War of the Roses is shallow and unrefined, but if you want what it's got then you'll have a great time with it.

The world around you is interesting and begging to be explored, but your movement is on rails so you can't do anything about it. Pick any complaint you might have about Kinect games - they feel like tech demos, they're unresponsive, they're repetitive - and Fable: The Journey is guilty of it.

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

Mists of Pandaria looks and sounds simply beautiful. And it knows it, providing ample opportunity to ride massive kites or giant jade dragons and ogle sculpted monuments and tiered pagodas all while listening to an epic orchestral soundtrack or a nearly flawless monologue delivered by talented voice actors.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown will have you swapping horror stories at the watercooler, and loving almost every minute of it.

Dishonored gives you a beautiful, fascinating, new world to explore, and then makes it your playground for grand misdeeds. Its story of political intrigue and betrayal is told at exactly the right pace, balancing information with action in a way that keeps you interested, but not overloaded.

There are times when Pokemon Black and White Version 2 feel a little too familiar, especially when you're exploring the same towns, roads, and caves from the previous game.

Despite the addition of new towns and trainer gyms, you can't help but feel like you're following in your own footsteps if you've already played Pokemon Black and White.

Tokyo Jungle is utterly ridiculous but wholly unique, blending challenging gameplay with goofy trappings. Putting a track suit on a housecat to increase its attack stat is a pretty silly thing to do, but the kind of attention to detail you'll need if you want to survive in the urban chaos. The mixture of absurd and serious is addictive and surprising.

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 MMO industry has been tirelessly chasing the coat tails of a certain game, attempting to capitalize on being the same formula but with something like better storytelling or PVP. In a fresh contrast, the developers behind Guild Wars 2 have taken the time to truly examine the MMO from the ground up. Guild Wars 2 may not completely revolutionize the genre, but it certainly appears to be the new standard that future MMOs will look to.

Torchlight II is a joy to experience, with vibrant landscapes packed full of interesting monsters, items, and lore just begging to be explored.

LittleBigPlanet PS Vita has a compelling story and is a joy to play through. Its ability to successfully integrate so many of the Vita's hardware functions makes gameplay both challenging and entertaining. Allowing players to contribute to its world by building their own levels is simply the cherry on the sundae.

A:WE is a superlative downloadable title. A cheap price tag belies a deep, difficult game that offers some frustration, but much more fun. Even if you've had more than your fill of tower defenses lately, give this one a shot. You might be surprised just how much a shift in perspective can change the feel of a whole genre.

Joe Danger 2: The Movie has so much more content than its predecessor it almost doesn't feel like a sequel, and almost all of it is great. With tons of challenges to complete, multiplayer, and community content, you'll have plenty to do even after the credits roll.

Borderlands 2 is a denser, richer version of it's predecessor, never compromising on the gunplay that made the series worthy of a sequel.

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.

When it comes down to it, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive may follow the same old formula of gameplay seen in previous versions of Counter-Strike, but it's still a well-rounded tactical shooter. It may not try anything drastically different or revolutionize the series by taking it in a new direction, but there's still enough there to appeal to newbies and hardcore fans alike.

Dust: An Elysian Tail is made of straightforward elements built to extraordinarily high standards, and rarely loses sight of its commitment to beauty, craft, and straight-up fun.

Whether you know all five Combaticons that form Bruticus by name, or have never seen a robot change into a car outside of a Shia LaBeouf movie, it's hard not to love this fun action shooter from High Moon Studios.

Slender will scare you witless.

The Last Story isn't perfect, but its engaging characters and strong gameplay are more than enough to carry it through any rough patches.

Papo & Yo isn't always pleasant, for reasons both technical and emotional, but its cleverness is exceptional. It's a world of pure imagination, for good and for ill, and while its puzzles aren't the most challenging you'll find, their presentation is so unusual that you'll race through them just to see what comes next.

The user-generated levels seem to promise nigh on infinite content, but the interplay between music and design that the best Sound Shapes levels achieve is a difficult thing to master.

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.

It brings absolutely nothing new to the genre, but it's legitimately funny, brilliantly produced and, aside from some slogging in the middle, moves quickly and smoothly from start to finish. It's not quite great, but it's awfully good.

Despite its quirks, Darksiders II really delivers on the breadth of its content, making for a sweeping experience that fans of multiple genres should be happy to explore if willing to look past a couple of hiccups along the way.

I can't say playing through Wei Shin's story in Sleeping Dogs is a pleasant experience. It's gritty, dirty, filled with curse words and exquisite torture, but also utterly enjoyable if you're a fan of those kinds of stories and don't mind a romantic interlude or two.