Crates and barrels aside, Batman Begins is generally a well-produced game. Its visuals are often striking, and are distinct in style from those of the film.

As a WWII fighting experience, it rivals EA's Medal of Honor in atmosphere and immersion. The in-game graphics are spectacular, with detailed aircraft and some lovely explosions, and the only obvious issue is some pop-in from high altitudes.

For being a bonus racer, there's nothing advantageous about playing as Banjo -- his stats are arguably below average, including some undesirable handling. You're better off continuing to save Sega Miles for the character you really want to play as.

With bonus songs from Perry's solo efforts and a fully animated Steven Tyler swallowing the microphone, the game's target audience is very clear -- and for them, the game's existence is justified.

Pariah's virtues, ultimately, are adult virtues: it's a solid, serious, deeply competent game. This competence may not prove an adequate substitute for the moment-to-moment buzz of the mindless FPS in its terminally adolescent pomp.

At its best, Darksiders plays like an interactive compilation of this console generation's most interesting game mechanics. At its worst, it's like sitting through a mediocre cover band as they fumble their way through your favorite tunes.

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.

Despite the moments that Lost Frontier falters, most of the game is a solid sequel that lives up to the Jak legacy. The platforming is a nice homage to the existing Jak games, and the flight combat builds a new element that feels both refreshing and familiar.

While the game has its fair share of annoying problems and suffers from being a bit too straightforward, it offers a solid off-road experience; motocross fans will be hard pressed to find a title better than this one.

Like golf, it's certainly a great game, albeit one with limited appeal.

A determined sea explorer can easily capture the bounty of the depths on film in an afternoon. Still, I enjoyed what I played and would definitely consider plopping down some cash for downloadable expansions (cave diving, please!).

The game simply bit off way more than it could chew with the stealth sections. The end result is certainly a thumbs up -- but only just.

I remember feeling concerned that the game was flying by way too fast, and it wasn't until I actually looked down at the total time played that it hit me that this thing isn't short: I was just enjoying it so much that I didn't notice.

Like golf, it's certainly a great game, albeit one with limited appeal.

With its massive song list and skill-based gameplay, Dance Dance Revolution is back and better than ever...Easily -- and by far -- the best game of "smash-the-arrows" in town.

It's a fine interpretation of the old brick-breaker style, and it should keep you entertained, even if it's only once or twice.

Where The Red Star is best is in its combat system, which brilliantly blends melee attacks, shooting, and blocking defenses. There's an almost poetic beauty with the mastery of these, as you unconsciously perform incredible attacks by switching between and blending the three.

All Stars serves up some fun arcade-style play and great mix of Legends and modern-day Superstars. However, the game's slow loading sorely needs to be fixed; and its Create A Superstar mode could definitely use a little more beefing up.

Sylpheed gets one thing perfectly right: the intensity of the dogfight. The sheer volume of things on your viewscreen during each sortie is almost overwhelming, but it adds that white-knuckle feeling that's so important to a game like this.

You can't help but feel like Artoon underachieved with Blinx 2 (especially with the boring, offline-only multiplayer mode), but you'll forgive them long enough to play through the game once.

Few developers have been able to master the horror aspects of games as well as Surreal has done in the two Suffering games thus far, and with a bit more balancing, this could have been a great current generation sendoff for players looking to move on to the next-generation terror of "F.E.A.R." and "Condemned."

Despite the high challenge level, Bangai-O is most definitely a "pick-up-and-play" experience, but it's best not to try and clear large parts of the game in one sitting -- and you won't, unless you know you're awesome. But even if you're not, you'll come back to it often.

It's a game of trade-offs and cautious play -- a challenge meant for hardcore RPG fanatics but amusing enough that newcomers might find it worthwhile, too.

If you're looking for just having some dumb fun driving in a big sprawling city, smashing and shooting every last thing in your way, then Wheelman is a great pick. However, it never even attempts to reinvent the wheel from any other free-roaming action-adventure.

All Stars serves up some fun arcade-style play and great mix of Legends and modern-day Superstars. However, the game's slow loading sorely needs to be fixed; and its Create A Superstar mode could definitely use a little more beefing up.

Though Fireteam Bravo 3 may not take many steps forward, it sure as hell doesn't take any steps back. (Which, after the promising but horrifically flawed experiment of Tactical Strike, is something of a relief.) It delivers that familiar SOCOM experience, and you know what? As dated as that's getting, it's still plenty entertaining.

While every part of this package is well made and fun, there's not much new -- no online to spice things up, no new graphical upgrades, and a movie that's many years old. But we suppose that's the point -- this is a way to celebrate the series being around for 15 years, and at that, Anniversary Collection does a good job.

Once you get into the rhythm of it, the back-and-forth between combat and outfitting gives Front Mission an enjoyable pace. There is a caveat, though: Trying to pound through multiple missions in any one sitting puts a significant damper on your enjoyment.