It's a technically competent shooter with co-operative play. For some, that's plenty. But if you're more discerning about your shooters, you'll probably get bored of this one before you've seen the end credits.

It's a quality multiplayer shooter paired with a lackluster campaign that starts out with promise that it completely squanders by the time the credits roll.

Battlefield Hardline is hardly a disaster, but it feels like a franchise spinning its wheels with minor adjustments, rather than truly advancing forward.

But The Saboteur's gameplay systems never let you forget that you are playing a game, and the nakedness of the underlying machinery is one of the game's greatest shortcomings.

Dawnguard offers far more than a self-contained episode in the Fallout vein--which it should, at double the price--but it falls just short of the scope of a traditional, pre-Internet boxed expansion pack. Still, it's a fine way to expand the already immense content offering of Skyrim, especially if you're still actively traipsing around those snowy hills in search of more adventure.

It's nice to see this series mature and evolve over time, and while Traveller's Tales will need to continue upping the ante if it intends to keep putting out new Lego games at such a rapid clip, for the moment Lego Pirates offers plenty of reasons to jump back in and mash a few plastic bricks together again.

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

Nothing about the gameplay feels broken, it just feels soulless this time around.

It's nice to see this series mature and evolve over time, and while Traveller's Tales will need to continue upping the ante if it intends to keep putting out new Lego games at such a rapid clip, for the moment Lego Pirates offers plenty of reasons to jump back in and mash a few plastic bricks together again.

If you’re aware of the game’s limitations and you’re still eager to blow an open world straight to hell, few games do it better than Just Cause 3.

It's hard not to let the experience of the first MUA color the expectations for MUA2. By those standards, MUA2 isn't as exciting a game, largely due to the choices it makes with the fiction. On its own, though, this is still an enjoyable action RPG romp that makes good use of the Marvel Universe in its own way.

If you've never played an Animal Crossing game before, you'll probably love its charm and get lost in all the different tasks you can perform. And if you've stayed away from the series for any serious length of time, you'll probably still be able to enjoy yourself. But the formula hasn't changed, and for a lot of repeat players, it'll probably wear thin quickly.

Hybrid's peripheral shortcomings are easy enough to ignore, though, since the core idea is so well executed.

WWE 2K16 improves on the many things wrong with last year's game, but not nearly enough.

It's damn hard to talk about video game tennis without bringing up Virtua Tennis, particularly when a game, like Grand Slam Tennis 2, hems so close to that original arcade formula. It's a facsimile that's executed well enough; there just aren't any good reasons to recommend Grand Slam Tennis 2 over the games that it cribs from.

The great training offered by Killer Instinct will help you get your feet wet, and it might just introduce you to some concepts that'll make you understand all fighting games on a slightly deeper level. That's a great touch.

Nevermind these heightened expectations, though: even on its own merits, Epic Mickey is a platformer that feels about a generation behind, though one with just enough flashes of inspiration to keep you constantly aware of its wasted potential.

The story is the main thing that I'll remember about The Force Unleashed--I found it to be more satisfying than the last three movies combined. Though you go in sort of knowing how it has to end, since it has to lead into Star Wars, there are plenty of significant events occurring throughout. It's enjoyable to watch it all unfold. That said, it's unfortunate that the game isn't a bit more even, because the constant flips from too easy to too hard really drag things down and prevent The Force Unleashed from being great.

Madden NFL 25 doesn't represent enough of a leap forward to make it either a technical showpiece for your new console, nor a more exciting football game than what EA already put out a few months ago.

At $19.99, Raiden Fighters Aces compares favorably to the standard Xbox Live Arcade pricing structure, where each one of these three games would probably run $10. So if you have a hankering for this type of classic scrolling shooter gameplay, Raiden Fighters Aces is a strong package that you'll certainly enjoy.

Imitation is an open invitation for comparison, and while it's mostly competent from a technical perspective, it's all very rote.

I'll go so far as to say that the genre of sports-themed minigame collections probably isn't capable of really being revolutionized, but Kinect Sports gets dangerously close, simply by virtue of doing the one thing other motion-controlling technologies haven't been able to yet: Tracking your feet.

Slick production values, solid controls, and tons of fan service can't make up for mediocre progression and a lack of content.

Your ability to possess, displace, and disintegrate a wide range of objects and human beings gives the designers ample opportunity--which they mostly use wisely--to set up unique and mindbending puzzle scenarios, but clunky controls and some basic game flow issues undermine what's otherwise a pretty neat little game.

HAWX is a little too short and a little too easy to recommend wholeheartedly, though if the thought of embarking on a cooperative jet-fighting mission or participating in high-powered dogfights is enough to get your pulse racing, you'll probably find enough going on to keep you occupied.

Nothing about Rock of Ages is predictable. Hell, it's barely successful. Essentially a hodgepodge of tower defense, bowling, and absurdist humor, Rock of Ages darts in so many weird directions at once that the whole endeavor is constantly on the verge of falling apart at the seams. And yet, by the barest of threads, the developers at ACE Team manage to keep this jalopy running--or, in this case, rolling.

Invincible VS is clearly a game by the FGC for the FGC, which results in a double-edged sword. It serves as an incredibly fun and satisfying tool for competition, featuring just enough of that modern fighting game sanding of edges to welcome in new players, while also offering plenty of depth through playing chicken with the combo meter and a combo breaker-esque system of Heroic Strikes, Counter Tags, and Assist Breakers. Disappointingly, this focus on creating a game for tournament players seems to be what has caused the single-player offerings to suffer. The presentation is brilliantly flashy the whole way through, but after playing through a mediocre “episode” of the show and reaching disappointing arcade mode endings, the casual audience is left with little to do in the game other than rematching the CPU in standard matches over and over.

Samurai Shodown is a great series, and as far as I'm concerned, SS2 is the best installment of the bunch. Between that and the game's online support, I'm well satisfied with this release. If you have fond memories of '90s arcades, I'd guess that you'll be satisfied, as well.