With an inconsistent story, total absence of scares, and clunky combat, Final Transmission makes for a shallow last gasp of air for The Callisto Protocol. This new franchise has been lost in space since launch and an onslaught of patches and DLC hasn’t made it any less of a disappointment. Final Transmission just highlights what was already bad about The Callisto Protocol, and ensures that it has ended as poorly as it began.

AEW: Fight Forever tries its best to invoke one of the most beloved wrestling games, but it’s a pale imitation that doesn’t live up to that legacy. The occasionally entertaining match doesn’t make up for most of the game feeling like an annoying chore to complete, and this doesn’t even seem like a particularly strong core to build off for a sequel. Wrestling fans deserve better, and developer Yuke’s continues to deliver middling games within the genre regardless of the brand it is associated with.

Disney Dreamlight Valley lets players dive into a magical world full of Disney characters. It is a colorful, fun, and highly addictive adventure that is let down by a rather curious decision. It was strange to see so little love paid attention to the realms outside of the Valley that I was kind of left wondering why they even existed in the first place. However, inside the Valley is a world that sucks you in and keeps you invested in discovering all the recipes, fish, gems, and more. After 40 hours, while Disney Dreamlight Valley isn’t without its flaws and odd bugs, it is well worth diving into for Disney and life simulation fans alike. [Early Access Score = 75]

Bright Memory: Infinite feels like a tech demo someone made just to prove they could do it. It’s not a bad game, in fact it looks and feels great to play. It just doesn’t feel like a completed game, as you will reach the credits before the 2 hour mark.

Edge of Eternity just sort of is. There is nothing really memorable here, just a bunch of ideas that don’t really deliver much of a kick. The UI is just disastrous, turning any task into a kick in the privates and the combat is just flat, with nothing really exciting about it. The basic premise of the story is strong enough and the characters aren’t horrible, but the dialogue felt rushed far too often.

If you’re looking to enjoy the next Battlefield title, turn back now. With the next patch not slated to arrive for another month, and the next content update to release some time after that, it’s going to be a while before 2042 can earn the right to be called a true Battlefield game. It’s best to wait until the smoke clears and DICE fixes any major bugs (maybe even wait for it to go on discount) before spending $70 on this game.

It’s unfortunate that Koei Temco has no intention of remaking or remastering the Fatal Frame series from the beginning. This slightly upscaled and modified port from Nintendo Wii U to current gen platforms puts forth a subpar experience that doesn’t sell me on the series. It seemed to just be the most convenient installment to make available for the 20th anniversary and it shows. If you’re like me and Maiden of Black Water is your first Fatal Frame game, I recommend you keep those expectations low.

While Tricore definitely has something here, Yuoni wholly misses the mark—if it was even aiming for anything at all. If you want a survival horror game with stealth mechanics, go play Alien: Isolation or Outlast. If you want a narrative-rich, detailed world, go play the classic Resident Evil games. If you want a horror game with traditional Japanese horror elements and spirits, go play Fatal Frame.

I appreciate Akiba’s Trip: Hellbound & Debriefed for spawning a sequel that I fondly remember. I just have an extremely hard time overlooking so many glaring problems that were glossed over to repackage and sell it in this state. Unless you really loved Undead & Undressed or just don’t want a hole in your collection, this is one to pick up on sale.

Balan Wonderworld feels like it’s shrouded in mystery because there’s a woeful lack of explanation for the majority of its mechanics. Nobody should be left looking for external guides to gather even the most basic information for a game aimed at children. When added to the frustrating management of the game’s costumes (including those that can’t jump in a platformer), its underdeveloped story, the overly simplistic platforming, and the tortuous Balan Bouts, this is a game that had promise but is ruined by a multitude of bizarre design decisions.

I Saw Black Clouds has very little to redeem it. The characters are unrealistic and the plot twists and turns in an incoherent manner that introduces continuity issues. Player choices occasionally make a difference but are often ignored and sometimes even dubbed incorrect. Endings are mixed up and player relationships are pointless, plus the game can be buggy too. The irony is that Shropshire has its fair share of ghost stories and it even claims to be the most haunted county in the UK. Maybe the game would have been better telling one of those stories instead.

