Cute, and sometimes unnerving, Among the Sleep draws the player to an affecting conclusion, but its banal puzzles and shallow storytelling doesn't do a lot to inspire many thrills.

The Order: 1886 is bland gameplay wrapped in admittedly gorgeous next generation graphics. It's not bad through and through, it's just disappointing.

Star Wars: Battlefront does a fantastic job of transporting players into the Star Wars universe for a big initial kicker, but that ultimately fades when you realize how light it is on content and game features. A textbook case of style over substance.

Square Enix heavily marketed the title as a games-as-a-service affair, so a long road is ahead. With a substantial amount of new content in the future, as well as some variety in mission objectives, Marvel’s Avengers could be worth a player’s time and effort. At the very least, the roughly 8-10 hour campaign is worth experiencing if only for the amazing portrayal of Kamala Khan. Right now, though, you may want to steer clear until more updates arrive.

Tomb Raider is a terrific game, and the Definitive Edition is a gorgeous looking version of it. It's the same game it was in 2013, though, with no further improvements justifying its "definitive" status.

Arslan: The Warriors of Legend does nothing new, but it looks good and plays well. The story is run of the mill, but is nice if you're a fan of swords, sorcery, and royalty.

Crysis 3 is visually stunning, and it's still fun to jump around in a nanosuit, but the new additions to the gameplay and the lackluster story don't make it very memorable.

The guns and bugs make for some spectacular fireworks, but, after the sparks settle, you are left wishing you had played something a little more substantial.

A fun little game at times, a frustrating little nightmare at others, OlliOlli is a relatively decent, if fairly forgettable, mobile game.

You'll have fun while you're playing it, but the lack of depth will cut into the single player experience after a few hours. The multiplayer is very enjoyable, but not strong enough on its own.

Hybrid is a fast, fun, and innovative online shooter that is hampered by repetitive gameplay and a world so vague that it stops you from ever really understanding it.

Samurai Warriors 4: Empires is fun, but scattered. It's a decent diversion but it's complexity and lack of transparency will keep you from being hooked.

The Evil Within is a noble attempt at bringing back classic survival horror, but it could have learned a thing or two from games that aren't almost ten years old. It has its moments of brilliance, scattered through periods of antagonizing design.

A solid third person shooter but is marred by some repetitive gameplay elements and a lack of depth with its mechanics and story.

Ultimately Sonic Adventure for XBLA offers absolutely nothing but an opportunity for nostalgia.

The combat in Captain America is actually fun but there's no substance to the story and no challenge for the rest of the gameplay.

Steep is a great accomplishment, but it feels like it was rushed. I expected this game to be a 2017 title, and having it now, faults and all, makes me wish they'd have held off on releasing this game until it received a bit more polish and gameplay refinements. In its current state, it's a frustrating game to play with occasional flashes of brilliance.

The AI can be a bit clunky and its reluctance to bring important developments to your attention can be annoying, but if you're out for some simple strategy fun that won't bury you in arcane rules (or you just dig the idea of building your own glorious underground kingdom), A Game of Dwarves should suit nicely.

There are games that deserve to be relegated to the bargain bin, or played when there's simply nothing else on the shelf. This is one of them. It's not broken, it's just bad.

Once you best the 6-8 hour campaign - and suffer through an absolute butchering of some long-held Aliens narrative themes - it's time to try out the surprisingly solid multiplayer modes. While the head-to-head options will likely be an afterthought for many franchise faithful, the online throwdowns actually manage to capture the Aliens feel better than the campaign itself.

Armikrog is a fun and quirky point-and-click adventure game with unfortunately dated mechanics.

NeverDead does try something new and original, but its mechanics are unpolished and poorly implemented.

Kane & Lynch 2 is a decent game, with some fun cover mechanics and tactical complexity, but the visual realism kind of shoots itself in the foot with unrealistic situations and tedious level design.

Creative set-pieces and an awesome concept can only hide a repetitious game structure for so long - and the stealth sections that mix it up are just frustrating.

Tiny Brains is short, messy, and relies heavily on reusing its ideas, but it's also a funny and clever little game that can delight as much as dismay.

