The second way the songs are better is how they're played. The notes and chords are laid out in natural and engaging patterns that make sense musically and with the way your hands are moving.

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.

Whatever travails Psychonauts endured throughout its development history, the end result is a gem. It's a brilliant debut for Double Fine, and here's hoping it's just the start of what we can expect to see from them.

Oblivion is easily the finest open-ended RPG to date. It lacks the out-of-the-box crippling technical issues of every other Elder Scrolls game, looks great, and delivers on every promise Bethesda made during its development.

The Takedown system is what makes the already pretty good Burnout series amazing... Burnout 3 delivers the purest hit of <I>awesome</I> so far this year.

A consequence of this darker approach is that that game loses part of what made The Sands of Time unique. Instead of a charming and almost silly character like we saw previously, the Prince here is more one-dimensional.

It's a stunning bit of work...Though not a blanket revision, this is a solid upgrade that assuredly fortifies SimBin's position atop the race-sim podium.

It also feels like a more polished game, and the base mechanics work extremely well by the time you reach the end of the single-player campaign. It doesn't quite have "Riddick's" pacing, due to the open city that asks you to find your own way through, but it presents a better feeling of accomplishment and familiarity by the end.

It's certainly very enjoyable, it's incredibly slick, and packed with features, but it still loses out a little to Konami's game on that difficult-to-quantify quality; feel.

Visuals aside, what makes or breaks a game like Street is the gameplay, and No. 4 in the series totally delivers.

Flat out, this is an amazing shooter. You can fight through over 50 levels, upgrade your weapons, take control of enemies, recruit enemies to help you fight, drive different types of tanks, and a lot more -- think "Ratchet & Clank" fused with "Halo."

Unquestionably the best portable Castlevania to date; in fact, it's the best entry in the series since the much-vaunted "Symphony."

Immortal Throne continues Titan Quest's winning blend of killing, shopping, and strategic decision-making. It's a textbook case of a great expansion.

It's a good-looking, sublimely clever game that sets out a host of expectations for future PixelJunk projects.

I've always been a hater of this series (far too arcadey for my tastes) but this time around, I'm completely sold. There are a few issues standing between it and true wrestling perfection (a better targeting system would be nice), but they're hardly anything to tarnish the experience.

Simultaneously a beautifully holistic encapsulation of the entire history of Zelda and a worthy new chapter to the series in its own right, Minish Cap is quite simply one of the most engrossing portable games ever made -- and it ranks pretty high among Zelda titles, too.

The graphics are among the Xbox's best&#151;the environments are huge and intricately detailed, and tons of smart little effects (like the haze behind your plane when you go into turbo) help add to the atmosphere.

A perfect fit for the PSP -- creative, stylish, and easily broken into the bite-sized chunks that work so well when gaming on the go. It's also a stellar game by its own merits.

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?

It is quite possibly the most ambitious, comprehensive and successful remake ever attempted for a game of this type. Far more than a mere graphical upgrade, MZM expands on its source material with refined control, gameplay ideas retrofitted from its sequels, new plot hooks for subsequent chapters of the saga, and some jaw-droppingly cool innovations which add new layers of complexity to the series.

Damn, is this one fine game. If you've ever dreamed of shredding blistering licks in front of an adoring audience, you need to pick up Guitar Hero III.

The conversion from Super NES to GBA is rock-solid, and American gamers who are only familiar with this "lost" classic from its shoddy PlayStation repackaging will be pleasantly surprised at how incredibly fast this game is.

While the 360 version of NCAA Football 08 is finally a BCS bowl contender (after two limp seasons), the PS2 incarnation continues its steady march as the USC of last gen -- it's consistently dominant.

WE8 just feels real. The tempo and feel of the game show a deep understanding of soccer. The A.I. is spot-on, especially that of your own teammates, who continually move around and make runs for your benefit. Control is smooth and rock solid.

EA did their homework and pulled together a solid basketball game this year. There isn't much to complain about in NBA Live 2005. And with the addition of the Slam Dunk Contest, the replay value is huge.

I suppose the brilliance is that, however many times I watched a scene or fought a battle, Mass Effect never truly lost its magic.

It is far and away the most cerebral sports title ever released, forcing both the offensive and defensive coordination to methodically attack each other in order to achieve their respective goals. Careful and well thought out strategy is the name of the game, much more so than relying on frantic, on the field playmaking.

The big new addition is Tokyo. Fortunately, the developers have made the city available by default right on the menu screen, so for those of you worried that you might have to play through the original three cities to get to the new stuff, worry not.