Unfortunately, all these mild enjoyments delineated above are ruined by the bugs that crawl throughout this game. One bug wipes out all the cargo on your ship every time you set sail. Another prevents merchants from buying or selling anything. A third cuts off a minor side quest.

Like any good sequel, Lego Star Wars II improves on the original in almost every way. But most importantly, it's about the good episodes now. For that reason alone, Lego Star Wars II is one of the most enjoyable games of this fall.

Like any good sequel, Lego Star Wars II improves on the original in almost every way. But most importantly, it's about the good episodes now. For that reason alone, Lego Star Wars II is one of the most enjoyable games of this fall.

But the grand experiment of translating stylus swipes into intuitive no-look passes and alley-oops fails more often than it works, and that's the big "if" upon which the whole thing hangs.

It arrives looking like the work of someone who understands neither why we play games (to be entertained, not jerked around) nor the culture he's trying to parody.

Is NASCAR 07 a game, or a simulation? Well, yet again it's neither, and EA Tiburon has failed for the second year running to strike the glorious balance that it achieved with "NASCAR 05." It's certainly not "bad," but it's hardly the definitive game of the genre.

Is NASCAR 07 a game, or a simulation? Well, yet again it's neither, and EA Tiburon has failed for the second year running to strike the glorious balance that it achieved with "NASCAR 05."

The true strength of Nowhere to Run is built into its pick-up-and-play nature. It gets straight to the action, wasting no time indulging in slow-motion cinematic cut-scenes during battle sequences.

Offline, its hundreds of challenges and miles of roads will keep you satisfied for quite a while. But it's that moment, weaving through traffic in a Maserati, closing in on a TVR, with a Ferrari hot on your heels, all of them driven by real people -- who you're talking with at the same time -- that takes this game past its rivals.

If anything, Judgment should be lauded for its flawless cover of X2 Reload and for taking the old beat-em-up formula to rock star-like levels.

Yakuza is a wonderful foundation for a new fan-favorite series. And as an entry into the ever-growing criminal underground genre, Yakuza is a wholly unique, high-quality package that, while possessing as many flaws as it does triumphs, is a crime drama worth mentioning in the same breath as "The Godfather" (the movie, not the game).

Just as the visuals are perfect for the PSP's display, the mechanics are perfect for the PSP's button configuration, and the game design is perfect for the PSP's portability (it's easy to pick up and play at any given moment).

The true strength of Nowhere to Run is built into its pick-up-and-play nature. It gets straight to the action, wasting no time indulging in slow-motion cinematic cut-scenes during battle sequences.

If you have a younger sibling or a rugrat of your own, sure, it may well be worth dropping 30 bucks on this thing to express your affection or shut them up or whatever you need to do. You probably just won't want it for yourself.

The decidedly traditional approach that permeates every part of the game makes the decision to develop this as a "new-gen" game all the more odd, to say the very least.

There is no joy to be found within the data contained on this disc. Only crushing disappointment, suffering, and weak shin muscles.

UGnG gets the superficial bits right, yet the fundamental elements that have always made the series so compelling despite its esteem-crushing difficulty are either missing, compromised or broken in this sequel. And without those crucial underpinnings of quality in place, the entire affair collapses in a morass of mediocrity.

The battle system helps make the rest of the game come even closer to Final Fantasy X, and this time, that's a compliment. The result is a game that's faster and a little more fun to watch.

While the uninspiring adventure mode is excusable, the camera and the framerate problems are not; those two factors break the game.

Disgaea 2 adds only one significant new feature to its gameplay: the ability of stacked characters to attack.

If only half of the verve present in the swooping camera zooms and snazzy editing of the cut-scenes had managed to jump to the five hours or so of actual playtime, this might have been a pretty cool game.

Sure, "GTA"'s story and sense of humor were pretty infantile most of the time, but it was still damn funny and did a bang-up job of satirizing American pop culture and consumerism. In Saints Row, however, it all feels obligatory. Like it was something they just had to do, and the result is pretty lifeless.

Where the developers really missed the boat was in multiplayer. The standard combat arenas are all well and good, but that's pretty much all there is.

While Madden 07 does have a couple of great changes to its basic gameplay, it's beginning to feel like the same old game. It's a strong fundamental football game and lead blocker is a cool new feature, but it's not reinventing the wheel, like the passing cone was last year.

Taking manual control of the defensive secondary is a losing proposition. Neither the swat nor intercept moves respond intuitively to the buttons, and the new smoother animations seem to come with the penalty of making it harder to figure out what the right place is to make your move.

This is quite probably the only hardcore PC football game you're going to see this year, and it's a very good one.

A very respectable entry and a much better game than last year's version, even with a few unresolved issues.

If you have a younger sibling or a rugrat of your own, sure, it may well be worth dropping 30 bucks on this thing to express your affection or shut them up or whatever you need to do. You probably just won't want it for yourself.