When it comes down to it, though, I play Gears games for their spectacular campaigns, and Gears of War 4’s single-player mode just doesn’t live up to the standard set by its predecessors. It’s too conservative to wow us the way we expect, and it lacks many of the larger-than-life personalities that made the original trilogy so fun and memorable.

Despite its imaginative exterior, the game adheres to a surprisingly rigid design. After a while I felt as though I was just going through the motions, dispatching hundreds of zombies simply to get to the next waypoint on my map...But it takes a good while for the disillusionment to set in.

If some strangely-specific apocalyptic event wiped both Warcraft and Dungeon Keeper off the face of the earth, those brave souls with the will to continue might find something to cling to in Dungeons 2. Until that happens, the probably just best to stick with the real deal.

The problem, unfortunately, is that something feels missing without a true hero character with a deep backstory and lots of personal demons and vendettas to drive the narrative forward.

The plot is thickening. Hopefully the pacing will adjust to match in coming installments.

Despite its shortcomings, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse offers up an entertaining, albeit a frequently frustrating experience. The game’s rainbow drawing mechanic makes great use of the Wii U’s GamePad but the resulting gameplay unfortunately isn’t always as fun as it could be.

What Bravely Default II ends up giving us is a nicely polished traditional role-playing game that gently shifts a few of the genre’s defining bars a centimetre or two higher while safely ducking under others. Fans of the form will find it warm and comforting, but I don’t expect it will win over many converts.

Even a remastered version of a more or less forgettable prequel from the franchise’s heyday is infinitely preferable to what Capcom gave us in Resident Evil 6. It’s got its fair share of issues and isn’t the nostalgic walk down memory lane that was Resident Evil HD Remaster, but at least it’s a bit more of what this Resident Evil fan really wants.

Crush Your Enemies engaged me enough to while away a lazy Sunday afternoon. The missions are so short that it was easy to just keep clicking one more without paying any attention to the clock on my desk.

Of course, the ultimate factor likely to determine whether you keep jiggling your buns beyond the first night will likely be whether you enjoy the music or not, and unfortunately I found this year’s batch of songs a bit disappointing. The vast bulk of them are, at least to my taste, flavourless pop fluff.

And the sad truth is that those who can’t play for scores upon scores of hours and refuse to spend more money to get the game’s best stuff will likely feel the consequences in online play as they go up against those who have. This could potentially put a serious damper on online fun as time rolls on.

Why there are so few new Pokémon and such an emphasis on the old ones is really up to speculation, but all I know is that there’s a Chespin out there who needs a pet.

Why are all of these old generation Pokémon appearing in the game? Where are all of the new Pokémon we were teased and promised? Sure, they’re there, but why are they so rare?

Despite being a deep, generally entertaining, and visually luscious tower defence experience, Anomaly Defenders doesn’t quite rank among the best in its category.

The Azran Legacy really just feels like more of the same.

Hardline‘s release was smooth, and although it did feel like a modified BF4, it also plays like something novel and worthwhile all on its own.

The Walking Dead: Michonne ends up an entertaining, if not quite as satisfying, addition to Telltale’s slowly evolving series. At its worst it simply provides more of the same action and difficult decision making that fans seem to love, and at its best it delivers fresh canonical insight into one of The Walking Dead’s most interesting characters.

EA Sports UFC gives them solid bones to begin with, but the series is going to figure something out how to win over casual sports fans if it wants to be a Madden-like success.

The Night of the Rabbit will make players wish that magic was real. The game’s charming world builds Jerry’s final adventure in his summer as something memorable and magical.

When a video game like Dead or Alive 5 throws around words like “sensual design” they’re really covering up for its appeal to the lowest common denominator of who they think are playing the games: Men who stare at boobs. Let’s be honest because the game’s producers certainly won’t be.

