Players who prefer to control a single character will happily dive deep into the whirlpool of daily grind. The rest will face a classic dilemma: stellar career or domestic bliss.

Gray Matter makes the most of its small scale. There are no mad supervillains, and no one here wants to plunge the world in the eternal darkness. This is a convincing, emotionally mature story about grief, estrangement, and longing to be with a beloved person.

Once again, Gameloft made a compilation of the best moments from other studios' first-person shooters.

Hunters is a good strategy game, but this jewel needs a good setting. Rodeo Games doesn't have to create something epic like X-COM or Jagged Alliance 2, but it would be nice to see a captivating campaign that takes more than 3 hours to finish it. With a multiplayer cherry on top.

Army of Two: The 40th Day is a wild mix of brilliant thoughts, violent firefights, stolen ideas, and lazy design.

Army of Two: The 40th Day is a wild mix of brilliant thoughts, violent firefights, stolen ideas, and lazy design.

You can’t deny the fact: Torchlight is a Diablo clone to the backbone. It lacks imagination and fresh ideas, but it’s a clone done well, with extra care for people’s time and nerves. And that’s worth a lot.

Konami still haven't figured out how serious and realistic they wanted their game to be, and made some silly mistakes. PES 2011 has occasional strokes of genius, and they really push the series forward… But it's not worthy of a gold medal yet.

Crytek's motto is "Maximum Game". Alas, Crysis 2 is anything but. Well, it happens when you activate the "Maximum Profit" mode instead of "Maximum Creativity".

Distinctive games like E.Y.E. are a rarity these days. Its colorful characters, good dialogue, entertaining non-linear story, and multiple ways to develop the main characters are enough to offset the shortcomings.

Payday is already better than other low-budget multiplayer shooters (Lead and Gold, Killing Floor). It serves as a nice distraction after a hard day's work.

If it weren't for some very unfortunate flaws, Fallen Enchantress would have been a great game.

Red Alert 3 is a typical EA product: well-crafted, but boring for experienced players. It's clearly better than C&C 3, but it can't hold a candle to Red Alert 2. Pick it up only if you like great music, B-movie style humor, and cooperative multiplayer.

I could give Resistance 2 complete absolution if it had truly spectacular gameplay. It's a pity it doesn’t. Insomniac simply built a scenic railway from point A to point B, put stunning CGI videos here and there, and rested.

If you can forgive plot holes, awkward save system and unstable multiplayer, you will enjoy Bionic Commando.

If you like designing interiors, Hotel Giant 2 will entertain you for hours. Too bad there is nothing else to do but to put overpriced items in rooms.

The brisk single-player campaign is reason enough to overlook the boring cooperative multiplayer. Unfortunately, the lack of blood, same-looking environments, and cheap-looking comic strips let it down.

All quests, both main and optional, are simple "fetch" tasks. Once in a while, the developers break the routine with forced stealth sequences, but they're not really entertaining – you'll have to crawl through the same corridors five times in a row.

Sengoku offers only political intrigue. You set up a trap, fast-forward time until it springs, reap the fruits of our trickery, then rinse and repeat until you win. And if you're not well-versed in the history of Medieval Japan… well, good luck.

This cute platformer is worth a look regardless of your taste in music.

Rich atmosphere compensates for poor gameplay mechanics of The Walking Dead.

If only Brutal Legend's gameplay was as imaginative as its cool look! Try not to fall into a rut of side-missions spread over 64 square kilometers, and you’ll enjoy the short single-player campaign. And yet, Shafer & Co. can do much better than this. Just ask Ben, Manny, or Raz.

If only Brutal Legend's gameplay was as imaginative as its cool look! Try not to fall into a rut of side-missions spread over 64 square kilometers, and you’ll enjoy the short single-player campaign. And yet, Shafer & Co. can do much better than this. Just ask Ben, Manny, or Raz.

BioShock 2 is a sequel inspired not by the Muses, but by quarterly financial reports.

War for Cybertron is a huge leap forward compared to previous Transformers games.

Halo: Reach is not a breakthrough, yet it's a clear showcase of Bungie's creative growth. The game is hardly a "must buy" – its single-player campaign is way too short and uneven in quality, while multiplayer has very little room for expansion besides map packs and useless character decorations. But with that said, Reach is worthy of your attention for a couple of evenings.

This update of the FIFA series on PC is far what it was promised to be. It's not the soccer that we see in life and on TV, but a tedious arcade wrapped in boring gameplay modes and half-baked engine. Only the online features save FIFA 11 from utter mediocrity.

A meditative, unworldly, overly formulaic shoot 'em up. It won't keep you occupied for hours, but it's nice enough to help you kill time until Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet arrives.

