There’s a delicate balance in game design between challenge and fun.  Trials Evolution nails this fragile give-and-take so well right from the beginning that it is a huge disappointment when it all tumbles muffler over helmet into a frustrating set of boring races.  Be not deterred, though, because the ride up to that turning point along with gratifying online racing and cool user-created content make Trials Evolution a fantastic game.

Avernum: Escape the Pit is in love with the '90s. In fact, it’s so in love with the '90s that every copy of the game should come with a flannel shirt, a can of Crystal Pepsi, and Nevermind on CD. Spiderweb Software has created a new game that feels old, not unlike what Capcom did with Mega Man 9 and 10. To gamers that cut their teeth on games like Ultima and Baldur’s Gate this is fantastic news, as games like this simply don’t get made very often anymore. For gamers such as me who were weaned on consoles and people under the age of 30, this game is a total head scratcher.

It's time once again to take gamers out to the ball game with the newest installment in 2K Sports' digital realization of our nation's pastime. Major League Baseball 2K12 has implemented an improved pitching mechanic and updated rosters, but it continues to fall behind Sony's MLB The Show series due to recurring technical problems and less-than-intricate mechanics. Most damaging of all however is that this is merely a slight upgrade from the last title and essentially the same game MLB 2K10 was two years ago.

It isn’t often you find yourself enjoying being kicked in the face, but I guess the fantasy of being a pirate has to be grounded every now and then with a harsh dose of how a world with monsters has to work, and Risen 2 has every intention of being a nasty educator. Developed by Piranha Bytes, the house that brought us the Gothic series and the first Risen, Risen 2: Dark Waters feels both familiar to its pedigree and oh-so much nastier.

The Walking Dead has been taking the nation by storm with an extremely popular graphic novel and the hit television series. Naturally, a video game adaptation was considered, and many worried that the game would follow in the footsteps of other zombie survival games like Dead Island, or even Left 4 Dead. 

Ketzal’s Corridors is based off of a simple theme: Players take control of a block. This block, depending on which level you are playing, will come in a different shape that can be shifted to the left, right, forward or back. As you control the block, you are put into an area where you are constantly moving forward, and have to shift the block to fit through holes in the walls that lie ahead. These spaces in the walls all contain hearts, which you are encouraged to collect to raise your score and unlock levels.

From the very first moments of the game, it’s made clear that Bloodforge is heavily inspired by the God of War series. So inspired that developer Climax Entertainment decided to crib a sizeable portion of that experience in order to create the Microsoft Studios published brawler. However, calling it derivative of the Sony series would be giving it too much credit. Copying only the most basic of elements from the popular series, Bloodforge is a one-dimensional game that won’t hold most gamers’ attention.

I’ve been humbled by Fez. It’s clear to me now that I have not seen it all, nor have I played it all. Rather, I feel more confident than ever, thanks to this unique mind-bending puzzle platformer, that it is still possible to send gamers on a journey quite unlike anything else. In a way, Fez is comprised of dozens of contradictions that all seem to work well together somehow; it’s simple yet complicated, ambiguous yet obvious, charming yet sinister, and frustrating yet incredibly satisfying.

Closure has been haunting gamers since its release, and it’s easy to see why. A two dimensional, monochromatic platformer almost entirely shrouded in darkness, this game  has the ability to teach all of its players how to see the light.

In the year 2018 a massive comet was approaching Earth and, as the world watched, suddenly broke into two pieces and impacted into Baghdad and Tokyo. Before anyone could begin disaster recovery each site was encased in massive energy domes that made any attempt at surveillance and analysis impossible. In order to determine what happened the Fourteenth Platoon is scrambled to investigate. Within minutes of approaching the dome it quickly becomes apparent the Earth has been invaded by aliens. Aliens who are hostile. Aliens who like to build towers.

The long awaited return of SSX faithfully recreates some of the world’s most glorious mountain ranges and properly evolves the SSX trick engine. This sixth game in the franchise focuses on teams of extreme athletes attempting to conquer the world’s most dangerous cornices to defeat the challenge set forth by a renegade former member of the team. With a World Tour whose plot focuses on getting the team back together, the action within SSX fulfills the wishes of long-time fans who have been dreaming of  diverse characters, high flying tricks and realistic slopes.

Following in the footsteps of Twisted Metal and Vigilante 8, Wheels of Destruction attempts to bring a fun, vehicle-driven car combat to PSN. As a budget downloadable title it seemed like Wheels of Destruction would be able to deliver, but the final product doesn’t have much to gloat about.

Hot off the heels of Rayman Origins' (critical) success comes this re-release of 2003's Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc, now in glorious high definition. With Rayman 3's charming character, varied gameplay, and enjoyable mechanics, it manages to be a fun game in spite of its dated level design, bad camera, and problematic targeting system.

