Ultimately, you'll be much more satisfied playing "2K6" instead or even EA's "NCAA March Madness 2006" for basketball purism.

The real tragedy here is that a simple attempt to emulate Atari's 2004 Transformers game would have made this movie tie-in an order of magnitude better. As is, those looking for a Transformers fix should scour the bargain bins for that classic, and leave this one on the shelf.

It quickly degenerates into as absurd a mess as four turtles that are supposed to be ninjas with a rat for a sensei sounds like on paper. As Michelangelo might say, "cowabunga dudes, this is one gnarly game wreck."

Most importantly, though (especially for fans of the PC Fallout), you've got an RPG without any sort of enticing story.

Poorly made platformers were a big part of the 8- and 16-bit eras, too, so maybe things are just coming full circle. Fortunately, most of us still remember how not to spend our money on crap like this.

From 2K8's tricky new controls to the number of gameplay hiccups, we simply can't recommend this skater over EA's for this hockey season.

It quickly degenerates into as absurd a mess as four turtles that are supposed to be ninjas with a rat for a sensei sounds like on paper. As Michelangelo might say, "cowabunga dudes, this is one gnarly game wreck."

WarPath's only saving grace is that, despite being one of the most forgettable FPSes we've ever seen, it's not actually bad when played with some real human beings. Unfortunately, there don't really seem to be very many human beings playing the game on Xbox Live.

If only half of the verve present in the swooping camera zooms and snazzy editing of the cut-scenes had managed to jump to the five hours or so of actual playtime, this might have been a pretty cool game.

In plenty of cases, the system has done a great job at reducing the barrier of the controller, making it easier to interact with games thanks to simple motion controls. In a game like Barrel Blast, however, it's added a whole lot of complexity -- not to mention physical exhaustion -- to what would otherwise be simple steering controls.

Besides some nice CG work in the occasional cinematic, this is just a tepid return to mediocre series filled with potential never realized.

The only thing that makes RF Online stand out is its unique art and setting, and that doesn't count for a lot when the game world and background story has the depth of a kiddie pool.

The cel-shaded visual presentation is about the only element AM has going for it, so if you're really attracted to this particular aesthetic, then this is your game. On the other hand, if you're into racing games, chances are you already own something like "Need for Speed Underground," and AM really isn't even in the same ballpark.

Now what are you waiting for, a medal? You'll only get that if you survive, marauder -- if you can survive the tedium of never-ending waves of bugs and repetitive missions.

If this were a $20 budget title, then it'd be worth a purchase. But at the Xbox 360 standard $60 at the register, there's no way you should bother with Import Tuner Challenge. Wait for "Need For Speed Carbon," instead.

It's kind of a cakewalk. You won't feel pressed to utilize just the right combos for a given situation, and health boosts are generously doled out. Even the highest difficulty is pretty forgiving.

AC4 feels like a house that's been added onto so often that it's a maze of twisting passages, oddly shaped rooms, and doors that go nowhere. There may be something worthwhile hidden within, but it's not worth the effort to find it. Time to tear it all down and start over.

Yep, if it's in this Medal of Honor, it's been in one before. Only this time out it feels more like leafing through a series of postcards sent from someone playing through a real Medal of Honor game.

Dead or Alive: Xtreme 2 is what happens when you tinker too much with a perfect formula -- and not in the name of improvement. This is the Dead or Alive that, quite frankly, critics of Team Ninja have been hoping for -- a soulless, poorly executed title slathered in truly shameless fan service that not even those who would use it for dirty deeds could force themselves to sit through. It's as ridiculous as the individual breast physics that it entails.

The venerability of these selections combined with the substandard interface (exiting out of a given game is performed inconsistently and tends to be very confusing) and paltry selection of titles makes this one you can skip over without losing any sleep.

What's worse is that even if game design and locations fail to excite, then a good combat system could salvage the whole package. But again, Dirge fails to capitalize.

The selection of missions is a little sparse, and the game demands a near-perfect performance to unlock extra content, but that's far less of a problem compared to a control scheme that just isn't any fun.

If your fetish for black gold is such that none of these problems dissuade you from getting one of the few games ever made on the oil business, you'll find a decent selection of scenarios, a free play mode, and even multiplayer. The rest of us should simply avoid the title and use the savings for gas money.

The majority of the environments are quite sparse, with few buildings yet plenty of fog to help hide the fact that the draw distance here isn't that spectacular. The lack of vision also doesn't help when you're traversing the grassy plains and trying to get a read on your enemy's position.

The majority of the environments are quite sparse, with few buildings yet plenty of fog to help hide the fact that the draw distance here isn't that spectacular. The lack of vision also doesn't help when you're traversing the grassy plains and trying to get a read on your enemy's position.

Multiplayer is certainly better than single-player (the more people, the better), but it suffers from the same pileups and limited variety. Considering how impractical it is to set up a full multiplayer game offline, it's ridiculous that the game's only online feature is comparing scores and leaderboards.

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.

AC4 feels like a house that's been added onto so often that it's a maze of twisting passages, oddly shaped rooms, and doors that go nowhere. There may be something worthwhile hidden within, but it's not worth the effort to find it. Time to tear it all down and start over.