SEGA could have used its money and influence to elevate Virtua Tennis to the level of EA's FIFA franchise, but, judging by the lack of tangible progress in this installment, I guess SEGA just doesn't care.

From Dust feels not as a game, but as a humble experiment. It's almost like Ubisoft is testing the waters before diving in.

Even with all its flaws, Nuclear Dawn is a treat for those who wanted a decent FPS/RTS hybrid.

Remedy loves to compare its game with television hits like Heroes and Lost, but if you look at gameplay rather than story, it becomes clear that Alan Wake is not a “complete first season on DVD”. It is more like an unbearably long pilot episode that gave all its cards away well before the third act. Judging by the final titles, Alan Wake’s journey through the night will continue (in fact, two DLCs are already shooting for your wallet), so it’s high time to switch gears and introduce new ideas.

Akella, Russian distributor of the game, pulled a crazy marketing stunt. In addition to the regular PC release, it sells the game as two independent halves – Escape from Butcher Bay and Assault on Dark Athena. My gut reaction was to scold Akella for greediness, but now I see that this is an unintentional benefit. You buy the remake of one of the best action games of 2004, and forget about its defective 6-hour appendage.

Akella, Russian distributor of the game, pulled a crazy marketing stunt. In addition to the regular PC release, it sells the game as two independent halves – Escape from Butcher Bay and Assault on Dark Athena. My gut reaction was to scold Akella for greediness, but now I see that this is an unintentional benefit. You buy the remake of one of the best action games of 2004, and forget about its defective 6-hour appendage.

Zero - that's how many fresh ideas Killzone 2 brings to the table. Had it been released alongside Soldier of Fortune or Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, it would have made a big fuss. Today, after Call of Duty 4, Gears of War 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode Two, its gameplay looks weak. Very few enemy variations, cliched situations repeat over and over again, and there is not enough story to fill a Saturday morning cartoon.

The pace of this game is laid-back even by the standards of the 4X strategy genre. Most people will hate it for being obscure and boring, while orientalists and fans of leisurely 4X games will be playing it non-stop. In any case, it's hard to treat RotK XI with indifference.

Changes to the formula are so light that one can’t help but wonder what prevented PopCap Games from making a patch for the original game. The answer to this question is on the price tag.

Each new product from Eagle Dynamics is one step closer to full-fledged training software, but game simulators are judged not only by their degree of realism. Eye appeal and diversity never hurt anyone.

Akella, Russian distributor of the game, pulled a crazy marketing stunt. In addition to the regular PC release, it sells the game as two independent halves – Escape from Butcher Bay and Assault on Dark Athena. My gut reaction was to scold Akella for greediness, but now I see that this is an unintentional benefit. You buy the remake of one of the best action games of 2004, and forget about its defective 6-hour appendage.

Warfare is a flawed game, yet it will go down in history as the best offering from the late GFI Russia. At least it's not a boring pseudo-realistic strategy crawling with bugs, like their previous efforts, but a solid, interesting and even somewhat charming game. Too bad it's not about Russians.

Emerald City Confidential is a good-looking, atmospheric, light-hearted fairytale with stellar writing, perhaps even too stellar for a casual game.

Excellent helicopter controls and highly polished code are, unfortunately, the only things that put Just Cause 2 above the other GTA clones. If you’re in the mood for silly fun, the game’s simple “jump-shoot-explode” routine will be more than enough, but it could have been much more than that.

Order of War doesn’t require superhuman reflexes, leaving you enough time to plan your strategy, type a message in the text chat window, play about with the “cinematic camera” and so on. It looks like nobody at Wargaming believed in the multiplayer mode, but in the end it is more compelling than the single-player campaigns. All in all, Order of War is an outlet for experienced players and an object of derision for juvenile “hardcore gamers”.

The first Supreme Commander was unique even despite its problems. The sequel turned into a “just another RTS” with a couple of nifty ideas and flawed balance.

Point Lookout is a miniature copy of Fallout 3. Alas, just like the original game, the wrapping is much better than the contents, but even this result is a great achievement for Bethesda Softworks. Not only they managed to produce a decent expansion, but finally added their own ideas to the legendary post-apocalyptic universe instead of ripping off stories about supermutants and The Brotherhood of Steel.

Point Lookout is a miniature copy of Fallout 3. Alas, just like the original game, the wrapping is much better than the contents, but even this result is a great achievement for Bethesda Softworks. Not only they managed to produce a decent expansion, but finally added their own ideas to the legendary post-apocalyptic universe instead of ripping off stories about supermutants and The Brotherhood of Steel.

A compelling cooperative mode instead of a brainless mayhem is what Madballs needs. But even in the current form, it is way ahead of its rivals.

A fun racing game if you have family or friends to play it with.

