Rage 2 can be an enjoyable experience… to a certain extent. Unfortunately, you will hit that wall in just a few hours.

Cool concept, but Harold is too monotonous to entertain. Just three gameplay modes (including the tutorial), no level editor, very few interactive objects.

Assassin's Creed Shadows can entertain you, even despite the silly plot. But you won't lose anything without this game.

While the story campaign is woefully short and there are very few gameplay modes, the controls and locations are quite pleasant.

Despite a ton of annoying drawbacks, Dark Arisen is probably of the few somewhat enjoyable PC ports of a Japanese RPG.

This immensely ambitious game promises much more than it’s able to give. By focusing on player agency, Weird West stifles everything else.

Even though Heavy Bullets flirts with roguelike ideas, it lacks replayability.

However flawed Badland is, you won’t go wrong if you buy it on sale – it’ll help you to kill some time on a trip.

Playing 400 Days is like watching a random scene from a summer action movie – you have no idea who is shooting whom and, what’s more important, why the hell you’re supposed to care for these characters.

Here is hoping that Yard Team will successfully conclude its negotiations with Blizzard and will be able to re-release the improved version of the game. But even then Motor Rock will remain just a clone without a hint of originality.

Days when people considered StarCraft a gold standard of the RTS genre are long gone. Nowadays, Blizzard tries to mask the old formula by grafting superfluous gameplay elements and tugging at nostalgia strings. Unless you’re a huge fan of StarCraft’s multiplayer, better save your money for Company of Heroes 2 and Wargame: AirLand Battle.

Spider-Man is a stark example of an outdated "sandbox game” whose goal is not to entertain but rather preoccupy players, and it uses every cliche in the book to do that.

A “CryNET Systems 3.0” logo is plastered all over Crysis 3’s menus, but it should’ve said “2.5”. The final instalment in a story of a super soldier versus alien invaders feels like an expansion rather a full-blown sequel. A six-hour long campaign in a familiar setting, one and a half fresh ideas, slightly improved multiplayer. A few years ago studios were more honest when naming their products – take Crysis Warhead, for example.

A balanced array of tactical options coupled with three-dimensional gameplay creates interesting combat situations, especially in the beginning, before you get tired of playing the same battles again and again.

Black Book holds a lot of promise… not as a game, but rather an interactive guide to local myths and legends. In all other aspects it’s an exercise in mediocrity.

The worst problem is that combat, skill management and trying out tons of various swords are quite boring as a main dish, and Expeditions: Roms has nothing extra to offer.

Amplitude still has its work cut out to make Humankind a more welcoming place: improve the balance, fix the second half of the campaign, increase the performance… and release the inevitable DLCs. So, maybe then it will be able to go toe-to-toe with Civilization.

Expeditions: A MudRunner Game is based on SnowRunner. Your biggest enemy in this game is not dirt, but terrain. Unfortunately, the game has two big problems: the lack of content and strange mission design.

If you’re not a member of the Communist Party and you do not feel nostalgic whenever someone mentions USSR, the journey to Matryoshka will bring you 10-12 hours of fun. Although it’s a bit disappointing that the writers missed an opportunity to turn this light comedy into a satirical study of a person’s fate in a totalitarian state where cult of personality reigns over all.

A decent text-based RPG with a disappointing illogical ending.

With every new installment, Age of Wonders continues to drift away from the concept of the original game in the series by trying to blend in with the 4X crowd. So far, the result is not that impressive.

It’s definitely not the worst way to spend 10-12 hours, especially if you're into supernatural fiction and the new weird. Yet Remedy lacked determination (or maybe skill?) to go the distance.

I really feel sorry for Ghost Warrior 3 - this is the first game in the series that had a potential to finally rival Sniper Elite. Unfortunately, things like weak stealth mechanics, awful story and pointless open world really let it down.

Instead of giving a new lease on life to the survival horror genre, Mikami, the creator of Resident Evil, produced a dud.

Village is a concoction of spectacular amusements framed by an insane storyline, and this grotesque circus is varied enough for you to stay for one playthrough.

Binding of Isaac with the ability to roll wrapped in the visual style of Don’t Starve – that’s Our Darker Purpose in a nutshell.

