Tokyo 42 has a lot of potential, and moments of greatness where it can deliver satisfying action, but unfortunately gets bogged down by an annoying camera and notable structure issues and technical snafus. There’s still fun to be had in the candy-coated world of a futuristic Japan, especially when it comes to exploration and the occasional parkour, but those looking for a more focused and more effective action game would be better off checking something else instead. So in the end, it’s sadly less Blade Runner and more Johnny Mnemonic.

The best word to describe Fork Parker’s Holiday Profit Hike is “finicky.” Collision detection is imprecise and inconsistent, and the controls feel overly slippery, even for a game largely about running around on ice.

One step forward and two steps back for the XIII saga and will only attract those looking for fan-service or high-octane combat.

At the end of the day, SlashDash doesn’t go beyond being just a neat little idea that’s fun for a couple of sittings.

If Super Pixel Smash was one part of a larger collection of mini-games, it would be a standout. Things can get a bit hectic and there is some skill required, but it doesn’t manage to extend past feeling like a mini-game.

Calling in powerful weaponry and vehicles to blow up bases of enemies rarely ever gets old. Traversing the distinct biomes while swapping between the wingsuit and parachute remains a fun way to get across the world. On the other hand, the terrible enemy AI quickly turns combat into a real bore and the redundant objectives strip the game of what makes it a blast in the first place. It also doesn’t help that, aside from the supply drops, the game’s signature features never live up to their potential.

Lionheart gets a couple things right, but overall results in a rather forgettable and generic experience. The best comparison I make to the game is vanilla ice cream; it’s not something that is going to cause a visceral reaction of outright disgust and repulsion, but it isn’t anything to get excited about it. The dialogue between characters is entertaining and does provide some distraction to how lackluster the story is. The combat is fun, but because of how formulaic each dungeon is going through one or two of them in a sitting is plenty. It’s a mediocre game that wouldn’t bring about buyer’s remorse, but also isn’t a must-play. This is an ideal title for people who revel in the idea of being entertained by snarky character banter enough to settle for average gameplay — approximately 50-100 hours of it. For those who enjoy JRPGs and visual novels, this may be an enjoyable experience that provides a good bang for the buck, but this title does not excel on either front.

A little more variety in victory conditions or evolving complexity through the campaign or in skirmishes would give the game a better chance at a longer life on the hard drive.

Desync is not the worst first person shooter I have ever played, but it just doesn’t bring anything to the table to make it that worthwhile either. It does a good job at recreating how the ’80s tried to create something that looked futuristic, but this stylized homage to that decade is definitely style over substance.

At the end of the day, though, it doesn’t know its audience — and games that don’t understand who they’re for typically fail to capture anyone.

Dead Island: Riptide is a game where enjoyment hinges entirely on personal satisfaction of repetitively killing thousands of zombies and having friends with the same passion. For these select people, Riptide can be a whole lot of fun; but for anybody going it solo or demanding more from a game than just mindless violence, however, it will prove increasingly tedious.

The developers' chutzpah regarding Shock Force's premise is admirable, and if you fall into the game's narrow audience, there may be a lot to like about it. [Oct 2007, p.59]

The anime and magna iterations of Black Rock Shooter are so enjoyable because they’re crazy, over-the-top Japanese awesomeness. Unfortunately, not much about the video game take on the series is all that awesome, or even very good.

Not an especially charming or friendly take on the genre, FortressCraft Evolved has a lot of depth and potential for the dedicated player.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III has its moments of triumph, but they are few and far between. There’s still fun to be had in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, but this year’s entry feels like a stopgap while we wait for the next major release.

God Mode may be a shallow action romp that’s got the longevity of a fruit fly, but with a decent group of allies and some proper teamwork, there’s a good bit of run & gun gaming in there while it lasts.

As commendable its combat and enemy design may be, Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption‘s reliance on templates and tired tropes inevitably wears down what little (though effective) originality it houses.