The transition to true open world play may not be going as smoothly as we might have hoped, but the technical issues have yet to push me away. In the end, I’m really just here for the weird wildlife, and there’s certainly no shortage of that in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

The transition to true open world play may not be going as smoothly as we might have hoped, but the technical issues have yet to push me away. In the end, I’m really just here for the weird wildlife, and there’s certainly no shortage of that in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

If you like Tolkien fantasy and all you really care about is finely crafted and gratifying combat, then you’re bound to have a ton of fun. Buy with abandon. You’re in for dozens of hours of bloody and gruesome entertainment. If, however, you want a fantasy role-playing game with a little more story, a more thoughtfully designed world that’s a pleasure to explore, and a pace of play that allows for more time engaged in activities outside of battle, then keep shopping. Middle-earth: Shadow of War won’t be for you.

It’s a breath of fresh air. A true next-generation rhythm game...But it’s not going to be for everyone.

Thanks to this brisk pace of play, a constant stream of skill points used to unlock new abilities, and a steady deluge of new equipment and armour that you can use, sell, or disassemble for crafting resources, the sense of progression is both real and satisfying. Once I was on the train, I didn’t want to get off. Still, it does feel like a game with unrealized potential. Players have been spoiled for choice over the last year when it comes to visually breathtaking, narratively rich games with huge and interesting open worlds. Rise of the Ronin is on the outskirts of that conversation rather than in the middle of it. Worth considering, especially for fans of historical epics and solid action, but the competition is stiff.

As a guy whose passion for golf games lies mostly in powering through single-player tours and developing a character’s skills and playing style, Mario Golf: World Tour left me a little unsatisfied.

The menus are still clunky and slow, players seem to run out of energy around the 60-minute mark of every game, and fancy animations are a poor substitute for basic functionality.

Guardian of Light felt like a nice little change of pace for the ailing Tomb Raider franchise when it arrived in the summer of 2010, and Temple of Osiris is a capable and – thanks largely to some great puzzles – fairly enjoyable extension of that experience.

The Xbox One edition I tested stuttered noticeably about once or twice per race, sometimes more. Even the slightest frame rate hiccups in racing games can result in collisions with potential to send you from first place to last in a blink – especially if they happen on a corner versus a straightaway. Frame hitching cost me a number of races in Need for Speed, and each was a maddening experience.

Of course, the fun that players have with Scribblenauts Unmasked‘s activities will correspond directly to their creativity.

I have a hard time understanding why Sleeping Dogs needed to be ported to Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in what Square Enix is calling the game’s “Definitive Edition”...It collects all of the game’s considerable post-release content – including a trio of story-driven add-ons – in one convenient place, which is laudable. But core game hasn’t changed much. And it wasn’t perfect to begin with...The expression “warts and all” to leap to mind.

But if you’re looking for an insight or two into the sociopolitical troubles currently haunting the country in which Far Cry 5 is set, best not to get your hopes up.

The Crew is far from a bad game and if Forza Horizon 2, the current top open-world racing game on the market, didn’t exist, I probably would have enjoyed it much more. Unfortunately, despite everything Ivory Tower’s latest title does correct, its lacklustre visuals, rubber-band AI, and disappointing story is difficult to ignore.

Good players may relish the more intense competition, but I find playing on the new multiplayer maps against the series most devout fans a bit disheartening.

Elegy for a Dead World may have its issues, but it provides the spark and kindling for a blaze of creativity. It ought to prove plenty of fun for anyone who chooses to keep feeding the fire.

Impressive as some aspects of the level design and interface might be, Guerrilla hasn’t quite delivered the whole package. This isn’t going to be a massive system seller with wide, mainstream appeal. Still, one can’t discount that Killzone: Mercenary may well be the most playable handheld first-person shooter yet made. That’s no small accomplishment.

Mad Max, despite his propensity for violence and vengeance, represents a flicker of hope that humanity’s best will always work to endure and survive its worst. And that, I think I finally understand, is what has kept me returning the Avalanche’s wasteland night after night.

While [the] handheld game stands on its own and recreates the same fun, bombastic, brawling experience it does feel a little pared down.

Clearly, The Legend of Zelda: TriForce Heroes isn’t going to stand among the greatest Zelda games. Instead, it will go down as one of the more experimental entries Nintendo’s decades-old series. And without much of a story, franchise fans who opt to skip it really won’t be missing much.

