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.

If a 16-bit-esque Sonic game appeared on Xbox Live Arcade or PSN, I’d likely be all over it because the glimpses we get of a the Sonic of yore in Sonic Unleashed are very fun. It’s not enough to redeem the entire game though.

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.

While playing offline or split-screen isn't as fun as playing with a two or three friends online -- Left 4 Dead thrives on camaraderie -- so that's probably your only consideration when purchasing the game, because everything else is too awesome to miss.

I give them props for trying to re-work the popular Most Wanted angle of this series, I just wish it was a bit more evolved instead of running out of gas too early.

Four turns out to be the funniest episode yet, with a great spy-spoof story serving as the gameplay background.

The game graphics are alright, certainly not as polished as other fighting games this generation and definitely not a challenger against the Soul Calibur series.

Play it for a few hours, play it with your friends, after that, go to sleep and dream of SSX 5.

While Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades is a very solid follow-up 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? - I can really only recommend Decades to fans of the franchise, with the proviso that they have relatively small hands.

Chronicles of Mystery: The Scorpio Ritual is a decent title that is just a little shy of greatness.

While the tacked-on combat portions bring a blemish to the game’s identity, and the overall length is a bit on the short side (although there are plenty of speed runs and time trials to encourage multiple playthroughs to master each area for the best online time), Mirror’s Edge is still a breathtaking adventure that has brought a new immersive experience to players along with the thrill of the hunt(ed).

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.

All in all, I can’t help but feel a bit disappointed by Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. While it is not a terrible game, it doesn’t live up to the expectations that the first one created.

So, if you’re looking for “bang for your buck” this is it – near limitless vehicle creation, interesting levels, mini-games and multiplayer outside the main story, a light-hearted sensibility and mostly optional items to collect make this a good game and worthy of attention.

World at War proves to be another solid addition to the Call of Duty franchise.

For an action fix, particularly Horde mode, Gears of War 2 is recommended.

With enough patience, and perhaps a printable list of vocal commands by your side, EndWar can become an engaging strategy-based game. It may not reach the level of PC gaming’s most popular RTS games, but for console owners, this war is anything but hell.

It'd be probably work well for a rental, but much like a Sci-Fi Channel Original, Legendary isn't something you'd want to admit to having played.

So, as long as you’re between the ages of 6 and 9 (or you’re buying/renting for such a person) you’ll likely have some fun with Madagascar : Escape 2 Africa.

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.

Though Fallout 3 is a good game and it lived up to all my expectations, it is certainly not for anyone wanting a quick game.

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.

Having a continuous supply of new levels helps LittleBigPlanet remain fresh – there’s always something new to fool around with, even though there are plenty of half-assed levels out there.

After a slow-paced beginning, Baddest of the Bands finishes with an encore performance that rock and rolls past Episode 1 and settles right behind Episode 2.

For a solo player the purchase doesn't make much sense; grab Guitar Hero and some downloadable content. For someone with a lot of friends into music games, this will get a lot of play, especially with the potential endless supply of songs over Xbox Live.

From the amazingly vast landscape to the equally impressive NPC interaction to the first-rate story to the many, many choices and gameplay freedom it presents to gamers, to the co-op that will have gamers coming back for return visits to Albion long after the revenge on Lucien has been satisfyingly taken, Fable II is a stellar and engrossing RPG of the highest order.

Taking flight for the seemingly last time, Spyro gets regrettably grounded by some debilitating gameplay features, most notably the camera that will have gamers madly spewing fire and brimstone.

If the combat and story (even as long as it takes to get going) wasn’t as good as it is, I would be much more hesitant to give Web of Shadows a positive recommendation.