Even with that raised expectation, C&C 3: Tiberium Wars more than meets my stringent standards for the franchise, and Electronic Arts’ EA Los Angeles team proves once again their skill at designing an excellent RTS title for the Xbox 360.

Despite just slightly tweaking last year's game, Madden NFL 07 proves to have enough Pro-Bowl caliber features to prove its dominance as the best football and one of the best sports video games around.

Simply put, Guacamelee! is a fun game with a great colour palette, excellent combat and plenty of laughs.

Even though Luigi plays a central role in Dream Team, I'm remain unconvinced that he'll ever get the respect he deserves. He possesses a very special power -- to open portals to Dream Land -- that Mario will never posses, but Luigi still gets short shrift. Even at the end of this lengthy and great adventure, Luigi remains in the shadow of his brother. It's a video game travesty that has gone on far too long and will be repeated time and again, unfortunately.

Although I lament the camera a bit, the Mario-less voice acting, and the linear stages there's too much to like, too much to enjoy about Mario Sunshine to really bash it.

For both the young (who were either too youthful or not even born to have been around for the point & click adventure gaming rage of the early 1990s) and old (those who were lucky enough to have experienced the golden age of LucasArts point & click adventuring, including the classic Sam & Max Hit the Road), the Wii version of Sam & Max Season One is sure to bring more than a few rib-tickling chuckles and guffaws along with the superbly written story for a hilarious gaming journey.

Metal Slug Anthology is already a tremendous deal for your money, and it's definitely worth checking out for anyone into chaotic old school mayhem. The Playstation 2 version is also the best one for your money, since it isn't hampered by the control or loading issues of the other ports.

The overall presentation immerses you totally. The detailed graphics, and the sound complement each other to create living breathing levels.

All in all, Rainbow Six Vegas is an excellent tactical simulator, one that does provide some good replay in forcing you to play at near perfection (on the highest difficulty) and with some patience in order to succeed.

If you only buy a handful of games each year Elite Beat Agents should be among them. It’s fun, plain and simple.

Combined with an excellent soundtrack and the same stylish look that SNK is know for, this somehow manages to beat even Neo Geo Battle Coliseum as one of the best 2D fighters they’ve put out in a long, long time.

As an opening act, A New Day did what it was supposed to: get me interested in the next episode even if the overall universe of Walking Dead completely depresses me. It's not that there's no happy ending; it's that there's not even real respite from the horror of what's going on. And that's exactly what happens at the end of the first episode.

A mix of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Minority Report (also by Treyarch) and Grand Theft Auto III, Spider-Man 2 opens up the Spidey experience like no other Spider-Man game before it. That's not to say it doesn't have some flaws, but if you're looking for a fantastic Spider-Man experience, this is it.

Tron 2.0 reinvigorates the material and delivers an excellent gaming experience. The story is okay, definitely not classic material, but the ending of the game is so anticlimactic that I had to downgrade the score from 9.0 down to a still very respectable 8.9.

Ironically, the loading screen is a subway tunnel; you probably could get to the next level by a real subway quicker than the time it takes to load.

EA continues to raise the bar year after year with its sports simulations, and MVP Baseball 2005 is no exception.

I've experienced "null-time" before - entering that state of pure concentration when everything falls out of your peripheral vision and time no longer exists - but MS consistently put me into that null-time zone.

Great control, fun, lots of stuff to do and solid tennis? Mario Power Tennis is a great game even for those that don't generally like tennis unless Anna Kournikova is playing.

The battles are as intense as ever and the gameplay is still as solid as the original.

Overall, I couldn't be happier with MVP Baseball 2005. For next year, all I need is more mini-games, more un-lockable content, and a couple of pitchers who don't give up poorly-timed gopher balls.

For all its flash, it still begs the questions: Do visible nipples add anything to gameplay? I’ll let you decide.

Exquisitely detailed, satisfying, immersive, and challenging – worth buying.

The defense and prosecuting attorneys aren't merely suits with expensive educations, they're presented as warriors fated to opposing sides due to their professions.

It’s good, even fantastic at times, walking the line between reality and fantasy in a pleasant mix that’s really hard to put down once you start playing.

