribly interesting or engaging, and it would really benefit from some additional background and character art, but benefits from beautiful splash art and a stronger female protagonist than the last Yoshiwara title.

A Summer with the Shiba Inu has an intriguing premise with a curious story. However, because of the engine limitations and limited nature of presentation and choices, it might only appeal to those who want a short visual novel with an interesting hook.

Overall, Hirogami is a visually stunning adventure taking place in a beautifully folded world. There’s a lot to get out of each level with many different challenges to sink your teeth into, but unfortunately, it’s all let down by a lack of polish in gameplay. Platforming feels clunky, and gameplay feels undercooked; it made my time with Hirogami a mixture of being in awe of my surroundings and dismay when I launched myself off the map.

The bottom line of my playthrough is that not much I had done mattered in the end. If you are interested in playing Cinders, be prepared to play it to completion for the best experience because it is clear that not every door has a prize behind it, and not every ending suits a fairytale.

Video Game Fables is a solid if simple RPG that suffers from the baggage of its meta nature. The lighthearted dialogue will make you smile and there are glimpses of compelling RPG design strewn about the experience. The game just never truly rises above the height of the conventions it seeks to overthrow, which given the subject matter, is a distracting misstep that weakens the overall experience.

Infamous: First Light takes an interesting, flawed character and does nothing with her. Even at $15, it’s a vapid, empty, wasted opportunity. At least the combat is still fun, though.

Green Hell VR on the PlayStation VR2 is a competent and immersive survival simulator set in the gorgeous but deadly Amazon forest. It’s a downright shame that this version is just a copy-pasted port of the Meta Quest version, and doesn’t include many of the complex features that the PC VR version contains. Nonetheless, the game is a worthwhile hardcore experience for those who have never played any version of Green Hell before. For anyone who has, it’s a tough sell. All I can say is, what a missed opportunity to take this game to new heights.

Tryst seems to be targeting people looking for an RTS experience at a lower price point, and I think there might be something here for those gamers. Meanwhile, the game's developers are promising bug fixes, fleshed out tutorials, and DLC to make the game worth the price for the rest of us.

Everything about Move It! feels like it should work, and when it does it’s a lot of fun. The problem is that doesn't always work. Some rotten apples in the microgame selection and the Joy-Con hardware's awkward fit with the overall concept muddy up an otherwise good time. Given the discombobulating nature of WarioWare, some muddying can be acceptable up to a point, but Move It! occasionally crosses the line from being playfully antagonistic to frustrating for the wrong reasons.

Infested with bugs from start to finish, Dark Alliance is a button mashing affair that drops the 5E rules in favor of flash. The bosses are great, but the parts in between less so. Here’s hoping developer Tuque can pull this out of the Deep Wastes with their post-launch plans.

What it lacked in story, it made up for in visual appeal. The romantic choices were different enough that it felt like a unique story for each choice, but the interaction between lovers seemed a little artificial at times. The art is pretty enough to make me want to continue on just so I can see the gallery pictures.

The games contained in the Arcadia Bay Collection are still excellent, but the updates made here make these the objectively worse versions. The motion capture updates to Life is Strange look fantastic, but are hard to see through more realistic textures that look out of place compared to the water color style of the original. If you can, stick with the original games on PC, but if you’re a console player this is an acceptable way to experience these incredible stories if you can look past the issues.

The core exploration and combat mechanics of the Metroid Prime franchise are fun and engaging. Unfortunately, the rest of the experience is marred with bizarre story beats, awkward character moments, and forced interaction with an empty, boring open world. Metroid Prime 4 had all the elements to be a slick, cohesive experience, but the game feels like the dev team maliciously complied with a mandate to make the game open-world. It’s still a Metroid Prime game, and there’s fun to be had, but go into this knowing it won't likely live up to what you were hoping for.

