CounterSpy touches on the gravity of the cold war while presenting it in a polished game that many will enjoy, if they choose to accept the mission.

I wouldn’t recommend playing Men’s Room Mayhem for longer than 20 or so minutes at a time, or you will quickly find the breaking point at which the game gets old. Ironically, Mayhem is the perfect game for a trip to the men’s room.

After the strong start with The Mad Ones, I can’t help but feel disappointed with Hide and Seek.

If you want something you don’t have to think too deeply about or are into competitive multiplayer with friends, then World War Z could be for you. But if you’re expecting an in-depth narrative and a campaign that requires strategy and coordination, then perhaps you should stay away.

The camera problems do threaten to take this off-road game into a ditch, but you’ll likely come back and persevere with MudRunner far more generously and readily than you would expect.

Oddworld: Soulstorm should have been the definitive version of the second entry in the Oddworld quintology, while the new story and characters hold their own, the gameplay lets it down. A plethora of bugs make the game far more difficult and frustrating than it should be, ranging from inconsistent enemy movement and teleportation to traces of elements no longer in the final product. There are more than 1300 Mudokons needing your help, but it might be worth waiting a while before you take on this mammoth task.

Developer Milestone S.r.l. has been making racing games for so long, it comes as no surprise how nicely Monster Energy Supercross turned out. From the detail in the dirt, to the details in the bikes, this is not only a great looking game, but a great racing game too.

The brief levels offer a perfect bite-sized morsels, and you may even end up biting off more than just a nibble each time you play, slamming just one more coin into the slot to start another round.

A fun, albeit bite-sized, adventure with some beautiful animation work that seeks to re-explore how point-and-click adventures are handled on consoles, but its short length doesn’t leave any room to explore some of the more interesting plot points. As an initial foray for Pewter Games, it makes me excited to see what they’ll follow it up with. I don’t fault The Little Acre as a bad game, but rather as something that comes up short and fails to explore its full potential.

There are some great ideas here, and some really funny writing, but the good moments are all surrounded by a bunch of middling ones.

Rocketbirds 2 is a game strictly for fans of the series. With imprecise controls yet precise aiming requirements, you can expect to curse your way through most of the game’s boss fights (especially those that take place in the air, or under the water, or in space, or, well, anywhere the camera changes perspective).

If you were to boil TT Isle of Man: Ride on the Edge down to its essence, it does a fantastic job of recreating the storied event in fantastic detail. The sheer sense of speed it engenders is an achievement in and of itself. However, the mediocre variety, lack of replayability, and need for more polish derail an otherwise interesting experience. Only the hardcore should saddle up for this ride.

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

Better jokes, a stronger art style, a better battle system and a recruitment process that fells more involving would move this game from simply mediocre to a whole lot of fun. Though, that’s sort of a laundry list of problems to overcome.

Mobile Suit Gundam Battle Operation: Code Fairy is strictly for the fans. That isn’t to say people who are unfamiliar with the series won’t enjoy it. Indeed, with as few walking tank games out there as it is, anyone into this type of gameplay will probably enjoy things here. It’s just that being invested in the story of Gundam helps a lot, because much of the game is about taking in the story. Combat is clunky, but gets the job done, and the episodic format makes that fact easier to forgive.

It’s quick and dirty, the video game equivalent of a greasy burger, and Nights of Azure 2 will leave all but the most hardcore fans of yuri tropes feeling the same kind of shame that comes after consuming fast food as well. Nights of Azure 2 isn’t a bad game, but it certainly isn’t a good one either—it’s just empty calories, with nothing having been gained or lost after a playthrough.

The proverbial meat of the experience consists of interesting concepts that are executed poorly. Much like what the player will encounter during several puzzles, gameplay itself feels like an ill-informed leap of faith that elicits more far exasperation than elation.

The game could have really benefited from coming off its wheels and really opening up the exploration to give you more to do.

Only those who can commit to learning the quirks of the turn system and limited deck size will find the game rewarding.

Driveclub VR isn’t pretty, but it’s still some of the best racing found on PlayStation 4. I’ve never found drifting around corners to be this satisfying, and having to actually look at my mirrors helped fool me into thinking I was actually behind the wheel. If this is the end for Driveclub, it at least gets to leave on a high note.