So dying isn’t quite the frustration it was in the arcade.

This game has proven to me to be more addictive than cigarettes after all night romps in the hay with my special friend...the most fun I’ve had in playing an RTS since "Dungeon Keeper 2" and "Warcraft 2."

Hell-bent on destruction psycho drivers finally get a game to meet their rubbernecking tendencies full throttle.

Big kudos and thumbs-up to Camelot for an excellent save system. Even if you're in the middle of a match you can pick-up later and start playing from there (in any mode).

It’s easy to say that the graphics are great or that EA delivered another game with impeccable presentation style, but the pitching and batting engines really thrive here and the game is fun to play.

My overall experience with Mario Advance was a good one even though it lacks originality. It’s a blast from the past – the control even feels the same – and it brought back some fond gaming memories.

Graphics and sound are, in a word, wonderful.

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.

Hell, it’s even fun at times.

What makes this game a real standout, though, is its production value.

Throws in some streamlined role-playing elements such as basic item gathering and earning experience points. But you'd never mistake NG for a role-playing game because most role-playing games don't require the reflexes of a mongoose.

In this reviewers opinion it meets or exceeds Halo 2 in every category.

Not only is it an intriguing game, it’s also fun. It’s like a good book – one that you’ll want to return to again and again.

The game completely over-delivers and will surprise you at every corner with its diverse mission design.

One area the game is really stellar is the challenge given by the CPU artificial intelligence. This game pushes you and makes you sweat to win, especially when it comes to contests against ranked opponents and when squaring off in a rivalry game.

The animation is first rate and there are no load times to speak of.

There was enough original action and story line to keep me playing right to the end and wanting more missions.

And besides all the above, Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast is fun. No matter how many times I died, either by my own misstep or some surprise awaiting my entry into a room, I kept on playing even when I was stumped on a puzzle or figuring out how to get out of a room alive.

Each environment is fully (and gloriously) destructible and more "alive" than ever. The graphics are fantastic! Equally so for the animations.

With the refinements and enhancements the team has made it's definitely worth a look if you missed the previous title.

Open for Business will require you to put aside the leisurely pursuits of your Sims, roll up your sleeves and put in a hard day’s work to succeed. But in gameplay and fun, this is the most rewarding payday you’ll find in any Sims game.

And that's what Mercenaries is all about. No, not democracy to a downtrodden people. Cash. And plenty of it!

Hardcore RPG fanatics might want to try this before a buy solely because the real-time battles may not be as appealing to them.

A great, rollicking adventure with some integrated action and worth your time if you’re in the “Adventure Games are Dead and I Miss Them” camp.

Has it all: fun, adventure, good-looking graphics, awesome sound, quirkiness, challenge, and an innovative inventory system. It's not as open as it could be and the constantly respawning bad guys are likely to grate on some nerves, but that's not enough to bring it down.

The graphics are great, the soundtracks fit the action, the sense of speed is incredible, the online modes add some depth, and the destruction is awesome.

I’m far from finished with City of Heroes -- I'm still having fun even after so many hours.

What accounts for the less-than-perfect score is the extreme amount of tweaking it takes to get everything just the way you like it.

You cannot go wrong by picking up a copy of this game.

Simply an addictive and adorable game that does a wonderful job evoking the same sense of wonder many of us first experienced on our childhood trips to Oz, Narnia, or Middle Earth.

A gift to those who spent their school years up late at night with "Illusion of Gaia" and "Secret of Mana."

The game is fun, action-packed and polished to a fine sheen. Additionally, the cool multi-player element and the sheer number of missions give the game plenty of replay value.

Touched! has enough thrills and weirdness to keep you playing.

This is the best four-player game since the original "Gauntlet" and the resulting fun is worth the effort.

Hockey enthusiasts will absolutely love NHL 2004.

Where Madden 2003 really isn’t anything special is the sound department.

Shogun’s strong AI, emphasis on tactics, and stunning visuals make it a very, very good RTS game.

Despite having a few rough edges, Sudeki is a very good game that will keep you playing (over and over). There's so much to see and the story plays out like a good movie that keeps you entranced to the final credits roll.

