MXGP 2019 is a safe bet for those looking to race with the full weight of the real MXGP behind the game.

If you can get through the glitches and barebones plot, there is a good game to be played. I had fun with Blackgate. I will be playing through it again because this is the style of game I really like. It certainly could have been better, but Blackgate is still an above average experience.

Combine the puzzles with top-notch graphics and plentiful entertaining dialogue, and you have something worth playing.

If you’re a diehard for fishing games, I suppose this one is fine. It doesn’t have any magical qualities that will lure non-genre fans to the party, though. That’s okay too, I suppose.

Hellpoint is a sci-fi Souls-like with one killer feature: local split screen co-op. The rest of the game lacks the polish of its obvious sources of inspiration, and ultimately the technical issues including a wildly inconsistent frame rate, hit detection problems, and interface glitches hold Hellpoint back from achieving more. But if you’re looking for a Souls-like hit that you can take with a friend, you may want to check out Hellpoint, albeit with tempered expectations.

The sheer idea of a gigantic extreme winter sports sandbox is extremely compelling. While the game manages to live up to some of its potential by offering up an expansive, beautifully detailed map and an extensive collection of modes, it falls short on several fundamental elements, critical to the success of a new franchise. Odd storytelling, inconsistent controls, practically non-existent tutorials and imprecise collision detection all combine to derail what should have been a new premier franchise for Ubisoft.

While it started out as a great experience, sadly, much like the floppy tentacles of Octodad, Dadliest Catch couldn’t hold itself up and began to flail wildly all over the place. The hilarity and novelty wear thin quickly and there was too often that my tentacles became glitched inside of random objects or the environment itself.

While The Heist has a strong story—or at least the start of one—it doesn’t fill out the world or give Peter any additional gameplay growth.

A game that starts you out with a bang from the very first menu, but starts to fade down the stretch. The bland environments, serious lack of depth in the enemy department, and the repetitive nature of the combat don't do it any favors either.

There’s a lot to do in Rebel Galaxy, it’s just a shame that it’s all too often the same things to do. That’s the selling point for this genre, yes, but there’s so much repetition that I never felt particularly engaged.

Ultimately, Touhou Genso Wanderer is a solid, if unspectacular, dungeon crawler. It’s in a strange area in-between accessible titles like Pokémon Mystery Dungeon and ones built specifically for hardcore players. While it’s not as good as the top of its class, there’s still some solid fun (and challenge) to be had if you’re looking for something new.

Crimsonland is a fun game to sit down with two or more players while trying to compete for a spot on the leaderboards, but it ultimately feels more like a distraction itself, than a twin-stick murderfest without distractions.

My hang-ups with the aiming aside, the PlayStation 4 version of Resident Evil Revelations is the best version of the survival horror outing. The problem is that it’s 2017. It’s been over five years since Revelations (or I guess it was technically “Revelaitons” then) released on Nintendo 3DS, and what was once a technical marvel is an outdated-looking title on current consoles.

Both games have been ported nicely, with a few new features that weren't there originally.

Perhaps the biggest downside is that, as of right now, Monster Harvest isn’t particularly long for a farming sim game. I think I finished it in just over twenty hours or so. To be fair, I was grinding so I could write this review, but by the time I finished the first year in-game, I had already reached my maximum XP cap and unlocked the bunker. In the first week of Year Two I had fully upgraded all of my tools and had enough materials (just short on cash) to finish upgrading all of my farm buildings. In week two I beat the SlimeCo boss. If the developer doesn’t have plans to make events a real part of the game or expand the story and dungeons, this unique experience just isn’t worth a full price investment.

Granblue Fantasy: Versus is a decent fighter whether you play solo or not. My biggest drawbacks are the “story” and the game’s eleven-character starting roster. I suppose the plus side of having so few characters means that you’ll pick a favorite pretty quick and have time to master their command list. Some of the series’ more popular fighters are coming out as DLC relatively soon. Not a great selling point, if you ask me. But with roots in the gacha-game genre, I shouldn’t have expected any less.

Having only one bullet is a nifty gimmick which can introduce some level of strategy to the madness that unfolds, too. Modifiers and an assortment of game modes help to increase the title’s longevity, but there isn’t a whole lot of content to speak of, including one of the shortest campaigns we’ve ever seen.