To avoid the risks while working on an expensive next-gen sequel to Resident Evil 4, Capcom recycled the previous game. The developers moved the action from Spain to Africa, replaced Leon Kennedy with Chris Redfield, brought back Albert “Duke Nukem” Wesker as the main baddie, added co-op, and rested. Look past the pretty graphics, and you will see a shameless clone.

To avoid the risks while working on an expensive next-gen sequel to Resident Evil 4, Capcom recycled the previous game. The developers moved the action from Spain to Africa, replaced Leon Kennedy with Chris Redfield, brought back Albert “Duke Nukem” Wesker as the main baddie, added co-op, and rested. Look past the pretty graphics, and you will see a shameless clone.

Absolute Power is made for those who loves the original Tropico 3. The developers didn't want to shake foundations, but it doesn't mean that this expansion is not worth its $19.99.

There are some nice things to be done in the HD version of The Second Encounter: set new high scores in the endless Survival mode, take part in two-team matches or play cooperatively with four or five cutthroats like yourself. But as for the single-player campaign, it's better to set it aside… forever.

Outdated visuals and a few necessary simplifications can't take away the joy of playing this original, amazingly solid game.

Lesta Studio created a decent RTS game, but, alas, Elements of War is far from the major league. Pure enthusiasm is not enough to take on World in Conflict; you'd also need exceptional talent and a serious budget.

This NFS/Burnout hybrid reminds me of Split/Second – it is simple, fast, spectacular, and lasts a week at best.

TDU 2, like its predecessor, is a very self-absorbed and meditative game. It doesn't force you to dash through all the championships, to fly to the final race... But there comes an inevitable moment when you start pondering what to do next. All tasks have been completed, all cars have been tested, and you're the best in your club... And that's it?

The new playable race and nifty multiplayer additions compensate for the disappointingly short, boring campaigns.

It's impossible to take Anomaly: Warzone Earth seriously. It's a distraction for a couple of evenings at best, and I wish it had more emphasis on interesting gameplay modes than superfluous radio chatter. Alas, as soon you move on to skirmish battles, the game quickly loses its sparkle.

With Fire and Sword is a definite purchase if you want to play Warband's multiplayer with a Ukrainian flavor.

Honest Hearts proves once again that Obsidian is more experienced than Bethesda when it comes to DLCs.

It's hard to judge The First Templar by the usual standards, since almost everything here has two sides. Fairly good story, but dated graphics. Interesting combat system – annoying stealth sequences. Big levels – linear corridors. But ultimately, you will be remembering these 10 hours of non-stop swashbuckling with a smile on your face.

inFamous 2 is so derivative that "2" in its title should have been an exponent. This game navigates the sea of superhero clichés as easily as Cole McGrath slides on tram cables.

Frozen Synapse is no rival to full-fledged tactical strategy games, but it's an ideal time-killer for a lunch break.

Tropico 4 is hardly a full-fledged sequel; it's more of an expansion – utterly derivative, but well-polished – that got its number somewhere in the marketing department.

Shooters like Serious Sam and Painkiller are hard to come by these days. Yes, Hard Reset is full of plot holes, the ending is too silly even for a pulp paperback novel, and there is no blood and flesh – only gear-wheels and oil. But even will all of this, Hard Reset is fun enough if you want to just blow off some steam.

Despite a few old-fashioned quirks, Red Orchestra 2 is fun to play. Clean up the bugs, and it will become a nice middle ground for those who are tired of Battlefield, but couldn't fall in love with ArmA.

Copy-pasted decks and bays, as well as backtrack-heavy mission objectives will test your patience. This DLC adds nothing to the main storyline; it simply demonstrates the atrocities committed by Belltower in the name of surplus profit.

This incarnation of Pets is mostly retread of what was introduced in animal-themed expansions for The Sims 1 and 2. The developers simply expanded on some ideas and trimmed a few annoying shortcomings.

Volition wrote a more or less coherent story, squeezed 101% out of the "sandbox minigame compilation" concept, improved the physics engine, and finally made a decent PC version, but the end result feels too derivative and forced. The surprisingly short single-player campaign (15 hours if you're not trying to comb an entire map) doesn't help.

Infinity Blade 2 is akin to a game of chess where the player is taking down enemy pieces one by one. This time, we can move around the board both vertically and diagonally, and getting to the end-play will take you more than 90 minutes. Alas, the formula is still too simple, and Chair will have to do something about that in the inevitable Infinity Blade 3.

An enjoyable and, dare I say, cozy game, even though it has neither flashy graphics, nor innovative gameplay ideas, nor much variety.

By switching their attention to the story and the overall atmosphere, the developers lost sight of what had made the first King Arthur so fun. Technically, the sequel has everything a good strategy "sandbox" should have: dozens of units, a huge map, and the diplomacy system. The only thing missing is the sandbox itself.

