Video games are meant to be entertainment, but I found Body Harvest to be more of an effort in patience than anything else. Although Midway should be commended for trying to create a hybrid RPG/shooter game, the ultimate result is somewhat boring.

What redeems LSN from being an exercise in tedium is that the touch of a master’s hand can be felt in almost every brushstroke.

Simplifying the sometimes daunting dynamics of strategy titles, Battle at Procyon crafts an enjoyable gameplay experience that comes across like a breath of fresh air.

Those who love strategy or puzzle offerings because of the ability to do some sophisticated problem solving will be turned off by the rigid time limits and the repetitiveness and lack of depth in the dilemmas presented. I cannot help, though, finding a lot about Sheep that I really like despite its failings.

While there are some interface concerns that all versions of this game seem to suffer from, on the whole it's pretty darned awesome.

Overall, this release tries to add a fresh spin to the Anarchy Online universe and succeeds to a certain extent, though it would have been better to open the doors of the expansion a bit wider to let more kinds of gamers through to experience it all.

The physics of the game are almost impossible to overcome; and in the week plus that I tweaked around with the controls, I was never able to gain a mastery over my vehicle or the environment.

Anyone who paid for a Sonic title will be racing hedgehogs only 33 percent of the time, and that just isn’t enough.

Oni stuns the third-person action scene with a powerful uppercut to the jaw. Bungie has never put its hand to a bad product, and its latest offering is a passionate protest against dull games.

A tour de force of chronometric detail and almost bottomless options, but the glaring lack of a tutorial, criminally sparse documentation, paucity of things you can directly control and frequent crashes to the desktop doesn’t make playing it any more fun for the uninitiated.

Add a spooky atmosphere set at the start of the twentieth century and little reluctance to tackle adult subject matter like sex and violence, and we finally have an RPG that appeals strictly for adult gamers without pushing into the realm of the ludicrous or indecent.

Easy to pick up and really, really hard to put down. It starts slow, and initially, building your empire will have you playing in short bursts rather than in blocks. As your realm gets larger, though, you'll find yourself spending more time tweaking and massaging, exploring and conquering.

Pinball Hall of Fame has a lot going for it, what with numerous tables accurately reproduced, excellent physics, and decent controls.

I have no doubt that it's destined to be a sleeper classic.

A truly fresh and fun experience. While the plot is nothing to write home about, the furious combat action - which is far more mobile than in most action shooters - is utterly addictive.

If you are looking for an action title, but are getting tired of playing rehashes on the "Quake" formula, look no further than the generic assassin wearing a barcode on his head.

None of the facets of this release are particularly outstanding, and in particular you have to cope with the rather odd camera movement and the passivity of just watching when your actual caper is carried out.

an excellent recreation of the sport of bicycle stunt riding. The design of the racing environments is so creative that you are constantly learning new ways to master this sport.

While it is an unabashed ripoff and lacks any form of innovation compared to what has gone before, this is a competent dirt bike racing game, which despite its limitations can provide sustained enjoyment for a lot of motorcycle aficionados.

My conundrum is that despite the issues and glaring oversights, Beyond Divinity is still fun to play.

Not without its flaws, Tribes succeeds because of variety and solid design.

It falls back too often on the war weary build-a-base mechanic as its core, but the robustness and depth of the civilization tree will help ensure many hours of gameplay for RTS and series fans alike.

There is an undeniably addictive quality about this release, but it is so far overshadowed by the shallow nature of the gameplay that its power to enchant will be tested with all but the most ardent groupies.

It has an intuitive interface and eliminates the time-consuming micromanagement within each city that made every other game in the series so drawn out.

Great production values aren’t enough to raise Impossible Creatures from being a mediocre exercise in button pushing, as it’s high on glitz but short on actual strategy.

Siren has a few basic problems that keep it from being truly exceptional, but its groundbreaking mechanics and brilliant execution of fear make it something survival horror fans won’t want to miss.

An uneven experience -- above average when it comes to puzzles and level design, and below average when it comes to combat and artificial intelligence.

For those considering entering the world of war games, however, HoI has somewhat of a cruel learning curve that's accentuated by pockets of boredom and frustration - and not all players will enjoy the real time nature of the title.