Eldritch is a punishing difficult game that tests a player’s ability to survive in a Lovecraft-inspired world.

The tweak on the formula set up by GW and SSHD may seem minor to begin with, but once the outer layers of the game are peeled away, Resogun reveals itself to have a significantly different feel than either of its predecessors.

The addition of the newer, free-er structure and the loss of a lot of the chaff from the post-Link-to-the-Past Zelda’s make the game a joy to play.

Tearaway is probably the most fun you can have on a PlayStation Vita.

Endlessly creative, relentlessly delightful and eminently playable by all levels of player, SM3DW is perhaps the best 3D platformer released since the series’ heyday.

This is all fun enough stuff. There’s a nice mix of split-second tactical thinking and deep brutality – I could almost feel each blow through my controller.

It’s hard to hate Need For Speed Rivals. But it’s also hard to love it. The game brings a solid, core competency in every aspect of its arcade racing base, while introducing interesting new online features. Unfortunately, these features never quite gel to their full potential.

I came away wishing it had been something more. I was hoping for a racing simulation that didn’t just look next-generation, but also felt next-generation in the way it played. Which is to say I’d have preferred Turn 10 spent as much effort innovating the career mode as it did perfecting the way the game’s cars look and handle.

This is a polished, full-fledged, very fun game. You’ll buy it for your kids so they don’t feel left out of the next-gen joy, but once they go to bed you may well end up spending as much time designing your dream zoo as they do...Maybe more.

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.

I really want to play Knack 2...Not because Knack – a cartoonish and linear fantasy brawling adventure for kids – is an amazing game that left me dying for more of the same, but rather because it had the potential to be an amazing game.

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.

Mario Party fans will likely find themselves wishing for something more.

With Call of Duty: Ghosts, Infinity Ward has done some of its best work yet, delivering thrill-a-minute escapades in the campaign, deep and surprisingly nuanced competitive multiplayer, and highly varied solo and co-operative play in Squads and Extinction modes.

In closing, single player is quaint, the online experience is a work in process, but once they get the bugs out of that delicious apple pie… it will be well worth the wait.

It’s not so much what has been added that makes Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag good — but rather, what it lacks. Assassin’s Creed III was a grim game. The world was grim, and its protagonist grimmer. Strip away the environment, and you’re left with the sea. Strip away the American Revolution, and you’re left with humour and plunder of a lawless pirate war. It’s a welcome change — but it also deviates a little too far from the Assassin’s Creed DNA. The core mechanics are there, yes, but after ACIII, it’s been hard not to wonder how much is left to say?

It may not be the best or most innovative game within the series, but it definitely feels like it fits with the two games made by Rocksteady Studios.

I’m also a bit disappointed in how the open world elements in these games remain something less than fully formed.

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?

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.

A sloppy camera, meanwhile, adds frustration to the proceedings. Players rarely have a good handle on distances involved in jumps to swinging platforms or teleports through 3D mazes or any of the other dangerous maneuvers frequently required. Expect plenty of aggravating deaths.

If my daughter’s reactions while playing are any indication it seems safe to say most kids will love this Skylanders adventure at least as much as its predecessors. The new magnetically joined toys are unquestionably cool and there’s more to do within the game and keep them coming back than ever before.

Taken on its own merits, Beyond: Two Souls is a triumph of interactive storytelling, betrayed only perhaps by not quite living up to its lofty narrative ambitions in its latter third.

It’s one of the best MMOs on the PC and basically the only game of its type on the console. The company has made the game it promised when it when back and rebuilt FFXIV 1.0.

Much like when it was first released, Wind Waker is a visual and auditory feast and it works brilliantly for its first few hours.

It’s still the only place where you’ll find cutting edge development in a sports game, and that alone is worth the price of admission.

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

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

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.

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.

When you’re dealing with disturbing subjects ranging from life-destroying drug addiction to creepy cult organizations to legitimately psychopathic behaviour, the jokes go down a little easier if you get the sense that the writers penned their quips with an aim to make you think about why you’re laughing...True satire happens in Grand Theft Auto V, just not nearly as often as I’d like.

An inventive game with plenty of potential and some truly original concepts that somehow failed materialize into something that can be fairly described as entertaining.

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.

But overall, NHL 14 captures the spirit of that revolutionary 94 game. The gameplay is fast, the moves are sweet and the hits are thundering. It feels fun, like the very best wide-open hockey games, but it doesn’t sacrifice realism either.

Some of the cameras appear to be operated by drunks. The replay footage usually consists of extreme close ups of some player’s jersey, and it never offers any explanation as to what just happened.

