Ratchet: Deadlocked doesn't push any boundaries; it doesn't break any ground. It's not haute cuisine. But sometimes you're just in the mood for peanut butter and for that, there's nothing better -- it's a little salty, a little sweet, and tremendously satisfying.

The controls are surprisingly solid. Once you adapt to the small venue, the mechanics flow pretty well.

Morrowind is still the most ambitious single-player RPG ever created. You will get lost in this game if you let its spell take effect over you, and no matter how many times you say "Aaagghh, why did the game do that to me?!!", you'll end up coming back again after you've chilled out a bit.

FPS snobs often talk smack about the TimeSplitters franchise for lacking sophistication and for being a bit silly, but the key to its success has always been that it puts fun ahead of any pretension. If that's what you value most, you could do far worse.

And unlike previous baseball video games MLB 2K5 moves at a nice pace.

Although some areas of the game were frustrating (beware the last boss), The Two Thrones features a classic interactive ending sequence and epilogue that nicely wraps up the whole trilogy and does the seemingly impossible -- that is, it makes you forgive and forget the lost years represented by The Warrior Within, and lets you to judge the trilogy on the whole.

It's not a game, and because you're never taught anything new, it's not really even "edutainment" -- Brain Age is a tool, one that sharpens your mind not just for playing real games, but living real life as well.

Like any good sequel, Lego Star Wars II improves on the original in almost every way. But most importantly, it's about the good episodes now. For that reason alone, Lego Star Wars II is one of the most enjoyable games of this fall.

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

If an absolutely brilliant story, finely detailed characterization, and faultless attention to canonical detail are what you're after, then, X-Men Legends is not what you're looking for. If you want a good game, though, and an especially good game to play with a couch full of superhero fans, this is the game to get.

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>

It's not the best-designed shooter of the year, and it's far from the nicest-looking, but it is one of the most fun to play, thanks to solid controls and some of the most drop-dead hilarious cutscenes in recent memory.

Rugby 08's greatest asset is the simplicity of the controls. Rugby's a fast-moving sport, with lots of things to do, but almost every action feels intuitive.

Because the co-op missions are just gussied-up versus matches, and because the versus game doesn't have any variations in objectives (spies simply hack at computer terminals to retrieve files to return to the starting base) or modes, multiplayer may start to wear out more quickly than in previous editions.

A lot of bang for the bullion -- whether you crave a detailed toy-soliders-in-1197-AD simulator or a complex, rewarding Civ-style strategy game, this Total War is a total package.

A relentlessly inventive game worth the price of entry...The experience is flawed -- some might say hampered -- by the save system and curiously designed game structure. But whether you 'get it' or not, Dead Rising nevertheless provides a wealth of secrets and mysteries for both eager gamers and the adventuresome.

If you can handle the game's particular style (provided you live close enough to a Wal-Mart to buy one -- that's the only place you can get it), you'll find this a surprisingly well-designed game that offers significant playtime, will nurture latent gardening addictions, and will give you the goofiest "god game" experience you've had in a long, long time.

Griptonite has struck a delicate balance between utter linearity and the brain-numbing redundancy of "Harvest Moon," and the end result works pretty well.

An innovative take on how shooters and mech games can play, with a very nice addition of "collect-'em-all" gameplay from the variety of parts available.

An incredibly subjective experience, and it certainly won't be to everyone's liking. Yet at its best, the game turns Nintendo's DS into an odd spin on the iPod -- an intimate, portable, personal musical experience that shifts and changes each time you touch the screen.

The Superstar control sets will ensure that each game has a lengthy highlight reel while keeping the gameplay fast and fun. Fundamental issues with the game and its key features keep it out of the upper echelon of basketball titles.

A landmark in what some might consider more "casual" fighting games. Not only is it great fun, but it's the best fighting game on GameCube (sorry, Smash Bros is not a traditional fighting game), and one of the best 3D fighters around.

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.

In order to work within the mechanics of the sim, only the game-created factors figure into how well-received your movies are. The experience of creating your own movies during the game is rendered hollow by knowing that no matter how much tweaking you do, it doesn't figure into it.

World in Conflict packs a dizzying learning curve. Even with a dozen or so games under my sexy cummerbund, I felt like my choices were far too random. Multiplayer is especially exacting, requiring impeccable teamwork and constant communication to keep matches from capsizing into total pandemonium.

Better than any PSP shooter yet, Dark Mirror functions without a second analog stick. The extraordinary grace of the remaining controls is enough to almost forget how nice dual-stick control would be.

If the first game was a mere starter pack -- and it was -- then fans of Naruto will be very pleased with the selection of fighters and features found here.

It's kind of like a junior sandbox approach that younger gamers will enjoy because they can just trundle around without crashing or waiting for loads and older kids will love because it allows them to explore a large area and find characters and items that they'll recognize from the movie.