Does a marvelous job of bringing the tension and suspense of being a silent device of death to the PS2.

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.

Harbinger does have some good ideas, but ultimately the lackluster combat and the very linear nature of the game prevent the title from really becoming engaging.

A surprisingly solid collection of various offensive and defensive moves, good visuals, and plain all-out fun multiplayer gaming more than makes up for the few small shortcomings of Kung Fu Chaos.

You’ll be looking for opportunities to heave enemies off catwalks or crack them against a wall so Indy can smack them silly.

The stats engine of All-Star Baseball 2004 is top of the line.

Does all the basics well and with the extra features and historical aspects, it’s worth playtime for the hardcore baseball fan.

While I do not feel it takes the accepted throne of stealth action games, Splinter Cell is highly polished, and extremely solid as a game.

Visually the game is absolutely stunning with its use of cel shading in comparison to the presentation used in the first game.

With a good story, excellent graphics, varied tracks, and a whole lot of great racing machines that most of us only dream of driving, Apex is one of the better racers to be found on the Xbox.

Fairly fun, but could have been moreso had there been realistic damage modeling and a full set of off-track racing options.

A strikingly realistic fighting game that will be immensely fun for those to rent, but I can’t imagine getting more than 15 hours of enjoyment out of the game.

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.

Aside from the camera, the conventions have been nailed, unfortunately, most gamers want a bit more than that.

NPC reaction isn’t all that diverse, as it would be in a real MMORPG. The visuals, aside from the character designs, aren’t all that impressive.

With tons of game modes and a large number of customizable options World Tour Soccer 2003 will bring back soccer fans for more, even with it's short-comings.

Although Command & Conquer: Generals has many points that has made the franchise so popular over the years, it has been “vanillafied” – it’s been molded to play and appear like every other real-time strategy (RTS) game out there.

Only the lack of a rich multi-player section and some odd design decisions keep Unreal 2 from being one of the best FPS’s in recent memory.

From an aural standpoint GGX2 is equally impressive.

While the game does have a solid number of modes, the gameplay seems to be too repetitive and lacks strategy that other games have.

The lack of weapons really hurts this game big time.

XBV could have been alternately titled DOA Casino, Playboy's Girls of DOA, or DOA Dress-up. If you're expecting a deep volleyball simulation, forget it.

Despite the insanely difficult and nearly impossible Challenge mode and the sometimes-unfair violent behavior on the part of the A.I.-controlled racers, a good visual presentation, great trick system and tough races make ATV: Quad Power Racing 2 a good addition to the Xbox racing library.

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.

The Getaway has an intense storyline with very little in the way of humor.

Like the Wicked Witch of the West, the battle engine dissolves (i.e. explodes) when immersed in water.

While the immersion factor is high, it’s hard to feel like you’re playing much more than a support role in the overall war at times, unlike the role played in the Starfighter games.

One of the biggest surprises the game has is the user-friendly interface. It’s very easy to give commands to your character. One problem does arise though, which is the reaction time of your character.