A solid basketball title that has the general mechanics down pat, but everything else still needs work.

Good, clean clobberin’ fun. It’s got its problems, mostly with the Banner sections, but it’s fun. And sometimes that's all I want.

The overwhelming amount of on-screen activity reduces greatly the overall resolution of the game to a saucy mess at times and the many independent characters running around all seem to have the collective I.Q of a Pringle.

It's geared toward younger gamers specifically because the level of difficulty and simplicity alleviates boredom.

Although I really liked Breakdown for its story and first-person implementation and grew to love the combat, some will think it’s a “niche” title with too many idiosyncrasies for a wider audience.

You really, really have to like old-school dungeon crawler RPGs to derive any enjoyment out of playing Arx Fatalis. Ugly graphics, poor controls due to unwisely incorporated first-person perspective gameplay, and long stretches of boring dungeon exploration create a mediocre game that is at least five years too late to merit consideration.

While Guitar Hero: On Tour is a very solid port of the franchise to the DS and the technology to get it working is brilliant - why don't more developers make use of the GBA cartridge port for DS games?

Every once in a while a game comes along that takes every opportunity to slap the player in the face. In a nutshell, that's Naruto Powerful Shippuden, a game that constantly hits below the belt with utterly arbitrary challenges that encourage hair-pulling frustration and grinding levels to earn experience points (XP) to upgrade skills and unlock more skills.

Last year the clear winner was NHL 2K7 when it came to online play. This year the playing field is definitely more even – it didn’t matter what game I put in I always had fun while playing over Live. However, having some friends over to play, the choice was always NHL 08.

A fun, splashy, albeit short and easy game with some great small touches and a hint of sidescrolling nostalgia.

The game suffers from slowdown that drags the game to a slowdown, clipping, and worst of all it has a tendency to freeze up, requiring the PS2 to be reset.

A solid game, which features exciting gameplay along with an engaging storyline. While it’s a little on the short side, Rogue Trooper is definitely worth checking out.

It's got a great story and a well-defined protagonist, the graphics and sound provide a suitable sense of place, but the problem with the "lock" during combat and the funnel quality will more than likely turn some people off.

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy won't leave much of a legacy behind but it is a decent game and if you've enjoyed any others in the rich history of this franchise, you should definitely set your sights on it.

One of the more interesting and fresh games to come out this year. It's certainly worth your attention since it's so unique and different from a lot of other games currently out.

With very good controls transitioned from a PC title onto consoles, Dungeon Siege III has gratifying old-school dungeon crawling combined with RPG elements for ton of hack & slash adventuring fun, especially for gamers that indulge in co-op gameplay.

For the money, Super Collapse 3 is a good purchase, with many potential hours of time wasting during your commute.

A game whose flaws are more obvious than its strong points but still manages to be exceptionally entertaining.

An unpolished, but solid, port of a good console game.

After loving the campaign in Black Ops 2, the single player in Ghosts feels like a step back for the series. The campaign felt tiresome, familiar, predictable and linear. The multiplayer on the other hand, saves the day as the tweaks to the gameplay and the new games modes make this the best multiplayer COD experience to date.

Its gameplay isn’t any more innovative than the average action title, and the camera is as ridiculously dysfunctional as the Simpsons family, but the stellar story more than atones for it, as The Simpsons Game is the best Simpsons game to date, bringing Springfield and its denizens to life as never before.

For folks looking for a quick and casual experience, this game fits the bill, but for early adopters hoping for a meatier experience to go with their big system purchase, they may be disappointed.

If you don’t fiddle with the default graphic settings you’ll be working a lot to find the right items, navigate the game world, and discover clues. Searching a blood-soaked hotel room is tough enough without having to stumble through the dark.

Weak CPU AI through most of the game is what really holds Test Drive back from being a Ferrari amongst Xbox racing games.

Instead of being the Mario challenger it could have been, the overall control, camera issues and the above-mentioned weak points of the game bring it down to good-but-not-good-enough status.

Both a triumph for Eyetoy gaming and a great tease for the future. Just getting past using the EyeToy to put the player on-screen is a marvelous innovation.

While The Munchables may not be the most memorable meal on the block, it’s still a sufficient dish that can be enjoyed by kids as well as older gamers with stricter tastes.

While Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 isn't without its flaws -- I would have appreciated more courses and it does take a long time to "master" -- it is probably the best of EA's launch sports titles for the 360.

As much as I'll remember the awesome setting, the very satisfying conclusion, some really great outdoor set pieces, and just feeling like a bad ass Sith apprentice, I'll also remember the Star Destroyer Slap to the Face.

I found issues with the unit balance and the visual style of the units and buildings wasn't for me. The story line is campy and doesn't succeed at being engaging or funny in this style.