London 2012 is almost an exemplary sports compilation – nice-looking, somewhat challenging, with a good selection of disciplines.

A solid, but all in all cookie-cutter adventure game.

If Cannon Fodder 3 had been released a decade ago, it would have become a cult hit. Now, it's a just a decent old-school arcade game.

Revolution is not without its flaws, but you can live with them, because finally, this is a real successor to Worms World Party.

Moore and Gibbons bestowed Watchmen with incredibly rich atmosphere, but you can’t make a masterpiece out of atmosphere alone. Too little of everything. Too monotonous. Too unoriginal.

Adrenaline-filled, lightning-fast battles are so exciting that I'm willing to forgive Bayonetta for its clumsy, clichéd storyline, awkward camera and dubious soundtrack. The only thing that’s beyond forgiveness is horrendous quality of the PS3 port.

Colorful vistas and ear-pleasing music are the few things that bring Drakensang closer to its eminent North American brethren. Alas, it is not enough for a good game, especially the one that wants to become the RPG of the year and gain a cult following. One would need talented writers and interesting game design for that.

By opting not to use the comprehensive ratings system from Trials 2, RedLynx drastically shortened the lifespan of Monster Trucks Nitro.

In the attempt to capture the feel of a Hollywood movie, the developers went so far that they completely turned Call of Duty into a mindless run from one objective marker to another. There is a mediocre on-rails shooter under all these blurry visual effects and nice music, a game no better than Secret Service or Code of Honor 3. It just looks and sounds nicer than its low-budget brethren. Multiplayer is the only worthy thing about Modern Warfare 2.

MAG is a multiplayer game to the core. It doesn’t have a single-player campaign, scripted sequences or AI-controlled bots – only online battles and nothing mode. In the times, when Battlefield and Unreal Tournament feature storylines, cinematics and dialogue, Zipper’s creation feels like the last of the Mohicans. But the lack of a story is not what killed MAG. The concept, the release time frame and the rivals did.

Shank may sound like the best game in the world, but in reality all its virtues are undermined by a fatal flaw – it's way too simple.

Theatre of War 3: Korea brings a welcome change of scenery to the series, but the boring strategic mode is a poor replacement for the traditional single-player campaign.

Compared to other Sims spin-offs, The Sims Medieval is a bold game. But once you complete your first playthrough, you will hardly crave for a second helping.

It's pretty obvious that a lot of effort went into making of this game, but hold off going to the war in the North until you run out of other, more interesting RPGs and coop-oriented action games.

FIFA Manager finally made an effort to combat stagnation. Now Bright Future needs to rewrite the game's flawed 3D engine to give Sports Interactive a run for their money.

Angry Birds Space introduces enough changes to avoid being called stale, but, ultimately, it's more of the same.

Blades of Time is a step forward compared to X-Blades, Gaijin Entertainment's previous offering. Alas, the hack and slash action is too monotonous to enjoy, and there is nothing else to draw you in.

Outdated visuals, sloppy innovations, dead multiplayer… no, that’s not the way to continue a great series.

Conviction is just a casual-oriented actioneer with simplistic gameplay mechanic and big-budget production values.

Outdated visuals, sloppy innovations, dead multiplayer… no, that’s not the way to continue a great series.

Looks like Bound in Blood is bound for the bargain bin. The six-hour single-player campaign and stock multiplayer modes are so forgettable that one can’t help but wonder what a true sequel to the original Call of Juarez could have been like. At any rate, it would have turned out better than a forced prequel.

Not giving a damn about sponsors and marketing, Pierre Gilhodes made Gobliiins 4 almost single-handedly. A classy, but ill-advised deed, because there was no one to tell him that horrible-looking 3D scares people even faster than pixelized sprites. That autosave-only policy is an insult to PC gamers. That even a puzzle game should have a coherent story.

Despite the amazing scope and intensity of the battles (during the Omaha Beach offensive I’ve burnt 750 German tanks and killed 17500 soldiers), there will come an inevitable moment when Officers becomes boring and turns into Blitzkrieg 2 on steroids.

Despite its shortcomings, the game is enthralling. The excitement of progress – you want to be faster and more powerful than the rest. Colony expansion brings money, new expenses and a truckload of problems. The interface is not easy to get used to, but still, all information is neatly organized, and key tools are always at hand. Light of Altair is a spiritual younger sister of more popular 4X strategy games, it just has less “X”s.

Chinatown Wars is not an evolution, but a step back. The same city, the same gameplay, the almost forgotten top-down camera angle, cardboard clichés starring as main characters. This is the first GTA game that I didn’t want to explore.

Nation Red is not as simplistic as Legion of Man, DiezelPower’s previous creation, but it’s still dull and unimpressive.

