This is a formula that just works.

Rather than decrying Level-5 for relying on a formula, I'm happy with the developer for providing me with such a consistent, and consistently enjoyable, experience.

The more progress-focused Adventure definitely loses some of that competitive edge in translation, and that's certainly a shame, but it still has that instant, stimulating, rip-roaring flavor that puts the shots into shoot-em-up.

With the release of Shift 2 Unleashed, the Need For Speed franchise now holds the distinction of representing the best of arcade-style and simulation racing on consoles. It's an evolution of the original -- not a revolution, but still markedly improved across the board -- and a worthy sequel, easy recommendation for those who enjoyed the first game and great entry point to "real" racing in general.

Like Costume Quest and Stacked before it, Trenched is one of those downloadable games that almost makes you feel like you're getting away with robbery for paying $15 for it rather than full retail price.

Its visual and aural splendor lies a simple, stimulating experience that's difficult to put down. Dyad manages to create a beautiful synthesis of music, visual design and gameplay mechanics, and it does so without missing a beat.

Blur is clear[ly] best played against other human beings, but online multiplayer unfortunately suffers from the same gating issue that the single-player game does, locking you out from a handful of game modes until you reach a certain level.

Shooter 2 is not as consistent of an experience as its predecessor. Given Q's record of creating terrific "Encore" expansions for previous PixelJunk games, it's a bit disappointing that the franchise's first real sequel falls a little short. Still, I imagine it'd be a welcome addition to anyone's PSN library.

This is an easy one: Buy this game. There's a ton of content, and you're almost scientifically certain to like some of it. It's rare that I'm able to make this strong of a recommendation, but honestly, six games on one disc? How am I supposed to argue with that?

Though Okamiden hits a pretty satisfying stride in the middle, it is a bit of a marathon... OK, yes, an adorable marathon.

By and large Legend of Grimrock's penchant for walking the incredibly fine line between chin-stroking challenge and hair-pulling frustration is superbly impressive. It will absolutely pounce if you let your guard down, but that's a major part of the appeal.

It doesn't possess the customization features of a Forza or a Need For Speed, and it lacks some of the arcade-friendly gameplay variety offered by a Mario Kart and a Blur. However, more than any other racer that precedes it, Split/Second creates dramatic tension and cinematic thrills in every single race, and it almost always leaves you trembling after crossing the finish line.

While it scales back the complexity that defined Princess Crown and Odin Sphere, its focus on deep, varied fighting mechanics make it one of the best beat-em-ups released for any platform in recent years.

The crux of combat holds Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance together despite its structural problems. The game's priorities are right, and cutting through cruft and seizing the core of the experience is a better result than the opposite end of the spectrum – a cluttered game that buries its heart in busywork.

Successfully executing plays in its more complicated control system, especially in trapping and dynamic one-two passing, does feel appropriately rewarding. There's definitely an appeal to the more challenging game in Pro Evolution Soccer 2013, and I happily encourage players to give it a shot.

Transformed should not be missed by anyone who truly values a fun, exceptionally well crafted racing game.

The world of Ether One is a superbly detailed and well thought-out place. The gameplay hearkens back to an age when you needed three pages of notes to solve a single puzzle. The story is both heartbreaking and horrifying, as well as intriguing and enigmatic.

A singular experience, at times strange, astonishing and even bewildering, but always captivating. The mystery will keep you going, but what the game does best is surprise. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter has a great story to tell, even if it's not the one you were expecting.

A great adaptation of Robert Kirkman's comic, one that isn't a chore to play and is genuinely absorbing across its two-hour entirety, even with its hiccups. Also, if you're looking for the most depressing dad sim on the planet, The Walking Dead: Episode 1 is for you.

"Faith" is the perfect beginning to a new adventure from Telltale, effortlessly pulling you in and making you invested in protecting these curious creatures from our storybooks.

If the load times are a deal breaker, there is an alternative: the PSP version of ModNation Racers, which is nearly identical to the PS3 version -- minus the load times.