Decent visuals, responsive controls, and it’s whole pick up and play quality are the high points of this game making it a worthy candidate for witling away a few hours on a lengthy road trip.

Eragon does a good job of trying to emulate a classic style of game, and at times, it almost succeeds. But even at its best, it's no more than a clone, which is coincidentally, the same issue with the Eragon novel.

Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals is not a bad game – it’s just an average game.

Without the creative destruction elements that Volition's Geo Mod 2.5 engine allows, Red Faction: Armageddon would be an average shooter, but because it revels in twisting and snapping almost every object throughout and integrating it into the overall strategy of the game, Armageddon is not to be missed.

While somewhat mysteriously a new developer was employed for the if-it-ain't-broke-don't fix-it Crackdown 2, thankfully all of the volatile fun that made the original game such fun for the orb-collecting Xbox 360 denizens makes the return trip to Pacific City.

A few fresh ideas, but unfortunately they’re buried under a lot of old, archaic pieces of gameplay that really should have been fazed out a long time ago all crammed into a slow plodding package.

While there is room for improvement, the great feature about The Sims Online is the ability to update and add content at the game sign-on menu. (Maxis’ intends to add new material to The Sims Online for at least 2 or 3 years.)

Jungle Storm isn’t a terrible game by all means, but it’s more suited for hardcore fans of the series that are likely to tolerant its shortcomings.

The single most impressive feature of Quantum Redshift is its absolutely gorgeous graphics. This is one of the Xbox’s best looking games to date, and that’s saying a lot.

If your house is party central, you can’t go wrong with Mario Party 4. It’s got everything the previous games had (plus more) to keep GROUPS of two or more happily playing.

Takes the Sims series in a new and good direction.

The target audience for Tales of Valor is the completest, the sort of person who's been jonesing for a fix. The problem is that this particular hit of RTS goodness isn't all that great because there's so very little to it once you get down to the actual gameplay.

A good first effort from Orbital Media -- with some tweaks any possible sequel could be turned into a franchise of sorts. It's a decent enough game, but it could use even more new ideas to truly stand out.

In 30-minute stretches it’s a fine challenge.

With TimeShift, the price of admission gets you a very challenging shooter with a lot of fantastic special effects and excellent graphics, but not much else.

Expect to get some enjoyment out of Air Command 3.0, especially if you're tired of Solitaire.

Is Worms 3D as good as its predecessors such as Worms, and Worms Armageddon? No, but that sure as hell doesn’t mean that Worms 3D should be overlooked.

The raw elements of DRvAK should please hardcore strategist, but it needs a little more polish in terms of pathfinding and formation options (which are extremely limited).

Bland and non-involving.

Jumping from cliff to cliff overtop of a deep ravine in South America can be a lot of fun, but it gets lost in all the times you died retrying a leap not knowing that there was a hidden ledge far off to your right.

Overall, Cooking Mama 2: Dinner with Friends is entirely inoffensive fun, even if it lacks in the challenge department.

About average for a stealth-action game.

As an adventure game on-the-go for younger gamers, Trace Memory offers a solid challenge and a very good presentation and use of the touchscreen.

There's very little question that Brink is highly geared towards the multiplayer crowd. The SMART system and the well done visuals are very attractive, but the level design imbalances and small map variety don't offer much in the way of longevity. There's a lot of promise in the game but only the most patient of players might be willing to see that promise realized.

At any rate, Overclocked: A History of Violence has a good story going for it, you just have to know that will only come after some "digging."

Simply put DSII is your average squad shooter. There is nothing breathtaking about this game but it can provide you with some hours of enjoyment.

If nothing else, it should satisfy gamers looking for a good party game and a little more lighthearted fun during their breaks away from their more serious games.

For those who can overlook the controls to appreciate the complicated game design behind the plain wrapper, you will enjoy your find. For everyone else, I'd recommend holding on to your money.

But a New York City-sized upgrade to the visual presentation along with the inclusion of mini-games and more focused, goal-oriented gameplay should appeal to the urban-centric Sims fans that prefer console action to the PC.

The visuals are just too dated and will be tough for some to swallow and the unintuitive controls can be a real pain.

Scores big points for recreating the animated series in video game form with you in control of Batman.

But despite that brevity of gameplay, DuckTales: Remastered is a fun flashback with modern flair for both those that quack-attacked in its 8-bit incarnation or those totally new to the duck tales of Scrooge McDuck.

The longevity of Lollipop Chainsaw relies on how much time gamers want to practice combos to finish levels faster and more cleanly than other players on the leaderboards or earn enough silver coins to purchase a closet's worth of outfits for Juliet. Otherwise, the game is a quick experience that doesn't dwell too much on one particular thing for too long before throwing something else at the player.

For a first attempt at an established franchise, The Bourne Conspiracy makes good on its promises and gives us the chance to become the perfect weapon.

