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.

Elements of Destruction really is a great idea for a game. It gives you a chance to get into a godlike role and just go crazy destroying a city with various forces of nature.

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.

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.

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.

It's certainly flawed, especially when it's trying to be a third-person shooter, but it also has lots of great ideas. It will surprise you sometimes, but mostly it'll leave you feeling like it could have been so much more.

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.

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.

If you're looking for some thumb-blistering battling at the hands of a barely-dressed female protagonist, you could do a lot worse (see Bikini Samurai Squad) than X-Blades.

Get it, but only if you're really into the show and don't mind some casual adventuring.

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).

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.

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.

Beast Rider is far from perfect, and it won’t overthrow Kratos' Greek empire anytime soon.

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.

Jackass: The Game does deliver a lot of the fun that fans of the TV show have enjoyed, and the overall feel of the game is pretty authentic with rock music blaring at times, goofy cutscenes, amusing antics, and a level of risk and injury that goes way beyond even what the show did.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

If you enjoyed any of the Wii's boarding games, and are looking to take it to the next level, you'll have a trick-fueled blast with RIDE. If you prefer strict accuracy driven by analog sticks and buttons, however, stay far away from this one, lest your frustration finds you impaling your HDTV with RIDE's faux skateboard.

The limited amount of driving and action seems to go hand-in-hand with the slightly more conservative story, but it also drains some of the fun as well.

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.

Everything from poorly-executed multiplayer modes that no one cares for, to the formulaic and dull shooting, to the car sequences that will get you excited for far too short of a time - Blood Stone is better than mediocre, but the only thing it really excels at is the Bond atmosphere and style. And that's simply not enough to carry a video game, especially one that its publisher left out to pasture.

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).