The Dragon Knight Saga is a rare game that received massive fixes not from desperate fans, but from the developers themselves. The decent expansion pack improves things as well.

DeathSpank has stylish "paper cut-outs" as characters and scenery (which are especially impressive at a full HD resolution on PC), sharp dialogue, and nice music – it only needs thought-out gameplay to succeed. The game is hardly worth a second playthrough, and that's a death warrant for any aspiring Diablo clone.

The adventures in the lifeless town are long and at times boring, but you will get your $10 worth of entertainment.

Dungeon Siege 3, just as Obsidian's previous game, Alpha Protocol, is an RPG that adds absolutely nothing to the genre.

This decent strategy game is bogged down by lots of aggravating mistakes that stem from Colossai's lack of experience with the genre.

Majesty without a random map generator is like a chicken without a head. I understand that I shouldn't ask too much from a $2,99 title, but randomness is one of the things that make the original Majesty so fun and addictive even today.

KTX Software has to draw people's attention to Haunted's original multiplayer modes, otherwise the game's already humble potential will be lost in brainless monster-bashing matches.

Enjoyable single-player campaign, fast and fun multiplayer skirmishes, great eye-candy… It's a pity that the game is so skimpy on the content. It'll take you just a couple of days to thoroughly explore Oil Rush.

I'm sure that for some of you this product will be more than enough to kill some time after a hard day's work, to meet up with your friends online, to drown in nostalgia, reminiscing about great action/RPGs of yore... Yet it's a Blizzard game we're talking about, and, as such, it was expected to be better than just a rehash of old ideas. Instead of bringing the genre to the next step of its evolution, Diablo 3 dwells on the past.

Modern Times is a good excuse to return to the familiar world of Tropico, but, frankly, the game has almost outstayed its welcome.

Burnout CRASH! is just a silly mess of fire, numbers and wrecked cars.

The game's endearing visual style and amusing (albeit clichéd) story are let down by the overall laziness of its creators.

You squeeze a laugh or two from Precipice of Darkness 3, but why putting up with the boring gameplay and ancient visuals when you just go and read a fresh comic strip by Penny Arcade?

It is almost a masterpiece and a horrifying example of bad Japanese game design at the same time. But, if you want to be challenged, get Dark Souls, and you will discover a very captivating RPG.

PES 2013 continues the course that Konami charted three years ago. It's more confident, makes less mistakes, but still, it lost the final battle for soccer domination in this generation of gaming platforms.

It is sad to see so many good ideas killed by their implementation.

If you're still not tired of WWII-themed RTS games, give R.U.S.E. a chance. It's a nice alternative to Order of War, but don't expect it to dethrone Company of Heroes.

The single-player campaign is poorly balanced and very short, but, since Castle Crashers never materialized on PC, Magicka is the next best alternative. It is fun enough to last a couple of evenings, but doesn't have a lasting appeal.

Infinity Blade as it stands now is simply an intriguing test of a very promising technology. I'm not sure that you'll get your $6 of fun from Infinity Blade, but if you want to impress your friends, this is the app to buy.

Red River is not a rival to modern high-budget, high-tech blockbusters. It looks worse than Modern Warfare 2 or Black Ops, and you can't destroy the environment like in Battlefield: Bad Company. But, compared to its overly serious predecessor, this game is a real gift.

Looks like Codemasters really struggled with DiRT 3, piece by piece cutting everything that could have saved this game from going off the cliff.

Shadowgun mimics Gears of War so closely that if it were published on consoles, it would have been immediately branded as a desperate knock-off.

Weak intrigue is a traditional soft spot of the Blackwell adventure games. The investigation is predictable, and all of our burning questions are answered in such a dull, ridiculous manner that all build up flies out the window.

Repetitive levels, same-looking explosions and faked car damage kill all the fun.

Iron Brigade could have become an alternative to Dungeon Defenders, if not for annoying bugs, blurry graphics and very low difficulty that kill most of the fun.

The first fruit of Zynga's "new model of partnership" really shows what modern mobile devices are capable of, but as far as the gameplay goes, the world of Horn is empty and lacks fresh ideas.

Terminal Reality did well to capture the atmosphere of both Ghostbusters movies, but failed to include captivating gameplay. On the other hand, it’s way better than the Riddick game sequel from the same publisher.

Even if you turn a blind eye to simplistic puzzles and short gameplay, or squint at the scenes lifted from classic LucasArts adventures, you will still have a hard time enjoying Ceville.

The most shocking surprise in Black Ops is a full version of the classic text adventure Zork: The Great Underground Empire, hidden deep in the CIA computer. The game that 30 years ago created an entire genre and stood at the very frontier of electronic entertainment, is now embedded in a derivative, formulaic, overwhelmingly linear shooter. I imagine that this irony is lost on Treyarch.

