I really must say I initially expected a slightly more epic feel during certain segments of the game. Some scenes are a bit underwhelming, as is the very ending of the game.

In spite of certain drawbacks, I went through the entire single-player campaign and had a great time. Things were moved up a notch in Fable II (a bit more than just a notch, actually), but on the whole, you can expect the same kind of experience as in The Lost Chapters. We mean that in a good way.

Despite some of its technical issues and repetitiveness, I feel compelled to play this game until I finish the entire single-player campaign. Each mission means you work your ass off and that makes a nice change over the traditional FPS formula.

In the end, flaws like repetitive missions, dumb enemy AI, in addition to generally poor graphics, prevent Saints Row 2 from joining this year's list of top releases. Mind you, it doesn't stop this from being good clean fun.

The AI, unlike many recent releases, works very well and is extremely persistent in tearing Isaac's body to shreds before letting him to escape. It's solid a challenge altogether, throwing a few interesting boss fights into the mix as well.

The terrain deformation, a few cool weapons and the multiplayer salvage this from being complete junk. All in all, there must be at least 100 better ways to spend 60 bucks.

The single-player campaign is reasonably lengthy, offering a range of challenging tasks in a number of different areas. But thanks to several AI flaws, repetitive mission structure, chances are you'll get a bit fed up with the whole thing before completing the main story.

Weak writing, the retro look and other flaws of King's Bounty shouldn't stop you from trying the game out. There's a beautifully presented fantasy world just waiting to be discovered, along with a long single-player game crammed with enough content to guarantee a lot of hours of good clean fun.

It's a decent game, although not nearly as groundbreaking as we hoped. Once you complete it, I'm afraid there won't be much to lure you back.

A good deal, perhaps even better than Crysis. For $29.99 (which indeed is cheaper than a lot of releases today) it offers a compelling single-player ride (provided you're an "enthusiast"), new weapons and a satisfying and rather enjoyable multiplayer component.

I think the developers would've had a winner on their hands if they invested more time into fine-tuning the AI and ironing out serious bugs, as opposed to merely beefing up the visuals and adding more random side-quests -most of which take you through the same areas we've witnessed the first time around. As a result, Clear Sky is, in fact, an underdeveloped shooter with wasted potential.

Jamming with friends to some classic tunes that span 4 decades and a variety of genres is a load of fun and a great way to waste an evening. The new features are not enough to convert anyone who can't stand rhythm games to begin with but to anyone who enjoys this kind of experience should go out and add Rock Band 2 to their library today.

Spore is an impressive and ambitious mix of game genres. Perhaps at some point, the developers saw it as overambitious, so it's obvious they started losing perspective a bit.

The whole game feels like an insipid GTA clone that overemphasizes mindless destruction. For some games, this is enough, if it's done with style. In Mercs 2, it just feels pointless and without soul.

The classes and the huge amount of skills are mildly entertaining. You could rent the game and try it out, but that's as far as I'd go.

What the developers tried to do is wrap "Dungeon Siege" into a sci-fi package resembling "Mass Effect" and have failed miserably at it. While it certainly lacks the depth and epic atmosphere of "Mass Effect" and similar top releases, it also doesn't live up to the rich content and immersive settings of the "Dungeon Siege" games.

I really expected more from the Story mode - the storyline is rather substandard, almost non-existent, in fact. In a nutshell, the game's single-player portion feels a bit underdone, offering a slightly vague depiction of the characters, save for sporadic cut-scenes followed by a brief texts, explaining precious little.

The gameplay is addictive, leaving plenty of room for experimenting with tons of cool moves and fighting styles.

There's quite a lot to enjoy in this game. In most aspects, it stays true to the traditions of the genre, provided you can stomach the unnecessarily lengthy prologue and the aforementioned drawbacks (bad camera, lousy voiceovers, atrocious vehicle physics and so on).

On the technical side of things, there's really nothing bad we can say about this game.

All it does is create a temporarily engaging experience thanks to the adrenaline-pumping hand-to-hand combat. Be that as it may, Bourne Conspiracy is a game you'll probably keep playing until you become fed up with the shooting segments (and let's not forget that lousy car chase).

Ninja Gaiden 2 is a button-mashing fest, but one that gets increasingly fun if you stay with it, regardless of how difficult it gets sometimes. Simultaneously, it is a great challenge, most of all for newcomers.