Part of the problem is that, outside of online rankings, there’s little in the way of long-term objectives. Players slowly earn currency while fighting that can eventually be used to unlock more arms for each of their fighters via a kind of lottery system, but it takes a long time to earn enough for even a single chance to unlock new arms. And there’s a chance you might earn arms you already have.

Encounters – generally set in bland open areas – tend to be pretty similar to each other. Jack uses his time shifting abilities – which evolve in terms of range and power, but not sophistication – in the same ways on a limited variety of enemies time and again while relying on an awkward automatic covering system as he reloads or waits for his abilities to recharge. Rinse and repeat. There’s simply not enough variety.

Worth keeping in mind for series n00bs: I’ve found Joe Danger games play a bit better on an iPhone or even an iPad Mini than an iPad.

But once I had the sense that there were specific things to be done in order to achieve goals, that became my focus, and the magic of the experience suffered for it. The sense of wonder I had with each new discovery was tempered by the logical part of my brain, which began looking for problems to solve and working out plans.

Racing fans will undoubtedly have fun with it for at least a little while.

Civilization Revolution 2 isn’t a terrible game by any stretch, but I’ve a feeling it will be long forgotten within minutes of sinking my teeth into a full-featured Civilization game set in space.

As for me, my little family had a pretty good time playing a chapter each night over the course of a week. And while I doubt I’ll play again — I’m fine with how the story turned out for us — I’m pretty sure my mildly OCD daughter is already plotting to go back and fix all the things I made go wrong with my overrides. Who knows? Maybe she’ll find a way to get everyone through this chaotic criminal saga in one piece. But I doubt it.

I can’t deny that I had plenty of fun taking in this authentic new Star Wars story, but I get the sense that an extra six or twelve months of development could have given us a more polished and less derivative experience.

It will dazzle players with its next-generation visuals and give them fun things to do with Sony’s newfangled controller...But when the launch hubbub dies down and you’ve played through your day one bundle of games, this probably isn’t the game you’re going to come back to for seconds.

Whether you should pick up Automatron might end up coming down to how much you dig robots. If you can live without them, you can probably just skip it. If, on the other hand, you want to build your own lethal automaton companion to take with you out into Far Harbor’s irradiated sea a couple of months from now (as I know I do), then Automatron becomes significantly more compelling.

Half excellent adaptation of a classic game, half hamfisted promotional product, Magic 2014 is as notable as much for what it purposefully leaves on the table versus what it achieves.

Rovio has done well with the hand they’ve had to work with.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 earns a modest thumbs up. It’s undeniably huge, delivering good bang for your RPG dollar, and has some interesting ideas on its mind. It’s no Final Fantasy or Zelda, but fans of sophisticated combat and Japanese storytelling should be well served.

Tomodachi Life might not have the lasting appeal of a title like Animal Crossing: New Leaf, but the game certainly offers up an interesting experience — one that will probably appeal for a longer period of time to a much younger audience.

The game is dirt cheap, easy on the eyes, and fun to pull out for 10 or 15 minutes at a time. At that pace, it’ll take weeks to play through the 50 or so puzzles initially available.

The Cave is a game worth experiencing at least once. Truly funny games are rare, much less funny games that cover themes as diverse as sin, murder, redemption and desire. The fact that it covers these topics with a sense of style and ease (and without feeling like you’re being bludgeoned with a philosophy textbook) is praiseworthy.

The focus on intense action comes at the expense of legitimate alarm, anxiety, and dread. That’s just not a trade-off I’m overly interested in.

It delivers a cleaner, breezier simulated golf experience that runs more quickly and looks lovely – especially during those morning rounds – without losing the series’ robust core mechanics...However, the overhaul has come at the cost of significantly reduced content and some missing features.

There’s no question that Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes, bugs and all, remains one of the best puzzle/tactical fantasy RPGs around.

