If you can get over a cast of characters talking and talking and talking but not really saying much of anything, you may find Solatorobo much more enjoyable than I did -- though the game's patronizing insistence on holding your hand through just about every challenge can be just as frustrating.

It's fine for gamers who don't mind waiting months between episodes, but if you want to get the real charm of the story and art, it's best to just read the comic book.

Because of the relatively short amount of time I've had with Aion, and, to be honest, a general apathy toward playing any further, I've not yet experienced the so-called "PvPvE" endgame that lies in the central Abyss zone.

But this much is certain: when you put the game in and start playing, you'll actually be able to play a game of baseball. That alone is a huge improvement over last year's title.

It's an acquired taste. And for die-hard pirate fans, it's the only MMO that offers eye patches and peg legs as rewards. What are you waiting for?

Worth a look for anyone who simply craves a quality RPG for the GBA.

An unfocused baseball game that neither excels as an arcade experience nor as a baseball game -- it's only an average player in the bigs.

Almost everything about this anthology speaks of class, care, and quality, and the ability to play several of the series' "missing" chapters should be more than enough for any American Gradius fan to take the plunge.

The problem is that Hell's Highway doesn't make me care about the characters as much as the other installments did.

Like other recent favorites Lumines and N+, Peggle hides a thoroughly entertaining and enduring payload behind its deceptively simplistic approach, taking over your platform of choice with its charming mix of wit and lucky bounces.

Here's the problem: both the action-packed style and the stealth style show promise, but neither is fully polished.

I want to like Flashpoint 2, but instead, I just feel like the game is telling me: "war is hell, sorry."

Kingdom shelves any cleverness, attaching training wheels to your creativity for the first two-thirds of the game. It's not until the last few islands that you're given an invitation to be creative.

Though Batman's got a well-developed mythos, he lacks enough specific, widely remembered scenes ripe for parody.

An interesting, entertaining adventure in its own right. Atlus' latest probably won't be to everyone's tastes, but anyone looking for a lengthy, engrossing and above all unique handheld quest this summer would be remiss in passing it up.

Still, like I mentioned, the game is not that long. Nor is it nearly as deep as the Contras it attempts to emulate.

All of the things EA did right with FIFA World Cup 2006 are overshadowed by the simple truth that what should be the most fun part of the game -- having exciting scoring chances -- is completely negated by shoddy game performance near the nets.

The quests are fun and quirky, and the animals all look adorable. With it's plodding pace, it's not going to try draw in a new audience, but if you love Harvest Moon games, Animal Parade delivers just what you want.

Quest for Booty's a fine addition to the Ratchet & Clank world, but what should've been a love letter to fans ends up serving better as a taste of what outsiders are missing -- and, as a fan, that makes me just a little bit sad.

Worth a tour if you really loved the movie, but maybe less so if you've already played the hell out of Vice City. We can't really blame Scarface for the familiarity of the setting, but the fact remains that we've been here before.

Think of it like this: the Wii-mote has already proven it can be a good FPS controller, so what's wrong in bringing a good FPS to Wii? Modern Warfare is still an excellent game, even when it's done "good enough" on weaker technology, and like it or not, Reflex fills a niche. Maybe there's a family that only owns a Wii, but with a dad who might enjoy something a little rougher than Mario Kart.

Dominator isn't so much a "sequel" as it is just "another Burnout," and the saddest thing of all is that it takes several steps back in the process.

And speaking of multiplayer, that's about all you'll want Multiwinia for. Repetitive maps, exploitable A.I., and a lack of any backstory or plot whatsoever hamper the single-player mode. That said, the game does have "multi" in its title, and for the price (about $20), you could do worse for an online time-waster.

The problem is that Hell's Highway doesn't make me care about the characters as much as the other installments did.

It's puzzling that the team behind MVP 07 chose to keep these significantly less active, albeit authentic, elements in its game. The result: This is a great game to check your e-mail to...The time waste pushes a nine-inning game into 45-minute territory, when a game could last no more 30 minutes if they scissored out the nonsense.

While Chessmaster Live isn't going to suddenly fatten up the ranks of wannabe grandmasters, it does offer nearly everything you'd want in a competitive simulator while including all the necessary tools for engrossing offline and online matches. It's also a great chess educator.

It's simply trying to be the best console WWII shooter ever created, and in this it almost certainly succeeds. The single-player game is short, yes, but it's incredibly epic (in the cinematic definition of the term), and multiplayer should keep you playing long after the main campaign is over.

Well, yeah. I think it's pretty darn fun.