The Wolf Among Us is still more enjoyable than the 2nd season of Telltale’s The Walking Dead, but, all in all, the taste is already gone, and there are two more installments to play through.

A fun, varied and relaxing skyscraper sim. It can be a little bit formal at times, and there are some glaring deficiencies, but it is a welcome return to this theme nonetheless.

The story is going around in circles, and the charm of the first act is all but gone. At this rate, Conway and his dog will soon lose their chance to leave a mark on the genre.

Moral dilemmas do not mesh well with low-brow humor, while the game’s Souls-like approach is hampered by poorly implemented combat. The Last Oricru might entertain you… but will not excite.

The developers did not fix all the flaws of the original game, but still, they righted a lot of wrongs.

The developers split DreadOut into two parts, and the first half is frustratingly short. It will take you 2-3 hours tops, and that’s only because the game sometimes forgets to tell you when an interactive object is nearby, forcing you to run in circles looking for it.

Life Is Strange is a very controversial game. On one hand, it sets a new quality standard in ‘cinematic’ adventure games — from now on, they must give freedom to players and make them emotionally invested in on-screen events. On the other hand, it’s packed with dumb gaffes and disastrous shortcomings. Still, if you managed to reach the end credits and spent the next couple of days thinking about the characters, then it was worth it.

Shadows of the Damned is back from oblivion and looks surprisingly fresh. Unfortunately, the remaster turned out to be too ascetic.

Despite BioShock trappings, Close to the Sun is a straightforward adventure with a pinch of puzzles, veering dangerously close to being labeled as a walking simulator.

“I have this strange feeling of déjà vu…”, utters Van Helsing 5 minutes into the story campaign. Don’t look at the number in the title – this is an expansion pack, not a full-fledged sequel.

It takes about 20-25 hours to finish the campaign, but you will get tired of it halfway through. A cooperative mode a la Saints Row could’ve livened up these copy/pasted, repetitive missions, but it’s nowhere to be seen.

OverBorder Studio is probably capable of creating a rival to Sekiro, but their first game is just an experimental try.

When Evolve plays nice and doesn’t annoy you with technical problems, it is kind of fun, provided you play not more than one campaign a day. But, really, you can get the same fun in any decent f2p shooter. Like Team Fortress 2, for example.

There are some bright spots in Battlefield: Hardline’s design, but they do not change the overall pointless of this game. If you’re thinking about playing it online, better splurge on the well-patched Battlefield 4 with all its expansions.

It’s a solid detective story, but gameplay-wise, Frogwares made a mistake by using its previous game, The Sinking City, as a basis for Sherlock Holmes.

Death Stranding is asking you to find variety in a daily rut, cooperation possibilities for a character who has fear of contact, scientific explanations in clear-cut mysticism. Today, you’re annoyed that the story doesn’t move forward, and you have to trek into the same ghost-infested area as before, but tomorrow you’ll gladly spend a few hours hauling resources for a new highway and feeling good about it. This source of joy is very weird and defies explanation.

With all its simplicity and a very short-lived campaign, Severed Steel offers a decent shooting practice for an evening or two.

Atomic Heart surprised me, this is a solid game. And it is very frustrating to see her flaws. I hope that in the sequel, Mundfish will not try to grasp the immensity and focus on what's important.

Braveland is a cute little thing for those who have never played turn-based strategy games before.

Alas, Valhalla Hills is too repetitive and simple, and its randomly generated maps are not a replacement for a normal single-player campaign.

Remove the lazy in-game shop, add gamepad support, give some brains to AI enemies and more freedom to players – and the inevitable sequel to Deus Ex: The Fall will be a great game.

It's easy to rule an entire genre of soccer management sims when your worst enemy is a weak indie title like Retro Football Boss. But now, Sports Interactive faces a rising threat of stagnation, and as the developers continue to go around in circles, the word "refund" will be cropping up more often in the user comments section on Steam.

In contrast to the original Elex, this awkward sequel is a typical Piranha Bytes game. And no, it’s not a compliment.

Banners of Ruin evokes a weird comparison to pictures painted by beginning artists. It’s nice to look at, painstaking, but ultimately unexciting.

