A diligent approach to ensuring that no two encounters are the same keeps it from ever feeling stagnant or like a waste of your time. You're always moving, constantly pushing through the next enemy stronghold, never sure of what you'll face, and it's always harrowing.

This community engagement is not only smart from a marketing and outreach perspective, but it's what gives Don't Starve its depth: All of these features bundled into a survival game with streamlined, robust mechanics and infinite ways to die.

The action sequences in the premiere episode are well-paced and fraught with tension. They're streamlined from the first season's experiments, offering a mix of timed clicks, button mashes and swipes, alongside a frantic search for the right weapon in the surrounding area.

What a game. I passed a few dozen hours leading a contingent of scumbags-with-hearts-of-gold through a convoluted gangster soap opera full of betrayals, redemptions, posturing, overdramatic gestures, and profoundly awkward dates, and played Boxcelios 2 in the Club Sega arcade on Theater Square when I didn't feel like doing any of that stuff.

If it's survival-of-the-fittest thrills you want, Skylanders can do that.

Every year, the series brings a balance of improvement and ongoing flaws. Considering this year's game as a whole, improvements like the new presentation style and lack of player suction heavily outweigh the more minuscule issues that remain. It's a good kind of frustration for players, the kind where this year's game is definitely better than last year's, which may actually be enough incentive to give it a shot.

Festival of Blood is campy, vampy fun and an absolute steal for $10. Best part: you don't even need Infamous or Infamous 2 to play it. Happy Halloween.

Where WWE 13 shines in its attention to detail, especially in the dedicated ways it brings the Attitude Era to life, it falls just a few steps short in other modes.

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

It's not a bad game, but it's certainly not a friendly game -- something that you'd notice even if you weren't coming off of Dragon Quest IX, and something that is only exacerbated for those who are.

I enjoy the base gameplay, and the music, enough that I have no problem replaying each song repeatedly; however, I cannot ignore that I am, in fact, replaying each song repeatedly. Depending on your temperament, this might be an irritant.

Teleglitch is a harsh mistress, but the cruelest lessons are often the ones that truly stick with us.

So while more hardcore players may scoff at the very idea of party games, and Guilty Party definitely doesn't necessarily avoid the inherent pitfalls of the genre, it's still some of the most fun you'll have on your Wii with a crew of interested buddies.

Though it hews closely to the traditional ratio of exploration and critter killing, Tales of Xillia has more than enough unusual and refreshing elements to keep pushing you forward.

In the crowded puzzle genre, especially on a handheld like the 3DS, Minis on the Move doesn't stand out in any significant way. There is no impressive gameplay twist, no mechanic that feels fresh or noteworthy. It may attempt to mesh hectic action with mind-bending challenges, but it doesn't particularly succeed at either.

It's a solid effort all-around and a surprisingly fun way to get fit.

Whatever issues might plague Wonderful 101 are glossed over with charm and an idiosyncratic vision. Sorting through dozens of heroes, picking out your leader and imbuing him or her with a personality feels like dumping your toy box on the floor and gathering up the ones you want to play with.

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.

While it's hamstrung by flaky multiplayer functionality and a lack of new ideas, it is impressive just how well the first-person action of the Killzone franchise has translated to the Vita. As competent as it is, however, Killzone: Mercenary is teetering on the edge of being something truly great.

It's a digestible version of football that even the biggest sports cynic can enjoy. And, in the unlikely event you don't have a good time, the typical game only lasts around 15 minutes, so your stint in hell is at least guaranteed to be brief.

Skullgirls should have spent another year in development. What we got is good for what it is and will adequately fill a very niche void for serious fighters pining after a non-Blazblue Guilty Gear methadone, but it could have been so much more.

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.

Despite all the insanity around the concept – and aside from all the weird "challenge mode" variants, unlockable ships, cute level descriptions, and all the other quirk – Retro/Grade is a well-designed music game with a completely original soundtrack. And that's as rare as a backwards shmup these days.

To say that this game comes as a surprise would be an enormous understatement. Sonic fans, I know it's hard to believe, but there's a reason to believe again.

Shmups are hardcore enough, but Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury somehow feels like a niche unto itself. At least death is served up à la carte, so you can move between stages at will if you die three times.

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.

Call of Duty: Ghosts is a solid installment, but it lacks creativity and innovation. Its new engine already looks dated in the face of the competition, and it eschews many of the solid concepts seen in Black Ops 2.

Amid the Ruins forces us to swing that axe again and again and again in unsavory situations; it forces us to feel each step through a mass of hungry zombies, and it makes the steps leading up to an uncomfortable conversation just as tense.