It seems doubtful that this port of an already inhospitable game will make many new fans, especially with the kind of treatment it got in the conversion to PC, but there will be some that will swear by it as one of the best games made in a very long time. If you think there's any chance at all that you'll be one of those people, then you owe it to yourself to drop the cash and find out.

It'll probably be years again before Polyphony Digital delivers another Gran Turismo, but I think it's pretty clear what they need to work on: treat all the cars with equal love, give players more options to fine-tune the AI, make driving something to be enjoyed rather than endured, improve all aspects of the online functionality, and re-prioritize all those features into something more focused on fun than a back-of-the-box list.

If game-induced hypertension is not your idea of fun, then N+ may not be for you. But if it is, the $20 price tag will also be a... plus.

Beside the impotent addition of music videos, it's the lack of new puzzles, online scoreboards, or just plain online play that really frustrates me about Lumines II.

The tough part about judging Gran Turismo 6 is that it's clear that Polyphony Digital put an overwhelming amount of effort and love into their latest game, and the challenge between you and the road is better than ever. But much of the effort put in is not what its millions of fans will appreciate or value, especially when it comes at the cost of leaving some of the game's most frustrating issues almost completely untouched.

LEGO Rock Band for the DS is ultimately a disappointment, unless you're someone who can't go ten minutes without a Rock Band fix.

n the end, the game comes out as nothing more than average. Fans of the Metal Gear universe will want to pick this one up as will those that enjoyed the first game. If you are looking to try out the series, this is definitely the better version. If you absolutely hated the first, though, nothing here will change your mind.

Hitman: Absolution's insistence on putting Agent 47 on the run can often get in the way of what made the series so fun in the past, and the lack of a manual save system undermines the kind of goofing around and experimentation that made past games so enjoyable.

While Empire at War does have an overall decent gameplay system that requires a mix of strategies, as well as a story-based campaign that can be played from the side of either the Rebels or the Empire, there's just not enough here to pull you away from the many great strategy games that are available today.

If you’re dead-set on getting draft classes for Madden 07 on the 360, go rent the game and play it for a weekend. Admire the pretty graphics and have fun with the gameplay that doesn’t amount to much more than a 60 dollar tech demo – it is still worth a rental just to see what could have been.

It's tough because Ultimate MvC3 is a great game and a solid improvement on the fundamentals in the original.

This is definitely worth picking up if you aren't going to get frustrated with the controls too easily. If hard-to- get-used-to controls get on your nerves easily, though, skip this game and go play it on your 360 instead.

All of the Infinity Engine games are brilliant pieces of work that still stand out from the RPG pack more than a decade after their release dates, and here Overhaul Games made a perfectly competent "port" of the game that started it all. But it costs twenty bucks, and that's too much when you can get the original version with the same Tales of the Sword Coast expansion pack over at GOG for half the price - even less when it goes on sale - and a few minutes of installing mods gets you to nearly the same point.

I can recommend that you pick up The Missing Link if you really, really want to spend more time with Adam Jensen, but know that it's not a particularly good DLC add-on - especially for fifteen bucks.

Having had my DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue experience so painfully truncated by the aforementioned bug, it's hard to comment fully on the game. It is possible however, to say that going by the entertaining action/RPG elements and the unparalleled humor of the game to that point, that Ron Gilbert's still "got it". Still, a bug that prevents players from finishing the game (and that as yet has no known fix) just can't be overlooked.

For those who are jonesing for some classic Ryu-Ken action, I've got to say that overall I think that past ports of similar Street Fighter titles on the Xbox and PS2 were better overall, but few of those have online play, and there probably aren't any players left in those versions' online modes anyway.

It comes off less as a product made of art and design and gameplay and excitement, and more like an entry on a balance sheet, a simple fulfillment of a contract, or a footnote on an investor conference call. I know that both EA and Crytek can do better, and I hope that's their plan for their next project.

There's nothing really wrong with DOA5 and it's certainly an improvement over its predecessors, but I was expecting more from the first Dead or Alive game to come out in nearly seven years.

I can recommend that you pick up The Missing Link if you really, really want to spend more time with Adam Jensen, but know that it's not a particularly good DLC add-on - especially for fifteen bucks.

Simply put, while Rivals can be fun with the right people and in the right doses on the right platforms, it is very poorly suited to PC gaming.

Hammerlock is a decent DLC pack, but with Gearbox farming out some of this work, I'm hoping that means they've got something bigger and even more interesting in the works for post-releaseBL2 support.

While certain parts of the game are tremendous fun, Overlord II fails to represent a significant improvement over the first game as lack of player guidance, control issues, collision problems and poor camera control conspire to kill the fun.

