The key word here, of course, is "rough."

Another issue is simply that the enormous buildings make any map seem crowded and critically limit the number of placement options for base building.

A not particularly attractive game that provides neither the twitch-based thrills of an arcadey flight game nor the intricate controls and challenge of flying a realistic virtual aircraft.

Micro Machines V4 is a worthy part of a traditionally sublime racing series, but its appeal mostly lies with the party gamer set. And sometimes that's enough.

Hardcore (read: non-American) fans will find it vapid, but those same fans are far better served by "Winning Eleven."

And even if you're bored with beating your friends, there's a vast array of unlockables to collect, which will surely delight your inner obsessive compulsive.

While it may not break, or even dent, any new ground, Titan Quest features a beautifully realized game world based on a tried-and-true core mechanic, with tons of replayability. What's not to like?

There's a thin line between awful and pointless, and Night Watch manages to wobble like a poorly spun top right in the middle, sporadically teetering too far into awful before righting itself, then drifting over to pointless territory. Again and again and again.

The final package is a motorcycle racing game that is certainly good, but far from the best on the market. If your weapon of choice is the PlayStation 2, however, and you lack for next-gen options, then consider MotoGP 4 all the ammunition you'll need.

I've already had my fill of this recipe. I was sort of hoping for something a little new.

It's not exactly a radical reinvention of the genre -- but, then, it's not meant to be. As simple, straightforward arcade-style action with a few unobtrusive additions at a budget price, it's a smashing success.

NFL Head Coach is a game you really want to like, but ultimately it's a poorly executed great idea.

Moscow to Berlin has decent graphics, and the gameplay is no worse than the rest of the genre, but spending money on this would be like paying to see the same movie for the 20th time.

Finally, the multiplayer component isn't bad, though there are two things that are glaringly missing. First, there's no straight-up deathmatch mode. Players will be taking the side of either the cops or the criminals, and the sides aren't particularly well balanced. Second, there's the inexcusable absence of splitscreen play.

Comprehensive and complete, this is the rare retro collection worth the price of entry, and it's one that should grace the shelf of every fighting library out there. It's also a great reminder of what Capcom was once best at, and what they could conjure once again if only they'd put their minds to it.

Ultimately, Digital Graphic Novel might be the truest MGS experience -- no gameplay to get in the way of pure plot. While it may be geared only at franchise fans, it's hard to fault Konami or Kojima Productions for bringing out something that we haven't seen much of on the PSP lately: interesting software.

When a game about giant robots flying, shooting, and fighting with each other makes it this hard and unpleasant to actually do any of those things, it's time for change.

Without the story, all your venturing through the game would be for naught. It's the redeeming quality that makes the back-and-forth, to-and-fro quests, the battles every five feet, and the unaltered appearance worth wading through. It's just something that you'll really have to want to do.

Without the story, all your venturing through the game would be for naught. It's the redeeming quality that makes the back-and-forth, to-and-fro quests, the battles every five feet, and the unaltered appearance worth wading through. It's just something that you'll really have to want to do.

Finally, the multiplayer component isn't bad, though there are two things that are glaringly missing. First, there's no straight-up deathmatch mode. Players will be taking the side of either the cops or the criminals, and the sides aren't particularly well balanced. Second, there's the inexcusable absence of splitscreen play.

Click-click, kill-kill, click-click, kill-kill. You'll maybe get a naval battle or an occasional siege on the side. But once you've done this a few times, Rise & Fall has pretty much exhausted its novelty, leaving you with a bland and clunky RTS.

No surprise, the A.I. rolls over on anything less than Hard, and getting units into tactically feasible formations can be like herding drunken snails.

MotoGP 06 is great to look at and fun to play, carrying the next-gen torch for the genre that Hang-On kicked off so many years ago. It's simple, fun, and beautiful. What more could you ask for in a racing game?

You never quite reach the same pumped-up heights you get while playing similar games, like "NBA Ballers" or "NBA Street" -- and despite the tricks, online play, and generally responsive controls, it would take a serious interest in the AND 1 legacy to maintain any level of interest in this game.

Ubisoft's work here leaves Astonishia as little more than another could-have-been, doomed to mere mediocrity. PSP fans have been waiting a year for a great RPG...sorry, guys, this ain't it.

