Kojima claims MGS4 is Snake’s final chapter. And while I'm saddened to see one of gaming's greatest protagonists retire, I'm thrilled he got such an outstanding swan song.

I can see where 2K Sports was trying to go with Prizefighter, but in the end it just falls flat.

Edge of Reality seems to simply not have had enough time or money to do anything original with The Incredible Hulk.

The shooting isn't as tight as Gears of War nor the fighting as honed as a focused brawler, but the combination of simple, satisfying mechanics coupled with quality-oozing production values shoot this one to the top of the movie-licensed heap.

Whether you've been slaying fiends for years or are just learning the power of Ninpo, it doesn't matter; Ninja Gaiden 2 is a game all action fans should spin in their 360s

Sure, Kung Fu Panda won't be much to those hardcore gamers who have been dicing people up in the Ninja Gaiden series or wound up finishing Assassin's Creed for the story, but for kids this one's pretty solid.

The gameplay is addictive as ever and the Indy makeover oozes with style.

Overall, Indiana Jones: The Original Trilogy is cute and good for one or two laughs but is likely to bore older gamers. It's a perfect title, though, for gamers 10 and under.

It still doesn't quite live up to the masterful story and whizzing lightsabers of Knights of the Old Republic, but for the first game in a new series, Mass Effect is an excellent start.

Get this one for its online action, which moves quickly and rewards those who have the skill and knowledge to play to the strengths of the many weapons and vehicles.

It won't put WoW out of business, but then again, nothing will for a long time, and that doesn't mean this isn't a great game with tons of appeal and a hopefully more mature audience

As is, it's an average entry that had potential, but due to poorly implemented mechanics and sub-par visuals, will likely be forgotten soon after Metal Gear Solid 4 arrives.

Pick up Wii Fit expecting a party and you'll be disappointed, but buy it as you would any other piece of fitness equipment and you'll likely enjoy Nintendo’s innovative approach to getting in shape.

Boom Blox is a fun game. It's probably one of the better Wii games out there right now for gaming parties with your casual-gaming friends.

Iron Man is a waste of your time.

But, more importantly, GTAIV offers such an addictive, polished, content-packed experience that previous non- to semi-fans (like myself) will finally want a piece of the gangsta' gaming action.

From the thankfully-revamped shooter interface to driving sequences that aren't out to simply punish you, from Hollywood-level cutscenes with great characters to a difficulty level that mostly goes up smoothly rather than in massive jumps, this is simply a better game than before.

Despite some minor flaws, Nintendo's latest take on their classic kart racing series is definitely worth checking out.

Simply put, TWEWY is not perfect, but it brims with a style, depth and richness unmatched by any other RPG on the portable platform.

I don't think that the plan to make this a full-priced Wii game was bad, as the musical selection is ambitious, but in the final product the implementation of such simplistic Wii controls just don't work and really drag the fun factor down.

Rainbow Six Vegas 2 isn't terribly exciting when played alone, but it is solid when you go online.

This is still an excellent title, but to me it just doesn't hold up on the Wii quite like I expected it to.

Assassin's Creed has excellent production values, a wonderful story, and tons of creativity, but it's still seriously flawed. It's certainly not a bad game, but don't expect too much out of the Creed.

If you're a fan of fast-paced action complemented by gluttonous gore, do yourself a favor and allow Dark Sector to infect you.

The ending to Viking is a pretty big disappointment, but at least the game is a ton of fun on the way there.

Dragon Sword has really raised the bar not only for DS action titles, but portable games, period.

Minor gripes aside, this one's an extremely satisfying ride, especially in light of the criminal lack of survival horror titles on the Xbox 360.

Every aspect of the Smash Bros. series has been expanded. From the many interesting new characters to the tons of new items and stages to master, I don't see how any diehard fan can't be happy.

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.

Once you get an hour into God of War: Chains of Olympus, it's sometimes easy to forget that you're playing it on a portable system - it feels so similar in so many ways to the home console originals that you might be fooled for a little while at a time. From that perspective, well, I'm not sure there's a better endorsement for a handheld game.