I really had hope for Medal of Honor and I was excited at the prospect of Call of Duty getting some competition, but I think we'll have to wait for the ex-Infinity Ward guys to be the ones to do it. Simply put, Medal of Honor is kind of a mess, and the whole is worth less than the sum of its component pieces.

I really had hope for Medal of Honor and I was excited at the prospect of Call of Duty getting some competition, but I think we'll have to wait for the ex-Infinity Ward guys to be the ones to do it. Simply put, Medal of Honor is kind of a mess, and the whole is worth less than the sum of its component pieces.

To ask so much of gamers here in 2012, especially when there's such great competition out there, means that they should be delivering a game that's exciting to play, easy to get into, deep when people get to the endgame, and well-rounded in nearly all aspects - and I can't say that they've done that. This game is damn good in concept but it falters in the execution.

While I have enjoyed the online battles to a degree, the weak single-player story will definitely turn some people off. This isn’t a game for fans of deep RPG storylines – however, if you’re a fan of customizing robots and collecting parts, this game is for you.

An "easy" difficulty in the single player campaign might have helped make the transition towards the realism in this game a little more accessible, but as it is, be prepared to break a couple of keyboards in the process of learning how to succeed in ArmA. Once you do, though, this game is certainly worth the price of admission.

Yggdra Union had the potential to be a really compelling tactical game, but due to a lazy storyline, a cumbersome UI, and a brand of gameplay that excludes the player 50% of the time, it couldn't help but fall short.

Overall, the Metal Slug games are great, and Anthology's biggest plus is that all seven games are here. Beyond that, don't expect much.

Sure, the PC version looks prettier in high-res and runs at a higher frame rate, but it feels like the game's logic can barely keep up with the fast frame rates I was getting, causing an unsettling jerky feeling throughout the game - even though the frame rates were doing just fine.

From the two-minute, almost completely useless tutorial that pretty much expects you to have played Tony Hawk games before to a wide range of difficulty on many of the goals and new features that just plain suck, Tony Hawk's Proving Ground simply fails to be much fun and will definitely frustrate new players.

If you really wanted to get more out of rampaging around in GTAIV or want to go through an open-world action game with a buddy together over Live, then this one is worth your money. Otherwise, you might want to keep your cash and see what the rest of the holiday season offers us.

Ultimate Ghosts & Goblins may bring on some nostalgia and looks fun for a while, but unless you are fantastically good at side-scrolling games or just plain masochistic when it comes to your gaming, this one's not worth your money.

Even with the modest $20 price tag for Puzzle Quest: Galactrix, it's not worth the frustration after a taking a couple of losses that are completely out of your hands.

For now, if you just can't get enough of Star Power lightning effects, checking your hit/miss percentage on the second guitar solo of a given song, heavy metal album cover-style art and design, and the Guitar Hero way of doing everything, then you won't have a problem jumping into Warriors of Rock. But if you want a wider range of tracks to pick from, new control schemes that more closely resemble playing real music, and a different range of features to go alongside it all, you're better off keeping your money and waiting for Rock Band 3 to be released in a couple of weeks.

I maintain that Saints Row 2 is still a damn fun game and really not bad on a super-fast PC, but it's not going to be worth the effort for most.

And its idiotic treatment of our current military and rather insulting depiction of our soldiers is the kind of thing that makes me feel not only like my intelligence was insulted, but also just a little ashamed to be a gamer.

Still, the art, design, and action go at least some of the way towards making this game worth your money, so if you've blasted your way through all of those and are yearning for more, then you should definitely check out the Shank demo on XBLA or PSN.

Star Wars Galaxies could be a great MMORPG in time, as it has some excellent potential and a solid technology base. But if you want a balanced combination of exciting combat, quick progress, and fun PvP, and you want it right now, then SWG is not the game for you.

The open-world gameplay of Guerrilla is gone, and what's been put in its place is decidedly more of what you'd see in a more generic action game.

Sanctum isn't for everyone, but for a dedicated pair of FPS/strategy-loving people in the same room, it's a damn fine choice for for a fun weekend of innovative tower defense.

Quantum of Solace certainly showed some great promise before its release (in preview events, Activision made sure to show off the absolute best levels in the game) and the console versions play a bit more solidly, but the PC port is one that should be avoided.

Cooking Mama 2: Dinner with Friends feels like a second helping of the first game, rather than a new dish, but that doesn’t make it any less tasty.

It's got decent motion controls that give you a unique handle on the action, and while the cartoonish nature and linear structure won't put this game anywhere near the likes of Skyrim (or even Fable) on the RPG halls of fame, PS Move owners have plenty of reasons to go ahead and give Sorcery a go.