With the flood of racing titles hitting the PSP right now, it'd be easy to miss Race Driver 2006. But if you're craving variety and great control in portable form, this is the game for you.

Almost everything about this anthology speaks of class, care, and quality, and the ability to play several of the series' "missing" chapters should be more than enough for any American Gradius fan to take the plunge.

It <I>is</I> a full-fledged GTA experience, and it <I>is</I> only $20 (even cheaper if you shop around), which means it's an incredibly good value for money at a time when the PS2 is absolutely starved for great new games. Don't buy it if you've played the PSP version, but if you haven't -- it's great.

Is it worth 30 bucks? If you're heavily invested in its movie-making tech, or didn't struggle with the late game busywork, the answer is probably, though a 10-dollar shave seems more appropriate since stunt antics add relatively little to the sim game.

It's kind of like a junior sandbox approach that younger gamers will enjoy because they can just trundle around without crashing or waiting for loads and older kids will love because it allows them to explore a large area and find characters and items that they'll recognize from the movie.

It's kind of like a junior sandbox approach that younger gamers will enjoy because they can just trundle around without crashing or waiting for loads and older kids will love because it allows them to explore a large area and find characters and items that they'll recognize from the movie.

You never quite reach the same pumped-up heights you get while playing similar games, like "NBA Ballers" or "NBA Street" -- and despite the tricks, online play, and generally responsive controls, it would take a serious interest in the AND 1 legacy to maintain any level of interest in this game.

It's kind of like a junior sandbox approach that younger gamers will enjoy because they can just trundle around without crashing or waiting for loads and older kids will love because it allows them to explore a large area and find characters and items that they'll recognize from the movie.

It's kind of like a junior sandbox approach that younger gamers will enjoy because they can just trundle around without crashing or waiting for loads and older kids will love because it allows them to explore a large area and find characters and items that they'll recognize from the movie.

Quirky, satisfying, and highly original.

This series serves no viable purpose anymore, nor does it really warrant yearly release.

The best puzzlers work for all gamers, and Magnetica lacks the staying power to keep more seasoned puzzle fans interested for long.

This series serves no viable purpose anymore, nor does it really warrant yearly release.

City Life is the freshest take on the city-sim genre in memory, managing to be both as challengingly complex as its more gearheaded forebears and more accessible to casual or more philosophical players.

[Alyx's] addition brings a massive injection of personality to what would otherwise be a solid, but rather ordinary, continuation of the Half-Life saga.

Stacked does have one hook (aside from the Negreanu name), but it's not a terribly compelling one. You're in control of a customizable avatar, and you can convey some basic poker information through your character via frowning, smiling, calling tentatively, or raising aggressively. Trying to simulate body language and table presence is a fine idea, but with such limited options it's more a gimmick than a viable gambit.

All 13 of the game's missions are well crafted and challenging, but after four iterations of this series, I felt a need for a new challenge.

All 13 of the game's missions are well crafted and challenging, but after four iterations of this series, I felt a need for a new challenge.

Stacked does have one hook (aside from the Negreanu name), but it's not a terribly compelling one. You're in control of a customizable avatar, and you can convey some basic poker information through your character via frowning, smiling, calling tentatively, or raising aggressively. Trying to simulate body language and table presence is a fine idea, but with such limited options it's more a gimmick than a viable gambit.

Overall, it's pretty much what you'd expect in an expansion: more stuff. And even if that stuff isn't well thought-out, there's enough of it here that High Treason is well worth your time and money.

All 13 of the game's missions are well crafted and challenging, but after four iterations of this series, I felt a need for a new challenge.

All 13 of the game's missions are well crafted and challenging, but after four iterations of this series, I felt a need for a new challenge.

Just play the old NES game. We don't remember the Jaws movie where they had to collect seashells and bomb jellyfish with airplanes, but it was more fun than this.

All told, unless you've got a special place in your heart for this white-eyed, blue-skinned, four-in-one sci-fi warrior, you'll come away with an experience you'll likely forget within a few days -- and a newfound appreciation for the better shooters.

All told, unless you've got a special place in your heart for this white-eyed, blue-skinned, four-in-one sci-fi warrior, you'll come away with an experience you'll likely forget within a few days -- and a newfound appreciation for the better shooters.