This is a beacon, a fine reminder that if you have talented people and a little respect for your audience, great storytelling in games can be not only possible but profound.

When SSX wasn't trying its best to push me away, I loved every minute of it. From a mechanical perspective, it's the best treatment the "extreme sports" genre has received on the current generation of systems thus far. Unfortunately, it's wrapped in a dirty old program from X-Games '98 and punctuated with frustrating moments.

Metro: Last Light does belong in the company of Half-Life, though. It's an unusual, meticulously detailed shooter inextricable from its environment – making its refuge in the railways of Moscow all the more apt. The survival and shooting aspects engage with what is considered valuable in the world, and both leave ample room for moments of solace, exploration and concise violence.

Maybe Joe Danger 2 doesn't stretch out of its comfort zone as much as it could, but its comfort zone is still a danger zone worth riding into, and easy to recommend.

Though it may seem standoffish and esoteric at first, patience and perseverance will reveal the charming eccentricities and personality quirks that make it so special. Like any relationship worth having, Catherine takes effort, but the end result is worth it.

A marvelous soccer game, and it's certainly better than FIFA 14, but the series' improvements felt even more marginal this year. The game captures the thrill of soccer unlike ever before, but the new, emotional player animations are only a small addition to what was already a great product.

The lack of challenge and a dearth of branching dialogue (sorry – these dialogue trees resemble bamboo shafts) disappoint, yes, but Broken Age always elicits a smile and a desire to continue.

Closure offers up a unique puzzle experience set in a wonderfully moody environment caught somewhere between the designs of Dan Paladin and Edward Gorey.

Incredible storytelling and fantastically executed single-player modes. Even its online offerings, which may not be NetherRealm's best work, are worlds better than the majority of other solutions being floated by Capcom and Namco Bandai.

The main draw for the Battlefield series has always been the chaotic camaraderie of its multiplayer, and that's no different here. But the sum of Battlefield 4's parts shows that DICE is capable of more. Not only has the developer iterated on and progressed its marquee multiplayer, it's provided a tight and cohesive campaign that is everything a military shooter needs to be.

Push through its uneven beginning and you'll be rewarded with clever level layouts that stretch a solid mechanical framework to its limits. Getting to that point may be more frustrating than you'd like, though, thanks to its sharp difficulty curve.

On the ice, NHL 14 is the best the series has ever been, and that alone will be enough for many returning fans. I love playing it and I'll keep playing it. Between the face-offs and outside of the rink, however, NHL 14 shows a laziness that is not befitting of a franchise that proudly touts its accolades on its sleeve.

Even with the infrequent hiccup, unavoidable video segment or occasionally tiresome menu, Madden 15 has taken major strides in defining its place in the series. Hammering QBs after slipping past a blocker is all the more invigorating thanks to a flattering, defense-minded camera.

Even without multiplayer, however, Torchlight on XBLA is as close as you can get to dungeon crawling nirvana for $15. Like its PC counterpart, it removes the cruft of the genre, allowing players to get right down to the loot-driven core with a minimum of fuss. And now, thanks to the streamlined controls, we get it all without the constant clacking of a mouse.

Renegade Ops is adequate for what it attempts to be, but it's more conformist than the title suggests.

This is the episode where it all starts to come together.

Dual Destinies is aggressively oddball, but it's also sharply written and cleverly constructed. It trades the typical staid approach to murder mysteries and puts a pair of magic panties on its head (yes, there are magic panties), spinning a clever mystery that will please your crime-solving brain.

Despite the familiarity, it's been years since a Call of Duty campaign was as coherent and fast-paced as this one. Within the confines of its franchise, which has yet to make much room for a mature look at the subject matter, Advanced Warfare works with aplomb and, at the very least, plays its Big Dumb Movie card wisely.

In the same way that Ash respected the alien for its brutality in the original film, though, maybe I also respect Alien: Isolation just for how long, grueling and relentless it ends up being. Instead of completing the game, it feels more like I've escaped it and the nightmare it put me through. I no longer have to hear the sickening slump of the alien being spewed out of a vent.

