Creed: Rise to Glory is superb as a boxing simulator, but it’s almost non-existent in its storytelling. The spirit of Creed and the Rocky franchise isn’t just in the fights, it’s in why they fight, and that’s something this game completely fails to capture.

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 just a shame that the actual gameplay ends up being underwhelming, and the art style prevents anything from being frightening. Blood Drive could’ve been something special, but a general lack of polish really hurts the overall quality of the product.

If you're a fan of the series or you want to spend time running around stabbing people, Assassin's Creed III: Liberation will suffice, but because it tries so hard to be like a console title, its failure to match the level of depth, breadth or enjoyment you'd expect is all the more heartbreaking.

There’s a lot to love in Agents of Mayhem, which makes the pitfalls harder to swallow. An imaginative story and cast of characters is burdened by an uninspired and soulless open-world. Exciting character combat gets pushed out of the limelight by notable slowdown and other bugs that inhibit gameplay.

You can play it on both the PS3 and Vita but I found it a bit better suited for the on-the-go style of the Vita.

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.

If Saints Row‘s meta humor can get you through collecting your hundredth orb or doing the same type of mission on repeat, you may want to check out GOH. But, if not, I’d recommend staying away from this one, as it burns itself out a bit too quick.

The game is $10, or $13 if you get it bundled with the DLC, and it can be completed in only an hour or so without giving you a reason to go back to it. At the same time, the gameplay is frantic and fast-paced, and it can a lot of fun to shoot down hordes of alien spaceships.

Shenmue III should have been the final game in this trilogy, all loose ends tied up and (re)vengeance served. Instead, Suzuki-sama hopes to continue Ryo’s story and with little improvement made over the past two decades and I fear that a fourth game will stick to this same stagnant formula. Disappointed as I am with this news, my real hope is that he can pull off a fourth and final game sooner than later. Because as much as I love this series, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to feeling let down with this revival and worry about ever seeing the end of this tale.

What we have here is a deceptively challenging game wrapped in a slightly sarcastic package, with a few rough edges.

Twelve Minutes starts off well but eventually descends into chaos. The game’s premise of trying to rewrite 12 minutes of a couple’s time is a great idea but the execution varies in success. Twelve Minutes starts well with a convincing story loop and gameplay that makes sense. Unfortunately that story loop becomes confused with a controversial twist that muddies timelines and morals. Gameplay starts to lean heavily into trial and error and some will give up before they see some of the later outcomes. Those that persist will likely remain confused. Luis Antonio seemingly had a lot of ambition with this one, but it hasn’t completely paid off.

A good tactical RPG that never gives you a wow factor but stays solid throughout.

Megadimension Neptunia VII is a mixed bag, with great combat elements and parody sadly shuffled together with overly padded plot, repetitive boss fights, and boring story presentation.

As copies of the modern versions can be picked up for a comparably low cost, with a still existent online community, I cannot recommend this to anyone but an old school fan looking to revisit some memories.

As an NBA Playgrounds apologist and lover of arcade sports sims, this game can only be characterized as a disappointment, and a frustrating one at that.

Jump Stars is a nice, cheap diversion if you have a couple of friends to play with. Unlike almost every other game out there, you cannot play single player. There are also just a handful of game modes to choose from. It’s a party game you might come back to when the mood strikes. The fake game show announcer with dual personalities injects some, well, personality into the game, and the characters are amusing to play with. There’s not a ton of content, and multiplayer is required, but $9.99 ($7.99 for PlayStation Plus members) seems like a fair asking price for Jump Stars.

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.

It should have been an easy slam dunk: port the game over to the Unreal Engine 4, apply some polish, maybe through in some behind-the-scenes features, and profit! Instead, what we end up with is a poorly-optimized port which sees even the older Arkham Asylum stuttering from the game’s first moments, and some odd lighting that cuts into the otherwise excellent ambiance of both games.

So long as you are willing to get over the strange music and art choices, and can work around how they can adversely affect your play, you can absolutely get something from BZT.

Yes, the touch controls aren’t a superior substitute for a mouse and can occasionally find themselves frustrating, and the menu being overlaid as a thought bubble causes way more problems than a simple toolbar, but I promise, you can work your way through it.

It’s hard to pinpoint why it suffers with fatigue quite so badly but, irrespective, it’s fully worth having in your library, albeit just for that one night in with your friends you’ll all remember for a long time to come.

For some, local co-op may be worth the price of admission, but for those without others to play with, the asking price may be a bit too steep at launch.

Human: Fall Flat seems like the kind of game that was conceived at a party where someone asked “what would it be like to control a character who’s already drunk?” Unfortunately, the game falls a wee bit short in terms of depth and gameplay.

With the vast love of the Mass Effect series, Andromeda was never going to make people 100% happy, the same way the ME3 ending didn’t make people happy. The BioWare team put so many great things in place, but the main story, the characters, and most of the writing keep the game from being great. Sadly, the technical mess keeps it from being good.

Deponia is recommended to fans of point-and-click adventure games, since it serves as an adequate point-and-click, and there is little else out there on consoles in this genre. It has a quirky world all its own, but the protagonist may rub some people the wrong way, and he may fail to garner enough sympathy to see the story through to the end. The control scheme can be a little odd using only the analog sticks, but it is capable.

Even being aware of Saints Row The Third’s issues and having played the game more than enough in the past, I still found myself wanting to keep playing it and really enjoying myself when I did. If you’ve not played Saints Row before I can’t see this one leaving a better impression than the fourth game, but if you’re familiar with the franchise this is still a good, if a messy, time.

I am Bread is initially a very frustrating game to play, but it makes up for it by being full of charm and character.