Next to the countless genre clones in the 360 library, Bully: Scholarship Edition stands at the head of the class, easily earning an A for originality.

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

Frontlines probably won't win any big awards and might even be forgotten by summer, but until then you can get in a lot of great matches with dozens of people together at once.

Avoid Destroy All Humans: Big Willy Unleashed at pretty much all costs.

Bizarre Creations has done something unique here in trying to get you to actually play through the levels of their shooter multiple times and keep having fun doing it.

The game is simple, addictive, and fun, and the way the track moves and shakes to the beat of the music will keep your attention much better than most casual games.

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.

While you'll find that the repetitive environments and strange puzzle sections are turn-offs, there's still a fine game here in Devil May Cry 4.

While we wished Altair had packed a stylus instead of a sword, we're delighted he's returned to us so soon. Still, don't play Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles if you're looking to build on the console experience. You'll be disappointed if you do.

While Sins of a Solar Empire probably isn't a big deal to those who have already played the hell out of a large-scale, turn-based space strategy game, those of us who never got too far into those games will find the RTS action of Sins to offer something with a little more action and excitement.

Rez HD is a perfect fit for the 360 and its affordable 800 point ($10) price tag makes this one a must have.

The free world seems great but quickly gets annoying, but it's not long after that players will start to get why EA and Criterion did it this way.

Overall, Days of Ruin is a fitting sequel to the popular Advance Wars franchise.

Really, though -- you do not need to be a train enthusiast to get something out of this package -- you just have to have an open mind and be willing to try out something new.

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.

Overall, NiGHTS is not a bad game. Flying around is still as fun as it was the first time around on the Sega Saturn, though this time it is more because of the quality of world design as opposed to the tight controls of the last edition of this game.

In the end, it is blatantly obvious that this game was initially designed for the PSP and ported over to the DS in an effort to capitalize on Nintendo's massive market share.

MX vs. ATV Untamed is not a bad choice on the 360, but it's not a terribly great one either.

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.

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.

Is this Bioware's best game? No. But Mass Effect is still a damn fine game with a huge scope, dozens of hours of play from beginning to end, and it's got just about everything that makes sci-fi so compelling in the first place.

Overall, I feel Rock Band is a great game that will please many a music fan. The available songs and the vast amount of promised downloadable songs in the future will ensure that you play this for a long time to come.

In the end, this game tries to evoke the fun and charm of Soul Calibur and backs it up with the signature Renaissance-era style and operatic music, but the mostly text-based story and dull, tiresome combat with the same few enemies over and over really make this pretty much a cheap cash-in.

Geometry Wars: Galaxies is about as good a sequel as we can get to what originally was a bonus mini-game in Project Gotham Racing and then eventually a downloadable $5 game.

Sometimes nostalgia isn't enough.

This is a decent little distraction for the right kind of board game-playing, Star Trek-nerd, Wii-owning gamers out there, but most of the rest will probably want to stay away.

From the sheer number of maps to the entertaining gameplay modes and overall presentation, Unreal Tournament 3 is a winner.

While there are very few PS3-only games that have come out this year, Uncharted can go right to the top of that small pile.

If you're just after a quick rental, though, this can be worth checking out. And if you're a parent with a kid who likes Code Lyoko, put the 40 bucks down and grab this game -- they're sure to get a kick out of it.

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.

This game could have been much better with a more rounded out story and a little polish, but what we get here is a good amount of raw fun and plenty of survival-horror nostalgia.

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.

If there's only one Wii game that you buy this year, make sure that it is Super Mario Galaxy.

Overall, Squad Command is an excellent pickup for a strategy fan. You get a nice and difficult campaign to play through with a wide variety of weapons to rain destruction upon your enemies.

Ultimate Mortal Kombat is definitely a worthy pickup for any fan of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.

Overall, I'd still recommend this game, despite its higher-than-expected price point. You'll still have a good bit of fun for your gaming dollar.

Of course, I think THQ and Gas Powered Games probably realized early on that their fan base has been dwindling, so this seems more to be an honest effort. It's damn good, but it's just not quite enough to rekindle interest in their game.

