Each stage is memorable...They all combine for an unforgettable adventure through 36 hectic, desperate hours of a group of soldiers' lives...A visual and visceral masterpiece.

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.

Whereas "Call of Duty 2" did an incredible job creating the illusion of an open environment, it's just the reverse here. You feel hemmed in and herded along at every turn, and the pacing also reflects that. Unless you rush forward, progress in the game grinds to a halt -- no considered approaches or tactical positioning, just advance and keep firing.

What Neversoft has built in Tony Hawk's Project 8 is, without a doubt, its masterpiece. The series has evolved into a sort of "evens are groundbreaking, and the odds are great" formula, but not only is this the greatest of the series, it's the best entry since "THPS4," which has long been the series' crowning achievement.

For fans of the series, you'll feel like the developers ordered the series to "hold its position" because it hasn't gone that far from the previous SOCOM. And unfortunately for us, unlike your teammates in the game, it actually obeys every order.

But while a ton of awesome bands are represented (Nirvana, Guns N' Roses, Anthrax, All That Remains, Kansas, and so on) Guitar Hero II is still missing a few megaton metal bands -- mainly Metallica, Iron Maiden, and AC/DC. But no one will ever be happy, so instead of crying, crank the volume and bang your head until your brain busts.

Even if you can't find people to play in the two-player modes, the story mode has enough action-packed content to soak up the entire DBZ legacy, and to keep you busy for a long, long time.

Puzzle mode feels overly familiar, and the new Mission mode isn't actually that different than the Puzzle mode. Still, the core single-player experience is as addictive and elegant as ever, and this UMD will stay locked in your PSP for weeks to come.

Very few games can truly claim to be for all players of all ages, and this is one of them. With a delirious mix of slapstick humor, comic storytelling, infectious music, and tons of replayability, Elite Beat Agents is one of the best music-oriented games to date and stands among the cream of the DS's impressive library. Don't miss it.

Daisy-chaining raw resources to refined goods to end products hasn't been this gratifying in years.

The conversion from Super NES to GBA is rock-solid, and American gamers who are only familiar with this "lost" classic from its shoddy PlayStation repackaging will be pleasantly surprised at how incredibly fast this game is.

The problem is that it plays like Tony Hawk's 1999 debut. Worse yet, it's not even on par with that.

An entertaining adventure that boasts impressive production values, especially given its origins in a tiny development house. Its greatest failing is that it stands uneasily on the line between arcade-action and console-adventure.

The graphics are almost painfully cute, and the pseudo-physics system that causes enemies, objects, and heroes to ping-pong around the screen with abandon can make combat entertainingly chaotic. It's good, clean, dumb fun. There's just not much to it, or of it.

From beginning to end, this is the most complex Final Fantasy game yet, and it's just as evident in its plot as in its mechanics.

In its current state, and for those who just want a single-player RPG, this is recommended to D&D diehards only, who are probably the only ones with enough goodwill to slog through the problems. Everyone else -- wait awhile. A great RPG is in here somewhere; it's just not ready yet.

Instead of creating a wide variety of situations, the dev team relied on key-card hunts, escort missions, and (surprisingly pointless) vehicle-piloting sections ad nauseam.

While as nice as it is to see a classic arcade-style game get its due, what the world really needed wasn't a regurgitation of Power Stone 1 and 2; it needed Power Stone 3, brought up to spec with advancements in game design and all the things players have become accustomed to in other games.

This isn't to say that ATV Offroad Fury 4 is bad, it's just that its handheld sibling is a little more imaginative.

The younger set might not mind backtracking through old levels, hunting high and low for weapon parts (and that last, pesky, unsmashed crate). But other aspects of Root of Evil definitely aim older, such as the characters -- which include a dead boy, conjoined brainiac twins, and a wiseacre baby with stumps for limbs in a jar of formaldehyde.

While Carbon is peppered with clever little ideas, ultimately it falls victim to EA's insistence on annually iterating the franchise. It refines previous ideas but lacks that big "wow" factor we've seen in the past. It's thoroughly, thoroughly competent and shouldn't be overlooked, but it really is "Need for Speed Again."

It refines previous ideas but lacks that big "wow" factor we've seen in the past. It's thoroughly, thoroughly competent and shouldn't be overlooked, but it really is "Need for Speed Again."

Own the City still isn't the best racer on the PSP -- Burnout and Wipeout are both better -- but it's a major step in the right direction for a series that has been stuck in a major rut.

It's a shame Rockstar chose not to fix obvious flaws that have been called out repeatedly, but the weight of the total experience more than counterbalances this disappointment, making PSP owners, however briefly, the envy of those in the portable war.

It's solid, but its subtle gameplay stutters make us hesitate to recommend it too strongly -- and all the more impatient for Winning Eleven's next iteration.

It refines previous ideas but lacks that big "wow" factor we've seen in the past. It's thoroughly, thoroughly competent and shouldn't be overlooked, but it really is "Need for Speed Again."

It refines previous ideas but lacks that big "wow" factor we've seen in the past. It's thoroughly, thoroughly competent and shouldn't be overlooked, but it really is "Need for Speed Again."

Rarely do you ever find a dungeon-crawling action game as well thought-out as this one; a game that is feature-rich, playable, beautiful, is downright addictive, and does the Dungeon Siege lineage justice.