Arguably the main theme of the game is revenge, like many of the games in the Kill The Past Series, but it’s wrapped in an incomprehensible package.

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.

Perhaps the most useful Wii U feature (at least for a family guy like me) is that it as a GamePad-only mode. Should your better half, roommate, brother, sister, mom, or dad wrest control of the TV from you the game will keep running on your controller’s screen.

The Disney Infinity starter pack might seem like a good idea the next time you have to buy back your kids’ love for having missed a baseball game or ballet recital, but you need to know it’s probably the start of a very expensive new habit.

An experience that is so startlingly, unexpectedly and enjoyably different than anything else on the market right now.

On the one hand, Plants vs. Zombies 2 is all kinds of fun. The action is as compelling as ever, and the new plants, zombies, rail mechanics, and various mini-games only make things better...On the other, its aggressive strategy to make players spend money within the game is a bummer.

A game which excels by making all of its moving pieces work together in unison. There are some rough patches, such as my beforementioned somewhat squiggy reaction to the storyline and the fact that the graphics sometimes seem to be pushing against the limitations of the current console generation, but it would be difficult for me to think of a more versatile or playable stealth game.

The entire time I was playing Saints Row IV, I found myself constantly thinking "It would be totally awesome if..." and then the game would do that awesome thing before I could finish my thought.

It’s not the easiest game to wrap your brain around. The dungeon crawling is kind of turn-based yet also not, and levels are kind of rogue-like (meaning randomized), but not completely. Instructions are rare.

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.

The Drowning is free to play, but the unrelenting focus on upgrades aggressively pushes players to buy virtual currency so they can upgrade faster...Kudos to the new controls, but the overall experience left a bitter taste in my mouth.

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.

A weirdly engaging game that can easily eat away a long evening of couch lounging.

If you’ve ever wanted to play an RPG/RISK/Real-time-strategy/third-person-shooting hybrid, Divinity: Dragon Commander is your best choice. It’s also your only choice. And despite how unwieldy that sounds, it actually kind of works.

If you’re looking for one of the most unusual and just plain fun games of the summer, you won’t find better.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is short. I finished it in a single three hour Sunday afternoon session...But it’s also immensely gratifying.

Nintendo’s 3DS is suddenly brimming with great first-party games, and Mario & Luigi: Dream Team is a standout among them. Don’t miss it.

Sadly, the game Behavior has delivered is even less ambitious and more forgettable than a straight retelling of the film’s story might have been.

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.

Of course, there’s more to Brave New World than Culture Victories, and more than I could hope to absorb in a single 20-hour game. Firaxis has added new world wonders, abilities specific to each of nine new civilizations, a couple of period-specific scenarios, and even some fresh military units, like the late-game XCOM: Enemy Unknown-inspired XCOM squad, which I built but, sadly, didn’t have occasion to use.

This two-hour episode introduces players to a quintet of new characters, individual survivors who through random chance spend at least a little time in or around a lonely countryside gas station and diner during the first 400 days of the outbreak.

This is a Mario platformer in which multiplayer – as in multiple characters on screen at the same time – isn’t much fun.

Beyond saying, “Limbo on the iOS is great for people who don’t have an Xbox 360 and want to play the game,” there isn’t much else to this version of the game.

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.

A game that looks very nearly as good as did on my Xbox 360 and in some ways plays even better, thanks in large part to intuitive touch screen controls that prove a fine fit for the game’s turn-based action.

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.

Somewhere along the line, Nintendo Co. Ltd. reckoned there was enough to Intelligent Systems’ collection of 16 mini-games to turn it into its own full-blown and nearly full-priced ($39.99) retail game...As it turns out, this may have been a questionable decision.

Developed by Dontnod Entertainment, Remember Me takes risks at every turn. Some of them expose the game’s many flaws, but other show the game’s strengths.

It’s polished and fun – easily one of the top side-scrolling platformers yet released for Nintendo’s handheld – but there’s just not much significant new material here.

Terror and beauty are potent bedfellows in The Last of Us, a masterwork of interactive entertainment conjured up by the master gamesmiths at Naughty Dog.

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.

The better the game, the more money the company made; the more money the company made, the better games.

It feels like the developers at Techland did a little soul searching on this new game trying to come up with ways to creatively tell players are story, not cover up a poor narrative with swearing and racial stereotypes.

use is a strong foray for Insomniac. It’s the Ratchet and Clank/Resistance developer’s first game that isn’t exclusive to Sony systems, and is a polished piece of software.

Perhaps the most interesting innovation of all is a multiplayer mode that allows one player to play as normal while an opponent takes on the more traditional role of tower defense, setting up alien robot turrets to stop the humans in their tracks.

