Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion‘s remaster here is really only going to serve fans of the original release, being as it is a bare bones up-spuff of a game that isn’t all that memorable or worth rushing out to pick up. It’s not a bad shooter as such, just one that has since been outclassed at every turn in the years since.

Whilst its story is both welcoming and gripping, and its dialogue remains on point, Beat Cop fails to build where it truly matters. The core loop, although very serviceable, becomes tedious and repetitive before long, with little mechanical depth in place to keep things fresh. There’s certainly some fun to be had here, but it tends to be quite fleeting. In essence, it’s a generic management sim that, to its detriment, rarely ever attempts to innovate.

Floor Kids isn’t a bad game per se, it’s actually quite fun during the initial stages of play. The drawback, however, is that the game fails to shake-up its formula throughout. Whilst there may well be some energetic variety as far as its dance mechanic and its character selection is concerned, there’s little else to get excited about. The end result ironically makes for a very monotonous experience, one that gets old, fast.

Zeroptian Invasion wears its inspirations on its sleeve, but never really attempts to stand out as anything other than a clone. Still, for those of you specifically looking for a Space Invaders-like affair, you cant at all go wrong here, just don’t expect much originality.

If the waves were a bit shorter, or if there was more variety in the gameplay – and no over-heating main guns – I could probably have stomached more time with XenoRaptor. As it is, before too long I found my mind wandering to one of the many other unplayed titles on my hard drive. In short bursts, XenoRaptor is fine, but there are far more enjoyable examples in the twin stick shooter genre already out there.

If you loved the remastered Tomb Raiders I-III released last year, then you’ll definitely want to grab IV-VI remastered as well. The nostalgia and the novelty of revisiting the old Tomb Raider games is certainly worthwhile, but with IV-VI you’re witnessing three Tomb Raiders that gradually lose track of what the series was all about. The Last Revelation and its new ideas are successful, and you’ll enjoy your explorations in Egypt, but Chronicles and Angel of Darkness reek of missed potential and both of them come off as rush jobs. The remaster efforts are good enough in terms of uplifting these relics visually, and the framerate is crisp as well, but you’ll still need to wrestle with terrible design choices inherent within these three games, and the pounding desire for these Tomb Raider games to be remade for a contemporary audience.

Does Thief Simulator succeed in bringing out my younger self and bring back that same joy and excitement that I felt five years ago? No, no it does not. That doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy myself though. What it lacks graphics-wise and in replay value it makes up with its game mechanics. Who doesn’t want to rob houses and pretend to be a thief in the night?

Neverout isn’t all that challenging, which, for a puzzle game, doesn’t fare too well. Further to that, the game recycles its few tricks too often and rarely offers much clarity. That being said, the crux of its concept is certainly interesting enough to maintain traction, and its surprisingly low cost makes its drawbacks somewhat easier to bear overall. Bottom line? Neverout is a passable puzzler at best. Nothing more, and nothing less.

The game blends its few mechanics together well enough to maintain traction, and includes support for co-op play to bolster its worth. The problem, however, is that it lacks the depth found in many of its contemporaries. Furthermore, its visuals are fairly poor and its handling can be sloppy. If you’re in the market for a run-of-the-mill tower defense game, Hell Warders isn’t a bad choice, but you can get much better elsewhere at around the same cost.

Albert and Otto doesn’t do much that hasn’t already been better achieved elsewhere. It’s an average puzzle platformer at best, but one that will no doubt please fans of the genre.

Be careful what you wish for. As an Xbox gamer, I am continuously jealous of the amount of interesting-looking indie games that come to Steam. I would always say “Why can’t we get more of those?” Well, we got one, but it’s not one of the good ones. I normally enjoy retro platformers and the games that Fireworks draws its inspiration from are some of my favorites. The art style is bland, and the gameplay is both tedious and difficult, while also being unoriginal. There is some humorous storytelling throughout the game, which is one of the only highlights. If you’re at all tempted to play this Mega Man clone, buy it on Steam where it costs roughly $10 less than it does on the Xbox store; honestly I think the publisher Fantastico studio should be embarrassed that they jacked up the price and published this generic game. They should just let the whole thing go up in flames.

Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream Story Mode acted more like an extended filler episode than anything. Nothing to “Wow” a casual SAO enjoyer and nothing I’d personally believe would make a hardcore fan’s jaw drop.

Although short, Blind Postman is a passable puzzle game that’ll do you for an hour or two in between meatier titles.

There are already plenty of excellent first person puzzle titles on Xbox, and so Don’t Touch This Button! struggles to stand shoulder to shoulder them. If you’re after something in that genre that’s short to get through this might pique your interest, but those looking to settle in for a night or two of puzzling would do best to look elsewhere.