I sincerely wanted to enjoy this adventure. Everything I had read about it excited me but here I am, feeling as though I wasted too many hours and grew a dozen new white hairs stressing over a game that was just not ready to be released. From in-game glitches to progression-halting bugs, what little fun there was ended up marred by a game that just didn’t feel finished. Who knows, maybe the other versions of the game don’t have as many problems as the PS4 version. That’s just not a theory I want to spend time to test myself.

It’s a real shame that even though the game looks so bright and colorful the whole package is just incredibly dull. With only a handful of game modes, a bland story, and no local co-op mode to spice things up a bit, it’s not going to take you long to tire of this. Even if you’re a fan of the anime it’s probably better to give this one a miss.

The biggest sin that Crossroads commits is being boring; a sad take for a franchise that is definitively not. Whether you like the series or not, you can’t argue that the films are almost always bombastic and entertaining, whereas here it’s just really uninteresting and flat, doing both the Fast and Furious franchise and driving games both a disservice. There are some bad licensed games out there that I could still recommend to the hardcore fans out of love for the series but Fast and Furious Crossroads is so bad that only the absolute die-hard fans will get any enjoyment out of this one. And even then, you may want to strongly reconsider this stain on an otherwise loved franchise.

There are a lot of great strategy games on the PlayStation 4. Maybe, if that weren’t the case, it would be easier to forgive 1971 Project Helios being a bland adventure with largely forgettable characters engaging in claustrophobic encounters against enemies that all sort of blend together. I mean, it works well enough on the system. The loading screens are a little long for something so basic, but that isn’t an egregious offense. You can even see how sometimes it is trying to push people to be aggressive. Unfortunately, I found it completely unappealing in every way, which isn’t great when it was surrounded by better games every time I turned on my system.

Ys: Memories of Celceta is fun and pretty straightforward for a JRPG. These characters don’t have explosions of personal growth, mostly sticking to their given roles in Adol’s tale. Russell’s original review did note frame rate issues which are no longer a problem in the PS4 port. That 60fps is the best quality of life update the game could ask for. Do yourself a favor, head back to the Great Forest and discover the secrets within over your summer break.

A mediocre experience that’s less psychological horror than it is torture. There are better horror experiences out there.

SuperMash is an unfortunate example of a concept working better on paper than in execution. Whilst the mashing system is fun to mess around with and watch the first few times, that magic quickly wears off and all you’re left with is the poorest imitations of great game genres.

For $8, a couple of new upgrades, dull storytelling, and three new zany commercials doesn’t cut it. There are also postcards strewn about DL-C1, but after getting that horrible stress headache I just can’t seem to care about going back to find them all. Sadly, I am not having fun at all with the “Hot Garbage” DLC. I thought returning to my job working for Kindred would be just as much of a trip as the first go-around. But this vacation was a real stinker.

Just because it’s for kids doesn’t mean they deserve a super low-quality product phoning it in on a known IP.

I think as long as Bungie continues to refine the process for new players, testing with people who have never played the game before, it will get to a place that can act as a great ramp into the Destiny 2 that I personally know and love.

There’s still plenty of room for Decay of Logos to mature into a quality experience. However, it’s hard to shake the feeling that with these many issues, it had no business being released at this point in time. Through diligent work and keeping a keen ear to the community, these missteps can be overcome. But really, the paying audience shouldn’t have to be your QA team. Unless you are fond of the “early access” style of unpolished releases, you should absolutely steer clear of this cataclysmic clusterf.ck.

The problem with Whipseey and the Lost Atlas is that it doesn’t do anything to differentiate itself from the platformers it has clearly been inspired by. And despite looking, sounding and controlling wonderfully, Blowfish Studio’s two dimensional platformer invites unflattering comparisons due to its lack of originality.