Tennis World Tour 2 on the PlayStation 5 is the definitive way to experience this realistic simulation title. While it does have quite a few flaws considering the package, there’s still a lot to love for those looking for a tennis game with a learning curve.

I haven’t bailed out on a VR game in a while, and only the most severe of nausea will cause me to eject completely rather than grind it out over time, but Golem is just painful to play. There’s too many games that have done it cleaner, and with better motion mechanics -- play them instead.

Project X-Zone 2 is a dream crossover on paper that falters in execution, failing to excel in any area beyond unabashed novelty. The quality of the cast and engaging juggling mechanic are the most you’ll likely get out of this crossover RPG.

This game has so many glaring graphical and AI glitches it borders on comical.

Space Hulk: Deathwing boasts the best, most stylistically accurate Warhammer 40,000 visuals yet created, bar none. It’s precisely how the grim darkness of the far future should look and feel. However, the incredible eye-candy of this new FPS is not enough to disguise its lackluster story, indistinct gameplay, and stability issues.

Rather than advancing upon the legacy of its predecessor, Wii Sports Club comes off more like an HD remake of the same old game with some additional motion plus and gamepad support. While this may have been a groundbreaking package eight years ago, today it feels altogether lackluster.

SLAM LAND combines a great art style with a decently fun couch co-op basketball hybrid game, in which dunking your friends and objects in the only objective in the game. Although there is a decent amount of content here, the lack of unlockables and no online play gives little incentive to come back to or continue playing SLAM LAND.

An ambitious addition to an already enormous game, but by stripping away many of the features on the sides of the experience, you’re left with a game that never quite finds the highs present in the original game.

Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle is an interesting way to celebrate the 40th anniversary of everyone’s favorite yellow muncher, but the asking price and lack of content might turn off some interested fans. However, with some added updates and patches, it has the potential to be one of the more engaging battle royale titles.

I have to wonder who this game is for. Other than raw nostalgia for this specific title, I can’t really think of a reason to recommend anyone play this. If you want to be a Space Marine, Space Marine 2 is amazing.

Lovely Weather We’re Having has a solid foundation of eye-catching artwork and an ever-changing landscape based on your local weather. However, there are a few negatives that can’t be overlooked, such as the rough audio, the lack of dialogue, and the small size of the world.

I thought that Spartan Assault would be a great addition to the Halo universe while expanding the audience with a new genre. In the end the short campaign, lack of storyline, and ease of gameplay make this a tough sell.

Project Temporality is not particularly original but it does provide a few leisurely hours of thoughtful time-clone puzzling.

Brakes are for Losers is an adequately fun time with friends if you’ve got four to eight people ready to play, but it unfortunately crashes into a wall with single-player content.

Sadly another attempt to cash into the name of a popular movie franchise with cute animal characters.

Days Gone features some potentially interesting community-building mechanics and the appeal of a bikers vs. zombies game is hard to ignore, but it never lets its best ideas take center stage. Instead, it focuses on lackluster combat and a repetitive set of missions. It moves along on the kind of momentum that exists almost by default in big open world packed with activities, but I could never get fully engaged, partly due to its dragging pace, scattershot story, off-putting protagonist, and frequent bugs.

As Michonne concludes it becomes clear that this mini-series does little to nothing to differentiate itself from everything The Walking Dead has already offered, nor does it do much to excuse the general sameness of everything Telltale is doing these days.

Paranautical Activity mixes rogue-lite level design, fps gameplay, and a blocky aesthetic to create an interesting experience. The combat can be fun, but encountering certain enemies can quickly turn that around. The weapon choices are cool to experiment with, but the slower characters may turn you away.

Once you’ve gotten over the thrill of assembling burgers, dishing out fries, pouring drinks, and serving ice cream, you’ll fall into the grind. What I’m Hungry lacks is progression, and that means you’ll have seen everything on the menu once you’ve completed the first level. There’s fun to be had, but this is more “value meal” than a full course.

