Genres

While EA has cornered the market on NFL games (by default, really), 2K has appeared to do the same with NBA sports simulations. While publisher Take-Two Interactive has been accused of just releasing roster updates with these annual releases, their series has been known to take risks and tweak major gameplay elements on occasion. NBA 2K14 continues this tradition to a degree, but it's not as crafted and accessible as it should be.

It's a bit odd that the Resident Evil games have become synonymous with Survival Horror. After all, they're about heavily-armed police officers who kill zombies by the hundreds. Real fear comes from facing an army of unstoppable monsters and not having any means to fight them off. Outlast locks players inside an abandoned mental institution, arms them with just a camcorder, then leaves them to creep around in the darkness, thus combining a horror storyline with stealth gaming mechanics for a genuinely terrifying experience.

There aren't enough sim games on the PlayStation 3, especially when it comes to sim games with RPG elements. It's a niche within a niche - if there were demand for this sort of thing on consoles, no doubt someone would be chugging them out yearly, and yet when they do come out, as with Port Royale 3 Gold Edition, it never feels like you're getting the most bang for your buck.

Lost Planet 3 is quite different from its predecessors. Opting to take a more Western approach to the series, Capcom turned to the American developers over at Spark Unlimited in an attempt to make this third installment more appealing. The franchise doesn't have a great track record, receiving low marks from both critics and gamers, so it's no surprise this game hasn't been getting much attention. It's a shame, really, since it has some pretty good stuff to offer.

Atlus has always been known to deliver niche JRPG experiences; games that don’t sell well but are critical darlings. They have plenty of exceptional titles under their belt such as Catherine and Shin Megami Tensei IV, but Persona 4 is quite possibly their finest work yet. The fourth entry in the Persona series originally made its debut on the PS2 back in 2008. The game was met with immense critical reception, so it was only natural for Atlus to port the game over to the PS Vita. What follows is a fantastic video game that has aged quite well and has shown to ...

Mario has long enjoyed a wide variety of spin-offs. Best known is Mario Kart, although the little plumber that could has never been completely tied to to the racetrack. This tradition of allowing an untrained fat man to star in various sporting events continues with Mario Tennis Open for the 3DS.

Resident Evil: Revelations was a hit when it came to 3DS ahead of Resident Evil 6 and the controversy surrounding it. A handheld Resident Evil title that seemed to manage to successfully bridge that gap between the old and the new, the survival horror of our youths and the more action-based focus of today.

Payday 2 worked incredibly well as a digital only co-op shooter, its shortcomings easily overlooked thanks to it offering far more value than its asking price. Payday 2 is bigger in scale and comes with a price boost as a result, but is it a crime gone wrong or a heist worth getting behind?

Ambitious, evolutionary, generation-defining: these terms have all been applied to Grand Theft Auto V, most of the time before anybody actually had their hands on the title. And with over $1 billion in sales reported within the first week of release, there's no denying that GTA V will be viewed as an undeniable success. But id it worthy of such descriptors? The answer - like the game itself - is anything but simple.

Taking on the challenge of creating Sony's own first-person shooter blockbuster, Insomniac Games released Resistance: Fall of Man as a launch title for the PlayStation 3 with two sequels following it afterwards. With a unique alternative history setting fused with science fiction and a flair for designing inventive weaponry, Insomniac created a series that offers three unique first person shooter experiences. And while it may not have reached the popularity it deserved, Resistance offers some of the most exclusive experiences of any shooter.