Set a game in a sterile underground facility, give the player physics-based powers and a first-person view, and it can be hard to stand out from the crowd of games inspired by Portal. Make it a tie-in to the Heroes Reborn television series and you're just piling on the red flags.
House of Wolves is a turning point for Destiny, with smart changes that warrant a return even for those that gave up on it.
It would be easy to give Crimes & Punishments the typical "for fans of the genre" recommendation, but I think it aspires to and accomplishes more than that. Sure, it has some rough edges, and not every case is a home run, but the Deduction system makes it all worthwhile.
Hohokum is a delight. I enjoyed it from beginning to end, and plan to go back for every last collectible and trophy, zipping around its colorful world for at least a couple more hours. More importantly it's a real game, with satisfying goals and puzzles to solve.
It asks for the players' money and time, yet they still must create the rewards for themselves. It looks expensive, with decent production values, semi-famous actors, and some real science fact behind the fiction, yet all that work, all that money, and all of your time never truly amounts to anything. We may never solve Kathleen's mystery, but I doubt that's the real tragedy here.
Lovely Planet may go down in history as the most pleasant way to brush up on your FPS skills this side of Portal.
After a few hours I did eventually have my fill of Sixty Second Shooter Prime. I played Geometry Wars for months, but while I enjoy and recommend SSSP, I don't think I'll have the same relationship with it.
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Without a strong setting, characters, or story to hold it all together, Sniper Elite 3 lives and dies on its gameplay mechanics.
Maybe you missed the great games of the 8-bit era, or maybe you're a parent who wants to subject your children to the punishment of Castlevania, Battletoads, and Mega Man that you went through. For you, I think Shovel Knight goes beyond being a polished, fun, challenging experience. It's a curation of gaming history in a package that's palatable to today's audience.