True Colors is the most “alive” Life is Strange so far thanks to a technological leap, but it lacks spark and tries to compensate for it by referencing or imitating the original game.

Cool concept, decent multiplayer and horrible AI in the single-player campaign.

The Quarry is a retread of the familiar genre tropes and Supermassive's own debut game, Until Dawn, but the quality bar is somehow lower than 7 years ago. Still, it’s entertaining enough for one playthrough if you like ”QTE movies”.

This is basically the original Legends of Eisenwald with less content and at a lower price. It has only one "sandbox" map (plus the tutorial scenario), a couple of basic fractions, and minuscule amount of new gameplay elements all wrapped in a mildly interesting plot.

The story is short on emotions, the main characters lost their charm, the script is a messy patchwork, but the worst flaw is that the gameplay is repetitive and sluggish.

Do not expect anything breathtaking. Child of Light tells a by-the-numbers fairytale with a predictable twist and an even more predictable ending.

Insurgency: Sandstorm feels like a shoddy HD remaster of the original game rather than a full-fledged sequel, complete with annoying performance drops, popping up textures and bland map design.

I see no reason to pay a full price for a mediocre single-player campaign, watered-down (compared to last year's offering) multiplayer and a zombie mode with just one map. I’d recommend trying a free Warzone instead.

As I write this, Assassin’s Creed: Unity is a bugfest, but technical problems, however annoying, can and probably will be fixed. It is not cracks in textures that it is the most worrying thing about Unity, but the cracks in game design and writing.

If Eversim had not changed President Medvedev’s portrait with President Putin’s, I bet most people would not have noticed any differences between Geo-Political Simulator 2 and 3. Stability is a good thing, but the series is in a dire need of a radical reform. The developers have a lot of experience now, but, to enter next level, they have to make a new game from scratch.

Pagan Online seems to have gone through development hell — whatever its original concept was, the game has been rewritten, cut into pieces and then reassembled in a different form. Its short f2p-style runs are fun at first, but then boredom gradually sets in, because it’s just rinse and repeat.

The first episode of The Raven trilogy is blink-and-you-miss-it short. The next time we’ll see the same events from the criminal’s point of view. Here is hoping that his version of the story is more interesting.

All good things must come to an end, and in Deponia’s case, they ended with the third game. Rufus fans would be better off thinking that Deponia Doomsday simply doesn’t exist.

If you are a fan of the original game, get ready to hold back tears after watching a brief post-credits scene, and it will give you a deeper appreciation of that scene in the scrapyard from LIS Episode 4. I think this is the whole reason why Before the Storm exists, and that is good.

A cute kitty is wandering in a beautiful city of robots — now that’s a cool idea to scribble on a napkin during a brainstorm session. Unfortunately, Stray never develops it into a full-fledged game.

Forced gameplay features and pointless limitations are the key problem of The Surge 2. Deck13 refuses to improve and expand its combat mechanics to an acceptable level.

A robot hermit who speaks in rhymes, a robot preacher who guards a bomb, a robot passenger who is doomed to wait for a bus that will never come… The wasteland world of Primordia is filled with memorable characters, but the game is totally devoid of emotions, exciting plot twists and entertaining puzzles – as if it was, too, made by robots.

PES 2014 is rife with frustrating flaws, but still, underneath all these layers of disappointment, there is a powerful core. In rare instances, when you are in control of the game, and there no bugs to spoil the fun, PES is more natural and alive than any FIFA.

In Other Waters is an experimental crossbreed between a simple-hearted adventure game and an equally straightforward simulator of a futuristic ocean scientist. The adventure part is constrained by narrative conventions and oversimplified design, but the sim part is almost a meditative experience that might enthrall you for a few hours.

Unlike the remake of Resident Evil 2, this is a simple, straightforward blockbuster, short, colorful, and mindless. As for Resident Evil: Resistance, you will probably quit it after spending half an hour in this boring L4D clone.

If you're interested in Candle because of its stylish looks, just skip the game itself and enjoy the screenshots.

A couple of evenings of wild, but fleeting fun – you will hardly get anything more from Screencheat.

If you’re willing to give this game a chance, make sure to try the demo first before opening your wallet.

Are you ready to shell out for a pricey graphics update? Because as a simulator, Football Manager did not mature at all.