While the quick menus help you get on your board as soon as possible and the camera never gets in the way of your next trick, this game would have benefited so much from better controls that didn’t cause you to miss rails and slam into walls.

Despite the steady stream of real historical events, Making History seems strangely outside of history, inhabiting some alternate universe where nations go through the motions, behave erratically or simply do nothing at all. It’s hard to feel immersed in such a situation. And it’s hard to really care.

Your allies are invulnerable for some reason, but that doesn't make them any more useful.

That's pretty limp, but the games themselves are good enough to stand on their own as a worthy purchase for collectors and those that may be curious about the series.

Remember Me has an interesting concept and single-player-only storyline, albeit somewhat confusing and vaguely familiar (it has some similarities to Total Recall in many respects). It's a good action-adventure gamers won't forget too quickly (although a lack of multiplayer makes it fade from memory sooner rather than later), despite some of the core elements being not as innovative or unique as they might seem, or as in the case of the memory remixes, not quite as unforgettable as they should be.

While EA will probably never make another Mutant League game of any sort, NFL Street 3 ensures that the game of football can still be irreverent and entertaining at the same time.

Had Madness Returns cut its length by half and tossed in a few more gameplay mechanics, it could have easily been one of the best titles released this year.

All in all, Naruto is worth a pick up for Naruto fans or those who enjoy a simple combat game.

"Childish" and "derivative" could also be used to describe the graphics.

A "gateway" game. It’s friendly enough for first time players, but it’s got all the things to keep you playing and become a hardcore racer. (It’s even got options to show you the best trajectory and supply driving tips.) But even the hardcore simmer will find F1RC a challenge and realistic.

The game’s greatest asset and what saves it from mediocrity is its unbelievably tough artificial intelligence. Your chess know-how will be tested severely and if you give VK some thorough playing sessions, you actually will improve your chess smarts.

But its biggest flaw is the same as many 3D platformer games that are released today: there's nothing new or innovative in Vexx to make it stand out over many similar type of games.

Overall, even considering the frustrations, this game is above average and if you love the source material you're going to love the game even more.

Homefront is worth checking out.

Relatively good; on its own merits, not just because its set in the Godfather universe.

I enjoyed playing Echelon. The environments look great, the action is fast, and most of the missions can be taken on the third or fourth try.

Although the controls are responsive, they’re far from easy to learn (even harder to master but less so if you've spent time with the other versions), especially if you’re just getting into the pool of extreme sports.

It’s wicked bloody fun with a group even with the slight detractors.

The only thing running against Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is the price. For about the same price as the game - $50US - consumers can download these tracks online to their PC for less.

As a result, Kung Fu Panda is easily recommendable for the younger set and to parents that are looking for a video game for their kids to play on those rainy days when homework has been completed.

It doesn’t make TimeShift a bad game, it edges slightly above average thanks to the time powers.

With save points laid at logical points throughout, there’s little chance you’ll be frustrated with some of the more difficult puzzles or encounters in Rival Swords, making it a great entry point for newcomers to the series – even if the story will likely seem convoluted.

As a light adventure outing, I can recommend Dracula: Origin if only for the puzzle elements because even though the source material is treated with a great of respect and care there's not a lot present to keep the tension up to find out what happens next.

Just be warned: My feelings of nostalgia could easily be frustration for you.

All in all, Rainbow Moon is a charming indy title – obviously not as polished or fleshed out as it could have been, but certainly worth the lowered price point on PSN.

It doesn’t break any new ground but it is a challenge.

The visuals are top notch – all of the effects look great, even down to the muffler stutter when throttling up.

There are quite a few cleverly incorporated puzzles and intriguing level layouts for those that like to play with their thinking caps on, but TE still manages to pack in the action for those that like to run and gun.

Homefront is an ambitious title with a solid idea, but lacked the courage to distance itself from the (media established) king of First Person Shooters.

There are a few flaws that fracture Pariah as a game, but a better-than-you'd-expect single-player mode coupled with a very good online setup give Pariah enough of an advantage over other Halo wannabes as a perfect alternative to the mass contingent of Xbox FPS online gamers that play "Halo 2."

If you are an RE fan and haven't played the Wii version of the games before, I suggest you buy it now.

Replicating speed is always a goal for racing games and ATV 2 meets the challenge. Fast is fast, especially with the better ATV’s, and the blurring effect during boost use really does bring that sense of speed home.

An enjoyable game. It emphasizes teamwork and really gives a lot of character tweaking to sink one’s teeth into, but you really need to be patient individual to deal with the mining aspect of the game.

This is a game that requires so much studying and preparation, that only those hard-core RTS gamers that really enjoyed SimCity or Civilization may want to give this everybody-wants-to-rule-the-world strategy game a try.