That’s also part of the problem: It’s merely reminiscent of greater works. It doesn’t have a voice of its own. Its hesitant, wavering tale of a boy and girl struggling together to dispel the dark doesn’t carry the weight of other poetic adventures. Like a frivolous pop ballad filled with vague notions of love and heartbreak, Rain left me in want of clarity, resolution, and a more distinct message.

This carefully designed, constantly evolving, and weirdly dynamic army of Orcs – especially those strong enough to repeatedly defeat me (more on that in a bit) — is what made me keep playing Shadow of Mordor through to the end, even as I felt growing dissatisfaction with the game’s stillborn and often threadbare narrative.

In the end, though, Hitman‘s second episode and the limited Elusive Target mode simply confirm my original impression of the franchise’s new episodic format: It hinders rather than helps the experience.

Mars: War Logs is an ambitious game with a lot of good ideas, and the execution is decent even if the story is a little contrived. For all the time I spent with the game, I felt like it was a good diversion away from the other typical Mars-based games like Red Faction: Guerilla.

Chambara is a fantastic idea in need of elaboration.

It’s not attractive or even very welcoming, but get past this deceptively off-putting veneer and you might just find a game of turn-based tactics worth getting lost in for a few days or a few weeks.

It’s a party game more than anything else, and one that warmly welcomes just about anyone who can swing an arm. And while the Wii was rife with this sort of casual fare, the Switch could use a few more. That’s why Nintendo Switch Sports earns an easy recommendation for families looking for some straightforward multiplayer fun.

It grows repetitive, but the dodging, blocking, parrying, slashing combat — while a bit overly complicated at times — should prove challenging and gratifying enough to keep fans of this sort of game moving forward. The slightly gaudy next-gen visual spectacle is just gravy.

If killing the undead in a Russian oven heated by fire’s breath sounds appealing, you might give this DLC some consideration. Otherwise, feel free to take a pass.

So there’s definitely no shortage of stuff to do. The campaigns alone will fill at minimum a few weeks of nightly play...The question is whether it’s any fun.

I can’t help but think, though, that Sacred Citadel would have failed to maintain my interest had it not managed to induce such strong Golden Axe nostalgia.

Sunset is that rare game that endeavours to challenge players to be entertained by something other than action.

So while I can’t really recommend Minecraft: Story Mode to adults casually acquainted with Mojang’s hit game (like me), or even those who generally tend to enjoy most Telltale adventures (also me), I suspect just about any tween with a passion for Minecraft will have a fine time (like my kid).

Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit is, in other words, an entertaining toy that can spark the imaginations of Mario fans young and old, but it’s not necessarily a great game. Proceed accordingly.

If you happen to have fond memories of mid-aught nights spent exploring green fields and fighting whimsical fantasy creatures – and you don’t mind learning to cope with a crappy camera and frustrating navigation – then by all means, spend away. There’s still a good, lengthy, old-school RPG buried under all the problems introduced by this iOS edition.

Ronin is fun, innovative, and worth a go – especially if your tastes lean toward both strategy and cool ninja high jinks – but there is untapped potential here that could have resulted in a serious Steam standout.

It might not be my first pick if I were in the mood for something to put my grey matter to the test, but I don’t regret the time I’ve spent with it.

Ultimately, Liberation features a fantastic premise with an evocative heroine that sadly doesn’t measure up to any of the games in the main series. If you are an Assassin’s Creed nut who really wants to see the fictional universe from another perspective, give Liberation a whirl. If you are just looking for some more Assassin’s Creed action, the other six games are better than this one.

Maybe it’s just because I lack the nostalgia necessary to make the plodding pace and trial-and-error puzzles click, but if I’m to be convinced to continue investing my time the next chapter will need to pick things up a little.

Alien Rage suffers from its lack of world building and its inability to go beyond genre conventions, but it’s backed up by competent design, great use of the Unreal Engine, and a story that keeps players driven until the end. The gameplay is frantic and varied, but slowly becomes repetitive and monotonous.

