The atmosphere is great, the control awesome, the challenge solid, and the eye-candy sweet.

Since Deadly Shadows shares the same engine as "Deus Ex: Invisible War," you get the same gorgeous visuals, amazing lighting and incredible physics.

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.

All in all, Bulletstorm was a super pick up for me and I enjoyed playing it more than most FPS games in the last few years. Definitely looking forward to a sequel if it comes out.

While the single player campaign isn’t a drastic improvement over previous versions of the series, the multiplayer goes the distance, providing one of the best experiences available on Xbox Live.

In the end, Mario Kart Wii aims for a high level of fun and depending on how new you are to the franchise; it actually manages to do that. There's plenty of room for improvement though.

Black Rock Studios' last title was Pure, an ATV racer that dealt out a phenomenal amount of vertical experience. Lots of tricks and crazy stunts. It has remained in rotation at my house thanks to a 10-year old that has long since eclipsed my own skills at the game. And it looks like the studios' follow-up, Split/Second, will finally take Pure's place in that rotation.

Dragon's Crown is a throw-back game that borrows heavily from side scrolling beat-'em-ups. The end result is a modernized interpretation of a classic genre.

There are plenty of hijinks and hilarity to be found during Ice Station Santa in the unraveling of the Santa legend, Sam and Max style.

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.

It probably won't remain in rotation simply because playing it requires too much of a time footprint to make it a great portable game. As a portable port of a great console game, however, it is a solid first effort.

The save system is crummy.

Hell, it’s even fun at times.

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.

The days when the new Tony Hawk games were one of the highlights of the year are gone, but THUG 2 still offers plenty of joy for gamers that haven't left the genre behind.

It’s similar enough to Red Alert 2 to feel really comfortable and though there’s been a lot of extra things added to the toy box (and not all of them work), it’s still fun.

The gameplay is fairly solid, if a little elementary and repetitive, but does offer enough of a challenge in its specific career goals as to offer most gamers at least a little diversion from some of the more deserving holiday titles.

With the solid on-court graphical presentation, fast-paced gameplay and variety of game modes, many may actually see it on even par with "NBA 2K3."

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.

The last great game of 2003 you've never heard of.

Overall great stuff and it makes you wonder how EA will improve upon this… maybe they should start with improving the corner kicks.

The game is not perfect but it's extremely well done overall.

With diverse stories and settings, great animations and overall visuals, and strong point & click gameplay along with hilariously smart-ass ribaldry that’s becoming the developer’s trademark, 8-Bit Is Enough is a satisfying series conclusion.

If you can deal with the control scheme issues and the quirkiness of the game, you will enjoy playing MotorStorm: Pacific Rim if you can’t, you probably will have a good bout of controller tossing after you get screwed out of a race by some nonsensical bull.

It warms my heart that SSX has finally made a full-on next-gen appearance and warmer still that it's so much fun to play. There's definitely some nostalgia playing into my opinion of SSX -- the original was one of the first games that The Armchair Empire received for review -- but even taking that out, I'd still say SSX is a damn fine title and definitely worth your time and attention.

Metro: Last Light is, at the end of it all, a solid game.

For hardcore strategy gamers Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth is a visual and aural feast but low on actual strategy since battles almost always descend into attrition.

There are a number of nagging issues I have with the online mode. First and foremost there are no basic features like friend lists or clan support.