Race Driver: GRID may not be the right choice for rally veterans, particularly those who have enjoyed earlier installments in Codemasters' CMR series or TOCA series.

The only thing is that we were looking forward to more innovative elements, next to Indiana's unique abilities, swinging and climbing on ropes and such. The gameplay style is getting a bit stale at this point.

It terms of visuals, Mass Effect delivers in every sense.

Much to our discontent, Iron Man joins the long list of crappy movie tie-ins, sinking lower than Treyarch's "Spider-Man 3" and even lower than Shiny's "Enter the Matrix."

You cannot fly a plane though. But with the amount of stuff you can actually do in this game, mentioning something like that would be like complaining about the frame color on a Picasso painting.

The story isn't brilliant, but definitely interesting enough to make you play on. But don't forget, you'll also need a powerful PC to run the game smoothly with all the visuals maxed.

The whole thing pretty much boils down to a lot of rinse and repeat, but I still played the damn game because I like Vikings so much.

Regrettably, Kane's Wrath doesn't exactly do a good job of delivering on the kind of epic single-player experience you'd hope to get after an excellent campaign from the previous game.

Multiplayer is bound to keep you occupied and the fact that you can overcome battle situations in a unique way each time, offers a solid amount of replayability.

The game does, however, take a significant step forward in terms of first-person combat realism.

Whoever designed the levels in this game, clearly didn't bring a lot of effort or imagination into it.

If you've already played Bully on the PS2, it's safe to say you'll find all the new elements a rather cool addition to the game.

Although it's always nice to see developers facing challenges and taking their talents across new ground, in Bizarre's case, it's safe to say they're far better off making racers.

The immersion is there, the gameplay can be fun, but overall, Lost Odyssey fails to "go the distance" as a modern-day RPG. Whilst it offers a unique twist to the genre, it definitely lacks more content and depth to be regarded as a truly great RPG. Hardcore RPG gamers won't find it rewarding enough.

Turok is a fun FPS game, but one that lacks depth in many aspects. In the end, odds are players will fail to immerse themselves in a setting as bland and superficial as this.

If you haven't played any of the previous Devil May Cry games, ironically, this is the best place to start, since it offers the best performance and a truly rewarding single-player experience.

Once again, the gents and ladies at Petroglyph haven't disappointed. However, there's still nothing groundbreaking to be had here and due to the aforementioned slip ups, the game failed to achieve its full potential. But it comes very close.

The unprecedented level of cinematic quality, the fun combat coupled with the customary insightfulness of writing is what makes this game a must-have. It's what makes BioWare still stand out as one of the top in their field.

Familiar elements from Hitman are felt throughout the game. While some gamers may find this a welcomed facet, it's really disappointing that after all these years Io didn't show enough determination and creativity to bring something new to the scene of contemporary shooters.

If senseless, over-the-top violence can keep you entertained, you'll be done with the single-player portion in several hours, after which you might want to get into the multiplayer. Yet, this is just another mundane aspect of the game, featuring nothing beyond the traditional deathmatch, CTF and so on.

Everything that made "Far Cry" good was successfully taken to the next level in Crysis (with the possible exception of the AI). Even if we are looking at one of the biggest hardware hogs ever to grace the PC platform, and despite the AI issues, this first-person shooter comes highly recommended from us.

I felt like Ubisoft Montreal has made this game exclusively to be shown at gaming conventions. They have this great tech demo, this one looping level complete with cool graphics and gameplay mechanics, but they ultimately had no idea what to do with it. They just kept on going with these derivative missions until you become fed up with it.

Customization and realistic damage represent modest signs of progress and they make the gameplay interesting for a while. These additions, as I'm sure most of you will agree, fail to compensate for all those things that made ProStreet's predecessors shine - free-roam driving, outracing the cops, story-driven gameplay and so on.

Quite simply, the game is too easy. Other than balancing society energies and chasing a few meager trophies, you won't find much to entertain you here. The game is far from an "ultimate building block tool kit." SimCity has gone from a complex game to a toned down and largely underwhelming city builder with very little to hold your attention.

With nothing to play aside from the unexciting World Domination and Skirmish modes, I honestly cannot say this game is worth your time and money.

