Lair is a game that you'll want for its eye-popping experience rather than its gameplay. So buy it if you want to justify all the thousands you spent on your PS3 and that 1080p HDTV you can see from the International Space Station. Don't buy it if you want a dragon that does what it's damn well told.

Its parts are largely equal, which only leads to confusion. What becomes most important: building card decks, or mastering the minigames? Or, in the big picture, do you buy this game to play minigames or go on a chocobo adventure? There are simply too many things vying for your attention, and more than likely, none of them will get much of it.

Sure, it's cool that you'll find references to some of the more popular third-person action titles, such as Prince of Persia's balance-beam act and hand-over-hand wall crawling, but nothing in here screams innovation.

The complexity in the competition's certainly a step up from "Wii Sports" and "Wii Play," but without the option to play how you want and when you want, this feels like just another souped-up minigame collection. It's enjoyable -- and to be honest, more fun than I expected -- but it's not quite the evolution of Wii Sports we've been looking for.

March Madness is decent, no question, but it dashes our high hopes. This one has a long way to go to feel like real college basketball on the court, and not just off of it. Even with all its glitter, it's dim when compared to the shiny "College Hoops 2K8."

Aside from bugs like that, annoying as they are, Punisher does a good job of translating the source material, right down to the dingy, everyday visuals and the character design for the lowlifes within.

Even by simply adding a little waggle to the dancepad, DDR: Hottest Party could have been a great game. Unfortunately, thanks to the god-awful setlist and generally poor presentation, it makes us want to take our dancing shoes elsewhere.

Blazing Angels is a lot of fun, but it's kept down by a lot of irritating levels. Hopefully for the sequel, we'll see an improvement in the mission types which aren't just dogfighting.

In short, this is a completely standard beat 'em up with nothing innovative, nothing that stands out, and a number of features that have been less than ideally copied from other games. Beyond that, it's a decent title.

Trouble is, your computer opponents verge on comatose.

You never quite reach the same pumped-up heights you get while playing similar games, like "NBA Ballers" or "NBA Street" -- and despite the tricks, online play, and generally responsive controls, it would take a serious interest in the AND 1 legacy to maintain any level of interest in this game.

While a simplistic RTS is a nice departure from NIS' regular library, GrimGrimoire feels too watered-down and too repetitive to take a place beside some of the other, critically acclaimed titles from this niche publisher.

ATV Offroad Fury 3 has one of the most complete set of online options seen a PS2 racing game. Excellent features like ranking, messaging and downloadable ghosts provide all the community extras to go with the main events that support up to six-players.

Every Extend is as addictive as the best puzzlers, so it's painful to see its pumped-up remake bogged down by over-the-top special effects.

FlatOut basically feels like a slightly more frustrating successor to the original "Destruction Derby" series on the PlayStation 1 (well, the first two games). It does have a lot to offer, but it all feels a bit soulless somehow.

In its current state, it's a crippled -- yet still decent -- wrestling title. Much like its console big brother.

The difference between Parallel Lines and "DRIV3R" is that while the previous game was a pretty half-assed "GTA" clone, Parallel Lines is more like a three-quarters-assed "GTA" clone. Maybe even four-fifths-assed.

It's hard to say whether you'll have the patience to create a life of virtual luxury, or lose your sanity and find yourself seeking the quickest way out of the life of a castaway.

A competent, if not actually great shooter that introduces some novel ideas that don't always work all that well.

Lost Magic lacks a compelling story or decent balance for the single-player mode, so Wi-Fi battles are pretty much the selling point here. The question is whether or not that's enough, in your opinion, to overcome the game's innate shortcomings.

A colossal waste of an opportunity. The game throws together over 10 years' worth of characters from eight of the previous entries in the series, but for some inexplicable reason it sends these fan favorites not on a grand adventure but on a series of tedious fetch quests.

This one has a long way to go to feel like real college basketball on the court, and not just off of it. Even with all its glitter, it's dim when compared to the shiny "College Hoops 2K8."

The Sims 2: Castaway differs just enough from previous iterations that fans of the series and newcomers alike can find plenty to enjoy. However, how long the entertainment lasts will boil down to how long it takes the player to grow tired of the repetitive tasks of Sim survival.

Towards the end, the game kind of gives up on itself. The final two levels are overly repetitive, followed by a trio of boss fights in outer space that are twice as long and annoying (but just as easy) as the previous ones. And then... it's over.

ArmA is a game best left to guys who know how to disassemble a .223 rifle.

Dewy's Adventure has some admirable qualities to it, but the control issues keep it from truly shining.

The load times ruin this game. Just going into the pregame menus will buy you several seconds of delay as the system freezes up. Restarting a course will only take a few seconds, but the initial track load will usually clock between one and three minutes. That's right, sports fans, we said three minutes.

But when the balance shifts from "I'm going to keep trying because I know I can get better" to "I'm going to keep trying to justify the $50 I just spent," then there's a problem.