NASCAR Heat 2 is a definite step up from its predecessor, but it’s still lacking a layer of polish that would propel it towards appealing to a larger racing audience. Those who want an authentic NASCAR racer should be satisfied with this year’s installment, but there’s just too many minor issues that bog the racing down a level.

At $4.99 the game is at the top end of the minis price range, making it rather costly for a game that is basically just a rudimentary time management game. Supermarket Mania can provide hours of enjoyment for fans of management sims, but it does little to provide anything new or unique, and fails to expand upon the genre.

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing will sate the ARPG fan’s appetite, but only just. Those looking for an entertaining story will find plenty to like here, but you’ll have to slog through some uninspired combat in order to get to the good parts. A mid-game tower defense mashup freshens things up a bit, but a poor control scheme will lead you to wonder how much better the game could have been. Still, at only $19.99/€19.99, if you think you can deal with some annoying controls and otherwise average RPG action, the surprise metagame in The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing might be worth the price of admission.

Nano Assault NEO-X is an amazing looking game that doesn’t have a lot to offer besides its current-gen graphics. It takes only around an hour to beat the whole thing, and unless you really want to compete for a top score in the leaderboards, there isn’t much of a reason to go back and replay any of the levels.

Having the online multiplayer on the free side of the paywall is a smart move on the part of the developer, but with limited success in finding or maintaining a game, I caution anyone hoping to use this as their online game of choice on Vita.

The gameplay in Castaway Paradise is not the deepest thing ever created, but it’s relaxing and is the kind of game that you can continue to come back to and play for an hour or so at a time. The game actively encourages this by providing daily rewards for logging in, as well as daily challenges to partake in.

Immortal Realms: Vampire Wars is a strategy game that has the perfect atmosphere for the season we currently find ourselves in, and we’re not strictly talking about Halloween here! Some cumbersome menu navigation and mostly unchallenging AI means that without even local hot-seat multiplayer, players looking for more challenging opponents will unfortunately need to look elsewhere. Still, console gamers who are desperate for more strategy games should look to Immortal Realms: Vampire Wars to get their fix, and at a wallet-friendly price point of $49.99 to boot.

What you end up with is an experience that shows a ton of promise, but ends up being entirely average. It’s hard to call Watch Dogs Legion a bad game outright. It’s a serviceable, if traditional, open-world game with a boring story and novelty mechanics that play out better on paper than in execution. The PS5 version makes expected improvements to visuals and load times, but isn’t a standout example of a “next-gen” title.

If you want to find yourself chuckling at one absurd look at the future of space flight, and can handle yourself in survival games, then by all means check out Breathedge. Its humor may not appeal to everyone, but beyond that the beautiful views of space wreckage mixed with a decent challenge of avoiding death provide for an entertaining couple dozen hours of playtime. Building out a space station is its own reward, as are the in-game rewards. Enjoy yourself out there in the vast nothingness with your immortal chicken, wits, and maybe a wrench or two.

It is hard to shake the feeling that Stardust VR could have been an update to the current PlayStation 4 iteration of the game. The new VR mode and enhanced presentation could have very well been either free or paid DLC for the existing game, instead of a standalone release that repackages all of the content from the PS4 iteration.

The chaotic action really pops with sketchy cartoon visuals — I especially loved the visceral satisfaction of knocking my opponents into background objects and watching the debris fall. This isn’t as tight or polished as some of the other stuff out there (Naruto Shippuden’s latest installment comes to mind), but it’s well-worth a look if you’re a One Piece junkie or just a fighting game fan looking for a little anarchic fun.

It’s really rather unfortunate just how much is missing from Blue Reflection. The bones of a good story and combat are there, with likable enough characters, but that’s it. The lack of options in both the school life and the Common are just deflating. The game feels like a Persona starter kit to a certain extent; it just needs more polish and more to do.

Overall, Apache Air Assault offers players enough content across its 16 levels of multiple stages to warrant a purchase. However, because of the lacking variety in the missions and the all too quick repetitive nature of title, many gamers may find themselves growing tired of flying the Apache's before they have even managed to get past the learning curve.

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.

While H1Z1: Battle Royale doesn’t do anything particularly special yet, it sets up a solid foundation that can be expanded with future events and additions, a la Fortnite.