There’s a real sense of wonder in observing the dinosaurs of Time Machine VR, but it needs a round of bug quashing and a better role for the player to rise above the crush of titles in the VR launch window.

DOGOS is mostly great and a little bit broken, but if you bring a giant helping of perseverance to its more troublesome sections there’s a fantastic, great-looking shooter trying to blast your heavily-armed experimental final-hope-for-humanity gunship into a smoking shower of red-hot shrapnel before you do the same to it.

With more fine-tuning and content, Lethal League could have been a home run. Sadly, it balks the opportunity.

The hardcore fanbase will appreciate MechWarrior 5 at its core as it feels like a game that wishes it had today’s hardware technology 30 years ago. The combat can be good, but becomes bland and redundant over time. Fan will also appreciate the story lore and how it progresses along with the strategy elements. Unfortunately, though, it feels like a game that could have used more time but had already been delayed. There are spots where it shines and most of this is experienced early on. But the more time spent with the game and learning how to do things just to progress becomes dull and ultimately you feel left behind as the game clock starts to pull away.

The game is still fun to play, and it's not difficult to pick up. It's definitely worth checking out, especially if you’re a fan of old school detectives.

Surprisingly effective it may be at crafting a simple-but-enticing loop of gameplay, Exoprimal‘s shallow variety and unclear methods of progression land Capcom’s latest in a middle-ground of being both entertaining and heavily flawed. If nothing else, the studio’s foray into this form and model of PvPvE multiplayer is not without some merits. A splendid assortment of Exosuit classes to discover complete with an overall tone and delivery via its setting and premise that seems all too aware of its own absurdity and happily running with it. The latter of which aiding immensely in convincing you that one, two or five more matches won’t hurt. And it’s that replayability and direction in tone that just might be this game’s saving grace. As it stands, a non-existent campaign coupled with limited variety of content means Exoprimal‘s fate — like so many — will live or die by its post-launch, mid-to-long term support. As sufficient the foundation admittedly is.

Though it pains to proclaim such a promising title as this — given how obviously ambitious its world-building stands, how undeniably strange-but-enticing its organic-mechanical aesthetic is or how inviting the otherwise isolating ambience of its sound design is — Hob may well be one of the more disappointing showings for the genre this year when all is said and done. What starts off in its first half as a platformer rife with engaging mystery and many an incentive to know more quickly devolves into a rehashed and seemingly never-ending loop of puzzles unlocking puzzles unlocking more similarly-deprived puzzles without fruitful meaning or purpose. Though it tries to maintain the facade and continually promise greater things to come, it soon becomes apparent that Hob is somewhat deprived of an end goal — interested solely in the long-distant allure than it is the up-close-and-personal meaning and value behind it all.

If you’re specifically looking for a non-traditional, colorful tennis game to play with your friends, then Mario Tennis Fever will fill the void. Unfortunately, the latest Switch 2 entry into the subseries does little memorable and enticing outside of this. It has solid gameplay mechanics, with a variety of characters and rackets to choose from, but there’s not much of note outside of this. It doesn’t help that the Adventure mode is a glorified tutorial. In the end, all Mario Tennis Fever amounts to is a short distraction with friends with minimal enjoyment outside of that.

It’s a slog through and through, and with a lack of character customization, elements more shallow than a Gauntlet-like grind, and a startling lack of Adventure Time charm, it’s tough to recommend. Pick up the first couple seasons of the show instead.

The shooting and gameplay have added more frustration this year, but the paint play is the best the series has seen. There are some positives and some negatives to the new ProPLAY implementation, but a variety of presentation changes truly help to make the NBA games feel fresh. The biggest knocks remain with both the shooting frustration and the even bigger focus on microtransactions. After the strides made last year, NBA 2K24 is the first regression the series has seen on this generation of consoles. Plus, the PC version is still running on the previous generation version of the game, and even Madden had rectified that this year.

There’s an audience for Strike Vector, but that audience needs a lot of patience and a high tolerance for failure.