Magic the Gathering Tactics is a very well-designed tactical game surrounded by a mediocre economy and bad supporting interface. The skeleton is sound, and if SOE improved the musculature and skin, MTGT could be the six million dollar game.

Minion Master is a promising idea that offers some unique multiplayer fun. A throwaway single-player mode, inconsistent production values, and expensive microtransactions hold it back from its full potential, though.

It's the same zany Worms strategy gameplay with a few new twists, though not all of the additions improve the experience.

There are some features to love in King Arthur II. The story is interesting and there are a handful of solid, entertaining gameplay mechanics, but be prepared to fight through a few of the game's weaker elements.

It's not bad, but compared to its predecessor, and to other Daedalic adventures in general, it's not really all that good, either.

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified doesn't tell much of a story, and the gameplay is split between the action-packed missions and the supremely boring HQ meanderings. You'll have a ton of fun when you're actually on missions, but that only accounts for 60% of the time you'll spend in game.

Technical flaws and narrative shortcomings aside, Dragon Fantasy Book II is a fun, retro-inspired RPG that hits the notes it needs to.

If you enjoy Castlevania, if you don't mind time limits, if you don't mind having to replay levels numerous times, and if you can deal with minor irritants like not being able to share teammate-resurrecting Water of Life items (in fairness, the game does let you keep playing as a skeleton even if you've croaked), then you'll probably have some fun hacking and slashing your way through Harmony of Despair - but that's a lot of "if"s.

Conduit 2 suffers in comparison to what's available on the other consoles or the PC, but the addition of motion controls that (mostly) work make it worth a rental, as long as you can get past the goofy story.

Competent. Functional. Other than the presence of your canine sidekick, there is absolutely nothing in Dead to Rights: Retribution that hasn't been done before (and probably better) in other games.

It's gorgeous in motion, and can be a satisfying little puzzle-platformer, but prepare yourself for some trial-and-error, garnished with repetition.

This is old school side-scrolling beat-em-up. As such, it's a bit of an anachronism. If you can get into the spirit of it, it's fun, but it's not as compelling as it was in the arcades.

While its skin-deep qualities suggest something artistic and maybe a little philosophical, this middling arcade game packs not enough wallop to be worth more than a bit of a shrug. While not awful, it's certainly not intriguing enough to maintain interest even in spite of a brief running time.

Although it doesn't feel as full as New Leaf, Happy Home Designer is a fine game that should've aspired to more.

Playing a blind girl helped me see how challenging it was, but I wish I saw a reason to care about the world Eva lived in.

Life in Bunker is a promising strategy/building game hamstrung by mechanics which are shallower than they first appear.

While there are some technical difficulties that need to be worked out, The Flame in the Flood is still moderately enjoyable.

Silent Hill Downpour is an average survival horror game that has a few good ideas, but doesn't live up to its predecessors.

Open letter to the designers of Just Cause 2: Thank you for making me drive 2 kilometers each time I die. It really makes me appreciate your big open world.

Dying Light isn't a bad game, it's just one that feels like it goes on a bit too long, and was too invested in the trappings of an "open world" to make itself really stand out.

EA's take on the modern shooter is good but not great. The combat is genuinely thrilling, but the heavy scripting and predictable plot points leave little room for surprises. Multiplayer is fun but not different from what we're already playing.

Hyrule Warriors Legends should have been made a new 3DS exclusive, as the performance issues on the older system make the game nearly unplayable. However, the new characters, and the ability to swap fluidly between playable characters, make the game feel more fresh than a standard port.

Crackdown 3 is an enjoyable mess.

A modest revision from last year's game, NCAA Football 12 brings adequate football gameplay with robust multiplayer dynasty features, for a price.

While a solid job of remastering the original has been done, the game itself could have used a lot more of an upgrade. It's aged pretty damn badly, and no amount of visual polish can mask that.

Epic Mickey is the most disappointing kind of game: a high-concept affair that does so much right, it's crushing that the one thing is does most wrongly is not be fun to play. This will be a frustrating game for core and casual gamers alike, but mostly for casual gamers who, attracted by the story and presentation, will be put off by the dated and difficult play.