DJMax Technika Tune is in some ways mindbendingly new, but simultaneously comfortingly nostalgic. The look and feel of Pentavision's Vita music game recall my high school Dance Dance Revolution obsession pleasantly.

Toy Soldiers: Cold War isn't out to change any paradigms. It's a game through and through, a game based on perhaps the oldest boyhood pastime there is. I'd never dream of recommending it over real toys and childhood imagination but, for the adults who want to remember – and maybe share some of that 80s magic with their own kids – it definitely fits the bill.

My apprehension toward abandonment is exactly what kept me coming back to ilomilo, because I couldn't bear to leave those errant thumbs unsupervised (in the game, I mean).

Treasure Tracker may be small in stature, but it's packed with depth and detail.

Dream Team does a lot of things right, and is a satisfying detour for a franchise that is risking too much predictability it its main guise. It's hard to shake that feeling of a missed opportunity, of a premise not fully realized that therefore exposes some comparative shortcomings.

Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy feels like as good a way to sign off as could be expected.

The Walking Dead's impact lies in its relationships, and A House Divided plays to that strength. As an action game, it falls flat, offering a few sections of ho-hum zombie-killing. As a soap opera controlled by the player, it sings.

The bottom line is that regardless of whether we're talking about character appearance, weapons, special abilities or buffs, Sunset Overdrive piles the number of options you can choose from sky-high. No matter who you choose to be, what weapons you equip, what playstyle you choose, or how you deck out your secondary abilities, everything feels valid and worthwhile.

It's hard not to feel that the game would have been better served by slightly slowing down the pace of its basic shooting elements. At times, it feels as much like a spatial puzzle as it does a test of your reflexes. The best spatial puzzles, though, allow for a measure of patience and consideration. As a twitchy shooter, Super Time Force never lets you catch your breath and stand firm in time, leaving you under ceaseless pressure.

There's just not a lot of "there" there - my first playthrough, which included every side-mission and several job board assignments, took me 9 hours and 15 minutes. My second, where I completed every side-mission, every job board assignment, every courier mission, and most of the races, took eight hours and 50 minutes. RAGE ends so abruptly that I didn't realize it was over until the final cutscene began. I was left wondering what had happened.

In the age of Netflix streaming, iTunes, Steam and online multiplayer, Sportsfriends stands apart by reminding us how to have fun with people, not avatars.

There are more cars, granted, and the feeling of speed and tinkering with vehicles is as good as ever, but that's to be expected given how little has changed. Don't get me wrong, Gran Turismo was already the top of the heap when it comes to hardcore console racing simulations – the additions presented in Gran Turismo 6 just push the top of that heap a few feet higher.

I tend to sprint in the middle of the room with a shotgun, shoot a round in the air, and get ready for the army to rain down on me. To each his own.

A brilliantly executed, whirling dervish of a game that all but demands to be ripped open and played to death. Grab your kitty-cat, gas up your chainsaw-arm and sharpen your blades. It's gonna be a bloodbath.

As unassuming and stylish as the rest of the series is melodramatic and bombastic, Hitman Go is an impressive debut for Square Enix Montreal. The play style recalls the strategic thinking of the console/PC games, but does so with an entirely new style that fits touch-based devices like a fine leather glove.

Skulls of the Shogun encapsulates whatever essence puts Castle Crashers at the top of the XBLA charts year after year, and does so without infringing on that game's intellectual property or overall vibe.

MLB 14 might have its rough edges, but it lives up to the term "simulation" in the truest sense, offering players the means to realistically succeed any way they choose.

Civilization: Beyond Earth is a good game in the context of the Civilization franchise.

If you were ever excited about the premise, this is the pure, near-flawless expression of it. And now that we've seen that 5th Cell can back up astounding innovation with great design, I can't wait to see what will spring from its notepad next.

Wasteland 2 is so packed with stuff to do and things to see that the game demands multiple plays, yet its story options are so intricate that replaying the plot never seems like a chore. But all of that is overshadowed by omnipresent bugs.