The biggest letdown of this Master of Orion is a complete lack of meaningful space exploration. There are too few anomalies, pirate bases and monsters in the galaxy, and everything feels empty.

If you’re not an avid fan of shoot-‘em-ups, you’d hardly look twice at this plain-looking game and its scanty arsenal of weapons.

The story is really good, and it’ll take you about 15 hours to complete all four chapters. The game’s problem lies in the boring, QTE-laden battles, and you can avoid it altogether by downloading official Lone Wolf e-books free of charge onto the platform of your choice. So yeah, just skip the game.

A sloppy sequel to a great game marred with decade-old problems.

Frontline: Road to Moscow is a decent choice for newcomers to the wargame genre. Just keep in mind that there are much better games around on both PC and mobile platforms, like Panzer Corps and Unity of Command.

It will take you just a couple of days to try every character, go everywhere and conquer everyone. Without a decent single-player campaign, there is no incentive to come back and save the Multiverse again.

There is no point in spending time and money on Lords of the Black Sun. It’s not that bad, but there are much better alternatives available now.

Star Wars Episode I: Jedi Power Battles is an old game for fans, slightly improved on the occasion of its release on modern platforms. But even fans will need a certain amount of patience and understanding to make it through to the finale.

Sniper Elite 3 is hardly worth it, but at least it’s nice to see that the series is changing its course.

It’s a budget Mario/Yoshi sans acrobatics with tons of borrowed ideas and a single original one. Play only in co-op if you’re 6 or older.

Thrones of Britannia feels like an expansion of Total War: Attila, released as a separate game for obvious reasons. It relies on mechanics of Rome 2 and Attila and sometimes ditches them without offering a replacement. As a result, despite is epic scope, it’s a tedious, boring game fit for just one, maybe two, playthroughs.

Stellaris feels like two games of completely different quality. One game offers boring linear stand-offs against a tame AI, the other is an excellent multiplayer platform.

A mediocre Korean clone of Defense Grid: The Awakening with a few original bells and whistles.

Generic heroic fantasy with naive themes and two-dimensional caricatures instead of characters. The writing is all right, with some bright spots here and there, but this story is not worth the emotional havoc this game wreak on you with its poor game design logic and bugs.

"You don't want to be the guys who messed up and ran into the ground one of the absolute, top-rated franchises of all time. You don't want that at the top of your CV. 'Yeah, I'm the guy who turned a 96 into a 60, that's my claim to fame,’ said Arkham Origins’ producer Ben Matts a couple of days before the game’s release. Turns out, they did exactly that.

Rebel Cops has too many jagged edges so I can’t recommend to fans of turn-based tactics. It’s not a marked improvement over This Is the Police 2, either — in fact, this is pretty much an extract from that game.

Super House of Dead Ninjas is too predictable compared to its predecessor. A game that uses randomly generated levels could keep you entertained for a very long time, and House of Dead Ninjas did that by combining various obstacles. But now, only the order of rooms is random, and their contents are mostly the same all the time.

That 'early access' feeling is still present in what is billed as a finished product. In fact, it is even stronger than before, with the unruly camera, horrible interface, slow-thinking AI, long loading times, and the help system presented in plain text format. And the promised career mode is even more bare-bones than in Qvadriga and Armored Core: Formula Front.

Many indie developers tried but failed to reach the bar set by TowerFall. They have no problem with generating cool fresh ideas, but few have turned a minimalistic prototype into a full-blooded game.

No one asked Guybrush to return, but he came anyway and crashed his own party. In the beginning, you try your best to acclimate to the unusual visual style, hoping that your patience will eventually pay off. In the end, you wonder how they managed to screw up a decent game with such a vile ending.

Gobliiins 5 is a strange game from a forgotten era. An experienced adventure lover will hardly regret a few evenings spent on it.

25 mostly similar levels will not keep you entertained for long. Jet Car Stunts lacks thrill, and that is its biggest flaw.

Want to see the actual ending to the adventures of Clark and Carver on Tau Volantis? That’ll be $9,99, please.

Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon is able to charm with artistic solutions, beautiful mechs, gloomy atmosphere of corporate wars. But there are too many of annoying factors in the game.