Samsara is just another standard puzzle game that never really evolves throughout the entirety of play. Despite a few interesting mechanics, the lack of innovation is what lets this experience down in the long run. Fans of the genre will most certainly enjoy what’s on offer, and it truly is a visually pleasing journey, but that means very little when there’s just not much of a challenge within.

A bit of style over substance, with Zoe Begone!’s controls proving too big a hurdle in getting to the fun for my tastes.

Warborn is a basic tactical-strategy game with an interesting story, but it doesn’t do enough to make it stand out from the others. The hexagonal battlefield could have been made more interesting, but it doesn’t do it for me. I think it’s the simple enemy AI and lack of variety in the missions that suck the life out of the experience. But it is a clean and functional tactics game, and it would benefit those new to the genre gain some experience.

Even The Ocean has some good ideas within, from the polarising energy mechanic to the OK platforming. But it all feels like it’s trying too hard to wrangle a heavy tale out and as such end up bogged down under characters that waffle on for too long, and boring interludes between levels that add very little to the experience.

Ary And The Secret of Seasons makes for a tough recommendation. There’s a pleasant premise, a decent sense of adventure and a surprising sense of humour nestled underneath the exterior if you search for it. The bamboozling problem for Ary though is that searching for a good time is buried beneath a gloomy fog of presentational flaws that do a service of drawing you out of its pleasant and colourful world, that undercut all the lovely ideas Ary has going for it. There are just too many flaws here to heartily approve Ary to anybody but the most patient and dedicated of players.

The Grand Tour Game sports a unique content delivery system, but it’s one that goes in and against the game’s favor. That being said, this all means very little in the face of its undefined framework. Whilst the game does a good job of representing the show’s stylish character and imitating its format in fun ways, it predictably falls short where it really matters. This is, at very best, a mixed bag of pros and cons.

The entire journey is based on process and reflection, and speaking of its ambiguity, the game achieves greatness through bonding that with its intelligent level design and its ability to tease perception. It’s a shame then, that the whole experience is massively let down by its clumsy handling, its lack of technical refinement, and its tedious rinse and repeat gameplay structure. This, if anything, is the definition of squandered potential.

Considering that it’s a sequel, and despite its efforts, Monster Energy Supercross 2 doesn’t feel wholly refined overall. The game suffers considerably due to its loose handling, its steep difficulty curve, and its excessive loading times. That said, there’s enough diverse content on offer to keep die-hard fans entertained until next time. Just don’t expect the quality to have come on in leaps and bounds in comparison to its predecessor.

While there are a few mini-games here that are fun to play, the slow unlocking of more levels, the randomness of the rewards, and there being a couple of dud games in a small selection early on puts a downer in Pureya for us.

Shoppe Keep is a management game that delivers depth, innovative gameplay, and decent functionality. The problem, however, is that it doesn’t come without a fair share of issues; lengthy loading screens, poor UI, and wonky controls. This would have been a much better game had the developers spent more time optimizing and fine-tuning it for console.

With mixing ingredients, laying down machines and belts and money management Big Pharma certainly keeps you busy. However, when you get to a point where you are short some cash, you will be left to wait until you earn more money – and this means a lot of waiting. This isn’t helped by already slow gameplay and the meticulous amount of attention to detail needed, leading to easily made but hard to rectify mistakes. In the end, the time invested rarely feels worth the reward.

All in all Virtuous Western is a nice game. The gameplay loop is easy enough to get to grips with, but it’s also not a title that’ll hold the attention for a long time. Achievement hunters will likely blast through it, but those looking for something to sink their teeth into are best of looking elsewhere.

Brutal Rage does share some basic common themes with other games of this genre, but seems to lack the overall appeal and replay value due to its repetitiveness and absence of variety in gameplay and development. Perhaps, with some slight alterations, it could potentially transform into something rather enjoyable and entertaining, but in its current condition it just feels like a very dull and lengthy demo. It has promise, but is missing the unique qualities that would make it distinctive, such as an expansion of the above mentioned fight-talk-walk game mechanics or any development of the original concepts. Thank goodness for the local co-op option making it much more motivating and rewarding to play as a team and share the endurance of surviving the inescapably drawn-out captions!

Legend of the Skyfish began promisingly, skilfully luring the player in with tales of exciting music, beautiful visuals, intricate action puzzles and epic boss battles. Combined with the strange controls, technical glitches and much of the former mentioned missing, however, it became increasingly frustrating to play and slowly chipped away at my sanity. Sadly I wasn’t hooked as my patience soon wore fin, but at least the game wasn’t a complete pile of carp.