It has its shortcomings, like the enemy "swarming" and a camera that sometimes gets blocked by buildings, but there's too much to like about Ultimate Destruction – the feeling of being the Hulk, a great comic book storyline, lots of stuff to do, a deep combo system – to dwell too much on the downsides.

It's almost a guarantee your ride will wind up being a reflection of your personality.

The attention to detail, the story, the action, the graphics—everything about the game is solid and well thought out. Anyone who likes fantasy adventure games is likely to be happy with their purchase.

The Pro Career mode is the meat of the game. Here, Smash Court 2 is a revelation.

It is one of the best “extreme” racing titles on the system, and online play gives the game tremendous replay value.

More un-lockable features, multi-player modes, and car upgrade options would be very welcome here.

It is a bit too short and a lot too linear, but the combination of great graphics, sound, and theme make for a fun experience.

In the past, shrinking a game down to portable form meant cutting out a number of features, but that doesn't happen here.

There never seemed to be alternate routes to take; there's one way to go and that's it.

The best title of the year to come for the exciting and morbid horror genre. Midnight Nowhere is a fine and classic example of what gaming should be – stimulating, playable, refreshing and real.

With some very well laid out levels, solid gameplay, and nice functional visuals, PS2 owners are presented with a fantastic title worthy of a place in their library.

The environments are massive compared to "SOCOM II."

A no-brainer as a family purchase... Great stuff.

An excellent game, one that has restored my enthusiasm for the comic characters of old and their exciting, ideologically simple-minded pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.

What really makes the game work so well is the pacing of the combat, coupled with a story that one actually wants to experience.

The fun and quality of the single player experience would be enough, but the co-op mode just screams "Activision loves you." With the long, deep career mode, the multiplayer contests, and the cool co-op mode, Wakeboarding Unleashed is a very good value.

Provides a great new breath of fresh air into the game. The pets are so much fun to interact with, you may just start to ignore other areas of Sims living.

The interface and environment are familiar, the locations interesting, the controls easy to learn, and the challenge good.

It looks better, it plays better, and brings a lot more to the table than any previous Dynasty Warrior. It’s a very worthwhile title for hardcore fans and those unfamiliar with the series.

Doom 3 stumbles a bit in its online play, but it still offers a great alternative to Halo 2 for FPS online gaming, although it won't exactly make anybody forget about Halo 2's much better online package.

A very good game in its own right [and] the best movie-to-game conversion in recent memory.

The visuals of E626 are downright impressive. All of the worlds have some sort of clay-animation/Disney movie hybrid look to them; they are colorful, over the top, and frighteningly detailed.

An original and innovative game, but, more importantly, it is great fun. I’m not sure there is any game this year that I’ve had more fun with.

A great WWII experience as well as an exceptional game. The lack of multiplayer and a few discrepancies keep SWON from being a spectacular game but it still is exceptional.

The best hockey game out today is ESPN NHL Hockey.

MVP Baseball 2004 has the most accurate and authentic gameplay experience and the most in-depth franchise mode setting the bar higher for other developers.

Although it could’ve used an easier difficulty setting for the single player mode, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter is otherwise one of the best action-strategy games to come out in a long time.

This is the first time in the Sims that there’s an actual challenge gauntlet thrown down.

It lacks the sheer exhilaration of the SSX series, but scores high marks for a deep career mode and solid level design.

From an aural standpoint GGX2 is equally impressive.

After learning to take Darwinia in bite-sized pieces – say 45 to 60 minutes a time – it didn’t take long for me to begin to anticipate playing it.

DP is addictive. Sitting down to play through a few turns can easily suck hours from your life as a "few turns" becomes 50 turns.

Outlaw Volleyball manages to be the only "pure" beach volleyball game on the Xbox.

One of my favorite features is the tutorial called "Offensive Driving 101" where you are taken through a list of all of the best techniques for getting ahead. (Where else can you drive like a maniac in a Student Driver car?)

Looking good doesn’t hurt the game, but it’s RA’s accessibility that makes it a game that every fan of platform gaming should have. There’s a sense of fun about RA.

The extremely high level of difficulty will leave some gamers a whimpering heap in the corner... But if you don’t mind a challenge, expect an extremely fun, rewarding experience.