Puzzle Agent 2 is by no means perfect but it does improve on the first Puzzle Agent and demonstrates the potential of the series.

If this is your first time considering a shot at Street Fighter, grab this as a $40 retail package, and if you have SSFIV lying around, I think the fifteen bucks to get online and get competitive again is a great idea too.

If this is your first time considering a shot at Street Fighter, grab this as a $40 retail package, and if you have SSFIV lying around, I think the fifteen bucks to get online and get competitive again is a great idea too.

No other fitness game goes this far to motivate you to continue after the first week.

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.

Ultimately, your level of enjoyment depends on whether you define an expansion by its item catalog or by its gameplay mechanics.

While the original F.E.A.R. mostly set its gunfights amidst boring office buildings and warehouses, this third game has done a much better job of giving us a wider range of environments to fight in, with at least less of a jarring difference in tone whenever it becomes obvious a horror bit is about to start.

Solo fighters can also duke it out with the CPU, but the real draw here is CNPTE's surprisingly fleshed-out story mode. Lightning-quick combat, loads of unlockable characters, fun stages that effectively capture the flavor of the source material, and varied challenges should keep fans absorbed throughout. It's not about to rob Smash Bros. of its championship belt, but it's still a thumb-blistering good time for anyone who can claim to have spent a few couch-bound afternoons soaking in Cartoon Network's unique brand of boob-tube fare.

If you're looking for an exciting romp through impressive-looking dungeons where you smash monsters, get loot, use tactics to win, and level up a lot of fun abilities, then this game delivers that in a way that's more true to Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance than it is to either the past Dungeon Siege games or the Diablo series. And if you want something with the kind of wide-open online play that lasts for years, well, you're better off saving your money and waiting for Diablo III.

If you're looking for an exciting romp through impressive-looking dungeons where you smash monsters, get loot, use tactics to win, and level up a lot of fun abilities, then this game delivers that in a way that's more true to Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance than it is to either the past Dungeon Siege games or the Diablo series. And if you want something with the kind of wide-open online play that lasts for years, well, you're better off saving your money and waiting for Diablo III.

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.

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.

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.

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.

DiRT 3 is not a perfect game and a couple of patches will likely fix my biggest issues with the PC port, but none of the problems will really matter too much for rally fans that have been disappointed in the last few years' worth of rally game releases.

DiRT 3 is not a perfect game and a couple of patches will likely fix my biggest issues with the PC port, but none of the problems will really matter too much for rally fans that have been disappointed in the last few years' worth of rally game releases.

Honest Hearts is one of the better DLC packs Bethesda has released yet, and it comes down to the combination of an interesting landscape and original story along with unique RPG choices, then layering the signature Fallout brand (at least, since Bethesda took over) of slightly off-kilter, but still intensely entertaining FPS combat on top.

With LEGO Pirates, Traveler's Tales didn't really intend to create a pitch-perfect reproduction of the tone and feel of the movies, but even in their crazy cartoon style, you might be surprised at just how much they got right. Adventure gaming fans now have plenty of stuff to choose from, especially with TellTale and Double Fine making pure gold on a regular basis, but I think that the LEGO games are a great choice too, and Pirates might possibly be their best one yet.

With LEGO Pirates, Traveler's Tales didn't really intend to create a pitch-perfect reproduction of the tone and feel of the movies, but even in their crazy cartoon style, you might be surprised at just how much they got right. Adventure gaming fans now have plenty of stuff to choose from, especially with TellTale and Double Fine making pure gold on a regular basis, but I think that the LEGO games are a great choice too, and Pirates might possibly be their best one yet.

There are few games that I would attribute the word "important" to, but L.A. Noire is one of them. As long as you're not married to the idea of a balls-out action game coming from Rockstar, then you owe it to yourself to play this game.

There are few games that I would attribute the word "important" to, but L.A. Noire is one of them. As long as you're not married to the idea of a balls-out action game coming from Rockstar, then you owe it to yourself to play this game.

As mutliplayer shooters go, it's hard to go wrong with Section 8: Prejudice, and while this game still won't live up to the Tribes name - turns out that there's nothing out there that can do that just yet - you'll still find a damn fine online shooter with plenty of depth, all in a low-cost package.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Hector Badge of Carnage: We Negotiate With Terrorists is a great little adventure that's often shocking, frequently offensive and always hilarious. Despite (or perhaps because of) its gross out moments and unabashedly low-brow humor, it's one of the most entertaining, unique adventure games most of us have seen in longer than we'd like to remember.