Any fan of the franchise will enjoy it for its authenticity, references, behind-the-scenes insights, and the opportunity to finally see what happens next as they accompany the original crew on another mad caper overflowing with ‘buster banter straight from the creators themselves.

For those looking for something different, Operation Abyss definitely fills the void — pun intended. Its clean art style and safe, but feature-filled mechanics make it a fun dungeon RPG outing on the PS Vita despite its contemporaries.

WRC 6 offers up a decent alternative to Dirt Rally, specifically for fans that want a more forgiving take on the sport of rally racing, but there’s still a lot of room to improve. If the series really wants to be the rally game that most players flock to, it’ll need to offer up better tutorials, and teach players how to understand their co-driver. On top of that, there’s a general lack of polish (from technical issues to visual fidelity) that keeps the game a solid notch below the competition in its own racing niche. There’s still some fun to be had, but there’s far better racers on PlayStation 4.

While there’s plenty of content on offer, Black Ops 7’s well-executed (if not overly familiar) multiplayer and Zombies modes are eclipsed by a truly baffling, nonsensical campaign. Here’s hoping that 2026’s Call of Duty manages to find its footing again and, hopefully, stick the landing.

At this point, while trying to honor Batman and give unexpected beats, Telltale has managed to make Batman actually feel dull. There’s a lot of potential in what they are doing, but Children of Arkham is more poorly rehearsed high school play than engrossing Batman fiction.

A Vita game that you need to pick up and enjoy, because it is one of the best experiences on Sony's handheld yet. Sure the game has some frustrating moments and can become a bit repetitive, but it delivers intense action, smooth visuals, and an online experience that will have you coming back for more.

It’s genuinely difficult to not be charmed by the foul-mouthed shenanigans of Rad Rodgers. The game somehow manages to morph extremely dated design ideals into a form that is palatable to the modern console crowd.

Ride is a great racing title from veteran studio Milestone S.r.l.. It manages to have depth for veteran players, while also being accessible to new racers. If you’re sick of driving cars, and want a new challenge then Ride will offer up a fun one to master.

While the PlayLink technology has potential and does some really cool things by turning your phone into a controller, it also adds unnecessary complications to a game that uses the second screen functionality as more of a gimmick than a core gameplay mechanic. Hidden Agenda is a good game, but is held back from being great by trying to fit it into the party game mold.

A triumph for players out there looking for an addicting RPG full of creating items and building your kingdom to new heights.

Ultimately though, this is still the same critically scorned game from 2007, just with a couple of added features.

Puzzle Agent is too short, and not memorable enough to warrant our stamp of approval, and there are far better games on PSN, and from Telltale Games.

The Last Tinker: City of Colors if a throw back game that provides gamers with a simple approach to fun and it works.

MonsterBag‘s art style, presentation, and soundtrack are commendable. Its weird and eccentric world drew me in to the point where I attentively watched all of the un-skippable cut-scenes out of curiosity.

Kingdom Hearts III Re:MIND is a director’s cut replay of the main game’s finale followed by a series of absurdly difficult and often seemingly unfair boss fights, and fails to justify its hefty $30 price point.

It is an interesting take on an off-road racer with some seriously breathtaking jumps, but lacked basically everywhere else.

Berserk and the Band of the Hawk is, as Musou games go, undeniably enjoyable and satisfying.

It’s more melancholy than anything else—sad at times, joyfully freeing for the franchise at others.

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.

Despite fighting games feeling somewhat stagnant for quite some time, somehow a game from 2011 has managed to feel like something new and fresh. While it is never going to have the balance or fan popularity of other frontrunners in the genre, Chaos Code: New Sign of Catastrophe, is a perfectly functional brawler that is approachable for the casual audience and has enough meat to appeal to the hardcore. It isn’t going to set the world on fire or re-define a genre, but it certainly knows how to leave an impression. Animatronic ta-tas tend to do that.

While Battlezone is a very simple game conceptually, Rebellion has done a great job of making the most of what’s there.

Awakened is a good, dementia filled experience for anyone who liked Dead Space 3 and was left wanting more, but will do little to sway new owners into picking up the game just for the downloadable content.

City of Brass is a really fun first-person roguelike, but the die-rinse-repeat formula wears thin far more quickly than it should.

