Xbox 360

Looking back at the various ninjas that have populated the gamescape over the years, the vast majority of them have focused on combos and combat, rather than truly employing stealth to its greatest degree. Klei Entertainment wants to change all that. With its upcoming XBLA release, Mark of the Ninja, they aim to bring sneaky back, and they're doing it in a big way—2D.

Just like the title says, Extra Credits looks at some games that may have flown under your video game radar. Games like Lone Survivor, Day-Z and Legend of Grimrock made Extra Credits' under the radar releases, check out the video to see if it mentioned one of yours.

It's Deep

HIGH It's a well-rounded and substantial add-on.

LOW It's tough to revisit the game after the controversial ending.

WTF It really takes Shepard too long to figure this out.

In a recent commentary on Valve's Half-Life 2 Episodes, Marsh Davies criticizes much of Episode One for its "failure to make your navigation comprehensible, either spatially or narratively." He goes on to praise Episode Two for remembering to provide the player with an overview of its regions, so that the spaces allow the player to see the places he has been, or is going to. As I was reminded in my own recent replay of the original Half-Life and its companion games, this is not a recent improvement by Valve, but a return to form.

For my next big review, I've been working on Risen 2: Dark Waters (Xbox 360). I was a big fan of the first Risen, and I was always disappointed that the game never got the credit I felt it was due. It was rough, to be sure, and I can understand why a certain section of people wouldn't give it the time of day. That said, there was a lot of great stuff happening in that game once you got past appearances, and people who I would've expected to dig into it never did.

In Spec Ops: The Line, the natural forces that oil money has so far kept at bay have struck back against the city, burying the modern towers in the red sands of its desert. In the shattered metropolis, a new society has been built, one that breaks the game's protagonists and shows the foolishness of their heroic pretensions.

Released in 2006-07 as an Xbox 360 exclusive, probably with the goal of helping establish the console in Japan, Blue Dragon has inexplicably spawned sequels and a minor multimedia empire. It's reasonably fun, if you like turn-based role-playing games, but Blue Dragon is clearly a bad game.

Oh, Hey. Didn't See You There. Were You Here the Whole Time?

HIGH Blanka!

LOW Lars!

WTF Mega Man!

A few weeks ago, it seemed like there wasn't a single thing to play. Now, it seems like there's too much to handle!

Gaijin Repellant

HIGH Nailing a combo with pitch-perfect timing against a similarly-skilled opponent to win a heated match.

LOW Most of the new music is... not good, and several design decisions are a step back.

WTF Coming across a customised Akira online decked out with a leather cap, a handlebar moustache and a pair of stylish red underpants. Then losing.