Brink has quite a few flaws, but the most frustrating one is the spawn-die-spawn-kill-die repetition in single player mode. At best it's a little banal and tedious, and at worst, it's downright rage-inducing. Your AI teammates and enemies often act strangely, exhibiting poor awareness of their surroundings, but they will unleash laser-accurate gunfire once they notice an enemy. This makes playing the game, especially at the start of the Security campaign, a real chore.

Sure, the graphics in Full Auto are great and lots of stuff goes boom, but so many other games just plain play better.

I can only recommend Guitar Hero: Aerosmith to fans of both Guitar Hero and Aerosmith.

Pick it up if you're a serious Japanese action fan, but if not, then at least wait until it's on sale.

Although Episodes 1-3 had flaws, they also had spirit, creativity, and the ability to grab your emotions by the throat. By contrast, Episode 4: The Cain Killer lacks tension, feels sloppily conceived, hastily made, and worst of all, lets its narrative weaknesses set it up for equally damning gameplay shortcomings.

American McGee, I really wanted to love Alice: Madness Returns, truly I did. And while I can say that in it there were instances of fun and moments of wonder, these were eclipsed by an excess of repetition, a surfeit of crummy-looking textures and a general lack of polish. And so I admit to you with a heart full of regret, that Madness Returns has failed to live up to either my dreams or its own potential.

The world is drab in this fourth Driver game and the missions are just plain boring, and with about 15 to 20 hours of gameplay, at least it's not excruciatingly long (nothing makes a mediocre game worse than making you trudge through it for 40+ hours to feel like you accomplished something).

Sorry wizardry fans; if you're looking for magical mystery, I suggest you re-read Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Magician's Quest just doesn't deliver.

What disappoints me about WET is that the developers seemed to sabotage the fun factor in their own game by insisting on too many video game and film stereotypes.

Ultimately, the game is a solid but flawed first attempt from High Voltage Software at a first person shooter on the Wii.

Risen 2 is another ambitious effort from one of Germany's most well-known game developers, but once again it is dragged down by combat that doesn't really ever feel right, and it's kind of sad to see so much effort and talent go into their games when some of the fundamentals have been ignored for so many years.

It uses the Wii’s main advantage, the controller, to decent effect – there needs to be a good bit of tightening up Sonic’s response, though.

The game tries to seriously make you believe that this mohawk-lite-sporting tough guy fits in this sci-fi world, and then expects you to slog through one annoying or frustrating encounter after another.

American McGee, I really wanted to love Alice: Madness Returns, truly I did. And while I can say that in it there were instances of fun and moments of wonder, these were eclipsed by an excess of repetition, a surfeit of crummy-looking textures and a general lack of polish. And so I admit to you with a heart full of regret, that Madness Returns has failed to live up to either my dreams or its own potential.

It's the perfect example of a video game status quo being maintained if I've ever seen it, and if there's one game series that desperately needs better than that after nearly a decade, it's Call of Duty.

Brink has quite a few flaws, but the most frustrating one is the spawn-die-spawn-kill-die repetition in single player mode. At best it's a little banal and tedious, and at worst, it's downright rage-inducing. Your AI teammates and enemies often act strangely, exhibiting poor awareness of their surroundings, but they will unleash laser-accurate gunfire once they notice an enemy. This makes playing the game, especially at the start of the Security campaign, a real chore.

Class balance is currently way off but is slowly being put back in line - this is mostly evident on the game's two Player vs. Player servers (one of them is a race-based team server, while the other is a free-for-all between any players).

Earth Defense Force 2017 is not really a good looking game, nor is its sound anything to hold in high regard, but it gets a lot of its gameplay right, and somehow this quirky title always seems to show up at just the right time on a system to let us know that yes, loot-heavy action RPGs are still a total blast to play - even if other publishers out there haven't bothered to fulfill our wishes for more of them.

The Ball is good effort with some interesting ideas. Unfortunately, the good things are undermined by some questionable combat mechanics, a bothersome, half-obstructed first person point of view and a half-baked story concept.

Rebellion had the right idea with AvP, but they just didn't fit all the pieces together properly.

Overall, I found this game to be entertaining with some issues that definitely get in the way of good game play. Hopefully, a future sequel or similar style game will improve on the issues that have been pointed out. Lostmagic has a great core to build a future game around – hopefully Taito takes the chance to do so in the future.

The Run's attempt to use a cross-country road race to break free of conventions comes packaged with a few crippling flaws, the biggest of which is simply that even with its tense moments and high-powered supercars, it's just not as exciting as it should be.

With Fire and Sword adds difficulty without an equal level of satisfaction for winning, and the inclusion of firearms makes the results on the battlefield feel much more random than we've gotten in the past games in the series. If you're looking for a new multiplayer experience unlike any you've played, this is a good place to start, but if you want a complete, exciting, and altogether more "winnable" campaign, you might be better off sticking with Warband.

