The gameplay is pitch-perfect, and everything has a rich and polished feeling about it. The variety of the styles of play is deep and incorporates some of the best multiplayer fragfests to date.

Basically the same old product with a few new bells and whistles. Nobody is calling that a bad thing.

The offering boasts masterful artistic design and a beautiful score, but fails in the most important aspect - gameplay.

Everything that makes a game good is featured here: Worms 3D looks amazing, plays like a dream and is drenched in fun and funny.

Though the visuals may be showing their age, the gameplay in Return From Darkness is just as strong as it was in the PlayStation 2 version, if not stronger thanks to the Xbox-exclusive features.

The atmosphere is tangible and the story and action are tied together so perfectly that the game rarely lags during lengthy periods of adventure.

The best baseball game that’s hit the PC in a very long time. It’s pretty, it’s smart and it’s packing a deep pool of gameplay options that’ll keep you going well after this year’s World Series is put to rest.

If what you’re hoping for is an intense and challenging shooter that harkens back to the classics, with lots of interesting monsters and a few wrinkles added in the form of special abilities, then you’ll be largely satisfied by what you find.

Its logic flaws and thoroughly vexatious difficulty are so omnipresent that any gains made via technology are completely overshadowed. In trying to mix strategy with action, a sense of identity got lost in translation.

With a superb story, three challenging modes of gameplay, plenty of side quests and missions that can climb to almost an hour apiece, Drakengard could easily consume up to 50 hours of one’s time.

The combat system is deep, varied and insanely addictive thanks to dozens of fantastic techniques and plenty of memorable enemies. The adventure is superb and the number of collectibles and hidden items keep the gameplay fresh.

Borrows some ideas from the original game, mixes in lackluster graphics and sound, and tops it with awkward design choices.

Graphically stunning, infused with a rich storyline, and so full of subtle touches your head will spin trying to keep track of them all.

Prettier, deeper, lengthier, and more challenging than any other dungeon crawler out there, Champions of Norrath is the definitive game for hack-n-slash aficionados.

While few titles will ever again brutalize the player as "Shinobi" did, the still relatively high level of difficulty coupled with refinements and improvements to the gameplay should make Nightshade a keeper for fans of the series.

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.

If you enjoyed the original Echelon, you will no doubt get enjoyment out of this sequel. However, there is not much here that is innovative or that really deepens the gameplay from the original. With little story, mundane missions, and significant control deficiencies, Echelon: Wind Warriors has little to attract new players.

The multiplayer cooperative mode is the real reason to own Crystal Chronicles. Solving puzzles and overcoming foes requires absolute teamwork, and this sense of camaraderie is inexplicably addictive.

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.

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.

Additional equipment and spells are nice, and the characters are now much more versatile, but design and pacing problems abound.

The gameplay is flawless and the presentation is both beautiful and full of character. Army of Zin is neither the most innovative title on the market nor is it the most awe-inspiring, but it accomplishes the difficult task of translating the form and spirit of a classic into a worthy modern successor.

Anybody who even kind of liked "Jagged Alliance" or its sequel should have already left by now for the store to pick up a copy.

Less is more in the case of Sonic Heroes, as convoluted exploration concepts are abandoned in favor of pure speed and exhilaration.

Diehards won’t find enough here to make it worth the overzealous retail price point because, while the single-player mode and the deleted scenes are a fun diversion, they’re not enough to warrant the investment listed on the price tag.

Blade & Sword has style. Style enough to make up for the shortcomings of completely unoriginal mechanics, style enough to compensate for the excessive difficulty and style in such quantities to make other developers turn green with envy.

For those of us with excess patience, though, the rewards could be great. Battlegrounds looks fantastic and sports a startling degree of replayable fun. Best of all, in establishing a wide beta tester program early on, Diversions Entertainment set the groundwork for a fanatically loyal player base that will be the key to success in the long run.

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.