Ends up being its own worst enemy. A quirky, genuinely funny localization manages to shoot itself in the foot by relying on lazy jokes about breast sizes far too often.

Smash Hit Plunder is an extremely entertaining game. However, if you’re playing the game in single-player exclusively, expect to get burned out rather swiftly. Unfortunately, aside from keeping onlookers busy, the social screen mechanics don’t deliver much more than an interactive distraction until they get their next turn under the visor.

Albert & Otto is a decent puzzle platformer with some interesting ideas. It’s a bit rough around the edges, but hopefully this has set the stage for some refinement if a second episode is ever created. Check out Albert & Otto if you desire a short but intriguing puzzler and can power through some awkward platforming.

The questing formula is pretty basic and repetitive, with the other two unlockable modes providing little relief. It is a game that doesn’t keep you engaged for long, but while it does have you there, it provides good entertainment.

The Wizards nails the dream of having magic at your fingertips, but never goes as far as to make the magic feel all that useful.

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.

The fast-paced action, stylistically exaggerated attacks and intense give-and-take help deliver a genuinely enjoyable experience. However, things tend to run out of steam rather quickly. If you are looking for an entertaining way to burn a few hours, look no further. If you have aspirations of extensive replayability, however, you will be better served rolling on by.

RAGE 2 is a culmination of many gameplay tropes we’ve seen year after year. That isn’t inherently negative, but when it doesn’t do many of them particularly well, it makes you just want to go play better games. Traveling across the map is a slog, the menus are slow and clunky, and there were significant texture issues that broke the immersion for me.

It’s not the best or the worst otome I’ve ever played, and most of the romance routes are rather sweet. Getting there, especially for completionists, is a beating and never feels fully worth it, but when you see the lovely couple finally come together, you can’t help but feel warm and squishy inside.

If it sounds as if I’m overly frustrated with The Long Dark, it’s because I am. The sheer number of times that it hints at being a special game that entirely dominates every single survival-based title that has come before it is staggering. But for every one of those times, there’s another time where it’s broken, bugged, or just plain poorly thought-out.

LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5 – 7 won't surprise you. It won't wow you with amazing graphics, or incredible sound, or a gripping storyline. It will, however, entertain and charm you if you are a fan of the Harry Potter franchise.

It was a decent entry into the catalog of games for the series and ties itself to the other titles wonderfully, but short of being a bookmark between two landmark titles, Rogue simply doesn’t bring anything new in terms of gameplay.

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.

As hilarious as Pizza Titan Ultra can be, it is a one-note experience.

While some aspects of the story are a little forgettable, if you enjoyed the original Kingdoms of Amalur then it’s a fairly safe bet that you’ll get some enjoyment out of this expansion. Being reunited with old friends and hearing that they still have the same voice actors is definitely a really nice touch. The new chaos features don’t massively change the gameplay but having a raised level cap means that there’s even more reason to experiment with your character build and enjoy the fun combat.

The target audience for this product are either shameless zealots or complete newcomers. Given that there is no other legitimate source to play both games on a current generation console, either group will ultimately end up satisfied. However, if you are looking for fan service, you’ll be gravely disappointed. Imagine that: Konami phoning something in? Why does that sound so familiar?

The story isn’t given as much airtime as it needs. Exploration is thwarted by the survival elements, and although the latter are the most satisfying of them all, clunky combat, the driving need to find food, and constant resource management means that there are better and more balanced survival titles out there.

Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late[st] is an excellent fighting game, but if you’ve already played through Exe: Late on the PS3, there’s not much here to entice you to upgrade. The new Chronicles Mode is ultimately a disappointing slog. While there are two new characters to learn and master, with the current fighting game climate, there’s likely not many people you’ll be able to try them out against. It’s a shame, because Exe: Late[st] is a fine fighting game in its own right, but will inevitably be lost in the shuffle.

For a short time, I was genuinely in love with this game. It managed to be so damn fun, despite the fact that it was whipping my ass right and left. The low-fi production values and unique character designs and power-ups only deepened my affections. However, the fact remains that while it was fun, it was a supernova of a game. It burned hot and bright for a short period of time and then fizzled out almost as quickly. It’s surely worth a glance, but it may be best to wait until you can play this with friends, where it has the chance to truly shine.

