I don't know that the core concept has the legs to support a a sequel, but in the here and now I'm awfully glad this game exists.

It's unapologetically immature, boner-obsessed, and grotesquely violent. And yet, unlike other unapologetically immature, boner-obsessed, and grotesquely violent games of recent memory, there is no meanness of spirit to Shadows' intentions. Practically every gag in the game seems to come from a place of easygoing silliness, rather than a need for forced edginess.

Band Hero is a product that feels like a commodity, something assembled by a marketing team concerned only with the market demands currently not met by the existing Guitar Hero brand. But that cold, calculated feeling doesn't make it a bad game.

If you don't like Green Day, and you don't want to play their music in a Rock Band game, you're not going to get a whole lot out of Green Day: Rock Band.

It's serviceable and, again, it looks great on the PC, but was this trip really necessary? It's an average experience, overall, and in a genre that continues to be packed full of competition, you'd probably be better off finding a discounted copy of Crysis 2, or, if the open-world combat of the original Crysis really floats your boat, spend some time with Far Cry 3, instead.

The control feels good and the combat starts out in a pretty satisfying way. But, over time, those positives wear off. The game doesn't do enough with its additional items, areas, and action to make it feel like a steady challenge and the variety in the action is a little lacking.

One of my favorite things about Hell's Highway is the fact that you can spend as much time commanding your squads as you do actually shooting enemies yourself.

Quick look.

It has all the same elements as the original, but it just doesn't deliver the charm and appeal.

The first Puzzle Quest was a revelation; Galactrix is just a complication.

The Beginner’s Guide offers a personal and sometimes eerie perspective on amateur game development.

One of my favorite things about Hell's Highway is the fact that you can spend as much time commanding your squads as you do actually shooting enemies yourself.

Syndicate represents the most fun I've had with an Assassin's Creed game since Black Flag. It's proof that there's still life in this franchise, even when it goes badly astray. Now, what say we give it a short rest, so that maybe it won't have to be defibrillated back from the brink yet again?

AlphaDream hits the mark again in terms of combat and dialogue, even if some new additions fall flat.

It took me a good five hours to play through, and it wraps up enough story threads to be satisfying, while leaving enough open to keep me eager for Episode Two. If the humor and the combat can retain this level of quality, this could be the start of something great.

The action is solid and the story is interesting enough to make Singularity worth checking out.

While demand for this style of gaming and for Homestar-licensed products both peaked a while ago, it's an enjoyably goofy diversion.

MAG is a solid shooter and its leadership elements are intelligently designed, but it doesn't feel especially different from other big-team consoles shooters, like Battlefield: Bad Company. As long as you're not going in expecting the player count to make a dramatic difference in the way MAG feels and behaves, you'll have a good time.

Burn Zombie Burn isn't for people looking for a casual action game; if you can't hang with the demands of something like Geometry Wars, this one will probably stress you out to no end. But if you enjoy getting a grip on fairly complicated mechanics and juggling them as fast as you can while you watch your scores race ever higher, there's a lot of depth in this one.

I hadn’t touched a strategy game with any serious intent until Firaxis turned my world upside down with XCOM. Though Shadowrun Returns assumes too much about the player’s prior knowledge about the universe and too often skimps over introducing key gameplay systems, getting over the hump is worth discovering the deeply gratifying strategy game within.

Far Cry: Primal feels like one long, optional side mission.

While I'll always have a fond place in my heart for the original version of Lode Runner and the way it looks and sounds, this is a strong reinterpretation of the original game that pulls off the same tricky balancing act between thinking and running.

Fumbles by stretching what little story it does have much too far.

Band Hero is a product that feels like a commodity, something assembled by a marketing team concerned only with the market demands currently not met by the existing Guitar Hero brand. But that cold, calculated feeling doesn't make it a bad game.

Rivals feels like it's on the cusp of greatness. The pieces are all there--the handling is exciting, the soundtrack is solid, and the systems that surround the multiplayer help build meaningful battles between racer and cop. But with just six players driving around the entire world and no good way to pull those players together for some true multiplayer activities, those pieces go absolutely nowhere, leaving behind an empty world that might as well not even be online at all. It's a real shame.

Nostalgists will have close to a dozen hours worth of matches and stories from one of the WWE's greatest eras to play through. It's been a long time since I've been able to earnestly recommend a wrestling game to just about any type of fan, but WWE '13 is most definitely worth such a recommendation.

It's easy to hear the words "console" and "real-time strategy" in the same sentence and immediately determine that Age of Booty is not for you. But the game really feels like it was built with the constraints of the average gamepad in mind while simultaneously not feeling dumbed-down or stripped.

While some will definitely enjoy the sandbox nature of the game and the variety of units it provides, others might be put off by the arcadey gameplay and simplistic strategy. The game provides a decent amount of replayability through its multiplayer modes but it's hard to tell if there are enough gamers online as of this writing to make that a sure thing.