Even though tactical freedom is just an illusion, Afrika Korps can keep you captivated for hours thanks to its unpredictable dynamic scenarios.

Ace of Spades has all the components of a decent multiplayer shooter: stylish graphics, gameplay inspired by Team Fortress 2 and Call of Duty, destructible environments… But the sum of these parts feels like a bad parody of popular games.

If the developers were a bit more creative with the concept, they could have turned the game into a great puzzle in a sandbox-style environment with terraforming and freedom of exploration. Alas, Waking Mars as it is now has neither decent puzzles nor sandbox gameplay, although if you're itching to play a god-sim, this one will do nicely.

Anomaly: Korea represents the lazy approach to game development. The game is still fun to play, but it is not nice to sell the same product twice.

The depth and scope of Football Manager 2013 are impressive. I only wish that the developers hadn't taken the 2-in-1 approach where they bundled a traditional version that is in need of polish, with a simplified Football Manager Classic aimed solely at new players. Pleasing old fans while bringing in fresh blood is a very risky balancing act. Sports Interactive should think about where to focus their efforts.

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.

Despite improved graphics and Havok-powered physics, Zero Hour is nowhere near as spectacular as Modern Combat 3. Scripted on-rails sequences where you control drones is the only thing that breaks 4 hours of monotonous shooting at numb-brained enemies.

Guardians of Middle-earth is reminiscent of a different LotR-based game, The Lord of the Rings: Conquest. Its creators also took a popular gameplay mechanic, turned it into a mess, and then tried to bury their failure under a bunch of licensed characters and locations. Monolith was luckier in its endeavor than the late Pandemic Studios, because you can at least play Guardians of Middle-earth.

Hell Yeah would've worked much better if it were a comic book or an animated movie. It is eye-catching and crazy just to the right degree, but, alas, so primitive as a game.

Dead Horde, the previous offering from DnS Development, was abysmal. Primal Fears is just bad. Well, at least they're moving in the right direction.

10.000.000 is built on a solid foundation: subtle retro-style graphics, nice music, and, what is more important, the engrossing chaos of a real-time puzzle. At first, you can't put the game down, but then you realize that all that doesn't hold a candle to Puzzle Quest and Clash of Heroes. Bite-sized play sessions and minimalistic gameplay are a good fit for mobile platforms, but as far as time-killers go on PC, this one lacks depth.

The Republic is a great niche add-on. If Paradox continues to work on Crusader Kings 2 in this vein, eventually fans will be able to create a medieval grand strategy of their dreams by mixing and matching its expansions.