If you're well-versed in South Park history and can imagine cookies as a "health potion," you're off to a good start. If you can also forgive the repetitive nature of combat and some uninspired quests, it's worth taking up arms – or dildos – for The Stick of Truth's hilarious, disgusting adventure.

Oddly enough, using a standard controller instead of a plastic guitar is hardly the most jarring aspect of Rock Band Blitz. The freebie DLC still makes it a no-brainer purchase, but Rock Band fans might find themselves alienated by the strange score focus, social game elements and absent multiplayer.

Despite a fairly serious issue – the aforementioned troop misbehavior – I think it's absolutely worth playing. The theme is a lot of fun, the gameplay is unique, the music is masterful, and the boss fights can be truly spectacular.

Gods Will Be Watching bleeds into your thoughts, even if the toll feels steep and caustic. The cost can feel too high, the enjoyment too strange and poisoned at times. But ... it's brilliant and different, you know? I just hate it, that's all.

The constant struggle of trying to take out enemies and keep your own rig in check is as entertaining today as it was when it was first introduced back in the mid '90s. I just wish there wasn't so much muck to wade through before I got to Twisted Metal's gooey, rocket-blasted center.

For all its good looks, Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- is ultimately disappointing. What the game does, it does very well, but the sum total feels lacking.

No amount of 3D waggle can change the fact that the Killzone 3 campaign is a miserable experience. Killzone 3 certainly offers more bells and whistles than its predecessor -- it's just a shame they've been affixed to an inferior game.

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.

It's the series' tried-and-true mix of campy charm, fast action, and a borderline-artistic knack for wringing entertainment from time-worn cliches that keeps fans coming back for more. In those areas, Tales of Graces F truly excels. It's far from a bastion of genre progressiveness, but as far as achingly traditional JRPGs go, you could do a whole, whole lot worse.

I think Soul Sacrifice is worth the asking price, but playing it may exact an unexpected toll on your thoughts. To enjoy it is to engage with its unvarnished contract, and to recognize your adventure as a sequence of repetitive harvests that culminate in some kind of relief and freedom.

It's largely the same entertaining experience that Team17 has been iterating for years now, and there's nothing wrong with that.

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

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.

The first episode is an unbalanced one, but it manages to pull itself together for a satisfying conclusion. Its compelling, cliffhanging afterword ensures that I'll be giving the second chapter a shot, as well -- I only hope that it spends more time being irreverently funny, rather than spending a third of its run-time desperately attempting to convince the player of its irreverence.

The critical path through Gotham City is feeling worn, even if tread by different, younger actors.

Killzone: Shadow Fall loses its sheen at times, usually when pursuing moments that are cinematic but not sensible. As a shooter, it's better at thriving on eye-catching environments and supportive combat abilities that don't just come for free.

The game is at its best with a friend, perhaps someone turned off by the long-term learning required by more complex fighting games.

Perhaps the biggest source of frustration, however, is the antiquated user interface.

Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z knows it's a stupid, flashy arcade action game, and rolls with it. It doesn't try to be clever or witty, or even ironic and self-effacing. It's not deep or customizable, and it's clearly running out of ideas past the halfway point. It isn't perfect. To some people, it won't even be considered good.

With some truly great ideas and some unfortunate choices, Murdered: Soul Suspect and its ghostly hero is neither heaven nor hell, but something in between.

Dark Moon is a bit like Luigi himself: charming, goofy and utterly affable. The core mechanic of catching ghosts is solid and exciting, and the environments are absolutely worth seeing and exploring. It's got heart, but after trudging through all five of its locales, you may wind up feeling a little like a bedraggled, battle-worn ghostbuster yourself.

As a palate cleanser, A World of Keflings certainly does the trick, though you may feel your sanity begin to ebb after extended sessions.

Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright drags on too long, but even towards the end it's enjoyable at its basest of levels.

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.

The bar has definitely slipped a notch or two, and while it may be the best basketball game you'll play this year, being the best by default isn't enough.

The undoubtable quality of Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes feels carved from a bigger, better game, and perhaps that makes it a better showcase for players who don't know their Snakes from their Otacons. Too good to be a cash-in, too calculated to be satisfying and too intriguing to spurn, Ground Zeroes is a fiscal test of patience.

Mechanically, A Machine for Pigs deviates significantly from The Dark Descent, and this is where it's most disappointing. The Dark Descent employed several mechanics that ratcheted up the fear and tension, most notably the insanity system.

Primal Carnage could become a better beast with updates, but at launch it's missing some key elements and polish. Despite those issues, Primal Carnage is still an entertaining experience.

It's one of the most frustrating kinds of games that a company can possibly release: The disappointing thing about PowerUp Heroes is how much I like playing it, and how very little there is to play.