This is another app that will hound you to spend real money in order to buy things like better punching bags and balls to play with, but you can have a lot of fun with the basics and not spend a penny. So it’s worth a download, even if you never get serious about levelling up your blundering ninja.

Avid Halo fans who already have a Windows 8 device may want to give it a try, but Halo: Spartan Assault isn’t likely to draw many iOS or Android gamers into the Microsoft fold.

If all you’re after is a lot of shooting and exploding and collecting set within a stunning tropical milieu, you’ll find it here. Have at it. If, on the other hand, you’d like a little more in the way of innovative play and nuanced commentary, best keep hunting.

I’ve been a die-hard Star Wars guy for decades, so I’m always happy to get a new movie, book, or game. I just wish this one turned out a tad better.

Kinect Sports Rivals isn’t quite the revolution in motion-controlled sports gaming that we might have hoped for.

It’s a busy game that’s a failure in many ways, but its art direction and story perfect the eerie atmosphere of the genre, and make the experience tolerable, even when the writing and game design let it down. Like the crack of moon through a black-cloud storm, White Night is a game as fragile as the light.

Hitman feels like a typical big-budget game that’s been fragmented solely to more easily fund its middle and end bits. Whether this is in fact the case matters little. That’s the way it comes off. Even if the rest of the episodes deliver levels on par with the excellent Paris mansion mission, separating them by weeks or months dilutes the experience and diminishes the already spotty narrative.

Dragon Quest Heroes 2 adds a substantial amount of traditional JRPG-ing to the Musou formula, Overworld-like areas allow you to explore more freely than the in-story battle missions. Equipment and skills customization rival anything seen in a mainline DQ game. It’s a passable, mostly mindless foray into the DQ universe, which is never a bad place to visit thanks to the colourful, buoyant art and character design from Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama. But more than anything, its best features made me want to play a regular Dragon Quest game instead.

The problem is that in the few hours I spent online with the PlayStation 3 edition about a week after release the number of people playing at any one time seemed to hover around 700-800, with the bulk of them engaged in death matches rather than any of the more interesting, innovative game types (such as the new Hunter mode, which pits a minority of nanosuit-wearing, permanently cloaked hunters against plain old human troopers).

This is a rare case of a game better played on phone than tablet, since the smaller screen lets one alter the beam line much more quickly.

Much as I hate to admit it, strong storytelling – which is so rare in big games – is often only half the battle. It’s a shame to see it tarnished by mediocre action.

It might be the closest the game industry has yet come to imagining the mix of tension and monotony of routine life in a world of undead.

Terraria may be flawed and unapproachable by mainstream standards. However, it challenges you to become the master and director of your fate rather than a simple pawn moving along a preset path. Interactive entertainment would be better off if more games aspired to such grand ambitions.

Disney Infinity 3.0 could end up being a lot of fun for Star Wars fans willing and able to shell out for all the content and figures that will eventually be released over the next several months, but budget-conscious players – especially those who aren’t all that interested in diving into the Toy Box – would be wise to wait until the starter pack can be grabbed at a discount.

I even occasionally found myself skipping through the all-important court dialogue without reading, then using hint coins to solve the case just so I could get back to Layton’s puzzles.

It feels a bit like a Metroid Prime game – no surprise, since Armature employs some of the same people – but with better controls and a (slightly) more intelligible story. It’s not exactly bursting with new ideas, but it does a good job breathing fresh life into old ones...At least when it’s not making you want to pull your hair out with its technical issues.

NaissancE is a beautiful game, but without much direction it can feel like a never ending mire of running, jumping, and falling. That being said, is the game worth spending $20 on? Certainly.

Amplitude is destined for most people to become that slightly off record from their favourite band. You spun it a few times the day you bought it, and you really did try to love it. But now it just sits there, rarely played, a reminder that even those you admire most are capable of mistakes.

This short series ought to be all about its mesmerizing heroine and her struggle to harness her regrets. Instead, it seems to be shaping up as a short-form version of a story we’ve already seen plenty of times over.

It’s also small and sometimes frustrating, has little personality and no real ambition. There are better ways to kick up some digital dirt.