Intentional or not, I can't help but read Life is Strange: Reunion as a metaphor for Deck Nine’s tenure with Max’s story. A reactionary and nostalgic finale that delights just as often as it frustrates. When viewing Reunion purely as a side adventure to see cute scenes of a duo we have grown to love, I can’t say this entry didn’t do its job. After all, I was smiling alongside them. But as a finale to a trilogy, it is a smile built upon tearing down any emotional weight that made these characters stick with us in the first place. Max’s quest to stop an arsonist isn't really a story with consistent escalation or character growth. Instead, it is a stream of moving, emotionally cathartic events that burns down the foundations propping up its bittersweet smile.

Fairy Tail 2 arrives at the finale of our favorite wizards' adventure with highlights and shortcomings alike. I recommend it to dedicated fans of the manga and anime, but this simply isn’t a welcoming entry for potential new fans.

Antonblast is chaotic to a fault. Its explosive personality makes for an entertaining spectacle, but it left me wanting for a more controlled detonation.

Slitterhead is the perfect definition of a game that doesn’t know what it wants to be. It falters in both the action combat category as well as the horror genre, resulting in a middling experience overall.

Phoenix Point: Behemoth Edition offers the same wealth of content available on the PC, and the controller support is good enough for those willing to overlook some fiddly inventory and menu management. However, the technical performance is far beneath what it should be, so your best bet is to wait for the promised patches to arrive, or simply enjoy a smoother ride on PC if you can.

A fun game at its core but can’t decide if it’s an arcade racer broken up with commercials, or a commercial broken up by an arcade racer.

Thunderflash is a highly competent, if uninspired release. While I enjoyed my hour long playthrough and a round or two of Survival mode, I couldn’t help but feel that the release as a whole was a missed opportunity to not only bring back the Run ‘n Gun genre, but to innovate and create something more complex. Still, as a co-op experience, it is well worth playing but unfortunately will be forgotten soon after completion.

Disintegration is a unique game held back by oftentimes irritating and dull game design and a weak campaign. While practically everything about the world and gameplay is unlike anything I’ve played before, too little of it succeeds in being consistently enjoyable.

If you ever wanted to learn about your favorite fonts, Type:Rider gives you more information than you needed to know. While an uneven platformer that struggles with you from beginning to end, it’s a serviceable romp for those that want a slightly relaxing game to play in these summer months.

Vigor is clunky and brutal. There is no satisfying single-player to fall back on, so every game session feels like a strain. It’s a shame because the ideas are sound, and it could be great, but the poor mechanics torpedo any competitive urge you have going into it. Vigor’s gunplay needs to improve drastically before it can start to accrue a real audience of passionate players.

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is by no means a bad game, but in a sea of other Souls copycats, this one does very little to stand out. Put into the perspective of its multiple delays and overall unpolish, it’s clear that this is an easy skip to play better options out there. Or at least wait until it's heavily discounted.

Pikmin 1 and 2 on Switch are the barest of bare bones ports. The clarity added by HD resolution and 16:9 support simply isn’t worth losing the improved controls of the Wii versions. In addition, these ports lose some of the original’s charm and contain strange glitches. While it’s great to have these games available on modern consoles, the Wii or GameCube releases are still the way to go if you can.

F1 2015 feels like a step backwards for the series, which is disappointing given the new EGO engine, and the current generation of hardware. The core experience, however, remains one of the most realistic racing simulators available.

Superliminal is a short, sweet, but superficial exploration of one the most interesting mechanics to find its way into a puzzle game. It excites with the possibility of what could be, but fails to deliver on the challenges its mechanics beg for.

Medusa’s Labyrinth has made an art out of building tension, using a brilliant combination of setting, sounds and truly grotesque monsters to create several heart-pounding, white-knuckle, hold-your-breath and drop-your-torch moments. While this game perfectly sets the stage, this setting is tragically undermined by unclear controls which have not been well adapted to VR, nausea-inducing simulated motion, and the tedious chore of physically wandering blindly through an unmarked labyrinth.