If you can look past these issues, the uninspiring gunplay and ho-hum campaign in particular, Starhawk offers up plenty of multiplayer freedom. If you can pull together a cohesive team, building defenses and barreling through enemy territory can be deeply rewarding.

There is, however, a powerful experience here. Papo & Yo makes its player face the terrible relationship of abuse in a very personal way.

If you can ignore the jarring, clipped dialogue and attempted story, play Quantum Conundrum to enjoy the tranquility of practiced physics – tranquility that may frustrate you to the point of destroying a beautiful keyboard, but tranquility nonetheless.

It's a story that could have used a few more editorial passes, sure, but it's a tale that I'd recommend experiencing nonetheless.

Ron Gilbert and Chris Remo miss on the explicit narration, but their underlying story is perfectly pitched through puzzles and your own wicked participation.

Truth be told, its an extremely challenging side-scrolling ... well, it's part shoot-'em-up, part submarine simulator and part strategy game. The sum of these parts is actually a lot more compelling than the game taken at face value.

Infamous: First Light is everything Infamous: Second Son should have been, it's just too bad it only arrives now, in this anemic form.

If you can look past some of the more awkward elements – especially if you can do so with a couple of friends – there is definitely some meat to be found in Trine 2. You'll just have to crack a lot of shells to find it.

Taken by itself, it's unsatisfying and half-missing, but of course it's not meant to be taken by itself. It's the centerpiece of a larger whole, the lock that will let everything eventually make sense. Crooked Mile has a hard job to do, and has the bruises to show it.

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

There's little truly innovative about Raskulls, and its non-stop attempt to charm (never as funny as it thinks it is) nearly backfires. But with its solid mechanics, well-designed levels, and cute characters, only a grizzled old Gargamel wouldn't enjoy their time with the Raskulls.

Tomodachi Life wore out its welcome for me quicker than any Animal Crossing game ever did, due to its comparative lack of structure and progression, and its brilliant spark of creativity fades much more quickly than you'd like.

There's simply no soul in Child of Light, no emotional attachment to keep you pressing on into the darkness. There isn't even a good addictive hook – the story makes a few feeble tugs at your heartstrings, but doesn't create any great mysteries that you'll be desperate to solve, and the combat, while solid, never quite achieves "just one more round" status. It's all lovely and pleasant and well-crafted – and hollow.

The technical hurdles are very steep at first, but once I put about five hours in, the sting started to dissipate. These flaws mar the atmosphere that State of Decay tries to create. If you can stomach them, however, the game's sense of urgency and its mountain of tasks and systems will be a nice vacation away from the societal constraints of your everyday, zombie-free life.

Like any athlete with a thirst for victory, EA Sports has a great opportunity to create something special with this brand. It's just not quite ready for its title fight yet.

Genuine laughs and amusing scenarios await within, and if you can keep in mind that you're probably several times older than the target audience, it's a pretty solid option for co-op with your kid sibling -- or a drinking buddy, for that matter.

As much as Killer Instinct is a sound and inviting fighter mid-battle, it's an experience that ultimately feels hollow everywhere else. Online play – as spare as it is – may present a limitless well of competition to draw from, but with only six fighters to master and very few modes of play, Killer Instinct lacks the value and staying power offered by most other modern fighting games.

If you think about it, you probably like more of their songs than you know. "Basket Case," "Longview," "When I Come Around".

Anyone looking to turn off their brain for several hours and spam some buttons as a ridiculously powerful Force user will do fine. Those who respected the first game for its story, or are looking for quality presentation, combat variety and the feeling like they didn't just get two-thirds of a full-priced product can find better games now in a galaxy much, much closer.

If the pace weren't horrendous and the campaign so god-awfully boring, R.U.S.E. would make for an enjoyable RTS but certainly not a groundbreaking one.

In some respects – particularly in its graphics and slightly more refined shooting – Sniper Elite 3 is a better game than its predecessor. That said, it's grandfathered in a lot of Sniper Elite V2's AI issues, while also forcing players to micromanage too much when it comes to sniping.

If anything, I'll blame DuckTales Remastered's shortcomings on the current state of digital pricing. It's unfortunate that a short but near-perfect game had to be weighed down with so much extraneous material, seemingly for the sake of padding out its length to justify a premium-priced digital release.

It's passable and functional, but doesn't elevate the franchise or add the magic that'll bring El Presidente to a wider audience. It is what it is: Another evolution in a franchise that needs a revolution.

It's an echo of the past, a reminder of the good and the bad. If you have fond memories of The Sands of Time or The Two Thrones, hold onto them. Go back and play those games. Relish the original's elegance and the third game's improved pacing and combat -- The Forgotten Sands will only remind you that they are better games.

