Ryan Davis

Assassin’s Creed III’s methodical world-building and wealth of clever gameplay systems are impressive, even if they don’t always confidently click together with all the other moving parts.

Firaxis honors the XCOM name with turn-based strategy that shepherds players as expertly as it punishes, confidently balancing the micro and the macro all the while.

Harmonix builds on its collective knowledge of rhythm games for a downloadable experience that offers something old and something new.

Rockstar Games modernizes and makes Max Payne its own, creating something grittier and more grounded in reality, if not quite as singular.

EA Sports’ first earnest shot at tennis is competent, familiar, and wholly inessential.

Confident execution of a familiar formula makes for a fun multiplayer experience, when the circumstances are right.

Snappy support for the PlayStation Move makes it easier to appreciate the loving grindhouse aesthetics stitched over this otherwise familiar light-gun shooter.

Harmonix makes its original standard-setting dancing game all but obsolete with a little more structure, a few new features, and a fresh playlist of danceable new songs.

A terrific, varied soundtrack, plus some conceptually interesting new community features get marginalized by gameplay that is demanding and indifferent in equal measure.

Save for some occasionally witty banter, this generally generic brawler is too concerned with the window-dressing of time-travel to capitalize on Spider-Man’s character, abilities, or mythology.

As mediocre as it is half-finished, X-Men: Destiny’s rare glimpses of something better make it all the more disappointing.

Pure vehicular mayhem should be a lot more fun than it is in Burnout Crash.

Twisted Pixel’s plucky, “let’s put on a show!” can-do attitude has never been as prominent as it is in The Gunstringer.

From your fingertip to all four limbs, Fruit Ninja Kinect offers simple, satisfying, smoothie-making fun that capitalizes on Kinect’s strengths.

Puzzle Agent 2 takes the low-key weirdness of the original in fittingly strange new directions, but the puzzles themselves lack bite and variety.

Child of Eden is Tetsuya Mizuguchi's most fully realized lightspeed bioluminescent cyberspace techno-synthetic neon air sculpture. That it's also a video game seems beside the point.

Like its predecessor, Alice: Madness Returns is a game whose considerable dark artistic visions ease much of the gameplay's burden--but not all of it.

Valve falls further down its own rabbit hole with this expansive sequel that retains the cynical heart of the original Portal, while blowing out the scale on virtually every aspect of the execution.

It’s not built to last, but Jellyvision’s revival of one of video games’ smartest, funniest trivia series is pitch-perfect.

Epic Mickey's brief moments of cleverness and knowing affection for obscure Disneyana are mired by clunky, perfunctory platforming and a general lack of followthrough.