The controls hold up better than in most platformers, the levels are well-designed, and your character has a good repertoire of attacks. There's a lot of variety, too.

Please God, afford Egosoft the time needed to rework the game via some sort of expansion, patch or Gold Edition so that I may finally be content with existence. As is, this bizarre flip-flop of "Freelancer" that features no interface or enjoyable action but a ton of diversity and extended appeal just isn't any better than all right.

May not be an outstanding game, but darn it if it isn't enjoyable. Its biggest fault is its lack of inspiration.

I haven't played a better game all year.

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.

The end result is a good-if-you're-into-it, poorly performing, but interesting social experiment that seems more geared toward determining how players will react to certain situations than challenging them in new and exciting ways to accomplish tasks that are fun and engaging.

Too many corners were cut to ensure the timely shipping of this PS2 release, and Rockstar Vienna's lack of care shines through.

Since nothing, not even "Undrentide," is as polished and well done as Hordes, the expansion is still an obvious purchase for fans of the series who may have every user created module to date.

All of this is handled well enough, but there's nothing special to it.

The end result is a good-if-you're-into-it, poorly performing, but interesting social experiment that seems more geared toward determining how players will react to certain situations than challenging them in new and exciting ways to accomplish tasks that are fun and engaging.

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.

There is a place for games that are simply very, very well-executed, and BG&E fills that role with panache. But every time a cutscene pops up, it reminds you that it could have been so much more.

One of the most standard, bland, monotonous, poorly done, and "easy money on paper" titles I've seen in quite some time.

If you were expecting Sword of Mana to be the classic RPG that "FF Adventure" was, though, you may want to lower your expectations slightly. If you don't, you may be surprised -- in both good and bad ways.

It's a simple puzzle game, along the lines of something you would find pre-installed on a computer. But nicer looking, and with a lot more style.

Since the game mechanic is so straightforward, BlowOut is a very good game to pick up and play for short periods of time without losing ground. Aside from occasional frustrations, it's cheap, mindless shooting fun.

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.

Despite its relentlessly "noir" (French for "melodramatic," I guess) storyline, Max Payne 2 does an even better job of pulling players into the game than even its predecessor -- and that's saying something. The graphics, in fact, do a lot more to push the game's gritty atmosphere than the story.

A more general problem is that the gameplay doesn't do much new, or even contemporary for that matter. You do the general flip-switching and item collecting types of missions, and your firepower is very typical.

May not be an outstanding game, but darn it if it isn't enjoyable. Its biggest fault is its lack of inspiration.

A very standard beat 'em up/third-person shooter that has many of the elements you'd expect (minor upgrades between levels, slow-motion special power) and none that you wouldn't.

A very standard beat 'em up/third-person shooter that has many of the elements you'd expect (minor upgrades between levels, slow-motion special power) and none that you wouldn't.

A very standard beat 'em up/third-person shooter that has many of the elements you'd expect (minor upgrades between levels, slow-motion special power) and none that you wouldn't.

If "Need for Speed Underground" had an inbred cousin (possibly by "Bust-a-Groove"), and that cousin was mutated by exposure to radiation, I'm forced to conclude that Lowrider would be the result.

Fans of the system should have no reservations about picking up a copy; it was put together under the supervision of several of the console's original programmers, and their love for Intellivision shines through in the detail and polish of the package.

What seems to be at the root of this problem is the game's story. The further in you get, the more plot holes open, until by the end of the game you have the nagging suspicion that none of this makes very much sense.

Decent enough while it lasts, but not exceptional in any way. It's the sort of game you play through once and never pick up again -- in fact, the default difficulty is easy enough that this cycle can complete itself in a weekend if you give it some effort.

It's addictive, funny, and will make you feel more than a little sad when it's over.