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.

Transformers does have a few redeeming moments, like when you get to play as Scorponok, but there are just way too many long stretches of mediocrity for me to be able to recommend this one.

Overall, Summer Athletics isn't a horrible game but it suffers the lack of creativity its ho-hum name implies.

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.

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

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.

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.

Lux-Pain is an ambitious title that suffers from a problem called, “biting off more than it can chew”. Although the game has interesting ideas and looks and sounds good, it's weighed down by an overlong and convoluted storyline and conspicuous lack of game play.

In the end, Elite Forces: Unit 77 is an uneven effort that takes you on a roller-coaster ride of lowered expectations, a reasonable level of fun, a bit of trouble with the clunky pathfinding, a note of admiration for the level design and finally a feeling of defeat at the seemingly built-in annoyances.

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.

The result is an uneven hodge-podge where the ninja concept isn't particularly fresh and where the good bits are undermined by the game’s undeniable issues in the areas of feedback, controls and targeting.

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

I like the game, but unless you’re comfortable with the cost to take advantage of the multiplayer functionality – the entire point of the game – I can’t recommend it.

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.

It feels like a budget game and it really should have been one. Unless you're just dying to play yet another shooter with the same old stuff you've seen in all the rest, then just avoid this one.

If Hudson had worked on making more compelling mini-games and improved the presentation, then I think the online play might actually be a hit.

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.

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.

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.

Sometimes nostalgia isn't enough.

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).

Rearmed 2 is far from a bad game and it can be a decent value at $15, but it never really excels past the standard set by its predecessor.

Zeno Clash II isn't amazing, but for twenty bucks, it gets the job done - if only barely.

I feel that Danger Close is a talented, dedicated and well-meaning studio and I do hope they can stay together and make more games, but at this point, I think it's probably a good idea that EA helps them come up with a new IP or new style of game. This current revival of Medal of Honor just isn't working out.

Those looking for a stroll, a punch, and a bow down memory lane will enjoy the many throwbacks to the original, but even those gamers will likely come away at least a little disappointed.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

There are some nice nuances and a couple of "neutral"-type choices that can be made, but overall I'm not impressed with any of the possible end results, not when this DLC costs a rather princely sum of $15.

If you want to play a Transformers game with your friends, then you need to play War for Cybertron instead. But if you're excited for the upcoming movie and want to get a head start on hyping yourself up, well, maybe you want to rent Dark of the Moon, since it's going to feel like a pretty empty purchase after you've finished it in a single sitting.

The additions that Tate Multimedia have added are interesting and the chaotic scenes you traverse are entertaining - or at least they are the first few times - but I have to keep coming back to those frame rate issues. Jump in if you've got a powerful video card, but if not, just hold off, watch the UTF page on Steam, and see if any improvements come along.

I don't think that this DLC's partial failure is necessarily a bad sign for the third game, but it seems clear that all the new ideas and original content are going into ME3 rather than something like "Arrival".

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.

While I'm still not sold on the idea of yet another Wii peripheral making it into millions of homes, I don't think that's through any fault of the UDraw tablet, which works flawlessly and winds up being a lot of fun to use. Spongebob Squigglepants is a great game to showcase this device, especially with the huge number of ways it uses the tablet and even pokes fun at other, more "mature" video games now and then.

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!

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.

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

The biggest issue with Dead Island Riptide is that it's a glorified expansion pack sold at nearly full price ($40 US on PC, $50 on consoles); there's nothing wrong with a developer doing this if they're adding lots of features and are building on top of a near-universally beloved game, but the simple fact is that neither of those conditions really apply here.

A hastily made, not much fun, not worth the money movie add-on. You're better off buying a box of Hellboy Cornflakes.

Considering the blahness of the single player mode, it's somewhat surprising that Tron Evolution also has a multiplayer mode where up to ten players can play neonized, light-cycle-accessorized versions of deathmatch or capture the flag. Like the single player, these experiences are less than gripping.

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.

With some authentic music and almost-decent graphics, this game is good enough to fool your kids into thinking it's a worthwhile Pirates of the Caribbean experience. But for anyone looking for a good action/pirate game that stands on its own, this is definitely one to be avoided.

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

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.

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.

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.

Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom is just plain boring.

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.

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

Dead Space: Ignition isn't a great game or even a good one.

There are some interesting ideas here, but none of them come together well enough for a serious recommendation.

Plagued by shallow, monotonous gameplay and an annoyingly repetitive soundtrack, Science Papa seems to have gone out of its way to fulfill low gamer expectation.

It sounds good, but frankly, it just doesn't seem like developer Digital Extremes were able (or allowed) to put forth the time, money, or ingenuity to make anything but a Starfleet-themed cooperative shooter, complete with extreme use of cover-based gunfights, silly mini-games, or bad AI - all of which are generally considered hallmarks of a mediocre action game.

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.

Iron Man is a waste of your time.

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.

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

Don't let the goofy characters and otherwise sharp-looking visuals fool you; this game is all flash and no substance.

This game should not have made it past the concept stages, not for a property so well-loved like Marvel, since there's no execution that could have fixed this, either.

This game should not have made it past the concept stages, not for a property so well-loved like Marvel, since there's no execution that could have fixed this, either.

I've heard rumors that 2K only allowed Duke Nukem Forever to be resurrected in an attempt to recoup a fraction of the money they spent on the game through 3D Realms, but I don't think it was a good idea to bother. I've also heard that Gearbox knew that they couldn't possibly deliver an actual good game in a reasonable amount of time, so they worked on it for about a year and just tossed out what they had so that they could make their own real sequel from the ground up. If that's true, then I can see a glimmer of good coming out of all of this, but Duke needs to be redesigned and reworked with very little of the old games behind.

Maybe the next Bellator game can be a full-featured MMA simulation experience, but this first title is just not going to work.

Aliens: Colonial Marines certainly offers a wealth of reverence of the movie it's aping, but the efforts by TimeGate and Gearbox Software seem misguided and tone-deaf - and that's not even considering the wooden gunplay, often-broken cutscenes and terrible AI.

Overall, though, I really can't recommend this game, even to fans of the show. It almost feels as if the developers spent more time on making this look and feel like a cartoon and just forgot to do much more than a basic game.

Flatout 3 does wind up having one mildly redeeming feature: it won't screw up your computer when you inevitably delete it in disgust.