A little game like Mario and Donkey: Minis on the Move would make a perfect test title for the broader mobile market. I’d be shocked if it didn’t rocket to the top of app sales charts.

Resident Evil: Revelations on living room consoles isn’t any better than it was on a Nintendo 3DS. It remains a reasonably fun retro-themed game that’s striving to be something more. But upgraded graphics and more robust controls aren’t moving it any close to that goal. Revelations is what it is, and that’s all it’ll ever be.

This could be that rare case in which a game inspires players to give their well worn controllers a break and pick up a paperback for a few nights instead. That alone makes Metro: Last Light worth putting on your wish list.

Mr. Meier has come up with a smart and innovative game of turn-based tactics for gamers on the go. Now it’s your job to be a smart consumer and show him what you’re willing to pay for – as well as what you’re not.

From the character designs and the narration, to the tactical game play and challenging difficulty, there are few games out there quite like what the Space Bullet Dynamics Corporation has framed for us. You’re not quite at the level of M from the James Bond universe, but this might be as close as you get.

Ni No Kuni offers players an experience unlike almost any other RPG. At once, you are transported back to the innocence of a childhood filled with monsters, magic, and mysticism; but at the same time you find yourself immersed in an emotional story about a protagonist dealing with his innermost emotions.

The combination of excellent level design, amazing art-style and spot-on combat should appeal to any gamer. But when you add in humorous dialogue and gads of tongue-in-cheek jokes, memes and homages to the video games, it elevates Guacamelee! to a must-purchase.

In buying a game like this we’re rewarding Techland for maintaining their own status quo and, worse, encouraging what might be a talented studio to just keep making the same mistakes.

lood Dragon is silly-fun. It’s the video-game equivalent of spilling all of your toys out in the sandbox and making a story up as you go along with He-Man and Optimus Prime teaming up to fight Cobra Commander...Nothing really makes sense, but it doesn’t make sense in just exactly the right way.

All you need do is have a taste for platformers and a love of good stories.

Frogmind’s debut side-scrolling action adventure game is the most beautiful iOS release I’ve played in a long time.

Just be aware that it can also be a bit intense.

Factor in multiplayer – both asynchronous turn-based play and a race mode that has players trying to beat each other to the cup with no regard to the number of strokes taken – and you have a game capable of delivering hours upon hours of fun.

I had fun with it for maybe a dozen sessions spanning a total of a couple of hours.

The sad truth is that Digital Extremes’ has given story-starved Trekkies a good little narrative wrapped tightly within a not very good game.

If you imagined the Wii U’s excellent Lego City Undercover and the Nintendo 3DS’s Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins as actor siblings, the former would be Alec Baldwin to the latter’s Daniel...Not Stephen, and not even William...Daniel.

This is an add-on pack in the truest sense of the term, giving you a large heaping second-helping of what you experienced before.

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.

Taken down the bare bones of what a video game can be, Dawning provides players with an experience that is at once dream-like and at other times filled with a horror that lies just below the surface.

As much as the studio has plugged the cinematic nature of the game’s storytelling, I can’t help but feel the story devolves into some groan-worthy comic book tropes. But it’s not enough to diminish the overall enjoyment of the game...Injustice: Gods Among Us will appeal to both those who grew up reading Batman or playing Mortal Kombat.

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

Trion Worlds’ game, on the other hand, seems simply to offer yet another big open world filled with weapons to collect and creatures to kill. I won’t deny that I’ve had moments of fun blowing holes in Hellbugs over the last week, but it was of a flavourless variety I could have derived from any number of other third-person shooters.

Humiliatingly wretched, but still more or less playable (...) Sometimes it takes a bad game to teach us just how good other games really are.

Playing an $18 game like BattleBlock Theater leaves a fellow feeling like he’s been hosed on nearly every $60 game he’s ever bought.

If you decide to pick up the latest artistic experiment from Tale of Tales keep in mind that the game’s subject matter with a little bit of background can start to make a lot of sense. It just requires you to think outside of the video game medium.

The very definition of a mindless shooter, EA Montreal’s latest — the third in the middling Army of Two series — is a stripped down, by-the-book, bereft-of-imagination bang-bang that left me less satisfied than a parched man served a salt lick and an empty glass.

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.

The Wii U version of the game isn’t perfect, however. The bigger screen and 1080p HD graphics do add to the flair of the game — the textures are redone for the more powerful Wii U, while most of the game models are the same — but no one would mistake them for something that wasn’t also designed to be played on a handheld. The framerate is much better and, most importantly, you can play online with other players.