One of the smartest games Square has released in the FF line in some time. It pulls players in right away but hides a great amount of depth and bonus content. It pays reverence to the past but tries something new and isn't above making a joke or two at its own expense.

It's encouraging that Traveller's Tales has finally made some big, worthwhile changes to its formula.

From a value perspective it'll absolutely stretch your three dollars over a dozen hours and many, many boring meetings. It's not to be missed.

It rewards skill and variety rather than mindless grinding. And it does all of this in a massive, persistent world without asking for a subscription fee.

Mark of the Ninja feels like Klei's coming of age game, a more mature adventure that salvages the gore, guts, and grime that defined its previous work, and scraps the rest in a surgical maneuver - the work of game design ninjas.

The new skating physics and player AI don't just deliver a more accurate simulation of hockey; they elegantly convey the complex interactions - blade on ice, right winger versus defenseman - that are at the heart of the sport.

It's new, in the sense that it wasn't in Torchlight, but it's hardly different. What you're playing, beneath all the polish, is essentially the same. Torchlight 2 is clicky nirvana. But Torchlight 2 isn't is a step beyond the familiar. The game feels like the cumulative work of perfectionists intent on making the action role-playing game of their dreams.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown brings the memorable turn-based alien invasion classic gracefully into to the modern age, but comes just short of fully reinventing the genre. While tactical, squad-based combat has never felt so effortless and rewarding, the strategy component takes just enough away to make the game as a whole feel like two slightly disjointed halves. One of those halves just so happens to be one of the best and most artfully-designed strategy games in recent memory.

Make no mistake: Telltale has done some amazing things with The Walking Dead, and one episode away from the end it's already a landmark moment in interactive storytelling. I'm just hopeful that with the next series of episodes, the studio is able escape the corners that its experiment with malleable narrative has painted it into.

Hotline Miami is exceptional not because it's violent, but because it's violent for a reason.

Need for Speed Most Wanted is marred somewhat by a fussy, restrictive and self-defeating interface. But it's one of the best racing games of 2012 regardless. And if Criterion's track record of post-release support with Burnout Paradise is any indication, it will only improve over time.

A respectable sequel, one that both incorporates the fiction of the brand, but also improves on previous games, progressing the franchise.

What separates New Super Mario Bros. U from its "New" predecessors: It adds something to the Mario formula. It's exciting and full of inventive ideas.

It's not as cerebral as Hitman: Blood Money. But that doesn't stop Hitman: Absolution from being a smart, unique action title, and a hell of a lot of fun.

Here are all of the great songs and stars, flush with bright colors and silly in-jokes. It's all of my fond memories without any of the overwhelming disappointment of actually revisiting them.

Developer Intelligent Systems has added just enough to the time-tested Fire Emblem formula to bolster its challenges without cutting away its roots.

Bit.Trip Runner 2 uses a simple premise, a beautiful universe and a giddy set of songs to conjure an overwhelming sense of happiness. It's a game everyone can play.

MLB 13 is remarkable in that it is almost uniformly excellent. Annual sports games consist of numerous discrete pieces, but they rarely come together as well as they do here.

Taking an elaborate collection of blocks and engineered something special with it, The Behemoth has created a player experience far more sophisticated than the goofy theme belies.

It's a hand-wringing, apologetic shooter that offers great gunplay alongside more peaceful options. Last Light has every opportunity to be bloated and inconsistent, but it never succumbs to the pressure of its own expectations — and that's worth tolerating a few frustrating technical hiccups.

Fez is the most authentic exploration of the NES-era of games I've ever played, from its sound and visuals to its obtuseness. It uses the capabilities of current systems to take those ideas farther, while limiting itself with specific intentions, deploying scrutability in bits and pieces. It doesn't just love the games it borrows from – it understands them.

The power-fantasy catharsis behind other shooters buckles under the weight of Spec Ops: The Line's story of mistakes made and the consequences of intentions. And against very steep odds, Spec Ops: The Line succeeds in what it's trying to do.

Home's aesthetic minimalism blends with its quiet, creepy story to great effect, creating the kind of psychological horror that may not haunt your nightmares outright but will stick in your subconscious for months.

The vast majority of Dust is so good that all but the most fervent furry-haters will overlook the art. Dust uses a formula that's been done countless times, but a modernized combat engine and smooth animation leave a powerful mark on the genre.

Jack Lumber is quirky, stylized, and unlike anything on iOS. And yet it's very welcoming, very warm - not what you'd expect from a game starring a one-man eco-pocalypse.

The on-field experience is stellar, and Connected Careers' staggering scope allows it to transcend its shortcomings. For the first time in ages, Madden's future is bright.

As you're juggling lanes and building up overdrive, all while nailing more hectic note passages, Rock Band Blitz effectively channels the feel of Rock Band proper, all without a plastic instrument.

With such stark differences between RPGs and fighting games, the marriage of the two genres in Persona 4 Arena shouldn't work as comfortably as it does.