What’s not to love about smashing together virtual reality, mechs, and killing some Nazis? Unfortunately, the execution isn’t just lacking, it fundamentally removes many of the best elements of those things, undercutting the strength it could have were it a deeper experience.

Joker’s Wild taught a lot of lessons, but mostly, it’s shown that it is worth it to experience all of things live in real time, rather than joining in after the fact. Something big is coming, and Season of the Drifter began paving the way for the future.

R.B.I. Baseball 19 is once again a disappointment. The extremely low production values, lack of game modes, inconsistent animations, and uninspired gameplay result in one lackluster delivery.

The story is dull, the combat is bland, and it just feels really repetitive. Overall, it’s not a very challenging game and is unlikely to hold your attention for long.

Once the game was in my hands, reality struck me like a Detroit Smash and what I had before me was a mess. Jump Force is ugly, janky, confusing, and far too simple. It does what other games have already done before, but with far less confidence or success. It tries to hide its misgivings behind cool special moves and motion blur, but fails at that too. It’s a total swing and miss.

Song of Memories is just such a bizarre game. It tries really hard to be different with it’s sudden and drastic tonal shifts in storyline, but it’s not a game that is going to be held up as one of the greats of its genre. Its sluggish early pacing, forgettable characters, and dull rhythm mini-game means that this can only really be recommended to the most die-hard of fans.

I’m ragging on JackQuest a lot here, but to put it plainly, JackQuest doesn’t make a great case for itself. It feels like an earnest project inspired by the titans before it, but it doesn’t have nearly the same juice behind it. From a lack of interesting narrative hooks to several gameplay issues that make playing it feel like a chore, JackQuest just manages to miss the mark on a fundamental level.

It’s definitely new and improved framework, but Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal is mostly the same picture. Underwritten busty characters, who serve only to please those viewing them, engage in repetitive combat segments that become little more than “Dynasty Warriors with TnA.”

While I was on board at the title screen, it didn’t take long for the disappointment to set in. There’s an unearned self-confidence in the writing that is hampered by stilted dialogue and shallow characters, and the exact opposite in the gameplay, where YIIK feels afraid to actually be a 90s-style RPG. It’s obtuse and poorly balanced, making each encounter a frustrating exercise in attrition. YIIK has big ideas but they rest on top of a shoddy foundation, one that crumbles the more you try to stay on top of it. I’d rather just play EarthBound again.

8 to Glory is bare bones in every way.

Heavy Fire: Red Shadow had the potential to give gamers an updated version of Beach Head 2002 from the heyday of arcades. Unfortunately, an incredibly short campaign, terrible graphics, and a lack of any real challenge all coalesce into an altogether underwhelming product.

This is not a game for a more general audience. Hell, I have been playing visual novels since before they became popular in the west, and I had trouble sticking with it. Lots of strange choices were made in this game, and all of them made it more difficult for me to connect with the story and its characters.

I know what it feels like to walk that fine line between patience and anticipation while holding a rod. That’s the part of fishing Fishing Sim World failed to simulate. The energy. There’s simply nothing exciting about catching fish in this game.

A disappointment in all aspects. Clunky driving, a blurry presentation, generic sound design, boring upgrade options, and mind-bogglingly terrible physics all mash together into one “arcade” racer you’re better off avoiding, especially at its launch price of $49.99 USD.

While it has some good ideas that are well-intentioned and will surely provide some entertainment to die-hards, NASCAR Heat 3 is missing all those things and, in the wider scheme of racing games, is still several laps behind.

If you want a game, there are better music puzzlers out there with heaps more content, and if you’re looking for someplace to fire up your musical chops, there are actual music production tools that will serve you in better ways than Track Lab’s isolated creation mode.

Strange Brigade has perhaps the most finicky, inconsistent gunplay in my recent memory.

While Fall of Light: Darkest Edition does have an interesting tale to tell, it’s wrapped up in so many layers of mediocrity that it’s unlikely you’ll get far enough to care. Poor combat, annoying death mechanics, and an irritating inventory system make the game tedious to play through.

