I desperately wanted to love Aviary Attorney. After all, it was doing so many things that seemed totally fantastic. One, it was gathering inspiration from the Ace Attorney series and two it was creating a marvelous-looking anthropomorphic animal-filled version of France. Somehow, though, it didn’t come together as expected.

Without having to pay for iRacing or rFactor, Assetto Corsa Competizione is as real as it gets when getting behind the wheel. Players just need to have the proper setup to make the most of it. The Blancpain GT Series sponsorship is both a blessing and a curse. The cars and tracks from the series are all here and offer a solid variety, but that’s all you get. The content in the game is bare bones even though being able to do a 24-hour race or a Sprint Race is nice. Competizione is all about the racing and that is what it does best. The car visuals, and more importantly the audio, provides the closest thing to being on a track.

This is easily one of the year’s most enjoyable games and one you won’t be forgetting anytime soon.

If just a few nagging flaws would have been corrected, ZombiU could have been a revelation for the floundering genre. Still, with top-notch graphics, a huge world and great exploration elements in play, it remains a must-buy for the console for those with the patience to see it through.

There is one problem with how simple this game is, though: it gets old quick. Usually these are the kind of games that players say “just one more” for several hours, but I didn’t catch myself saying that with Tomena Sanner. After a handful of stages it started to wear thin and I ended up doing multiple ten-minute sessions instead of a one-sitting playthrough.

Luckily, there’s no glaring issues to be found within. Once you get wrapped up in the mystery it is hard to stop reading before completing the whole darn thing. Occasional writing weirdness aside, the gameplay themes, soundtrack and artwork work together in a way that lifts the experience even higher.

Though the plot opens the door to some compelling storytelling only to trip while walking in, there are so many other reasons to give Toukiden 2 a spin. This is faster and more action packed when compared to other titles in the genre. It features a truly open world with load times only occurring when first starting up, fast traveling, story transition or game over. Even then, loads are short. The player can explore and quest for hours without ever needing to stop. When taking into account the massive amount of options packed into this title, they might not want to.

What Ails You keeps the stakes high as Wayne continues to juggle numerous issues and relationships within the city of Gotham. While the short runtime can make this episode seem a bit more like filler, the usually stellar voice cast and key moments help keep the momentum up during the penultimate episode.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour ’14 offers up a satisfying golf experience that will certainly please fans of the sport. Serious fans will get a lot of use out of the online modes, and the ability to relive key moments in the careers of legendary players should keep die-hards happy for a long time. The game is very accessible for newcomers as well, although they may want to either pick up an older game in the series or try out the demo before paying full price for the latest incarnation.

A new Dawn of War has risen, and it’s an exciting return from a long dormant franchise. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III successfully takes the best elements from the previous two games and blends them with traditional RTS mechanics to create a game with deep strategic gameplay. The campaign, which ultimately serves as a glorified tutorial, is entertaining and lengthy enough to keep players hooked for hours even though it’s predictable. The focus on Elite units differentiates Dawn of War III from its competitors by introducing a new sense of depth and progression into the game.

The Big Con succeeds when, as its title suggests, you’re working on elaborate con jobs that provide clever puzzle ideas with a lot of open and fun gameplay. While the rest of it is fine, it never feels like the sort of epic cross-country adventure it should be, despite what its stakes would suggest. It still makes for a good adventure with well-done challenges, and that alone may be worth it, but don’t expect a grand score by the end.

Sure, there’s fun to be had shooting baddies in the face for 10-12 hours over the course of the 14 missions, but sadly F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin isn’t nearly as remarkable as the original.

The Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Road is a worthy addition to the ever-expanding game. The Scribing feature is a great addition for players who want to customize their character's abilities and the Mirrormoor Incursions help make the world feel alive. While these newly-added features help set Gold Road apart from the previous expansions, it does fall into the trap that many annual expansions are prone to where it does feel like the new features are marking off items on a checklist. Gold Road is a good addition to The Elder Scrolls Online, but after eight expansions in ten years, each expansion starts to feel like it is treading familiar ground, even with the well-done new features.

In an age where many mainstream games offer countless distractions to constantly pull the player in all sorts of directions, Hue’s straightforward and relaxing presentation offers a nice, brief reprieve to play in between some of today’s lengthier titles. With a reasonable set of expectations, Hue can provide a pleasant adventure for players willing to give this unique game a shot; just don’t go in expecting it to stick with you beyond its playtime.

