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.

Rarely do you ever find a dungeon-crawling action game as well thought-out as this one; a game that is feature-rich, playable, beautiful, is downright addictive, and does the Dungeon Siege lineage justice.

[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.

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. With a throng of mischievous pets as the game's centerpiece, you'd expect 'em to be a little better housebroken.

For the first time ever, Lara Croft controls fluidly -- her world isn't divided into little squares, and she can perform complex series of acrobatic maneuvers without a pause (and often has to, later in the game).

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.

Taken on its own terms, Lament of Innocence is a resounding success, and one of the best 3D action games on PS2.

In short, to make the game more accessible to Star Wars fans, the RTS elements -- while innovative and fun -- lack the depth that can define genre greats. Nevertheless, the Force is strong with this one.

The story progression, variety of missions and locations, appropriate alternate costumes and great controls make it easy to buy into this world.

A GBA game that successfully <I>feels</I> like Payne, even though everyone's tiny and doesn't curse as much.

Hexic 2 is an excellent puzzle game on its own merits, but the original was perfection. For fans of the first game, multiplayer, new pieces, and new leaderboards to conquer should be well worth the 800 Marketplace points (around $10), but those who haven't given the series the time of day should explore the original first.

Despite the load time issue, an occasional problem with being able to see certain cars and roadside objects that blend into the dark backgrounds, and a slightly reduced sense of speed overall, there's very little to criticize here.

The D-pad issues are too problematic for this to be a perfect fighting game, but, as a game you can take anywhere, it's very close.

The biggest problem, if it can be called one, with Phantom Hourglass is that it's too beholden to what's come before it. Innovation arrives in tiny steps, touch screen controls be damned.

A gaggle of inferior strategy-RPG options sporting higher asking prices already litters the PSP's substandard role-playing pool, so this fully competent, polished game should be an instant no-brainer for fans of the genre.

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.

Now we get a single game whose only extras are wireless multiplayer and the ability to save high-scores... manually. Logically speaking, the next step will be to charge full price for incomplete versions of the game.

The easily defeated final boss and drivel of an ending may not adequately complete a piece of fiction that shouldn't have ever started the way it did, but they are not harmful enough to completely negate the worth of an otherwise stylish and polished action game.

If Sakaguchi intends to turn Lost Odyssey into a franchise -- and all indications are that he does -- I'd like to see these refreshingly adult themes expanded on further in future titles.

The Xbox enhancements aren't all they could have been. The great majority of Tenchu is still the same as before -- the camera's still tough to wrangle sometimes, guards still forget about your presence six seconds after spotting you, and aiming thrown weapons like shuriken is still a crapshoot.

While ancient China seems forever destined to bust apart at the seams, and Koei seems forever destined to remind us of this, DW5 rejuvenates the series with a series of subtle changes that make it worth taking the plunge yet again.

Etrian Odyssey will definitely appeal more to the OCD'd than the ADD'd, and its punishing difficulty and very deliberate pacing may turn off younger gamers who grew up on flashier roleplayers. But it offers a real sense of wonder and a sense of accomplishment -- feelings missing from far too many modern games.

The combat may feel satisfyingly fresh, but the game's visuals look dated. Bland textures, simple geometry, and bouts of slowdown abound, and distressing load times hearken back to an earlier, more annoying RPG age.

The dual-protagonist storytelling manages to be both compelling and original, the multiplayer is a guns-blazing good time, and the entire aesthetic (not just the graphics, mind you, but the art direction, music, and sound) will have you ordering up a good sarsaparilla in no time.

As fanservice, The Warriors is a treat for anyone who loves the movie, and as a beat-em-up, it outclasses recent efforts from competitors. Yet as a complete package, it's somewhat inconsistent.

You won't spend as much time with True Crime, but that time will be spent enjoying nicer visuals and a very deep story experience, as opposed to flipping cars across parking garages.

A surprising combination of both weirdness and wonder, this should help pass the time between now and "Twilight Princess."

If only the Native American mysticism had figured in more. If only the spirit "death walk" had developed into something more than a shooting gallery. If only the voice acting and storytelling were a little better. If only there were more than just deathmatch to the multiplayer. All those half steps...but even combined, they don't amount to a stride backward.