While I commend the developers at Ubisoft for trying to do new and original things in this sequel - one that comes only a year after its predecessor - it seems that the Rayman Raving Rabbids idea just isn't quite good enough for a real franchise.

Ultimately, Nier is more remarkable for the things it does wrong than for the things it does right.

I'd recommend Harmony of Despair only to the savviest of Castlevania fans, as they'll probably stick with the multi-player long enough to appreciate its moderate value and admirable, but flawed evolution of the classic formula.

There's some good stuff here if you dig in for a while, but even if you do, don't expect to be blown away.

Interplay's Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel is an action/RPG title that seems like it's less than the sum of its parts. Not only is the action disjointed, but it's just a bit too much of a chore to bash your way through it.

In the end, though, I really can't recommend this game to anyone other than those that are already fans of the Tales games.

Is Dawnguard worth your money? Yes because it's more Skyrim, no because it's really only that: a bit more Skyrim. For twenty bucks, I was expecting more.

The presentation is excellent overall, but this does not make up for what seems to be yet another rushed movie-license game. Rent it first.

I can't say I disagree; while this game serves up some very unique and gritty visuals, the story and action just don't come together like they should.

So here we go: Remember Me will either be remembered for being a flawed start of an original and probably eventually very fulfilling and fun game franchise, or forgotten for its reminder of many tired video game tropes that we hope developers can start finally retiring soon. I hope it's the former, but I fear it'll more likely be the latter.

Overall, MillionHeir isn't a bad game but it lacks the interest of a Phoenix Wright, the challenge of a Professor Layton and the depth of a classic PC adventure game.

Be warned: anyone not a hardcore Gundam fan should leave this one on the shelf.

Simply put, the price tag is too high for what amounts to little more than a patch for a four-year-old game.

While Impostors is a blast to play for a good several hours at least, it lacks those few rudimentary building blocks that gives PC games the types of communities that last for years. It's unfortunate, too, because this game deserves better.

Overall, Band Hero on the DS is a step in the wrong direction for portable music games. They've tried to go big on the peripheral front, but in doing so they've excluded a huge chunk of gamers in a wide range of ages.

XBLA and PSN are probably the right place for Matt Hazard to be, but with this entry clocking in at $15, it's hard to recommend it for all of its missed opportunities and ho-hum action. Maybe next time, Matt!

Alpha Protocol suffers from a lack of focus and its insistence on eccentricities over basic, solid action.

Overall, this game's got more than you might expect for the price, but it's still missing things that serious retro gamers on the go are looking for.

In the end, Painkiller HD is only a half-measure, and it doesn't do everything it could have to modernize the classic fast-paced action of the original. It's worth the twenty bucks if the overhaul you want is visual, but otherwise, it's best to pass.

In the end, though, the game fails to become a megahit because of controls that are lacking, performance snags in some areas and a story that is really not much more than standard RPG fare (albeit, in a space shooter).

SimCity is a brilliant, accessible yet very deep game - at no point do we deny this conclusion. But for now, EA's infrastructure makes it a sometimes-broken, severely disappointing example of how good intentions with regards to DRM, monetization, and anti-piracy can backfire and create problems for gamers and publishers alike.

While Roads to Victory is pretty polished, it's neither very exciting nor very original. And in this rather tired genre, originality goes a long, long way.

Alpha Protocol suffers from a lack of focus and its insistence on eccentricities over basic, solid action.

While I like the idea of online play with real voice chat (as opposed to most PC versions of the game), Tikgames' rendition of the game is just too basic and empty to be worth it to most Xbox Live players.

The sad part is that the most exciting portion of Spider-Man 3 is still the ability to swing around the city at high speeds. And since the swinging system hasn't really changed since the last game, it's frustrating to see the game's best feature be overlooked by the developers.

This one simply has almost no replay value and its action isn't as refined as I expected it to be.

This is a mostly-linear romp that's shorter than Old World Blues, less interesting, and feels more, well, lonely than any Fallout game ever made.

With no replay value of any kind and no cooperative or multiplayer action at all, Jericho is practically begging me to tell my readers that this game is only worth a rental.

Gothic 3 feels like a missed opportunity. It's the biggest RPG tragedy I've seen in years, honestly, as this game could have been so much more enjoyable without all of these issues constantly plaguing it.

I can't say I disagree; while this game serves up some very unique and gritty visuals, the story and action just don't come together like they should.

King of Fighters XII is just not ambitious enough of a project. If this were a highly successful series with millions of sales, maybe SNK could get away with this middling revival of classic action.