Polygon

Still, it's encouraging that Traveller's Tales has finally made some big, worthwhile changes to its formula. Lego games have rarely been bad, but the series has stagnated, content with being merely okay. How fitting that the troubled hero who signaled this decline is now here to see the series change into something better. Lego Batman 2 may not be the Lego Batman game we need, but it is, finally, the Lego Batman game that we deserve.

The beauty of Spelunky is how constantly it encourages learning by doing; it does not tell, show or coddle. Spelunky is an elaborate series of mechanisms that react not just to you, but one another. It has the precise input/output feedback of Tetris, but with the breadth of gameplay of Super Mario Bros.

I'm teasing, but only because there is real potential on display in The Amazing Spider-Man, even if the developer doesn't quite know how to stop once it gets in a groove. The stumbling block with most superhero games is understanding and harnessing that essential bit of magic that imparts the feeling of living in the hero's tights and Beenox has somersaulted right over that hurdle effortlessly. If the studio gets another crack at the Webslinger, here's hoping it manages to maintain that feeling for an entire game.

Still, the story that Spec Ops tells goes so far beyond the jingoistic odes to nebulous war-time duty that it almost seems necessary to play. I don't know if I can say Spec Ops: The Line is fun, exactly. 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.

I'm happy that TERA discards the elements that make combat so tedious in other MMOs, but I wish it was bold enough to attempt to fix the many other shortcomings of the genre. If the action in TERA had a unique world, quality writing, or more interesting quests to back it up, it would be must-play; as it is, it's just a passing curiosity with some room for improvement.

And that's what I am worried will push players away from Quantum Conundrum. It borrows all the recognizable parts of Portal's devious puzzles, an intriguingly deadly setting, a funny narrator but it doesn't have the polish of Valve, that uncanny ability to pull everything together into a perfectly cohesive whole. If that's enough to keep you from playing, so be it, but you'll be missing out on an enjoyable adventure that earns its tiny flaws.

No matter how I altered my lighting or called in feng shui experts to help me redistribute my living room's chi, I was never able to shake the feeling of watching through a window while someone else played Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor as I shouted suggestions and waved frantically, hoping they'd notice me. So, how is Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor as a game? I honestly have no clue.

Gods & Kings feels like what Civilization V wanted to be all along. It doesn't so much "expand" the game as evolve it. Strategic combat finally feels strategic, and the diplomatic game, enhanced by religion, espionage and a few new tweaks, finally matters. Managing sprawling armies is still a chore, and the end game still gets bogged down in micro-managing city improvements, but the new mechanics combine in a way that feels simultaneously new and rapturously familiar.

Silent Hill fans desperate to find any good left in the series will be relieved to know that Silent Hill: Downpour is a step up from 2008â??s forgettable Homecoming, but Konami seems to be trapped in some horrifying nightmare of its own design. Silent Hill has a killer psychological concept, but itâ??s going to require a publisher more willing to break from unnecessary genre conventions to ever reach its true potential.

It's bizarre and disheartening that Grasshopper Manufacture's most approachable, refined, and charming game yet is so stuck in such disconcerting subject matter, so little of which is pertinent to Lollipop Chainsaw's gameplay, story, or characters. At times, all of that shines through in Lollipop Chainsaw's theme of family and intelligent character work. But all the charm in the world can't wash off the dirt that Lollipop Chainsaw wades through.