When all is said and done, the handful of people sitting in the middle of the Venn diagram marked “doesn’t own a PC” and “wants a hardcore train simulation” still deserve a game that isn’t buggy, runs well, respects their time as a user, and one that provides more for their money than this one does.

At that point, the promising feeling drips away, and you start to think that given this is the 15th racing game Milestone has released on PS4 in four years, we could be in for a real treat when they slow down and actually finish one.

When you’re doing the same and cruising downhill through the beautiful countryside or fighting and clawing to get your wheels in front at the top of a grueling climb, Le Tour De France 2018 is enjoyable stuff. But outside of those times, it’s yet another buggy and undercooked update for a title that had fallen off the pace a few iterations ago.

New Gundam Breaker does little to continue the good faith the past few Gundam games have worked so hard to garner. It’s a charming game at times, and its characters are refreshingly simple. That’s not enough to save it from itself, though, and the gameplay is well below what a game based entirely on building and piloting a Gundam should be.

Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn is a cautionary tale. Jokes are not funny just because you say them. Nor are they funny just because they raised over $450K. But being not funny isn’t a cardinal offense for a video game. Being dull and soulless mechanically is.

Extended loading times, washed out textures, and an unobtainable online infrastructure crucify what could have been a fresh start for the franchise. Worst of all, the personalities behind the sport have not transcended whatsoever – taking away one of its greatest assets.

Earth Atlantis doesn’t so much sink in the depths of the ocean as much as it drowns in the boring and tedious repetition it’s so engulfed in.

Ultimately though, the poor execution and the cracks in the gameplay cause this wildcard entry to fall well short of being a grand slam effort.

From an accessibility standpoint, however, HIVE: Altenum Wars does little to make the player feel welcome, and even less still to reward their perseverance in staying. It feels very much like an alpha gameplay demo for a game years down the pipeline.

It wouldn’t have reinvented the wheel, but it could have at least tried to give us something more to work with than the bare bones of a game from the 2000s.

A game that attempts to sneak into an era that has long passed it by. While a minimal amount of enjoyment can be had listening to the wayfarers and tradesmen across the many worlds that the hero visits, there are too many problems that stem from the game’s now ancient design.

There’s an element of fun here, but it’s hardly the type of game people bought their PS4s to play. If you’ve got an inkling of interest in the Bridge Constructor series, might I recommend trying the series for free on mobile, or even the far superior Bridge Constructor Portal? Bridge Constructor Stunts for PS4 just ends up landing on its head.

It feels absolutely barren next to the PlayStation 4’s strong first-party, third-party, and indie lineups.

Even after all my criticisms with the game, the ending was both surprising and fitting.

Bravo Team’s third-person camera movement system snatches control away from the player far too much, creating a jarring and unfriendly experience. I’m still baffled at why this was thought to be a good idea after numerous play tests. Movement is just the peak of myriad problems in Bravo Team, including tracking issues, AI goofs, and just plain bad and boring game design.

Mulaka has some neat ideas and a sometimes gorgeous look to it, but little else to offer. The individual locations fail to stand out, and the game quickly becomes overly formulaic. The combat is too sloppy to impress, the platforming is plagued by a stiff moving character, and the puzzles are never captivating. It’s a completely forgettable experience with a few really nice sights that are better experienced as screenshots.

Crossing Souls has a bunch of elements that should be right up my alley, but some flat writing and uninspired design really keeps it from hitting the desired marks. There’s a good idea here, and I have no doubt that a teen adventure starring ghosts and Egyptian Gods could be really dope, but a cool concept doesn’t make a great game. Instead, it just makes the end result all the more disappointing.

The pitch for Out of Ammo sounds interesting on paper, but the execution is probably the worst PSVR game that I have ever played.

It provides a satisfying conclusion to some of the conflicts left open during the previous story, and sets up enough open-ended arcs that the developers working on additional content can easily pull threads from.