Chariot is a great addition to my co-op game library, but alone it becomes tiresome.The physics are really new and figuring out the puzzles is entertaining.

As much as I personally wanted Anthem to be a runaway success, it ends up delivering an inconsistent experience that constantly waivers between mediocre and excellent.

If Square Enix and tri-Ace really wanted to do this remaster justice, they should have done more than a graphical boost. They should have fixed the overworld map. They should have at least given non-Pro folk an option for the Modern art style. Perhaps they should have also worked on the input lag, included the ability to skip long cutscenes (even if it’s the first time seeing them), or skip through dialogue.

With its poor character AI, bland environments, and underwhelming visuals, actually fighting in Empires gets repetitive and old pretty quickly.

Destruction AllStars is loaded with style, flair, and a great core concept, but what you see is what you get. While that’s not a bad thing at all, there are very few surprises and no sense of depth lurking beneath the surface. I want more to do. I want more to chase. I want more reasons to want to jump into another match than just leveling up to earn coins for character color swaps. As a PlayStation Plus free game, there’s a lot of potential, hopefully something that Lucid Games can expand upon before asking people to pay a premium up front. In a sea of multiplayer games begging for people’s attention, Destruction AllStars has a bit more work to do to earn it.

Lifeless Planet released at a time when the game has the biggest chance to make a name for itself. It’s just a shame the end result feels more like a prototype than a fully fleshed-out game.

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.

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.

The joy of winning a closely contested match by knocking an opponent out of the arena or timing a perfect block that would send their own projectile back at them is the reason that competitive games were created.

Outside of some blocky textures, there’s nothing terribly wrong with Aegis of Earth — but there’s also nothing groundbreaking here, either.

The focus on setting up Watch Dogs as a new franchise will pay off in the years to come, but it does come at the main game’s expense.

Overall, the progression is solid, but there are a few moments where I felt it was sort of unfair (i.e having to backtrack with no health in sight) due to the procedural generation.

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.

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 bad writing, poorly done plot, and awful camera controls makes me wonder if the gorgeously remastered graphics were even worth the time.

Just because a game is hard, doesn’t mean it is gratifying. Though it certainly has moments of brilliance, these glimpses are few and far between. It also doesn’t help matters much when the borderline mean-natured presentation and combat mechanics continue to over-emphasize failures, instead of trumpeting successes.

It’s unfortunately obvious how much Bound wanted to be like Journey, but it’s even more unfortunate that they go so close and yet failed to fully capture everything amazing about Journey.

Ys Origin isn’t a great game, even with the various modes, difficulty settings, and characters that unlock for replayability, simply because it’s straight dungeon crawl with little variety. However, these issues prevent Ys Origin from being as good as it could be, and they certainly make it difficult to recommend the title to newcomers of Ys.

The story sections where you control a little girl as she takes tiny slow footsteps across the screen until absolutely nothing happens do nothing but annoy. Then the trial-and-error sections of gameplay that actively force you to suffer unnecessary deaths are frustrating enough to put a downer on things. But, even with all the flaws considered, when Shio gets things wrong – which it does pretty much everywhere outside of the platforming itself– it generally makes up for the errors with challenging action.

To put the game into perspective, it's like Monty Python got together and said "Let's make a video game."

If you aren’t a fan of games that force you to repeat sections over and over with slight alterations in hopes of getting a better outcome, avoid this one like the plague. If I had known there were no difficulty options I would not have offered to review this game. Screaming at video games is stress I just don’t need in my life. Games can be both challenging and fun, but when you’ve got two notches of health and no energy, things can get miserable pretty quick.

Moons of Madness promised a fictitious version of Mars from the comfort of home, with all of the suspense and jump-scares a girl could want, but unfortunately fails to deliver. As much as I wanted this horror fantasy, I can’t bring myself to go back to Mars. My patience has worn thin. Every time I hover over the graphic on my PS4 I audibly groan. Perhaps I’ll find the energy to return to it at some point, but much like the game itself, I’m not in a rush.

The campaign is quite lengthy, there is a ton of story to read through, and there’s even essentially choose-your-own-adventure stories inside other characters’ minds. However, the story is very quirky, and although developer Gust attempted to go deeper in characterization, a lot of the drama that unfolds feels at about the high school level.

