NFL Street is definitely easy to get into. Smooth controls also make this game assessable and welcoming for those who are unfamiliar with typical football games.

An unusual, creative, and very polished game that anyone with a Nintendo DS should seriously consider purchasing. The gameplay is addictive, even if it's restrictive.

With battles few and far between, then, your enjoyment of Sakura Wars really boils down to how well you can tolerate extended anime storytelling sequences. If you're like me and find them more amusing than annoying, you'll be perfectly content.

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.

Nintendo and Intelligent Systems succeeded in making the first Fire Emblem more casual, and is an excellent choice if you either found the previous games intimidating, or have never played one. Still, those looking for a hardcore strategy game will be sorely disappointed.

Age of Empires III takes the conservative approach to the conundrum of how to craft a new experience that remains faithful to the original. While that ensures fans will immediately feel at home with an old friend, it's questionable whether it sets another standard, or merely follows its own.

The main quest is entertaining enough to justify the $9 or $10 investment (based on your platform of choice), but the new and revised bonus elements really make Strong Badia the Free a comprehensive experience.

Toy Soldiers offers enough from a gameplay perspective to justify its asking price, but its GI Joe-meets-Red Dawn setting is what makes the game truly fun to play.

It attempts a lot of ambitious things and it almost succeeds at every one. But it's apparent that these grandiose ideas may have been a little too much to master the first go-round. But hey, at least the groundwork is laid for a killer sequel -- right, Ubisoft?

It's an ingenious puzzle game that's sure to challenge and please every type of gamer and comes highly recommended from this author.

Metro 2033's A.I. is terribly stupid and there's not enough variety in the weapons; yet despite all that it's still a compelling game to play.

It might seem like this review is a long list of complaints, and it is, especially regarding the time limit. But they're an assortment of small annoyances in what's otherwise a splendid puzzle game with a minimalist approach. And the ability to create and share your own mind-bending scenes encourages some homegrown M.C. Escherism.

Unsurprisingly, playing through this Anniversary Collection is much like listening to a ten-album Grateful Dead box set: it's very good for what it is, and some of titles included are genuine masterpieces. But taken together, the monotony is almost overwhelming.

It's a bigger, better-looking adventure that moves the series forward in some surprising and substantial ways, and it remains one of the few legitimately funny games out there.

Toy Soldiers smartly sticks to its roots, paying homage to the genre that defines it. But it also manages to strike out on its own with clever ideas that other tower defense titles could learn a lesson from. The old-fashioned charm melded with action elements makes a unique experience worth the time of any strategic masters, action aficionados, or history buffs.

This game is so well designed that time after time in my playthrough I thought, "Man, wouldn't it be great if this game had X?" and then, lo and behold, X appears, like the albatross to the Ancient Mariner, except in a totally good way that doesn't cause the mass suffering and death of my shipmates. Honestly, I can't think of any reason why anyone who loves video games won't enjoy JC2.

It's nothing revolutionary. It comes from a different kind of Id, one that would rather play with existing conventions than reinvent them. Conversely, it's the same Id that puts look and feel on the same high pillar, and it's impossible to call Rage badly-composed. I just don't think it's going to be remembered as anything but a sleeper hit of the fall of 2011.

Good enough. The stronger AI is nice, though the absence of overseas trade, national evolution, and the naval aspects are noticeable. Perhaps this is the streamlined game that Empire should have been, but 40 dollars and one year later, Napoleon should be more generous than it is. As it stands, the game is a decent addition to the series, but not essential.

Your flunkies also embody Overlord's one weak point: Loosen the iron grip, and they'll stupidly drown themselves chasing after a bug...or race headlong into overwhelming odds. Maybe the boneheaded A.I. is intentional; maybe they're supposed to be feral lemmings, and the game's forcing you to slow down for tactics -- but I ain't buying it.

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.

Notably absent from the multiplayer options is a mode that allows you to play a multiplayer game with a single copy of the game. It's not often that you're going to get eight PSPs and eight copies of the game into the same place at once, so it's kind of odd that there's no provision for a good old-fashioned session of "pass the PSP." Shame.

This isn't a game where any session's likely to be "relaxing," but it is a game where every session's going to be rewarding.

It's unfamiliar, challenging, abstruse, and yet intensely original and fascinating.

It's a great game in the same way its predecessor -- "SSX 3" -- was a great game. It is not, however, a great game in the same way "SSX Tricky" was before that -- that is to say, it won't go on to be <I>one of the greats.</I>

The game's been completely rebuilt from the ground up, yet stays ineffably faithful to the original.

Honestly, though, that's part of the problem. Way too much of your new game feels like you're just playing it safe.

Taken as a whole -- online included -- Fireteam Bravo 2 is a notable, laudable step above its predecessor. But for those of you with no interest in playing in infrastructure mode, don't expect too much more of a good thing. It's a step up, to be sure - just not a very big one.

The ambiance and atmosphere are usually enough all by themselves to suck you in; but never quite enough to make you ignore the hundred little things that matter.