Wii Sports Resort offers more variety and a bit more complexity without alienating that family up the street who only bought a Wii because they love bowling. Unless you're the kind of sullen misanthrope who can only feel at peace when getting headshots with some kind of virtual scope, you'll surely find something about Wii Sports Resort that keeps both you and your non-gaming friends or family coming back for more.

A fantastic value, all told, with a bare minimum of eight hours or more that never feels like you're doing exactly the same thing twice.

Renegade Ops feels like the model of a fantastic downloadable game designed to the strengths of digital distribution. It's big, loud, sort of dumb, and a ton of fun because it focuses on one thing, and does that one thing exceedingly well. For $15, what more do you want?

Nothing in The Darkness II's story line feels out of place or unnecessary. It doesn't digress needlessly into side missions or other time-wasters designed to just keep you playing for longer stretches. Instead, Digital Extremes believed in the strength of both its combat system and Jenkins' script to inspire players to play through it again once the credits roll.

But once you start flying one of Luftrausers' myriad ship types around its war-torn skies, something takes hold of you. Hours pass as you mix and match weapons and engines and body types, chasing after difficult goals, elusive blimps, and an ever-higher score.

Modern Warfare makes meaningful tech upgrades to the Call of Duty franchise, making it look and sound better than ever while still maintaining its crisp, exciting gameplay.

The Entropy Centre is a brutally brain-bending Portal-like, using time as its main mechanic. Casual puzzle-enjoyers might find its trial-and-error game loop more frustrating than fun, but the meticulous-minded will probably enjoy its challenges. [Quick Look]

If you're strictly a solo player, you'll probably find Skate 3 to be a sterile, temporary environment that doesn't feel as inviting as the previous game may have. But if you've even dabbled in the online world of Skate 2, you'll surely enjoy what Skate 3 has to offer.

Trine's got the gameplay and the looks to make it well worth your time and money.

So perhaps Sleeping Dogs isn't one of those games you'll want to keep on playing long after you've seen its story's conclusion. But while you're engaged with that story, this is an effective open-world experience, filled with interesting characters, some exciting action, and enough unpredictability to keep you hooked. It might feel familiar, but that doesn't make it any less fun.

While I think that anyone with a reasonable level of interest in puzzle or rhythm games should absolutely own Lumines, there's really no good reason to collect them all. If you've somehow managed to dodge the series until now, Supernova's a fine place to start. But as someone that's been playing it since it was originally released on the PSP in Japan, I got tired of it almost immediately.

Don't judge Ninjatown by its cover. It's funny and clever in a way that grown-ups can appreciate, and the increasingly complex strategy is engrossing and challenging enough to keep you coming back right up to the very end.

I like what Gran Turismo 5 Prologue offers, I just don’t care for the decision to monetize it. "Gran Turismo 4" featured more than 50 tracks and more than 700 cars, so if $39.99 buys you just six tracks and 70 cars in 2008, I don’t even want to imagine how much Gran Turismo 5 will cost.

It's just the rough trimming around the edges, the ways that those grand elements could have been better realized and better conveyed to the player, that make this as frustrating a game as it is lovable.

As far as entry points go, Danganronpa is a great one, even if 999 and VLR are better games. If you like what you see here, more strangeness awaits you. Danganropa's tongue-twisting sci-fi (or is it?) narrative will have you constantly second guessing, and while the game-y parts aren't its strongest point, they work well enough.

It also runs great on PC, where the higher potential resolution and better image quality really stands out. That's the version to play, if you have a PC that's capable of running it properly.

There's an unassuming thoughtfulness to A Boy and His Blob that, in an odd sort of way, has the feel of some of the better children's programming you might see on public television. It's not educational per se, but it values subdued atmosphere and elementary puzzle design over flashy, merchandise-friendly mascots with prepackaged catchphrases.

The truly criminal part about Rivals' inability to bring people together is that it's actually a great game.

Mouse: P.I. For Hire shows a deep love for animation of the era, but the gameplay and script lack the same level of care. A Gouda attempt, but nothing bleu me away. Cheesy in all the wrong ways.

Between the quality of the content and the release schedule so far, this is probably one of the finest examples of episodic video gaming out there, though it's still susceptible to one of the format's implicit pitfalls--if it doesn't stay interesting, players won't keep coming back. For now, at least, the keen sense of silliness is enough to keep things interesting.

A thrilling and engaging experience. The swordplay is fun, and it's really fascinating to see the different spots where either Kojima's or Platinum's signature styles shine through. It also has a wild final confrontation that shows elements of both.

Possibly the most surprising addition are the amount of stealth sequences.

Luftrausers is a game that's easy to get lost in.

There are plenty of really great things to see and do in Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, and that stuff--the main quest line, the faction quests, and the interesting combat--makes the game fairly easy to recommend. But it's hard not to be at least a little disappointed when you start seeing the various spots where the game doesn't live up to the high bar set by its best content.

Brief, but engaging. The combat itself is interesting enough to cover for some of the repetition in the side objectives and it looks really great. If you're looking for a sprawling open-world with a billion little things to do, this isn't going to float your boat, but Second Son's tight, focused approach definitely still holds plenty of appeal.

It's a shame that more attention wasn't paid to The Division's story. The side missions didn't need to be as repetitive as they are, and that's disappointing. But there's a real foundation here that makes this worth paying some attention to, provided you don't intend to just shoot your way through the missions by yourself.

There are still a lot of things this series could stand to improve, but Madden NFL 15 represents an encouraging step forward for this series. A small step, to be sure, but still a positive one.

The side content is too repetitive, but The Division's main content and exciting multiplayer component stand out and make this thing worth seeing, provided you've got some like-minded friends around.