Syndicate is a decent albeit uninspired shooter. While there are a few highlights, it mostly feels bland and homogenized from other games and cyberpunk fiction.

Warlock 2 offers a lot of options for a fantasy strategy fan, and the Exiled mode is fun the first time, but there's something missing in the formula to make it a truly memorable game.

Knight Squad is a fun distraction to play with friends, but there's nothing for the single-player lone knight to sink their sword into.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn has plenty of great spells, enjoyable environmental puzzles, and enemies whose heads desperately need caving in. The magical djinn are its only remarkable feature, but unfortunately turn the combat into child's play. Dark Dawn is a perfectly serviceable JRPG, and fans of the two previous Golden Sun titles will undoubtedly enjoy it. But it could be far, far better.

There isn't enough game in Homefront The Game to contain Homefront The Multimedia Concept. It would work great as a film, and works just fine as a game-based counter-culture argument against the complacency of modern Americans. As a game, however, it just doesn't cut it.

A superficially-twisted, Dear Esther-like game of linear exploration punctuated by flowery narrative - but scary, it is not.

You fight lots of pallet-swapped enemies over and over again, rinse and repeat. Fun to play with a friend and a huge nostalgia rush, but not much to hold your interest for long.

Knack is a colorful, but mediocre platformer that has issues with repetitive gameplay on top of being frustratingly difficult at times.

Lost Dimension is a fun and deep tactics RPG with interesting mechanics and a horrible story with horrible endings.

It's funny the first time, but there's just not much there beyond the one big goof.

Yoshi's New Island is a solid little platformer, but it struggles to be much more than that. It will, at least, kill a few hours of time, even if that time will hardly be remembered afterwards.

It would be easy to write Metroid Other M off on the basis of the few things it gets wrong but the combat and exploration elements are strong enough to overcome these limitations. The combat is intense, if a bit uneven in terms of the overall challenge, and the exploration elements are enjoyable.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is serviceable, and serviceable is as good as it gets. Competent, with admirable attempts at original storytelling, this movie tie-in is the perfect example of a middle-ground title.

Hearthfire does have a couple fun new features to play around with, but home building and child rearing just isn't interactive enough to feel genuinely personal.

Like inventing and describing a new color, That Dragon, Cancer tries to describe something indescribable, and does an admirable job of it.

The recycled brawling mechanics and frustrating platforming don't do anything to support the cliché story and no amount of blood, profanity or nudity can save Splatterhouse from mediocrity.

Shadows of the Damned's slick visuals and offbeat sensibility is worth checking out, despite its ordinary gameplay. Besides, ordinary doesn't mean bad. Beheading demons with a shotgun that fires skulls has a certain amount of appeal, after all. It's pretty brainless, but it's a weekend's worth of stuff to shoot, and sometimes that's all you really need.

Kyn is a solidly-crafted RPG with some fun and interesting set pieces, but isn't innovative enough to stand out among similar titles in the genre.

With its banal universe and flavorless style, Destiny is packed with content, but just ... well ... content. There's a great PvP mode, and the leveling system can be rewarding, but nonetheless this is a pretty, rock-solid, ultimately pedestrian product.

A charming concept can only get a game so far, and Garden Warfare fails to capitalize. While there's fun to be hard, there's not much meat on the bones, and the repetitive combat ensures this will be nothing but a stopgap title until better shooters enter the market.

Destiny of Spirits gets a pat on the head for trying to be better than the worst free-to-play games out there, but since that's not difficult, and since there are far better examples in existence, the reliance on cooldown periods and senseless restrictions come are disappointing.

Asura's Wrath is a novel idea with some poor implementation. It often feels strained into too many directions, but there is something undeniably fun about certain outrageous moments. There really isn't much else quite like Asura's Wrath.

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony's core mechanics may be more than a decade old, but thanks to redone graphics, voice acting, and dialogue, this one still has plenty of spring in its step. And while frequent load times and some pacing issues mar the overall experience, it's still an enjoyable RPG that never takes itself too seriously.