Spintires: MudRunner doesn’t make a lot of sense on the surface. Drive slow, deliver logs isn’t the usual recipe for a good time. It works amazingly well once you get used to it, though, and while there’s a learning curve, it’s one that takes place in untamed nature where you’re driving giant trucks through the mud. The terrain ranges from unfriendly to downright brutal, with rocky ground, standing water, muddy roads, and tire-grabbing ruts absolutely everywhere. Navigating this is a slow, deliberate affair, but each stretch of road (if there’s one to drive on) has its own new difficulty that makes pushing on through a good challenge rather than an exercise in extended patience. At times the overwhelming Russian-ness gets a bit much, with the grey landscapes only getting good colors during sunrise and sunset, but then a short drive by the rushing waters of a turbulent river makes it all better. Spintires: MudRunner is a giant game of trucks played in as close to a literal sandbox as possible, and while they don’t have Тонка stamped on the back, the spirit of playing with the big toys shines through.

Furi is going to find its audience, that much is certain, but the real shame here is that with a couple of tweaks, that audience could have wound up being far larger than what it likely will be.

There are those who would call a game such as this "shallow", and with good reason: most games like this are. However, most games that subscribe to this concept don't allow you the freedom of movement or tactics that Stranglehold does. [Nov 2007, p.56]

Just Dance 4 is a hard game not to like. It's completely unpretentious and simply exists to make you have fun, hopefully starting a party in the process.

While this latest "Mercury" may not be essential to the Wii's library as it was to the PSP's, it is essential to anyone who misses the glory days of endless puzzle platformers, or is serious about getting more game for their buck. [May 2007, p.54]

For anyone still having avoided or otherwise missed the original release a decade ago, a willingness to look past the temporary frustration of its controls notwithstanding, The World Ends With You: Final Remix remains, in both gameplay and story, as splendid a JRPG as it’s always been.

Attack of the Friday Monsters is a perfect bite-sized chunk of story-based gaming, and will easily blow past any cynical defenses to take up a warm and fuzzy place in your heart.

Those who loved the original Peggle will easily get their money’s wortht out of its sequel.

While a few issues remain that hamper the experience, it’s a no-brainer to proclaim Sniper Elite 5 has taken everything that made 4 as great as it was and improved it.

Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate is purely for the hardcore fans of the series, or newcomers wanting to finally jump in.

With the original Monster Hunter Stories title, Capcom created an entirely new style of gameplay in a familiar world that fans could come to grow and love. It was an attempt at something they weren't sure would take off, but ultimately paid off in creating a beloved spin-off franchise. It's not just lovely to see this first title now available for new and old players alike to re-experience, but it goes back to the series' humble beginning before it blasted off and expanded more than people could have expected. This series is one of Capcom's greatest and we're thrilled to see it now made available for brand new audiences to experience on modern systems. It's well worth picking up for fans of the sequel or those who haven't checked it out yet. Players don't need any familiarity with the core Monster Hunter franchise to enjoy this absolutely wonderful RPG adventure.

Full Throttle may not have aged as well as its siblings, but it’s still a true gem nonetheless. This is largely thanks to some sharp writing, stellar and unique visuals, fun gameplay, and a kickass soundtrack. The remastered version serves to highlight and even enhance all of this, showcasing the kind of creativity Schafer and company could be capable of when at their best. It’s a fitting conclusion to this trilogy of remastered LucasArts adventures (unless Double Fine can somehow get the rights to the likes of Loom or The Dig), and a rubber-burning road trip down memory lane is definitely worth taking again.

The Space Invaders Invincible Collection features a lot of fun packed into a single package — albeit with a lot of similarity between them. Thankfully, the inclusion of some non-Space Invaders games helps to mix up the gameplay variety offered up, with things like Space Invaders Extreme making things feel more modern than a lot of current-day arcade-style shooters. There isn’t a bad game in the bunch here and being exposed to games like Lunar Escape in this kind of form can help make new die-hard fans of games that have been forgotten over time. It’s a must-buy for anyone who has wanted to play more of the series or even if you just have a missing entry or two in the series. Space Invaders Invincible Collection plays great, looks fantastic and showcases just how strong the franchise’s sound design has always been.

If you can ignore the more tasteless elements, you’ll find yourself being sucked into the world of République.