With time and just the right amount of patience, you’ll discover that the studio’s effort is one of Vita’s more pleasant surprises rather than simply existing as a bright, breezy and forgettable comic strip.

A wildly difficult and repetitive game. It manages to stay fairly interesting by allowing players to change songs and unlock new gameplay modes and skins, but in the end players end up repeating the same levels over and over again with no variation in them.

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.

The story is so great, it’s difficult for me to not recommend it, but I can only, in good conscience, recommend only one playthrough. The magic is a bit lost after that.

Observation has a handful of issues but is still an enjoyable game if you’re a fan of the puzzle and sci-fi genre. It takes around 8-10 hours to play through, which I believe is enough content to justify the $25 price tag. Despite only having one centralized location and some confusing puzzles along the way, the overall player controls and narrative of the story are intriguing enough to draw you in for the journey through space.

Sanctum 2 will provide plenty of replay for players seeking an FPS and tower defense hybrid. However, the slow start, apparent sequel/DLC-based development, and graphical problems which should have been ironed-out between PC and PS3 release do hamper an otherwise good game.

The Occupation is a good game that tells an intriguing story. Unfortunately, that story is lost in jumbled-up storytelling, which ultimately causes the player to be confused and disconnected from the game.

The $60 price point for recycled assets and a game that has more reading than voice over just seems a little too steep for me.

With friends it’s a blast, probably even better while drunk.

If you want a game with decent combat, it might be a good idea to check J-Stars out. However, if graphics are important to you, you might want to take a pass on this one.

If you've got a hankering for scantily dressed girl fighting muscle-loaded men, you'll probably be ready to pick up your preorder, but the rest of us have better things to do with our time.

City of Light isn’t a disappointing ending by itself, but it’s a ham-fisted conclusion to an unfulfilling take on an overplayed hero.

While there were many compelling reasons to take a chance on Golem, there were far too many technical issues marring the overall experience. When consumed in bits-and-pieces, the component parts could all stand on their own with little problem. It’s only when these individual parts coalesced that the seams begin to show a bit more prominently.

Ray Gigant doesn’t play like your average dungeon-crawler, and that’s refreshing, but it also doesn’t do enough to warrant more than a hesitant recommendation.

This should have been NHL 22’s coming-out party. Everything was in place for this to be a transformative season on a fresh new platform. Unfortunately, the next-generation jump feels more like a stop-gap solution than a proper evolution. If you already have last year’s installment, I would be hard-pressed to find a legitimate reason to make the jump. Hopefully, the next outing will focus on bringing a more innovative offering to the rink, because lord knows this time around isn’t going to set the stadium on fire.

After playing Transformers: Fall of Cybertron only one word comes to mind: functional. It's sad that a game with as many narrative hooks and the look of the generation one Transformers is so prone to technical issues and some bizarre design choices.

For every smart gameplay change there is a missing feature or a worthless addition. The yearly release schedule is clearly making it difficult for the team to fix issues while also adding new features, so they’ll have to make a choice sooner rather than later if trying to juggle both each year is worthwhile. For now, WWE 2K17 is barely off Jericho’s list.

Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time is probably a safe pick up for diehard fans, a gamble for those with a little bit of familiarity like myself, and a dangerous choice for anyone outside of those two categories. For a title based on a world filled with magic, the game itself has very little of it to be found.

Murder Mystery Machine could be a great distraction from the usual adventure games. Its emphasis on deductions rather than evidence gathering turns it more into a puzzle game than an adventure game, and it genuinely makes you feel like you’re working things out for yourself. The problem is it’s held back by several design issues that didn’t translate well from mobile platforms to console and these can dilute the fun.

There is definitely some fun to be had in Primal Carnage: Extinction, especially on the dinosaurs’ side. There is a nice selection of modes, but when the end result is almost always the same it can get boring. Circle Five Studios has a fantastic premise for a game, it just needed some more time to incubate before it saw the light of day.

The game doesn't come out unscathed, as the long load times kill much of the flow in the game and could leave some of the more impatient kids/families searching for something else to do. This, along with other minor technical issues hamper this game from realizing its full potential.

