While the journey in Downpour is one of the most interesting in the series, some of its most significant beats fall flat.

Of all the issues with online play, the lag during matches is the worst. Even when playing against people in your local region, and even with the stereoscopic 3D effect automatically turned off for online battles, lag manages to stutter into bouts more often than not, typically at the worst possible moments.

With a better matchmaking system and more multiplayer options, it would be easier to recommend. As it stands, with so many quality shooters in the budget download market (or even the free-to-play market, for that matte), the few intriguing pieces of Nexuiz aren't enough to lift it above the crowd.

It's accessible and adorably illustrated. It has a streak of dark humor embedded in its cast of Frankenstein furballs, and it's just relaxed enough to let its physics-driven puzzles slide out of control every once in a while, giving its challenges a spark that chores don't have.

It's conventional. Playing the game is like being handed a piece of paper and checking off a to-do list. The old games weren't much different in this respect, but this is supposed to be a modern game and it's lacking in stories to tell your friends. A city is millions of people living together in harmony and tension. It's a human achievement and it's messy. SimCity is gorgeous and bland.

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.

By obscuring their comedic voice under a fog of poorly (and frequently) implemented combat and a still-questionable inventory, it's difficult to enjoy DeathSpank's new adventure. That genuinely funny experience that DeathSpank once represented is still around; it just takes a little too much hacking, slashing and digging to get to it.

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.

As it stands, Nail'd is an arcade racer less about perfection and more about the simple joys of going fast and landing big stunts. It's a simple trick, but it's well-executed.

Its combat is neat if still a bit limited, and its dark direction and weird narrative a bit tainted by self-indulgence, but this is still a Grasshopper grindhouse romp worth most of its issues. The danger, I guess, will always be one drink too many.

To release a game that's just plain not finished and to expect people -- to expect your fans -- to pay the full $60 for it? That's where you lose me.

In truth, the very best thing about Dark Star One is just how little competition it has in the space combat sim genre. The closest you'll get on the 360 is Project Sylpheed, and that's far more arcadey and fantastical than this.

Is it an easy game for kids, or a tough game for seasoned players? It offers some great level design, top notch fan service, and a decent challenge, but that challenge arrives a little too late.

Its gameplay variety is appreciated up to a point, but Sonic: Lost World misses the mark more often than it succeeds, as frustrating level design and unimaginative boss encounters are enough to overshadow its fleeting moments of brilliance.

The trouble with this top-flight presentation is that it never feels like it's supporting or heightening a superior action experience, it feels like it's trying to mask a hollow one. Dog Days can throw out all the light blooms and shaky cams it wants, but it all seems a vain attempt to hide the fact that this particular enchilada is little more than a stale, rolled-up tortilla.

Thankfully, even when the blades are dull, the writing is sharp. Even so, many jokes are of the family-friendly sitcom variety, and play off of RPG tropes. If you've never laughed at the convoluted plots, overdramatic heroes or NPC behavior seen so often in the role-playing genre, this weapon may not be for you.

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.

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.

Derivative, yet lacking in what makes twin-stick shooters like Geometry Wars and Robotron: 2084 great, MicroBot's intravenous adventure makes what should be an adrenaline-fueled genre boring with lackluster controls, dull levels, and lame co-op.

Fuse's basic mechanics are functional, even interesting, but they're hamstrung by poor AI (on both sides) and boring encounters. Friends make things better, but even then this locomotive doesn't take long to run out of steam. Fuse is satisfactory at best and frustrating at worst, and a bare-bones shooter without any personality or flair.

Splatterhouse is like an undercooked blood sausage. It's sloppy, gooey, and all falls apart under any real amount of pressure.

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.

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.

A severe disappointment. The chain wrestling mechanic is tiresome, and online play is a chore. A dearth of customization options across the board tear away at what made the series special.

The tale may not be as finely crafted as Tolkien's, but it's reverent of his work and worth experiencing – just keep in mind that you'll have to kill a lot of orcs to do so.

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.

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.

Jim Peyton's story as played in Lost Planet 3 is a mixed proposition, in need of trimming to the monster-shooting tedium, yet anemic at its core interactions.