Besides the HD visuals, Ben 10 feels like a licensed title from a decade ago. Most of the game is comprised of inoffensive mediocrity, and rarely is there anything that feels inspired. Kids will likely have some fun smashing around levels as their favorite characters from the show, but there’s simply too little content for it to keep attention spans occupied for too long.

VR experiences don’t need to be complex or lengthy, but the depth of League of War: VR Arena is virtually non-existent. It tries to espouse a sense of strategy, but the execution is so simplistic that it becomes all too easy to win (or sometimes lose) completely by accident by spamming the field with units. League of War is literally just a game of spawning units onto a bland tabletop battlefield. It’s designed well and the VR works, but more than a year on from the PSVR launch, a game needs to do something more than simply work to impress as a virtual reality experience.

There is a good strategy system to be found here, just really nothing else. The story is almost nonexistent and there really aren’t enough options here to build upon the strategy, or give you something to break it up a bit. If you are OK with the lack of options and just want to take over Tokyo and look at some nicely detailed tattoos, then Tokyo Tattoo Girls should be on your radar. Just don’t expect much more outside of that, because there isn’t anything.

The poor value proposition aside, The Woolies Strike Back simply doesn’t offer up reasons to go back to the game after you complete it.

The sad fact is that this is a simple shooting gallery without the things that would make a simple shooting gallery enjoyable.

Though even at its budget price, any fun you’ll have with the game will undoubtedly be short-lived. The gameplay is accessible enough and initially suggests that it has potential to provide a fun arcade experience with a touch of simulation, but ultimately is far too simplistic to the point of being uninteresting and repetitive.

Clearly a lot of work went into this year’s installment, but the end result simply did not come together in the slightest.

Everything from its presentation to the gameplay seems poorly thought out. This is one worth avoiding by all, as there’s not even any enjoyment to be had in a “so bad it’s good” sense.

With Circuit Breakers, what you get for your money is a very, very basic twin-stick shooter that is missing a lot of what makes the best in the genre so special.

The matchmaking is currently a mess, ranked play is currently inaccessible for many, and there’s no semblance of a campaign to keep players busy while the online is being worked on.

Perception is a game of wasted opportunities and poor execution. It presents a unique mechanic only for it turn stale as it lingers without any evolution, it introduces a character that the player has empathy for only to make her unrealistic and unlikable, and its inconsistent design decisions turn a promising adventure into a frustrating one.

Friday the 13th: The Game shouldn’t have been released in the sad state it currently is in. From glitches that make players invincible to terrible matchmaking that had me waiting over 10 minutes to get into a room, it’s putting it nicely to call the end product a mess. It’s really heartbreaking to see since there are still positives that manage to shine through if one can look past the galling lack of polish. The core gameplay, when it works properly, can be fun when played with friends, and there are some refreshing ideas underneath the jank. Several months from now it may become the multiplayer hit it strives to be, but right now it’s an embarrassing release that can’t be recommended.

With a lot more polish and focus on making VR a primary component of the game, DYING: Reborn VR could have been a great room escape experience for the platform. Instead it feels like its a hasty cash grab intended to capitalize on VR hype by being sold as a separate, pared down experience and not adapting the full extent of DYING: Reborn.

Perhaps if they baked their ideas a bit longer, fine tuned the controls, and fixed some of the latency issues (especially with loading), Divide could have been the big sci-fi adventure they clearly aimed for. But as it is, I was only relieved it didn’t take too long to complete.

It can even be said that some of the older games created for the franchise are much better and would be more recommended than this.

Unfortunately, if you are stone cold sober and trying to channel your inner Doogie Howser, this lack of any tangible precision will prove to be an instant turn-off.

Feels more like a proof of concept than a fleshed-out game, and that’s pretty disappointing. Visual Concepts show that they have some good ideas, and could make a more full-fledged offering, but this only touches the edges of what’s possible. It’s more of a tease than anything, which is good for a demo, not a paid product.