While many a fan of the franchise hopes Crysis 2 and 3 rereleases are also on the cards, this particular outing doesn’t inspire much confidence that those two games will receive the love and care they deserve.

Beyond the addictive, puzzle-like challenge of hitting those high scores, there’s a fantastic sense of speed here. When you’re belting around in the F1 car, just scraping past trucks and getting through minuscule gaps in the traffic, things feel suitably rewarding. It’s just such a kick in the airbags that for every time that feeling reveals itself, there are two more times when you’ll be frustrated by one of Danger Zone 2’s bugs or general inconsistencies.

But now, over three years since the release of the original, a lot of the gameplay seems lacking.

Alas, if you’re coming to Age of Wonders: Planetfall for a brand new angle on games you’ve played before, then you’ve come to the wrong place. It’s novel to see several different recognizable mechanics blended into one genre soup. The final product isn’t better than the sum of its parts, though. It makes the 4X a faster game to play, but not a better one, ultimately.

Knack is technically impressive with its utilization of extreme particle physics and bringing to life what could have easily been a Dreamworks animated film, but the gameplay does little to really satisfy.

It’s easy to see the flaws in Rubble Without a Cause if it’s compared to its predecessor. Chapter 2 simply shines half as bright as A Knight to Remember.

It doesn’t cover any new ground, or do anything of great significance, but Fat Princess Adventures is a solid and playful RPG experience in its own right.

Shining Resonance Refrain feels very much like a budget RPG. While it does some things really well such as well-written characters with excellent voice acting and awesome music, there are plenty of things that just don’t really work. Combat is clunky and dull, the sidequests are mostly repetitive, and the game world feels surprisingly small.

To say that Brink is a bad game wouldn't be accurate, and instead it's a good game that falls short on delivering its full potential. Had it come with more maps, and a little bit more emphasis on the story to make gamers want to learn more about The Ark, it would have been a great class shooter. Straight out of the box it is just a decent one with bad A.I.

The difficulty curve and the J-pop focus are what make the game not as enjoyable for me, even though I liked watching the performances. I actually like watching this game be played more than actually playing it.

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.

If you played through Kyoto Winds then you largely owe it to yourself to finish the story here in Edo Blossoms. The story’s finale isn’t quite as interesting as its beginning, but the romantic fireworks that occur are certainly a payoff. It’s just too bad that the best way to experience Hakuoki is through two awkwardly split in half releases.

Its charming world and creatures will keep most kids entertained, and playing with them as you explore the world can be rewarding. With most puzzles able to be solved in a few minutes' time, Okabu can be repetitive and slightly dull, but if you can get past the slow start there is an enjoyable game to be found here.

There’s a lot to like about Rise of the Dragons, even if it doesn’t fully click and deliver a new all-time great brawler. The core action is fluid and enjoyable, some of the unlockable characters are a blast to play, and the roguelite elements work well enough (even if it’d probably be better to just play as fully powered characters from the get-go). However, the stages and the boss fights aren’t unique enough to make this a truly memorable experience. It’s doesn’t add a ton to the franchise’s legacy, but it’s easy enough to settle into and be a worthwhile new diversion, especially in co-op.

Even though it’s unlikely to be something that keeps you enthralled for long, when you take into account the game’s fairly low price tag, it’s still worth a look if you like these kinds of puzzles.

Akiba’s Beat is in a strange position, having been released right after two other Japanese role-playing games dealt with very similar topics. While it doesn’t have strong enough writing to eclipse these titles, it does feature a few story beats that keep it from being a D-grade Persona. From a combat perspective, the game feels like a Tales game, but without any of the polish. There’s room for improvement in practically every area, but it’s still a decent RPG that is worth playing for those that somehow ran out of RPGs in their backlog.

The headset becomes a magician’s prop, and you the performer. But its welcome wears thin too quickly, its traps, tricks, and inner workings too easily revealed, and gimmicks too often expected. It’s just not the magic of video games that I was hoping for from two of magic’s greatest.

It’s ironic that a game all about breathing life into pictures can’t breathe life into its own core mechanic. Witnessing a flat picture expand into something tangible or using photography to reposition the existing stage is a technical marvel that hardly goes beyond being just a visual spectacle. These systems deserve much more than that, but, like film lacking contrast, it’s underdeveloped and only a faint outline of what it should be.