A great football game, and lays the foundation for eventual excellence. With a little tweaking and building upon its features, the series definitely has a bright future.

Danganronpa 2 is wildly uneven, with an engaging story and disjointed action elements, but solving its mysteries provides more than enough satisfaction to make putting up with the bad bits worth your while. It's weird, aggravating and gruesome, but it's also undeniably charming.

Rock Band may be dead and buried, but rhythm game fans jonesing for a fix should give Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F 2nd a shot. Its cheery aesthetic and anime styling may be a little off-putting for some, but its gameplay is solid and surprisingly challenging.

Connected Franchise, with the introduction of owner mode, is a great realization of digital NFL ownership offerings seen in the past, while the new ball-carrier moves push the game forward. Of course, Madden 25 could use an update or two to iron out the Infinity Engine and blocking system's tendency to let nearly any running back plow through the defense.

Even when it skews toward bigger actions and questionable bouts of busywork, though, Watch Dogs is a more fluid and modern power fantasy than we're used to. Somewhere, in its vague, fantastical version of hacking, there's a lesson about the power and the naughty temptations that lie in our networked, selfie-infested world.

For the first time in years, I'm ready to put aside the steady grind of raising the perfect monster and really delve into what the world of Pokémon has to offer. A world that feels larger and more interesting than ever.

It's an Assassin's Creed game wearing blinders that focus it on covering ground it's already traveled, albeit more effectively. While it's always good to see iterative improvements, some bold new territory would have been a real revelation for the series. Instead, Revelations does almost everything its predecessors have done slightly better. Which, as it turns out, is enough just one more time.

The Banner Saga is a human story told with inhuman flair, and that somehow makes it all the more relatable. Even the fights themselves have grown on me – they're just tough enough to provide a challenge on normal difficulty, but not so unforgiving that I feel like giving up.

Though Uncharted: Golden Abyss brings a little too much reality to Drake's day-to-day by making him polish artifacts in gimmicky touchscreen nonsense, there's still a good, if formulaic, adventure to be had. In other words, this might just sell you on the Vita ... whenever it's not selling you on the Vita.

Parody's a thorny thing, tricky to execute and often limited in appeal. It's to Ubisoft Montreal's credit that Blood Dragon broadens the appeal of its source, thanks to a hilarious, accessible dollop of nostalgia, coated in the mechanics that made Far Cry 3 great. This easily could've been a great idea greenlit into something terrible. We do love it when a plan comes together.

Ubisoft Reflections has pruned the dead weight from Driver's branches, and the result is a pure, focused experience, unencumbered by redundant mechanics and "me too" design choices.

An enjoyable nostalgia trip for Etrian Odyssey veterans. Etrian Odyssey Untold's tedium-reducing improvements elevate it above the original game, and for first-timers, it's the best entry point in the series.

Outlast perfects this self-inflicted madness in every area of its design, and it's absolutely petrifying. I love it.

Having played so many of the Firaxis' games and having spent so much time learning their intricate mechanics, I'm pleased to report the simple elegance of Sid Meier's Ace Patrol doesn't diminish the satisfaction and underlying depth the studio is known for.

A curious thing happens when From Dust stops getting in the way and tells you to just have fun...You have fun...From Dust is finally able to dazzle, however briefly, by stripping away practically everything that makes it a "game" and leaving only its base mechanics behind.

Fans will love it for everything it is, while detractors will ignore it for all that it isn't. This is a game, and series, that isn't out to win over gamers by changing its stripes -- though its fans probably wouldn't have it any other way.

It's gorgeous, even if it's built in an aging engine (the same engine that powered 2008's Dark Sector, in fact). And it's a first-person shooter with a story that's worth a damn, something we don't see very often in general (and especially not with shooters, specifically).

Ascension is a car riding in the spectacle slipstream of its predecessors, never quite able to surpass them.

Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 feel like the "true" versions of Black and White, much as Crystal, Emerald, and Platinum felt like the real versions of their respective generations.

Without much positive innovation to give it momentum, it's becoming increasingly difficult to resist the temptation to bail out.

