While the Battle Royale genre is oversaturated at the best of times, Spellbreak manages to carve its own niche with its wildly unique battlemage gameplay and extremely colorful visuals. With the promise of more modes to come, I’m excited to see how Spellbreak evolves over time, as it already feels decently balanced in its current state and a literal blast to play.

Simply look at what comes with Aftermath; the two new maps and new class are clearly the highlight and while it runs better on the latest hardware, the asking price seems a little steep for what’s added. Granted, core players can upgrade for about half price ($25.99 CAD), if you’ve previously played World War Z before and was wondering if the latest DLC is going to be enough to change your mind from its repetitive design and grind, Aftermath might be an afterthought. Even so, it’s always fun to fight against a swarm, hoping to survive against hundreds of zeke’s.

If you don't have FIFA 10, this is a great buy! That's a big IF though.

Creating new spots and sharing them; along with the Hall of Meat is more than enough fun to warrant the purchase alone regardless of its faults.

Wavetale is relaxing, beautifully drawn and has a superb soundtrack. It can and will suit a wide gaming audience regardless of skill level, and with it’s quick runtime it doesn’t outstay its welcome. Other than wishing the camera movement were a bit less finicky, I can’t really find too many faults with Wavetale and am looking forward to logging in and skipping around the ocean again when I need a reprieve from the real world.

The small grand moments of wonder and realization can be breathtaking, but they are too far and few between. Granted, that’s with how I played, so it may be completely different for you. The majority of your time will be simply managing your materials and meters, then spending time gathering materials to do what you intended to do an hour ago, only to find out you need another type of material to do a different step of the process. It’s odd to have such a rollercoaster of highs and lows of excitement and frustration, even after learning so much and adapting to its faults.

Overall, Stranglehold is a fun shooter to play, and an exciting indicator of the things to come if the borders between Hollywood and gaming continue to blur.

Far from a perfect game, Soulstice feels like it has a soul and some heart. Made by a smaller studio you can absolutely see the Devil May Cry and Bayonetta influences, and while it may not hit that level quite yet, it’s a great homage regardless, a game that should be enjoyed by fans of the genre.

Graphics and sound are absolutely the strong points in Ace Combat 6.

Ultimately the story doesn’t make the most sense, especially with the substantial shift I had at the end, but that didn’t affect my enjoyment of the game overall. It was beautiful and complex. Silly characters and a surprisingly deep and thought-provoking story kept me wanting to see how it would play out. With this being Paralune’s first game, I was completely blown out of the water with their work. They found a way to balance a mechanically simple game and an emotional story very well. I look forward to my next adventure with them.

DeathSpank succeeds at what it set out to do, it gives you some laughs, makes a mess of mobs and keeps you busy for a few hours.

Rarely will we see an arcade game that can keep you playing for well over double the amount of hours as some retail titles. Rarer still to see an arcade game that can do all of this with such amazing quality and innovation. By offering up one of the best dungeon crawlers since Diablo, you already know that Torchlight is a must have for your arcade library.

It's an interesting take on the Twin-stick shooter genre and while the story really isn't anything special or engrossing, at least it has one unlike the majority of others.

Much like most fighting games, the barrier of entry is low as Samurai Shodown is simple to pick up and play, but there’s plenty of underlying mechanics that will take some dedication to master. While button mashers won’t fair well, Samurai Shodown plays quite differently from many others in the genre. Being full priced still two years after its launch is a little surprising, but there’s also no other fighters on the market that can boast about 120 FPS.

My hat is off to Eidos mainly for expanding the variety of games on the 360. That is always a good thing.

While Empire of the Ants may be a watered down basic RTS game at its core, the flipside to that means that it's more approachable for those that aren’t generally into the genre like myself. RTS enthusiasts will surely want more than what’s offered from a gameplay perspective, but I quite enjoyed the simplistic and streamlined take. While I generally don’t want my games to have thousands of bugs, Empire of the Ants is an exception.