Look past the glitz of technical achievements, richly designed sets, ostensibly interactive environments, and you will see the real L.A. Noire – a vapid adventure with a hole-ridden plot, a boring unsympathetic hero, and rough stitches in places where content should be.

Look past the glitz of technical achievements, richly designed sets, ostensibly interactive environments, and you will see the real L.A. Noire – a vapid adventure with a hole-ridden plot, a boring unsympathetic hero, and rough stitches in places where content should be.

Borderlands 2 is awfully simplistic as a first-person shooter, and it's not deep enough for an action/RPG game.

Conviction is just a casual-oriented actioneer with simplistic gameplay mechanic and big-budget production values.

By changing the setting in Call of Duty 4, Infinity Ward saved the series from stagnation. World at War is a step back. WWII has been done to death, and even the Pacific campaign feels like a retread of Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault.

Don’t look for great accomplishments and fresh ideas in Flock!. It’s foolish to expect something revolutionary from critters that gave rise to the word “mutton-head”.

Right now Demigod is a source of constant annoyance. In multiplayer, one normal session is usually followed by three horrible ones. In skirmish, stupid bots are boring to tears. Even if Gas Powered Games and Stardock eventually manage to revive Demigod, it won’t erase our memories of this involuntary beta testing.

If you don’t have access to PlayStation Network or you have no one to play it with, Fireteam Bravo 3 is a waste of money. The game’s single-player campaign reminds of age-old Spec Ops and Conflict series and is basically a complimentary bonus to the multiplayer mode. And the latter is a solid contender for the title of “portable Counter-Strike”.

The fatal flaws of Dante’s Inferno are not even its dated graphics or depressing lack of originality. It’s monotony and endless repetition that will drive you nuts.

The fatal flaws of Dante’s Inferno are not even its dated graphics or depressing lack of originality. It’s monotony and endless repetition that will drive you nuts.

"Unpolished" – this word describes every facet of Armada 2526. Why bother playing this game when we already have the brilliant Galactic Civilizations 2?

Even the so-called "hardcore" games should be fun to play, but Geo-Political Simulator 2 is too stodgy to let you have any.

The Russian subtitle of this game is "At Twilight", and it gives a pretty clear idea of where EA was going with Late Night. If you're not into vampires and are not in a hurry to leave the suburbs, you won't miss this expansion at all.

Mildly realistic combat and addictive RPG elements put Lionheart above Crusaders and XIII Century. Unfortunately, the lack of a strategic mode and technical glitches are serious turn-offs that won't stop only the hardened fans of the Crusades epoch.

A surprisingly well-made platformer, albeit simple and extremely short.

Supreme Ruler: Cold War can quickly become a chore, despite the amount of detail that went into this game.

It's a modern fairytale with a muddled story, flawed logic and ho-hum graphics. Sometimes the entire thing feels hollow-hearted, but, thankfully, it's not as disappointing as was The Whispered World.

Dead Island is yet another tombstone upon a grave of excessive ambitions. Our condolences to those who fell for that excellent cinematic trailer – it has nothing to do with the actual game.

Pro Evolution Soccer is like Kaka – in mid-noughties it was cherished and loved, but today it's just a pale shadow of its old glorious self.

Here is hoping that Paradox will fix the bugs, iron out the glitchy AI, and add more multiplayer modes. And if not… well, Defenders of Ardania will not be the first game with a great concept to get crushed under an avalanche of flaws.

An urban version of Split/Second from the creators of FlatOut. This sentence evokes two distinctly different feelings, depending on when you read it, before or after playing Ridge Racer Unbounded.

A Valley Without End is your typical ugly duckling; an intriguing concept marred by shoddy execution. It's worth a brief look just to see how they managed to mix all these genres, but not exciting enough to play it.

A relatively successful attempt to liven up a (still) mediocre game.

Close Quarters was definitely made for fans of Call of Duty – it offers everything that Modern Warfare had from the beginning. Smart tactics is thrown out the window and replaced by confined spaces and fast-paced shootouts.

Remove the original premise and beautiful sand-swept skyscrapers of Dubai, and all that remains is a humdrum TPS with Marcus Fenix's DNA at its core.

Autumn Dynasty is a bright spot in a sea of faceless tower defense clones, but it doesn't hold up when compared to a decent RTS game. Everything is too predictable and simple.

War of the Roses is a good base to build upon in future installments, but until then, Mount & Blade has nothing to worry about.

Four years is a long time. The once humdrum, but spectacular console slasher is now a humdrum, plain-looking PC game.

The subtitle is the weakest part of Need for Speed: Most Wanted, because it invites comparisons. That's when you realize that the new game is a step down from its 3- and 7-years old predecessors.

