Dead or Alive 5: Last Round gives Steam users a new and complex fighting game to add to their libraries, but the abysmal online play limits the fun and lasting appeal.
Star Wars: Battlefront is a decent shooter that injects a handful of gimmicks to keep the gameplay interesting. However a lack of variety in the maps, game modes, guns, and character development prevents the game from reaching its potential.
Transformers: Devastation plays it safe when compared with other Platinum Games titles. It borrows and streamlines gameplay mechanics from other games, but makes the experience satisfying nonetheless.
Armello oozes charm, and its myriad gameplay systems keep you busy for hours, but it relies too much on luck to keep things interesting.
One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 delivers absurd action and offers hours of replayable content, but drops the ball with its botched PC transition and lack of online multiplayer.
Onechanbara Z2: Chaos offers up a campy, but repetitive monster-slaying bloodbath. Gameplay is straightforward enough to allow button mashing, but the underlying systems give action game fans something more substantial to sink their teeth into.
High-flying martial arts action, excellent art, and years of polish and content updates make Blade & Soul's Western launch well worth the wait.
Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition revitalizes Capcom's stylish action series by adding new playable characters with unique gameplay mechanics.
The combination of satisfying combat, excellent story, and open-world exploration makes The Witcher 3 the best in the series, and one of the best games released this year.
Ys VI is a simple, energetic, and unrelenting action-RPG that keeps you hacking and slashing the whole way through.
Mario Party 10 tightens and polishes the series' mini-game shenanigans and introduces new game modes, for better and for worse.
The Crew is an overenthusiastic attempt at marrying racing gameplay and multiplayer to a massive open-world driving map. Unfortunately, repetitive missions, cheap AI, and poor balancing hold the game back from greatness despite its impressive and detailed world.
Bloodborne changes up the "Souls" formula radically with faster and more aggressive combat. The Lovecraftian horror and Victorian setting only add to the charm. One of the best PS4 releases to date.
Iron From Ice, the first chapter in Telltale Games's Game of Thrones series, lays down a great foundation. The presentation suffers from weak visuals, but the story scenarios, intense rhetorical dueling, and dynamic protagonist perspectives recreate a world rich with intrigue and drama.
Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham delivers exactly what you would expect from a Lego game: simple combat, light-hearted storytelling, and lots of smashing and collecting. Some rough edges sully the overall enjoyment, however.
Featuring the unlikely adventurers Toad and Toadette, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker takes the Captain Toad concept from Super Mario 3D World and runs with it, resulting in a gorgeous and utterly charming puzzle-platformer.
Ubisoft makes some good changes to its Assassin's Creed formula with Unity, but the game is doomed to mediocrity due to its lack of polish and originality.
Dark Souls II ends in an icy bang with the Crown of the Ivory King DLC. Despite a few weaknesses, the scenario in the frozen city of Eleum Loyce is fun, challenging, and thoroughly rewarding.
Wasteland 2 is a wonderful post-apocalyptic classic RPG romp through the radioactive dunes of Arizona and California. The game is unabashedly old school with its lack of hand-holding and harsh scenarios.
The Steam version of Final Fantasy III offers plenty of old-school charm, but there are better versions out there.