While HOMM5 retains much that fans once cherished about this series, its imaginative yet hamstrung shift to 3D, poor A.I., clunky interface, stingy multiplayer maps, and intimidating bug list render what could have been the rebirth of a phenomenal strategy game merely an average rehash.

It's a lot more game than you'd expect from your average handheld title, and one that transcends the usual, disposable nature of portable games.

As a two-player game it excels, and as a single player experience it certainly seems compatible with the way most people spend time with their PSPs. It's the ideal commuting partner.

It is, in the end, what you make of it -- and if you can look beyond its humble visuals and the occasionally janky controls, that's a fine thing indeed.

Lemmings on the PSP is basically the same game it was 15 years ago. But with new-and-improved eye candy and on-the-go play, Lemmings is worth a fresh look, because some of the new (and old) levels will no doubt challenge that gray, gooey mass that sits in your skull.

Just add impenetrably obtuse missions, ugly models, low visibility, a sluggish camera, and a fish that steers like a truck full of fat kids. Congratulations, Jaws Unleashed, you just killed our (sadistic) inner child.

All told, unless you've got a special place in your heart for this white-eyed, blue-skinned, four-in-one sci-fi warrior, you'll come away with an experience you'll likely forget within a few days -- and a newfound appreciation for the better shooters.

But because the "sport" itself is so simplistic at its core and there's not much beyond the standard exhibition and tournament modes, $29.99 would be an easier price to swallow.

Unlike the previous expansion, "Endangered Species," African Adventure serves up no new gameplay options and no new mission types -- not even a new hut to build.

It earns disdain on its own merits. The videogame of the movie of the book -- it's not a surprise that this ended badly, it's just disappointing.

While the gameplay does have its high points (again, mostly surrounding Nightcrawler), it's also quite often littered with monotony thanks to seemingly nonexistent enemy A.I., confusion (poor level design), and frustration (glitches, a sometimes lack of checkpoints, and uneven challenges).

While the gameplay does have its high points (again, mostly surrounding Nightcrawler), it's also quite often littered with monotony thanks to seemingly nonexistent enemy A.I., confusion (poor level design), and frustration (glitches, a sometimes lack of checkpoints, and uneven challenges).

While the gameplay does have its high points (again, mostly surrounding Nightcrawler), it's also quite often littered with monotony thanks to seemingly nonexistent enemy A.I., confusion (poor level design), and frustration (glitches, a sometimes lack of checkpoints, and uneven challenges).

While the gameplay does have its high points (again, mostly surrounding Nightcrawler), it's also quite often littered with monotony thanks to seemingly nonexistent enemy A.I., confusion (poor level design), and frustration (glitches, a sometimes lack of checkpoints, and uneven challenges).

While the gameplay does have its high points (again, mostly surrounding Nightcrawler), it's also quite often littered with monotony thanks to seemingly nonexistent enemy A.I., confusion (poor level design), and frustration (glitches, a sometimes lack of checkpoints, and uneven challenges).

Playing as Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu, unraveling the mysteries that mirror and expand upon the book and movie's stories, you'll be forced to solve a mystery called "find the fun."

Nintendo's crafted a thoroughly enjoyable game here, a solid portable experience packed with everything that makes Mario so great -- challenge, fanservice, secrets. Everything except brash imagination.

Steampunk and fantasy mesh in a way that's thrilling and engaging, and perilously addictive. It's hard to find a comparison to any RTS you've experienced before; this masterpiece just may become a Legend in its own right.

For the moment, the single-player game is all we can base this review on. In that respect, SiN Episodes only flirts with greatness.

It's a great change of pace form the strict style of traditional NBA games and it's extremely satisfying to take a scrub from the street and posterize Yao Ming. Just don't plan on doing much else.

As a package, it's an incredibly complete product of flabbergasting quality; more than any other game, GRAW puts the player in the nerve-snapping tension of pauses between engagements. It thrusts you into the terror of modern, quicksilver-fluid combat.

Paradise in a word? Dull. Paradise in two words? Paradise lost. Paradise in a sentence? Paradise is comparatively like anywhere you aren't when playing this game. For old-school pointy-clicky-adventure fanatics only.

