The Way I See It: Horrible controls, busted gameplay and a frustrating experience.

I fully expected Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn to be a complete disaster, and while it has faults, it’s competent, but yet mediocre at best. Even though it’s not completely terrible like its predecessor, Shaq needs to be remembered for his ball skills, not voice acting and games. Icy-Hot won’t save you from this one.

The visual aesthetic of Away: Journey to the Unexpected sold me right away, as it’s absolutely gorgeous with its blend of 2D and 3D and bright colorful environments and characters. Below the surface though, the rest of the experience is as bland and uninspired as you can imagine a boy fighting with a stick would be. It’s tough to recommend when it’s only redeeming quality is how pretty it looks, like a gorgeous date you picked up that happens to have a terrible personality and annoys you.

The game design is pretty cool for a next-gen console, but the meat and potatoes of a real exciting street racer got checked at the door.

Rise of Nightmares suffers from the syndrome of great ideas but poor execution.

Overall, the game is a brilliant idea that was executed terribly.

Revenant Dogma feels like it was put together with RPG maker software by somebody with a genuine interest in the genre, but has no talent for detail or nuance. I appreciate anyone who has the kind of passion for games that I do, and even greater respect for those that put themselves out there and bringing a product of their passion to the market because they love the medium. Unfortunately passion and talent don’t always line up, and this is one of those cases.

More than anything, the camera issues are the biggest drawback, along with the gameplay devolving into finding 'the safe spot’ to survive more than using reflex skill.

Sadly, Warpath just does not rise above its awkward controls, poor character classes and mediocre gameplay nor does it offer anything that comes close to rivaling the collection of excellent multiplayer first-person shooters already available on the original Xbox.

If this game is a penny over $4.99 it feels like theft, pure and simple, so imagine how we feel about the $10 price point. If you're that hard up for literally one of the most repetitive matching games you'll ever experience feel free to pick it up, but when you feel that overwhelming sadness for having wasted $10 on something that now is the cause of your severe case of the boredoms, don't say I didn't warn you.

The volleyball part of the game is decent and racing sea-doos is fine for a whole 10 minutes but after that this game just gets repetitive.

By the time I got near the end of the game I was more ready for it to end than I was looking forward to an intriguing ending.

Don't Knock Twice doesn't offer much more that would constitute any sort of positive reinforcement for picking this up for any reason what so ever, which is sad, as a good 'scare game' is something that can be fun, as Halloween is approaching. Even at the admission price of $9.99, it's unfortunate that I would have to say you should avoid this game entirely. It suffers tremendously from numerous faults and setbacks that prohibit a truly horrific experience. Regrettably, the only positive that I can see is that the game does offer a lot of easy achievements to obtain, so if you want a "cheevo" boost then this might be for you. Games based on movies never tend to work well, and unfortunately Don't Knock Twice is yet another example of why titles like these should be avoided. Forget knocking twice, just don't knock at all and go play something else.

In terms of my recommendation, Ship Graveyard Simulator isn't a title that you need to drop whatever you’re doing, clean off your schedule and buy right away. If you want to take a chance and you are highly invested in the simulation or renovation genre, then you may enjoy this whole heartedly, even with its lack of engagement. If you are the type of person that expects to be engaged and want to play a title for hours and hours on end, Ship Graveyard Simulator is then hard to recommend. For myself, I’m already yawning, I’m going to go down for a nap. Wake me up when the music comes back on and I can salvage more materials.

Even with the myriad of bugs there’s an odd and endearing quality that Xuan Yuan Sword: The Gate of Firmament possesses. Sure, the $25 asking price seems a bit high when you judge it on its looks alone, but there’s a surprising amount of gameplay held within, as long as you can stomach the lackluster visuals, poor translation and bugs. If you’ve been craving a new JRPG game to enjoy, there’s enough ‘meat on the bone’ here to keep you interested, even if there are better choices available. With some more QA time, and a better translation, this might have been a completely different, and even more enjoyable, experience. All the typical checkboxes have been marked to make for a decent experience, and there are a few mechanics included that I really enjoyed, but like a good B-movie, I enjoyed it for unintended reasons instead.

Needless to say, this is a dated experience that will only appeal to a certain type of gamer. That is, folks who grew up with this type of game, or those who consider themselves students of the medium. DreamBreak is definitely a tough sell, but it’ll be worth it for people who fall into either of these categories. That’s especially true since there aren’t many games like this these days.

Resident Evil pioneered the survival horror category; this game doesn't even attempt to be in a similar genre. If the box didn't say Resident Evil on it, no one would care about this bland and empty experience, and you'll forget about this as quickly as you finish it.

With so many options at your command, Defenders of Ardania tries to overcome some shortcomings by incorporating some new innovations, and while this works somewhat, the fact that these shortcomings exist does hinder the overall enjoyment of this game.

Red Faction Battlegrounds offers something for everyone, but if you wish to cash in the best way possible, then pre-order Red Faction Armageddon and pick up your free copy of this intense and amazing vehicular combat game.

It’s a game with a set purpose – give you lots of battles and lots of baddies to take down. But it doesn’t strike out into any brave new territory or define it’s own genre – sadly, not living up to the legacy of its source material.

Given the lack of stage variety and basic gameplay, it’s mediocre at best, borderline boring at times, slightly improved if you have a partner to play with at home. It really comes down to if you want to play a new tower defense game, and if you do, enter into this one with caution.

Blood Bowl 3 was lackluster at launch due to many problems, but the core gameplay was solid and could be fun once you got past all of the issues that will hopefully be fixed shortly in the future with some patches. Most of the aforementioned issues can be patched later, but the version I played on felt like it did not change much from its prequel.

The puzzles of this game mostly rely on having to make certain jumps to reach switches that you have to turn on to open a door elsewhere in the ship. This is extremely difficult with the camera angles featured in the game. Overall the gameplay is mundane and repetitive.

Overall Rush'n Attack: Ex Patriot, despite its flaws (poor audio, platforming and overall game play), kept me coming back for more as the story progressed.

Dark Souls was so popular, not simply because of its daunting challenge and difficulty, but its balanced and fair gameplay once you learned from your mistakes. That doesn’t really exist here as prominently with the major change to ranged combat. Sure it has the difficulty, but it’s lacking the soul and fun for the most part. This immortal should have stayed chained.

I have to say I went into Hellboy Web of Wyrd with zero expectations, even as a fan of the live action movies. I walked away after playing with the view that it is definitely not a bad title, but it’s not a great one either. The visuals are good, the voice acting is solid, and the gameplay has some merits, although the latter is affected by the rinse and repeat gameplay that does become quite repetitive. If you are looking for something different, or are a fan of that short horned, devilish hero, then it would be worth your time to check out Hellboy Web of Wyrd.

The city of metropolis and the world environment looks amazing and will never let you down. The buildings and islands look great from above and the sun flare effects are a treat as well.

Gameplay is very repetitive, and I’ll be surprised if it’s able to keep your attention for any length of time. The campaign is painful to get through, but luckily you only need to do so once for the unlocks before moving onto Challenge Mode instead. Even so, that won’t last you long unless you want to try and beat your high scores. I wanted to enjoy shooting waves of dinosaurs, but I wasn’t in any way with the weak gunplay, terrible controls and an onset of boredom. Great premise, but no real execution to a simple idea.