In the end, it feels like Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 is merely going through the motions (most of which involve spinning). As was intended, it's reminiscent of Sonic's best-remembered adventures, though it never manages to live up to them.

The ending, and therefore the episode, may please many players. However, from a storytelling standpoint, No Going Back falls flat.

Mario Tennis Open is a game best taken in small doses. Playing tournaments, exhibition games, and the special modes can be great fun for a few matches at a time.

Better to take it as an unvarnished comedy, then, because Deadpool self-destructs when you read so deeply (and madly?) to see satire. That's okay, bearing in mind there are better games in which you slice people up for points, and that everything Deadpool the man revels in – the bullets, the blood and the babes – are sincerely sought and embarrassingly commonplace in the marketplace to begin with.

The water isn't even as impressive as you might expect.

There's definitely satisfaction to be had with Lords of the Fallen, but there comes a point at which it has no more tricks up its sleeve. In the end, the worst enemy in the game may be the game itself, and there's nothing hiding in a chest somewhere to fix that.

Sadly, the minigames collected here are an uneven bunch. Some are just so incredibly simple as to be entertaining no more than once (like painting shapes on the screen or swatting bugs); while others, including the rescue copter I mentioned and the more creative offerings (haircuts done to spec), have more staying power.

A little panache and daring can go a long way towards standing out on the real-life fairways, and it would've done so here as well.

The greatest problem in Wolfenstein: The New Order, then, is a jarring inconsistency of tone and cohesion... It's almost as if there's a tug of war going between the big dumb shooter and the attempt to be subversive, with the result being a game that's not really slick enough to be an action classic, and not dramatic enough to draw you in.

It's just as raunchy, absurdist, and most importantly, Japanese, as always. And that makes it a welcome addition to the marketplace, warts and all.

Unit 13 has its shining moments, but there's an odd inconsistency to Zipper's execution. There are A.I. issues and, thanks to the lack of story, an air of meaninglessness to the proceedings, though the actual shooting is well-executed and fun.

So long as it's consumed in an environment where all you're doing is playing offline, like at an arcade or in someone's living room, Street Fighter X Tekken's excellent engine is enough to carry the game. Delve any deeper, however, and that excellence serves only to highlight each tragic decision that frames it. Capcom has spent countless hours meticulously crafting the gaming equivalent of a Ferrari 458's V8 engine, only to shove it under the hood of a 1987 Chevy Caprice on cinderblocks.

When it works, the walls between reality and the Diary of Faces melt away, exposing an adventure truly suited to the 3DS. Unfortunately, the hokey story and technological limitations do the opposite, reaffirming the reality that you're just standing in your living room, spinning in place.

NeverDead's immortality mechanic is certainly intriguing, as are its destructible environments. You may even develop an attachment to Bryce by the end of his quest. If the combat was more involving, and the destruction more deliberate, the developers at Rebellion might have been on to something. For now, in trying to tread new ground, NeverDead's greatest success is in finding the middle.

It's good, silly fun, and nails the experience of the original just about perfectly, but it's also a reminder that not everything from those early days of run-and-gun deserves to be celebrated.

Probably the most realistic recreation of the inevitable and oncoming zombie apocalypse in video game history. It's typified by desperation, sacrifice, frustration, terror and the overbearing sense of hopelessness. But there's a catch. Though the zombie apocalypse may occasionally be grimly satisfying or fleetingly triumphant when you survive another night, there's one thing it almost certainly won't be...Fun.

Assassin's Creed Rogue is not a bad game, but it is a derivative game.

I actually wish I had stopped playing after about, oh, five hours. Up to that point, Army Corps of Hell is a novel experience. After that, it burns out all that novelty. And not in awesome heavy metal hellfire, either.

Darkspore doesn't exactly redefine RPGs as we know it, but there's no other action RPG around that allows this much control over the look of your characters. There's a lot of room for improvement, but the living loot system and Hero Editor help Darkspore stand out among other hack-and-slash games.

There are parts of me that are objectively bad, yes. But there are also things that are just obtuse or antiquated, and if people can look past that stuff or even embrace it, there's absolute merit to me.

Tearaway is cheerful, clever, and colorful, but never quite attains the masterful blend of art and gameplay exhibited by developer Media Molecule's previous efforts, the LittleBigPlanet games.

Any game with such a premise is inevitably, and unconsciously, drawn into comparison with Katamari Damacy, which is pretty much universally beloved. Having to be measured against something like that makes any game seem worse. And from that perspective, the not-bad About a Blob seems bland.

