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EA Sports UFC doesn't cater to button mashers, so be wary if you're not eager to learn an overly-complex control scheme. More technical gamers will be able to appreciate the gameplay to a greater extent, but the laggy servers make even this an exercise in frustration.
A fun action platformer that remains incredibly frustrating by taking a few too many cues from Castlevania's jerkiest moments, Shovel Knight is satisfying and infuriating in equal measure. It's also a damn fine callback to the days of yore in a world where callbacks are a dime a dozen, and rarely this well done.
Despite taking shape as a rather unambitious adventure game, Valiant Hearts: The Great War nonetheless tells a beautiful story of loss and companionship with overwhelmingly evocative success.
Tomodachi Life is a promising concept, and its abstract sense of humor can be very charming. It does, however, get old fast, and you'll find yourself making the characters say lewd things to keep yourself amused.
A solid, accessible city builder, Tropico 5 gets out of the way and lets you have the fun you came for without pissing around in fiddly details.
While its skin-deep qualities suggest something artistic and maybe a little philosophical, this middling arcade game packs not enough wallop to be worth more than a bit of a shrug. While not awful, it's certainly not intriguing enough to maintain interest even in spite of a brief running time.
Murdered: Soul Suspect has some neat concepts, but it is not a success. A few elements of its supernatural murder mystery may hold your interest, but it ultimately feels hollow because it lacks any real challenge or entertainment in solving that mystery.
Cute, and sometimes unnerving, Among the Sleep draws the player to an affecting conclusion, but its banal puzzles and shallow storytelling doesn't do a lot to inspire many thrills.
The story is moved forward, and the quick time events and character development make you wish you could play the concluding episode right now. So, in essence, this episode does its job quite well, I just wish it had more internal resolution.
Polished to a mirror sheen, and bursting with content, Watch Dogs is a great looking game with a thriving open world and an empowering premise. It suffers from being an amalgamation of every other major Ubisoft game, to the point where it doesn't feel as fresh as it deserves to, but it's still a varied, rich, thoroughly dense experience.
Wolfenstein: The New Order doesn't make the most of a highly promising premise, but it provides the baseline of gun-toting freedom fighting that fans expect.
Sometimes frustrating in terms of both gameplay and narrative, Transistor manages to be a redolent title with a ton of imagination. While not quite as clever as its presentation suggests, it's a pretty little title that ends on a beautifully bittersweet note.
The core is the same as ever, but this is kart racing at its finest.
In Harm's Way is one of the most violent installments TellTale's overall series, if only for the disturbing intimacy of it all. At times, Episode 3 is hard to experience, but it's well worth sticking it out.
Warlock 2 offers a lot of options for a fantasy strategy fan, and the Exiled Mode is fun the first time, but there's something missing in the formula to make it a truly memorable game.
I had high hopes for Moebius: Empire Rising, but while it shows early promise it ultimately falls far short of living up to it. I suspect that Jane Jensen has a good story to tell, but this is definitely not the way to go about it.
Bound By Flame would be an immensely likable game, were it not for just how slipshod it ultimately feels. Its individual components are well crafted, but when brought together, the result is something that just isn't quite right.
Outlast: Whistleblower isn't quite as memorable as its parent game, but nonetheless provides plenty of grisly encounters and tells a more complete story.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is serviceable, and serviceable is as good as it gets. Competent, with admirable attempts at original storytelling, this movie tie-in is the perfect example of a middle-ground title.
Predictable, trite, and convoluted, Daylight is more likely to make you yawn than scream. It's every single horror game ever made, and it's less than the sum of its parts.