Steamworld Heist stole my heart. The characters are charming, the combat is addictive, and the Firefly-style adventure made every battle a blast. Besides some annoying instances of post-battle maintenance, I rarely felt the need to power down these robots.
Under its attractively bright and cartoony art style, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 has a great amount of modes and customization options to enjoy, whether alone against the AI or with online allies and enemies. The interesting abilities options of the six new character classes gave me something to sink my teeth into, and the customization options are a great reward for playing outside my comfort zone. The sheer amount of enjoyment in this full garden will keep me in the war for some time to come.
Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris is an excellent action-puzzler adventure, whether you play solo or co-op.
Costume Quest 2 improves on the first's combat and funny campaign, but the health and navigation systems need a revamp.
Worms WMD is a dependable soldier when it comes to laugh-out-loud competitive warfare. It may not have flashy 3D graphics or big-budget actors reenacting huge battles, but its cartoony 2D conflicts are a fun way to test your combat prowess with some weird and wacky weapons.
LEGO Jurassic World's puzzles and combat keep up a great pace that get you past annoyances and back to the fun quickly.
PlanetSide 2's massive-scale multiplayer warfare takes some getting used to, but it's a battle well worth fighting.
Kaimba isn't much to look at, but the clever puzzle-platforming is charming all its own.
WWE 2K15 looks better and hits harder on new-gen, but some key omissions keep it from reaching the main-event.
EA Sports UFC boasts incredibly detailed fighters and great combat. However, this debut effort from a new publisher lacks the single-player balance and the variety of modes that previous UFC games brought to the ring.
Much like you'd see in a seedy 1980s movie, Trials of the Blood Dragon is like a pretty good first hit of a drug. The buzz is short and mostly enjoyable, but it's so different that you might get hooked on the series. It's got a great gateway due to the story's ties to Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, the flashy neon art, the constant pop-culture references, and fantastic techno score. Just realize that the shooting is bad and that you may come down from this high way earlier than you'd expect. But if this is your first Trial, know that there's lots more to consume.
Gauntlet pays faithful homage to the '85 original, but doesn't bring the replay value expected in the post-coin-op era.
Minimum's style is surprisingly engaging, but the imbalanced combat will have you swinging swords or flinging s-words.
Loadout's fast-paced shooting is worth a free download, but you might not want to crack your PSN wallet to progress.
It's a shame that more significant improvements weren't made to Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy Remastered, since playing both sides of a murder conspiracy is still such an interesting concept that's not often done right. However, the frantic button prompts, still-stupid stealth, and newly-introduced glitches make this Remaster way too unrefined.
It's super-fun to swing around New York City in The Amazing Spider-Man 2! Everything else, on the other hand...
It's fun to fight in Risen 3: Titan Lords, but other important elements of the experience fall far short of acceptable.
There are a few notable characters and story beats in Murdered: Soul Suspect, but they're completely overshadowed by unremarkable gameplay and shoddy production values.
A good Transformers game has good transforming and good robot-blasting. Rise of the Dark Spark has neither.
RBI Baseball 15 slightly improves on RBI 14's biggest faults, but game-breaking bugs make us want to charge the mound.