Still a very good game, but it's on the more pointless end of the rerelease spectrum, and they really should have fixed those bugs.

Though it climbs to impressive heights, it fails to stick the landing.

A polished and satisfying reflex shooter that removes meaningful decisions from the game and trivializes its own greatest technology.

Sacred 3 is a mildly fulfilling hack and slash game that, while fun in limited doses, isn't a patch on previous entries, and does very little to stand out within the genre in which it wishes to now be housed.

When you get down to it, Resident Evil 6 isn't a horrible game, but it certainly isn't a great game, either. The action sequences and boss fights can be fun, and even challenging on rare occasion, but the whole experience blends together far too easily, feeling more like a generic action shooter than a classic Resident Evil game.

The missions are decent, but the multiplayer is the real reason to play this game.

Telsagrad is a complex puzzle platformer that is enjoyable and fun despite its painstakingly difficult challenges. However, the lack of a conventional story and dialogue left you wondering if you had missed out on an untapped experience.

Five Nights at Freddy's World is a retro parody JRPG that feels incomplete now, but is steadily getting better as patches come out.

In the end, Blackguards feels a lot like the first time I played Neverwinter Nights in all the good ways and all the bad. Take from that what you will.

Tomodachi Life is a promising concept, and its abstract sense of humor can be very charming. It does, however, get old fast, and you'll find yourself making the characters say lewd things to keep yourself amused.

Dragon's Crown is gorgeous, and though at times its flavor may be of questionable taste, ultimately it does still manage to strike a lot of the right nostalgia chords.

Mario Sports Mix is a good game, especially for a younger audience that might enjoy the cartoony sports action or to play with friends. It's just not great.

rain's premise is certainly interesting, and as far as aesthetics go, it does put you into a somber, yet intriguing world of dreariness. But rain's gameplay doesn't live up to its setting, and doesn't offer much more than the occasionally tricky puzzle or stealth sequence.

The ending certainly proved to me that Jon Oldblood knows how to think outside the limits of what's considered normal.

Sony wants SOCOM 4 to be COD in "tactical" clothing, but all they ended up with is an utterly bland amalgam of missions and cutscenes that lacks any soul.

Its brevity and reliance on contrived challenges work against Octodad: Deadliest Catch, but when it's at its best, it's a damn hilarious game that'll charm the pants off most players.

A fresh, action-packed take on football that makes you feel like one of the players pounding the gridiron. A fantastic team creation mode, intense, urgent action and great-looking tackles are dragged down by a shallow single-player mode, sloppy interpretation of football rules, and characters that all look the same.

Nier delivers all of the facets that make up a successful action role-playing game: fun combat, diverse characters, good voice-acting, and addictive quest mechanics. It just doesn't do any of them excellently.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare upholds the status quo and aims no higher than that. Its sci-fi trappings are but shallow appeals to progress, and while the multiplayer is still able to provide some entertainment, the CoD formula feels anything but "advanced" these days.

As the game goes on, more and more quests are required to be completed to move on and frankly, I’ve found it exhausting. It’s hard to shake the feeling that Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is a game obsessed with making the player eat their vegetables.

I had the same response in general to playing The Sinking City. There’s so much wonderful potential in this game that its flaws are all the more maddening. I wished that it had followed Call of Cthulhu in abandoning combat altogether and just used its larger space and considerably more nuanced investigation system to tell a great story. But it seems I’ll have to keep waiting for the perfect Lovecraft game.

An accurate port of the Resident Evil Mercenaries minigame - and that's all it is.

Divinity: Dragon Commander has a unique setting and interesting characters, but its real time and turn based strategy elements don't hold up to its narrative aspects.

Its biggest strength is also its main weakness. It is a very good version of a familiar game. The card art is beautiful, the user interface is crisp and clean, the booster packs are frustratingly realistic, the deck builds are flavorful and diverse, and it all feels a great deal like card games most genre fans have played before. It's an excellent take on the trading card game, digital or otherwise, but given that it's competing in a very well established place, it might not do enough to develop a huge audience.