Save Me Mr. Tako is a decent 2D platformer with some great presentation and a loving throwback to the 2D platformers of the 90s, but unfortunately feels a bit too frustrating to enjoy for long periods of time.

While there is a great game somewhere in here, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: Cloud Version has many, baffling issues seemingly exclusive to this version. On top of not being comparable to other console versions, it somehow performs even worse to the point of being almost unplayable most of the time. As usual, your results may vary depending on internet connection, but this version still needs a lot of work.

Ghosts 'n Goblins Resurrection looks great, sounds great, but unfortunately, doesn't play great. Fans of the genre and/or franchise will likely find a lot to enjoy here, but those new to the spooky world of Ghosts 'n Goblins may end up tapping out before they see the credits.

Revenant Saga is a by-the-numbers JRPG that will scratch your itch for a portable 90s-esque game with its charming characters and entertaining turn-based combat. However, those that want a meatier role-playing experience should look elsewhere for their fix.

Rich in story, but less so in execution, Divide suffers from a few technical issues that makes it a little more clunky than it should be. That said, the cyberpunk narrative is evocative of the best of sci-fi, backed up by a fantastic score. I just wish the controls matched that potential.

It’s a fun little game with some gorgeous visual and musical style, but it fails to evoke the emotional core that similar games like Journey and Flower were able to. The challenging gameplay and the musical score may be enough for some players, but those in search of more depth will need to look elsewhere.

Bleak Faith: Forsaken takes place in a beautiful science fantasy world that is begging to be explored. However, the constant bugs and frame rate drops make exploring this beautiful world on the PlayStation 5 a chore. If Bleak Faith: Forsaken receives more polish it could be one hell of a souls-like.

Grid Autosport is magnificent in racing and pretty terrible everywhere else.

If you’re craving pinball on the go, it’s tough to beat the paltry $6.99 price tag. But for most, this is not the platform you’re looking for – and that’s no Jedi mind trick.

As a whole, The Sims 4 can be a great game to lay on your couch and sink hours into, but many things hold it back from being the great game that is is on PC. From bugs and technical problems, to a horrible control scheme, there is a great game buried beneath problems.

The second, and maybe final, episode of The Walking Dead: The Final Season has some great introductions and story arcs, but unfortunately suffers from some uneven pacing and a conclusion that puts our characters in a rough spot from which they may not recover. Suffer the Children, indeed.

World of Final Fantasy offers up a great tribute to the history of the franchise, but as its own game it has little to nothing of substance to say.

While the Vita port is mechanically sound, its disappointingly low resolution and awkward use of the rear touch screen is appalling. Yeah, you can play God of War on the go now – but you probably shouldn’t.

While Dread Hunger aims to freshen up a rather burnt-out genre due to the likes of TTT and Among us, there isn’t enough reason to keep playing over and over again. Roleplaying is moreso encouraged than required, causing games to get repetitive quickly. Not only that, but the lack of story leaves this game ending on a disappointing note, especially since it immediately promises that it will play a key role throughout the experience.

While Sports Bar VR captures the look and feel of a sports bar, the control scheme combined with Hulk Mode made me feel drunk, complete with hangover. The four games on offer are hampered by inconsistent physics, resulting in an unsurprisingly uneven experience. None of that, somehow, interferes with the game being a stupid-fun experience with friends.

Shadow Warrior 3 does little to reinvigorate the Shadow Warrior series. A scant campaign, downright bad narrative, obnoxious voice acting, and generally derivative new gameplay mechanics do little to set this entry apart from other FPS titles. However, combat is, as always, incredibly satisfying, and probably worth enjoying at least once.

The atmosphere of war is missed, and the strenuous activity of managing a helicopter in a war is barely touched upon.

Relooted makes you feel like you're a mastermind, and escaping is thrilling, but there are just enough problems that drag the experience down to the point you can't ignore them.