Not particularly great. There's fun to be had with its flashy battles and who's-who roster of familiar faces, but if you're looking for depth or longevity, you'll want to start kicking up dirt elsewhere. Make no mistake: this is the best Dissidia's ever been. Problem is, it could still be much better.

It's this grind, more than anything else, which drags down Rainbow Moon, dividing your time almost equally between genuinely enjoyable dungeon-crawling and frustrating, level-building slog. It's a real shame, as the game has great ideas and a lot of retro charm to it, but it's hard to justify investing so much time into it when you're not really enjoying yourself.

Entwined has clear objectives and an overall goal, but the reward for "beating" it isn't points or a trophy, it's a sense of serenity and peace. It's certainly not for everyone, but to those who find the idea appealing, it utterly succeeds.

Harmoknight isn't a bad little tune, but its simple melody just doesn't have the strength to carry a truly memorable song.

For huge fans of experimental gameplay, the skateboarding genre or Shaun, it still comes recommended. For everyone else, maybe catch the Flying Tomato where he's still best -- on the slopes.

The complicated controls and frustrating difficulty make Shoot Many Robots tough to enjoy on your own and only slightly less so in a group. If you're really craving the next Alien Hominid then this one might do for a quick fix.

MotorStorm Apocalypse really nails the whole apocalypse thing, no question. It's the actual racing that's taken the back seat. There are moments when the planets align and the experience becomes pure arcade racing magic -- but they're only moments. The rest of the time you're just an angsty, glorified crash test dummy.

Deadlight shines in its detailed world-building: The art direction, IDs, diary entries and pieces of hidden lore are glorious. It's the gameplay that fails to live up to the standard of these beautiful fragments, with unresponsive controls and frustrating scenarios that can't decide if they want to be puzzles or action sequences.

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

What ultimately brings down Conception 2, however, is that none of its elements manage to rise above a general feeling of mediocrity. The combat is too dull and repetitious to ever be addictive. The dating sim, jiggly boobs and all, is interesting, but too limited to carry the game on its own.

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.

It feels like a decent downloadable game trying desperately to stretch itself into a full retail suit that doesn't quite fit. As it is, its joys are like its formless protagonist: ephemeral.

If players walk into this game wanting a simple multiplayer game with Ratchet qualities, and not a Ratchet game with co-op, they will get exactly what Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One is trying to deliver. It's a standard, linear action game with high production values.

Ultimately, if Final Fantasy XIII took the series five steps back, Final Fantasy XIII-2 takes it one hesitant step forward. Features like non-linear dungeons, optional side quests and NPC-populated towns are wonderful and all, but they were RPG staples twenty years ago. While Final Fantasy XIII-2 does quite a bit to fix the mistakes of its predecessor, it does very little to stand out on its own merits. It's enjoyable, but it's also disappointing in many ways. Final Fantasy deserves better.

While not thoroughly original, it's at least consistently enjoyable during its short ride.

Frankly, Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom might have been better off with no combat at all. In about 15 hours of playtime, the puzzles stay fresh, while the fighting feels stale from the start.

A hell of a single-player challenge, which should only be taken on by the sort of sadist who one-credit-clears Cave shooters. For the time being, however, even as Moon Diver hardly feels like a modern-day Big Damn Deal, it is at its best when posing as the over-serious side-scrolling equivalent of a party game.

How much you get out of Prototype 2 depends on how much you enjoy its wonderful mobility and its particular brand of mass destruction, and how much you're willing to forgive its more brain-dead moments – both in terms of repetition and witless dialogue.

Crimson Dragon isn't bad, and there's plenty to do if you simply must unlock and evolve every dragon, but it runs out of ideas long before it runs out of missions.

Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 simply doesn't live up to its predecessor. Side by side, Rearmed looks more like the sequel, packed with bigger, better iterations of the concepts in Rearmed 2.

Perhaps, considering the industry's rampant "borrowing," it's a little unfair to complain about Puzzle Agent feeling gratingly uninspired. But Telltale forgot one of the most basic rules: If you're going to crib enough to be compared to a franchise as solid and beloved as Professor Layton, that's got to be a comparison you want to invite, and one to which you can stack up well. Poor Nelson Tethers just can't.

I think it's fair to say that it's an acquired taste. Most people will know whether or not like they like it from the first moment that they get a good look at the art, which is extremely rough. Crimson Shroud really isn't interested in fancy pyrotechnics or other frills. Its storytelling, combat, and exploration are about as raw as it gets.

Compared to Colors, Sonic Generations is a weaker, above average effort. Even taken as fan-service, the game's wavering quality, apparent lack of creativity and meandering filler feels like it's stalling until next year's birthday, and next year's game.