Lacking innovations and overly simplistic, Hell & Damnation is still much better than other Painkiller games – the abominable Redemption, Resurrection, and Recurring Evil.

Alcachofa Soft managed to produce only a half of a potentially great adventure. And I mean it literally - the two opening chapters are so different than the last two that you won’t believe your eyes.

G-Force lacks in character and originality, but gadgets, robomonsters and nice little details make up for a nice pastime.

DeathSpank has stylish "paper cut-outs" as characters and scenery (which are especially impressive at a full HD resolution on PC), sharp dialogue, and nice music – it only needs thought-out gameplay to succeed. The game is hardly worth a second playthrough, and that's a death warrant for any aspiring Diablo clone.

DeathSpank has stylish "paper cut-outs" as characters and scenery (which are especially impressive at a full HD resolution on PC), sharp dialogue, and nice music – it only needs thought-out gameplay to succeed. The game is hardly worth a second playthrough, and that's a death warrant for any aspiring Diablo clone.

It's a pity that Monday Night Combat is not good enough to serve as an alternative to Team Fortress 2.

Syndicate is amazingly dull and thoughtless for a game where you can kill people with your brain.

All the sore spots that we hated in Sacred Underworld have found a new home in the sequel. Take any modern MMORPG, and it will offer you all the same things as Sacred 2: rudimentary story, copy/pasted quests, constant grinding. And much more than that.

Frequent boss fights, excellent cinematics and great animation keep you glued to the screen for the first thirty minutes. Alas, oversized bugs which use the same attacks over and over, tiresome QTE sequences, useless combos and weapon upgrades will get under your skin.

There is a slim chance that Fatshark will eventually manage to fill Lead and Gold with content, like Valve did with Team Fortress 2. But right now the game is not worth its $15.

Only those who never saw previous games in the Prince of Persia series, will find The Forgotten Sands interesting. By ripping off their 2008 Prince of Persia in everything except for backdrops, the developers failed to keep their promise and didn't even try to fill in the blanks between The Sands of Time and Warrior Within. Ah well, who cares about some old plot holes when there is a Hollywood blockbuster to milk?

WRC feels like an unfinished game, and many of its ideas, whether they're good or bad, are poorly fleshed out.

If you love Monopoly, but couldn't care less about online play, get a 2008 version. It makes no sense to pay extra for pretty much the only new feature.

You will not remember Risen 2 when you're done with it. No exciting moments, no pleasant surprises, no great one-liners, not even hilarious bugs… Twenty hours of your life will drown in dark waters.

The weak narrative sucks all the emotional drama from the game's story, while beautiful hand-drawn backgrounds are saddled with the ugliest examples of character animation.

Medal of Honor: Warfighter is a slavish imitation of Call of Duty, while its multiplayer doesn't hold a candle to EA's own Battlefield 3.

Great artwork and inspired writing are not enough to outbalance repetitive battles which really lack in the tactics department.

Warhammer 40.000 is a glorious celebration of military minimalism. In this universe, they cut off your hands, burn your legs, drown your head in plasma and then ask questions. But the official slogan, "There Is Only War", is not an excuse to make a game without a good story, memorable characters and varied gameplay situations.

Call of Duty is not just an annual assembly-line product; it's now a digital opposite of imagination, originality and reason.

The game is hardly longer than the movie, so, unless you're a hardcore Tintin fan, think twice before coughing up $6,99.

Hector: Badge of Carnage is a proof that Telltale Games knows a bit or two about mischief, and that Northern Ireland is home to talented foul-mouthed jokesmiths. Unfortunately, the combination of these two forces does not necessarily result in a brilliant adventure game.

7554 deserves brownie points for trying to break the mold. Instead of the overused US invasion of 1965, the developers chose 1954 – the final year of the First Indochina War. Too bad this is the only original idea in the entire game. 7554 is just a carbon copy of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare sans multiplayer.

Warlock is just a failed attempt to reproduce Master of Magic.

Rebellion is clearly an improvement over the original Sins of a Solar Empire, but it's still a not very successful attempt to cross an RTS with a 4X strategy game.

FIFA Manager 13 is worth buying only if you suddenly feel the urge to throw away some money. You'll get a slightly retouched FM 12 with one interesting, but non-working idea and Lucien Favre on the box cover.

Five years ago, The Saboteur would have been lauded for its fresh ideas. Today, the only praiseworthy thing is its out-of-time soundtrack.

It took TimeGate two years to make a sequel to Section 8, but they never bothered to fully develop their concept of the orbital assault force. Only the moderate price tag and a lack of decent sci-fi multiplayer shooters keep it from burning out on entry.

Dark Meadow is the least milk-and-water clone of Infinity Blade that popped up in 2011.

