Modern shooters do their job well, but Counter-Strike is the series that helped build the scene. At $15, Global Offensive is a great extension to that legacy.

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.

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.

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.

Doesn't do much to innovate the platform-adventure sub-genre, but it does manage to look and play beautifully throughout, and sometimes that's enough.

Darksiders 2 is a series of peaks and valleys, but you spend more time at the top than you do in the pits below. More importantly, you spend even more time climbing and descending, claiming treasures and delving into the most dangerous parts of the world.

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.

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

It's a good game, but Sleeping Dogs mostly leaves you remembering the media that inspired it and probably won't remain in your thoughts over time.

Opposing teams taking potshots at one another from cover is nothing new, and Hybrid doesn't really turn the concept on its ear, but supplanting the usual ground game with an entirely aerial one is a delightful twist. It turns every movement into a serous commitment, a dedicated choice. When that choice is to glide into the air and gently lob a grenade behind a pair of unsuspecting adversaries, that's just gravy.

It's an experience I intend to play repeatedly, wearing out the virtual grooves in the metaphorical albums.

I am in love with this engine, true, and I probably spent as much time finding combos in Training Mode as I did finishing Story Mode, but it was Story Mode that got me honestly choked up.

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.

Here's hoping Square Enix decides to perform some flaw-flushing open-heart surgery on the series before its next entry, because hiding the messy bits under arbitrary new systems clearly isn't doing it any favors.

There are plenty of things that were great the first time you saw them, and work together to provide a pleasant experience, but there is no element of surprise, no attempt to dazzle you with new elements.

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.

The streamlined reward system illustrates the true brilliance behind Orcs Must Die! 2: an extreme level of player accommodation.

Though I spent more time on the map screen than I would have liked, the world of Rhythm Thief is so beautiful and lively that I was, in general, just happy to be inhabiting it, and delighted to play out some absurd scenarios in clever musical vignettes. It's not a flawless experience, but it is a joyful one.

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.

Make no mistake, Matt Leinart is a Heisman Trophy winner, and USC retired his number for a reason. He was excellent in his college years. But he's not my first pick as an all-time great, and neither is NCAA Football 13.

Episode 2 ends on a note that highlights the detail and thought behind its mechanics... (Potential spoiler omitted.) It's presented in a terribly disturbing manner, of course, but that's part of what makes it so wonderful.

Based on its initial look and feel, Spelunky is a whimsical adventure. It's adorable and exciting, but it's true, underlying plot to destroy your soul is what will keep you coming back. It offers a randomly generated world of fantastic possibilities, though all of them amount to what is essentially an infinite, irresistible quagmire. You'll love it while you hate it.

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.

At five bucks, it's an easy recommendation for anyone even remotely interested in role-playing games.

The kind of game we think we want. It aims to be thoughtful and mature as it ponders our recurring role as the trigger-happy mass murderer. And yet it casts us in that same spot again, making a boring job out of it and highlighting why even "stupid" games can better engage, entertain and challenge.

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.

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.

Whenever the recognition is working, Kinect really does enhance the experience of Steel Battalion, enabling the fantasy of piloting a very real walking tank and delivering a thrill of satisfaction with every confirmed kill. When the tech fails, however, at least in my experience, it fails in such a fundamental way that it's impossible to ignore.