The improvements to the interface, speed, etc. make this a superior game to the original without adding significant difficulties (which it already contained in spades). It doesn't make the game easier to learn, but if it's your cup of tea, consider this a bigger, nicer looking cup.

The performance is excellent, the crispy-clean 1600x1200 resolution certainly helped and the controls feel a lot more natural on the PC.

While many other games try for a Hollywood block-buster feel, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare pulls it off like no one else ever has and does so in great fashion.

Sure Hellgate: London has many features that are found in the Diablo series but they have not made a Diablo clone. The games could be called kissing cousins but for all its downsides, HG:L can be an addicting experience.

Take notes, Obsidian. This is how stuff should be done.

With fair potential, all TimeShift has become is another generic FPS, with a mediocre setting, underwhelming gameplay and absolutely no story, let alone any character depth. Its features are barely enough to keep you occupied for a few hours until something better shows up.

I guess I would recommend it to Clive Barker fans. Bear in mind that there are obvious drawbacks to it, too. If you can live with the abovementioned issues (mostly concerning the tedious elements in the level design and its appearance), you will find stuff that you can like in this one.

The Orange Box is a mix of conceptually different products that when combined, provide great entertainment on so many different levels.

The addition of dark powers broadens the depth of the game and blends perfectly with the storyline.

Instead of just competing with Pro Evo Soccer outright, the designers were smart enough to reexamine the gameplay from a more fundamental level and "Be A Pro" mode of play achieves this smoothly and effectively.

The work that has gone into balancing each class clearly shows when playing on each side. Graphically the game looks good enough for the fast-paced matches, though it might not justify the steep hardware requirements.

PGR4 has more horsepower under its hood than initially meets the eye. The fourth game was carefully constructed to use the latest technology as a mere tool in reaching the ultimate design goal for this one - which is to make PGR 4 a fun and rewarding gameplay experience.

Spiderman Friend or Foe for the Xbox 360 has a lot going for it and players can have a good time as long as they understand that this is a game that has been targeted towards a younger audience or the causal gamer.

On the one hand, the level design feels absolutely superb, showing the sort of versatility and pacing that awesome shooters are made of. On the other hand, this is exactly the reason why single-player feels so short and why it IS so short.

In terms of tactics, the possibilities are almost endless.

The range of units and a vast number of air support that can be called in, makes for some exciting and well-balanced multiplayer battles. Also, it's easy to coordinate attacks with players via the built-in VOIP chat system.

In a nutshell, it's safe to say that with Stranglehold, you will be getting exactly what you paid for: over-the-top arcade action with a Hong Kong twist and trademark Woo choreography.

Nonetheless, despite some of its shortcomings, I still recommend MoH: Airborne to shooter fans. With a couple of patches that tweak the AI and collision detection, one should overlook the lack of more single-player content as the gameplay experience you'll get is rewarding enough to warrant a purchase.

Instead of messing with the familiar basic gameplay mechanics, Creative Assembly decided to deliver as much fresh content as possible, which means you'll be busy with the game for quite some time. Each campaign provides a unique experience and we fully recommend the game to fans of the series.

Overall, we were mostly frustrated while playing this game. Chalk it up to a poorly optimized engine, a dull and generic fantasy world, all drawn from an exceedingly overused gameplay concept.

In a nutshell, beyond any shadow of doubt, BioShock is an excellent single-player shooter experience. The undeniable quality of this title and its emphasis on true and not pseudo-mature storytelling and character development make it a must-have for every self-respecting gamer.

Many of these elements seem like an experiment gone bad, as opposed to a decent new addition to the gameplay. As a result sometimes it seems you'd be better off just playing the original.

GRAW 2 is a step in the right direction even though the game, technically, may require more polish.

Just another mediocre conversion of a summer Hollywood blockbuster.

It's got a surprising amount of depth and innovation in a lot of different areas of design, excellent humor, art work and sound.

Even though the game may feel slightly repetitive, and the mouse lag and other minor cases of "consolitis" (performance on some systems) may annoy some gamers, the quality of the action itself and the sheer magnificence of some scenes, should prove a good enough reason to play this one.

Despite its drawbacks, this is one of the better games in the Harry Potter series. Regrettably, it still lacks the kind of depth that would bring it closer to other competing games on the market.