The sequel to the classic is indeed worthy in most ways, and Chivalry II is a much needed upgrade to the original game. Combat has a lot going on, and while many players will behave as non-chivalrous bastards, there is a good amount of fun to be found on the medieval battlefields of Chivalry II.

The Sims 4 is a game that rewards players the more time they spend with it. The heavier emphasis on the emotional state of each Sim adds a lot of variety to even regular household chores.

Ghost Games is onto something seriously promising with this franchise reboot. However, being unable to pause the game as well as no option to play offline may prove two obstacles that are not surmountable for some players.

Among the Sleep would be a good buy at $9.99 or under. As it stands now, $14.99 is a bit too steep a price to ask for a game that is very short, and not particularly emotionally investing.

Slam Bolt Scrappers serves its course as a good multiplayer title but feels incomplete, especially at its current price of $15. At a little more than a dollar a level, there is tremendous opportunity for a complete world of creative level design that you'll feel cheated out of.

Everybody Dance certainly isn't the greatest dance game on the planet and lacks depth in most of its features, but for the moment it's the best you'll do for a fun dance game on PS3 and makes for a decent party game, so if your looking to get groovy with the Move this is the way to go.

Lethal League joins the ranks of Rocket League as one of the PlayStation 4’s best multiplayer games. Underneath the simple control scheme lies a highly competitive game with a tremendous amount of depth. It’s a bit disappointing that there’s not a bit more to the package, but there’s enough mutators that players can make their own mode variants in order to entertain themselves. Overall, it’s a frantic game that’ll have you cursing and laughing at friends every time it’s launched.

Neptunia X Senran Kagura: Ninja Wars will appeal to longtime fans of either series, but outside of that it’s an average action-oriented JRPG plus visual novel that anyone can easily get the hang of. There’s plenty of titillating fanservice to go around, even if Sony insists on at least some of it being censored for the Western release. It’s a safe bet if you can’t get enough of Neptunia and the rest of the Goddesses or Asuka and the other shinobi, but otherwise there are more traditional games that are probably a better use of your time.

With support for up to six players in multiplayer, the game is great for social gamers, yet with plenty of courses, character items, equipment and some challenging trophies to collect it is also great for completionists out there.

This isn’t the most elaborate or intense game in its space, but it’s the happiest to be there.

An intriguing horror experience with some neat ideas, but it doesn’t seem to have the muscle to make those ideas work as well as they could. It’s a short, concise experience, but it’s often interrupted by frustrating trial and error challenges that interrupt the flow with frequent checkpoint loading and rewatching cutscenes.

Despite these bugs, Button City is a relaxing little game with a great storyline and characters you care about despite their faults. Players can work their way through the game at their own pace as they battle to save the arcade from greed, and Fennel from his own shy and unconfident self. The story isn’t lengthy, clocking in at 6-8 hours depending on how much time you spend playing arcade games and completing side missions, but it’s a nice little distraction for a rainy day.

Tecmo Bowl Throwback manages to achieve what it set out to do, delivering a nostalgic trip down memory lane, while adding a fresh lick of paint and an online multiplayer.

Overall, the game is too short, even for a minigame, but each minigame is rather enjoyable – especially for younger children.

The game was a joy to experience and I cannot wait to see how the world is saved. Visual novel fan or not, the characters, writing, and unique gameplay are all easily appreciated and enjoyed. And while the fan service is definitely there, it’s not the focus of the game. In fact, in a perfect, non-destroyed world, you’ll see as few panties as possible.

Despite the occasional slowdown and sometimes unpolished presentation, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Plus is a fine, fast, and furious choice on the road. Just be on the lookout for other ninjas. They be everywhere.

Oceanhorn‘s gameplay isn’t as polished as the SNES title it attempts to emulate, and the level design never evokes the brilliant dungeons that the developer was inspired by. Every aspect of the game feels like a poor imitation even down to the Wind Waker art style that falls apart when seen up-close.

Just a demo of Move controls in the LBP universe.

The second downfall, and possibly a deal breaker for some sim fans, are the graphics. From a distance the game looks great, but up close and personal it loses the detail and sharpness that you would expect on the 5 inch OLED screen.

