Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star succeeds at providing base-level fan-service, but in a way that doesn’t feel as particularly compelling or essential as the original. If you want more pigeons in your life, it’s pocket change for a few laughs – just don’t expect more out of it.

The Sims 4: Get Together utilizes the new club system to have new experiences, ways to play, and is a great social feature. Although it is a great expansion and allows for new and exciting gameplay, it fails to bring enough to the table for new players or people looking to get back to the Sims franchise.

More than medi-orc-re, but less than spectacular, Orsinium seems more like a holdover expansion than an overall addition to the ESO experience.

Rainbow Six: Siege is one of the better tactical FPS experiences of the year, even with a smaller content offering than most. Microtransactions and limited custom options can muddy it up, but if you enjoy the core gameplay loop, there’s a lot to enjoy here for the multiplayer-minded player.

It feels odd calling a point & click horror game adorable, but that’s what Bulb Boy is. Heartwarming moments are mixed with gross-out details without any friction. The surreal story has plenty of twists and turns, and the puzzles are enjoyable to work out. This little indie title is truly a gem in its own special way.

Its main goal from the outset seems to focus on raising the player’s blood pressure and enthralling them with the action. While it achieves that feeling for a majority of the game, the console version suffers from some serious frame rate and loading issues that bog down their experiences.

Valhalla Hills is a well built title easily capable of fulfilling a short term RTS fix.

Driveclub Bikes is a nice departure for the Driveclub franchise. This is an expansion that actually expands the game from a relatively competent title, in my opinion, to nearly a must own for racing fans.

Just what Telltale hopes to accomplish Minecraft: Story Mode remains in question as “The Last Place You Look” breaks story and characters for the sake of seeing every corner of the Minecraft universe.

Yo-Kai Watch is an endearing, charming title with some minor missteps, but it overcomes those with the pure joy of discovery and intrigue that can only come from a well-crafted collection-RPG, reminiscent of my youth spent behind a dim GameBoy light.

Typoman is a brilliant proof of concept muddied by messy mechanics, unclear prompts and a lack of meaningful motivation. While the wordplay is superb, the focus is never on that strength as often as I wish it was.

Star Wars Battlefront nails bringing home the original trilogy in a new and interesting way, but fails to substantiate the splendor in a meaningful way. A fun nostalgia trip that might barely tide you over until the new film, but not much longer.

For the most part, The Old Hunters feels like a tight, good bit of content that fans of the original game will thoroughly enjoy. The Old Hunters ratchets up Bloodborne’s difficulty quite a bit. But in doing so, the satisfaction of beating bosses only gets stronger.

Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival retains the charm that the series is known for, but is uneventful and boring. Move out of this town.

Archon and co-op modes provide a stair step for new players and veterans alike to rejoin the multiplayer ranks, whereas the incredibly strong single player ties up the story arc nicely. While most sequels don’t feel the freedom to innovate, Blizzard has done exactly that, making the venerable series feel fresh and new.

The first season is one that is full of hard choices and a lot of sacrifice and feels very much in line with what fans have come to expect from Game of Thrones, but just how much all of this will matter has been hidden away for a second season.

Nintendo’s best competitive sports title is just as thrilling as ever, but feels a little too familiar and light on content.

Saint Seiya Soldier’s Soul is a quaint fighting game that has its small playability value robbed by a unique fatal flaw in the restart option that drags the action and frustrates the player.

Stella Glow has a talent for keeping you engaged all the way through, which is a rare trait for the increasingly niche world of Japanese Role Playing games.

There’s a charming game in Goggles that is unfortunately hidden behind a half-baked software release. While the art style is colorful and unique, the gameplay is flat and an important portion of the experience, multiplayer, has no participants. While I love the level design, it’s not to recommend the game on.

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.

Fallout 4 may be an iterative step forward for the series, but it is every bit what RPG fans know, love, and expect.

It’s easy to brush aside lofty claims, but Untame has delivered the distinctive gaming experience they promised and then some.

Broforce is a fun game, but it’s overbearing and obnoxious tone made it difficult to play for more than an hour or so at a time.

In that rubble, a wonderful bounty is excavated; an exquisite story, a compelling heroine, a fascinating sandbox, and a beautiful view. Rise of the Tomb Raider is a little more subdued, a little less bombastic, and a whole lot more introspective. It sometimes falters in scripted sequences and technical hitches. But the way it combines such excellent themes into such fantastic gameplay is evidence that Lara’s story was one that needed to continue.

How would I describe it in a single word? Fantastic! If this is the kind of work a three-year development cycle can give a AAA game, then I don’t want to see Black Ops 4 until 2018, and counting down the days to it’s release.

If you are at all on the fence on finding a game which can deliver a rich experience and dozens of hours of gameplay with a great mix of resource management, city building, and RTS combat: this just might fit the bill.

The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes can occasionally get tedious when playing alone, but the multiplayer is one of the greatest handheld co-op experiences around.