Almost everything from The Dwarves‘ gameplay to the presentation seems unpolished. It’s a real shame, since there are some good ideas, and the book it’s based upon is ripe for a video game adaptation.

Quite frankly, this feels like a Flash or Unity game, that someone decided to greenlight as a full console release.

I spent every minute in Small Radios Big Televisions waiting for it to become enjoyable, and then before I knew it the credits had hit. There was no magic moment where everything clicked, nor did the worlds I was viewing ever become something more than just a cool visual. This may be an audiovisual treat, but there’s absolutely no substance backing it up.

Even with exploring every nook and cranny of the house, plus unlocking every trophy it has to offer (no platinum, by the way), Weeping Doll still clocks in at well south of an hour long. Honestly though, maybe brevity is the game’s greatest feature.

Avoid this poorly structured game as if it was a tree in your riding line.

Hardcore Hatsune Miku fans might find something redeeming here, but even then they won’t be getting much for their $15 or more they spent. Even within its limited scope of being a virtual concert, Hatsune Miku: VR Future Live is a disappointment.

By itself it lacks any real compelling reason to buy it.

A thoroughly disappointing release. It’s pretty bad when PlayStation 2 games were more fully featured and fun to play than a new release in 2016.

Nobody is playing this game because it’s a technical mess, and I can’t recommend it to anyone due to that. If you want to play Verdun, then pick it up on PC. Sadly, the PlayStation 4 version is an inferior version that launched dead on arrival.

Besides the core concept being interesting, I really don’t have any other compliments to give Touhou Genso Rondo: Bullet Ballet. It’s a disappointment for a number of reasons, and it really sucks that a lot of North American gamers’ first experience with the Touhou series will be this bad spin-off.

Gal*Gun: Double Peace has a surprising amount of heart for a game that has its head lodged firmly in a gutter full of panties. The characters are likable, the plot is goofy in its seriousness, and the premise is so over the top that I couldn’t help but laugh. Sadly, the gameplay simply doesn’t hold up its end of the bargain.

ADR1FT may have atmosphere, but it doesn’t have much else.

It would be hard to say that Kill Strain isn’t at least ambitious. The game was a studio’s first outing in a relatively immature genre, which attempted to take a dramatically different approach to many of core mechanics that define MOBAs. Though carefully calculated, these risks fall flat in execution, resulting in a confusing and joyless experience.

It captures none of the camaraderie or the imagination that’s seen in the films. There’s no personality here, and gamers are left with a $50 twin stick shooter that doesn’t have a single interesting idea in it.

NERO is not fun. NERO might have a powerful story. NERO might look pretty. But NERO is not fun. Nor enjoyable. Or engaging. Or really anything that may have driven me to want to keep playing.

Soul Axiom is an incredibly uneven game that feels disjointed and unpolished. Moments of beauty in its futuristic overworld are only temporary, as half of the game looks completely out of place. It’s incredibly disappointing that the game isn’t able to come together since some of the puzzles are delightful to figure out.

Anima: Gate of Memories is a crushing disappointment.

Another huge issue is that Mutants in Manhattan just generally lacks polish.

I absolutely adore VEV: Viva Ex Vivo‘s concept, which only serves to make me more disappointed in the final release. Exploring these different microscope slides should be exciting, but instead players are left frustrated due to awkward controls and bored by how little there is to do.

If you’re a massive fan of the Hyperdimension Neptunia series, or not at all picky about your hack-and-slash titles, you might get a kick out of MegaTagmension Blanc + Neptune VS Zombies. Unfortunately, there’s not much I can say is worth the investment for anyone else; outside of a decent multiplayer mode, the game only has a mind-numbingly dull campaign to offer.

KOI is a game that almost went somewhere. While it has a pleasing aesthetic, and peaceful ambiance, what’s on offer is woefully short. So the score earned here, for the first game developed in China and released for Western audiences on the PlayStation 4, should serve as a sign for any other developers in China to strive for something more.