Serious Sam 4 is good, mindless fun, that is unfortunately mired by performance issues. This is recommended for big fans of the series, or for those looking for a nostalgia fix, for back when games were simpler, linear affairs which could be completed in a weekend. It’s not a particularly great-looking or running game, but it is also only $39.99 at launch. The full campaign doesn’t overstay its welcome, and its many secrets will tempt completionists. Give it a shot if you like your bloody kills combined with quippy one-liners. Just be ready for a bumpy ride.

This game will do a good job of keeping your heart rate up throughout the huge amount of exercises that it offers, all while you are having fun.

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.”

The true value of the game comes from playing it as a multiplayer experience. Attempting to play through the game as a single, offline player is an uphill struggle during the more difficult missions, and diminishes much of the value found here. But while the multiplayer component provides an interesting platform for interacting with other like-minded mech enthusiasts it only works to mask the otherwise competent core experience beneath it.

Dexed is worth getting some time with for the unique ideas it provides, but don’t expect to spend a ton of time in Ninja Theory’s VR world.

With multiple endings and an easy but deep synthesis system, this game will easily net you 25+ hours without breaking a sweat.

AvP far outstrips the movies of the same name, but is no where near the landmark experience that the original game was.

If the thought of losing at a game over and over until you finally understand all of its nuances does not sound like a good time, then you can safely pass on Tharsis. If, however, you love tabletop games, or enjoy the challenge of micro-managing several scarce resources at a time in an almost vain effort against nearly insurmountable odds, then by all means buy Tharsis.

You can’t go wrong with Madden NFL 24 as the new superstar showdown mode is a compelling selling point for fans pining for arcade gameplay. Plus, the franchise and superstar modes have been improved in a significant way, and it has more long-term staying power as a result. With the core gameplay as solid as ever, EA’s latest football game is a triumphant offering that is more than a roster update.

Dino Frontier is an impeccably charming adventure, one that feels like physically playing with a bunch of cowboy figures and plastic dinosaurs. There’s the foundation for a really solid and unique simulation builder game, not to mention another great application of virtual reality, but Dino Frontier never plays to its strengths as a game.

It challenged my reflexes and platforming skills, and the love that went into bringing Fox n Forests to life is clear.

Telltale’s Guardians of the Galaxy has been circumventing my expectations ever since the crew killed Thanos in the very first episode, and that trend continued here. I really have no clue where the series will go next, and that leaves me excited. I’m more than happy to be along for the ride with Star Lord and his ragtag crew.

Dark Eclipse has a good foundation, with a good outlook for the future.

With a mere $10 price tag, 4 Elements HD provides plenty of gameplay, but it's still something I would only recommend to people who are already fans of the genre, and perhaps people looking for another game to utilize their Move controller with.

Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics has some new ideas, but mostly retreads familiar territory.

Without the backdrop of nostalgia, The VideoKid would be a truly forgettable game. That it is only saved by its licenses was enough for me to extract a certain amount of enjoyment, but it probably won’t be for those not versed with the characters of 1980s Hollywood.

If you are a fan of mystery games, and a fan of Sherlock Holmes, you'll enjoy this title. If you are looking for a fast paced, action style game, look elsewhere.

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is a great Smash clone that painfully underutilizes its Nickelodeon license, to its own detriment. Lacking some of Nick’s biggest characters, franchises, and environments, absolutely no voice lines whatsoever, and all wrapped up in a rather unimpressive package, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is a good concept, and one of the best Smash-alikes to come along in the last 20 years. But it really needs a stronger presentation and more thorough use of its namesake license to earn a better foothold as a mainstay character brawler.

If you’ve always been worried about doing complex motions, those aren’t present here. Two buttons, that’s all you’ll have to worry about, and that is a liberating feeling.

From a conceptual standpoint, The Solus Project is fascinating. The sense of scale is amplified in VR, especially the fantastic skyboxes that cycle between day and night, massive planets in rotation around you, and the ferocity of the elements. That feeling of being stranded in an alien landscape, needing to survive, and needing to explore to complete your mission are a heavy weight from the drop. Where The Solus Project fails is in gameplay mechanics and puzzle psychology.

Regardless of these minor draw backs, Explodemon! is a fun game, and does a good job of bringing back retro game elements that are rarely seen in new titles any more.