Despite some complaints with the multiplayer mode and Windows Live quibbles, Gears of War is still a damn fine PC port of an excellent action game.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is the best game in the series yet, largely due to the change in setting and the level of emotion that Infinity Ward has embedded into their story.

I enjoyed Hellgate immensely. You have a ton of items to find, lots of fun monsters to kill in the randomized levels and fun bosses to face off with. If you're looking to scratch that pack-rat itch and can put up with the bugs, I'd highly recommend Hellgate.

Tabula Rasa does a lot of things right and only a few things really wrong, but I still find it tough to recommend this one except to those anti-fantasy RPG fans who feel they must be holding a gun rather than a sword in their games.

While just about every RPG out there has lots of dialog, The Witcher is unique in that the dialog becomes one of the more compelling reasons to play. Yes, the combat is good, and your character does gain new tactical options and cool abilities as he improves, although the lack of new gear will turn off those for fans of games like Diablo.

Overall, I was very very pleased with Afternoon of Darkness. Welcome back to the front of the Strategy RPG pack, Disgaea. We missed you.

Overall, Guitar Hero 3 is a mixed bag. While it is a lot more of the same from the past, it also has some issues. The battle modes can be slogged through, but do get annoying quite often. The ramping up in difficulty may turn some players off too.

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.

Whether you pick this one up for the PC or for Xbox Live Arcade, you can be assured that you're getting a mediocre game that's only loosely tied to the events of the show.

Really, there's no way you can go wrong with this purchase, especially considering it is only 39.99 for a complete package. And at 2.50 a stage, the downloadable content really isn't all that badly priced, either.

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.

On its own, Episode Two might not seem like much for its price tag, but as part of the Orange Box package, it becomes an excellent value that's packaged alongside two very different first-person games.

Putting Portal into the Orange Box package was a great idea on Valve's part.

Overall, War of the Lions is definitely a fun play through for anyone that has yet to try the game. It is, quite possibly, the most popular strategy RPG of all time and with very good reason.

Overall, Power Pros is one of the most complete baseball games out there and, provided the super-deformed character looks don't bug you, there's a lot of fun to be had here.

Unique objectives keep things fresh.

As I said at the beginning of this review, all of this is great as long as you actually enjoy the game's mix of arcade and sim racing. If that's not your kind of game, then Project Gotham Racing 4's many gameplay modes and unique features might just pull you in long enough to hook you.

Overall, Phantom Hourglass is a pretty good game. While the controls do prove to be an issue, it succeeds in other areas, and does so with flair.

This last installment for Master Chief in the Halo trilogy isn't perfect, but it comes pretty close.

With a great new campaign and smooth multiplayer modes, Company of Heroes is an easy choice for RTS fans to make.

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.

In all, World in Conflict is one of the more enjoyable strategy games in recent memory.

With some tweaks, I think that EA has a hit franchise on their hands here with skate.

Ninja Theory and Sony have done an admirable job making a game in the style of God of War without turning it into a shameless clone, but the guys at WETA really brought Heavenly Sword to life.

While Stranglehold doesn't revolutionize action games, or even any one part of action games, it's a solid game with an authentic cinematic style, great use of Chow Yun-Fat, excellent action, and destructible environments.

Combine fictional missions with an unrealized paratrooper advantage, and Medal of Honor: Airborne simply doesn't deliver.

Overall, Open Warfare 2 is a far superior product to the original Open Warfare game on the DS.

While the game manages to reach its goal of recreating a carnival atmosphere on the Wii, it just doesn't have much staying power. Maybe that's why carnivals only really come around once a year.

The new controls allow for precision aiming once you get some practice with the Wii Remote, to the point where you need to lock on only rarely. It lets you spend more time immersed in the worlds and the boss fights will really get you pumped up.

Otherwise, get updated drivers, play the demo to make sure your system definitely meets the minimum requirements and hold on for the ride - BioShock is definitely worth your gaming dollar if your machine can power it.

BioShock is one of those games that goes down in history as a shining example for other developers to learn from.