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.

As neat as the touch-screen controls are, they don't take attention away from the rest of Freedom Wings' faults. The whole thing feels like a 1990's shareware PC game; it loves to dole out its action in small chunks.

There are some really cool ideas here that belong in a better game: the tech tree, the random encounters, command ratings, and the shipbuilding, for instance.

What's worse is that even if game design and locations fail to excite, then a good combat system could salvage the whole package. But again, Dirge fails to capitalize.

It's more than just "Dynasty Warriors for the Xbox 360" and becomes more entertaining the further you make your way into it, but some irritating design decisions, combined with horrible voice acting and the generally repetitious nature of the action, results in a game with limited appeal for a mass audience.

It's like a faster, more fluid "King's Field," all the way down to the ugly, 3DO-quality graphics -- not everyone's cup of mead, to be certain, but still a satisfying first-person hack-n-slash for those who prefer to take their treasure-hunting on the go.

If you've been craving the flavor of hot ion bolts and heat seekers, but can't bear to reinstall Freelancer yet again, DarkStar One should hit the proverbial spot.

A relentlessly inventive game worth the price of entry...The experience is flawed -- some might say hampered -- by the save system and curiously designed game structure. But whether you 'get it' or not, Dead Rising nevertheless provides a wealth of secrets and mysteries for both eager gamers and the adventuresome.

Broken World does offer everything an expansion should, after all: new game elements, new characters, tons of content, and fan-suggested tweaks. But, somehow, it still isn't all that much fun. The only conclusion to draw from this evidence is that the base game isn't very compelling in and of itself.

And that's the main reason to buy it: to simulate the exhilarating competitive spirit found in the arcades and to play against different people from all parts of the world -- all without ever leaving the comfort of your own home.

Like the original game, the best way to play FlatOut 2 is with a group of drunken buddies. No one's ever going to mistake it for anything more than it is: an adequate execution of a silly idea.

Like the original game, the best way to play FlatOut 2 is with a group of drunken buddies. No one's ever going to mistake it for anything more than it is: an adequate execution of a silly idea.

The monkeys stick to the comfortable security inside their balls and the platforming stays recognizably formulaic.

If your fetish for black gold is such that none of these problems dissuade you from getting one of the few games ever made on the oil business, you'll find a decent selection of scenarios, a free play mode, and even multiplayer. The rest of us should simply avoid the title and use the savings for gas money.

The D-pad issues are too problematic for this to be a perfect fighting game, but, as a game you can take anywhere, it's very close.

The game's short levels are made longer by the lack of a save feature. There's only one checkpoint per level and no health pickups anywhere; this kind of artificial difficulty gives nothing to the player but more frustration.

If you enjoyed your time with what was undoubtedly the best strategy game of 2005, but eventually moved on to other things, Warlords is enough to get you hooked all over again.

Too hard for novices, too repetitive for veterans, and too silly for warmongers, CivCity Rome falls into the netherworld of games that you wished you could've liked more.

There's some frame-skipping when things get really frantic, which is often, but it doesn't murder the experience.

WarPath's only saving grace is that, despite being one of the most forgettable FPSes we've ever seen, it's not actually bad when played with some real human beings. Unfortunately, there don't really seem to be very many human beings playing the game on Xbox Live.

As an originator, Valkyrie Profile is an inspired maverick in a field of me-too RPGs, beautiful to look at and exciting to play.

EA put a great deal of effort in capturing the emotional aspect of college football, but it mostly goes to waste because the Momentum Meter fails to accurately translate that energy and how it can impact what happens on the field.

Mixed with all of the elements that made the PS2 games successes, NCAA Football 2007 for the PSP is a fun hybrid to waste time with while on-the-go, despite some control issues and a serious error in the running game.

If only the Native American mysticism had figured in more. If only the spirit "death walk" had developed into something more than a shooting gallery. If only the voice acting and storytelling were a little better. If only there were more than just deathmatch to the multiplayer. All those half steps...but even combined, they don't amount to a stride backward.

An innovative take on how shooters and mech games can play, with a very nice addition of "collect-'em-all" gameplay from the variety of parts available.

If only the Native American mysticism had figured in more. If only the spirit "death walk" had developed into something more than a shooting gallery. If only the voice acting and storytelling were a little better. If only there were more than just deathmatch to the multiplayer. All those half steps...but even combined, they don't amount to a stride backward.

There isn't much depth to it all... But the formula itself is fun and the art and sound teams did an amazing job creating an immersive experience.

This superport does an admirable job of taking a complex PC game from an intimidatingly complex PC genre and making it an accessible console title. If any part of your heart enjoys playing on Live, you'll be too busy crushing the hobbits to even notice that you can't quite select the unit you were aiming for.