Each module of Factions was obviously overseen by the staunchest of perfectionists, because they work amazingly well. Factions is a must-buy for Guild Wars fans and a must-try for everyone else.

It's a shame that Metal Saga's high points -- the humor, the music, and its relative freedom -- are mired in disappointing production values and a concept that hasn't improved since the series' 8- and 16-bit days. It's droll and "different" -- but it's so different, it's the same.

Lost Magic lacks a compelling story or decent balance for the single-player mode, so Wi-Fi battles are pretty much the selling point here. The question is whether or not that's enough, in your opinion, to overcome the game's innate shortcomings.

Despite the changes made to simplify Dust Strikers' core fighting engine, the combo system is surprisingly comprehensive.

The Azoth of Destiny doesn't make any horrible mistakes, but the game's only real draw is that it's a very competent, old-school RPG for the PS2.

Taken as an afternoon sitting with an old friend reminiscing about the good old days, it works. But that's where it ends. The PS2 chapter of Ace Combat has closed.

It has a few fun moments, but for the most part Winback 2 is an utterly unremarkable game, except perhaps in that despite all the gunplay, it's completely bloodless.

It's an amazing technical feat that Nomura's team have pulled off here, and an impressive first foray into the alien world of movie making. Coming from a team that's used to making CG cinemas less than five minutes long, Advent Children is a surprisingly auspicious debut. Here's hoping they do it again.

Just skip the whole thing. It has a few fun moments, but for the most part Winback 2 is an utterly unremarkable game, except perhaps in that despite all the gunplay, it's completely bloodless.

The muddy controls make it difficult to judge where your creature is standing in proportion to the buildings.

All of the things EA did right with FIFA World Cup 2006 are overshadowed by the simple truth that what should be the most fun part of the game -- having exciting scoring chances -- is completely negated by shoddy game performance near the nets.

All of the things EA did right with FIFA World Cup 2006 are overshadowed by the simple truth that what should be the most fun part of the game -- having exciting scoring chances -- is completely negated by shoddy game performance near the nets.

Battle of the Gods is about standard as an expansion can get. With new units and lands it adds about a third as much content as the original game, as well as some much needed additional depth of strategy.

All of the things EA did right with FIFA World Cup 2006 are overshadowed by the simple truth that what should be the most fun part of the game -- having exciting scoring chances -- is completely negated by shoddy game performance near the nets.

Total Destruction also offers a multiplayer mode, with the GameCube version allowing four players at once, while the PS2 version offers only two players. This clearly makes the GameCube version one of the best choices in frustrating entertainment.

All of the things EA did right with FIFA World Cup 2006 are overshadowed by the simple truth that what should be the most fun part of the game -- having exciting scoring chances -- is completely negated by shoddy game performance near the nets.

Useless analog steering, weird collision issues, and the lack of a decent multiplayer mode keep it from being a winner.

So whether you're an FFXI veteran or noob, rest assured that this story is far from over. Based on the evidence at hand, we're quite confident that it has only just begun.

Like a vine bursting with ripe fruit, TOAU may be in need of some balancing, in addition to some major feature tweaking (Besieged), but for all intents and purposes, it's like an injection of the lifeblood that once made this MMO so addictive in the first place.

Like a vine bursting with ripe fruit, TOAU may be in need of some balancing, in addition to some major feature tweaking (Besieged), but for all intents and purposes, it's like an injection of the lifeblood that once made this MMO so addictive in the first place.

Edited down to a tight package this could probably make a pretty good machinima feature (or Sci-Fi original motion picture for that matter). But as a game, it fails.

King of Fighters: Neowave has so much potential just waiting to be tapped, with new powerful hardware, a fighting engine based on a winning formula, and a dream collection of 43 fighters, but the things that it didn't do would fill up an entire stadium.

Edited down to a tight package this could probably make a pretty good machinima feature (or Sci-Fi original motion picture for that matter). But as a game, it fails.

It's not a game, and because you're never taught anything new, it's not really even "edutainment" -- Brain Age is a tool, one that sharpens your mind not just for playing real games, but living real life as well.

There are enough MMOs out there that deserve to be roadkill, and Auto Assault isn't one of them.

It's fine for gamers who don't mind waiting months between episodes, but if you want to get the real charm of the story and art, it's best to just read the comic book.