Even when it works, The Sims Online has little to offer beyond serving as a graphical instant messenger with an economy.

The deficiencies with frame rate, multiplayer competition, collisions, and replays still keep this title from achieving its potential.

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.

This title has incredible depth and play value, absorbing you into the ins-and-outs of the economic strategies of transportation management.

The challenging AI and consistently grim atmosphere will draw many players into the missions, but less than clear objectives will deter others.

The graphics could use as much TLC as the physics received, the sound and music could be fleshed out, and the controls could use some tightening to work more organically.

Enough charm to rekindle the joy of the old-style score-based blasters. However, technical problems like the poor interface, unreliable frame rate, and steep learning curve really gouge out the fun.

A few more months spent tweaking the camera, improving the AI, and correcting the inventory scheme would have resulted in a much more enjoyable experience.

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.

If you can get past the monotonous arcade elements, there's a lot that the title has going for it, including imaginative characters and a script bordering on hysterical.

The on-foot aspect is near abysmal and takes the wind right out of the sails. The numerous graphical glitches and bugs don't help matters, either.

Despite stylish graphics and fun gameplay, the lack of any revolutionary concepts coupled with the short play time means potential buyers should pass up Luigi in favor of other GameCube launch titles.

X2 contains a great sandbox adventure complicated by an ignorable single-player story and fiendish menu driven control system.

The elements for a great game are present, but the focus and execution of those elements is not.

Had it included a mid-mission save and a multiplayer mode, it could have been a solid four star title; add tweaked graphics and improved AI, and it would have been a surefire winner. However, without those features, Project IGI is a good game, but certainly not a great one.

It's positively gorgeous, but playing through the majority of the title feels more like a chore than it does like fun.

An engrossing detective story with lots of exploration opportunities. However, there is no truly outstanding or deeply innovative dimension of this release.

Unfortunately, the sad truth is that Pokemon manages to provide more depth and complexity than Monster Rancher 3.

Not a collapsing ruin, and although it can be entertaining, it is missing the strong foundation needed to capture one's long-term interest.

If you've rolled down these streets before, be advised that there's virtually nothing new under the desert sun, and that one new area does not a satisfying sequel make.

Entertaining, but somewhat difficult in design, and occasionally unforgiving in control.

It pushes the PS2's hardware to incredible limits as it creates very atmospheric environments using amazing graphics and sound; however, Ghosthunter also features poorly conceived puzzles and level design that make for some frustrating moments.

The developers may have been trying to recreate the success of "Devil May Cry," but instead found themselves in the realm of its disappointing sequel, as an underachieving, run-of-the-mill action title.

Although it has a strong interface and interesting gameplay, its lack of innovation coupled with unimpressive visual and aural presentations make it an average war game.

Right down to the familiar trapezoidal box, Tomb Raider Chronicles is completely lacking in significant innovation.

If you can find ways to ignore the RTS component and the confusion brought on by the other generals, Joan of Arc is a great hack-and-slash that plays like a 3D version of a championship arcade game.

Enclave has so much promise that it's a shame it's crippled by one key design flaw. While the occassional checkpoint exists just before the battles with big boss characters, they are so rare that you may very well never see one.

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.