As much as it pains me to say this, THQ needs to put this series out to pasture. The franchise has been steadily declining since Pandemic let go of the reigns. Unless they're willing to really concentrate on making a quality game worthy of the "next gen" tag, I think it's time for Crypto to phone home.

From its abysmal combat to its shoddy randomly generated dungeon, I really could not stop playing “I Can’t Escape: Darkness” fast enough. I’m sure there are some masochists out there that enjoy this sort of game, but I’m certainly not one of them.

Pumped BMX + had the potential to be a solid recommendation, but it’s frustrating design and lack of fun really drag it down. I have no problem with mobile games getting the port to consoles; I just expect them to receive some care to make that port worthwhile.

With generic platforming and a generally unpolished feel, the novelty wears off quickly, and Fractured Soul is best left out in space.

The game as-is delivers a heavy dose of boredom, and it's too bad the real challenge is in finding the fun.

On the surface it appears to have little to do with the original, but the story does reveal some threads The bad thing is the combat and levels just feel so frustrating and difficult that most players will never even get to see any of it. This game didn’t make me feel like a “killing machine” with its clunky combat and constant difficulty spikes. I don’t know who this one is for, I just know it isn’t me.

For $10 it is sometimes hard to critique a game too much, but in the case of Fireburst there is just nothing here to warrant a purchase. The floaty controls kill the fun, the annoying characters force me to mute and the broken mechanics siphon the fun out of what should be a killer concept. Factor in that no one is online playing it and you have an experience not worth having.

Star Trek: The Video Game is as generic as the name implies. I spent more time wondering why I was doing the things I was doing, instead of just enjoying them. Hardcore fans of the series would be advised to wait until the game hits a massive sale, and you have someone else to play it with. Setting expectations low is a must to enjoy what is offered here.

As it stands, LI:39 is only for the utmost curious and those that want to test their patience.

For the same price there are much more enjoyable games to be had, and this one is best left in the abyss.

Dex just never stood out enough for me. The generic and clichéd story left me cold, and the technical issues made the game hard to like. However, it is worth noting that the various performance issues I encountered on the Xbox One were not present on the PC version. So if you feel like you need to check Dex out and have the ability to do so, get it on PC. It doesn’t differ much in general, but at least it will be slightly more pleasant to play.

The original game is still more complete, and more fun, than the 3DS version, and it is 15 years old.

Magical Drop V had a lot of promise. With a simple mechanic of matching three orbs to clear a board, you wouldn't think the developers could mess that up, somehow, they did. The AI is all over the place, with frustratingly hard difficulties to laughably stupid, easy difficulties. The online play would have been great if it weren't for the bad lag, and the game in and of itself would have been a really fun time if it hadn't been so sluggishly implemented.

So, there you have it, yet another TMNT experience that can’t break the curse of being a bad game.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified was supposed to be THE Vita game. This was a system seller, and one that would forever showcase just how hardcore the PS Vita was in the handheld scene. Unfortunately, what we ended up with is a watered-down, uninteresting version of CoD that feels almost like a cheap knock-off of the series. I cannot recommend this game for Vita owners with so much other quality software dropping in the last month. Shooter fans continue to hold out, Declassified is not the shooter that will define the PS Vita… at least not in the way Sony hopes.

Vampire Rain: Altered Species has a lot working against it. Substandard AI, deficient visuals, exasperating difficulty and a host of other problems that make you wonder how much effort and care was actually poured into the game.

Overall the PlayStation 2 version of PDC World Championship Darts is by far the worst of the bunch.

The location feels claustrophobic, the camera system is atrocious and the act of torturing cuddly bears is simply not as enjoyable as it should be. The game suffers what I like to call "Fairytale Fights Syndrome" or "FFS" for short, where the idea is brilliant on paper, but fails miserably in execution.

Ultimately this “remaster” feels pointless, but due to the glaring issues this release has I’m not interested in playing further. I was going to hook up my 360 to compare to the original console release as well but I’m not very much interested in making my short time spent with this remaster feel worse. If this is the only way one can play Sacred 2 it may be worth it, but for people like myself who have any other option this is still a pass nearly 4 months later. Oof.

Takedown: Red Sabre sums up the fears of every Kickstarter backer: that in the end they’ll have paid up front for something that doesn’t turn out very good. With clumsy presentation and wildly uneven difficulty, the game fails to be a competent FPS, much less a tactical one. The best advice I can give is to avoid it, which is little solace for those who backed it in the first place.

On the surface WRC 8 would look like a game made for rally fans, but it misses the mark by miles and with there being so many other fantastic rally and racing games already out there to choose from, I can only recommend that you go looking elsewhere.

I really feel like Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire had the potential to be a charming and engaging RPG, but it falls short in many areas which keeps it from getting airborne. The clunky controls, repetitive gameplay and numerous tech issues make it a really frustrating experience rather than an enjoyable one. Don’t be tricked by the fantastic ‘Studio Ghibli’ visuals because sadly its all smoke and mirrors with this one; the visual design just isn’t enough to save this game.

By the way, the first half of this game is the anime portion. The second half is locked behind finishing the first half and is a new story made for the game where you create your own character and level up and is probably more like the game I thought I was getting. I have heard this second half is decent but I’m not going to slog through this mess to unlock it while listening to the two characters repeat the same lines over and over and over again. I could turn off the voices but that means I turn it off even for the story beats which defeats the point entirely. An update that unlocks that second mode automatically would maybe get me to rethink my score but what this is now, I wouldn’t even tell fans of the show to play it.

Avoid this one, even if you are a die hard LotR fan.

I turned the game off with a One Way Trip to the delete key. I appreciate what they were going for here, but it wasn’t for me in the slightest.

NBA Live 14 is a hot mess.

I Am Bread seems to have been developed for crazy people, or for those that hate themselves. Sure, there is a challenge to be found here, but the rewards don’t justify the means. It simply doesn’t compare to its peers. It has none of Octodad’s humour and none of Surgeon Simulator’s irony.

With no end game and very slow mechanics due to the game’s reliance on microtransactions it feels like nothing more than a cash grab.