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."

A superb and strikingly polished game.

Maybe you'll just play online. Maybe you'll spend all day crafting tracks and new costumes for your online avatars using the schwag you win in races. If you do, you'll find ModNation to be a thoroughly enjoyable kart-racing knock-off.

If you love a good science fiction tale wrapped around a gorgeous, post-apocalyptic world with some decent gameplay thrown into the mix, you should give Enslaved a try.

Maybe it's the spot-on humor based on the industry I work in, or perhaps just accumulated experience from the earlier episodes, but whatever the reason, 8-Bit Is Enough certainly embodies the maxim of saving the best for last. Well, until the assumedly in-the-works second season rolls around.

Halo Wars is a solid, if somewhat uninspired and simplistic, all-around RTS package with few faults. Ultimately, it's not an RTS game designed for a console (such as, say, Tom Clancy's EndWar), but rather a PC-style RTS that's been adapted and streamlined for the console. I wouldn't venture to say that it's either a great RTS game or a great Halo game, but it's a really solid beginning towards what could be a really good console RTS.

The graphics engine is the strongest point. This game is gorgeous to look at--but not quite as much fun to play. If and when players learn to get organized, it'll be a lot more rewarding, and hopefully Novalogic will even out the play balance issues before its inevitable sequel.

As it stands, Pacific Rim edges out "Pure" as the most enjoyable off-road racer on the market.

For the litany of improvements, the feeling that EA Tiburon has stopped taking any chances with the franchise is inescapable. After six years on the current generation of consoles, it's time to take a risk and give football fans something new to get excited about. As it stands, NCAA Football is in the very unusual position of being both the best-in-class football game, and a total underachiever.

The majority of my Puzzle Quest hours were logged on the DS, and though the PSP version does look a hell of a lot nicer, I liked the convenience of the stylus for moving puzzle blocks.

This year, the game's graphical reworking tips off with the implementation of a Face Gen system that churns out countless random players. The effect is massive.

In an era increasingly defined by developers' ever-growing fear of creating anything that isn't a safe, conservative million-seller, Atlus' willingness to create and publish something as unique as this is truly commendable. Best of all, it's not just a weird game -- it's a great one, too.

Despite not taking particular advantage of the Wii platform, it makes for one of the most relaxing, enjoyable titles on the system.

Arguably, it's good to have an RTS that is easy to jump into, but the economic systems and battle tactics might be too lightweight for some. Regardless, though, outside of starting your own New Zealand special effects company, no game will bring you closer to the battles of The Lord of The Rings.

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.

Bleach: Dark Souls will surely appeal to both fighter fans and anime devotees. The learning curve's gradual enough for casual players, while the varied, complex game mechanics will definitely please seasoned fighting-game vets.

The nod back to the cop chase mechanics of the Hot Pursuit games is certainly welcome, plus it's interesting to see that the vaunted "open" gameplay of the last two games has been dialed down by a more forcibly linear structure to keep things interesting.

Saint's 2's main deficiency, however, isn't the graphics, gameplay, or anything technical -- it just doesn't hold a candle to GTA's signature style. Not one character in the entire cast stands out as anything other than generic. The city, too, is an uninspired, washed-out metropolis.

The AI in the single player game is also pretty weak. This works both ways; not only does it mean you can mow down waves of enemies without getting touched, but when you need your teammates to help you capture a point, they're usually nowhere to be found.

A must purchase for a child interested in but forbidden to play GTA 3, Hit and Run also appeals to the avid or casual viewer of the show who might be looking for something entertaining that retains actual gameplay.

What you're basically getting for your 20 bucks (you read that right) is a skeletal single-player or 1-on-1 versus game. It is cool that we're finally able to get our hands on what was once an arcade/handheld only, but it's pretty much just that. What's offered is nice enough, but it's not much of a stretch to think that Namco could have included a little bit more.

The single-player can certainly be a drag with its difficulty and somewhat mundane (and cheap) competition. But in multiplayer, you're constantly being rewarded in one way or another, whether it be through making progress towards a challenge, gaining fans, successfully risking a wreck to win a race, or winning a race by a hair.

The multiplayer component isn't likely to keep you occupied for long, but there's more than enough single-player content -- especially if you can take advantage of the Retribution Connect extras -- to warrant a purchase. Resistance fans won't be disappointed and newcomers to the franchise will find a very competent portable shooter in Retribution.

If Sony's smart they'll approach this as a moving target that's ripe for expansion -- the addition of a course editor or (dare we dream?) the return of minigolf could easily bump this up a full letter grade.

But for all its fire and flash pyrotechnics and soulless premise and execution, there's a delightful source of naiveté powering the proceedings here -- like a raw, juvenile fantasy torn straight out of the id and slopped wholesale onto our PCs. [*Single-Player review]

The GameCube version adds yet another setback on top of what's in the PS2 version: no versus mode altogether. This wasn't unexpected given that the GameCube isn't an online-friendly console, but this missing feature limits the overall package a bit.

While this may amount to little more than yet another Mega Man sequel, it's still one of the best 2D action games to come along in years.

Ultimately, what really makes Condemned worthy of your sleepless nights is its relentless pursuit of total ambience, a design quality that's intrinsically tied to the power of the Xbox 360. Survival horror has simply never looked this good.