Sadly developers have yet to solve the inaccessibility for newcomers, as the learning curve is a sheer cliff to overcome. Still a niche genre, Farming Simulator 22 is a complex and accurate representation of real world farming, and while virtual farmers will no doubt spend over a thousand hours once again in the latest version, newcomers are still going to be left wondering how others could find the monotonous grind entertaining. Those that know, know, so let the good times grow.

If you enjoyed Avicii Invector’s gameplay, you’re sure to enjoy Rhythm Galaxy as well, though I’d suggest checking out a few of the songs and see if they are what you’d enjoy, as a music game is only as good as its soundtrack. I do feel as though Invector: Rhythm Galaxy is missing an overall theme or tone with its varied soundtrack selection, but it’s challenging gameplay and gorgeous aesthetic make it hard to not recommend.

Elite Dangerous offers gamers a seemingly unlimited amount of gameplay, and this is reinforced when you settle in and see how titanic the scale and size of the game environment actually is with the amount of possibilities and opportunities that are provided.

HyperParasite is an interesting concept with fundamentally decent gameplay, but where its shines is its heart, as you can tell a lot of passion went into this project. Having seen it evolve over the past year and a half proves a lot of work has gone into making it the best game it can be. It’s hilarious, has tons of pop culture references and more than enough glowing neon that you’ll know what to do with. If you’re a twin-stick shooter fan, HyperParasite is worth checking out and infecting the human race for as long as you can handle its challenging difficulty.

Even with the few issues I encountered, Moo Lander is wacky and nonsensical and just about the most ridiculous and best thing I’ve played this year. I couldn’t stop playing it or talking about it. It was a refreshing reminder that not all games have to have a deep story or even take themselves seriously. Sometimes ridiculous and fun is all you need. Moo Lander was, indeed, an aMOOsing adventure through space and I enjoyed my time with it very much.

This is a great re-visitation to the roots of my gaming experience... Thank you for doing such a great job on this game, and the only improvement I would say is make it harder to miss jumping between vines... And that's a minor complaint, really.

Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition is a solid remaster and is a game that many should have some fun with. It has enjoyable gameplay, visuals that manage to look good, control that is spot on, and the experience as a whole is fun. As a game experience, it’s definitely worth picking up, but I find myself having difficulty telling you to buy it at the full price of a new retail game. If you can get a deal on it, pick it up without question; however, if you’re on the fence, it might almost be worth waiting, given the full price you’ll have to pay for a remastered game.

Overall the game is a great in depth simulation and the gameplay outweighs many of its bugs.

Operencia: The Stolen Sun took me by surprise and I’m going to have to start thinking of Zen Studios as more than just a great Pinball developer. It packs a decent story, memorable characters, robust combat strategy and challenge, a huge world and plenty of playtime. Currently in Xbox Game Pass, you’re able to try it out right now if you’re a subscriber, but even if not, I wouldn’t feel any guilt recommending Operencia even at its full $38.99 CAD price tag if any of the above sounded appealing to you. While it won’t be for everyone and has its quirks, it’s a specific game meant for old school dungeon dwelling fans like myself that miss the genre.

I would suggest that anything you decide to work on in the future have online play. This type of game is made for online play, its just sad that that wasn't an option this time around.

While it may be a tad on the expensive side ($31.99 CAD), I quite enjoyed my time with it alongside Hebe and friends exploring their world, certainly memorable for its unique design and colorfulness. Ufouria: The Saga 2 is a sequel that I don’t think anyone asked for, or saw coming, but I’m all for it given how adorable is all is. It’s a small and quirky game that’s certainly on the easy and casual side, but sometimes a game like that is a welcome change.

While Shift 2 may not be as sim-heavy as Forza or arcade-like as Burnout, it does cut out its own groove in the genre with it's amazing helmet cam and driving aids that can be toggled to suit any racers experience or play style.