Dave Rudden
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.