The biggest problem of F.E.A.R. 2 is the triteness of its gameplay rather than dumbed down enemies. Four years ago, F.E.A.R. stood out in a crowd with its then-novel slo-mo effects and bold AI. Nowadays you can find all this even in value-priced shooters from Poland.

Geo-Mod 2.0, were it to fall into talented hands, could have given birth to a puzzle game not unlike Portal. For the sight of a high-rise building collapsing under its weight is the only thing that doesn’t get stale in Guerrilla. It’s entertaining even when feeble story and miles of boring rocky landscapes are firmly stuck in your throat and the sand from “sandbox” crunches under your teeth.

Get ready to fly on brooms, mix reagents in a pot and swing the magic wand… Until you yawn.

Get ready to fly on brooms, mix reagents in a pot and swing the magic wand… Until you yawn.

Get ready to fly on brooms, mix reagents in a pot and swing the magic wand… Until you yawn.

Here is hoping that modifications and patches will turn East India Company into a good, captivating game, because right now it is shallow, vapid and monotonous if you’re not a venturesome sailor.

According to Obsidian, Storm of Zehir is their way to show us what else can be squeezed from Electron Toolset. Well, as a technical demo this expansion is very impressive. As a game – not so much.

Tyler Bates' excellent music, great voice-overs and amusing banter of Jason's companions are the only things that elevate Rise of the Argonauts above value-priced drivel.

What’s the difference between Relic Entertainment and a large dairy farm in the neighborhood of Vancouver? Relic is better at milking its cows. Tales of Valor feels like a crisis management by-product, as if its design document was written by a marketing executive, edited by the chief financial officer, and polished by PR staff.

Uprising is Red Alert 3 sans its already weak merits. Cinematics with nice-looking aides and a few great tunes by Frank Klepacki and James Hannigan are not worth $20. It’s silly to expect much from a cheap DLC, but Uprising makes Kane’s Wrath look like a fine expansion, while Firestorm and Yuri’s Revenge are blockbusters compared to it.

Battlefield 1943 is the best multiplayer shooter for XBLA and PSN, but only by virtue of having no formidable competitors, except for the crippled CellFactor: Psychokinetic Wars.

Battlefield 1943 is the best multiplayer shooter for XBLA and PSN, but only by virtue of having no formidable competitors, except for the crippled CellFactor: Psychokinetic Wars.

Tried-and-true gameplay formula, adherent to genre traditions, unchallengeable classic – it’s easy to come up with compliments. But there is a better word - stagnation. Even colourful visuals won't mask an old-fashioned, painfully boring game.

Dragon Rising has enough silly conventions and simplifications to drive mad any die-hard fan of ArmA and the original Operation Flashpoint. On the other hand, its boring missions and poor multiplayer are a turn-off for those who just wants to shoot things. Releasing this game between ArmA 2 and Modern Warfare 2 is like spitting upwind.

The biggest drawback of Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier is not so much its boring, monotonous design as the overall lack of ideas. High Impact Games made a game “with cute little animals” instead of an epic adventure. It’s certainly playable, but it won’t make your heart skip a beat.

Ten thousand square kilometers of crushing solitude. You drive on a track poorly lit by a full moon, and you desperately long for something interesting to happen. But no, there are no surprises at all.

I don’t recommend buying Broken Steel, because it’s a matter of principle – let's not encourage trade in endings. You won’t miss anything important anyway – this DLC is only slightly better than its mediocre predecessors.

I don’t recommend buying Broken Steel, because it’s a matter of principle – let's not encourage trade in endings. You won’t miss anything important anyway – this DLC is only slightly better than its mediocre predecessors.

There are no gods in Risen – a powerful sorcerer banished them from the world forever, - but the hero still can’t escape his fate. German demiurges strapped him to the pillar of the story so tight that you can’t help but wonder if anyone at Piranha Bytes remembers what “role-playing” means. A game where all problems are solved by kicking butts and giving money is not an RPG. When the difference between working for bandits or the Inquisition in Harbor Town is to whom you report the completed tasks – it is not an RPG. It is laziness, harbinger of boredom.

The Ultimate Sith Edition additions are nice, but nothing special. In fact, the same can be said about Star Wars: The Force Unleashed as a whole.

At first, Serious Sam HD is a nostalgic experience, complete with familiar locations, low-poly monsters and terrible cinematics. The illusion is short-lived, though, because this 3rd generation Serious Engine remake lost all its original charm – as if it’s not a remake at all, but a poor clone.

Only the most patient players will get to the meaty parts of the game. Fort Zombie is a textbook example of a squandered potential.

The entire Spanish campaign, despite the great music, colorful scenery and a handful of new features, is just a rehash.

Singularity feels almost like 2009's Wolfenstein: the same dull corridors, anemic shootouts with simple-minded AI, and feeble attempts at creating dramatic tension.