Puppeteer is an excellent example of the 2D platform genre, but it wouldn't be nearly as memorable or enjoyable if it weren't for the way it so fully commits to its puppet show aesthetic.

It was a great game in 2006, it's remained a great game since, and now this sequel is roughly more of the same. But after seven years and with a $60 asking price, I'm also left asking, "Is this all there is?" It's the Eastern Front, after all. It seems like there should be more to it.

While it's puzzling to watch so much effort go into streamlining Fable 2's already superb design without fixing its obvious technical shortcomings, try not to let that distract you from what remains an exceptional game. It may not be revolutionary, but it is royally fun.

Fans of the comic should feel a deep resonance with Episode 4, as it channels aspects of the early story directly, in the way the group explores the house, a la the Wiltshire Estates, and the inclusion of the self-obsessed, Governor-like figure briefly mentioned in the middle of the game.

Its elements are very well-executed, though some of the more elaborate encounters can really make the Wii chug. I suspect that experienced role-playing fans will find it a bit on the easy side, but The Last Story nevertheless has plenty of merit, and is certainly one of the better Wii games ever made.

Stepping onto the greens at Augusta National for the first time was nerve-wracking, but I did it. I walked away a winner in stylish bravado, the green cloth of victory a sign to all that I came and conquered.

Yes, the campaign is unexciting compared to the delights outside of it, but there's great promise too. It feels like developer TT Fusion is, quite appropriately, building towards something more with Undercover, something that really shows Lego games can stand on their own two leg blocks. It just isn't there yet.

The sense of flight and weightlessness is as intoxicating as the build-what-you-want nature of the game's war machines. And besides, dying is just an excuse to try out a new combo of parts, and I'm mighty curious to see how an armored, cannon-firing airplane with an underwater engine would handle.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning presents a world that is immaculately crafted and beautiful, yet still simple and accessible. Every corner reveals a person in need, a treasure to collect, a secret to uncover, a battle to wage. I don't know how much more time I'll spend in Amalur (dozens of hours? hundreds?), but I plan on savoring every minute.

Kirby: Triple Deluxe doesn't succeed on all fronts, but the majority of its campaign is a joy to play, and the "Kirby Fighters" mini-game is solid enough to flesh out the package. Triple Deluxe doesn't reach the heights of Kirby Super Star, but it's still one of the finest Kirby adventures to date.

This is a deep experience backed by intricate mechanics and a concerted polish that makes gameplay immediately intuitive and rewarding. Age of Wonders 3 will keep you up until the wee hours of the morning, constantly muttering that you'll crawl into bed after just one more turn.

The care and attention that went into this year's installment is obvious, and it's overall a fantastic product boasting several improvements over its previous incarnations. Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 is the benchmark in the franchise and easily recommended to new and veteran Magic: The Gathering players alike.

While previous Infamous games were often frustrating during their later campaign missions, Second Son maintains a steady growth in difficulty throughout, allowing players to rise to the challenge by progressing through its skill tree at their own pace.

Even with its rough spots, Encore of the Night is a great game and a genuine surprise. You don't have to be a Castlevania junkie to enjoy it, but you'll definitely appreciate it even more if you come from the vamp-stamping camp.

Admittedly, the platforming mechanics occasionally feel too simple for their own good, but the narrative and gameplay weave together so seamlessly that the game becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Its little blocks have heart, and that gave me a reason to see things through to the end.

Even without the creation and sharing tools here, Intelligent Systems' little series continues to tickle the brain just right. Mallo may trick you into thinking a relaxing, smooth time awaits therein, but even when the game gets rough, Pushmo World is well worth visiting.

One of the best comedic diversions in Forza 5 is a trip through the Top Gear test track, this time set to a tongue-in-cheek London simulation mode. Some say that some variant of the Stig is also represented somewhere in the game ... though it's probably too nice to be his Drivatar.

There are some bugs and the story is disappointing, but it says a lot about the experience that I was able to quickly shake those things off and keep replaying levels or building contracts again and again.