Besides suffering from a mild identity crisis, this is a very good racing game. It is complex, demanding, and it can get pretty intense, especially in Rally races.

Looking at the big picture, however, the story and the atmosphere in CoJ will be good enough to keep you going, so I wouldn't go as far as to say that the Billy missions ruined it for me. There were some that I found exciting.

The main thing is that despite some of its obvious drawbacks, Tomb Raider: Anniversary is quite enjoyable. It takes you back to the days of leaping across ravines, sliding down misty passageways and performing a variety of stunts and acrobatics.

For those gamers that are already running Vista on a beefy enough system, have not yet experienced Halo 2 on the Xbox or are just looking for some fun multiplayer action on the PC, this would not be a bad title to add to your collection.

It's nothing more than a generic action-packed game experience, inspired by a Hollywood blockbuster with very little depth. If you've seen one, you've seen 'em all.

The best bit is that you can experience the whole story again through the eyes of a completely different character, thus unwrapping further details about the plot. This kind of storytelling is not found too often and it was certainly a pleasure to undertake.

Feels rushed and unrefined - certainly not enough to make a memorable impact on the gaming scene.

If you cannot resist the temptation to web-swing through NYC, don't forget to bring a few tranquilizers to numb the inevitable pain from dealing with terrible frame rates, crappy camera and not exactly consistent single-player mission design.

Character witticisms and conversing with NPCs is the main attraction here and it's probably the only reason why I feel this game should be worth anybody's time.

A fun experience crammed with humor. I'd recommend it inexperienced gamers as well as players who are into classic adventure games.

Pro Evolution Soccer still beats FIFA hands down. It may not be able to compete in terms of next-gen polish, but this is a case of matter over style. In terms of evolution, the new game might not be so pro, but it still offers a more rewarding football experience.

Yet another noteworthy addition to the Command and Conquer license. With enough content to entangle you into an exciting single-player campaign and a satisfying multiplayer experience, C&C 3 is a strategy game I'd advise you all to pick up.

I have become so jaded with idiotic titles that this one comes as a true breath of fresh air; with its strong attention to the important aspects of game design. This is the type of game I would go out and buy for myself... if that's worth anything to you.

Runaway: The Dream of the Turtle never really lives up to the likes of long-established adventure franchises from LucasArts. Quite simply, they don't make 'em like they used to.

An acquired taste. It is the best of its kind but it still takes a certain mindset to fully enjoy (read: patient people). If you're a twitch shooter and think stealth is for sissies, you might want to rethink any decision to buy this game.

Unless you suffer from extreme ADD and you simply cannot spend more then 15 minutes learning a new game without being immediately rewarded, then I strongly suggest you check this game out. You won't find anything like on any other game system.

Jade Empire: Special Edition still has strong replay value, with different characters to choose from and different paths to take in terms of alignment.

All in all, if you enjoy a good RTS and are looking for a unique take on the tired WWII genre, War-Front Turning Point is worth the purchase price and your valuable time.

The short lifespan of individual episodes is a drawback once again. But, even with all the glaring omissions related to mostly unchallenging puzzles and a generally repetitive setting, Telltale Games is successfully keeping up the pace and continually offers splendid dialogue and trademark wisecracks from the two main characters.

Even if you completely ignore the missions, you can still have a lot of fun just playing with the environment. See who can make the biggest stack of cars. Race to the top the agency building. Try to jump the farthest in your diesel truck.

If the 20-30 hours of fun doesn't quench your thirst for conquering and massive battles, you can look forward to 40 maps in skirmish mode as well as an extremely entertaining multiplayer - with matches playable in LAN and Internet variants (you'll have fun in online matches to be sure... at least we did). Without even the slightest doubt, GPG and good old Christ Taylor made a spectacular RTS that should keep you occupied for weeks.

With Episode 3 it seems like each location involves a more comedy goodness than before, allowing you to have even more fun with the dialogue and some of the scenes.

Another thing worth mentioning about the expansion is definitely the inclusion of flying mounts. This is clearly more than a simple cosmetic addition to the game, as it adds a whole new dimension to world exploration.

Sadly, this episode fails to take the series further in terms of humor. Most of the gags seem a bit recurring and, in many situations, it's obvious the development team chose to stick with a specific line of jokes, most of which tend to follow the same pattern.