It’s like playing an extreme hand of poker, complete with kicks to the face and pile drivers. It’s almost turn-based. Matches typically turn into exchanges of combos. If you don’t grasp this fact, you’ll be trounced by the AI.

A complete joy to play and worthy of the attention of even the most hardcore gamer.

While it is a tad disappointing that the game doesn’t have its conductor’s staff, the overall selection of music encountered and execution makes for a refreshing departure from the status quo in the genre.

For some inexplicable reason, while playing Gungrave I couldn’t help but think about old “shooter” games like "Zaxxon" and "Galaga" despite the fact that Gungrave isn’t set in space and there were no aliens to be seen anywhere.

New players to the genre might be put off by the learning curve and difficulty level, but if they stick with it (and practice) they will start to have fun. Serious players will like the chance to sink their teeth into a good turn-based game.

The part of the game that annoyed me the most - long range combat.

Ravaged has a demo available that features the "Liberty" map (Thrust mode) and "Canyon" (Capture the Resource mode). Highlighting the "Liberty" map was a good choice because it's probably the most interesting multiplayer shooter arena this year. There's no harm in giving it a whirl for yourself, but I'll be monitoring the update progress before I pump more hours into Ravaged for a zero sum gain when it comes to upgrades and leveling-up.

More of a simulation than arcade, which may seem good at first, but it's not.

Saccharine, ultra kid-friendly situations and plot lines.

The game is average-looking but the sound is nicely blended into the action, which is what the music should be – an addition to the game not a detraction.

If the Action / Real-Time Strategy hybrid seems like an interesting one you might like to try "Sacrifice" (which is about six years old), because while Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War tries hard to bring something new to the crowded RTS genre with it's Hero mode and naval battles, there are just too many downsides to the game to make it worth playing.

An overall average enjoyable experience ' a little more enjoyable if you enjoyed the film and are in the pre-teen demographic.

There’s a minimal amount of modes, the fighting is too similar to just about every other fighting game on the market, and it doesn’t even look all that nice.

It's good to see Level 5 doing big RPGs again, and White Knight Chronicles is a solid first effort in what could be a new series.

All in all, Painkiller is a blast to play in short doses but quickly devolves into a ho-hum slaughter-fest. Worth trying out if you're in the mood for some Duke Nukem 3D combat without the 15 year old graphics.

In a way, Attack on Pearl Harbor succeeds in doing what the much more lauded Battlestations Midway failed to do last year, provide an arcadish Pacific air war that’s both fun (which Battlestations is) and replayable (which Battlestations is . . . not so much). Attack at Pearl Harbor’s AI is reasonably good, if a tad predictable.

For its genre, Project Sylpheed: Arc of Deception is a decent game. You just have to wonder if this style of game went the way of the TRS-80 and Sega CD – dead but fondly remembered.

It’s for kids, so it’s not difficult to unlock most of the stuff in a few hours of play, but this isn’t one of those games that’s aimed at me, at the older, core gamer.

Fans will be asking where the hell the Franchise mode went.

Obsessive fans of the show can at least play through for the storyline without tearing out too much hair. And with the extremely simplified gameplay, it seems to be made squarely for fans who don't play much video games. Everyone else can simply leave this on the shelf, with the quiet satisfaction that they haven't paid yet another game company for making yet another crappy game.

It’s goofy fun and for $10, it’s what every arcade sports fan has been waiting for.

I’m a fan of the Red Alert series, warts and all. It’s just too much fun for me, whether playing with people through the co-op campaign of Red Alert 3 or the single-player aspects of Uprising, it’s all goofy fun. And that’s mainly what I want from my games: fun.

All in all, I did enjoy playing One Piece: Pirate Warriors there's a lot of love in this title, but some awful too. If you can overlook the warts, you've got a good game.

Does an adequate job of giving PC gamers the opportunity of hijinx on the high seas.

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 2: The Phantom Fortress is a really good game. If this is your first time with the series, I would definitely recommend picking it up. If you own the first one you might be slightly disappointed with the improvements but there’s enough here to keep anyone busy for quite a while.

In short, the game delivers what I would have expected. It’s an average title at best, appealing to the biggest ABBA fans.

As it stands, it's only barely playable, and it's only fun if you have the patience for fumbling controls.

Poor graphics, limited car selection, and arbitrary track design mar the experience greatly, which is quite frustrating when there are some very nice qualities present in the game as well.