A decent expansion that is more notable for its graphical sheen, elegant interface and Classic CTF maps than something more innovative. Although fun with the right group of people, the expansion adds nothing to its genre.

Slightly sluggish controls hurt the faster characters, leaving some of the mid-speed characters' blend of movement and power overbalanced in the grand scheme of things.

With all of this attention to detail, the actual gameplay is too simple.

What saves Age of Sail II from the abysmal fate that many people on Akella's message boards claim it deserves is the excellent quality of the overall presentation in the music, graphics and sound systems.

While you're not going to rock your friends socks off with the none-too-glitzy presentation of UFC Throwdown, the game's tight controls, smooth combat and surprising flexibility will make up for those shortcomings with little difficulty.

It combines an interesting plot with nonstop action in a coherent matter. However, the complete absence of innovation, linear levels, tepid multiplayer, irritating vocal effects, and unspectacular artificial intelligence keep this title from reaching its potential.

In many ways this is a generic quality game - not embarrassing in any area, while at the same time not being outstanding either.

Combat is occasionally entertaining, but more often than not you're mindlessly blasting or backtracking huge stretches of land on the poorly implemented motorcycle. Invasion simply becomes uninteresting, and it can't be redeemed by an equally tired multiplayer component.

Despite this offering's versatility in station command along with a wide range of authentic ship models and weapons systems, the significant AI deficiencies, minor bugs, and the unavailability of the unique interoperability with "Silent Hunter II" creates rough waters.

It is indeed fun to control unusual units in battle, but the focus on micromanagement can become a bit more demanding than most players want for their entertainment dollars.

The adventure mode is quite intriguing, the ability to build cars from scratch and watch them disassemble is entertaining, and the split-screen competition is a blast. However, there is not enough substance in the racing options, track challenges, and audiovisual polish to set this offering apart from the pack.

The visuals are pretty, the puzzles are engaging and the plot is engrossing, but this release isn’t all that it could be. The interface glitches, puny hotspots, gameplay linearity and absence of deep character development all limit its value.

You'll find yourself confounded by overly tricky controls, repetitive tracks and a single-player mode that lacks any real meat.

The shoddy camera system and somewhat unintuitive controls cause far too many headaches.

Certainly replicates well the sounds and sights of the ancient Middle East, and the production values are quite high. However, it is extremely challenging for any developer to find the perfect blend of action and adventure in any release claiming to combine both elements, and the balance here seems a bit skewed.

Anyone coming to Onimusha 2 cold will find brilliant beauty, but baffling execution.

A lot of creativity is embedded here beneath the surface. However, the absence of a story delivered in a compelling way, along with several other questionable design decisions, hinders your motivation to make it all the way through.

The single-player game’s extreme difficulty will throw off many people, and the less than satisfactory ending will leave a bad taste in your mouth.

AI concerns make driving into oncoming traffic easier than it should be, while the moderate, but not extensive amount of cars and tracks mean that you'll be able to wrap up single player in less than ten hours.

There's too little here that's original and engrossing, there's not enough variety in the obstacles and environments, and the linearity is extremely confining.

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.

There's no depth to its woefully repetitive gameplay and overall enjoyment is hampered by underpowered weapons, mindless out-of-control spawning and overly difficult boss encounters.

It is not sufficiently realistic to be a true flight simulator, and at the same time, lacks enough arcade elements to be considered merely a shooter.

Without robust developer support in the way of patches to add more content, enable dedicated Internet servers and fix disabled features, there’s little hope for RC Cars in the long term.

In trying to appeal to all rally tastes, it ends up not being the very best at much of anything. While the car graphics are outstanding, the other dimensions of this release fail to live up to expectations.

The biggest problem with Gore is a lack of originality: None of its dimensions live up to the level of the best first-person shooters on the market in the last few years.

Contrary to what many hardcore gamers frequently assume, I believe there are still a lot of people who would enjoy this kind of brain-free, white-knuckle virtual leisure activity that brings back the simplicity of earlier days.

It’s a very serious niche simulation that’s got some lumps which will be unappealing to the average player. If you want to “get it,” you’ve got to be willing to pour the time into learning the nuances of the title.