These days, same old same old just does not cut it.  When an RPG from Japan comes around that promises to be different, the modern gamer is understandably cynical. Thankfully, with a unique world, a fresh take on in game relationships, and an excellent use of in game rewards to encourage the player, Xenoblade Chronicles delivers the refreshing changes and modernizations many of us have been looking for.

It’s easy to write off Order Up as nothing more than the latest piece of shovelware or shallow entertainment experience for the casuals. The truth is, Order Up has a lot more depth than one might think. It provides a quality, yet simple play experience that is an enjoyable and relaxing escape between more thought intensive titles.  In the world of Cooking Mamas and other point-and-click cooking adventures, Order Up gives fans of these games a fast-paced, tactile experience that is deep enough to prevent monotony, yet simple enough to be accessible to everyone.

Despite the rest of The House of the Dead series making its way to consoles, The House of the Dead 4 has been left in the arcades – and perhaps rightfully so. With the introduction of the machine gun as the standard weapon, the once requisite precision aiming for this light gun series has been all but removed. That’s not to say that there’s no challenge or fun to be had with the latest arcade iteration of the series, but the experience pales in comparison to earlier editions.

If you were to set Art Style: Orbient, Pinball, and a side-scrolling shoot-‘em-up on a collision course, the result would be StarDrone Extreme. It's an odd combination, yes, but one that frequently provides some quick thrills. However, like Plants vs. Zombies, StarDrone Extreme seems to suffer from being on the wrong platform. While fun in short bursts, the experience fails to engage for more than a level or two at a time.

Similar to the classic arcade games popularized in the early 80s, Canabalt is a fun, arcade-style game that can be played with a single finger. It has a simple premise that anyone can immediately understand: run, run for your life! As giant robots lay waste to the city in the distant background and space ships rocket overhead, all you can do is run from the destruction, jumping over obstacles and hopping gaps between crumbling buildings. This is a game scored not in points or lives, but how far you can make it before the inevitable happens and you fall to your doom.

If you’re going to create a game based on a specific sport, you usually want to make sure it’s replicated properly. Real MMA matches revolve around brutal submissions and painful, high intensity fights, but this is not the case with Supremacy MMA Unrestricted. Here, things are slow moving and tap-outs are impossible, as you merely chip away your opponent’s life bar until you knock them out. Furthermore, despite the varying disciplines of the sport, each and every fighter plays nearly the same, with the exception of grapple-based fighters who are at a distinct advantage. With its inaccurate portrayal and unbalanced roster, you’ll quickly find that Supremacy MMA Unrestricted is not only a bad MMA game, but a bad fighting game as well.

Pushmo, the first 3DS digital download title from Intelligent Systems, could easily be mistaken for an Art Style game, which are found by the dozen on the Wii and DS shops. Like those games, it takes a simple premise (puzzle-platforming) and graphics and makes an extremely in-depth and meaty experience. The result is one of the best eShop titles available right now, deserving of a download from all 3DS owners.

There isn’t much Ryu Hayabusa can’t do, he’s a frickin’ ninja after all, but in his latest outing it’s apparent that even a master death dealer’s job can get a bit monotonous after a while. 

Considering the slow decline that the Silent Hill series has seen in recent years—including the new and disappointing Downpour—it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that Silent Hill was once the pinnacle of video game horror. For an entire generation of gamers, the franchise has been nothing more than a blip on the radar, but there was a time when a new Silent Hill was something to be anticipated. Now with the release of Silent Hill HD Collection, those gamers can finally see where all the praise came from, and give veterans a fresh look at the saga of James Sunderland and Heather Mason.

The visuals in Defenders of Ardania are pretty OK.  And thus ends the discussion of the good things about Defenders of Ardania. Everything else about the game is frustrating, boring, and annoying.  You’d be excused for being drawn in by the concept, though.  Defenders of Ardania tries to grab some attention in the jam-packed tower defense genre by adding a few elements normally seen only in real time strategy games, but the implementation of these additions make the game a slog. 

As with anything that comes out of Grasshopper Manufacture, Diabolical Pitch is an interesting specimen. Taking use of the Kinect, the title melds gesture-based gameplay and your traditional gallery shooter, and tops it off with a bizarre story and setting. Rather than a shot out of the park, the spotty controls make this baseball-themed game a shallow shot to the outfield.

Armored Core V has its faults. Whether it's the limp story mode or the user-hating menu system, its design is sure to scare away most. However, gamers who love to decipher complex systems and are willing to invest the time will find an experience that's incredibly engaging.  Armored Core V doesn’t shy away from its inscrutable nature, which will drive the compulsive number-crunching freaks to get that much more obsessed with figuring it all out.  Throw in the blitzkrieg, large scale mech battles, and you have a mixture that appeals to a very specific type of gamer – and they are going to need a professional intervention to pull them away.